Great North Road

  ‘Oh, Saul, darling, you’ve got to stop punishing yourself like this. It’s only sex.’

  ‘Only sex,’ he said, worried he was going to start crying in front of her, the way he did most nights when he was all alone in his pitiful flat. ‘Do you have any idea how much that hurts?’

  ‘I’m the one having to fuck a hundred-and-nine-year-old man, so yes, I think I understand how terrible this is for you.’

  ‘I’m sorry. It’s just . . . this is so hard for me.’

  Her grip softened, and she studied his face intently. ‘I know. But think what we get out of it. Our daughter, alive and healthy. I would sacrifice anything for that. Anything. I didn’t know I could love, not like this, not until we made her. She’s us, Saul. She’s our baby. You gave that to me.’

  He managed a lame smile, and nodded. ‘I can do this, too. For her.’

  ‘You’re a good man, Saul Howard. I’m proud to be your wife.’

  ‘My sister called. They’re on True Jerusalem. Rebka is in the best hospital on the planet. Everything is ready to go as soon as they get the money.’

  ‘Good. I saw Barclay 2North in the mansion the other day. He noticed me. That part’s going to be easy.’

  ‘Right,’ he said with a dry throat.

  ‘Did you find some cufflinks?’

  ‘Sure.’ He took out the little box with the banana cufflinks he’d bought at the Birk-Unwin store.

  ‘Oh wow.’ Angela puffed her cheeks out in dismay. ‘Yep, they’re gaudy enough. Exactly what a man would choose.’

  ‘The sensors are loaded in and ready.’

  ‘Okay. I’ll buy some legitimately, and we’ll work the swap at the café as arranged.’

  ‘Why don’t you just take them now?’

  ‘I can’t explain them away if Marc-Anthony finds them, and he’s a meddlesome little fucker. Let’s just stick to the plan, shall we? I might even take Olivia-Jay along when I buy them, give me some cover.’

  ‘Sure. You know the mansion best.’

  ‘I do. So . . . have you got the sac?’

  ‘Angela, we’re exposed so much already. Weapons, too? Really? Think about it.’

  ‘Weapons won’t make any difference if they catch me. But what I bought in Tokyo might just be all that stands between me getting caught and me making a getaway. So please—’ She held a hand out, palm upwards, giving him an expectant look that he couldn’t duck.

  He handed over the sac of activants, and she bumped it against her neck. ‘There,’ she said briskly. ‘All done.’

  ‘Just, please be careful. Please, Angela.’

  ‘I will be. Don’t worry about me. I was thinking, when you’ve handed over the cufflinks, your job is really over. No point in both of us being out on a limb here. Why don’t you go back to Earth and wait for me to finish? I’d like that, knowing you were safe.’

  ‘If nothing’s going to go wrong, we’ll both be safe. And I’m not leaving here without you. I might detest this, but I’m not going to abandon you. It’s not me, Angela, that’s not what I am.’

  She reached up and stroked his cheek. ‘After this is over, we’ll be together, you and I. A fresh start on a new world, and this time we’ll get it right.’

  ‘This time,’ he whispered.

  Angela kissed him softly. Then she was walking back out of the loading bay, moving quickly. Not quick enough. For an instant he’d seen that same fear and uncertainty that had been there the morning he proposed. It meant the same to him now as it had then. Love is never something you decide for yourself.

  ‘I’ll wait for you,’ he promised the empty air.

  Tuesday 7th May 2143

  When the convoy finally reached MTJ-1 on Monday afternoon, and Vance saw the ‘way down’ Antrinell had used the shortwave radio to call in, he thought it was an evil joke. The canyon wall was lower thanks to a valley steeper than the one they’d just left behind. MTJ-1 was parked close to the edge where a much smaller waterfall had fallen for about seven hundred metres to the frozen Dolce river below.

  To one side of the lumpy ice streamers threading down the vertical cliff was a long talus of boulders and rock splinters that was barely angled away from the rockface itself. Vance wasn’t alone in his opinion of the way down to the canyon floor. People came out of their vehicles to stare disbelievingly at the incline. Camm and Darwin were on their way back up, two small dark figures struggling through the treacherous loose snow.

