Gridlinked (51 page)

'I guess we should stay here then,' admitted Thorn.

Mika said, 'In the life-coven we are taught to read people. I will wait here. I will wait on Ian Cormac.'

Cormac programmed the CTD and shoved it down amongst the decaying bat-things, then he turned and watched the light retreating into the depths of the cave. He nodded his head contemplatively, then looked down at the sprawled dracoman. It was Nonscar, lying prone as if in slumber, but with its eyes open. Cormac studied it for a while, then spoke into his comunit.

'Viridian, did you get all that?'

'There was some interference. I am having trouble holding your signal through that rock.'

'Very well, I'll repeat: we go through to the stage-one runcible, and I want all information access to the containment spheres closed off. The Maker will follow us in, and there'll be a detonation at the other end. The next transmission will be to the stage-two runcible -when it's set up - but only on my signal.'

'Affirmed.'

'I'm leaving the cave now. The blast will occur in twenty-five minutes. We didn't have this conversation, so don't let it out on the grid.'

'Affirmed.'

Cormac looked down at the dracoman and clapped his hands.

Its slotted pupils flickered and it let out a hissing breath. After a moment it stood up and looked around. Cormac clapped again, then turned away. The dracoman followed him from the cave.

As soon as they were out into the light, Cormac broke into a run. The dracoman lengthened its stride to keep up, its motion bearing a strong resemblance to a running ostrich. As they came to the AGC, Cormac waved the others inside. They obeyed in silence, Mika and Thorn shuffling over to make room for the dracoman.

'Take us up immediately. We've got about twenty minutes before they blow. I want to be well away by then. Maximum speed, and step on it.'

Aiden took the car up into the sky in a steep climb. They were all thrust back into their seats as he used full AG and the boosters.

'What happened? I would have thought it would have killed them… the dracomen,' said Thorn in a strained voice.

'Found him unconscious, a little way inside. Scar's dead though. Maker killed him. Don't know why this one was left unconscious.'

'Levelling… Three hundred kilometres per hour. Four hundred,' said Aiden.

'What speed will this thing do?' asked Cormac.

'It's restricted to five hundred on manual, a thousand on AI guidance. They don't like people breaking the sound barrier here.'

'A thousand is quite enough. You're an AI, so take us up there.'

'City ordinances restrict the—'

Cormac took his chip card from his pocket and waved it in Aiden's face. He then pushed it into a slot in the onboard computer. A sexy voice spoke from the speakers.

'Manual governors are offline. All city controls are denied. It would be inadvisable to proceed.'

The gende ting of a bell sounded after the voice, then the voice repeated itself, only faster this time. By the third repetition that same voice had become the shriek of a hag, and the ting a discordant clank. The computer moaned and something death-rattled inside it.

'That's illegal,' said Thorn.

'So's detonating a CTD on an inhabited planet,' said Cormac.

Aiden shoved the control stick forward. In less than a minute the AGC was travelling at 1000 kilometres per hour. A quarter of an hour later they reached the run-cible complex.

Aiden brought the car down in the empty AGC park, as close to the installation as he could. As they climbed from the car, Cormac glanced at the clock on the dash and then looked to the east.

'Come on, we've got to find a screen.' He ran into the complex surrounding the runcible installation. The others hurried along behind, Thorn with a little help from Aiden.

The embarkation lounge was eerily empty for a place so often busy. The people who had been here previously were well away now, and no doubt swearing about antimatter-containment fields and incompetent AIs. Cormac ran over to a bank of screens, speaking into his comunit all the while.

'Viridian, can you get it up on there? I want to see this.'

'I have surveillance drones two kilometres above the area.'

The screen flicked to a view down onto the Thuriot mountains.

'The explosions will be well contained. There may be very little evidence of them. Two minutes and counting.'

And with that a voice, softer than that of the AI, began to read off the seconds.

'One-nineteen, one-eighteen, one-seventeen…'

'When this hits,' said Cormac, 'we run for runcible B5, which is open right now to the stage-one runcible on Samarkand.'

Thorn asked, 'Will the detonations be enough to get it running? I mean… can we be sure it will run for the runcibles?'

