The Catacombs The Merchandise Guide
Annual 1977


Tony and Helena chained to wall

peace of mind that he couldn't have actually seen
beneath the surface of that planet . . . to the dismal,
phosphorescent cavern where Alan Carter and
Helena Russell, divested of their space-suits, hung
like criminals endungeoned by some ancient king,
their wrists above them, shackled to iron ring-bolts
in the rock wall!

Tony Verdeschi was far from being as dead as
Bokassa had imagined. He'd slowly come back to
consciousness, to find himself alone. And groggily,
he'd neglected to return to the Eagle and inform
Moonbase of the situation. It was perhaps a foolish
oversight, but a man in a dazed condition, faced with
the disappearance of his friends, does not always
act rationally.
   He cast about him, looking for tracks on the gritty
ground . . . but there were none. The very nature of
the terrain refused to show much in the way of
marks.
   Dizzily, he wandered towards the rocky wall
beyond him, with its cave-mouth openings. "Surely
- surely they wouldn't just have left me . . ?"
   Then he heard it. A distant scrabbling sound,m from
somewhere deep within one of the shafts. Gingerly,
he lowered himself inside, and found his boots met
a gentle slope. Around him, the rocks glowed with
their own phosphorescenct, lighting his way. Auto-
matically, he checked his wrist counter for radiation.
There was none. He went deeper, dropping, he esti-
mated, some two feet with every ten he traversed. It
was steep. And it was becoming unbearably sticky in
his suit. The external temperature must be rising.
   Again, he checked, and on impulse, shed the
restricting clothing, piling it in a heap against the
tunnel wall. The air was breathable, though he had
to take great gulps of it to power his flagging muscles.
Prudently, he kept his stun-gun ready in his right
fist . . .
   Abruptly, as he negotiated the twists and turns of
the tunnel, Tony came to the door. It was of sheer
sheet metal, and it barred his way. He could still hear
the scrabbling . . .but it came from beyond the
barrier.
   "Dare nothing - win nothing!" The strange quota-
tive thought flashed through his mind as he pointed
his gun and fired. and the metal buckled and ripped
under the power of the laser blast!
   He was ready for immediate action, but the smooth
emptiness of the cylindrical metal passageway
yawned derisively back at him.
   And then, from a corner, it appeared! The beast!
The very beast he'd shot in the moment of arrival on
the planet!



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