The Quest of the DNA Cowboys

‘I can’t leave him out there.’

Billy pushed Reave hard into his seat.

‘There’s nothing you can do. He’s dead.’

‘But we can’t leave him out there. Those goddamn creatures will eat him.’

‘You can’t go out and get him. You’ll be killed yourself.’

Reave slumped in his seat, and covered his face with his hands.

‘Okay, okay, I know it. I know it. Why did we ever get involved in this? Curse this fucking, absurd war.’

Billy dropped into the driver’s seat, and threw the machine into gear.

‘Get into the turret, Reave. Get yourself together. The Rainman’s dead, and we’ve got to get out of here.’

Reave climbed slowly into the turret, and Billy started the machine rolling. The other two machines were also on the move, cutting into the Harodin lines with their turrets spitting bolts and belching fire. Billy swung away from them, and turned sharp right. He pushed the machine as fast as it would go, running parallel to the trenches, between the attackers and the defenders. Bullets hammered against the armour and the fighting machine bucked and skidded as shells exploded nearby. Reave yelled at Billy in alarm.

‘You gone crazy? You’ll get us killed. Where the fuck do you think you’re going?’

Billy clung grimly to the steering gear as a near miss rocked the machine.

‘I’m getting us out of this. Away from this insanity.’

‘But where are you heading?’

‘I don’t know. I’m just getting away.’

‘If you keep running along in no man’s land we’re just going to get ourselves blown up.’

‘All right, all right.’

Billy swung the machine to the left and plunged across the trenches, crushing Shirik under the spiked wheels. Soon they were running towards the rear. Confused Uruks gesticulated at them as they cut through supply columns and rolled across dugouts. The battle zone seemed to go on and on but after thirty minutes they left the last shell hole and excavation behind. They were in the bare, open desert. Billy brought the machine to a halt.

‘We made it. We got out of their war.’

‘It’s too bad the Rainman didn’t make it.’

‘Yeah. It’s too bad.’

‘Where do we go from here?’

Billy slid down in his seat.

‘Who knows? Just keep on going until we hit something. We’ve never known where we’ve been going before. Something’ll turn up.’

There was a long silence. Each of them was absorbed in his own thoughts. The quiet of the desert was strangely deafening after the roar of battle. The occasional rumble of distant gunfire was the only reminder that it still existed. After a while, Reave took a deep breath.

‘Billy?’

‘Yeah.’

‘You got any idea what you’re looking for?’

‘Not really. No more than I had back in Pleasant Gap. I just know there’s something, and I’m going to keep looking for it. One thing’s for sure, we can’t go back.’

Reave nodded.

‘That’s true enough.’

Billy glanced up at him.

‘You regretting this whole thing? You wishing you were back in Pleasant Gap?’

Reave shook his head.

‘No. I don’t regret nothing. I’ll go along with anything. It’s just …’

‘It’s just what?’

‘It’s just that I don’t have your faith that there’s something out there waiting for us.’

Billy laughed.

‘Shit man, I don’t have no faith. I didn’t leave Pleasant Gap to find no divine destiny. The only thing to look forward to in Pleasant Gap was growing old and ending up like old Eli.’

Reave grinned despite himself.

‘That’s true enough. There doesn’t seem to be anything to do except go on.’

Billy started the engine again and dropped the machine into gear, and they moved forward across the desert. Billy halted the machine again and looked up at Reave.

‘Want to drive for a spell?’

Reave climbed down from the turret.

‘Sure.’

He took Billy’s place behind the controls. Billy slid into the standby seat and the machine moved forward again. They rolled across the desert for another few hours. Billy had dropped into a half sleep when the engine coughed and died. Reave fiddled with the controls. Billy sat up and leaned over his shoulder.

‘What’s the trouble?’

Reave banged the speed control backwards and forwards.

‘It just died on me. One minute it was going, and the next it wasn’t.’

‘Move over. Let’s take a look at it.’

Billy squeezed past Reave and studied the controls. He flicked at a couple of switches and moved some of the levers.

‘Sure looks like it’s dead.’

Reave nodded.

‘Just faded out on me. What do we do now?’

‘Foot it, I guess.’

‘You mean just trek off into the desert?’

‘I don’t like this any more than you do, but we can’t stay here.’

Reave took a last kick at the controls, and then opened the door.

‘I don’t need walking across this fucking desert.’

‘I don’t see any way round it.’

Reave jumped down into the dust, and looked back up at Billy.

‘What are we going to take with us?’

‘I’ll see what we’ve got and pass it down to you.’

Billy stripped everything he could out of the fighting machine and passed it out to Reave. When there was nothing left he joined Reave and looked at the stuff laid out on the ground, Reave squatted down on his heels.

‘We ain’t going to be able to hump this lot on our backs. We’ll have to leave most of it behind.’

Billy looked at the mass of stuff, and scratched his head.

‘We’ll just have to take essentials.’

Reave picked up the steel water container and shook it.

‘Ain’t too much water left.’

‘Pour it out into the small bottles and dump the can.’

Reave transferred the water to two canteens and he and Billy slung one each over their shoulders.

‘We’ll need the porta-pacs.’

They clipped them on their belts.

‘And food.’

‘It’s a pity we left our bags back in the bunker.’

‘We’ll just have to stash as much as we can in our pockets, and eat what’s left.’

They sat in the shade of the machine and chewed their way through the surplus of flat, tasteless ration bars. When they’d finished Billy took a mouthful of water and stood up.

‘Might as well get moving. There’s no use hanging round here.’

He hitched up his gun belt, and started walking slowly away from the machine in the direction it had been going when it stopped. Reave clambered to his feet and reluctantly followed him.

It got hotter and hotter. Billy took off his dark glasses and wiped the sweat out of his eyes. There was nothing in sight but sand and thorn bushes under a steel-coloured sky, no sign of a track or habitation. He waited for Reave to catch up, and then started walking again. The heat got worse and then, at last, the sky began to dim, and it grew dark. Billy and Reave slept huddled together on the hard ground. The nights were as cold as the days were hot. They walked on through the second day. They didn’t speak to each other. They didn’t even think. Life shut down until it consisted of nothing more than putting one foot in front of the other. Billy kept his eyes carefully fixed on the ground. He found if he stared at the horizon he began to hallucinate.

He stopped and wearily pulled the top from his canteen. He put it to his lips, and nothing happened. He tilted it further. Still nothing. The canteen was empty. He turned and waited for Reave.

‘I’m out of water.’

Reave held his canteen to his ear and shook it.

‘I don’t have more than a mouthful left.’

‘We’re in trouble.’

Reave looked around.

‘There ain’t nothing we can do about it except keep on walking, and hope we find something.’

They kept on walking. Their lips dried and cracked. Their tongues became rough and parched. They began to feel sick and dizzy. Billy’s feet seemed a long way away. Then his legs gave way and he crumpled to the ground. Reave stumbled to where he lay.

‘Come on, man. Try to keep going. Only a bit further. We got to find water soon.’

‘I can’t. I’ve got to have water. I’m burning up.’ ‘Come on, Billy. Try and make it.’

‘It’s no good, man. You’ll have to go on without me.’

Reave hauled Billy to his feet, and supported him while they staggered on for another hundred yards. Then they both collapsed and fell to the sand. Billy rolled over on to his back.

‘We’ve had it, Reave. This goddamn desert goes on for ever. We’ve had it.’

Reave looked up, and for a long while he stared at the horizon.

‘I don’t believe it!’

Billy looked blankly at the sky.

‘It’s true, man. We’ve had it.’

‘No, no. Look!’

It’s no good, man. If you stare at anything too long, you start to hallucinate.’

‘This isn’t a hallucination. I can see it! I can really see it!’

Billy rolled on to his side.

‘It’s a mirage.’

‘It’s not, Billy. There’s trees and water. I can see them.’

Billy painfully raised his head.

‘Holy shit! You’re right. I can see it too.’

Stumbling and crawling, they made their way towards the oasis. Billy expected it to disappear at any moment, but, as they fought their way forward, it remained and came closer. They were in the shade of tall spreading palms. On their knees they reached the edge of the pool of clear water. They stooped to drink. Then a voice came from behind them.

‘Hold it right there!’

***

‘Cease upward motion.

‘Turn fifty seven degrees’

‘Object.’

‘Object responds as solid body.’

‘Probe.’

‘Probe non-responding. Nature of body concealed.’

‘Assume protective formation.’

She/They shimmered and slowly closed in on Her/Their self. She/They took on the protective spherical form, but once again the sphere was discoloured and dented on one side. In every form Her/Their injuries had their effect.

‘Move forward and observe.’

‘Caution.’

‘Caution is maintained.’

She/They moved towards the object that was concealed in the blue mist. She/They halted some distance from the object.

‘Probe again. High density.’

A round spot on the side of the sphere glowed yellow, and a thin pencil of light cut through the blue mist.

‘Partial response on probe.’

‘Organically arranged mineral construction.’

‘Structure familiar.’

She/They moved a little closer and probed again. This time, the result of the probe struck a trigger response in Her/Their consciousness.

‘Alarm. Object conforms to data on disruption modules.’

‘Object does not conform to normal mass or dimension information stored from previous encounters.’

‘Object has ceased to move.’

‘Assumption that object is small dormant disruptor.’

‘No record of such phenomenon.’

‘Lack of information does not preclude its existence’

‘Hypothesis. Small dormant disruption module will re-awaken if probing continues.’

‘Assumption that object is dead disruption module.’

‘Insufficient data.’

‘Data may be gathered by probing.’

‘Probing could activate.’

‘Close and probe. Increase caution level.’

She/They, still in Her/Their spherical form, closed with the object. It was now visible through the blue mist. She/They probed again.

‘Object remains dormant.’

It was definitely a disrupter, although it was much smaller than any that She/They had previously encountered. Its body, instead of the usual smooth, gleaming, metalflake skin, was a dull black, and its surface was cracked and pitted.

‘Assumption is that the disruption module has been subjected to damage, energy drain or burnout.’

‘Assumption would warrant further probe.’

She/They probed again. The disrupter showed no signs of awakening.

‘Indication of external tampering.’

‘Indication of non-functional human interference.’

Along the side of the disrupter, in crude white letters, was the word WILBUR.

***

‘Hold it!’

Billy looked up in dull surprise.

‘Huh?’

A huge albino stood behind them. He had large incongruous breasts, small pink eyes, and straight white hair that fell to his shoulders.

‘What are you two doing, making free with my water?’

‘Your water?’

‘Sure it’s my water. Who told you that you could go drinking it?’

Billy looked at him in disbelief. His voice was a dry croak.

‘We’re dying of thirst. We just came across the goddamn desert.’

‘I can’t help that. There ain’t too many people come this way, I’ll admit, but all the ones that do want water. If more folks started coming here I’d have no water left at all.’

Billy pushed himself up on to his knees, and pulled out his gun.

‘Listen. I don’t know who you are, or what you do here, but we’ve got to have water and nobody’s going to stop us.’

The albino held up his hands.

‘There’s no call to take it like that. I wasn’t saying you couldn’t have no water. I just like to be asked first. Good manners don’t cost nothing.’

Billy sighed and dropped the gun back into its holster.

‘Could we please have some water?’

The albino beamed.

‘Sure, fellas. Help yourselves, take all you want.’

Billy and Reave drank deeply and splashed water over their heads and necks. When they had finally finished they turned and faced their host.

‘We’re much obliged to you, mister. We were just about dying.’

‘Think nothing of it, boys. I’m always glad to oblige. By the way, what do people call you?’

‘I’m Billy, and he’s Reave.’

‘Billy and Reave, hey. Pleased to make your acquaintance. I’m called Burt the Medicine.’

‘Hi.’

‘Maybe you’d like to come over to the shack and take the weight off your feet.’

‘Sure.’

Billy and Reave followed Burt the Medicine towards a log shack under the palms. There were a table and some canvas chairs in front of the ramshackle building. They were shaded by a multi-coloured beach umbrella. Burt the Medicine waved a limp hand.

‘Sit yourselves down, boys. Make yourselves at home.’

Billy and Reave flopped into two of the chairs, and Burt the Medicine took another.

‘What brings you way out here?’

‘We were getting away from the war.’

‘The war, hey. It’s still going on?’

‘It’s still going on.’

‘You wouldn’t believe the way they could drag it out.’

‘When we ran, it looked like it would go on for ever.’

‘It’s amazing what some folks will do for amusement.’

Reave scowled.

‘We didn’t find it too amusing.’

Burt the Medicine smiled.

‘You done well to get out then.’

Billy and Reave both nodded, and the conversation flagged in the way it does between people v/ho have only just met. The albino pulled a deck of tattered cards from somewhere inside his robe.

‘Fancy a game of Loser Take Nothing?’

Billy shook his head,

‘ ‘Fraid we don’t play, and besides, we don’t have any money.’

Burt the Medicine put the cards away.

‘That’s too bad. I don’t get too much company out here. In fact, I ain’t had a good game since the last time Quinn was here.’

‘Quinn?’

Burt the Medicine looked surprised.

‘You don’t know Quinn? I thought everyone knew Quinn.’

‘I don’t recall ever meeting anyone called Quinn.’

‘If you’d met him, you’d remember. When Quinn gets here, everybody jumps for joy.’

‘Maybe we should meet him.’

‘You ought to. Where are you fellas planning to go from here?’

Billy shrugged.

‘No idea, we’ll just travel on until we come to something.’

Burt the Medicine looked surprised.

‘You’re weird.’

‘Maybe.’

‘Still, it takes all kinds.’

He struck himself on the forehead.

‘Here I am, chattering on, and you’re probably starving.’

Billy and Reave both nodded.

‘We are kind of hungry.’

The albino stood up.

‘I’ll see what I can do. There should be something in on the stuff beam.’

‘You’ve got stuff beams out here?’

Burt the Medicine put a hand on his hip and pouted.

‘Well of course. This isn’t the outback.’

‘We didn’t mean that. It was just that they didn’t have any stuff receivers in Dur Shanzag.’

‘Well, they wouldn’t, would they?’

Billy looked confused.

‘No, I suppose not.’

The albino disappeared inside the shack, and returned with a laden tray.

‘Here you go, boys. It’s all cold, I’m afraid. I got a bit wary of hot stuff down the beam. The war zone, you know, it sets up some kind of interference. A roast chicken went wrong one time, and that’s how I grew these tits.’

Billy and Reave looked suspiciously at the food, but Burt the Medicine waved aside their fears.

‘Eat up, fellas. I guarantee nothing won’t happen to you.’

Billy took a speculative mouthful.

‘Tastes all right.’

‘ ‘Course it does.’

They began to eat. Reave looked questioningly at Burt the Medicine.

‘Must have been quite a shock, growing those tits and all.’

The albino finished chewing.

‘It came as a kind of a surprise at first, I can tell you, but I soon got used to it. After a while I quite got to like it.’

He jiggled one of his breasts.

‘I mean, I never was the sort of guy who had much truck with women, so it didn’t make that much difference, if you know what I mean.’

They went on with the meal. They had just started on a dish of ice-cream and stuff beam strawberries when a high-pitched buzz started away in the distance. It grew louder and nearer. Burt the Medicine leaped to his feet.

‘Fuck the bastards. It’s another one. You two better get down on the ground.’

