The King’s ejector gear brought him safely to the ground. Instants later, a column of water descended near by the shocked monarch. The water trickled towards the King, touched him, and— Eeeeaaaaghh! Vella re-materialised. It will be several days before you recover your senses, you barbarian! He dragged his victim to a cave mouth, close to which stood an air fleet fighter-craft. He will lie safely in the cave till I have been paid the ransom-money. What could be simpler? At that moment, in Trigan City, a squad of police were surrounding Vella’s apartment. Smash the door in! Peric was among the first to enter the apartment and see the strange apparatus that filled one of the rooms. I was right in my assumption! That young scoundrel has submitted himself to my process—and used it for criminal purposes! Why! That’s the folder containing details of your invention! I remember the night you showed it to Vella and me! I should have guessed right from the start, when he had his miraculous escape from the air crash. I told you at the time, Janno—there are no such things as miracles!They questioned Vella’s shrinking accomplice Zerros. Where is he now? Where’s Vella? He . . . he has kidnapped the King of Daveli and hidden him in a cave in the wilderness. And now he’s flying back to the City! Peric looked grimly out into the storm-blackened sky. He’ll have an unpleasant flight through that! Storm warnings have gone out, and all air craft in the area have been grounded! Indeed, Vella’s craft was flying through the thick of the aerial inferno! The best thing I can do is to switch on the automatic pilot and turn myself into my water-state. Then I shall be indestructible! Next instant, there was a pool of water slopping about in the bottom of the pilotless cockpit. Even if the craft is struck by lightning, I can fall to the ground unhurt! That was Vella’s last coherent thought . . . . . . A lightning-flash turned the craft into a fireball! No wreckage was ever found, nor any sign of the pilot. As Peric said later . . . If he was in his water-state, he has strictly speaking not been destroyed. Rather, he was instantly turned to steam, and then into tiny particles of condensation—minute globules of water that will have been scattered all over the upper air of this planet! He spoke the chilling epitaph on the man who could turn himself to water. Vella may still live—but his atomic particles can never be reunited!
This instalment was originally published in Look and Learn issue no. 558 on 23 September 1972.
