Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Space Science Fiction May 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
INSTANT OF DECISION
BY RANDALL GARRETT
ILLUSTRATED BY EBEL
How could a man tell the difference if all the reality ofEarth turned out to be a cosmic hoax? Suppose it turned outthat this was just a stage set for students of history?
When the sharp snap of a pistol shot came from the half-finishedbuilding, Karnes wasn't anywhere near the sandpile that received theslug. He was fifteen feet away, behind the much more reliableprotection of a neat stack of cement bags that provided cover all theway to a window in the empty shell of brick and steel before him.
Three hundred yards behind him, the still-burning inferno of what hadbeen the Assembly Section of Carlson Spacecraft sent a reddish,unevenly pulsating light over the surrounding territory, punctuatingthe redness with intermittent flashes of blue-white from flaringmagnesium.
For an instant, Karnes let himself hope that the shot might be heardat the scene of the blaze, but only for an instant. The roar of fire,men, and machine would be too much for a little pop like that.
He moved quietly along the stacked cement bags, and eased himself overthe sill of the gaping window into the building. He was in a littlehallway. Somewhere ahead and to his left would be a door that wouldlead into the main hallway where James Avery, alias James Harvey,alias half-a-dozen other names, was waiting to take another pot-shotat the sandpile.
The passageway was longer than he had thought, and he realized that hemight have been just a little careless in coming in through thewindow. With the firelight at his back, he might make a pretty goodtarget from farther down the hall, or from any of the dark, emptyrooms that would someday be officers'.
Then he found it. The slight light from the main hallway came throughenough to show him where to turn.
Keeping in the darkness, Karnes' eyes surveyed the broad hallway forseveral seconds before he spotted the movement near a stairway. Afterhe knew where to look, it was easy to make out the man's crouchedfigure.
Karnes thought: I can't call to him to surrender. I can't let him getaway. I can't sneak across that hall to stick my gun in his ribs. And,above all, I cannot let him get away with that microfilm.
Hell, there's only one thing I can do.
Karnes lifted his gun, aimed carefully at the figure, and fired.
Avery must have had a fairly tight grip on his own weapon, becausewhen Karnes' slug hit him, it went off once before his body spreaditself untidily across the freshly set cement. Then the gun fell outof the dead hand and slid a fe