After their experiences in battle, Billy and Reave didn’t ask any questions. They dived from their chairs and hit the dust. A small red propeller-driven airplane with multiple wings was coming straight at the oasis, almost at ground level. It sprayed a burst of machine-gun fire at the shack, and pealed off, circling for another run.

Burt the Medicine leaped to his feet and ran to the edge of the trees. He whipped the cover off a pair of tripod-mounted, twin field lasers and swung them towards the plane as it came in for a second low-level attack.

Twin pencils of white light sprang from the lasers as the albino pressed the triggers. They sliced neatly through one of the sets of wings, and the plane rolled over. It dropped like a stone, hit the ground and exploded, scattering pieces of wreckage across the sand. Burt the Medicine replaced the cover on the laser and came back dusting off his robe.

‘Well, that takes care of another one.’

Billy and Reave got up off the ground.

‘What in hell was that?’

‘Quin-plane auto-pirate.’

‘What?’

‘It’s some little gizmo they dreamed up over in Dur Shanzag a while back. Automatic killers. They let ‘em loose and ever since, they’ve been buzzing round looking for live targets. I’ve taken out maybe a dozen so far. The control system ain’t too smart, so they’re quite easy to deal with.’

He sat back down at the table.

‘Guess we might as well finish our meal. I really hate being interrupted while I’m eating.’

They finished their dessert, and then the albino produced Turkish coffee and a bottle of Stuff Central’s best cognac. The sky was already starting to dim, and by the time the bottle was drunk it was quite dark. The albino stood up and yawned.

‘I could sit here talking with you boys all night, but it’s past my bedtime. You two look like you could use some sleep.’

Billy and Reave both nodded. The brandy had wiped out what little was left of their energy. The albino cleared away the remains of the meal, and started to rig up a hammock between two of the palm trees.

‘There’s room for one of you to sleep in the shack, and the other can sleep in this here hammock. It’s plenty warm enough on account of how it zips up like a sleeping bag.’

He demonstrated. Billy and Reave looked at each other.

‘Who’s going to take the hammock?’

‘We could flip a coin for it if we had a coin to flip.’

Billy shrugged.

‘I’ll take the hammock, I could sleep anywhere.’

‘If you’re sure you don’t mind.’

Billy tested his weight on it.

‘No, I don’t mind.’

Billy took off his jacket, boots and gun belt.

‘You can take these into the house with you. I’d hate to lose them in the night.’ .

‘Sure. Goodnight.’

Reave took Billy’s things and followed Burt the Medicine into the shack. Billy zipped himself into the hammock, and within minutes was asleep.

It was light again when Billy woke up. He felt better than he had at any time since leaving Pleasant Gap. Even the memory of the Shirik had diminished to a dull nightmare. He pulled down the zip on the hammock and swung his feet to the ground. Neither Reave nor Burt the Medicine seemed to be up and about yet. He walked over to the pool and had a leisurely wash.

Feeling clean and refreshed, Billy looked round for some sign of life, but nobody had yet emerged from the shack, so he walked to the partly open doorway in his bare feet.

The interior of Burt the Medicine’s shack had none of the makeshift appearance of the outside. Although it was only one room, the floor was carpeted and the walls were hung with tapestries and finely wrought brasswork. Light filtered in through Venetian blinds over the windows. It revealed that the room was crowded with ornate furniture and objets d’art.

At one end of the room was a huge bed made of dark, carved wood. Billy moved quietly towards the bed. To his surprise he found, naked under the covers, Reave and Burt the Medicine curled up together in each other’s arms. They were sound asleep.

Billy backed quietly away from the bed, grinning to himself. He’d never thought that Reave was that sexually adventurous. His boots, belt and jacket were lying on a chair, so he picked them up and tiptoed out of the shack.

He sat by the pool for nearly an hour before anybody emerged. The albino was the first to appear. He wore a white brocade robe and oddly dainty silver sandals. He came over to where Billy was sitting.

‘Breakfast?’

‘Yes please.’

‘Be ready in a few minutes.’

‘Great.’

Burt the Medicine strolled back to the shack. A while later Reave appeared. He walked over and joined Billy. He looked a little sheepish.

‘You got your stuff out of the shack, then?’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘I guess I must have been asleep at the time.’

Billy tried hard to keep a straight face.

‘That’s right.’

‘In bed with Burt?’

‘Yeah, as far as I could see.’

‘I … uh … was pretty drunk last night.’

‘Yeah?’

‘I … er.’

Billy laughed.

‘Don’t worry about it, man. I don’t care who you ball.’

‘But I …’

‘It doesn’t matter, Reave. We ain’t in Pleasant Gap now. There aren’t any rules any more.’

‘I guess not.’

‘So stop looking so fucking guilty. Did you have a good time?’

‘He was pretty weird.’

‘Yeah. He’s coming back, so leave it for now.’

The albino set a tray down on the table. There was chilled melon, sliced ham, croissants and a pitcher of cold milk. He grinned at them.

‘Breakfast, boys.’

For the next half hour they ate and made small talk, and then, while Burt the Medicine was clearing away the meal, Reave looked at Billy.

‘What do we do now?’

‘I guess we should move on sooner or later.’

‘On foot? Back into the desert?’

‘Maybe we should talk to Burt the Medicine about it.’

‘Talk to Burt the Medicine about it.’

He had returned from the shack. Billy glanced up at him.

‘We were talking about moving on.’

‘Moving on? You only just got here. What’s the matter, don’t you like it here?’

He looked sideways at Reave.

‘Bored already?’

Reave coloured.

‘No, no. It’s just that …’

He quickly borrowed a phrase from the Rainman.

‘… We’re travelling men.’

Burt the Medicine stared out into the distance.

‘Travelling men.’

His voice was wistful.

‘A lot of travelling men used to come through here before the war started.’

He switched his attention back to the present.

‘What do you want to do then?’

Billy spread his hands.

‘That’s the trouble, we don’t really know. I suppose this desert doesn’t go on for ever.’

‘No, but it goes on for quite a way. I suppose you want to go on to the river?’

‘The river?’

‘That’s the only place to go, except back to the war.’

‘What happens on the river?’

Burt the Medicine grinned.

‘Just about everything you could think of. You’d best head for Port Judas. From there you can take a river boat all the way down past Dropville, Arthurburg and right through to the nothings.’

‘How far is it? How long will it take us to get there?’

The albino shrugged.

‘Depends how you go.’

‘I guess we’ll be going the same way we came.’

‘You came on foot.’

‘That’s what I mean.’

‘It takes a week to reach Port Judas on foot. You’d probably die before you got there.’

Billy frowned.

‘Then we’re in trouble.’

The albino smiled.

‘Not really. I’m sure I can fix something. I’ll see what I can jive up on the stuff beam after we’ve eaten lunch.’

Billy grinned.

‘Sure do a lot of eating round here.’

Burt the Medicine shot Reave another sidelong glance.

‘That’s true.’

He stood up, and bustled back to the shack. Billy and Reave continued to sit at the table. Burt the Medicine came back with a bottle of Campari, a soda syphon and a dish of ice. He put them down on the table.

‘This’ll keep you two amused until lunch. I’ve got a few chores to do.’

He disappeared inside the shack again. Billy and Reave drank Campari and soda until the albino appeared with yet another meal. When they’d finished, Burt the Medicine took a deep breath, as though he was about to make an announcement.

‘I’ve been looking through the Stuff catalogue. There’s a nifty little two-seat buggy. I think I could get it for you without them wanting to push up my quota. That’s if you’ve really got to go.’

‘We’ve got to move on, I’m afraid.’

Burt the Medicine stood up.

‘I’ll go and dial up the buggy for you. It’ll take me a while to set up the large cage. If you just wait here, I’ll bring it round to you.’

He went round to the back of the shack, and after a few minutes there was an intense flash of static and then the low hum of a flux motor. Burt the Medicine swung round the outside of the shack in a small two-seat pink buggy with huge white balloon tyres. He halted it just outside the line of trees. Billy and Reave hurried over to join him. He climbed out and patted the fibreglass body.

‘There you go, boys. That should get you to Port Judas inside of two days.’

Reave scratched his head.

‘I don’t know how we can ever pay you back for this.’

The albino laughed.

‘Don’t bother about it. Stuff Central are always getting on to me about how I ought to consume more. It’s like you’re helping me out.’

Billy and Reave came over adolescent tongue-tied.

‘Well thanks.’

They threw their few belongings into the buggy, and Burt the Medicine once again disappeared inside the shack. He returned moments later carrying a wicker basket.

‘I just packed up some food for your trip.’

Billy was about to make a crack about grandmother’s house, but decided it would be unkind.

‘Thanks.’

‘Be sure and stop by here again.’

‘We will.’

Reave set the buggy in motion, and they pulled away from the oasis. Their last glimpse of Burt the Medicine was as he stood waving, a solitary white figure between the palm trees.

***

At ten forty-five sharp, exactly three quarters of an hour after the meeting had started, A.A. and Valdo Catto entered the boardroom. It was a grand entrance. A.A. Catto had made sure of that. Both she and her brother were dressed in white. He wore a uniform modelled on ancient film of the legendary hero Hermann Goering, while she had on what she liked to refer to as her vestal virgin outfit.

The five families of the hereditary directorate were all present in the circular, domed room. The Cattos, the Glicks, the Meltzers, the Mudstraps and the Ferics, each sitting in their own wedge-shaped section of the hall. The most senior of the families sat at the front, after which the seating was allocated, rank behind rank, in succeeding generations.

The young of Con-Lee were noticeable by their absence, and the oldsters mumbled together about irrelevant problems of fiscal logistics. On a rotating podium in the centre of the hall great-great-grandfather Dino, the senior Mudstrap, was taking his turn at chairing a meeting. Valdo and A.A. Catto took their seats with the maximum of noise and fuss.

When they were able to prolong the disturbance of their arrival no longer, the meeting resumed, and Bull Feric got to his feet and, in a long rambling dissertation, presented an esoteric motion for the restructuring of the Exec level grading system. After the first twenty minutes, Valdo nudged A.A. Catto.

‘Remember our agreement.’

A.A. Catto waved him away.

‘I know, I know. We haven’t even started yet.’

Bull Feric continued for another half hour and then abruptly sat down. Dino Mudstrap called a vote. A.A. Catto, who had understood nothing of the argument, looked at the yes and no buttons on the arm of her chair. Quite at random she pressed the no button. Dino Mudstrap studied the results as they were relayed to his podium, and announced the motion carried. A.A. Catto felt mildly pleased that she had instinctively disagreed with the majority of the oldsters.

Dino Mudstrap was swivelling his podium looking for the next motion. A.A. Catto jumped to her feet.

‘Mister Chairman.’

The podium came to a halt.

‘The Chair recognizes … ah …’

Dino Mudstrap consulted his seating plan.

‘… Miss A.A. Catto.’

A.A. Catto took a deep breath.

‘I propose the motion that the L-4 dwellings, and all the stasis territory beyond the perimeter walls of the citadel, be declared insanitary and firestormed forthwith.’

Dino Mudstrap’s bushy eyebrows shot up.

‘Firestormed, Miss Catto? For what reason?’

‘For no particular reason except that the destruction of the L-4s would provide an excellent diversion. It would be fun.’

‘Fun, Miss Catto?’

‘Fun, Mister Chairman.’

Dino Mudstrap stroked his bald head.

‘I see.’

He paused, and peered round the meeting.

‘Does anyone second this … ah … unusual motion?’

Valdo was on his feet.

‘I do, Mister Chairman.’

Again he consulted his seating plan.

‘The motion is seconded by Valdo Catto. Does any member care to speak against it?’

In the front rank of the Ferics, the ancient Melissa creaked to her feet.

‘It would seem, Mister Chairman, that the proposal to destroy, en masse, these potentially useful life forms would be in direct opposition to our long-established traditions of frugality and conservation.’

Melissa Feric had long been famous for her sentimentality,

‘I must therefore seriously warn this meeting against sanctioning any such action.’

She resumed her seat. The ever-practical Nolan Catto, A.A, Catto’s grandfather, was immediately on his feet.

‘While not sharing the venerable Miss Feric’s humanitarian considerations, I must also call on this meeting to reject the motion. You will all recall, no doubt, that in the case of the accidental firestorm that consumed the periphery of Akio-Tech, there was a period when the citadel itself was endangered.

A.A. Catto pouted.

‘They put it out in time.’

The chairman banged his gavel.

‘You are out of order, Miss Catto. Pray continue, sir.’

Nolan Catto glanced at his granddaughter.

‘While appreciating our young people’s need for spectacle, I do feel that such a drastic display would, to say the least, be foolhardy.’

The next to rise was Havard Glick. Heads turned to look at him. Havard Glick was notorious for his eccentric ideas.

‘It might have escaped Miss Catto’s knowledge that there are some who hold the belief that even the L-4s are possessed of human sensibilities, and the morality of their wholesale slaughter would be somewhat questionable.’

There was a ripple of laughter. The old man was obviously senile. Everyone knew that the L-4s were the descendants of rejects from Con-Lee DNA research and that Con-Lee could dispose of them in whatever way they pleased. Nobody else seemed eager to speak after Havard Glick, and the chairman returned to A.A. Catto.

‘Do you have anything else to say, Miss Catto?’

A.A. Catto jumped to her feet.

‘Indeed I do, Mister Chairman. My grandfather’s sentiments are typical of the decay that will one day destroy this citadel. Don’t firestorm the L-4s, he whimpers, it might endanger us. Leave these insanitary organisms to scuttle round the outside of our beautiful towers. My grandfather would have our citadel overrun by vermin rather than risk the purging flames.’

Her voice rose in high patriotism.

‘It is the voices of cowards and traitors that plead for this rabble. The five families created the L-4s to serve, and when they no longer serve, it is the duty of the five families to destroy them. The fire cannot harm a citadel. It didn’t at Akio-Tech and it won’t here. I say to you one more time, we must firestorm the L-4s.’

The chairman, who had appeared to doze off during A.A. Catto’s speech, opened his eyes.

‘I thought you said earlier that you wanted to firestorm the L-4s for fun.’

‘Yes, Mister Chairman. And because it’s my sacred duty.’

The chairman nodded.

‘Yes, I see.’

He looked round at the directorate.

‘Shall we vote?’

Nolan Catto was on his feet.

‘May I propose a compromise? It might be a very good idea to instruct the entertainment Execs to prepare video simulation of a firestorm. It might do a little to satisfy these young people’s need for spectacle.’

A.A. Catto dug her nails into her palms.

‘You patronizing bastard.’

The chairman glared at her.

‘Shall we vote? First for Miss Catto’s motion, and secondly for Mister Catto’s compromise. Vote on the first one, please.’

A.A. Catto stabbed at her yes button.

‘And now the second.’

She pressed the no button. The chairman consulted his results.

‘Miss Catto’s motion is rejected. Mister Catto’s compromise is carried.’

‘Damn you old fools.’

A.A. Catto stood up and stalked out of the boardroom. Valdo followed a little way behind. Outside in the corridor, Valdo caught hold of her wrist as she was about to step on to the moving walkway.

‘Have you forgotten our bargain, sister dear?’

‘Bargain?’

‘You promised to let me take you home and ill-treat you if I found this meeting loathsome and boring.’

‘Did I agree to that?’

‘Indeed you did.’

