Manifestations (14 page)

‘Can you stay for dinner?’ Ben asked.

‘Can’t. I’m meant to meet with Cayla and watch the Parabowl.’

‘You should stay. We can watch the game and Freya left me to do the cooking.’

Desh was about to say something, but stopped as he felt Ben tip and tap on the back of his hand. Tiptiptip tap tiptap taptiptaptap: S T A Y.

‘How can I say no to one of your stews?’ Desh replied.

W H A T I S W R O N G?

T I M E T O G O.

Desh nodded. ‘Yep, I think we just need to flush the system and reboot. I reckon she’ll be back in the air for tomorrow.’

‘Great. Thanks for coming over tonight. I didn’t know you had plans.’

‘No worries, my man. What are friends for?’

~ * ~

‘Five hundred metres ... four hundred and fifty metres ...’ Lieutenant Campsey read out the measurements as their probe approached firing range. Under moonlight, Kronos was quieter, its skin undulating like a water bed with just a few slow arms swaying around, looking for more material to absorb.

‘No reaction,’ Pinter murmured. The beast hadn’t noticed them yet. They still didn’t know how it detected proximity so they were doing everything they could to keep vibrations and electrical activity to a minimum.

In darkness, the caterpillar probe rolled closer. It was an all-terrain vehicle. Six bucky-wheels on flexible struts. It moved slowly now, but had the ability to reach speeds of two hundred kilometres, if called for.

Three hundred metres ... two hundred ...

‘Hold position. It’s moving.’ A black swell pushed towards the probe, extending and thinning into a feeler. ‘Back it off, slowly.’ The probe reversed while the black tentacle continued to reach out towards it.

‘We can’t fire at this range,’ Campsey pointed out the obvious. It was a talent of his he seemed very proud of.

‘Just wait for it to miss and then sneak closer,’ the Colonel answered patiently. As predicted the black tentacle swept in an arc, crossing the area where the caterpillar had been and then swinging back. ‘See? It reaches out, searches and when it finds nothing it will pull itself back in.’

‘What if we tried distracting it?’ Quintan suggested.

‘Good idea. Campsey, make some noise to the south.’

‘How do you suggest I do that, sir?’

‘Send in two of the earth movers. Tell the operators to be rough. Slam the ground with the scoops, that sort of thing.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Very quickly, two of the giant earth movers that had been used to dig the trenches started forward across the wasteland, engines growling and wheels churning the ground beneath them. As they got closer, Kronos began to stir with the telltale swell of a new tentacle.

‘Make them zigzag, try to give our little guy as much time as we can.’

The caterpillar began moving forward again. ‘One hundred metres ... fifty metres ... thirty metres.’

The movers couldn’t move fast and it was only a matter of time before they were hit and both their signals and their bodies were consumed in black. Kronos reached for the movers, three large tendrils curling out to lash at them. ‘At least drive them into the ditch, there’s no point ceding more territory to the beast.’

‘Twenty metres.’

‘Fire as soon as we are in range.’

‘Ten metres.’

‘Sir ...’ Quintan said. The beast was swelling in front of the probe.

‘Send in more movers. One to the north, one to the south. We just need a little more time.’

Two more of the large heavy vehicles rattled forward and Kronos made arms to reach out to them. The caterpillar went slower than ever.

‘Five metres ... two metres ... we are in range, sir.’

‘As soon as the hook hits, start reversing. Have the drones begin their approach,’ the Colonel ordered.

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Fire.’

With a kthunk of pneumatics the cannon fired a harpoon across the ravine and landed without a splash into the dark syrup of Kronos. It immediately began creeping along the line.

‘Pull it out.’ The caterpillar went into fast reverse, dragging the harpoon back, trying to pull it out of the black mass. It didn’t get far before jerking to a halt.

‘It’s stopped, Colonel.’ The probe’s wheels were spinning, but it couldn’t fight Kronos’s hold. Their opticals zoomed in, showing the ooze climbing forward.

