The Deadly Sky (11 page)

“Why don’t you discuss your profile with one of the drells on the mountain?” she said to me. She didn’t especially like me, I could tell, but neither did she dislike me, so I went into my spiel about bow I couldn’t relate to people made of glass.

“Me, either,” she said when I was done. “They give me cold chills. Between you and me, I don’t expect to ever, execute their dumb crossover. Cloak and dagger enterprises aren’t for me. Neither are axes and guillotines.”

I nodded to show that I at least didn’t disagree with her. There were no customers in the place, which meant that she could give me all her attention..

“Mr. Suttler hides most of the profiles in the computer. Mr. Falloway showed me how to find them.”

She consulted a machine and pretty soon she had a sheet of paper bearing my invisible statistics.

“It looks ordinary to me, but then they all do,” she said. “I’ll stick this in the analyzer and see what I come up with.”

I watched while she fit the sheet behind a glass panel covered with lines. An indicator painted little dots over it.

“You have a couple of unusuals,” she said at last. “High inquisitiveness, a flair of invention, really good health.”

I waited. “That’s it?”

“Except for a lot of variables. They’re only maybes.”

“What are some of them?”

“Riding jinga, psi potential that all normal people have, defensiveness, leadership, decisiveness, things like that.”

I tried not to scowl. “If you tossed them all in a bowl which one would float?”

“What do you mean?”

“Can you grade them or evaluate them in degrees?”

She fit the sheet in the machine again. In a minute she took it out. “The strongest potential is . . . how odd! Unbalanced, I should say. Your score for inventiveness is topped only by your drive to stay alive.”

“What does that mean?”

“Your defense mechanisms. Of course you don’t really have them at this level. Nobody does. But if you did, no one could hurt you.”

“Why not?”

Regarding me somewhat pityingly, she said, “Any danger to you would trigger your defense mechanisms even before it was imminent. Don’t worry about it. It’s a potential everyone has. It certainly can’t hurt you.”

Unless someone tried very hard. “But my score is high?”

“Highest I’ve ever seen.”

“That’s the only unusual thing about my profile?”

“I’d say so. Of course you were chosen for Timbrini because you can ride jinga, not for anything else. It means you probably have enough psi to execute the crossover, which it turns out that you have. These items are all characteristics that will be scattered throughout your progeny. We actually have the potential to be omnipotent but nobody ever is. It’s like a final destiny for the species and we individuals are working toward it.”

“Thanks. I appreciate your help.”

“That’s okay. I’ll see you later up on Devil Mountain.”

I thought the name was appropriate as I worked my way out of the city to the prairie. It didn’t take me long to attract a jinga near enough to grab it. Perhaps I was tuning into their wavelength or it could have been that they were merely growing accustomed to me.

There was no one in the wooden complex who seemed interested in my welfare, other than the drells, but I had no wish to talk to them so I locked myself away in a room that had a solid door. As soon as Sargoth learned that I was back, he parked himself beyond the keyhole and tried to get me to come out. I had transferred my few personal belongings from my old room, which meant that I could remain here as long as I pleased without having to go out for something.

Sargoth finally went away and sent Jolanne in his stead. I wouldn’t open to her but at least we did have a few words.

I stood with my face against the cold panel and thought of warm, pulsing glass.

“I came back through the crack,” I said in a muffled voice.

“But that’s marvelous! Mills had no idea you could levitate!”

“Whatever you call it. But he ought to know because he drugged me and brought me up here one night. Just as I was coming out of it I raised up and floated through the crack. I didn’t see anything but darkness.”

“I know about that night, but Mills wasn’t aware that you levitated.”

“How do you know?” I said with bitterness.

“He would have told us. We don’t keep secrets up here. We can’t afford it.”

“Did you ever consider that he might lie?”

“He doesn’t do that except to you. I’m sorry. He has to. There’s no other way.”

“One last thing,” I said. “The levitating bit won’t do you any good. I can’t control it. I can’t do it at will. I don’t know anything about it.”

“Not to worry. About that or anything.”

