Kirk said it first. "We're dead."474Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyygwygYfmL
They were back in the same windowless room where they had first been brought months ago. Wearing their white jumpsuits, standing around, wondering, and waiting.
"Huh?" said McCoy.
"We're dead."
"Hell, and I was such a neat guy," said Pike.
Kirk said, "Figure it out. Something must have happened during re-entry, otherwise we be winging our way to the splashdown site right now."
"Guess you're right," said Pike. "Only two possibilities if you think about it. Either the trajectory was kaflooey and the thing landed hundreds of miles off-target, or it never landed at all."
"Yeah, but even if it landed in Siberia," said McCoy, "they'd have told us by now. Explain how they were going to slip us behind the Iron Curtain, or whatever."
"What it looks like," said Kirk, "is that the damned thing never landed at all. Either the heat shield separated or the chutes never deployed."
"So we're dead," said Pike.
"I'll bet you that right now Roddenberry is making a speech about what brave and wonderful lads we all were."
"Think about this now," said Kirk. "If anybody ever sees us again, then it brings down their house of cards. It's just that simple. They can't afford to make that mistake."
"Roddenberry might come to his sense," said McCoy, without much conviction. "Fess up and let us face the music."
"Bullshit," said Kirk. "Do you see that maniac transporting us home to Houston and having a press conference to announced that it was all just a good-natured prank?"
"Wouldn't happen," said Pike.
"So what choices does that leave for them? They're going to have to see to it that nobody ever sees us alive."
McCoy punched his palm with his fist. "Hold on now, Jim. I've heard about situations like this. Well, not exactly like this, but where the FBI or the CIA or some alphabet-soup outfit wanted to hide a witness or a spy who couldn't ever go home again. So they give the guy a new face and a new ID. They could do that to us, don't you think?"
"And run the risk that someday, maybe even in our sleep, one of us might say something?"
"Also," put in Pike, "I don't think we're dealing with a group that's also going to provide face jobs for our wives and kids. I mean, it'd look odd if all our families suddenly vanished." He scratched his head. "Although it might not be bad spending the rest of my life with Paul Newman's face."
"Let's remember," Kirk said to McCoy, "that these guys are the ones who got us in line to start with by threatening to blow our families. Buddy, I don't think that was a bluff."
McCoy nodded, "No, neither do I."
"Plastic surgery, new IDs----that's too much trouble, when one little chunk of plastic explosive can do the job. Or three or four very inexpensive bullets."
McCoy rubbed his hands together. "Think that jet's still sitting out there?"
"90% chance it is."
"Then," suggested McCoy, as he eased toward the door, "I'd like to make a motion that we vamoose." He took hold of the door handle.
The door was locked.
"If we needed any proof," said Kirk, "that locked door does it."
"Leave us leave," said Pike. "We should be able to smash that frigging door down."
They were.
A crew-cut young man met them in the hall. "I'll have to ask you men to...."
"Nope." McCoy stepped up to him and decked him with two punches. "Very satisfying."
"Boxing must run in your family, Leonard," said Pike, as they hurried along the corridor.
"So long Mars, and have a nice day!" McCoy was in the lead as they cut across the bogus Martian surface.
Kirk slid the hangar door open two feet. "Man watching the plane."
"Let's fake him out," suggested Pike, "by just strolling up tot he jet. You know, very casual."
"Might work." Kirk went first and the other two followed.474Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjVKCkpA0DE
A crew-cut young man in a blue suit was standing by a stairway that led into the open cockpit of the Falcon jet. He glanced at them, a slight frown touching his face.
"They told us to get back aboard," said Kirk, smiling at the young man.
The young man returned the smile. "Are you sure? I haven't been...."
"If we weren't sure," said McCoy, "we wouldn't be here, 'cause we never do anything without being ordered to first."
"In fact...." said Kirk. He slammed a fist into the young man's stomach, then brought both hands hard against his neck when the man doubled over.
Swiftly Pike and McCoy lugged the unconscious man over against the hangar.
"All 'board!" said Kirk, while dashing up the stairway into the ship.
When the three were in the cockpit and strapped in, Kirk, in the pilot's seat, got the craft going. The jet's fans began to turn and the plane swung away from the hangar.
"Farewell committee," said Pike, nodding at the hangar.
Three more men came running out of it, waving their hands.
Kirk guided the jet into a taxi position on the runway.474Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFS64qpGtT5
Two of the men ran back toward the hangar; the third stood on the runaway with both arms semaphoring.
"They really must like us," said McCoy. "They don't want us to leave."
"That's the way with parties," said Pike. "I always hate to be the first to leave."
Kirk started the jet along the runway. "They're not going to give up this easily, so watch out."
"Car," said Pike, looking back over his shoulder.
A heavy black auto had come shooting out of the hangar and was speeding along in their wake.
"Maybe they want to play chicken," said McCoy.
The car raced by them and kept going. Then it suddenly swung across the runway and stopped.
Kirk was tugging back on the stick. "Bastards," he said.
"If we smash that car," said Pike, swallowing, "you know they're going to bill us for it."
"Away we go," said Kirk.
The jet lifted off the ground and cleared the top of the car by only a few feet.
"Nice going, Jimbo," McCoy said to Kirk.
Pike let out a small sigh. "Hurdle number one cleared," he said. "You guys got any idea where we are?"
"Nope," said Kirk.
"How about where we're going?"
"West," Kirk answered. "Once we hit the coast we'll go north until we hit a city. All we have to do is get someplace where there are people. A newspaper, a TV station. All we have to do is show up and be seen. Then it's over."
"Not quite, Jim," said Pike.474Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsot9zvCgHn
