Chapter 18 Chapter 18 Duel!
Thoughts in Schwartz's mind came and went.He felt an eerie, feverish peace of mind; a few of his selves seemed absolutely in control, but most of him couldn't believe the fact.He entered the paralyzed state later than the other three, and now even Dr. Schechter was about to sit up, but he could only move a little arm at most.
At this moment, he stared at the vicious mind of the head secretary—there was infinite despicability and evil in it, and he started his duel.
He said: "I was on your side, even though you were going to kill me. I think I understand your feelings and your intentions... But in comparison, the hearts of other people present are quite pure and kind, but yours is unspeakable." .You don't even fight for the people of the earth, but for your personal power. In your heart, I don't see a vision of freedom, only a re-enslaved earth; in your heart, I don't see empire The disintegration of power only saw the dictatorship of individuals take its place."
"You've seen it all, haven't you?" Boches said. "Well, watch what you want. I don't need your information anyway, you know, not so much that it's not worth the insolence I'm going through." Attitude. We've moved the attack forward, did you foresee that? The effect of pressure is astonishing, even on those who swear they couldn't go any faster. Do you see that, amazing telepath?"
Schwartz said: "I didn't see it. I wasn't looking for that thought, so I didn't notice it...but I could start looking right away. Two days - less than - let me see - Tuesday - six in the morning One o'clock—Chica time."
The pistol was finally in the hands of the headmaster's secretary.He suddenly hurried forward and stood in front of Schwartz's limp body.
"How did you know?"
Schwartz was unimpressed.His mental tendrils gradually gathered and attacked outward.On the outside, the muscles of his jaw tightened violently, and his eyebrows curled into two hooks, but those changes were completely irrelevant, just accompanying involuntary movements.In his brain, he felt a force sent out, grasping the other person's heart contact.
For Avadan, these are once-in-a-lifetime seconds wasted.In his opinion, the changes in front of him are meaningless, and he doesn't understand why the head secretary froze suddenly.
Gasping for breath, Schwartz murmured, "I've got him...take his gun away. I can't stand too..." The next words just swirled in his throat.
Immediately, Avadan came to his senses, propped himself up crookedly with his limbs, and then exerted all his strength to stand up slowly, painfully, and tremblingly.Paula tried to get up with him, but failed.Schechter slid down the edge of the platform and knelt to the floor.Now it was just Schwartz lying there, his face twitching.
The head secretary seemed to see Medusa in Greek mythology, and his whole body turned into a stone statue.Beads of sweat gradually gathered on his smooth and unwrinkled forehead, and his expressionless face showed no emotion.Only the right hand, still holding the pistol, showed signs of life.If you look closely, you can see the hand tugging slightly, and you can also observe the weird pressure that the finger exerts on the trigger: very slight pressure, not enough to pose a threat, but repeated over and over again...
"Hold him tight," Alvardan gasped, feeling extremely excited.He stabilized his body with a chair, trying to breathe evenly: "Let me clean him up."
He shuffled along as if in a nightmare, wading through a cloud of honey and swimming through a pool of tar.He pulled hard on the muscles that were about to tear, and walked slowly, slowly.
He didn't—and couldn't—be aware of the mortal duel that was taking place before him.
The dean's secretary had only one goal, and that was to put a little more pressure on the thumb, three ounces to be exact, because that was the pressure needed to trigger the pistol.To do this, all his mind had to do was command the trembling, half-contracted tendons to... and...
Schwartz also had only one goal, to suppress that pressure.However, the other's telepathic contact was a mass of unfamiliar sensations, and he had no way of knowing which particular area controlled that thumb.So he tries to create a stagnation, a complete stagnation...
The head secretary's spiritual contact suddenly rose like a huge wave, trying to break free from the shackles imposed on it.Schwartz's inexperienced control technique was facing a mind that was sharp and frighteningly clever.It would sit still for a few seconds, just wait—and then, with a wild puff, it would pull this or that muscle as hard as it could...