They were all gone when I came out, all the people and the drells. The corridors rang hollowly as I walked and searched. Leece, Conray, the dozens of recruits, the staff, the glass people were not there.

Wondering if Sargoth would be treacherous enough to spray a hallucinogenic gas about, I took time to assure myself that I wasn’t imagining my solitude.

I had no more illusions about the drells. For a very long time they had sacrificed life, limb and sanity while the alien weapon remained impregnable. Now they were offered an alternative in the form of yours truly, who had inherited some odd traits from his ancestors. Introduce me into trouble and I somehow worked my way out of it. I had silent alarm bells that went off in my head when danger threatened. Try to throw something deadly my way and I chose that particular moment to lean over to tie my shoe. Dump me onto a metal platform with nothing beneath it but a sea of acid and I fell into a swoon and floated to safety like a balloon.

It all sounded fine and the problem of the weapon ought to have been solved posthaste by such a person, but there was one major flaw in the plan. I was a cluck who remained mostly unaware of any special talents. I hadn’t gone unscathed through life, though now that I thought about it, nothing severe had ever happened to me; no broken bones, except for the finger on Sargoth’s glass hide. But I was young then and perhaps my talents had been undeveloped, or maybe I just lost my temper and hit him.

I wanted to hit him now, or I could have settled for a little conversation, anything besides this hollow, empty silence that lay everywhere like an extra hit of atmosphere. There was no one left. Sargoth/Mills Suttler had ordered everyone down the mountain. No more need they offer anything to the weapon now that they had me. One was more expendable than several, in almost any game.

I walked in my soft shoes, not calling out anymore, trying every room and closet to see if anything lived in the heights of Timbrini besides myself.

As it turned out I needn’t have worried. Grena, Hallistair and Shiri sat on a couch in the last building waiting for me.

Grena got up to greet me, Hallistair sat watching to see if I was going to attack him, Shiri sniffled because he had said something unkind to her. Around and around his forefinger he wound the string to which was attached the innocuous object, some kind of whistle or favor or something.

“Don’t ask me what happened to everybody,” Grena said to me.

“Why not?”

“I have no idea. Really, it’s very odd. I had to go through every building in the place before I found Shiri and then we hunted until we found Hallistair. I was taking a nap.”

“They left everything behind,” I said. “All their gear, all the food and other equipment. They all went outside, got themselves jinga and flew away.”

“But why?” said Shiri.

“An experiment.” I watched Hallistair, who didn’t bat an eye.

“What kind?”

I didn’t answer. Going over to the monitoring machine, I looked back at Grena. “Want to track me while I go in?”

“Do you think that’s wise?”

“I don’t know.”

“Shouldn’t you wait until the drells come back?”

“I don’t think they will until we do something; make some moves.”

I executed the crossover and even managed to create a blue line forty feet long before I was surrounded by cold red fog. Having already anticipated something of the sort, I was prepared to climb. Tensing, I leaped straight up where there was no fog, grabbed another girder and hauled myself up. Back toward the crossover I walked slowly and alertly. As soon as the blades were in position to cut off my way I dropped down onto the first girder. A saw ripped behind me as I hurriedly stepped forward. Another tried to take my right arm but I hugged the metal beam on my left. A series of saws began eating up the space behind me. Almost running at full tilt, I jumped out of the weapon altogether and entered the warped space of the crossover.

“That was the best I’ve ever seen!” said Shiri as I came into the machine room.

“I agree!” said Grena.

I looked about. “Where’s Hallistair?”

Shiri answered. “He didn’t want to watch. He said something about a walk.”

“A good idea. Why should we stay up here alone? Let’s catch some jinga and go down.”

Grena shook her head. “We can’t. There aren’t any out there.”

I didn’t believe it. “The jinga? That’s impossible.” I had to go outside to see for myself. What she had said was true. For the first time ever the sky was absent of birds. Grena had accompanied me and now I turned to her. “How did they do it?”

“Saturated another part of the mountain with special feed, I imagine. But there’s no telling about the drells.”

“You know, don’t you, that they don’t care what happens to me?”