'We can't be sure. If it doesn't run this time, we come back with greater force and do the same again.'

'I still don't see how we—'

'Hadn't you better get to the runcible now, Thorn? I don't want you dragging behind,' said Cormac, and turned and eyed the soldier coldly. Thorn returned that hard gaze for a moment, then bowed his head and moved away. Aiden went with him.

Cormac turned his attention to the dracoman. 'Nonscar, go with them.'

The dracoman moved away also.

'—eighty… seventy-nine… seventy-eight.'

While Cormac watched the screen, Mika studied him surreptitiously. The questions Thorn had been asking were pertinent in the extreme. She sensed the reason that Cormac had not answered them properly was, not because he could not, but simply because he did not want to. He knew what he was doing; that, she felt, was enough.

'Bringing the drone in lower,' said Viridian.

The view rapidly changed to one where trees and mountainsides became distinguishable. Mika was sure she was now seeing the same area they had recently quit, one mountainside appeared to be the one with the cave mouth in it.

'—twenty-one… twenty… nineteen… eighteen…'

Mika could see the tension building in Cormac's muscles. What was he seeing? What was it he wanted to see?

The seconds counted themselves out. The probe appeared to bob, but it was the mountains that shook. Dust and debris hazed everything for a moment, and then white fire jetted from the flank of one mountain, pinpointing the position of the cave mouth. Cormac glanced at the time display in one corner of the screen.

'Come on…'

More seconds dragged past. Then suddenly part of the mountain blew away and the incandescent Maker surfaced, jetting fire in every direction. Trees exploded into burning flinders and boulders were blown to dust. The screen whited out.

'Probe destroyed,' explained Viridian. 'I am withdrawing all other probes.'

Mika saw a fleeting quirk of a smile cross Cormac's face.

'Dramatic,' he remarked. Then said, 'Let's get the hell out of here.'

Fantastic light cut in a slow arc across the sky, and grounded at the distant runcible installation. There the finned cooling towers were haloed in St Elmo's fire. Jarvellis leant forward on the controls of the private AGC Pelter had stolen and shook her head in wonderment. After a moment the light winked out, and by contrast the day seemed unreasonably dark.

'Now,
that
you can explain in a minute,' she began. 'But first tell me about that shit Pelter.'

Stanton smiled at her. He couldn't stop smiling at her. When he'd come upon the grounded shuttle and seen her climbing out, he thought he'd finally nipped. But now, every minute, he was realizing it was true. And whether that applied to him having nipped or her actually being here he did not know, or care.

'He's dead. I think they're all dead,' he said.

'Did you
see
them die?'

'I saw Pelter - and I checked afterwards. He had that agent cold from about four metres back with a pulse-gun. Shit, I've never seen someone move so fast. I think Pelter winged him, before he freaked. He blasted away at the tree the agent ducked behind, then he seemed to lose it, and started backing off. The agent stepped out after that, calm as you like, and shot him. When he was gone I took a look. Hole right through the centre of Pelter's forehead and out the back.'

'Good. What about the others?'

'I think Mennecken and Corlackis got hit by an APW. I found some bits of Dusache stuck to the launcher, and Svent got hit in the crossfire between the agent and Pelter.'

'That's it, then,' said Jarvellis and sat back. She appeared as wasted as Stanton felt. With what she'd been through, he wasn't the least bit surprised. He looked at the flat material over her left breast.

'Now I think we get off this planet and find somewhere safe. Somewhere… peaceful and sunny. We'll get you that reconstructive surgery as well.'

Jarvellis looked at him tiredly. 'There'll be people hunting for us here,' she said, 'and we haven't got a ship anymore. How exactly do you think we'll get away from here?'

Stanton reached into the back of the AGC, brought a briefcase forward and laid it on his lap. The briefcase was battered, its framework showing through at the corners, and there were suspicious-looking spatters spread across it. Even so, the Norver Bank logo was still visible on it.

'I reckon we'll find a way,' he said.

At last Jarvellis managed to respond to Stanton's smile. She decided she'd give him the other news once they were somewhere safe - and when Stanton had lost any inclination to run.

