Synaptic Manhunt (17 page)

A.A. Catto sat back in one of the small gilt chairs that were arranged round the edge of the airship’s small ballroom. The entire place was furnished in gold and red plush. A cluster of small spotlights played on the dark mirror of the dance floor. On a small dais a string quartet played muted chamber music. A.A. Catto sighed. After the fear and tension of the last few hours she felt totally drained. Exhaustion made her avoid thinking about what she should do next.

Billy, Reave and Lame Nancy stood in the small observation platform that opened off the ballroom like a tiny terrace. It was totally enclosed in elaborately worked stained glass that threw patterns of colour over them as they stared down at the receding lights of the city beneath them. They all seemed to be avoiding looking at her. It was clear that they were waiting for her to make some kind of decision. She knew it was necessary, but somehow she just couldn’t do it. She hated doing things out of necessity. She was able to act instantly on whim, but since this nightmare of crazy assassins had started her old life seemed to have vanished. It all seemed so unfair. She raised a limp hand, and a white-coated steward was instantly at her side.

‘Yes, Miss Catto?’

‘I want a drink.’

‘We have a fully comprehensive bar.’

‘Can you make me a Doric column?’

‘I’m sure our bartender can make it. He holds a triple A proficiency rating.’

‘He’d better do it right.’

‘I’m sure he will, Miss Catto.’

She closed her eyes as he hurried away. She opened them moments later when she heard a discreet cough. She thought it was the waiter with her drink, but she found herself looking at the pale blue uniform and gold braid of the airship’s captain. He stood at attention with his white peaked cap clutched under his arm. His face was set in an expression of competent neutrality.

‘Miss Catto.’

A.A. Catto raised an eyebrow.

‘What?’

‘I still haven’t had any details of your proposed flight.’

‘So?’

‘We’ve passed the city limits, and need to know what course you want me to set.’

A.A. Catto looked round the ballroom.

‘I ordered a drink. It hasn’t come yet.’

The captain glanced across the ballroom.

‘I’m sure the steward will be along in a moment. Now about the course …’

A.A. Catto’s temper flashed.

‘Bugger the course. I want my drink.’

The captain compressed his lips slightly, and marched quickly across the ballroom. Billy, Reave and Nancy were by now standing at the top of the steps that led to the observation platform, watching the exchange. A few moments later the captain returned followed by a flustered-looking steward.

‘Here is your drink, Miss Catto.’

The steward placed a tall crystal glass in front of A.A. Catto. Beneath a head of crushed ice, the liquid was pale pink. Halfway down it changed to red and finally in the bottom of the glass it was a deep purple. A.A. Catto picked it up and swirled it round once. The ice tinkled. She sipped it, and put it down.

‘I suppose it will do.’

The steward bowed and scuttled away. The captain drew himself up to his full height. With his neatly trimmed beard and rigidly controlled paunch he was every inch the figure of tolerant authority. He cleared his throat.

‘About the course, Miss Catto. I really must insist you make a decision.’

A.A. Catto looked at him with frank dislike. If there were three things she detested, they were authority figures, people who found it necessary to clear their throats before speaking and people who insisted she do things. She ran her finger round the rim of the glass. It made a faint singing sound.

‘I think I want to go into the nothings.’

The captain’s eyes widened.

‘The nothings?’

‘That’s what I said.’

‘It can’t be done.’

A.A. Catto began to get impatient.

‘I was under the impression that I had hired this craft, and that you would take it wherever I requested.’

‘That’s correct.’

‘Well, I’m requesting you to take the damn thing into the nothings.’

The captain took a deep breath.

‘That’s absolutely out of the question. This ship isn’t equipped for that kind of journey.’

‘That’s the kind of journey I wish to make.’

The captain spoke very slowly as though he was talking to a retarded child.

‘If this ship enters the nothings it will disintegrate. It carries no generator of its own. It will be destroyed.’

A.A. Catto looked up at him.

‘You carry a set of personal generators, don’t you? Porta-pacs or something similar?’

The captain nodded.

‘Yes, but that’s beside the point. I’m not going to take my ship to certain destruction in the nothings. I hope I make myself clear.’

