"(novel) (ebook) - Perry Rhodan 0027 - (20) The Thrall of Hypno" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Rhodan)

1/ CAPTIVE MINDS

MARS.
An uninhabited planet. At least, no intelligent life was indigenous to this world. A primitive vegetation clung precariously to life there in the low-lying belts and on the flat slopes of the hills. Insects and small mammals lived in the deserts. But none of these were a danger to man.
Something on Mars, however, seemingly was.
All tracks appeared to lead to the Red Planet. All tracks of the criminal mastermind, Monterny. The Supermutant. The Mutant Master.
Piloting the Good Hope VII, Major Deringhouse of the New Power stared down through narrowed eyes at the endless red desert crisscrossed by wide green belts at curiously regular intervals. Nothing-no trace of the elusive enemy. And so, sighing, the major altered the course of his spaceship so that it soared upward till Mars diminished to a reddish globe sinking into the depths of space.
The spherical spaceship shot past Phobos, moon of Mars, out into the interplanetary void.
At incredible speed, Deringhouse raced toward his pre-arranged destination in the 200-foot diameter ship. The crew of fifteen were almost lost inside the great vessel of the void yet no more men were needed to operate the rocket for virtually every operation was performed automatically.
In the big berths of the giant ship was room for ten of the newest space-interceptors, each carrying three men and capable of light-speed. It was to a rendezvous with these ten interceptors that Deringhouse sped.
The major wasn't at all certain that he would find the menacing Supermutant on Mars. Although his trail seemed to lead to the Red Planet, the Solar system was wide and deep and there were still many unexplored planets where one could find refuge and dig in comfortably with the aid of adequate technical equipment. There was no compelling reason why it had to be Mars.
Deringhouse watched the disappearing planet on the rear viewscreen. The commander was alone in the control cabin of his spaceship and had a little time to spare. In ten minutes automatic deceleration would take effect and guide the ship to the proper co-ordinates. Perhaps the interceptors were already there, waiting for him, but for understandable reasons they preferred not to communicate by radio.
The major fell to musing. The Supermutant-'the most dangerous man in the Solar system!' How exaggerated that sounded. But Deringhouse knew the description was not stretching the truth. Clifford Monterny was in fact a mutant extraordinary. Son of a formerly well-known scientist who had been caught in the radiation of an atomic reactor gone wild, the father's genetic constitution had been altered so that when Clifford was born he was not as other children. Although his difference was not at once apparent, bit by bit his unusual abilities began to make themselves manifest. He was a hypno and suggestor whose Svengali power held in thrall anyone he chose, had he met them but once, though they might be on the other side of the globe. When these abilities were finally augmented by telepathy, his three supranormal gifts, native intelligence and fortune inherited from his father gained him access to the most influential circles.
Physically, Monterny was not a very prepossessing personality. His puffy face and premature baldness didn't help much to entice people to crave his company. Perhaps these conditions contributed to the forming of his character.
Clifford Monterny was a mutant and he knew that more mutants existed on Earth. Perry Rhodan even commanded a Mutant Corps that enabled him to create his own autonomous country. Why should he idly stand by while others acted?
His talents made it possible for him to find thirteen mutants and to bring them under his mental control. With them he opened his campaign against his greatest adversary, against Perry Rhodan.
Major Deringhouse grinned broadly. He stretched his long body and yawned heartily.
Well, here the clever Supermutant had committed a blunder. It wasn't that easy to outsmart Perry Rhodan, especially if he attempted to beat him with his own weapons.
Monterny had left his mutants in the lurch and fled with a stolen spaceship. And now Major Deringhouse was hunting for the fugitive on orders from Perry Rhodan. The search had already lasted four weeks-without the slightest success.
He looked once more at the observation screen. Mars had become a bright star that shimmered like a reddish eye in the eternal night. The two moons were no longer visible. Deringhouse sighed and turned his attention to the forward observation screen. As radio communications were only advisable in case of emergency, he depended solely on optical sensors for his contact with the ten interceptors.
Deringhouse worried that Perry Rhodan wouldn't be very happy with the result of his mission to date. It was just as well that Rhodan was so busy on Terra that he didn't have time to bother him. Maybe he would get lucky and...
A bright flash distracted him from his speculations. His skilled hands quickly manipulated the controls of the optical sensor. The three-dimensional picture of empty space vanished from the screen, black and white blotches swirled around, arranged themselves and became a new picture. There were fewer stars in view. No other change except the flashes. They were closer and clearer. And so it remained. One of the interceptors had arrived.
Half an hour later nine of the smaller spaceships had returned into the gigantic hull of Good Hope VII. Deringhouse called their commanders to the Command centre and asked for their reports. "Lieutenant Hill, you were assigned to observe sector BNZ. What have you noticed?"
A young man wearing the uniform of the New Power stepped forward and saluted smartly. His eager face did not conceal his disappointment. "Commander of interceptor Z-VII-1, Lieutenant Hill. We observed nothing unusual, sir. We patrolled the sector as ordered with special attention to radio signals. None were received. Same negative results from optical sensors. That's all, sir."
"Commander Z-VII-7, Captain Berner. I've nothing irregular to report. We passed a shower of meteors at safe distance."
The other reports revealed just as little. When the commander of the ninth interceptor finished his statement, Deringhouse glanced at the observation screen, shaking his head. "What's keeping Z-VII-3?" he asked. "It should've been back long ago."
He received no answer. The Z-VII-3 was missing and never heard from again.