Of course, criminals are people who have not received the correct moral education. They are people who have not enjoyed the opportunities of the rest of us. We should pity them, and as a society we should look after them. Punishment is not the answer. It only worsens an already bad situation. If we execute people, this apparently makes us just as bad as them… Bollocks… In the earlier years of the millennium this was always considered to be the case. The insanities of 'political correctness' blinded many to plain realities: if you execute a criminal, he won't do it again. Punishment of the criminal is good for the victims, if they are still alive. Why should we, as a society, look after and re-educate them when we hardly have the resources to do this for law-abiding citizens? Nowadays we have grasped these realities, so murderers and many recidivists are mind-wiped. We have not ceased to execute people because we are more 'civilized', but because that would be a waste of a perfecuy useful body. And there are many personalities waiting in cyberspace (A I and uploaded human) for another crack at living in the real world.

From
How It Is
by Gordon

As Cormac stepped from the stage-one runcible on Samarkand the cold hit him like a hammer of ice. There were hastily rigged heaters in the containment sphere, but the temperature was not much above the lower limit necessary to sustain human life. Ahead of him, Aiden was half-carrying Thorn towards the exit and the covered walkway beyond. He surveyed the sphere as Mika ran past him. The proton weapon he had requested was resting on one of the heaters. He eyed it, then glanced over as his three companions hesitated at the exit.

'Get in the car. I'll be there in a minute.'

He went over to the weapon and touched it with his fingertip. It was cold, but, with conduction from the heater, not so cold as to take his skin off. He raised it, pointed it at the floor to the left of the runcible and, with the beam narrowed to pencil thickness, fired. The beam struck, diffracted through, and lit up everything underneath so that the black floor became transparent. As he traversed the beam, molten glass drained away behind it. With the hidden machinery revealed, Cormac found a duct and burnt through it. After the beam went out, fires still burnt under the glass. He looked at the resultant mess thoughtfully for a moment, then followed the others to the exit.

The AGC stood only four metres from the sphere, and the others were inside waiting for him. He reached the door of the car and ducked halfway inside. Then, estimating relative positions, he pointed the weapon at the wall of the covered walkway.

'What the hell…?' said Thorn.

'I've got to hit at least one of the buffers from the outside. All I did in there was burn out some of the safety automatics.'

Cormac fired wide-beam. A section of wall, two metres long by a metre wide, disappeared in a purple flash. He could now see the edge of the buffer, and redirected the beam. Metal flashed away in seconds, exposing coils of doped superconductors and paralectric crystals. A hidden canister blew its contents and leapt into the sky on a tail of gas and flame. As Cormac shut down the beam, a fog of C0
₂
vapour obscured all, then C0
₂
snow began to fall. Cormac ducked into the car and slammed shut the insulated door, just before his eyes froze over.

'Out of here… now…' he managed to gasp, and began to shiver violently. He was not the only one, for the inside of the car was as cold as the inside of the containment sphere.

Aiden slammed the AGC up into Samarkand midnight, not bothering to disconnect from the walkway. The walkway held for a moment, then broke and fell away like a snake that has just missed its prey. From the windows of the AGC they could see one of the runcible buffers glowing with the colours of magma.

'OK… Aiden, no airspeed restrictions here. What's it capable of?'

'Fourteen hundred kilometres per hour, in safety; any faster than that and I might lose it.'

'Fast enough,' said Cormac. 'Fast enough.'

He leant back in his seat next to Mika and looked across at the dracoman, then he glared out through the window. Poised in the sky, like a watching moon: Dragon.

Gridl inked

'I knew it wouldn't miss this. Gloating bastard.'

Mika turned to him questioningly, but he offered up no further comment, for just then Aiden applied full acceleration. They were all thrust back in their seats so hard they had not the breath to speak anyway. Only when the AGC was streaking along at its maximum speed did the pressure relax. Cormac looked at the clock set into the dash. It was on solstan time, permanently updated by a signal from Samarkand II.

'I wonder when it will come through,' said Thorn carefully.