‘But surely you didn’t take me seriously?’

‘I must admit, sister, that I took it very seriously. So seriously that I filed a tape of our conversation with Audit-12, the steward of wagers. He found it perfectly acceptable.’

‘You little beast.’

‘I thought I should get some fun out of what promised to be a very boring morning.’

A.A. Catto glared at her brother.

‘I positively forbid you to lay a hand on me.’

‘I was going to use a whip. I have one that would be eminently suitable.’

‘I won’t let you.’

Valdo smiled at her. He looked like a vulture.

‘You’ll have to.’

‘Why?’

‘Because otherwise Audit will compel you to under the term of a family wager.’

‘Let them try.’

‘If they make you, it’ll be in public.’

‘Public?’

‘Delinquent wagers are always collected in front of vid-cameras. It goes out like on channel 79. I’m sure all our friends will watch, and of course, the tape will be available in the library.’

‘You’re an unpleasant little weasel,’

Valdo beamed.

‘It runs in the family. Are you ready to come?’

A.A. Catto pursed her lips.

‘Yes, I suppose so.’

Valdo helped her on to the walkway.

‘I think the hour will be sufficient.’

***

Like Burt the Medicine predicted, it took less than two days to cross the desert. It gave way to rolling grasslands, and the track that Billy and Reave had been following became a surfaced highway. Then other roads connected with it, and soon Billy and Reave were driving through tidy, cultivated farms. They passed other traffic on the road, square, upright, boxlike vehicles painted black or brown and driven by noisy impulse motors. The people inside looked sombre, dour folk. They dressed in black or grey and stared in amazement at Billy’s and Reave’s flamboyant buggy.

They passed more and more of the sedate, austere cars. The farms became increasingly built on, and then they passed a sign that read:

Port Judas Welcomes the Clean Living.

Reave grinned at Billy.

‘Think we qualify?’

Billy grinned back.

‘I don’t know about you, man.’

They drove into the town, past rows and rows of small stone houses with white picket fences and neat little gardens. Billy grimaced.

‘It doesn’t look too much like fun city.’

Reave shrugged.

‘Maybe this is just the suburbs.’

‘Maybe.’

The gardens disappeared and they found themselves in an area of high walls and grey stone factories. Then the road swung round a corner, and out into a square. The square was surrounded by all kinds of imposing municipal buildings. They were built from the same grey stone, but had been dignified by the addition of pillars and broad steps. On the pavements, serious people in black and grey went soberly about their business. In the centre of the square was a bronze statue of a sour, elderly gentleman in the same long scholastic robe worn by most of the male inhabitants. He clutched a book under one arm, and held the other poised as though about to shake an admonishing finger. The whole place had an air of unshakable piety.

Reave swung the buggy into the kerb and looked around.

‘Don’t say this is downtown Port Judas.’

The albino had included a box of cigars in the hamper of goodies. Billy lit one and inhaled.

‘It looks like a good place to catch a boat away from.’

A man in a blue coat with brass buttons and a peaked cap was staring intently at Billy and Reave from the other side of the square. Billy glanced at Reave.

‘He’s got to be the law around here. He’s a cop if ever I saw one.’

‘Don’t look now but he’s coming over.’

The figure was sauntering across the square, fingering the stick that hung from his belt. He had the unmistakable unconcerned walk of cops in every place, every age.

‘We can’t have broken a law already.’

‘You never can tell.’

‘Shall we do a runner?’

‘No. Hang on and see what he wants.’

As the figure came closer Billy and Reave could see that his cap bore the legend ‘Port Judas Bureau of Correction’. He halted beside the buggy and jerked the finger of his white gloved hand at Billy.

‘Thou!’

‘Me?’

‘Yea, thou. What thinkest thou, parking in the main square?’

Billy smiled politely.

‘Sorry officer. We just drove in from the desert.’

‘Thou makest for the harbour?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Then make. Outlanders have their own quarter by the waterfront. Thinkest thou the good people of Port Judas suffer them to run all over the whole city?’

‘Well, no. We just didn’t know.’

‘Ignorance is no excuse.’

‘We’re really sorry.’

‘I think maybe I should book thee for vagrant wandering.’

‘We won’t do it again.’

‘Thirty days in the workhouse would ensure thou didst not do it again.’

‘Listen officer. We’re new in town. Give us a break.’

Billy gestured pleadingly with his cigar. The officer looked at it in disgust.

‘Put out that vile weed. Thou transgressed City Ordinance 417.’

‘Huh?’

‘Thou shall not partake of the weed tobacco in a public place. Penalty sixty days in the city workhouse. That’s ninety days thou couldst pull already.’

Billy ground out the cigar with his boot.

‘Listen …’

‘I think I shall overlook thy offences this one time. Hurry thyself to the outlanders’ quarter and we’ll say no more. I promise thee, though, if I see thy face …’

He glanced at Reave.

‘… or thy face either, around here again, I’ll book thee for sure. Understandeth?’

Billy nodded.

‘We understand. Thanks for letting us go, officer.’

Reave flicked the buggy into drive, and they moved off. The cop watched them until they’d left the square. Once out of sight of him, Reave glanced at Billy.

‘I think you were right about this town.’

‘I’ll say one thing for it, it’s better than Dur Shanzag. Let’s make it down to the outlanders’ quarter. The good people of Port Judas give me the creeps. I think we’d be better off with the bad people.’

The outlanders’ quarter was surrounded with a high stone wall made from the same grey stone as the rest of the city. Billy and Reave drove along the wall until they came to an entrance. Over it was a sign that read ‘Outlanders’ Reserved Area. Gates Closed Dusk to Dawn.’ Two more Bureau of Correction officers were on duty at the gate. They waved Billy and Reave down.

‘Are ye entering for the first time?’

Billy and Reave both nodded.

‘That’s right.’

One of the officers produced a bundle of yellow cards, and handed them one each.

‘Heed the warnings contained therein.’

They both promised they would, and the officer waved them on. As they drove into the outlanders’ quarter, Billy scanned the card. It was closely printed on both sides with stern warnings to outlanders as to what the good citizens of Port Judas considered to be unseemly behaviour. The gist of it was that any foreigner showing his face in the main part of the city had better have a pass, a good reason for being there, and get himself back behind the walls before sunset.

‘This is some friendly town.’

Reave glanced round.

‘It don’t seem too bad in here.’

The outlanders’ quarter seemed a good deal more human. Its streets bustled rather than proceeded with stern piety like they did outside. Sailors in striped shirts and rough cotton trousers rubbed shoulders with merchants in black robes. Street vendors cried their wares and hard-eyed men in frock coats, fancy waistcoats and wide-brimmed hats moved determinedly through the crowds. There was even a subtle difference in the women. They still wore the same grey dresses and white aprons as the strait-laced ladies on the outside, but many had discarded the starched white caps, and they contrived to show more cleavage and the occasional flash of leg. Reave grinned at Billy.

‘This looks more like it.’

Billy laughed.

‘I could feel more at home here. What we need is food, drink, a bed and some female company. Right?’

‘Too right.’

Billy pointed to a place ahead on the left.

‘How about that?’

It was a two-storey building. Grey stone again, but its woodwork was painted a cheerful yellow. Over the door hung a sign - The Hot Puddings. They pulled up in front of it.

‘Is that an inn, or is that an inn?’

They parked the buggy and walked inside. The front parlour smelled of ale and tobacco. The timbers of the ceiling were mellowed and darkened by generations of smoke. The place was lit by an iron fixture in the ceiling that held dozens of flickering candles. Their light reflected on the different coloured bottles behind the bar.

Billy and Reave stood in the middle of the parlour and looked around. There were maybe a dozen men in the place. Most were sailors, except one group of three who looked disturbingly like mercenaries either coming to or from Dur Shanzag. A small man in a white shirt, black trousers and a leather apron came out from behind the bar. He had a round moonface and slanted oriental eyes.

‘I help you gentlemen?’

‘We’re looking for a place to stay.’

‘You gentlemen find no finer rooms than here at the sign of The Hot Puddings.’

Reave looked sideways at the little man.

‘You the landlord?’

The little man nodded.

‘Sure. Me Lo Yuen. I run this place.’

‘Well tell me, Lo Yuen. What passes for money in this town?’

Lo Yuen looked suspiciously at Reave.

‘Port Judas crowns, of course. You got some?’

‘No stuff beam?’

‘Port Judas don’t allow. You got to have money. You got money?’

Lo Yuen was looking less and less friendly. Billy intervened.

‘We don’t actually have any money …’

Lo Yuen looked decidedly hostile.

‘… However, we do have this very fine desert buggy outside which we would very much like to find a buyer for.’

He leaned close to Lo Yuen and dropped his voice.

‘Seeing how we don’t know too much about the currency we were wondering if you might help us sell it. I mean, we’d be happy to give you a percentage on the sale.’

The little man looked a good deal happier.

‘It sounds like very admirable proposition. Where is fine vehicle?’

Billy gestured towards the door.

‘Right outside, honoured friend.’

He led Lo Yuen out of the inn and into the street.

‘There it is. What do you think?’

‘It very … colourful.’

‘Yeah, well, apart from that.’

‘I think maybe some men in parlour might want. Hold on, I talk with them.’

He went back inside the inn, and a few moments later he came back with one of the men in combat gear.

‘This Zorbo. He want to talk about buying vehicle.’

‘Yeah?’

Billy faced the mercenary.

‘You headed for the war zone?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Rather you than me, friend.’

‘You been there?’

‘Sure, we just got out of it.’

‘Bad, huh?’

‘Bad.’

Zorbo shrugged.

‘We’re fighting men. What else can we do?’

‘Don’t ask me, friend. It took us all our time to get away from it. You want to buy this machine?’

The mercenary stroked his chin.

‘Looks like the kind of thing that we need to get us across the desert. How much you want for it?’

Billy glanced at Lo Yuen.

‘What would be a fair price, mister innkeeper?’

Lo Yuen went through a pantomime of patting and inspecting the buggy.

‘Look like two thousand crowns’ worth to me.’

Zorbo poked the buggy with his finger.

‘I’ll give you a thousand.’

Billy looked down at his boots.

‘It ain’t more than two days old. Eighteen hundred.’

‘I’ll make it twelve and not a crown more.’

‘Sixteen?’

‘Fourteen.’

‘Fifteen hundred.’

‘Done.’

The mercenary gave Billy a heavy canvas bag of coins, and went inside to fetch his friends to look at their purchase. Billy dipped in the bag, and gave Lo Yuen a hundred and fifty crowns. The little man smiled and ushered them back into the parlour of the inn.

‘We do good business, hey gentlemen?’

Billy clapped the little man on the shoulder.

‘Good business, Lo Yuen.’

The two of them ate, and then spent the rest of the afternoon lounging at a corner table working their way through a bottle of tequila. Sailors and drifters passed in and out of the place, and as the day wore on, Billy and Reave picked up various snippets of information. It appeared there was a river boat going down to Arthurburg in a couple of days, and also that Port Judas could be quite an easy place to live in if you stuck to the outlanders’ quarter. They also discovered that the thirteen fifty they had from selling the buggy was more than enough for them to buy a passage all the way down the river. For the first time in a long time, life looked pretty good.

The afternoon drew into evening, and the sky outside the inn parlour’s narrow windows became dark. Lo Yuen built up the log fire in the huge stone fireplace, and the room became a cosy recess of warm light and deep shadows. Bright highlights glinted on the polished wood, the brasswork and the ranks of bottles.

The parlour began to fill up and Lo Yuen put three waitresses to work, who moved between the tables serving drinks, collecting glasses and bandying ribald chat with the customers. A fiddler and an accordion player struck up beside the fireplace, and the laid-back atmosphere of the afternoon dissolved into a jumping jollity. Reave, already half drunk from the afternoon’s tequila, laughed and nudged Billy.

‘Only one thing we need now, old buddy.’

‘What’s that, man?’

‘We need us some broads, old buddy. That’s what we need.’

‘Amen to that, buddy.’

Word began to spread round the parlour that Billy and Reave were big-spending travelling men. A couple of card hustlers cruised by to check them out, but they made it clear that they didn’t want to know. Girls also began to hover round their table. Not only the waitresses, but two or three other girls who seemed to be employed by Lo Yuen to keep the customers happy and drinking.

Reave stretched out his arm and grabbed one of the girls by the wrist. She was a pleasant plump brunette whose ample figure couldn’t be disguised by the sober grey dress, particularly as she wore it considerably less buttoned than the good women of Port Judas.

‘You want to dance, honey?’

‘I don’t know about that, sir. Dancing ain’t really allowed in public inns.’

‘Fuck that shit. I want to dance.’

He climbed to his feet and started jigging about with the girl.

‘Thou art a one, young sir.’

A circle was formed in the middle of the room. Reave swung the screaming and giggling girl round and round, while the accordion player and the fiddler stamped their feet.

The dance whirled faster and faster, then, abruptly, the music stopped. The door had opened, and in the doorway stood two blue-coated officers. Reave collided with the girl and they both fell in a heap on the floor. The officers stood looking down at them.

‘What do ye, herein?’

Reave scrambled to his feet. Billy stayed seated at the table, but his hand slid down beside his gun. Reave grinned sheepishly at the officers.

‘We, uh, fell over.’

‘Ye fell. Art thou sure it wasn’t public dancing?’

‘Public dancing?’

‘Aye, fellow. Public dancing.’

Lo Yuen hurried from behind the bar.

‘There no public dancing in this inn, gentlemen officers. That would be against law.’

He took each officer by the arm, and after a muttered conversation they all went outside together. A couple of minutes later Lo Yuen returned on his own. He went straight up to Reave and the girl.

‘If gentleman want to sport with girl, then he must take her to own room.’

Reave grinned, and slapped the girl’s bottom.

‘That suits me, brother.’

He grinned at her.

‘You coming then, gorgeous?’

She pouted.

‘If that’s what would please thee, good sir.’

‘Let’s go then.’

He took her by the hand and led her towards the stairs. Lo Yuen caught him by the arm.

‘One moment, my friend. Officers took twenty crowns of persuasion before they leave.’

Reave dropped the coins into his hand, and then hurried up the stairs with the laughing girl. Billy relaxed in his seat and poured himself another drink. He was beginning to like Port Judas despite its absurd laws. A girl dropped into Reave’s empty chair. She had red hair and large green eyes. There were freckles on the section of her ample breasts that were presented to Billy. She smiled at him slyly.

‘My friend’s gone upstairs with thy mate.’

Billy laughed.

‘You want to do the same?’

‘I might. If thou wast specially nice to me.’

***

‘It would be productive to gather data from the static module.’

‘It is unfortunate that we lack the time.’

‘We are injured and unable to delay our search for a naturally occurring stasis point where we may heal our wounds’

‘We must continue.’

‘We must continue.’

The spherical form of Her/Them detached Her/Their self from the dead hulk of Wilbur and floated free. She/They maintained the form until She/They was some distance from the silent disrupter, and then resumed the triple form. The two identical women carrying the injured third in their arms. She/They turned so that She/They faced away from the broken disruption module, and once again began Her/Their steady progress.

The mist was unnaturally still. It lay in even horizontal layers. All twisting and undulation had ceased. She/They moved forward, breasting the layers of mist with little effort. Then abruptly it ceased. The mist, the blue light, there was nothing at all. A total empty blackness.

