" Perry Rhodan 0041 - (33) The Giant's Partner" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

the chief of the underground resistance movement. Rogal was determined that he would take his own life
before they would have the opportunity to question him completely.

He came to the last step. It ended at a cold, smooth wall of stone. Once more Rogal took the risk of
lighting his pocket lamp. The depression he had been told to look for was so small that he would never
have been able to discover it through blind searching. The first pressure would open a narrow view-slit.
The second pressure would open the secret door that would give him access to the tyrantтАЩs bedroom.

The lamp went out. Rogal had seen enough. He waited until his eyes had again accustomed themselves
to the darkness. Then he pressed a finger into the small depression. A barely audible humming was
heard. A weak ray of light struck his eyes. Cautiously he pressed his right eye to the view-slot.

He looked into a large room that was dimly illuminated by indirect lighting in the ceiling. Directly opposite
him was a wide bed, in which lay a man. He lay under warm covers which revealed only his head. The
contours of his body were clearly recognizable.

The Zarlt, Demesor.

Rogal had seen his face often enough in the holo-films. Only too well did he know the hard, yet again so
friendly features of the tyrant. There, then, lay the man who would be traitor to Zalit and the Empire,
asleep and unsuspecting. In this moment Rogal was assailed by a sense of being a traitor himself but he
overcame this moralizing.

Was it actually murder, to free an entire world of a man who threatened to bring it only
misfortune and war? WasnтАЩt one dead man better than many millions? One could not use the
recourses of Law to get at the dictator, so did anything remain other than to resort to violent
means to procure again a respect for justice?

Rogal gripped his weapon and pressed again.

The secret door slid silently into the hollow wall, giving free entrance. Rogal knew that a certain built-in
timing device would close the door again in two minutes. It was a precautionary measure to prevent
unauthorized persons from discovering the secret door through which one could leave the palace
unobserved or enter it.

Demesor lay defenceless before him, not 15 feet away. Rogal still hesitated. He took three, four steps,
lifted the weapon and aimed at the sleeper. The dim light of the lamps was sufficient for making a good
identification of the ZarltтАЩs features.How restfully this man slept, who had on his conscience the
death of the rightful Ruler. One could almost imagine that he did not even breathe.

Already a minute had passed.

The index finger touched the trigger and drew it back.

A narrow, greenish ray of energy shot with the speed of light to the sleeperтАЩs face and covered it with a
fiery corona of lightning flashes. To RogalтАЩs horror, he saw that the face began to melt. It flowed
completely apart and ran in glowing rivulets into the pillows, sizzled and crackled through the covers and
dropped heavily onto the floor.
The Zarlt wasmelting тАж!