Rogue Command (The Kalahari Series) (57 page)

Richard answered: “Five by five, go ahead!”

“Message from Canaveral Centre – the
Enigma
is accelerating. It’s not clear why.”

“Copied.”

Richard looked across at Yannick. “She’s on to us,” he said, and he rolled the
Ares
– one of the earlier models of the S2 Space Shuttle – into a steep right turn.

Fitted out with an Assault Pod that was all but empty, except for a few items of medical equipment, the
Ares
was unusually light and manoeuvrable. Richard was very familiar with the type and had pushed the edge of the flight envelope once by achieving 120 lutens, but the authorised limit had never been more than 100 lutens and the current limit was 90 – this because most of the fleet was reaching the end of the designed fatigue life. He would need to handle the
Ares
gently and coax every last luten from her if he was to execute his plan successfully
and
avoid EMILY’s ruthless aim.

“Sitrep, British!” said Richard.

“She wants a better look at you, currently over Japan and heading west,” was the reply over the radio.

“Copied.”

As the
Ares
passed 41,000 feet in a rapid climb she punched through the top of the thick, grey and insipid-looking cloud. Above this continuous emulsified layer, which appeared to congeal and cocoon Planet Earth, the brilliance of the sun was merely reflected back into Space. But the light that streamed through the broad, semi-circular windscreen and onto Richard and Yannick was far more welcome. Like an early morning lunar sunrise it filled their artificial microcosm with hope. Richard, however, remained apprehensive. Their southerly course had taken them over Spain, the Straits of Gibraltar and Morocco, and now he would avoid EMILY’s interest by turning right over the Atlantic and maintaining his course towards the southern United States and therefore in the opposite hemisphere. He stabilised the speed at a pre-orbital Mach 12. He would delay a further climb for the time being. He checked the ship’s chronometer; it read 14:24. He prayed that by now Naomi, Asharf, the Professor and the machine were inside the Temple of Osiris – possibly close to the central altar on which was the chalice.

Richard knew that EMILY had a good idea of where he was and that by nature of his evasive manoeuvres he was now a legitimate target. Her over-the-horizon sensors were effective, but not to the extent of precise tracking in an opposing hemisphere. Nonetheless, she could compute his position fairly accurately by measuring disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field, like whales do when looking for a mate. He could only hope that maliciousness and a lust for revenge against humanity would cloud her thoughts in the final moments of releasing the contaminated pod and allow him to position himself. The radio fell silent because he had left the jurisdiction of Euro Control and had entered that of the North Atlantic region. He flipped to a satellite channel and caught the end of a transmission from Canaveral that called for him to check-in. Yannick’s finger hesitated over the transmit button. Richard shook his head. “No more transmissions,” he said. “It could compromise us.”

Unusually, Richard had decided that he and Yannick should wear their helmets, because in the event of an explosive decompression there would be no time to don them, and if the ship was still flyable it might save their lives. And anyway, in the bright sunlight their visors came in very useful.

“How long do we wait, sir?”

“This is Canaveral Centre transmitting blind. Opposition passing sixty per cent elliopheric – we think this is it – this time over the East Coast. We think November Yankee airspace. I say again . . . this time!”

Richard looked at Yannick with a stern expression. “In order for EMILY to release a Type Four pod and be sure that it does not burn up or even overheat during re-entry, she will need to release it at fifty-eight per cent elliopheric precisely. Then she will cover it’s trajectory with her laser weapon until it reaches a suitable level. To disperse incubated micro-organisms most effectively in the current weather conditions the Federation has calculated an opening altitude of seven thousand feet – EMILY will have correlated the same meteorological information and made the same calculation. With the winds as they are at the moment, the East Coast of America is looking most likely – you heard them – they think it will be in New York’s Eastern Atlantic region.”

Yannick shook his head at the thought of such genocide. “The pod will be in free-fall,” he said. “Do you know the parameters? I mean, how do we . . . ?”