‘Absence.’

For a fraction of a second, She/They did not exist either. Then, moved by Her/Their emergency programming, She/They exerted Her/Their will. She/They began to glow with a soft violet light, and became the only thing in that totally empty universe.

‘The state of our existence is related to nothing. There is no external by which we may judge our being.’

The words glowed bright red, growing bigger and bigger to fill the empty space. Abruptly they blinked out.

‘If motion can be equated with the expenditure of energy, then we move.’

‘We expend the energy in order to move, therefore we move.

‘Subsequently we move’

More words flashed away into the void.

‘The absence of external produces a hole of total subjectivity.’

‘Observation. An external has been produced.’

A point of light appeared.

‘Cease all energy use.’

She/They became totally inert. The point of light remained.

‘External proved to be objective.’

The point of light grew larger and slowly took shape. It moved towards Her/Them like some winged object. It grew larger and larger. It was a huge penguin that glowed with a hard yellow light. She/They remained totally inert as it flapped majestically past without a sideways glance. It flew on, becoming smaller and smaller. Finally it was just a point of light again.

‘We possess no data on such a phenomenon.’

‘It fails to compute.’

***

‘Thou wert lusty, young sir.’

‘I could say the same for you, babe.’

The girl had been willing and eager. She had lacked a lot in technique, but more than made up for it in enthusiasm. She had reacted with shock and amazement when Billy had put his mouth between her legs. It was obvious that no one in Port Judas behaved that way. She had also been somewhat disturbed when he had suggested that she treated him to a blow job. After some persuasion and instruction she had acquired a taste for both.

‘Thou hast taught me much.’

‘Glad to oblige.’

When he had entered her she had seemed much more at home, bucking and writhing, moaning and lifting her hips to meet him in what seemed to Billy to be genuine earthy pleasure. She had raked his back with her nails, and finally, after a long time, they had both come together and collapsed exhausted. They had lain together in silence for a while, and then she had spoken. Billy propped himself up on one elbow and looked at her.

‘Don’t girls like you have a hard time in Port Judas?’

‘It’s not too bad if we don’t stray outside the quarter.’

‘What about the good people of the town? Don’t they give you a hard time?’

‘They call us whores and sinners, but they can’t do without us. They need us so the good women can keep their sacred virtue. Much good it may do them too. I wouldn’t swap with the wife of an elder right now.’

‘Don’t they have laws against doing this kind of thing?’

The girl scowled.

‘ ‘Course they have laws. Every so often the blue coats round up a few of us and we get dragged in front of the procurator for fornication and lewdness.’

‘And what happens then?’

‘Either ten strokes of the rod or five days in the workhouse.’

‘Have you ever been pulled in?’

‘Once or twice. I always take the rod. It’s quicker.’

‘You mean you’ve been beaten?’

‘ ‘Course. I said I had, didn’t I? It don’t happen often because like I said, they got to have us. We only get rounded up for appearances.’

Billy shook his head.

‘I don’t understand you. Why the hell don’t you split? Why don’t you run away from this place?’

The girl looked at him in surprise.

‘That’s silly talk, young sir. Where would I go?’

Billy lay on his back and stared at the ceiling. The girl seemed so certain that Port Judas was the whole world that he could think of nothing else to say. After a time he rolled over and began to stroke her breast. Just as the excitement was starting to mount again in both of them, there was a knock on the door. Billy’s mind flashed back to Dogbreath.

‘Not again.’

He rolled over, and grabbed the gun from his belt that was hanging on the bedpost. The knocking came again.

‘Who is it?’

‘It’s me, Billy. It’s Reave.’

Taking no chances, Billy padded across to the door, slipped the bolt, and stepped back.

‘Come in, but come in nice and slow.’

The door opened and Reave stepped inside. Billy lowered his gun.

‘What’s happening?’

‘I just been down to the parlour for a nightcap, and I heard something that I thought I ought to tell you about.’

Billy wrapped a blanket round himself and sat down on the bed.

‘Wouldn’t it have kept till morning?’

‘I don’t think so. There’s these two guys downstairs. They’re sitting in the corner. They’re wearing trench coats and they’ve got their hats pulled down over their faces. La Yuen told me that they’ve been asking about us. He reckons they’re secret agents from the war zone.’

‘Sounds like they’re from the Ghâshnákh.’

‘And they’re looking for us. I got a feeling it’s trouble, Billy.’

Billy reached for a cigar, lit it, and held the smoke in his lungs for a long time while he thought.

‘I don’t think they’ll try anything while we’re in here. There’s too many people about.’

‘So what do we do?’

I guess we’ve got to stick close to the inn until it’s time for the boat. Then we’ll make a run for it.’

‘What do we do about boat tickets?’

‘Get Lo Yuen to fix them for us.’

‘Think we can trust him?’

‘We’re going to have to.’

‘I suppose so.’

‘Listen. Go to bed. Lock the door, and we’ll see how things are in the morning. We’re going to have to play this thing by ear.’

Reave grinned.

‘When did we ever do anything else?’

He headed for the door, and Billy bolted it behind him. He went back to the young woman in his bed. She looked at him nervously.

‘Thou art in trouble.’

He ran his fingers between her legs.

‘Nothing we can’t take care of.’

To his surprise she pushed him away and sat up.

‘I think perhaps it’s time I was leaving thee.’

Billy put his arm round her.

‘Listen. There ain’t going to be no trouble. I thought you were going to stay the whole night?’

The girl shot him a sidelong glance.

‘Thou couldst try giving me another little present.’

Billy fumbled in his jacket, and dropped ten crowns on the girl’s stomach. She gathered them up and placed them with her clothes, then she lay down smiling.

‘Perhaps we should play them new games that thou hast taught me?’

Billy pulled her close to him, and they played for a long time before they fell asleep.

When Billy came down to the parlour the next morning, the two men in trench coats were sitting in a corner. They watched openly while Lo Yuen brought him a plate of eggs and a mug of beer.

They were just as Reave had described them. Dirty trench coats and grey fedoras pulled over their eyes. They just had to be Ghâshnákh agents. Billy ate his eggs and. stared back at them. Bit by bit the parlour began to fill up with the morning trade, and when the place was fairly full, Billy managed to get a quiet word with Lo Yuen.

‘I hear there’s a boat leaving tomorrow?’

The little man nodded.

‘Pier six, eleven in the morning.’

‘Could you fix it so me and my partner were on it?’

‘Very simple. I get you tickets.’

‘How much would it be for a good-class cabin for the two of us?’

‘Two hundred crowns.’

Billy dropped the coins in Lo Yuen’s hand.

‘There’s an extra fifty. It’s for your trouble.’

He gave the little man a hard look.

‘I wouldn’t like it if anyone else heard about it.’

Lo Yuen smiled blandly.

‘You no worry. Me soul of discretion. Ask anybody.’

‘Okay. Thanks.’

‘Okay. I go now.’

The little man hurried off to take care of his customers, Reave came down to the parlour rubbing his eyes. He flopped into the chair next to Billy and glanced at the men in the corner.

‘I see they’re still here.’

‘Did you really expect them to be gone?’

‘I guess not. What are we going to do?’

‘Nothing. Nothing at all. We’re just going to sit here and drink. Lo Yuen’s getting our boat tickets, and at about ten thirty tomorrow, we’ll do a run for pier number six. Okay?’

‘It’s okay with me. I guess you know what you’re doing.’

‘I hope so. I don’t fancy being dragged back to Dur Shanzag.’

They spent the rest of the day sitting at their table in the parlour, drinking in a leisurely manner, and watching the two agents watching them. Towards the end of the evening they each found themselves a girl and retired behind the bolted doors of their rooms. Billy spent a pleasant night informing a second Port Judas whore of the joys that could be had from oral-genital contact. Billy reflected that if the idea spread round the town, he would probably be responsible for yet another addition to the Port Judas city ordinances.

The next morning Billy got up, dressed, crossed the corridor and tapped on Reave’s door.

‘Who is it?’

‘Billy, let me in, quick.’

He slipped inside, and Reave bolted the door behind him.

‘You got the tickets?’

Billy nodded.

‘Lo Yuen gave them to me last night, I also paid our bill.’

‘So we can walk straight out of here?’

‘If you’ve got everything together.’

Reave struggled into his jacket.

‘I’m ready.’

‘Okay, let’s go.’

They hurried down the stairs, and went straight across the parlour and out of the door before the two agents had a chance to move. Once in the street, they hurried along for a couple of blocks, and then ducked into an alley. Reave glanced behind.

‘Think we’ve lost them?’

‘I don’t know. Let’s keep moving.’

They doubled back through the narrow streets of the outlanders’ quarter, crossing the same route a number of times, before heading for the pier. There was no sign of the two men when they finally emerged on the quayside. They were jostled by sailors and dock workers as they looked for pier six. The smell of the river seemed like the scent of freedom. At last they came across a sign that read Pier Six and they hurried out to board the river boat.

The Maria Nowhere was a floating palace. It looked as though it had been designed by a fin de sičcle shipwright with an obsession about decorative wrought iron. It lay low in the water, but its elaborate white and gold superstructure was a maze of saloons, companionways and promenade decks. Towering above the wheel house were the ship’s pair of slender smoke stacks, and in the rear, the huge single paddle wheel that drove the river boat.

Billy and Reave breathlessly hurried up the gangway. At the top, they were stopped by the purser.

‘You have tickets, gentlemen?’

Billy produced the tickets and they were directed to the first-class berths. Halfway there, they were met by a steward and showed into a large, comfortable cabin. Reave grinned at Billy.

‘This is the way to travel.’

The cabin followed through the same design style as the outside of the boat, except that the wrought iron and white timber had been replaced by inlaid veneer, crystal mirrors and dark red plush. Billy flopped into an armchair while Reave wandered round the cabin looking in cupboards and opening drawers.

‘This sure is an improvement on anything else we’ve had.’

Billy laughed.

‘It’s a pity we’re so scruffy. That steward couldn’t believe we were first-class passengers.’

‘Fuck him. We’ve got money, and that’s what counts when you get down to it.’

There was a shudder as the boat’s engines began to turn over, and then after a few minutes an even tremor began. Reave went to the porthole.

‘We’re moving, Billy. We’re under way. Come and have a look.’

Billy moved across to the porthole. The waterfront of Port Judas was slowly receding. Billy put a hand on Reave’s shoulder.

‘Looks like we’re out of it, old buddy. We’ve got away from it all, Dur Shanzag and the good people of Port Judas. I got a feeling that life is going to get better. I got a good feeling, old buddy.’

Reave smiled.

‘I got a feeling that I need a drink now all the excitement’s over.’

Billy grinned.

‘Good idea, let’s go up to the saloon. I think it’s on the next deck up.’

They both stowed their porta-pacs in one of the cupboards, hid their surplus money under the mattress, and started for the door. Billy opened it, and found himself staring down the muzzle of a heavy-calibre automatic pistol. Behind the gun were the two men in trench coats.

‘Oh no!’

They pushed Billy back into the cabin. The agents’ eyes glittered from behind their hat brims and upturned collars.

‘You will not move or make a sound.’

‘Turn round and place your hands on the wall.’

The agents’ voices were little more than a cold hiss. Billy and Reave did as they were told, and were patted down and relieved of their guns. They were then ordered to sit on the bed. Billy decided to try and bluff it out.

‘Who are you, and what do you want?’

Silently one of the agents reached in his pocket and produced a black leather billfold. He flicked it open. Inside was an enamel badge with the eye and flames emblem in red on a black background.

‘We are agents of the Ghâshnákh. We are taking you back to Dur Shanzag for interrogation.’

Billy started to get up.

‘Listen, you’ve made a mistake. I don’t know who you’re looking for but …’

One of the agents hissed at him.

‘Sit down. If you move again I shall blow your head off. One would suffice to take back for interrogation.’ Billy sat down abruptly.

‘As for being mistaken, there is no possibility of that. You are without question the deserters who stole a fighting machine. We found it where you abandoned it in the desert. Your accessory the albino pervert also told us much before he died. There is no mistake.’

Reave leaped to his feet.

‘You mean you killed Burt the Medicine?’

‘Obviously, and we’ll kill you if you don’t sit down.’

Reave sank to the bed.

‘What are you going to do with us?’

‘You’ll be taken back to Dur Shanzag for examination by the Eight.’

‘And then?’

‘You won’t survive examination.’

There seemed to be nothing more to say. Then Billy had an idea.

‘You’ll have to get us off the boat.’

‘You’ll be taken off at the next place we land. The crew won’t interrupt us. There are no laws on river boats except those the captain cares to invent.’

This time there was nothing at all to say. The little tableau remained totally static. Billy and Reave sat side by side on the bed. The two agents stood slightly apart, with their backs to the door, watching them.

Then it all erupted.

The door flew open and there was the ugly whine of a needler. The two agents swung round and crashed to the floor. Their bodies were riddled with tiny slivers of steel. The Minstrel Boy stood in the doorway holding a miniature needle gun in his right hand.

‘The next time I get you idiots out of trouble, I’m going to charge you.’

***

A.A. Catto followed Valdo into his apartment. She really hadn’t bargained for this situation. It promised to be painful and humiliating. The odd thing was that she also felt a vague stirring of excitement.

Three Hostess-1s were waiting in the bedroom. A black velvet coverlet had been laid across the bed, and the wall colouring had been set at a dark purple. A.A. Catto had to admit that her brother had a fine sense of the gothic. A short plaited whip of white leather lay on the bed. It was arranged to give the impression that it had been casually tossed there.

Valdo snapped his fingers at the Hostess-1s.

‘Quick now. Undress Miss Catto.’

The Hostess-1s surrounded A.A. Catto and began systematically to remove her clothes. She did nothing to stop them. It was an odd sensation to be involved in. A situation over which she had no control.

When she was completely naked, Valdo hit the light controls so the walls faded almost to black and the room was completely dark except for a single white spot shining down on the bed.

Valdo’s voice was a sinister whisper.

‘Lie down, my dear sister.’

A.A. Catto was finding the stage management ritual very exciting. She wasn’t too sure about the actual pain.

Two of the Hostess-1s took hold of her wrists, and gently but firmly led her towards the bed. She was laid face down, and the Hostess-1s pulled shiny chrome manacles, padded on the inside with soft black leather, from hidden recesses in the bed and snapped them on to A.A. Catto’s wrists and ankles. A.A. Catto was spreadeagled on the velvet. She was totally unable to move.

Valdo hit two more buttons and the dim glow of the walls began to undulate in changing shapes and patterns. Richard Strauss came through hidden speakers. A.A. Catto swivelled, her head round to look at Valdo. He was pulling on a pair of white kid gloves. He smiled down at her.

‘You must admit that I have taken a lot of trouble over you.’

‘You do have good taste.’

Valdo leaned forward and picked up the whip.

‘I like to pride myself on that.’

He flicked the whip in the air, as though he was testing it.

‘Would you like some altacaine before we start?’

‘I think I would prefer a shot of deadout.’

‘Oh come now, sister. That would defeat the whole purpose of the exercise. It really must be altacaine or nothing.’

A.A. Catto tugged against the manacles but found that they wouldn’t move.

‘Yes, yes. I suppose altacaine will make the experience more interesting.’

Valdo turned to a Hostess-1.

Give Miss Cato a single-dose shot.’