  But they had no choice; so a scheme was worked out, one that would utilize the winches which every vehicle was equipped with. The cable would be tethered to a large secure boulder at the top, allowing the vehicle to reverse slowly over the edge before letting the winch take the strain. The rest of Monday was spent assessing the route Camm and Darwin had negotiated down, testing boulders along the way for suitability as stable anchors.

  Dawn on Tuesday morning saw them start in the pallid pink light and a tiny snowfall. Vance insisted a Tropic was first, they couldn’t afford to lose the last MTJ, and he certainly wasn’t going to risk the tanker or remaining truck.

  Antrinell volunteered to drive the Tropic. He slowly reversed over the side of the canyon, tipping up until he was about seventy degrees, and the only thing holding the Tropic was the winch cable, certainly the wheels were useless now, they provided stability, nothing more. Everyone watched from a safe distance, the memory of the truck tow cable prominent in their minds.

  The winch unwound for fifty metres, which kept everything safely inside tolerance limits. Olrg and Darwin went down and anchored the Tropic to the nearby boulders, then the winch was reattached, and the Tropic descended another fifty metres.

  It took over two hours, but the Tropic reached the bottom of the precipitous slope without incident. A loud round of cheering broke out. Everyone knew that if they could get onto the river, they might just make it to Sarvar after all.

  Tropic-2 was driven to the top of the talus, and its winch connected. Vance would only let the vehicles go down one at a time. The potential for disaster if there were several on the talus and one broke free was too much to contemplate.

  It was late afternoon by the time every convoy vehicle was down on the wide ice flow of the canyon floor. Only then did Vance give the go-ahead to bring the sledges down. The snowfall had begun to grow heavier as the day moved on, and his worry as the clouds sank lower and the light faded was that they’d be separated from the sledges overnight. Winches were removed from their vehicles and used to form a relay down the slope. That made progress a lot quicker than it had been with the vehicles.

  Vance was encouraged by the way things were going. Then Dr Coniff called him to say Ravi Hendrik had recovered consciousness.

  In biolab-2’s door compartment Vance shook off the glaze of snow adhering to his parka and waterproof trousers. Then the inner door opened and warm air hit him, instantly turning the remaining white ice particles damp and dark. Droplets began to run down, trickling over his boots.

  Ravi Hendrik still looked awful, but he was awake and drinking broth from a big mug that Juanitar was holding for him.

  Vance made himself smile as he pulled off his printed balaclava, sending more droplets scattering round. ‘You’re looking better,’ he lied.

  ‘Colonel,’ Ravi said. ‘Just glad to be alive.’

  ‘I accessed your visual cache while the doctor was treating you. You’re one lucky man. That was the mother of all fights.’

  ‘Then you saw it? Saw the monster?’

  ‘Yes, I saw it.’

  ‘And the trees, the bullwhip? That’s what Mark Chitty was trying to tell us.’

  ‘I know,’ Vance said. ‘We can’t go back into the trees now.’

  Ravi’s laugh was half-hysterical. ‘So how do we get through the jungle to Sarvar?’

  ‘They’ll have to send a chopper for us, at the very least. I’ve ordered another comm rocket launch. Ken and Chris are unloading one from a sledge right now.’

  ‘Good, that’s good.’ Ravi e
ased himself back onto the thin mattress.

  ‘Ravi, I need to know. Did you ask Angela to come and fetch you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I see. Why? Why her?’

  ‘She’s the one who survived the monster before. She’s the one I could trust. The only one.’

  ‘You could have asked me.’

  ‘Somebody is sabotaging the convoy. They just told me Karizma deserted with MTJ-1. But I don’t even know if it was her. Maybe there’s someone else. Things were going bad even before we even thought about a convoy.’

  Vance did his best not to shout at the wounded, overtoxed pilot. He was surprised at himself now he knew how much it troubled him that someone in his own command didn’t trust him. Lord curse Karizma and her invidious treachery. ‘I think we can safely say it was Karizma,’ he told Ravi.

  ‘The alien is still out there,’ the pilot replied. ‘It won’t let us leave this world alive.’

  ‘If it thinks that, it’s going to be seriously disappointed. Now you get some rest.’