Richard raised his hand to quell Yannick’s anxiety. “It’s a very steep trajectory, I know that. There is a pressure switch and a mechanism that will operate to open the pod at the selected altitude. By the time that happens, it will be over the East Coast. Then the prevailing easterlies will blow the contamination over the remainder of the States. From there, and within a week, the Pacific basin will become infected, and then Asia and then Europe. Within a month everybody is dead from flu or bubonic plague or similar.”

Yannick turned pale. “Is anything moving against her?”

Richard shook his head. “Deltas have no chance against her. We went too far with this machine, Yannick, and that’s the truth of the matter. I can only hope that the Lunar Senate, having already suffered at the hands of these systems, will ban all systems above Level Six.”

“So we are . . .”

“Earth’s last hope . . . you got it . . . just you and me against the mighty
Enigma
.”

“And you have this plan using the Egyptian pyramids?” Yannick didn’t look hopeful.

“The
Great
Pyramid to be precise. Now listen carefully. I’ve entered the precise coordinates of the pyramid into our navigation computer and, using our stellar database, I’ve also plotted a back course from the star Sirius B in the Canis Major constellation.” Richard pointed at the navigation screen. “You see that line emanating from the pyramid’s position?”

Yannick nodded.

“If you extend it, it goes directly to the star.”

Yannick sat up straight. “I’ve got it! You want the
Enigma
to fly through that position.” He paused thoughtfully. “Why? What’s going to happen to her?”

“Nothing! Not unless she is there at precisely the right time – and even then I’m not sure if anything will come of it.”

“But!”

“I’m banking on a communication signal, Yannick. A plasma wave powerful enough to travel over eight light years – don’t ask me why.”

“At the time you mentioned to your friend . . . fourteen-thirty!”

Richard nodded and checked the chronometer. Yannick’s eyes were drawn there, too. The radio crackled.

“This is Canaveral. Be advised, opposition over Tenerife, passing fifty-nine per cent elliopheric. Listen out on coded frequency Theta Four Two Six.”

Richard checked his own position. They were close to the mid-Atlantic and heading towards Bermuda. He looked at Yannick and smiled faintly. “She’s coming in fast; soon she will have line of sight and fire at us. Now . . . change the frequency as instructed.”

Yannick nodded. “Why are we changing the coded frequency again, sir? I don’t . . .”

Richard quickly advanced the thrust levers that controlled the S2’s two rocket motors and the ship began to accelerate. He checked his instruments as he spoke. “EMILY is an immensely powerful computer. When she was completed around five years ago she was the most powerful terrestrial system ever built. She will be running millions of frequency permutations every second trying to decode our messages. We can’t leave anything to chance – Canaveral knows that, too. Check your harness and hold on!” With that, Richard rolled ninety degrees to the left and pulled into a hard turn. Yannick groaned at the unexpected g-force.

When Richard was pointing east, back towards the
Enigma
, he rolled his wings level and began climbing. Within seconds a woman’s voice shouted an alarm: “Danger! Danger! Long-range contact! Collision course! Collision Course!”

“Yannick . . . deselect that damned warning system and give me
Enigma
’s range!”

Yannick pressed a button and then checked the sensor array. “Two thousand miles and closing
really
fast!”

Instantly, Richard reversed his manoeuvre and dived, and no sooner had the ship responded when a brilliant red beam of light scorched past the windscreen. “What’s the time?” Richard called.

“Fourteen twenty-eight . . . and ten seconds . . . eleven!”

“Got to keep out of her sight for another minute!” Richard screamed.

Richard began a series of high-energy evasive manoeuvres – he threw the ship to the left and then to the right. He started a sudden climb and then rolled inverted and pulled through into a steep dive. Now pencil-thin laser beams rained down on them. He jammed the thrust levers against their stops and the
Ares
shuddered with the increased power.

“Yannick! Quickly! Give me a heading to the ‘star line’!”

Heavy vibration permeated the ship as Richard rolled into another evasive manoeuvre. Yannick found it difficult to read the screen. “You need to head west!” he answered. “Two nine zero degrees.”

Both men hung in their straps momentarily as Richard pulled the ship inverted again and then pushed the nose to offload the g-force. “How far?”

“Er . . . two hundred miles!”