The Hostess-1 pressed the injector against one of A.A. Catto’s buttocks and pressed the release. A.A. Catto tingled as the boost rushed through her system. Valdo gestured to the two other hostesses.

‘Now, rub Miss Catto’s body with sensitol.’

A.A. Catto was outraged.

‘Sensitol? I never agreed to sensitol.’

‘I think it’s perfectly legitimate. I wouldn’t want you to miss the slightest nuance of the tactile experience.’

The two hostesses rubbed the cream all over A.A. Catto’s shoulders, back, buttocks and legs. Her flesh began to come alive, and her skin was sensitive to the slightest movement of the air. She felt pinned down, vulnerable and exposed. She was ultimately receptive to anything that her brother might want to do to her. In the total passiveness and total abasement there was a novel excitement. Valdo’s voice came from somewhere behind her.

‘I think we’re about ready.’

There was a swish and A.A. Catto tensed herself, but it was only Valdo testing the whip again. She turned her head.

‘For god’s sake get on with it. Stop hanging it out.’

Valdo laughed.

‘I didn’t know you were so eager, sister.’

‘Just get on with it.’

‘Why? I’m in no hurry.’

‘Valdo, please.’

He giggled.

‘Come on, beg.’

‘Valdo!’

He slowly raised the whip. There was a frozen moment of stillness and silence.

Then the whip came down and A.A. Catto gasped, squirmed, and finally screamed as loud as she could.

***

The Minstrel Boy dropped his gun back into a small shoulder holster and stepped into the cabin. He was a little more soberly dressed than he’d been in Dur Shanzag. He still had the green lizard frock coat, but it was now cracked and worn. His hair was back to its natural colour, and his dark glasses were again the aviator kind. He wore a double-breasted calfskin waistcoat and a black gambler’s tie with a white shirt. His black pants covered scuffed cowboy boots.

Reave and Billy stood up in amazement.

‘How the fuck did you get here? What happened?’

The Minstrel Boy shrugged.

‘I saw you coming aboard, and then I saw those two.’

He gestured to the bodies on the floor.

‘I figured what might be going on, and came down here to check it out. You saw the rest.’

‘But what are you doing on this boat?’

‘You sure ask a lot of questions for somebody who just got their life saved.’

‘Sorry, it was just such a surprise.’

‘Yeah, okay, life seems to be one big surprise for you boys. You got anything to drink?’

Billy and Reave shook their heads.

‘We were just going up to the saloon when these guys came bursting in.’

‘Okay then, let’s go up there. You can buy me a drink, and meet my partner on this trip.’

Reave gestured at the dead agents.

‘What do we do with them?’

The Minstrel Boy glanced casually at the bodies.

‘You got twenty crowns?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Gimme.’

Reave handed the coins to the Minstrel Boy, who pocketed them.

‘I’ll drop this on the steward, and he’ll take care of them. Once they’re in the river, the alligators will do the rest.’

They left the cabin and climbed the steps to the saloon. The first-class saloon was a floating casino that seemed to be made from mirrors and cut glass. Two huge crystal chandeliers hung overhead. A steward on the door looked distastefully at Billy’s and Reave’s clothes.

‘Are you gentlemen sure that you’re first-class passengers?’

‘Sure.’

Billy flashed their tickets, and the steward had to content himself with asking them to leave their guns with the hat-check girl.

The Minstrel Boy led them across the saloon to a green baize table where a game of nine-card sidewinder was in progress. As they approached, a man in a black velvet coat, with long dark hair, looked up and grinned at the Minstrel Boy.

‘We’re going okay, partner.’

‘That’s good. Hey, Frankie, I’d like you to meet two friends of mine, Billy and Reave. This is Frankie Lee, he’s a gambler.’

Frankie Lee stretched out his hand.

‘Pleased to meet you boys. You want to join our game?’

Billy shook his head.

‘I think we’ll just sit and drink, thanks. We’ve had a busy day.’

‘Okay, suit yourselves.’

The Minstrel Boy sat down at the table and resumed his place in the game. Billy called over a waiter and ordered drinks.

They drank their way through the rest of the day, watching Frankie Lee and the Minstrel Boy clip close on a thousand crowns from two Port Judas merchants out on a spree. Then, towards midnight, they staggered drunkenly off to their cabins where, as the Minstrel Boy had predicted, the bodies had been removed and even the stains on the carpet had vanished. They fell into their beds, and slept soundly until well into the next morning.

They were awakened by a bright, cheerful Minstrel Boy.

‘You boys planning on going ashore?’

‘Ashore? Where are we?’

‘Tied up at the Dropville jetty.’

‘Yeah? How long for?’

‘Till tomorrow morning.’

Billy sat up in bed and lit a cigar.

‘Maybe. What’s Dropville like?’

‘It’s okay for a party, but I wouldn’t like to live there.’

‘You can have a good time though?’

‘Sure. It ain’t like Port Judas.’

‘Say listen, where’s your partner? Is he going ashore?’

The Minstrel Boy shook his head.

‘He’s sleeping. He stayed up all night to finish off those two merchants. Me and him have got to make some money on this voyage. Are you coming, then?’

Billy nodded.

‘Yeah, we’ll come. Why not?’

The Minstrel Boy opened the door.

‘I’ll see you in the saloon when you’re dressed.’

‘For sure.’

The Minstrel Boy closed the door behind him. Billy and Reave climbed out of bed and struggled into their clothes. Inside fifteen minutes they were walking along the deck with the Minstrel Boy in the direction of the gangway. As they were about to leave the ship, a steward stopped them.

‘Have you got your porta-pacs?’

Billy and Reave patted the chrome units on their belts and the Minstrel Boy held up his guitar.

‘We got them. Why?’

‘You never can tell in Dropville. Now and then something comes unstuck.’

They thanked him, and walked down the gangplank. The pier at Dropville was a humble affair compared with Port Judas. It was little more than a rickety wooden jetty, a shed or the bank, and a track that led out into what appeared to be dense, luxuriant jungle. Billy turned to the Minstrel Boy, ‘What happened to the town?’

The Minstrel Boy pointed up the track.

‘It’s about ten minutes’ walk. There’s too many mosquitoes and things to live right on the river.’

They started up the track. The trees formed a solid canopy of green above their heads, and troops of monkeys crashed through the branches as they approached. Other unseen things slid away through the undergrowth, and brightly coloured birds screeched a raucous warning.

Billy noticed that here and there among the trees were the ruins of buildings. Low structures that had once made exciting use of steel and concrete, but were now overgrown by vines and creepers. Walls and roofs had fallen in, as the jungle lightened its grip on them. Billy pointed one of the derelicts out to the Minstrel Boy.

‘This must have been a much bigger town once upon a time?’

The Minstrel Boy nodded.

‘Sure. There was a time when Dropville was one of the richest, most beautiful towns anywhere.’

‘What happened to it?’

The Minstrel Boy paused before he answered. The track had led them into a wide clearing. Here and there patches of marble paving still remained, but most of it had been broken up by the relentless pressure of the encroaching jungle. Four or five of the low buildings with their patios and wide expanses of glass stood in fairly good condition, while others, nearer the edge of the jungle, had fallen into total disrepair. Even the ones that were still in use had undergone makeshift patch-up jobs, and received crude, garish redecoration. They walked around the shattered remains of an abstract statue and along the side of an empty overgrown swimming pool. On the bottom of the pool a number of brightly dressed teenagers sat crosslegged in a circle staring vacantly straight ahead. The Minstrel Boy began his story.

‘I guess it must have been easily two hundred years ago, Dropville, it was called Laurel Bay in those days, was, like I said, one of the richest and most beautiful towns you could hope to find anywhere. The story even goes that Solomon Bonaparte, the guy who invented the stuff system, retired here after he’d made his pile. The city got richer and richer, and life for the citizens got as close to idyllic as anyone could hope to get Laurel Bay was a paradise on earth.’

Billy looked around at the ruins and semi-ruins that fought a losing battle with the creepers and undergrowth. They skirted a decorative stainless-steel fountain, filled with generations of dead leaves.

‘So what went wrong?’

Before the Minstrel Boy could answer, a figure darted from behind the fountain.

‘Wanna see me do my sword swallowing?’

It was a boy who looked about fourteen. He was barefoot and wore white cotton trousers and a silk vest covered in hundreds of tiny mirrors. In his hand he held a short dress sword. The Minstrel Boy shook his head.

‘Not right now.’

The boy looked disappointed.

‘You sure?’

‘Sure we’re sure.’

A hopeful look came over his face.

‘Maybe later?’

‘Maybe.’

‘See you then.’

‘Okay.’

He scampered off and the Minstrel Boy sat down on the edge of the derelict fountain.

‘Like I was telling you, things got better and better until, one day, the ultimate happened. Somebody invented immortality.’

Billy’s and Reave’s eyes widened.

‘Immortality.’

The Minstrel Boy nodded.

‘That’s right. They actually achieved the final goal Somebody, some say it was old Solly Bonaparte, came up with a pill or a shot or something that once you’d had it, barring accidents, you’d live for ever. Of course the secret’s lost now.’

Reave frowned.

‘I still don’t see how immortality could have caused all this ’

The Minstrel Boy lit one of Billy’s cigars and went on.

‘What happened was this. Directly they had this eternal life dose, everyone in town queued up and got one, and there they all were, set for infinity, provided they didn’t drown in the river or fall out of a tree. The only problem was that the immortality deal, stopped the ageing process, and all the people stayed whatever age they were when they got the dose. The old folks kept right on being old folks and the young folks kept on being young folks. The only drawback to the treatment was that it made everyone sterile, and so the population remained absolutely the same. Just like time had stopped.’

Reave chewed his lip.

‘Pretty weird, huh?’

The Minstrel Boy nodded.

‘Pretty weird. The first thing that went wrong was that the old folks, who’d been pretty much running things until immortality came along, wanted to go right on running things after. They couldn’t stop treating the young folks like they were kids, and gradually the situation grew up where a guy might be, say, sixty years old, but because he looked fifteen, he was treated like he was fifteen. This, coupled with the fact that the old folks got mightily hung up on their eternal life and began bringing in all these heavy public safety laws, created a pretty bad generation gap.’

Billy interrupted him.

‘You mean that kid, the one who wanted to show us his sword swallowing, wasn’t a kid at all?’

The Minstrel Boy laughed.

‘He was certainly a hundred, if not more.’

‘Jesus.’

‘That was the trouble, you see. The old folks wouldn’t listen to the young folks and relations between them, got worse and worse. I don’t know the details, but one night the shit hit the fan, and the young folks up and slaughtered every one of the oldsters. Nobody escaped. With the old folks out of the way, they gave up bothering about the fancy houses and all that kind of thing. They didn’t have to worry, you see. Stuff Central beamed in everything they needed. They changed the town’s name to Dropville and settled down to having the eternal good time. Bit by bit, the jungle crept in and things got the way they are today.’

Billy grinned.

‘Sounds pretty good.’

The Minstrel Boy shrugged.

‘Maybe. I don’t like to judge. Dropville’s got its problems.’

‘Like what?’

‘Well, I suppose the main problem’s that while, okay, the people will last for ever, the city won’t. This is the other side of the river to Port Judas. It ain’t part of the static zone. Under this clearing is the biggest generator you ever seen. One day it’ll break down and the whole town’ll just blink out. There’s the odd fault showing up already. I tell you one thing though, it’s a good place to party.’

Without saying anything, a girl had come and sat down on the fountain beside Billy. She looked about seventeen, with long blond hair and a deep tan. She smiled when Billy spoke to her. Then she pulled a pack of Northern Lights out of her faded dungarees and offered them around. Billy took one of the slim, white, plastic tubes, and inhaled deeply. He felt himself filled with an overpowering sense of lightness, and objects that he looked at were surrounded by a fine aura of colour.

The girl looked amazingly beautiful to Billy’s enhanced sight. He touched her hand and smiled at her. He felt that it was unnecessary to say anything. She smiled back.

After a few minutes the effect wore off, but Billy found that it returned each time he took another drag. For the next hour the three men and the girl sat on the broken fountain and smiled at everything in sight. The tubes were finally used up and they dropped the plastic cylinders into the fountain. Reave turned to Billy.

‘Those things were certainly something.’

Billy nodded, with a look of awe on his face.

‘They certainly are.’

The Minstrel Boy glanced at him.

‘You’ve never had Northern Lights before?’

Billy and Reave both shook their heads.

‘No, never.’

‘Good, huh?’

‘Good’s hardly the word for it.’

They were all sitting on the fountain thinking about how good the Northern Lights were, when the girl tapped Billy on the shoulder and pointed towards one of the larger buildings that were still standing. A bunch of boys had moved some amplification equipment on to the patio and were plugging in electric instruments. A small crowd was starting to gather. The Minstrel Boy stood up.

‘Let’s go and watch this.’

Reave stared across the clearing.

‘Are those kids going to play some music?’

‘Those kids have been playing music for maybe a hundred years. They are the best. Wait till you hear them.’

The four of them strolled across the clearing. The girl seemed to have attached herself to Billy in her strange, silent way. They settled themselves on the grass as the group of musicians started to play. The Minstrel Boy had been right. They were unnaturally good. The girl handed round the Northern Lights, and for another hour they all sat very still, completely sucked in by the beautiful, free, interweaving music. The first piece lasted for nearly an hour and a half, and when it was finished, one of the group, a tall boy of something like nineteen with a first growth of beard, walked to the front of the patio. He appeared to be the leader of the group, and he gestured towards the Minstrel Boy.

‘You want to come up and join us?’

The Minstrel Boy picked up his guitar.

‘I don’t know if I’ll be good enough.’

The leader grinned.

‘Don’t worry about it. Try and fit in where you can. Maybe we should play some of your songs.’

The Minstrel Boy stood up and made his way to the patio. The silver guitar was hooked into the amplification gear, and the band started again, with the Minstrel Boy tentatively fitting himself in. Billy and Reave sat and watched as the music rolled over them. Another girl came and sat down beside them. She was almost the twin of the first girl. She smiled in the same way, but she also spoke.

‘You have come from the river boat?’

Billy nodded.

‘That’s right.’

‘Are you going to stay with us?’

‘Only until the boat moves on.’

‘That’s a pity.’

‘You’d like us to stay?’

‘We’re pleased when anybody stays.’

The first girl turned her head and smiled at Billy and Reave. Billy stretched out on the grass and stared up at the canopy of leaves overhead. The music wound in and out of itself. Billy sighed. It was the best part of the trip so far. Dropville seemed to have been made for him. He glanced at Reave.

‘This is the way to live, huh?’

Reave frowned.

‘It’s very nice. It’s a bit spooky, though. I mean, all these people staying young for ever, and the way they killed off all the old people.’

He waved his hand at the luxuriant vegetation and the huge bright flowers that covered the jungle floor.

‘It’s like the whole place was rooted in death.’

Billy closed his eyes.

‘That was years ago. It’s long gone. This place is like fucking paradise. Listen to that music, Reave. Look at the women.’

He patted the hand of the mute girl. She smiled and. stroked his hair. Reave looked at Billy doubtfully.

‘Are you thinking of staying here, Billy?’

Billy shook his head.

‘No. But it sure is tempting.’

***

She/They was everything.