‘You refuse?’

‘Absolutely.’

A.A. Catto nodded. She slowly turned and looked at the group by the observation platform.

‘Billy, could you come over here for a minute?’

Billy sauntered across the dance; floor. He glanced enquiringly at A.A. Catto.

‘Trouble?’

A.A. Catto looked hard at the captain.

‘Billy, do you have your gun with you?’

Billy nodded. He was a little confused. He pulled a .70 recoilless from under his coat.

‘I got a gun.’

A.A. Catto relaxed in her chair.

‘Would you point it at the captain?’

Billy shrugged and did as he was asked. The captain put on his cap and came to formal attention.

‘You realize that by this act of violence you have voided your hiring contract and I have no alternative but to return to the bridge and order this ship to return to the company’s docking mast.’

A.A. Catto laughed.

‘God, you’re pompous.’

‘I can only repeat …’

‘Shut up and listen. If you don’t immediately take this contraption into the nothings, Billy will shoot you. ‘Won’t you, Billy?’

Billy swallowed.

‘Um … yes.’

The captain remained at attention.

‘I’ll do no such thing.’

A.A. Catto looked at Billy.

‘Shoot him.’

Billy looked at A.A. Catto, at the captain and then down at the gun. He tried to think of a way out. There didn’t seem to be one. He pulled the trigger. The captain was knocked across the dance floor. He died without a sound. The string quartet stopped playing, but started again, rather uncoordinatedly, when Billy turned in their direction.

A.A. Catto briskly stood up. She beckoned to Nancy and Reave.

‘I think we’d better go to the bridge and take control of this machine. It would seem you can’t get anywhere leaving things to other people.’

They left the ballroom and started down one of the companionways that traversed the length of the airship’s gondola. As they walked, Billy fell into step beside A.A. Catto.

‘Do you think this is such a good idea?’

‘Is what such a good idea?’

‘Shooting the captain and pushing the ship into the nothings?’

‘You shot the captain.’

Billy looked down at the deck.

‘Yes, I suppose I did.’

‘Damn right you did. You’re as responsible as anyone.’

Billy felt a little sick. Any ideas of morality seemed to be slipping away. He glanced sideways at A.A. Catto.

‘But what about this going into the nothings? I’ve fallen into the nothings with just a porta-pac. It’s no fun. You don’t have any control over where you finish up.’

‘But you finish up somewhere.’

‘Yes.’

‘Well then.’

‘I still don’t like it. We could land in a lot of trouble, and there’s nothing we can do about it.’

‘Do you have a better idea?’

‘No.’

‘Could I be in any more trouble than I was in in Litz?’

Billy shook his head.

‘I suppose not.’

‘Then there’s nothing really to discuss, is there?’

Billy didn’t say anything more. He followed A.A. Catto up the steel steps that led to the bridge. He slid back the steel door and they stepped into the airship’s control room. The front of the bridge was a single sheet of plexiglass. The rest of the walls were covered with various control monitors. Three officers in blue uniforms were grouped round an illuminated chart table. Behind them, staring fixedly through the plexiglass windshield, was a steersman in a white sailor suit. His hands gripped the big polished wheel that controlled the rudder, and beside him were the levers that set the angle of climb or descent. The officers looked up sharply as A.A. Catto and her four companions came through the door. One of them, who from the amount of gold braid on his uniform seemed to be second in command after the captain, moved to head them off.

‘I’m sorry. Clients are not permitted on the bridge. It’s a company rule.’

A.A. Catto smiled.

‘I’m afraid company rules no longer apply. I’ve just had your captain shot.’

The officer stopped dead.

‘You did what?’

A.A. Catto continued to smile at him.

‘I had the captain shot, and I’m taking this ship into the nothings.’

The two other officers joined the first one.

‘That’s impossible. You’ll destroy it.’

A.A. Catto stopped smiling.

‘I tried to explain to your captain. I intend going into the nothings, and no one’s going to stop me. Can you understand?’

She turned to Billy.

‘Show them your gun.’

Billy pulled out his gun again. The three officers took a step back. The first one raised his hand.

‘Don’t shoot.’

