Old Mars

“My second landmark,” said Quedipai, pointing just ahead of them. “Study it and you will see it too!”

“Son of a bitch!” said Scorpio. “I do see it.”

They approached a totally flat, perfectly circular rock some eight feet in diameter. It was mostly covered by the shifting Martian sand, but once Scorpio realized what it was, it seemed to jump out at him.

“I was right!” said Quedipai with obvious satisfaction. “I was right.”

“Okay, what next?” asked Scorpio.

“We proceed eighty-three paces due west from the westernmost part of the circumference.”

Scorpio began measuring off the steps.

“No,” said Quedipai.

“What’s the matter?”

“It was measured by a Martian. My steps are shorter than yours.”

“All right,” said Scorpio, moving aside while Quedipai walked the eighty-three paces.

Scorpio and Merlin joined him and looked around.

“I don’t see any tombs,” said the Earthman.

“You won’t,” answered Quedipai. “They are buried beneath the surface of the Crater.”

Scorpio stared at him. “Do you see an entrance?”

“Not yet.”

“Not yet?” repeated Scorpio, frowning.

“That is correct,” said Quedipai. He pulled some foodstuffs out of his shoulder bag. “I might as well have some nourishment, since we cannot leave this spot.”

“Before you eat anything, I think an explanation is in order.”

“When the sun is ten degrees past its peak, all will be revealed,” said the Martian, then added softly, “I hope.”

“And that’s all you plan to tell us?” said Scorpio.

“I could be wrong.”

“We’re being paid whether you’re right or wrong, so it makes very little difference to us.”

“It means everything to me,” responded Quedipai.

Scorpio decided that further questioning would be fruitless and sat down cross-legged on the Crater floor.

Do I have to watch him eat? complained Merlin.

No, you can crawl off and die in splendid isolation if you prefer.

I hate you.

I didn’t eat two entire citizens of Titan.

If I’m still alive, wake me at noon. Merlin closed his eyes.

Scorpio wished he’d brought a book along, though he didn’t know why since he hadn’t read one in years. Finally, he settled for just staring at the peak and fondly remembering a seemingly endless series of women, some human, some not, all of whom he was sure at one time or another that he loved, none of whom he loved enough to settle down and remain in one place.

He checked the sky now and then, and when the sun was directly overhead he got to his feet.

“Can you confide in me yet?” he said.

“Soon,” whispered the Martian.

Merlin was on his feet too, and his bloated belly was back to its normal size. Scorpio marveled once again at how much the Venusian could eat, and how quickly he could digest it.

The three of them stood, waiting, for twenty, thirty, forty minutes, then—

“Now!” cried Quedipai, pointing—and suddenly a shadow appeared, stretching from his feet to a previously unseen crevice in the wall of the Crater. “There is where the entrance will be!”

He actually knew, thought Merlin. Who’d have guessed it?

They approached the crevice, and, as they did so, the sun glinted off something that clearly wasn’t part of the Crater wall.

“Looks like metal,” said Scorpio.

“The top of a railing,” confirmed the Martian.

Scorpio approached it and found himself looking down a long, spiral staircase, the bottom of which was lost in shadows.

“I have found it!” said Quedipai, more to himself than his companions. “They scoffed, and they laughed, and they disbelieved, but I have found it!”

“What you’ve found in the entrance to something,” said Scorpio, shining a light down the stairs. “Let’s go find out what it is.”

“I will lead,” announced the Martian, beginning to descend the stairs.

Anything alive down there?

Nothing sentient. I think I sense some animals, but I can’t tell what kind.

Given the bad light, they’d better be cuddly.

Scorpio fell into step behind Quedipai. They descended some sixty feet, but to their surprise, they were not immersed in total darkness. The walls seemed to glow with some luminescent property. The light wasn’t bright, but at least they could see their way around, and Scorpio turned off his own light.

Suddenly, Scorpio reached forward and grabbed Quedipai by the shoulders, pulling him backward until the Martian was sitting awkwardly on the stairs.

“Why did you do that?” he demanded angrily. “I told you I would lead.”

“Yeah,” said Scorpio, “but I thought you’d like your head and your body to lead in concert.”

“What are you talking about?”

Scorpio pointed to a thin, knife-sharp, almost invisible metal fiber stretched across the stairway. “You walk into that at normal speed, moving down the stairs, you’ll be decapitated.”