Murdock turned his head to the right and waited. The destruction had been going on for nearly a month, and today's should be the last of it. He suddenly realized just how tired he was. A feeling of depression began to come over him. He stared at the small red lights and the larger, pulsing orange one.
"You will be able to see them in a moment."
"Can you tell how many there are?"
"Thirty-two. No, hold it ... thirty-one. They are picking up speed. Their conversations indicate that they anticipate an interception."
"Did any come through from the eastern canyon?"
"Yes. There were several."
The sound of their engines came to him. Hidden there in the neck of the ravine, he saw the first of them -a dark sedan, dented and swaying, half of its roof and the nearest fender torn away-come around the canyon's bend. He held his fire as it approached, and soon the others followed-rattling, steaming, leaking, covered with dents and rust spots, windows broken, hoods missing, doors loose. A strange feeling came into his breast as he thought about the more magnificent specimens of the great herds he had followed over the years.
Still, he held his fire, even as the first in line drew abreast of him, and his thoughts went back to the black and shining Devil Car and to Jenny, the Scarlet Lady, with whom he had hunted it.
The first of the pack reached the place where the ambushers waited.
"Now?" the Angel asked, just as the first rocket flared off to the left.
" "
Yes.
They opened up and the destruction began, cars braking and swerving into one another, the canyon suddenly illuminated by half a dozen blazing wrecks-a dozen-two.
One after another, they were halted, burned. Three of the ambushers were destroyed by direct crashes. Murdock used all of his rockets and played the laser over the heaped remains. As the last wreck burst into flame, he knew that, though they weren't much compared with the great ones he had known, he would never forget how they had made their final run on bald tires, broken springs, leaking transmissions, and hate.