  ‘A Berlin can’t reach us from Sarvar, not without refuelling. The Daedaluses won’t fly over the mountains.’ Ravi’s voice was rising. Several lights on the monitors were turning amber as his stress levels heightened. ‘We’ll never get out. We’re trapped here, and it’s going to come for us one by one until there’s nobody left. Nobody! There’s no way out.’

  ‘It won’t come to that,’ Vance assured him, glancing at Coniff for help.

  ‘I shot it. I shot it point-blank in the face. It didn’t even notice.’

  ‘Yes it did. I’ve reviewed your recording. It was trying to get out of the way.’

  Ravi laughed, a nasty high-pitched snarling sound. ‘Get out of the way! That’s it? That’s all? Those were hollow-point nine-millimetre rounds. And it didn’t like them?’

  ‘Doctor,’ Vance called.

  Coniff was already standing, studying the monitor displays. Her e-i must have issued an instruction to the equipment because Ravi let out a long sigh and smiled lazily. ‘Oh right, yeah, that’s the answer to everyth . . .’ His head lolled to one side and he was asleep.

  ‘Is he going to be all right?’ Vance asked the doctor.

  ‘Providing treatment is maintained there’s no reason why not. I’m still concerned about his spine, but the damage to his back is healing nicely. There’s some residual shock from blood loss and hypothermia, but that is reducing now we’ve supplemented his fluids. He was lucky Angela recovered him when she did. A few more hours out there would have been fatal.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Vance said. He wondered if all the medical profession had such a gloomy outlook. Back in the door compartment he wrapped himself up in his layers and his gloves before pulling the helmet down securely. The weather was worsening. Somewhere above the dark clouds, lightning was flaring, its flashes appearing like incandescent fissures in the surging underbelly. He could hear their deep basso rumbles rattling off the canyon walls. The snow was thickening, flakes growing to half the size of his palm. And the wind that beset the canyon was steadily increasing, driving the flakes against the convoy vehicles.

  Up on the talus, the last sledge was halfway down. Vance couldn’t even see the top any more. His e-i called Ken. ‘How long until you can launch?’ he asked.

  ‘Fifteen minutes, Colonel. We’ve got the launcher set up. Running final checks now.’

  ‘Is it going to be okay in this weather?’

  ‘It should be, yes. But I’m still concerned we might not be able to maintain contact. Our meshes are so much junk, and that electrical storm brewing isn’t helping. But it’s the canyon walls which are the real problem. They’re going to block the beam for sure.’

  ‘But Abellia will receive it, right?’

  ‘Yes, sir, they should be able to. Providing their dishes are still operational.’

  ‘Understood. Carry on.’

  Ken had expressed his reservation about the comm rocket earlier, which was why Vance had composed a message for Vermekia and whoever was left at Abellia. It contained Ravi’s visual cache and an urgent plea for recovery. The monster’s disturbing communion with the bullwhips had come as a profound shock to Vance. Such power gave the thing an almost supernatural aspect. He wasn’t telling anyone, but he shared Ravi’s view that they’d never get through the jungle alive. Vermekia had to listen now, had to help them. Even he, consumed within his world of petty office politics, couldn’t keep ignoring the amount of proof Vance had compiled.

  Vance walked the short distance across the circle of vehicles, and climbed into biolab-1’s door compartment. There was more snow clinging to him this time than there had been in biolab-2. He shook it all off vigorously, and went into the main cabin. Antrinell, Tamisha, and Roarke were inside, enjoying some coffee. Hot drinks were the one thing they didn’t have to ration yet. The three of them had been outside for hours, working hard to help bring the vehicles down the talus. Their lips were cracked and bruised-looking, while they all had red-raw patches of skin on their faces where the cold had crept round their balaclavas and scarves.

  Vance stripped off his outer layers which were now slimed with slush and sat at the little table which had folded out of the wall. Tamisha offered him a mug of coffee, which he accepted gratefully.

  ‘I’ve been going through the fuel levels,’ Antrinell began. ‘It will be tight assuming we stay on schedule from now on.’

  ‘Yes,’ Vance agreed.

  ‘But I think we all know that schedule isn’t going to survive. Not with the creatures out there. And now we know the jungle can be activated against us. We’re not going to reach Sarvar. It’s that simple.’