“I’m sure you’re wrong.”

“Let me put it another way. They’re counting on me to stick my head in a noose so I’ll do something unpredictable.”

She shook my hand. “Then you must be extra careful.”

We sat in the niche in the rocks and enjoyed a few stray bits of sun. In a way I was disgusted with myself for having gone into the weapon earlier. It seemed a needless hazard but at least I had learned something. Sargoth had lied when he said he intended blowing it up. If that was true, where was he now when I was certain I could get all the way through to the control panel? More significantly, why hadn’t he taught me how to use explosives? I didn’t know beans about them.

“Mills Suttler is a liar,” I said to Grena.

“He knows what he’s after.”

“It isn’t fair!”

“Of course it isn’t, unless you consider the fact that there’s a small chance of our pulling it off and repelling the invasion. Then a few dozen or a few hundred lives make it seem reasonable.”

Confessing exhaustion, she went in to take a nap, and I did the same, confined myself in my room, after which I fell into a sodden, leaden sleep.

When I awakened I was cold. My mind worked like a snail so that I couldn’t feel revived. I set to thinking about Hallistair and how he probably approved of my sloppy, careless attitude. This way he could set traps for me with some expectation of success.

With a sigh, I threw back the coverlet. Thinking of my short, handsome enemy had done the trick. I was alert now and felt like eating. Going into the bathroom, I washed my face. Coming back out, I decided not to exit from the room by the door. The idea simply didn’t appeal to me.

The sky was overcast again as I poked my leg out the window, and by the time I was halfway up the side of the building it had begun to rain. Once upon the roof, I crossed to the other side, scaled the wall and dropped into the room directly across from my own.

Fortunately the hallway was a wide one. I saw the alien as soon as I opened the door. Again, fortunately, it hadn’t a keen sense of hearing so that I was able to sneak behind it and escape downy the corridor. As I ran I was thinking that I might have been mistaken. Had it been an ordinary shadow back there or had it been a dark, cold, skulking creature watching my door and waiting for it to open?

Hallistair was in the cafeteria with the women. Waiting until he came out to go about his business, I crept up behind him, put a hand over his mouth and dragged him outside. Dumping him on the ground beside the edge of the abyss, I fitted a rope around his waist.

Glaring at me with his soul filled with the usual venom, he spat at my feet. “Stupid clod! She’ll go back with me when they pull us. There’s nothing can stop it. It’s all automatic.”

“Never mind that. What about the cute little two-dimensional horror you parked outside my door?”

His lip curled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You’d better decide that you do.” I picked him up and threw him over the side. He screamed until he came up short at the end of the rope some fifteen feet down. “No more lies,” I called to him. “Tell me what that thing is.”

“I don’t know!” He yelled, shrieking anew as I dropped him fifteen more feet.

“What is it?” Bringing him up, I dropped him again. “This rope isn’t too strong,” I said. “Better talk.”

“I’ll kill you!” he howled. “Before Grena and I are pulled to the other side I’ll kill you!”

I would have played with him like a yo-yo until he spilled everything, but Shiri came running out to see what was happening. When she spotted her boyfriend bouncing over the edge like a fish out of water she bellowed and made me haul him out.

Sitting on the ground and holding him in her arms, she looked up at me with disgust and rage. “Shame on you! Just because you’re so big and he’s so little!”

He didn’t like hearing that a bit, twisted in her grasp, glanced at me before deciding to remain where he was.

“He hasn’t done anything to you!” said Shiri.

What could I tell her? That he was a weasel and an alien who wanted nothing better than to do away with me?

“He’s not what you think he is,” I said.

“Neither is anyone.”

“He doesn’t love you.”

That made her flinch. “Go away. You’re crude and a troublemaker. Let him alone.”

The shadowy alien was waiting for me when I went inside. I was walking past one of the rooms when it sailed over my head like a puff of black smoke. Before I took off running I felt a touch of it on my face. Immediately I learned something about it. It was made of coldness and frigidity. What it wanted to do was clasp me in a close embrace and steal my air. If I allowed it to get near enough it would suffocate me.