* * *

Sergeant Raab was terribly bored. These endless patrol flights got on his nerves since they had already gone on for four weeks. Who knew where that infamous Supermutant was hiding or whether he still existed. Every corner on Mars had been investigated and the two little moons had not been overlooked, nor had they failed to methodically patrol the interplanetary space between Mars and the asteroid belt. Nowhere was anything discovered.
Today's assignment led the craft back once again to the close proximity of the red planet. A landing had not been scheduled. Lieutenant Yomo, the Japanese commander of the Z-VII-3, shared his Sergeant's lack if interest and the third man of the team, Cadet Fowler, apparently chose not to express the same feelings, being the lowest-ranking member of the crew.
"How about Deimos?" Raab growled, looking at the irregular mass of rocks. "It's impossible for a ship to hide there and if I correctly remember the information we were given, the Supermutant still has got two of the interceptors he stole from Rhodan."
"I quite agree with you, sergeant," Yomo admitted. He was one of those officers who considered the opinions of his subordinates. "Nevertheless we'll have to investigate it. Orders seldom seem to make sense. Cadet Fowler, circle Deimos at a safe distance. Sergeant Raab, you watch the surface of the moon while I take care of the optical sensor so that we won't miss anything."
If Lieutenant Yomo had taken his duties a little more seriously, he would have lived an hour later. But how was he to know? No one else had been able to foresee it.
That Deimos was empty was plain to see after they had passed only three times around it. The rugged rocks on the dwarf of a moon without atmosphere threw sharply contrasting shadows despite the fact that the Sun was far away and gave little light or warmth. The almost ten-mile-big heap of rocks orbited around Mars in about thirty hours at a distance of approximately 12,000 miles.
Sergeant Raab shook his head and finally said: "It's no use holding a six-day race here all by ourselves. We'll never catch up with ourselves anyway. Not even a mouse could hide down there on that desolate rock."
"I'm with you," Lieutenant Yomo assented. "Cadet Fowler, change your course to Phobos."
"That makes it worse," Raab groaned. "That miserable dump is even smaller."
"Orders are orders," Yomo replied firmly and turned back to his instruments. "Fowler, change course as directed."
The trim interceptor went off on a tangent and shot straight toward Mars. Phobos was only about 4000 miles away from its planet and completed its path in a few hours. Its trajectory resembled that of an artificial satellite but it was in this respect no different from other moons. Earlier theories to that effect proposed by some scientists on Earth were not confirmed. Phobos was a natural body like Deimos and it proved to be no more interesting for the three on the Z-VII-3.
Nothing.
It had been ever the same for the last four weeks and presumably was to remain the same in the coming four weeks.
Lieutenant Yomo looked at his watch. "We still have time to go quickly around Mars. Although Major Deringhouse is searching the same territory today, I don't think we'll run into him. Better too much than not enough."
The interceptor slipped with drastically throttled speed into the thin atmosphere, sank lower and glided at low altitude across the barren desert.
Sergeant Raab shook his head and said to Cadet Fowler: "It doesn't matter how low we go down, I don't believe we'll find anything. The Supermutant isn't dumb enough to put on an exhibition of his stolen ships for us. If anything, he'll hide out in the asteroid belt. You want to bet?"
"I never bet," Fowler evaded. "But if you like, I'll gladly agree with you."
Raab muttered something incomprehensible and looked at Lieutenant Yomo. The Japanese nodded.

"We'll take one more quick look at those foothills over there. Then it'll be time to start back. Major Deringhouse doesn't like it very much if we're late."