Chung Kuo - The Marriage Of The Living Dark Part 64

"Nor I until five minutes back."

"You got a picture of this guy?"

DeVore nodded. "Come over to my craft I'll brief you as we fly back in." "And I'll brief you," the newcomer said, putting his arm about his twin's shoulders. "There's something you ought to know about yourself. Something rather important."

Joseph sat on the bed beside the naked body of his other self and wept He had not dreamed - had not even guessed - what he would find in the apartment, nor had Karr thought to warn him.

To find he had two brothers, and to find them dead, horribly murdered in this way. It was too much.

He looked up, wiping away his tears, and saw the sympathy in Karr's face. "You say there was a gateway, here in the room?"

"Yes."

"So where is it?"

Karr shrugged, then, remembering something, blinked. "It went before ... Jelka said so."

"Jelka?"

"Your wife . .." Then, realising that Joseph was looking at him blankly, looked down. "Kim's wife. She's back on Kalevala." "Kalevala?" "Their estate. On Ganymede."

Joseph stared at him, men huffed out a sigh. "I think you'd better start at the beginning, Gregor. Ganymede? The Ganymede thaf s Saturn's moon?" "Yes," Karr said, "only right now if s halfway to Eridani..." Joseph gave a short laugh, then looked back at Kim. Frowning, he took the edge of the sheet and wrapped it over the corpse. "I wish I'd known him." "He was a lovely man," Kao Chen said, his own eyes misted. "A real giant" Joseph met Chen's eyes, and saw that he meant nothing ironical by the comment. He nodded, acknowledging what was said, then stood. He looked about him, as if in a dream, then looked back at Karr.

"You know nothing about the gateway?"

Karr shook his head. "Only Kim and K. knew how it worked. The equations were ... well, difficult to say the least" "Hmmm." Joseph seemed to sniff the air, then frowned. "Why would it shut off?" "Pardon?" Karr said.

"The gateway. If it powered itself ... why did it shut down?"

"I don't know. Maybe someone switched it off."

"Jelka?"

Karr shook his head. "No. She wouldn't know how."

"Then who?"

Joseph turned, then walked through to where they had laid out K.'s corpse. His clothes lay nearby where DeVore had thrown them. Bending down, Joseph went through the pockets, then looked up, smiling.

"There! Look, Karr. This has to be it!"

It looked like a marble. A simple piece of coloured gla.s.s. But inside the tiny transparent sphere was a tiny flaming snake - a snake that was swallowing its tale.

Looking at it, Karr shuddered. It was the key!

Joseph stared at it a moment, as if to try to fathom how it worked. And then he laughed and, holding it in his hand, gently squeezed it From the other room came a cry of surprise. "If s back!" Chen yelled, poking his head round the door. "The gateway's back!"

Joseph looked to Karr. "Will you go first, Gregor?"

"To break the news?"

Joseph nodded, but he saw how much the thought of it troubled Karr. The giant stood there a moment, staring at the p.r.o.ne figure on the floor, and then he nodded. "Alright," he said, an anger in his eyes as he looked up. "But then we come back here, okay? We come back and finish the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!"

The morphs clearly considered him no threat. And why should they? They had seen the damage to his head. And so Daniel found himself alone in the operating theatre, the faint vibration of the constantly revolving ship the only sound. Slowly he sat up, wincing, the pounding in his head threatening momentarily to black him out He closed his eyes and counted. By forty he was okay again. Opening his eyes he carefully looked about him, making the tiniest movements of his head, careful not to set it off again.

He had to bandage it up somehow. To hold himself together long enough to do what he had to do. There was surgical tape on the trolley nearby, and a scalpel. He slowly swung his legs around, then stood. The pounding returned. Again he closed his eyes. Only thirty this time and the giddiness went, but the back of his head felt as if it was about to fall out through the gap in his skull. Okay. One thing at a time. First he'd tape his head together. He tore strips from the roll of plaster and, gingerly - almost as if he was doing it to someone else, it felt so strange - he formed a tight web of tape about the back of his cranium.

There! That should do.

He turned slowly. Now he needed something to kill the pain. Because there would almost certainly be pain, and he wanted to feel nothing. Daniel limped across to the dispensary, each step a small agony.'Grimacing, he reached up and, slipping the catch, pulled the cupboard door open. Pills. Endless pills. But which ones?

He saw a name he recognised and took the packet down, staring at the label. s.h.i.t! They were injection only. He looked about, then saw an injector-gun on the second shelf. He took it down and loaded it with four of the capsules, then held the nozzle to his arm, pulling the trigger twice. Relief was immediate: a flood of warmth and rea.s.surance. He slipped the injector into his pocket. Two was enough for now. He'd save the others for a top-up if he needed it Daniel turned, resting his back against the cupboards. If what he'd heard was right, there were less than two dozen morphs on board. The very last of DeVore's once glorious forty thousand. That meant they'd be stretched thin. And that meant that they would be keeping their prisoners in as few places as possible, to make it easier to guard them.