It seemed to have only me on its mind because when we passed a room in which Grena sat reading it didn’t hesitate but continued straight after me. It was a blob of blackness that appeared to have no depth and no features.

At least it wasn’t all that speedy and I managed to get through an exit before it could swoop upon me. Then I learned something else. It didn’t like wide open spaces but preferred to be indoors. It failed to come after me but hovered by the door waiting for me to come to it.

I ran along, the side of the building as if I intended going into one of the other structures. For a while I could see it keeping pace with me through the open windows. Then it was lost to my view behind blank partitions. At once I changed direction and ran all the way to the end of the building. Climbing in a window, I made certain the hallway was clear and then crept to an equipment room off the crossover tunnel. There I hunted until I found a weapon.

In case it didn’t work, I neglected to stray too far from doors leading outside but walked slowly up the corridor. Eventually the thing located me. I don’t know if it was lured by my individual vibrations or some other signals but it came underneath a far door like a shadowy doormat that assumed an upright position. It was in the shape of a filmy cloud that swept toward me at a sedate pace. It wasn’t excited or intrepid or anything human but it wanted my air and intended to have it.

When it was ten feet away I gave it a straight shot with the flamethrower, not a widespread burst, since I didn’t want to set the walls on fire.

It wasn’t good enough. The fiery bolt went directly through it. I could see the hole it made, scored and seared, somewhat gray and ashy around the edges. Manipulating the controls on my weapon, I sprayed with fine flame much as I would have sprayed with a hose.

That was better. The thin spray seemed to suit the makeup of the alien, or at least I looked at it that way. The black shape appeared to catch fire all at once, slowly and delicately. It shrieked and sailed upward like a shred of paper billowing in the wind. Quickly it was consumed until there was only a little cloud of dust remaining. Bit by bit it fell to the floor or was blown along the corridor.

Grena flicked some of it off her sleeve as she came through to see what I was doing.

“That looks like a wicked kind of thing. What are you up to?”

“Just filling in my time.”

“Come and have some dessert.”

First I returned the weapon to its rightful place and then I accompanied her to the cafeteria. Bits of the dead alien blew here and there.

“Do you think it will end?” said Grena.

“Soon, yes.”

“Will it be all right?”

“Better than we thought in the beginning. You’ve been up here too long. The strain is deadly. You could use a long rest.”

She took my arm. “I’ve held up. And I’ll hold up in the future. It’s like a job one can’t quit. It has to be seen all the way to the end, no matter how bitter.”

I put my arm around her. “I wish you hadn’t cut your hair. When this is all over will you grow it again?”

We had dinner and watched a film and all the time I kept an eagle eye out for Hallistair who seemed not to mind Shiri’s company overly much ever since she rescued him from me.

It was late when I went to bed. The corridor was dark and abandoned like the rest of the complex. Checking behind me to make certain I wasn’t being watched, I entered the room adjacent to mine and double-locked the door. After making sure that there were no slithering, crawling, billowing things waiting to assault me, I climbed in bed and went to sleep.

In the morning I was cautious about getting up. It had always been a condition of mine that I slept like a dead man, no doubt a consequence of all that subconscious mental activity Sargoth assumed I had. Feeling as untalented and unendowed as I had ever felt in my life, I got out of bed and looked through the window. Either it was a decidedly dark day or there was something stretched across the pane.

Silently I moved to the door, unbolted it and sneaked a peak. A shred of filmy webbing blew up in front of my face, but it wasn’t thick or dense enough to cut off my view of the intricate fabric that had been fashioned from one side of the corridor to another. In the center of the lacework hung a blue spider with a bulb eighteen inches across.

Back to the window I went to see if a similar gross creature squatted in the web out there. It was difficult to detect but by flattening my cheek against the thin vorite I managed to make out a sinister protrusion that might have been a foot.

The pane was already up a few inches. Through the vent I tossed a piece of bread that fell short of the web’s edge. Immediately there was much vibrating and then before I knew it the blue creature was hanging out from his support to try and get a look at me with a pair of beady black eyes.