For Schwartz, it was like a wrestling match, and having caught his opponent, he had to keep the win at all costs, even as his opponent threw him around wildly.
However, nothing can be seen on the outside.What others could see was that Schwartz's jaw tensed and relaxed, his lips were trembling, and there were bleeding marks from his teeth biting.In addition, the thumb of the dean's secretary would occasionally move slightly, tightening—tightening.
Alvadan stopped to rest for a while, he didn't want to, but he had no choice.His outstretched fingers just touched the headmaster's secretary's robe, but he felt unable to reach forward any longer.His lungs were in severe pain and could not supply enough oxygen to his dead limbs.His eyes were filled with tears from the exertion, so that his vision was blurred, and his mind was wrapped in a fog of pain.
He gasped, "Just a few more minutes, Schwartz. Hold him, hold him—"
Schwartz shook his head slowly, slowly: "I can't...I can't..."
In fact, the whole world seemed to Schwartz to be a hazy mass, and his psychic tendrils were gradually becoming rigid and inflexible.
The head secretary's thumb pressed against the switch again.It is still not loose, but the pressure is increasing little by little.
Schwartz could feel his eyeballs bulging, and the blood vessels on his forehead twisted and swollen.In addition, he can also perceive the terrifying sense of victory gradually rising in the opponent's heart...
Then Avardan finally attacked.His stiff and disobedient body threw himself forward, while stretching out his hands to grab each other.
The headmaster's secretary, who was mentally restrained, fell with him, and the pistol flew aside, jingling and sliding along the floor for a long time.
The head secretary's mind broke free almost at the same instant.Schwartz was flung away, his mind in turmoil.
Boches was struggling desperately under Avadan's heavy body.He clenched his fist and punched Alvardan on the cheekbone, while raising his knee and kicking him hard in the stomach.Then he stood up and pushed hard, and Alvadan rolled away in a ball in agony.
The head secretary stood there unsteadily, out of breath, with disheveled hair.
He suddenly froze again, facing him was Schechter who was half sitting on the ground.He grasped the pistol with trembling hands. Although the pistol shook, the firing end was aimed at the head secretary.
"You are a bunch of idiots," the Dean's secretary screamed wildly with excitement, "what do you expect to get? I just need to raise the volume..."
"And you, at least," Schechter replied weakly, "will die."
"It's useless for you to kill me," said the Dean's secretary bitterly. "You know it yourself. You can't save the empire you're relying on, and you can't even save yourself. Give me the gun, and I'll kill you." Set you free."
He held out a hand, but Schector laughed stiffly: "I won't believe it, I'm not that crazy yet."
"Maybe not, but you are still in a semi-paralyzed state." After speaking, the head secretary rushed to the right.His movements were so swift that Schechter's weak wrists had no time to turn the pistol.
In preparation for the life-and-death leap, Boches put all his attention on the pistol.Schwartz took the opportunity to stretch his mind again and delivered the fatal blow.The secretary of the dean immediately fell to the ground, as if he had been hit by a sap.
Alvadan stood up in pain, his cheeks were red and swollen, and he walked with a limp.He said, "Can you move, Schwartz?"
"A little bit." Schwartz replied in a weary voice, slipping off the platform.
"Anyone else coming here, huh?"
"I didn't detect it."
Alvadan lowered his head and gave Paula a stiff smile.He put a hand on her soft brown hair and she looked up at him with tear-filled eyes.Several times in the past two hours he had been certain that he would never again—never touch her hair, or meet her eyes.
"Perhaps there will be a future, Paula?"
But she could only shake her head lightly, and replied, "We don't have much time, at most until six o'clock on Tuesday morning."
"Not much time? Alright, let's wait and see." Aivadan leaned over to the ancient man lying on the ground, and pulled his head back without mercy.
"Is he still alive?" He searched for the pulse with his still numb fingertips, but after feeling nothing for a long time, he put one palm into the green robe.Then he said: "Anyway, his heart is still beating... You have a dangerous power, Schwartz. Why didn't you do it in the first place?"