If they'd kept that many prisoners ...

Not the bridge. And not here. Which left only a few other possibilities. One was the recreation hall at the very centre of the craft, and that wasn't likely while they were in orbit, because it would be difficult to mind prisoners in a nil-gravity situation.

It was more likely that they had them in the cargo holds. There was room enough and more down there.

But would they have kept Emily and the others with them? He decided not DeVore would want his prize prisoners kept apart Not only so that they could be specially looked after, but also to break down the morale of the rest of the contingent Daniel limped across and took the scalpel from the trolley, then, after wrapping it in a cloth, slipped it into his pocket He crouched, drawing the cloth back and looking on the shelf underneath.

"Kuan Yin!"

There was a gun! He remembered now. Emily had put it there. And there it had sat all this while, hidden beneath the hanging cloth. Daniel reached in and took it out, studying it. It felt like it was loaded. He checked. Yes, there were a full fifteen rounds in the cartridge. Enough to do what he had to do. Enough to give him an advantage.

He straightened up, then stood a moment, mentally preparing himself. One chance.

He had one chance to get this right. And not just for himself. For all of them.

Cameras...

He glanced up. The camera over the door was on, transmitting an image of the room. If anyone was watching, they'd have seen him get up. They would have seen him take the scalpel and the gun.

No time, he thought, knowing that if they had, they'd be on their way right now. He walked over to the door. It was locked, but there was an override. He flicked open the panel, exposing the touchpad and punched in the first half of the code. 1.4.AJLL. The top line went green. His fingers tapped out the second half of the code. A.L.L.4.1.

Hannah's idea. And thank the G.o.ds for it

The corridor was empty. It curved away out of sight The ship was on emergency lighting, so only one in three of the wall-mounted lamps was lit It gave the corridor a mottled look with patches of brightness and shadow, spokes on a giant wheel.

He stepped out and to the left The drugs he'd injected were doing their job, holding him together, but he felt strange, like a sleepwalker. That wasn't good. He needed to be sharper than this.

Daniel stopped and reached up to touch the back of his head, his fingers tracing the bandages. They were wet Blood was seeping through and trickling down his back.

s.h.i.t! He should have frozen it somehow. But it was too late now. There was a feeder corridor just ahead of him. It led straight down through the crew quarters and into the bridge itself. If they were anywhere, they'd be there, because that was where the shuttle bay was. And if DeVore had any use for them, that's where he'd want to keep them.

As he came to the branch, Daniel stopped, hearing noises. The heavy clunk of boots against a metal runged ladder. In the strange topography of the ship it was hard to know exactly where the noises were coming from. Up and down were almost arbitrary notions in s.p.a.ce. And sound carried in strange ways inside a ship. Especially in these circ.u.mstances.

There was the faint murmur of voices, low and deep.

Cautiously he peeped around the corner, looking "down" as if into a well. Two morphs stood at the bottom of that well, their backs to him, the helmets of their suits pressed dose. They were huge, almost twice the height of a normal man, and built accordingly.

It would be easy to shoot the pair of them. Easy, yes, but stupid, because it would lose him the only advantage he had. Surprise. Okay. So flunk. What are you going to do?

He moved back, then studied the walls surrounding the opening. There were various hatches, but he hadn't a clue where any of them led. There were airducts throughout the ship, but he wasn't even sure whether any of them were big enough to crawl along.

Nor did he know whether his strength would hold out He was drawing on reserves as it was.

The voices murmured again, then, unexpectedly, he heard the sound of boots on rungs again, only this time he knew exactly where they were. The feeder corridor. One of the morphs was climbing the well, coming directly towards him. He took out the scalpel and unwrapped it, then stood back, waiting. As the morph's head poked through the entrance, he stepped out and, putting one hand over its mouth, dragged the scalpel across its throat, digging deep. The creature's eyes widened with shock. It made a m.u.f.fled noise, one hand whipping out to grip Daniel's shoulder, but, abandoning the scalpel, Daniel formed his free hand into a fist and jabbed at the morph's nose, putting every ounce of his strength behind the blow.

The morph's hand loosened and fell away. As it slumped forward, Daniel twisted to the side, ensuring that it didn't fall on him and trap him there. Blood gouted from the wound at its throat It gurgled, one hand trembling as it reached out to grasp Daniel's foot, then it lay still. Daniel stared at it, his back pressed to the wall, the blood pounding at the back of his head once more. It didn't hurt, but he could feel the wetness dribbling down his nape and knew that he had opened up the wound again. He gave a little shudder, then, stepping carefully over the fallen morph, looked down the well. It was empty. The other morph had gone. He swung out onto the ladder, then climbed down, expecting at any moment to be discovered; for the morph above to start yelling, or for an alarm of some kind to go off. But nothing. Only the pounding in his head and the wetness, the slow draining of his life-force.

