Masters of the Arches Ch. 13

-- Yes he is the only one remaining. Because of his sick mind, he got rid of all those that did not think exactly like him, he is the only one left. Since I am a machine, as such I have no mobility whatsoever, therefore I can't run at his pursuit. On the other hand he has all sort of machinery and weapons he can use. Only someone who can understand how these weapons work has a chance to fight him. I have tried hundreds of times to send native warriors against him, but they were not a match against him.

"But why do you expect me to succeed?"

-- Your success is not assured. At best you have only a slim chance against him, but it is the most that I can do, you are probably the last chance that we will ever have to get rid of him.

Never in all his life had Vincent been in a situation even close to this. When he was in charge of his import-export company he never took chances. When he bought 500 statues or 1000 radios, he was always certain that he could sell twice that much. In that manner he was guaranteed of a good price and he knew that he wouldn't get stuck with unsold items. It was not in his nature to take chances. Now he was being asked to take the biggest gamble he could imagine, not only was he placing his life as well as that of Nika and Verla at risk, but also the existence of Earth itself was at stake.

"I can't. You have the wrong person, you should wait a little longer, and someone much better suited for this job will show up, I am sure of it."

-- No, I have been waiting for over six thousands of your earth years and you are the first one that really has a chance. You see, we must act soon because Valdo now know that I am on this planet, the only thing that prevent him from blowing this mountain is because he does not know where exactly I am. But recently he did come close to this place and it is more than certain that he is going to discover me soon. He has all kind of detectors to find me, and once he knows of my approximate location it is only a question of time before he destroy his only opposition. Once I am eliminated he will be free to proceed with his plan.

"He wouldn't be able to reach Earth if you explain to me how to blow the arch to get there."

-- You do not understand. To destroy a Simultravel arch you need a field capacitor than can collapse the field of the arch and there are none here. No one will ever be able to construct one since to do so one must understand how an arch function and how to built one. If you try to destroy it you will only reveal its location and thus permit Valdo to reach Earth earlier.

To each of Vincent objections, she was giving him a better reason for him to accept her proposal. Even if he was to refuse now, he would still be in danger since sooner or later Valdo would get to him wherever he was, - after all he was a danger to Valdo also - then he would still have to fight him and this without Brumelle's help.

He realized that there was no way out of it, either he accepted her proposal now or he would wait the end on a strange world. How long would he then have, he couldn't guess but one thing was sure, every minute that he would live there he would always regret his cowardliness. The though that he could have done something to save his home world would be an immense burden on his shoulders.

At last he knew that he had to agree to be her legs and eyes and to fight her mad brother. Before informing her of his decision he said.

"If I agree you must let my two companions here join me in my mission to destroy Valdo."

-- It will be as you say.

(to be continued)