"Because I want to immobilize him." From Schwartz's current expression, his painful experience is clearly seen, "I think if I can restrain him, I can let him walk in front of us and use him as a pawn." It’s a cover, to hide behind him and get away with it.”
Schechter suddenly cheered up and said, "We may be able to. There is an imperial garrison at the nearby Fort Deborne, less than half a mile away. Once we get there, we will be safe and we can send a message to Ennias."
"Once we get there! There must be a hundred guards outside, and there must be hundreds more around. How are we going to deal with this green-robed zombie? Carry him on his back? Push him away with a cart?" He laughed dryly.
"Besides," said Schwartz in a dejected tone, "I couldn't hold him down for long, and you just saw—I failed."
Schechter said solemnly: "That's because you are not used to it. Listen to me, Schwartz, I have a rough idea of how your mind works. It's like an electromagnetic field receiving station for the brain. , I think you should be able to send too. Do you understand?"
Schwartz seemed unsure and rather annoyed.
"You have to understand," insisted Schechter, "that you have to concentrate on imagining what you want him to do. First, we're going to give him back his pistol."
"What?!" The other three roared in unison.
Schechter raised his voice and said, "He's got to get us out or we can't get out at all, right? What's less suspicious than making him visibly armed?"
"But I can't stop him, and I tell you I can't." Schwartz stretched his arms, retracted them, and slapped them vigorously in turn, trying to get the feeling back to normal, "I don't care what theories you have, Dr. Schechter. You don't know what's actually going on, it's hard, slippery work, and it's never easy."
"I know, but we have to take a risk. Try it now, Schwartz, and let him move his arm when he wakes up." Schechter's voice was pleading.
The headmaster's secretary lying on the ground began to moan, and Schwartz felt that the spiritual contact was slowly restored.Silently, almost with fear, he let it grow in power, and began to speak to it.It's a form of communication without words, like the silent words you speak to your arm when you want to move it.Because the speech is so silent, you never notice it.
Schwartz's arm didn't move, but the arm of the dean's secretary moved.The earthling from the past raised his head and smiled wildly, while the other three stared at Boches intently.Boches, the body lying on the ground, slowly raised his head, and the unconscious dull eyes gradually disappeared.Then, one of his arms suddenly stretched out for no reason, forming a ninety-degree angle with his body, which looked very strange.
Schwartz gave the order intently.
The dean's secretary stood up in an extremely awkward manner, almost losing his balance.Then, with an odd, involuntary movement, he began to dance.
His dance lacked rhythm and beauty, but the three people who looked at the body, and Schwartz who was staring at the body and the mind at the same time, felt an indescribable awe.Because at this time, the head secretary's body does not belong to him, but is controlled by a mind that has no direct connection with him.
Slowly and cautiously, Schechter approached the robot-like secretary of the Dean, then held out his right hand.For this action, even he himself was not without doubts.The pistol lay in his outstretched palm, the handle facing the opponent.
"Let him get it, Schwartz," Schechter said.
Borches' palms stretched forward, clumsily grasping the weapon.For a moment, there was a cunning and greedy light in his eyes, but it quickly disappeared without a trace.Slowly, slowly, he hung the pistol back on his belt, and the hand hung down.
Schwartz let out a few high-pitched laughter: "It's so dangerous, he almost broke free." At this time, his face was pale.
"How? Can you restrain him?"
"He was struggling like a demon, but not as bad as before."
"Because you know what you're doing now." There was an element of encouragement in Schechter's words that he didn't quite realize, "Now, start sending. Don't try to hold him back and pretend you're doing it yourself." thing."
Alvardan interrupted: "Can you make him talk?"
After a pause, the headmaster's secretary let out a low and piercing growl.Then there was another pause, followed by another growl.
"That's the way it is," gasped Schwartz.
"But why doesn't it work?" Paula looked worried.
Schechter shrugged: "In order to speak, you must move some very delicate and complicated muscles, not as simple as pulling the muscles of the limbs. Never mind, Schwartz, we may still pass the test."