She/They was the only thing that Her/Their senses, even at full stretch, could detect. The only source of energy was She/They. The only thing that existed was She/They.

She/They continued to expend energy, and She/They assumed that a forward motion was maintained. There was no edge, no boundary on the negative zone. There was nothing at all. Only the strange vision that had flown past Her/Them convinced Her/Them of the possibility of anything else existing.

She/They knew that at some point in time She/They would start to grow weak. She/They needed to expend energy just in order to maintain Her/Their existence. There was nothing in the zone to draw on. All Her/Their energy was being drawn from inside Her/Them. Her/Their energy reserves were finite. There would come a time when Her/Their resources would be exhausted and Her/Their existence would just flicker out.

She/They shut down all Her/Their functions except that which concentrated on motion. Her/Their shape flickered, wavered and ceased to be. She/They was reduced to a formless point of light that moved across empty blackness.

With nothing to relate it to, time had no meaning. She/They continued, and She/They moved. There was nothing else. Then something appeared.

The peripheral sensors that She/They had maintained during the shutdown roused the other functions and She/They grew back into the triple form. There was an object away in the distance. She/They could ascertain that the object was spherical, but beyond that it was too far away to determine any details. Gradually She/They and the object came closer together. Tentatively, She/They probed the nature of the object.

‘Uniformly dense spherical body.’

‘Uniform composition’

‘Large body of water contained in spherical form by its own surface tension.’

The sphere floated towards Her/Them like a small planet. It appeared to Her/Their sensors like a huge blue-green ball. Faint ripples passed across the surface. As the sphere drew closer, She/They felt Her/Their self being drawn towards it. She was expending no energy. The mass of water was sucking Her/Them in.

Waves circled outwards as She/They struck the surface of the sphere. She/They felt Her/Their self drawn into the watery interior. She/They kicked with a furious jolt of energy, and began to move upwards. The sphere couldn’t contain such a violent motion. The sphere broke apart and a column of water began to rush upwards carrying Her/Them with it, bouncing and buffeting Her/Them as it rushed past.

The water rushed up and up, then She/They broke surface, and found Her/Their self bobbing on the surface of a huge lake. The ripples of Her/Their arrival slowly died and She/They was partially submerged in a glassy smooth lake that appeared to stretch all the way to the horizon.

‘Approach of humans monitored.’

‘We are prepared for defensive action if humans prove hostile.’

The humans moved across the surface of the lake propelling a crude floating craft. No machinery of energy transfer could be detected. They appeared to attain forward motion by the use of their own bodies.

Their craft cut a long V in the surface of the lake as they moved across it. She/They watched and waited. The humans had always puzzled Her/Them. At times it almost seemed that they might have a primitive grasp of the essential con-conception of the symmetry that was Her/Their joy and being, then they would contradict the whole idea by their illogical disordered crudeness. They would swarm over Her/Their hard-won stable areas, violating them with their haphazard behaviour and rude creations.

The humans seemed to have a coarse resilience, possibly a natural compensation for their obvious stupidity, that enabled them to resist both the disruptors and even Her/Their efforts to bring a degree of order to their hideously random lives.

She/They found that there was no way in which She/They could really manipulate them. She/They could sense them totally, and at times they could perceive Her/Them. Beyond that, She/They found that She/They had no power to move them. They occupied the same stable zones. It seemed that the humans clung to stable zones, but on different levels. The levels might be close at times, and even parallel, but there was always a gulf between Her/Them and the humans. They neither aided nor threatened, they just existed. To Her/Them they appeared as a strange byproduct of the disruption.

***

The day turned into night, and the music went on and on, complex and contorted, and then, the next minute, simple and driving. Lights appeared in the trees so the jungle looked alive and glowing. Areas of foliage had been sprayed with phosphorescent paint. It was invisible by day, but with the darkness and the black lights mounted in the trees the plants pulsed and shimmered in a riot of unearthly colours.

As the music became more loose and wild, the rapt attention dissolved into dancing and laughing. Couples and groups moved in and out of the lights and shadows. Casks of wine, narcotic fruit, bottles and pharmaceuticals from a hundred cultures were brought from the stuff machine.

Billy had lost track of Reave as he wandered along the jungle paths with the strange silent girl. He had been offered so many different things, strange liquors, exotic drugs, that his head was spinning and his vision played awesome, spectacular tricks on him. They passed a battery of red and green lights that pulsed on and off, and the girl’s face dissolved into a glowing rainbow. Billy stood perfectly still and stared at her.

‘You’re fucking beautiful. This whole place is beautiful.’

The girl smiled at him. To Billy, it was a flash like the sun coming up. He hugged her, and then they walked on, across the floor of the clearing. The Minstrel Boy was still sitting in with the band. His eyes were closed in total concentration as he tried to coax more and more from the silver guitar. Sweat stood out on his forehead and he seemed totally oblivious to the dancing crowd around him. Billy and the girl stood arm in arm and watched for a while, then they moved on, out of the clearing and along the shining paths that ran through the tall trees.

They came to a smaller glade where two large U.V. generators shone down on the soft leafy jungle floor. Billy felt a new sensation in his head, and he guessed there were a couple of alphasets tuned to wide dispersal somewhere in the bushes.

A number of people were gathered in the glade. Most were naked, some had their bodies painted in colours that glowed under the ultra-violet light. Some of them sat while others lay on the ground and caressed each other. There were few couples. The naked people in the glade grouped themselves in threes, and there were two large groups of seven or eight, who laughed and writhed together in a mass experience. Billy stood at the edge of the glade and watched in fascination. The girl let go of his hand and quickly slipped out of her clothes. She held out her hand, inviting him to do the same, and join the people in the glade. Under the U-V. light her skin became very dark, while her lips and the whites of her eyes glowed an eerie blue.

Billy slowly took off his clothes, while the girl stood behind him and stroked his back. He placed his clothes beside hers and then she took his hand and led him into the glade. She sank to her knees in front of a group of three intertwined people, a boy and two girls who looked like they couldn’t be more than fifteen. Billy knelt down beside the girl and the three others held out their hands in welcome. The music soared through the trees.

Billy let his mind float. The hands and lips that moved across his body, the roaring music and the shifting lights couldn’t be logically put together. He just ran with it, letting himself drift in a world of sensuality, confident that nothing bad could happen to him in this place.

Hours later, Billy found himself lying on the floor of the glade staring blankly at the sky starting to become light in tiny patches between the leaves and branches. The girl was curled up with her head on his chest. His body felt totally exhausted, but the colours in his mind kept swirling and changing. Sleep was impossible. He lay on the ground, totally drained. Memories of the last few hours flooded through his mind in dislocated images of faces, bodies. They invited him, smiled intertwined with his. They distorted into their component colours, and merged back together to form something else that started the process again.

Above him, the sky grew brighter. He was aware that the music had stopped. The only sounds were the rustling in the undergrowth. The first birds were starting their morning chorus. He absently stroked the girl’s smooth, golden, sleeping body. He felt totally at peace. The forest was like a huge, rambling cathedral. Thin beams of light lanced through the high ceiling of foliage and illuminated tiny bright patches of the soft moss that covered the floor of the glade.

It seemed to Billy that everywhere he looked, the forest was a bright rich mosaic. It took him a long time to realize that someone was talking to him.

‘Come on, Billy. Pull yourself together. We’ve got to move in a while.’

He focused on the two faces that looked down on him. It was Reave and the Minstrel Boy, but their faces seemed hard and cruel and their clothes coarse and out of place after the beauty of the night before. They refused to leave him alone.

‘Hey, Billy. We got to go soon. Come on, man. Get your clothes on. Move it, Billy.’

‘Go?’

‘Yeah, go. We got a boat to catch.’

‘We don’t have to catch the boat yet, do we?’

‘Yeah, pretty soon.’

Billy sat up and clasped his knees to his chest.

‘I’m not going.’

Reave and the Minstrel Boy looked at him in amazement.

‘What do you mean, not going?’

‘I want to stay here.’

‘Stay here?’

‘That’s right, man. I’m happy here. I don’t want to leave.’

‘But we got to leave. That’s what you always say, keep moving, keep on looking. We’ve got a boat to catch.’

‘Fuck the boat. I want to stay here. I like it. You understand? I’m happy, I found something. I don’t want to move on. I don’t want to get myself together. Fuck that shit, man. I like it here.’

The Minstrel Boy stuck his hands in his pockets.

‘You are crazy.’

‘Why? Because I don’t want to rush off into another load of trouble?’

Reave shook his head,

‘All that U.V. has scrambled his brains.’

The Minstrel Boy squatted down beside Billy.

***

‘Have you thought about what staying here really means? These people are immortal. They don’t grow old. You do.’

Billy rested his chin on his knees.

‘That won’t matter. Not for a few years. I’ll deal with that problem when it comes.’

‘A few years? You won’t live a few weeks.’

‘What the hell are you talking about?’

‘You’ve seen the way these people live. They load themselves up on everything they can get their hands on, and no doubt you plan to do the same. Right?’

Billy giggled.

‘Sure, why not? Nothing wrong with that, or are you going to hand me some crap that being stoned is an illusion?’

‘I ain’t saying nothing like that. You know me, Billy. I’ll get stoned any time, but I wouldn’t stay here. I know I wouldn’t last thirty days.’

Billy looked confused.

‘There’s nothing here to hurt me.’

‘The whole life style would kill you. The fact that you’re human would kill you.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘How do you feel right now?’

Billy shrugged.

‘Okay. Kind of wasted. Why?’

‘Think you could live like this all the time?’

‘No but …’

‘That’s how life goes on here. You’d have to live like everyone else. There’d be no other way.’

Billy gestured to the sleeping girl.

‘She seems to do okay on it.’

‘Sure she does. She doesn’t age. Her tissue regenerates, She can grow new brain cells. You can’t. You live the same way as her for a couple of weeks and your brain’ll be fried. It’ll burn out. Your body would break down, and you’d die. Now do you understand?’

Billy put his head in his hands.

‘Are you sure about this?’

The Minstrel Boy nodded.

‘Quite sure. It’s happened.’

‘Jesus. I don’t know what to do. I believe you. It’s just that I still want to stay here.’

The Minstrel Boy put a hand on Billy’s shoulder.

‘I know how you feel, man. Think I wouldn’t like to stay here and just play music with those guys? It’d be the best thing in the world, but I know it wouldn’t work out.’

‘I don’t know. I don’t know what to do.’

The Minstrel Boy stood up.

‘Come along with us now. It’s easier this way. If we hang around until they wake up, it’ll be a whole lot more difficult.’

Slowly, as though he was in a trance, Billy got to his feet. He looked down at the girl sleeping on the moss. He sighed deeply.

‘I suppose you’re right.’

He picked up his shirt and slowly began to pull it on. When he was fully dressed they started to make their way down the track that led to the jetty. To their surprise, when they emerged from the forest there was no sign of the Maria Nowhere, The jetty led out into an empty river. The three of them looked at each other in bewilderment.

‘How did we manage to miss it?’

‘It surely can’t be that late.’

The Minstrel Boy shrugged.

‘It’s gone. That’s for sure, and my partner’s on it with all my money.’

Reave slapped his forehead in horror.

‘Most of our money’s on that fucking boat as well. Billy hid it under the mattress.’

Billy grinned.

‘I suppose we’ll have to spend another night in Dropville. That won’t hurt us.’

Reave and the Minstrel Boy scowled at him.

‘Another night there, and none of us might want to leave.’

Billy laughed.

‘What else can we do?’

The Minstrel Boy pointed to the edge of the jetty. There were some canoes tied up.

‘We could take one of those. It’s an easy stretch of river, we could catch the Maria Nowhere when she stops over at the next town.’

Billy looked at the canoes dubiously.

‘Couldn’t we wait for the next boat?’

‘There may not be one for a week, and we don’t have any money.’

‘I guess it’s all down to paddling then.’

They climbed into one of the flimsy craft, settled themselves and pushed off. They found that if they kept to the middle of the river, the current carried them along at a fair speed, and they only needed to paddle when they wanted to change course. The sky was warm, and it seemed to be a not unpleasant way to spend the day. After the first novelty of riding the river had worn off, Billy announced that he was going to catch a few hours’ sleep. He curled up in the stern of the canoe. The next thing he knew was the Minstrel Boy yelling at him.

‘Wake up, Billy. We’re in trouble, man.’

‘What’s the matter?’

‘There seems to be a fault in the river. A big hole that’s sucking us in. Paddling doesn’t help, we’re heading straight for it.’

Billy became aware of a deep roaring noise, and he sat up. Ahead of them was a huge circular hole, rather like they’d seen on the road out of Graveyard, only much, much bigger. All the water from the river seemed to be pouring down as though it was a huge drain. Billy grabbed a paddle and tried desperately to fight the current. Reave and the Minstrel Boy both shook their heads.

‘It’s no good. We’ve tried. It doesn’t make the slightest difference.’

The roar of the water was so loud that they had to shout to make themselves heard.

‘Ain’t there nothing we can do?’

Billy looked round desperately. The hole was getting very close. Then he had an idea.

‘Turn on your porta-pacs! I don’t know if it’ll do any good but it might help.’

Coming up to the hole was like going over a waterfall. A knot twisted in Billy’s stomach. The boat tilted and then dropped into the hole. They held their breath and fell. There was nothing else to do.

They fell. It seemed to go on for ever. Billy’s lungs ached from holding his breath. He felt that maybe he should let himself drown. Maybe it would be easier than being dashed to pieces when they hit bottom.

Then he was floating. He was going upwards. The porta-pac field seemed to have a buoyancy all of its own. His head broke water, and he took a deep, choking breath. After holding his breath so long it felt wonderful. The field of the porta-pac seemed to support him, and he looked around. A few yards away was the canoe. It was floating upside down, but otherwise it seemed undamaged. Billy paddled towards it. He was struggling to turn it over when Reave appeared beside him. Together, they righted the canoe and flopped inside. Billy tentatively switched off his porta-pac. Nothing changed. It seemed as though they had arrived somewhere. Billy sat up and looked around. There was smooth, untroubled water as far as he could see. He turned to Reave.

‘Have you seen the Minstrel Boy?’

Reave shook his head.

‘Not since we fell into the hole.’

‘I hope he made it.’

‘I hope he landed somewhere better than this. There’s no sign of land anywhere.’

‘It’s so still, too. No waves, no breeze, nothing.’

‘Which way do you think we should go?’

Billy looked at the sky. It was a flat uniform grey, a few shades darker than the water. He shook his head.

‘Your guess is as good as mine, and anyway, we don’t have any paddles.’

Reave pointed.

‘Yes we do. Look.’

There was a single paddle floating a few yards away. They pushed the boat towards it, and Reave fished it out of the water.

‘We can take turns. I’ll do the first stint.’

He settled in the stern and began to propel them across the smooth surface of the lake. Billy sat in the bows and stared into the distance, searching in vain for something that would give them a clue to what direction to take. There was no way to judge the passage of time. Nothing moved either on or under the water. Billy glanced at Reave.

‘You think they have day and night here?’

Reave grunted.

‘The time I’ve been paddling, it sure don’t feel like it. You want to take a turn?’

They changed places, and Billy dug in with the paddle. Reave dipped his hand into the water.

‘I wonder if you can drink this stuff.’

He licked his fingers.

