ll into pieces. Then, with
a jerk, he was up. His hand reached out, the strap hit the terminals...

And where the dome had been, a clap of thunder seemed to take visible
form. The webbing straps broke, and the dome jerked upwards, twisting
outwards, and then falling into ribbons. The shock wave hit Gordon,
knocking him from his feet into the crowd around him.

He struggled to his feet to see helmeted men pouring out of the houses
around, and other men pouring forward from his own group. The few of
either police force still standing and helmeted broke into a wild run,
but they had no chance! The mob had decided that they had mined and
exploded the dome.

He turned back toward the Coop, sick with the death of the Kid and the
violence. For once, he'd had more than his fill of it.

Then a small truck drew up, and an arm went out to draw him inside the
cab. He stared into the face of Isaiah Trench. And driving the truck was
Sheila.

"Your wife took a helluva chance, Gordon," Trench said heavily. "And I
took quite a chance, too, to set this up so nobody could ever believe
you were behind it. Getting that fight started in time, after you first
showed up--oh, sure, we spotted you--was the toughest job I ever did!
But I guess Sheila had the roughest end, not even knowing for sure where
I stood."

Gordon stared at them slowly, not quite believing it, even though it was
no crazier than anything else during the past few hours.

Trench shrugged. "I was railroaded here by Security, told to be good and
they'd let me go home. A lot of men got that treatment. So when Wayne
was still talking about building a perfect Marsport, I joined up. He
treated me right, and I took orders. But a man gets sick of working with
punks and cheap hoods; he gets sicker of killing off a planet he's
learned to like. I learned to take orders, though--and I took them until
Wayne tried to put a bullet through me. That ended that, and I came out
to join up with you. You were soused, I hear--but your wife guessed
enough to take the chance of coming to me, when she thought you were
going to get yourself killed. Well, I guess you get out here."

He indicated the Coop. Gordon got down, followed by Sheila as Trench
took the wheel. "What happens to you now?" Gordon asked. "They'll be
blaming you for the end of the dome."

"Let them. I planned on that. Too bad Trench got torn to bits by the
mob, isn't it? And it's a good thing I've always kept myself a place