Billy continued to point the gun at him. A.A. Catto looked him straight in the eye.

‘Are you going to do what you’re told?’

The officers stood together by the chart table. The senior one licked his lips.

‘I assume you’re taking over the ship by force.’

A.A. Catto clapped her hands together. It was an oddly childish gesture.

‘At last we’re getting through. Now, will you instruct the driver, or whatever he is, to take us into the nothings?’

‘You realize this is an act of piracy?’

A.A. Catto shrugged.

‘Call it what you like, only do it.’

The officer muttered for a moment with his two companions and then turned back to A.A. Catto.

‘I’ve gone on record as registering my strongest protest against your criminal acts. Beyond that I’ll follow your instructions.’

‘Then set a course for the nothings.’

The officer bent over the table and consulted a chart. A.A. Catto waited tensely. Finally he straightened up and looked at the man behind the wheel.

‘Steer one zero seven,’

‘One zero seven, sir.’

‘Steady as she goes.’

‘Aye, sir.’

The first officer looked sourly back at A.A. Catto.

‘Will that be all?’

A.A. Catto thought for a moment.

‘We’ll need porta-pacs when we hit the nothings.’

The officer scowled.

‘They’re in the wall locker.’

He indicated with his hand. Nancy opened the locker. Inside was a rack of small individual stasis generators. She took out four and handed them round. They slung them over their shoulders. There seemed to be nothing else to do until the airship hit the nothings. After all the high drama, the whole thing slipped into an anticlimactic trough. It became very quiet on the bridge. The officers went about their routine tasks, doing their best to ignore the four hijackers. The steersman stared resolutely ahead. Billy began to feel a little foolish as he stood there holding his gun. Finally, A.A. Catto could stand it no longer. She caught the eye of the first officer.

‘Could you get a steward up here?’

He reddened a little.

‘A steward?’

A.A. Catto nodded.

‘That’s right, a steward. My friends and I would like some drinks, and maybe a snack of some kind.’

The first officer began to inflate with indignation.

‘Am I to understand that you want to turn my bridge into some sort of cafeteria?’

‘Yes. Why not? We’re going to wreck it shortly, so I don’t see how a little change in your routine would matter.’

The first officer grabbed a hand mike off the chart table as though he was going to hit A.A. Catto with it, then he checked himself and bellowed into it.

‘Get a steward to the bridge. On the double.’

The drinks, when they came, didn’t really help too much.

A.A. Catto, Billy, Reave and Nancy formed their own four-person cocktail party, which, if anything, made them feel even more self-conscious. The crew of the airship went on pointedly ignoring them.

The presence of A.A. Catto and the others couldn’t be ignored for ever. A thin strip of blue-grey light appeared on the horizon. It looked like a strange cold dawn. In fact, it was the nothings. Gradually it rolled nearer. It was like a growing wall of sparkling cloud. The airship drifted closer and closer. The first officer straightened up and faced A.A. Catto.

‘Are you sure you won’t call off this madness?’

A.A. Catto tapped her fingernails on the porta-pac. She switched it on. The others did the same.

‘There’s no other way. Keep going, or Billy here will shoot you.’

Billy tightened his grip on the gun. His stomach started to knot. He hated the nothings and the things they did to his mind. The steersman turned to the first officer.

‘We’ll hit the nothings any minute, sir.’

The first officer looked as though he was about to panic. He moved towards A.A. Catto.

‘Won’t you let me change course before we’re all disrupted?’

Billy stepped between them and levelled his gun at the first officer’s chest.

‘Hold it right there.’

The officer halted. There were dark patches of sweat under the armpits of his uniform.

‘At least let me issue the crew with porta-pacs and give the order to abandon ship.’

Billy looked at A.A. Catto.

‘It can’t do any harm.’

A.A. Catto thought for a moment.

‘Yes, yes. Give the order, but don’t attempt to alter course.’

The officer swung round to the steersman.

‘Lock on present heading, break out a porta-pac and prepare to abandon ship.’

The steersman saluted and hurried to the locker that held the personal stasis generators. He clipped one to his belt and stood waiting. The officers began to do the same. The first officer picked up the hand mike.