EMILY’s aim was being refined with each laser-burst, and despite a growing frustration with the pathetic craft she would have her day soon. She maintained fifty-eight per cent elliopheric precisely and headed a little north of west.

“You are approaching latitude north zero four zero, longitude east zero four five,” said Canaveral’s controller over the new coded channel.

Richard knew that Canaveral and the Federation were watching his struggle by satellite link and he also knew that the position he had just heard over the radio was the boundary between Santa Maria Oceanic Control and New York Oceanic Control.
Enigma
’s course was taking her directly towards the release point. He had only seconds remaining. He watched his Mach meter transition from Mach 15 in a near vertical climb to 43 lutens as he entered a suborbital regime and then, as he passed fifty-two per cent elliopheric, he pushed the nose down and dived towards the star line again.

“Eighty miles!” Yannick screamed.

“Say the time!” Richard shouted in response.

And then, just as EMILY’s laser initiator had acquired the S2’s trajectory, Richard instinctively rolled into a dummy turn; first left and then almost instantaneously a snap-roll to the right. A blinding volley of energy flashed across the sky. The beams were so close to the
Ares
that they illuminated her cockpit as if the sun itself was bursting through. The first volley narrowly missed, but a beam from the second caught their left wingtip and an explosion rocked the ship that snatched the control stick from Richard’s hand. Richard fought to recover from the ensuing spin and the
Ares
plummeted.

Inside the Temple of Osiris – simultaneous

The robot stood motionless on the raised stone plinth close to the altar stone. Professor Mubarakar and Asharf were nearby and gazed wide-eyed as Madame Vallogia opened the square panel on the back of the machine. Then she made ready with the pair of tongs that Richard had left in his helmet box in Mubarakar’s house. Completely shielded inside the thick granite walls of the Great Pyramid, the crystal had a milky-white hue that appeared absorbent and lifeless. Carefully she picked it from its recess within the mechanism of the robot and withdrew it through an aperture. Extraction complete, she turned slowly towards the carved stone chalice.

Mubarakar had his pocket watch in his hand and he became fixated on its face as the seconds ticked by. He swayed from one leg to the other, barely able to contain his nerves. “Ten seconds!” he said, without looking up.

Asharf had his hands clasped over his nose and mouth. There was an air of high tension. “Careful, Madame,” he uttered, as if suffering excruciating pain, but his words were muffled between his fingers.

Holding the crystal in the tongs and a few centimetres above the inscribed tabletop, Naomi made to drop the crystal into the chalice, which was plainly shaped and approximately ten centimetres in diameter and fifteen high. But over the rim her grip loosened and the crystal fell. It bounced onto the stone and rolled. She gasped. Asharf covered his eyes, but the crystal stopped just short of the edge. Quickly she picked it up again.

“It is time!” said Mubarakar.

Naomi concentrated with a fixed stare as she repeated the task. This time she was careful to lift it over the rim and she placed it down gently inside the chalice.

Almost immediately the crystal responded by changing to a luminescent white. A look of surprise descended over Naomi’s face and she could not help but take a step backwards. Then the crystal began to glow from within and then to pulsate. Quickly Naomi turned and, putting her arms up to collect both Professor Mubarakar and Asharf in her sweep across the plinth, they all scurried clear. They did not stop until they were more than twenty metres away and by that time the vast edifice of the interior was bathed in brilliant light.

Above the North Atlantic – simultaneous

With expert handling, Richard had recovered from the spin but thick black smoke now streamed from the outer section of the left-hand wing. Yannick gave another course correction and Richard, with full throttle and fiery exhaust plumes, threw caution aside in order to achieve the star line. Closing on the position, Richard glanced at the chronometer on the instrument panel. It read: 14:30:02. He was late. His face was flushed within the confines of his helmet and he was sweating. His heart sank, but he held a steady course.

EMILY finally achieved her aim of isolating the coded frequency. “Now I have you!” she called over the radio, her synthetic voice vindictive in triumph. In the low orbit, she flew in the wake of the
Ares
and followed its smoky trail for a few seconds, positioning for an easy kill.