‘Tastes okay. It don’t seem like we’re going to die of thirst. I tell you one thing though, I’m going to be well hungry pretty soon. I sure wish Burt the Medicine was here to bring out one of his meals.’

Billy slammed the paddle into the water with unnecessary force.

‘Burt the Medicine’s dead.’

There was a tense silence, and Reave fidgeted awkwardly.

‘You still mad because we made you come away from Dropville?’

Billy shook his head.

‘I ain’t mad, but I don’t really want to talk about it.’

From then on he paddled in silence, avoiding Reave’s occasional glances. Then Reave crouched forward in the bow.

‘Hey, Billy. There’s something out there.’

Billy shaded his eyes and stared where Reave pointed.

‘There’s something out there all right. You still got your gun?’

Reave nodded.

‘Sure. You?’

‘Yeah.’

They paddled towards the object bobbing on the surface. Reave looked back at Billy.

‘You know, from here, it looks like a couple of people swimming.’

‘Maybe it’s the Minstrel Boy?’

‘It definitely looks like two, I’d say … Holy shit!’

An impossible sight was rising out of the water. Two women, both identical, carrying a third in their arms. They wore white ankle-length cloaks, and silver helmets that covered most of their faces. Even the folds of their garments seemed to hang in exactly the same way. They pulsed with a faint blue light, and Billy wondered if the pulse was real or a flashback to the previous night’s drugs. Reave backed down the canoe and crouched beside Billy with his gun drawn.

‘What is it?’

‘I’ve no idea. Let’s just go on and see what happens.’

Billy steered the canoe so it passed within four or five yards of the figures. The strange beings stood motionless, and then slowly turned their heads in perfect unison. Then Billy and Reave were past them, Billy rested the paddle and stared back at the unique thing that floated above the surface of the water. Billy felt an unreasoning blanket of sadness wrap around him. Reave crawled down the canoe and crouched beside him.

‘Gosh.’

Billy looked at Reave strangely, but said nothing. The heads turned back to where they had been looking previously. It seemed that Billy and Reave held no more interest. The figures began to move. They were like a rigid statue that drifted forward across the lake, gradually gathering speed. The composite entity began to grow smaller and smaller, and soon Billy and Reave could no longer make it out at all. Billy turned to look at Reave.

‘What made you suddenly say “gosh” just now?’

Reave frowned.

‘I don’t know. My personality just seemed to slip for a moment. It’s back again now.’

***

A.A. Catto returned to her own apartment, bruised and aching. The door responded to her voice and she went straight through into her bedroom and threw herself down on the bed. Damn her oily cunning little brother and his tricks. The whipping was a novelty, but it certainly wasn’t worth the pain involved.

She slipped out of her white dress and looked up at the mirror ceiling. Her back and buttocks were crisscrossed by angry red weals. Curse Valdo, the little worm. She reached the bedside console and punched up Information. A blond Hostess-1 appeared on the screen.

‘May I help you?’

‘Get me a Medic.’

‘I’ll put you through, Miss Catto.’

‘Don’t put me through. Just get me one.’

‘What seems to be the trouble, Miss Catto?’

‘I’ve been whipped. By my brother. I suppose you could say the problem was bruising.’

‘I’ll have a Medic-1 with you straight away. Will there be anything else, Miss Catto?’

‘Yes, just one thing. If any word of this should leak out, I’ll see that you’re broken to L-4 before you know it.’

‘Your privacy is guaranteed, Miss Catto.’

A.A. Catto grunted and cut the connection. Within minutes, the door buzzer sounded and she pushed the entry button to admit a Medic-1 and a pair of Hostess-2s. She lay on her stomach while the Medic-1 inspected the damage to her back. The Medic had the white covers and the middle-aged, competent features that were the hallmark of his class. He shot four hundred mics of analgethene straight into A.A. Catto’s spine and the discomfort rapidly faded. The Medic ran a dispersed Gamma beam over her bruised flesh and the red weals started to fade. A.A. Catto found the treatment pleasant and stimulating. After some time the Medic straightened up, and put his equipment back into the carrying case.

‘You will make a perfect recovery, Miss Catto.’

‘Good. You’d better not say a word about this.’

The Medic placed a pompous hand on his heart.

‘Discretion is something sacred to this class.’

‘Yes, yes. You’re dismissed, you can go.’

The Medic and his two blond assistants departed. The console buzzed at her. A. A. Catto pushed the answer button, and Valdo’s face appeared on the screen.

‘I thought I’d call and see how you were, sister.’

A.A. Catto’s eyes flashed.

‘Haven’t you done enough for one day?’

‘You really are a bad loser. So angry, just because you lost one little bet.’

A.A. Catto snarled at her brother and cut the connection. The console buzzed again, but she ignored it. The last person she wanted to talk to was her wretched brother. She rolled on her back, and stared at her reflection on the ceiling. Her body was really far too beautiful for nasty little Valdo. She resolved that she would have nothing more to do with him, for a while, at least.

A.A. Catto began to get bored with even her own reflection. It was still only mid afternoon and after the painkillers and stimulants she had been consuming, it seemed a pity to waste them all. She stretched out a languid hand to the console and punched up the Steward service. A bronzed young man with short-cropped blond hair and pale blue covers answered.

‘May I help you?’

‘Can you send me a Steward straight away.’

‘What service do you require, Miss Catto?’

A.A. Catto giggled,

‘Personal, of course.’

‘Do you have any preference to the type of Steward?’

‘I’d like you to run up a special for me.’

‘Full gene surgery will take a few days, Miss Catto.’

‘Gene surgery won’t be necessary. A plastic temporary job will do.’

‘A plastic reconstruction will take about fifteen minutes.’

A.A. Catto thought she detected a hint of sullenness in the man’s voice. She looked sharply at the screen.

‘You Stewards don’t like plastic temp jobs, do you?’

‘Our preferences are not relevant. We are designed to serve.’

‘Afterwards though, it can be very painful when it grows out, can’t it?’

‘There are after effects for the individual Steward, but those should not concern you, Miss Catto.’

A.A. Catto smiled a particularly nasty smile.

‘That’s right, it doesn’t concern me at all. I want you to look up records. There was once a movie actor called Valentino. Rudolph Valentino. I want you to prepare a special using those old films and pictures. I want a Steward sent up that looks like Valentino.’

‘There will be a time factor involved in the production of this.’

‘How long?’

‘I would estimate it at about half an hour.’

‘I’ll wait, but it better not be much longer.’

‘It’ll be as soon as possible, Miss Catto. Are there any other requirements?’

A.A. Catto smiled.

‘Only the usual ones.’

She cut the connection, and lay on the bed waiting. Would it be more fun to dress up? Make the Steward rip her clothes off? She decided she had had enough violence for one day. In addition, it was too much trouble, dressing only to undress again. It was, after all, only a Steward. She would just lie there naked and let him service her. When she’d had enough, she’d, dismiss him. There was no point in making elaborate arrangements for a Steward-1.

Twenty-five minutes later the door buzzer sounded again. A.A, Catto smiled and pushed the entry button. A young man with slicked-back, patent leather hair, dark, flashing eyes and cruel mouth strode into A.A. Catto’s bedroom.

‘I am here, Miss Catto.’

His appearance was perfect, he was just what A.A. Catto had ordered. She wondered, however, if his voice and gestures were a little too theatrical. She’d report the fact to the Steward service when she was through with him.

The young man posed at the end of her bed while A.A. Catto examined him. After a couple of minutes, he cleared his throat.

‘I was instructed to inform you that I am also programmed to do the tango.’

***

During his third turn with the paddle, Reave began to bitch. Apart from the strange apparition, nothing had appeared that gave any indication of land. Billy looked up from where he was dozing in the bow of the canoe.

‘What’s the matter with you?’

‘I’m hungry, and I’m tired. I’m sick of this fucking lake, and I’m sick of not getting anywhere.’

Billy yawned.

‘Too bad.’

Reave glared.

‘What do you mean, too bad? If something doesn’t turn up soon we’re going to die out here.’

‘What am I supposed to do? Get excited or something? Before you start handing me the you-got-me-into-this line, just remember that it was me that wanted to stay in Dropville.’

‘You would have died in Dropville.’

‘I’m going to die here, according to you. It strikes me that I’d have been better off dying in Dropville.’

Reave scowled.

‘Is that what you really think?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Yeah?’

There was a moment of tension, and then the two of them realized the absurdity of attempting to fight in the small canoe and relaxed.

‘There’s no point in getting on each other’s back. We’re stuck here and there’s nothing we can do about it.’

Reave went on paddling for some time, and then Billy took over. Their changing places was the only thing that gave them any idea of the passage of time. Nothing else changed. There was only the still water and the unchanging sky. Hunger gnawed at their stomachs, and the boredom of their surroundings provided nothing to distract them. Billy felt that his world was totally composed of paddling, sleeping, and waiting for starvation to creep slowly up on them.

Reave was sitting in the bow staring into space, and Billy was mechanically paddling, when Reave suddenly stiffened.

‘There’s something out there.’

Billy looked up.

‘You sure you’re not seeing things?’

Reave pointed.

‘Look for yourself.’

Billy pushed up his dark glasses and shaded his eyes with his hand. He could just about make out a dark smudge on the horizon.

‘Seems like there’s something out there.’

Billy paddled harder and the dark object came nearer.

‘It looks like an island of some sort.’

‘It’s kind of small for an island.’

They paddled nearer. The island turned out to be a floating reed bed, a mat of tangled vegetation that lay sluggishly on the surface of the lake. Billy prodded it with his paddle and oily water oozed up between the fibrous plants. Reave stared at it morosely.

‘This ain’t much use to us.’

‘Maybe not. It could be a sign that we’re getting nearer land. Have you noticed anything about the air?’

Reave looked puzzled.

‘Don’t think so.’

‘There’s a smell. Fish, and, I don’t know, maybe plants, or dead leaves.’

Reave sniffed the air.

‘You could be right. Let’s keep going. At least it’s a sign of something.’

He crawled towards Billy.

‘Here. Give me the paddle. If there’s land out there, let’s get to it.’

Reave paddled with renewed vigour. They passed more of the floating vegetation. The tangled beds became more numerous, and here and there they linked up to form huge areas of matted plant life. Billy and Reave were soon paddling along channels that separated the now vast reed beds. The air was filled with the swamp smell of decaying plant life, and the water became black and stagnant. Mosquitoes and brightly coloured dragonflies danced over the surface of the water, and pale flowers struggled to hold their own among the crawling dark green plants.

The reed beds grew thicker, and Billy and Reave found that they had to force the boat through increasingly narrow spaces, and even hack their way with the paddle through the thinner parts of the beds.

Billy peered down into the black water. It seemed to be getting more shallow. The boat occasionally scraped some hard object and Billy thought he could make out shapes under the water. They looked like the ruins of something man-made.

The canoe stuck fast and wouldn’t move. Billy took off his belt, slipped over the side, and sank up to his waist in the swamp before he found a footing. He put a shoulder to the stern of the boat and heaved. At first nothing happened, then there was a grating, ripping sound and Reave let out a yell.

‘There’s a hole in the fucking boat. Water’s coming in.’

The canoe began to list badly and Reave splashed into the black water beside Billy.

‘We’ve had the canoe.’

‘My porta-pac and gun are still inside.’

Reave leaned over the side of the settling canoe and fished them out. Billy looped them over his shoulder.

‘I guess we better foot it until we reach some firmer ground.’

‘Nothing else we can do.’

They found that each time they moved their feet, sluggish bubbles of foul-smelling gas rose to the surface and burst. Small black insects darted about, and mosquitoes laughed at them. They stumbled and fell often. As Billy had thought, under the layer of liquid mud there were heaps of some kind of jagged rubble on which they stubbed their toes and twisted their ankles. The going was almost impossible, and although they were soaked from the waist down, sweat poured down their faces. Billy stopped, with swamp water up to his knees.

‘Listen, I just had an idea. If we were to turn on our porta-pacs the extra buoyancy might make it easier.’

‘If they still work after the number of times we’ve dropped them in the mud.’

Billy held his up, shook it, and pressed the on button. There was a ripple as the field came on. It proved to be a good deal easier to move. They covered another three hundred yards, and Billy found that here and there patches of dry land covered in coarse spiky grass rose above the level of lie swamp. Billy and Reave staggered up on to one of the dry hummocks and flopped down.

‘Jesus, I’m exhausted.’

‘At least we seem to be getting somewhere. There seems to be more firm ground as you go on.’

The ground beyond them was more solid. There were wide areas of the spiky grass. Further on a few short twisted trees struggled to survive. In the distance they could just see a line of low hills.

After they’d rested for a while, Billy and Reave moved on. Although it was easier to cross the firmer ground, it wasn’t without its hazards. They had to wade through large areas of standing water, and Billy, at one point, sank up to his waist in a trough of thick, sucking mud. Reave struggled for ten minutes before he managed to drag him out. The insects seemed to increase, both in numbers and in daring, and the mud drying on their clothes irritated their skin just as much as the mosquito bites.

Filthy and exhausted they eventually reached the lower slopes of the high ground. It was covered in soft springy turf. Both Billy and Reave fell down and lay panting on the grass. They rested in silence for a while, then Reave noticed something in a slightly longer clump of grass, and crawled towards it. He laughed and called to Billy.

‘Hey, see what I found.’

Billy raised his head.

‘What is it?’

‘Come and take a look.’

Billy crawled to beside Reave, who parted the grass with his hands. In a hidden nest were a clutch of eight pale blue eggs. They were slightly larger than the pigeons’ eggs Billy had stolen in Pleasant Gap when he was a kid. He grinned at Reave.

‘Breakfast!’

‘Or lunch.’

‘Or supper, who can tell in this fucked-up place?’

‘It’s food, anyway. What do you think we should do with them?’

Billy looked around.

‘I don’t know. I guess we’re going to have to eat them raw.’

‘We could build a fire and try to cook them.’

Billy laughed.

‘With what, man? We don’t have any pans or anything.’

‘We could build a fire and fry them on a hot rock.’

‘We don’t have any grease.’

Reave shrugged.

‘There are times when you have to improvise.’

Reave scrambled to his feet and hurried down the slope. A few minutes later he returned with an armful of twigs and a round flat stone. After a couple of false starts, he got a fire going. Reave laid the rock on top of the hot embers. He spat on it to make sure it was hot enough, and when he was satisfied he cracked all the eggs on to the top of the rock. They were chalky and full of pieces of grit. Billy and Reave burned their fingers picking the food from the hot rock. When they’d finished, however, Billy lay back on the grass with a grunt of satisfaction.

‘I could eat that three times over.’

‘It sure was welcome.’

They slept for a while, and woke up stiff, aching, but a good deal more hopeful than they’d been earlier. They began to climb the hill. About halfway from the top they came across a well-used dirt road that appeared to wind to the other side of the line of hills.

They’d been following the road for perhaps half an hour, although they both still had trouble judging how time passed. They heard a sound from somewhere. It started as a high-pitched whine, but seemed to get fuller as it came towards them. It grew to a full-throated roar, and a figure on a motorcycle came over the hill and down the road towards them. The motorcyclist bounced past them, but slewed to a halt, and came back. Both Billy and Reave had caught the flash of a guitar on the rider’s back. They looked at each other.

‘It can’t be.’

‘It’s not possible.’

