Empire State (42 page)

  "Safety margin at thirteen minutes," said Byron. His voice was even and calm, as if he were offering brandy from a tray back at Carson's hilltop mansion. "Allowing for clearance, I estimate approximately twenty-one minutes."

  The Captain turned back to Rad, and smiled, which Rad found infuriating. He looked out of the window again. They were way off the Skyguard's intended target, out of range of the city by at least a couple of miles.

  "Twenty-one minutes until what?" Rad prompted.

  "Until, Mr Bradley, this airship ditches into the water." Carson glanced back at the control panel. "Time we were leaving, I think." Carson headed for the door, pausing to glance at Lisa.

  He said, "Does the armour function without the helmet?"

  Lisa looked from Carson to Rad, then at Byron. She winced as she looked the exposed wiring connecting Byron to the control panel, then turned back to the Captain.

  "Yes, but my actuator is gone, thanks to your friend. There's no power coming from the cell."

  "Ah," said Carson. "Always a weakness, I thought, making the entire power system dependent on a single component, but some people just wouldn't listen. No matter, it should be easy to fix. Can you carry three?"

  Lisa snorted, sending a fleck of spit arcing through the air.

  "Like I'm going to lift a finger to help you, pal."

  Carson smiled tightly. "You are most welcome to meet your fiery doom on board this craft, young lady. However, I had not intended to end my days in a hydrogen explosion. I would not like to speak for Mr Bradley here, but I would presume he shares my view."

  Rad folded his arms, staring at Lisa. "Hell no," he said.

  Lisa poked a tongue into her cheek and moved her jaw like she was chewing gum. She looked Rad up and down, her eyes stopping at his waistline. "Landing might be rough, but we should be able to get to the city."

  "I think our landing may be rougher if we remain here," said Carson.

  Rad held both arms up, palms facing outwards. He closed his eyes and took a breath.

  "Folks, hold on. We're still going to crash? What about the
Nimrod
?"

  The Captain shook his head. "The
Nimrod
is the only thing holding this contraption afloat. Our young friend here is going to have to rocket us to freedom."

  Rad blinked. "We're leaving Rex to crash?"

  "No, Rex is coming with us. Go and collect him, there's a good chap. And hurry. Meet us in the hold. I'll fix the actuator of Ms Saturn's armour."

  "What about Byron?"

  Carson shook his head and pointed. Rad leaned over Byron's shoulder, then understood. Byron wasn't so much keeping hold of the controls, he was wired into the airship's system.

  "It was the only way to override the system," Carson said quietly.

  Byron said: "Eleven minutes, Captain."

  Rad sighed, and felt the Captain's hand on his shoulder.

  "Fetch Rex. Hurry."

 
 

 

 
 

RAD PRESSED HIS LEG WOUND, and his hands came away spotted with blood, but perhaps less than he had expected. The landing had been rough, but they were in one piece. The grass was wet, as was the air.

  Carson stood, hands in the pockets of his jacket, at the end of the park. There was a concrete wall, then a drop to a blackshingled slope which descended into the still water. Ahead of them, the fog barrier that surrounded the Empire State was clearly visible. Against the orange glow, higher, the misshapen collection of outlines that was the
Nimrod
tethered to the Enemy airship was silhouetted.

  "I thought it was going to crash?"

  The Captain half-turned at Rad's voice, then looked back at the two ships. Their altitude was dropping, but they still had some height and were moving away at a steady pace. Carson clicked his tongue.

  "Byron is piloting the ships as far away from the city as possible. There are several million cubic feet of hydrogen in the iron ship, and a smaller but still substantial amount in the
Nimrod
." He paused, and rubbed his moustache. The conglomeration of ships was very close to the fog barrier. "I wonder?"

  Rad saw it too. "He's gonna get through the fog? What happens then? He crashes into the Enemy city?"

  "Perhaps. Who knows? The physics of beyond the fog are shaky. At least the Empire State will be safe."

  The fog barrier popped around the two airships, then after a few seconds all that remained was a greyish swirl bruising the otherwise dark orangey wall. Rad and the Captain continued to watch, looking at nothing, for the best part of a couple of minutes.