At the foot of the tunnel he stopped, getting his breath. He felt exhausted. Only pure will power was keeping him on his feet From here on he would have to trust to luck Yes, and to Emily's gun, for the scalpel was buried deep in the creature's neck He closed his eyes a moment, fighting the giddiness that threatened to overwhelm him, then flicked them open again. Directly ahead of him were the crew quarters, six cabins in all, arranged three to each side of the long corridor, and beyond them, through a secondary airlock, the bridge itself. Daniel began to walk, slowly, limping he was so tired, his left hand supporting him against the wall, his right hand holding the gun. He was sweating now. And his eyes kept blurring over. Malfunctioning, he thought, almost amused by the realisation. I'm f.u.c.king malfunctioning, like some broken machine.

He stopped, leaning heavily against the wall, then lowered his head. It felt like he was going to be sick. The drugs ...

What if I made a mistake? What if they're the wrong drugs? Daniel looked up, his eyes slowly coming back into focus. And as they did a morph stepped from the doorway not ten feet in front of him and turned. He shot it through the head - a single neat shot in the centre of the forehead.

It dropped like a cut marionette.

But the noise of the shot reverberated on and on in that narrow s.p.a.ce: like an alarm going off throughout the ship.

Trembling now, he staggered over to the open doorway and looked inside. Four figures lay on couches on the far side of the room, bound hand and feet, their mouths firmly gagged; Han Ch'in, Kuei Jen, Hannah and, to the far left, Emily. As he stepped into the room he saw their eyes widen with surprise.

He could hear shouting now and running feet.

The room seemed suddenly ma.s.sive, more a hallway than a cabin. His head swam briefly, then cleared again.

Another shot. Give yourself another shot.

Throwing the gun down, he pulled out the injector and held it to his arm, giving himself both of the remaining shots.

For a moment he stood there, half doubled-up, then slowly, very slowly, his head cleared again.

Daniel looked across the cabin. Emily was staring at him, his eyes imploring him to do something.

He staggered across, then turned, looking about him for something to cut their bonds.

"s.h.i.t!"

They'd be here any moment He heard the ventilation duct that led from the airlock begin to hiss, which meant they were coming through from the bridge area.

He went back and, crouching down, picked up the gun again. There was nothing for it. He would have to shoot the bonds off them.

Returning to Emily's side, he placed the mouth of the barrel tight against the bonds that secured her wrists. The explosion would burn her, certainly, but that couldn't be helped.He twisted the gun around, so that it pointed straight out through the open doorway - the last thing he wanted was to have a bullet ricocheting about the cabin - and pulled the trigger. This time the detonation threw him back. He fell, going down awkwardly, the back of his head smacking against the side of one of the couches as he went down. And then blackness.

Joseph sat in Kim's chair, reading K's journals and notebooks at a speed that Karr, looking on, found disconcerting.

Jelka had taken the news badly. Kao Chen, concerned for her, had had w.a.n.g Ti come to Kalevala to comfort her. The two woman were upstairs even now, locked in a room together, grieving.

The gate between the worlds had been closed temporarily, but only after they had brought the bodies back from the Paradigm World. The two of them now lay in makeshift coffins on the desk in Kim's study, an honour-guard of Osu minding them. In time they would be buried, but first there was the little matter of DeVore to deal with.

"Well..." Joseph said, closing the last of the journals and looking up. "This is an eye-opener."

"So what do you suggest?" Karr said, looking to Ebert and Kao Chen who stood close by. "Are the craft ready?"

"I believe so. Kim and K. had been working on adapting them. Jelka would know."

Joseph nodded thoughtfully. "I would rather we did not disturb Jelka right now.

Where are the craft?"

Bcuro, who came into the room at that moment, answered him. "They're outside. On the surface." He stared at Joseph a moment, as if surprised to see Kim so enlarged and "normal", then, looking down, embarra.s.sed by the way he'd stared, said. "And yes, they're ready."

"Then we have only to decide who will go through," Joseph said, his eyes studying Dcuro. "Gregor ... you say each craft will take three, correct?" "And sufficient weaponry."

Joseph met kbit's eyes. "You really think this is something that can be resolved by such means?"

Karr nodded. "If we kill them if s over. For good." Ebert for once agreed. "Karr's right DeVore's the source. Whatever's twisted emanates from him. I, for one, would welcome another crack at him." "And I!" Karr and Kao Chen said at once, then laughed.

"And you, Bcuro?"

Dcuro nodded.

"Then thaf s five of us ..."

"Six," Jelka said, stepping into the room.

Joseph stood. All turned to face her.

"But Jelka ..." Karr began

She turned on him. "You would deny me my revenge?"