The memories of the two hours that followed vary among those who took part in this bizarre adventure.Dr. Schechter, for example, somehow became so strong that all fear seemed to disappear completely, replaced by sympathy for Schwartz.He was breathless with worry, but he could do nothing about Schwartz's inner struggle.From beginning to end, his eyes have been fixed on that round face, watching it slowly wrinkle and twist.For the others, he only had time for a casual glance at best.
When the headmaster's secretary appeared at the door, his green robe immediately reminded people of official position and power. The guards at the door immediately saluted him, and the headmaster's secretary returned the salute with clumsy and dull movements.Then they passed through without incident.
It wasn't until they left the correctional facility that Alvadan realized how crazy the whole operation was.The galaxy is in unimaginable peril, and the bridge across the abyss is but a fragile reed.However, even then, at that time!Alvadan still felt himself submerged in Paula's gaze.Whether it was because he was about to die, or the future was about to be destroyed, or because he thought he would never taste that sweetness again—whatever the reason, no one had ever let him be so deeply and obsessively infatuated with it. .
From now on, she is the sum of all his memories.only this girl...
But in Paula's memory, the bright sun shone on her face in the morning, so Avadan's bent face appeared blurred.She smiled at him, and felt her arm rest lightly in the crook of a strong one.The flat and firm muscles were covered under the smooth plastic cloth, and the smooth and cool feeling spread to her wrist... This is the memory that lingers afterward.
Schwartz struggled under tough circumstances.After they exited the building through the side door, they found the winding driveway ahead was almost deserted.He was thankful and heaved a sigh of relief.
Only Schwartz knew the cost of failure.In the mind he controlled, he could feel unbearable humiliation, and a deeper hatred, and a terrible determination.In order to guide them to find the way out, he must search for information in this mind, including the location of the special car, the correct route and so on.And in the process of searching, he realized how fierce the other party's determination to revenge was. As long as his control wavered for a tenth of a second, the headmaster's secretary would definitely break free from his grasp.
When he was forced to rummage in that mind, he discovered deep-rooted secret thoughts that were forever imprinted on his mind.After that, in many peaceful and peaceful dawns, he would always wake up from his dream, thinking that he was still in the enemy's stronghold, manipulating the steps of a madman on a dangerous escape road.
When they got to the car, Schwartz gasped for a few words.He didn't dare to be too slack anymore, so he couldn't speak coherent words, so he could only spit out a few key words quickly: "Can't... drive... can't... let him... drive... complicated... can't... ..."
Schechter comforted him with soft words, but he didn't dare to touch him, or speak to him in a normal way, and didn't dare to distract him for a second.
He whispered, "Just put him in the back seat, Schwartz. I'll drive. I know how to drive. From now on, just keep him still and I'll put the gun away."
The special car of the dean's secretary has a very special appearance. Because it is very special, it is different, so it attracts a lot of attention.Its headlights swing from side to side in a rhythmic rhythm, their emerald green lights flickering on and off.Pedestrians all stopped to watch, while the oncoming vehicles quickly stepped aside respectfully.
If the car hadn't been so conspicuous, if it hadn't been so conspicuous, perhaps some passer-by would have had time to notice that in the back seat sat a pale, motionless ancient—perhaps skeptical—perhaps smelling danger breath.
But all they noticed was the car, so the time passed...
A guard blocked their way at a gleaming chrome gate.The gate is a symbol of imperial architecture, magnificent and magnificent, in sharp contrast to the low and heavy buildings on earth.The guard pushed out the huge force line gun horizontally, making a blocking posture, so the car stopped.
Avadan poked his head out of the car: "Guard, I'm a citizen of the empire, and I want to see your commander."
"I must see your papers, sir."
"My papers have been taken away. I am Bel Avadan of Balon Star in the Sirius region. I am working for the administrator, and it is an emergency."
The guard moved his wrist to his mouth and whispered something into the transmitter.After a while, he was instructed.He immediately put down the spear and stepped aside, and then the door slowly opened.