  "Gee, I'm all cut up." Lisa broke the silence. Captain Carson appeared to ignore her, but Rad turned, fists clenched at his side. Lisa was standing, arms folded, just behind them. Behind her, Rex sat cross-legged, looking at nothing, his face blank.

  "You got a nerve," said Rad, taking a few steps towards Lisa. He towered over her, but she just looked up into his face with a smirk. "Add another murder to the list, shall we?"

  Lisa hissed through clenched teeth. "Not sure you can murder a machine, can you? Not a hunk o' junk like that thing."

  "Hmm!" It was the Captain. He was still looking out to the water, but his shoulders moved with the exclamation. He turned, walked towards Lisa, smiled – then punched her in the jaw. Rad flinched as there was a sharp crack, which he was pretty sure came from the old man's hand, but Lisa fell onto the soft ground on one elbow, smile wiped from her face. She touched her lip as a trickle of blood ran from the corner of her mouth, her cheek a livid scarlet from where Carson's punch had landed. She spat on the grass, but didn't get up. The Captain bent double over her, sticking his nose in her face.

  "You are a particularly unpleasant young woman. I am not a vindictive man, but I will hold my rage in check as I know – and you know – full well that you will not escape justice. Whether it be in New York, or at the hands of myself and Mr Bradley here."

  Someone coughed. Carson kept his attention on Lisa, but Rad turned. Rex shuffled uncomfortably on the ground where he was sitting.

  "Someone want to tell me how a dead girl can be walking around and flying through the air and stuff?" he asked.

  Rad and Carson exchanged a look. Rex made to stand up, but Rad pushed him back down with a foot to the shoulder.

  Rex sighed. "Please, get me out of this nightmare."

  Carson straightened, and rubbed his fist with his other hand. He shook it, and flexed the fingers. All seemed to be in working order, Rad saw.

  The old man said, "If only it were that simple. You don't get out of a murder charge so easily. Your victim is still dead, lying on my mortuary slab." He looked down at Lisa. "Care to fill in our friend, here?"

  Lisa spat blood again. "Go to hell, Nimrod."

  The Captain laughed. "You really don't pay attention, do you?"

  "I think I know," said Rad. Carson gestured for the detective to speak.

  "Sam Saturn went missing from the Empire State, landed in New York, swapped places with her." Rad pointed at Lisa, who just scowled. "Rex found her in New York, thinking she was the Science Pirate, and killed her. Her death sucked both Rex and the body back to the Empire State, but didn't touch the
real
Science Pirate, who was stuck." Rad paused and pulled at his bottom lip. "Why'd you kill her, anyway?"

  Rex glanced at Rad, then looked away like a petulant child.

  "She got in my way. Goddamn city will give me a medal."

  Rad sighed. "Huh. You may have to do better than that at your trial."

  Carson stroked his moustache. "Fascinating. So the Science Pirate and the Skyguard opened the Fissure and were pulled through at the same time, but while the Skyguard arrived shortly after the Empire State had been established – just long enough for Crater to have anticipated his arrival and arrange his detention anyway – Ms Lisa Saturn got catapulted forward nineteen years. Sam Saturn was likewise sent
backwards
nineteen years. Right into the path of a killer."

  Rad sighed. "Tricky-dicky." He nudged Lisa Saturn's leg with his foot. "How did Kane contact you?"

  Lisa rolled her tongue behind her lips, sighed, then gave in.

  "I've been here about a few days. Maybe more, it's hard to tell. I thought this was something planned by the Skyguard, some kind of trick. But my suit didn't work properly. I tried to fix it, but the only thing I could get working was the emergency receiver. That's when I picked up the Skyguard's signal. I followed it to him. He said we were both trapped in this place, that it was some kind of mirror of New York and that he knew how to get us back home." She paused, and rubbed her eyes.

  "Except it wasn't the Skyguard you knew, was it?" Rad prompted.

  She shook her head.

  "Because the Skyguard from New York was dead in jail in the Empire State," said Rad.

  Lisa tried to stand, but Rad shifted his foot and stood on her calf. It wasn't enough to keep her on the ground, but she got the point and instead drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

  "This guy was wearing the Skyguard's suit – not a copy, the real thing. I should know, I helped build it. He was the same, but... younger, different. Said he'd been given the mantle of the Skyguard."