‘Fly the drones in and cut the wire here.’ He tapped a targeting pin onto the harpoon line, just at the point where Kronos was thinnest.

A squadron of ten drones swooped over the target in a file, lasers firing as they passed. The wire snapped and the caterpillar lurched backward. Kronos bubbled. Where it had been cut, tendrils sprouted and swung around to find the cause, but the drones were already gone.

‘Full speed reverse,’ the Colonel said. He looked over at Quintan. ‘Did we get it?’ he asked. Headlights flashed on from the probe, focusing on the cut line of the harpoon. There at the end was an arm’s length of gooey black that throbbed, consuming the line like a snake slowly swallowing something larger than its mouth.

‘We got it.’

The Colonel breathed out. ‘Now for phase two.’

~ * ~

Phase two involved dividing the Kronos sample and testing different containment protocols to see what was effective. A kilometre away from the main mass, the probe dropped the line and retreated, leaving a length of ten metres that was slowly being consumed by the black treacle. Around this a deep empty moat was quickly excavated.

Drones flew over the black snake, cutting the wire in several places and then looping back with hooks to drag the pieces far enough apart so they couldn’t rejoin. The stuff was like honey, every surface it touched became sticky with the black ooze. The hooks had to be jettisoned, giving them a sum total of twenty samples.

‘Colonel,’ Quintan said quietly.

‘Spit it out, Crozier.’

‘Look at this.’ The airman flicked a set of images to the Colonel’s stream, from over the ditch where the line had been cut. There were small puddles of black where bits of Kronos had splashed. Now with more delicate tentacles the mass reached out and touched at them. Like a finger dabbing at crumbs, collecting them.

‘Hurry up with those cages, Lieutenant.’

‘Yes, sir,’ Campsey answered.

‘Quintan, prepare phase three. We might want another distraction.’

‘Sir ...’

‘I know you have reservations.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘We can talk about your reservations later. Now, nobody go any closer until we know those cages are working. If nothing has changed by this time tomorrow, we can let the boffins have them.’ The Colonel looked from Crozier to Campsey and then lightly smacked the arms of his seat. ‘A job well done. I guess I shall make my report.’

~ * ~

‘Greetings, Prime.’

‘Greetings, Colonel Pinter. The sample capture went well, I see.’ Ryu’s immaculate face appeared in his overlay.

‘Phase one is complete, separating a sample from the main body. Now we have to see if any of the cages we’ve made can hold it.’

‘I have no doubt our scientists will prevail.’

‘In light of Geof Ozenbach’s information, we are reconfiguring the team.’

‘Yes.’ The Prime nodded. He had already heard the news from elsewhere. If not for his ravenous eyes, one could be forgiven for thinking him disinterested. ‘And how are you feeling, Colonel?’

‘Quite well, thank you. Why do you ask?’

‘I have a report in my queue from a Lieutenant Campsey, who thinks you are indulging in behaviour unsuitable to your position, Services and the current crisis.’

‘Yes, he is a snivelling whatsit. One of Zim’s as I understand it,’ the Colonel replied.

‘Be that as it may, it doesn’t help to have this come to me. I need the world to know you are taking this situation seriously.’

‘Of course I am. How can you question it?’

‘Are you really bringing a live-in companion to stay with you on the base?’

‘I am. I don’t believe there is a rule against it.’

‘Not a rule, no,’ Ryu said. ‘And you have accepted the Ellizabeth Betts invitation?’

‘You are keeping tabs on me, aren’t you. I had no reason not to accept the invitation. Kronos is in the hands of the scientists now. What is wrong, Prime? Is there something else?’

‘Nothing,’ the Prime answered. ‘I’m only sorry I won’t be able to make it. I rarely risk leaving my rooms now.’

‘That was a terrible business.’ Pinter really wasn’t sure where Ryu was going with this thread and spoke carefully.