  ‘I didn’t expect that from you,’ Vance said lightly. ‘Anyway, I’ve requested recovery and evacuation in my comm rocket message.’

  ‘A message that may or may not get through.’

  ‘We have three more rockets left after this launch.’

  ‘I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t think you’re really taking into account what we’re up against. It’s clear now that the jungle is in some way reactive to an alien sentient. There is a force here that we have underestimated to a monumental degree.’

  ‘Are you saying I should have done something different?’ Vance asked. That Antrinell was calling him sir in front of others from the xenobiology team was a bad sign. They’d known each other too long for that kind of formality. He could understand people were scared, but this kind of defiance in an executive officer was unprecedented.

  ‘We all have the same information, sir,’ Tamisha said. ‘We came to the same conclusions. Based on them we agreed that the convoy was the right course of action. At the time.’

  ‘And now you’re changing your mind? You maybe should have thought about that before we climbed down here to the canyon floor, because the sweet Lord knows we can’t get back up again now.’

  ‘We’re not complaining about the convoy, nor its location,’ Antrinell said. ‘What you need to take into account is our current situation.’

  ‘You think I’m unaware of what’s going on? Are you serious?’

  ‘Sir,’ Roarke said tentatively. ‘It’s not about awareness, everybody knows what’s happening. It’s the implications we’re concerned about.’

  ‘Vance, this is war,’ Antrinell said. ‘I’m not sure you appreciate that. It’s been subtle and progressive, which is why we haven’t necessarily reacted as we should have done. Whatever it is that’s out there is intent on exterminating us. The planet is reacting to our presence, the trees themselves are trying to kill us. Personally, I now believe the sunspot outbreak is part of the conflict. There are clearly unknown powers at work here. Phenomenal powers, perhaps equal to those of the Zanth. And they are completely hostile to humans.’

  ‘Yes. I’m not arguing any of this.’

  ‘Then we should deploy the weapon we were given for precisely this situation.’

  ‘Antrinell, I can’t authorize that. The zero metavirus is tailored to kill all life on St Li
bra; anything that shares the native genetic molecule. That must surely include the guardian creature given the kind of relationship it has demonstrated it has with the flora. We can’t do it. You and I especially, we know the Lord would not permit such a crime.’

  ‘If we don’t deploy the weapon, if we do nothing, St Libra will win. We’re not going to make it to Sarvar, not with the creature and the jungle to contend with. We all accessed Ravi’s visual recording. Bullets don’t have the slightest effect on it. There is nothing else left to us. The metavirus will destroy this thing. It’s our only chance for survival. And if we don’t make it, who is going to warn the HDA and the trans-space worlds? The zero metavirus was created because we cannot face two alien threats, not simultaneously. And certainly not on the scale we have witnessed here. We have to eliminate this threat before it destroys us.’

  Vance regarded his fellow officer and Gospel Warrior in utter dismay. It was incredible that someone who took the same vows, had the same views, could come to a decision that was completely opposite to his own. One thing Antrinell clearly didn’t recognize was the depth and conviction of Vance’s own belief in the Lord. It was everything to him, his basis for existing. He knew there had to be a purpose behind life and the universe. And only God could provide that. For God had created the universe, and that had to be for a reason. Vance never expected to know what it was, he fully understood he was too insignificant for that, he was content just to be a part of such a glorious existence. To live in a way his Lord would consider worthy. ‘No,’ he said with finality. ‘And you are not to raise this issue again. We are not going to launch the zero metavirus. I do not consider the hostility of one misguided guardian sufficient to justify genocide.’

  ‘Genocide?’ Antrinell shouted. ‘They’re plants!’

  ‘If that were so, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.’

  ‘You’re condemning us to death. Without the zero metavirus we’ll never get to Sarvar.’

  ‘If it is meant to be, then the Lord will show us a way. Besides, I’m not at all confident the metavirus will work in this climate. The warheads can disperse it into the jetstreams, yes. But there’s nothing living for it to latch on to when it falls to the ground. This temperature will kill it as surely as fire. It might take longer but the outcome will be the same. There will be no exponential growth, no contagion.’