  Carson
hrmmed
loudly, and folded his arms. He looked at the ground, as if he was embarrassed about something. Rad rolled the story back in his mind to pick up on a loose thread.

  "Rex killed Sam Saturn, thinking she was Lisa Saturn. So how'd they both wind up back here?"

  The Captain looked up. "We don't understand the links between the Pocket and the Origin. Every event, every person is threaded through both worlds. Perhaps..."

  "There was a flash." Rex broke into Carson's theorising. "I thought I'd hit my head in the fight, but you know, she didn't fight at all. She was like a rag doll, small, thin. She... she broke in my hands. Dammit, I didn't know it would be like that. But when I woke up, I was in the same alley, but in a different place." He looked up at the night sky. "Here." He shrugged.

  Rad rubbed his prickly scalp. "So the very act of Sam's murder pulled her – and her killer – back into the Pocket."

  Captain Carson nodded. "Sam Saturn did not belong in the Origin. Perhaps the Pocket was just bringing her home."

  Rad continued: "So the Skyguard was arrested as soon as he arrived in the Empire State. He's always been in jail, right from the beginning."

  "Crater arrived before he did, and knew that if the Skyguard arrived, he'd be a threat," said Carson.

  Rad stopped rubbing his head. He missed his hat, badly.

  "Crater doesn't make any sense." Rad knocked the toe of his shoe into Rex's side. "You said he was a judge, and he disappeared?"

  Rex huffed and folded his arms, but he was getting the hang of the confession gig. "A couple of days before the fight. Vanished into thin air, big news."

  Rad crouched on his haunches. "He vanished
before
the fight?" He looked at Carson, who just shrugged.

  "Time dilation," Carson said, not very convincingly. Rad frowned. It was the same term Nimrod has used in New York, but it was clear that nobody knew what the hell the Fissure was or how the two parallel worlds worked in relation to each other.

  Rad
hrmmed
loudly. "And he arrived here, walking into the role of the Chairman without so much as a how-d'ya-do?"

  "The Empire State was created with a vacuum at the heart of it," said Carson. He interlocked his fingers and flexed them as he considered. "It was
made
for him, I suppose. Together with the House of Lost Souls, I imagine." He pulled his hands, the locked fingers tugging at the knuckles but not separated. "Interlocked."

  "If Crater is here, where is his double in New York? Nimrod said he could trace people somehow."

  Carson met Rad's eye, and let his hands drop. "I'm not sure he has a double."

  Rad raised an eyebrow, then it came to him. He puffed his cheeks, held his breath for just a second, then exhaled.

  "Is that possible?"

  Captain Carson's eyes widened, but he said nothing. Rad gave a low whistle.

  "Crater is the Chairman,
and
the Pastor. And one is the original, and one is the… copy, double, whatever. Except they're not doubles…" Rad struggled with the concept, then shook his head after a few moments. Carson watched, and nodded.

  "It may be possible. Who knows. It would explain a great deal. The Chairman and the Pastor as doubles, but forced together into a single existence. He and his Empire State reflection did not switch places, they merged."

  "Giving him one hell of a headache."

  "Giving him," said Carson, with a tight smile, "a dual personality. Two minds, one body. Crater, the original, and the reflection. Trapped in the same body, fighting for control."

  Rad shook his head. "Poor bastard." He turned back to Rex and the Science Pirate. Both sat on the damp grass, silent but both watching.

  "So how did Kane get the Skyguard's gear?" Rad asked.

  The Captain coughed. "Ah, I'm afraid I may have something to do with that."

  Rad looked up at Carson, and then back at Lisa, who was now smiling. She held the tip of her tongue between her teeth, her grin showing the spark of arrogance.

  Rad stood, eyes wide. He backed away from Lisa and turned to the old man, stomach doing a loop-the-loop.

  In the dark Rad saw the Captain smile again, but it was a nervous look that wasn't pretty.

  "I encouraged him," he said. "I was able to influence the Chairman, get him access to the prison. It was no different than the usual tricks he asked me to pull. I'm a reflection of Nimrod, I was fashioned with the Pocket and have influence here as he does in the Origin. And then when I heard about who the prisoner was, where he was from, I was able to find the suit. I gave it to Kane and helped to fix it."