‘You knew Tamsin Grey for a time. How strong do you gauge her resolve?’

‘I wouldn’t say I knew her just because I was an intermediary in the hunt, but ...’ Pinter hesitated. ‘I’m sorry, I’m from a generation that only spoke confidences to those whom we had actually met.’

‘I understand. I appreciate your circumspection. Perhaps we should meet for a closed session?’ the Prime suggested.

‘I think we should,’ the Colonel agreed. ‘Trust is a very elusive state.’

‘The way I see it, there are two kinds of trust: trusting someone’s intentions and trusting someone’s abilities. I’m running short in both areas.’

‘Then let us arrange it immediately.’

Ryu’s face pinched in thought, then he nodded. ‘I shall have my secretary make the arrangements.’

~ * ~

Airman Crozier flew the Colonel all the way to Den Haag and walked him to one of the many arches that led into the Adjudicators Ministry. Pinter went through the protocols that protected the inside from listening and surveillance. What went on in the ministry was private. His symbiot was made passive, his body scanned for other implants. He swapped his clothes for a prepared set and then walked briskly through the ring of silence to the sanctum. The Prime waited for him inside.

‘Does this place bring back memories, Colonel?’ Ryu asked.

‘It wasn’t quite as grand in my day.’ No. During the wars, when he’d first come here, it was just a small church with a bunker underneath. Now it had been expanded to include five tiers of benches that could hold the full Primacy of a hundred. Built of blue stone and marble, the reflected sound was absorbed by wall panels of acoustic prisms.

‘You forget, Colonel Pinter, that it is your day again.’

‘Yes, you are right.’

‘Should I be concerned about your mental acuity? I have read some disturbing reports about rejuvenation.’

‘I admit that I am finding it hard to adjust, but I think that is more about returning to the routine of Services life.’

The Prime sighed deeply and sat down in the front row of the forum. He rubbed at his face in weariness as the Colonel took a seat near him and they half-turned to face each other.

‘Colonel, I find myself suddenly alone in the world. My family has been compromised and I am beset with problems. I am not sleeping well.’

‘I can imagine.’ Pinter wasn’t sure how best to play this meeting. Confronting, challenging or consoling. The young man had agreed to meet, he must have a need. But what kind of man was he? He was too cold, too tied up in himself to ever become personal. ‘It is an odd position for the Prime to find himself in. By definition you are the most influential person in the WU. Perhaps I should be worrying about you.’

‘Never mind all that. The problems of the Prime are the problems of the world. Problems which all of a sudden seem to be increasing. It wouldn’t surprise me if Pierre Jnr was responsible for them all,’ Ryu said.

The Colonel leant back. ‘That is quite a suggestion.’

‘First Pierre Jnr, then the rebellion, now Kronos,’ Ryu answered. ‘Could this really be just coincidence?’

‘I think you could be applying a false pattern to the situation,’ the Colonel said.

‘The psis are obviously led by Pierre Jnr and it is plausible that he caused the release of this Kronos.’

‘I can concede that it is possible, but please don’t let your suspicions create evidence from nothing.’

‘What would you have me do? Colonel Abercrombie Pinter — history’s greatest living commander. What would the Scorpion do?’

‘I have never been fond of that name.’

‘What would you do about the psis? What is your position?’

‘I believe they are people whose abilities make us question the foundations of our society. But, then again, suppression is only ever a stalling tactic.’

‘But the Will is strongly opposed to lowering the restrictions. Would you have me go against the Will?’

‘The people are afraid. Fear is a powerful motivator. Is the Will telling you that you must destroy their fear or meet it? The Will is often more emotion than clear instruction. As Prime you determine the Command.’

‘What would you have me do?’

‘The Cape is a big area. An olive branch may be your best weapon.’

‘An interesting approach. That still leaves the black mass.’

‘It hasn’t advanced any further.’