The Minstrel Boy kicked the big elaborate machine, with its long forks and high bars, on to its stand and walked towards Billy and Reave. Pulling off his leather flying helmet, he brushed the dust from his long suede coat.

‘Hey fellas, fancy seeing you boys around here.’

‘We never thought we’d see you again.’

‘No?’

‘How did you get out of that fault in the river?’

The Minstrel Boy frowned.

‘The river? That was a whole long time ago.’

It was Billy’s and Reave’s turn to frown.

‘Huh? It was only a couple of days ago.’

The Minstrel Boy shrugged.

‘Suit yourselves. You know best. Where are you headed?’

Billy spread his hands.

‘No idea. We just pulled ourselves out of the swamp. We were going up this hill to see what was on the other side. Are there any towns near here?’

The Minstrel Boy nodded wearily.

‘Sure, there’s a city on the other side of the hill. I wouldn’t care to say whether you’d like it or not.’

‘You mean there’s something wrong with it?’

‘There’s something wrong with most cities. You don’t need me to tell you that.’

‘But is this one okay?’

The Minstrel Boy scratched his ear.

‘I’m a minstrel, not a tourist guide. If you mean will you come to harm, there’s a chance of that anywhere. If you wanted to avoid harm you would have stayed in that hick town that you came from. If you mean is the city where you’ll find what you’re looking for, you got the wrong person. I can’t tell you something that you don’t even know yourselves.’

After the Minstrel Boy’s outburst, there was an awkward silence. Billy looked at the ground and spoke tentatively.

‘Where are you headed?’

‘Some other place.’

‘How would it be if we came with you?’

The Minstrel Boy pointed at the motorcycle.

‘It don’t take but one.’

‘That’s a pity.’

‘Not really, I’m headed for one place, and you’re on the road to that city over the hill. We just met in passing. It doesn’t call for anyone to change their plans. You go your way, and I’ll carry on along mine.’

‘Sure. I guess we’ll be seeing each other.’

The Minstrel Boy nodded.

‘That’s possible. So long.’

He was walking back to the bike, pulling on his helmet, when Reave called him back.

‘You wouldn’t have anything to eat, would you? I mean, something you could spare.’

‘You run out of food?’

‘Yeah.’

He fumbled in one of the big patch pockets and pulled out a small package.

‘Have a cookie.’

‘Uuh …’

‘Have two. In fact, if you’re hungry, take the whole packet.’

He tossed the cookies to Reave and then turned and walked away. He kicked the bike into life and swung back on to the dirt road. Billy and Reave watched until he was out of sight. Then they turned, and started up the hill.

***

Her/Their sensors had long detected the existence and location of the place. Now it was coming close. She/They was filled with hope. All caution was abandoned as She/They cut a straight line through the grey fabric of disordered matter. She/They was homing in on the place of stasis.

It was a natural fold in the fabric that would have been safe on its own. With the addition of the generated field, it was the ideal place for Her/Them to heal Her/Their wounds and restore Her/Their full potential.

As She/They drew closer She/They discovered that humans were occupying the fold. It was they who had built and still operated the generator. They would be a nuisance, but would not constitute a danger to the delicate energy transfer that She/They had to perform. She/They would rather that they weren’t standing around gawping at Her/Them, but it couldn’t be helped.

To Her/Them, the generators typified the attitude of the humans, crude machines that produced a semblance of stability. The humans seemed content with them, but to Her/Them they were an ugly half measure. An expedient answer to a question that demanded absolutes. It pained Her/Them to have to resort to their rough power, but the present necessity dictated it.

She/They slowed down as a landscape formed beneath Her/Them. She/They floated slowly down a bare grey hill, at the bottom of which there was a seemingly pointless land transport that ran on a circular track. Beyond a line of tall cultivated plants lay the dwellings of the humans and the mean centre of the stable area.

She/They moved towards it.

***

Billy and Reave reached the top of the hill and looked out over a destroyed valley. There was a city, just like the Minstrel Boy had predicted. He hadn’t, however, prepared them for the sight that met their eyes.

The war zone at Dur Shanzag was the only thing that Billy could compare it with, and even there, there hadn’t been such a terrible destruction of the landscape.

The centre piece of the whole area was a huge white tower that soared thousands of feet into the air, dwarfing the domes and high-rise buildings that clustered round its immediate base. A wall ran round the tower and its attendant structures. Beyond the wall the desolation began in earnest. Like a dark stain on the earth, miles of shacks and ruins spread out from the walls of the inner citadel, and across almost the whole valley. In the area of the shacks, there were huge faults in the fabric that drilled giant circular holes in the broken-down city. The size and number of the faults seemed to diminish near to the citadel, and around the walls the ground was quite stable.

A thousand little fires seemed to be burning among the shacks and the air of the valley was foul and polluted. A filthy river sluggishly wound its way through the ruins. Its banks were crowded with all shapes and sizes of dilapidated craft. Others crawled slowly across its surface. The streets and alleys between the shacks were thronged with jostling humanity. They were a total contrast to the area inside the walls, where a pristine order and calm seemed to reign.

Billy looked doubtfully at Reave.

‘You think this is really the place to go?’

Reave surveyed the valley.

‘It don’t look too pretty, but there’s people. It can’t be all bad.’

Billy wished silently that he shared Reave’s optimism,

‘Okay then, let’s go.’

They started down into the valley. Before they’d reached the bottom, the road had changed direction twice to skirt huge faults in the side of the hill. They made their way down to the flat lands and found themselves among the outer edges of the shacks. They seemed to be built out of any and every material that might be at hand and could be crudely knocked together. Some were built around the ruins of older and what had once been more substantial buildings.

Thin ragged children peered out of doorways, and there was an air of appalling squalor and poverty. Billy glanced at Reave.

‘It don’t look like people have too much of a good time round these parts.’

Reave pointed to the tower that rose high above them into the polluted air.

‘I bet the folk up there do all right. That’s got to be where the high living goes on.’

‘You think we can get in there?’

Billy looked at their torn, filthy clothes. He rubbed a hand over his chin. It felt as though he hadn’t shaved for a week. Reave just grinned.

‘We can but try.’

They walked on deeper into the city. They passed more and more people. Three times, Billy tried to approach groups of people and talk to them. Each time, before he could say anything, they shrank away from him and hid their faces in their filthy rags. Disconcerted, Billy went back to Reave.

‘I don’t know what’s wrong with us, but nobody seems to want to know us.’

‘Maybe they don’t like strangers.’

‘They seem terrified when I try to get near them. There’s something else, as well, that bothers me.’

‘Yeah? What’s that?’

‘Well, I don’t know if it’s the bad air, or something wrong with my eyes, but there’s something sort of, how would you call it, insubstantial about them. Like you could shine a bright light right through them. Do you know what I mean?’

Reave looked around and slowly nodded.

‘They do seem kind of transparent. Like ghosts or something. I thought it was just a trick of the light.’

He pointed towards the tower again.

‘That looks pretty damn solid.’

Something moved in Billy’s memory.

‘I know what these people look like. They’re just like the folks we saw on the road out of Graveyard.’

Reave looked at Billy in puzzlement.

‘What folks?’

Billy remembered how Reave had been asleep when he and the Minstrel Boy had seen the strange column of prisoners and their sinister guards pass them on the broken road.

‘It was just something that reminded me and the … Hey! Look at that.’

A medium-sized fault had suddenly appeared some twenty yards down the road. Two shacks and about a dozen people had flickered out of existence. All that remained was a circular hole in the ground. For a few seconds, Billy and Reave stood transfixed, then, simultaneously, they both hit the buttons on their porta-pacs.

‘This whole fucking place is falling to pieces!’

‘I think we ought to try for the citadel. If we can’t get inside, I’d rather we got the hell out of here.’

Reave nodded.

‘I’m with you, Billy boy.’

They hurried on. A crowd had gathered around the newly formed fault, but it quickly dispersed as Billy and Reave approached.

‘They seem to treat us like poison.’

‘We don’t look too good.’

‘Neither do they.’

‘That’s true.’

They turned into a broader avenue, where men and women struggled under heavy burdens. A group of children strained to pull a large clumsy cart with big solid wheels. A man walked beside them with a long cane, encouraging them to greater efforts. As before, the crowds hastily parted to let Billy and Reave pass.

A commotion at the far end of the avenue caught their attention. A sleek and very solid-looking, field grey, armoured car was forcing its way through the crowd, who fell over each other to get out of the way. Reave quickly glanced at Billy. The armoured car seemed to be heading straight for them.

‘Think we should run?’

A loudhailer mounted on the armoured car supplied the answer.

‘You there! Stop! Do not attempt to move!’

Billy groaned.

‘Not again.’

‘Why always us?’

‘There seems to be something about authority that makes it home in on strangers.’

The armoured car squealed to a stop beside them, and the turret swivelled ominously, pointing the snout of some kind of heat weapon at them. The speaker boomed again.

‘Take one pace away from each other and place your hands on your heads!’

Billy and Reave did as they were told, and a hatch in the side of the machine swung open. Two men in grey uniforms and steel helmets climbed out and covered Reave and Billy with machine pistols. Tear gas canisters and long flexible rubber truncheons hung from the webbing of their tunics. Patches on their shoulders carried the single word Personnel and the figure 3.

For Billy, there was something strangely familiar about their captors. Then he had a horrific flash of recognition. Their uniforms were the same as those of the sinister guards he’d seen on the road out of Graveyard. The fear he had felt then came back to him. He broke out in a cold sweat.

One of the uniformed men poked Billy with his gun.

‘What are you doing here?’

‘Just passing through.’

‘The two of you, together?’

‘Yes.’

‘And what is your purpose for coming here?’

‘We got lost, and this was the first city we came to.’

‘It’s hardly satisfactory. You better come with us.’

‘But we …’

Before they could protest, they were bundled into the back of the armoured car. Their wrists were clamped into manacles on the wall, and they roared away. Both the vehicle and the men inside it were just as solid as Billy or Reave, and had none of the ghostly appearance of the rest of the population.

The machine halted, and through a small ventilator Billy could see they were waiting to enter a tunnel that led through the tower’s perimeter wall. A thick steel door slid back and they moved on. After a couple of minutes the armoured car halted and the rear hatch opened. Billy and Reave were released from their manacles and ordered to get out. They were pushed into an enclosed courtyard where an escort, in similar uniforms to the armoured-car crew, waited for them. One of the escort, who had a figure 2 on his shoulder instead of a 3, walked over to the car commander. He jerked a thumb at Billy and Reave.

‘What are these two?’

‘Suspicious persons. Possibly vagrancy and unemployment. Possession of unauthorized stasis equipment. I was bringing them in for Search, Tests and Questioning.’

He turned to the escort.

‘Take these two down for S. T. & Q.’

The escort saluted, surrounded Billy and Reave and marched them away. Billy leaned close to Reave.

‘Looks like we’re getting inside the tower, though …’

One of the escorts punched Billy in the side of the head, and he staggered.

‘Talking by prisoners is not permitted.’

They were pushed into what looked like a service lift. It sank at high speed to a deep sub-basement level. The lift gates clanged open, and they were marched out into a large, white-tiled room. A stainless-steel counter ran down one side of the wall. Behind it were three men and a woman, in uniform shirt sleeves with the same Personnel-3 shoulder patches. As the escort marched out of the lift, one of them looked up.

‘What have you got there?’

‘Two prisoners for S. T. & Q.’

‘We’ll have to throw them in the tank for a couple of hours. They’ve got a lot upstairs.’

The escort pushed Billy and Reave towards the counter.

‘Just so long as you sign for them, I don’t care what you do.’

‘Okay.’

The man behind the counter picked up a clipboard. He scribbled something on it, tore off a slip and handed it to one of the escort. Then he turned to Billy and Reave.

‘Right, you two. Let’s have you.’

He looked round at one of his companions behind the counter.

‘Bring your gun. We’ll I.D. them and then put them down.’

The second man picked up a machine pistol, while the other tucked a file card and a set of electronic keys under his arm. Billy and Reave were taken through a series of small rooms where they were stripped, fingerprinted, photographed, blood typed and X-rayed. Their clothes, guns and porta-pacs were confiscated. They were given dog tags with a number printed on them and pushed through a steel door, down a short flight of steps and into a large bare room with a concrete floor and smooth tiled walls. Bright striplights were buried in the roof behind thick unbreakable glass. An iron bench ran down the middle of the room. Two of the ragged ghostly men from the outer city sat hunched up on it. Billy and Reave both sat down and looked round the room.

High up in the ceiling was the unmistakable fisheye of a closed-circuit camera. There was also a loudspeaker hung in each corner of the room. Despite himself, Billy grinned. It was the first jail he’d ever been in with quad sound.

Billy moved closer to one of the prisoners and whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

‘What you in for, buddy?’

‘Got arrested.’

‘Listen, uh … if you don’t mind me asking. How come you folks look the way you do?’

‘No power.’

‘Huh?’

‘No power. Th’ field ain’t too strong outside of th’ wall an’ we jus’ grow this way. Take alla power t’ keep t’ tower up. It’s like we …’

The speakers crackled into life.

‘Prisoners will remain silent! You two on the bench, move apart!’

Billy slid down the bench and glanced covertly at Reave,

‘Looks like they watch all the time.’

The speakers spluttered angrily.

‘Silence in there!’

Billy wondered what happened if anyone just ignored the speakers. He thought about the long rubber truncheons and decided not to be the one to put it to a test.

There was nothing for either Billy or Reave to do except sit with his own thoughts. There seemed to be rules against everything. Prisoners had to face the camera. Prisoners must not cross their legs or hide their hands. The speakers screamed and yelled. At first Billy had thought that this jail, with its stainless-steel and antiseptic white tiles, would prove a whole lot better than the lock-up at Dur Shanzag, but after a couple of hours under the eye of the camera and continual barking of the speakers he wasn’t so sure.

‘79014 will stand facing the door!’

Billy looked at his dog tag. It wasn’t him. One of the men from the outer city reluctantly stood up and shuffled over to the door. He seemed to grow more and more transparent. His thin shoulders hunched and seemed to be trying to wrap themselves round his narrow chest. The door was flung open with a crash. Two grey-uniformed Personnel men clattered in, grabbed him by the arm and bundled him out. In a final, futile effort of resistance he clung to the door frame and struggled with the guards. One of them unclipped his truncheon and brought it down on the man. He slumped on the floor, and was dragged out. Reave looked at Billy, his face had gone white.

‘Jesus. Did you …’

The speaker roared.

‘Silence!’

‘They beat him un …’

‘Silence! This is your last warning!’

Reave slumped on the bench with his head clasped in his hands.

‘Prisoners will not hide their faces. Prisoners will face the camera.’

Reave sat up scowling sullenly. A heavy ominous silence settled over the room. It seemed to Billy that it was all over. He could think of nothing that might turn up to get them out of the place. Hope of rescue seemed a very long way off. Again the speakers barked.

‘79021 face the door. 79022 face the door.’

Billy and Reave examined their dog tags.

‘That’s us.’

‘Jesus.’

‘Silence!’

They walked slowly towards the door, feeling naked and helpless.

***

The Steward-1 left, and A.A. Catto stepped into the shower. Her body felt pleasantly tired and, for once, she wanted nothing more than to lie back and think over the events of the day. She might not have gone along with everything that had happened, but, all in all, it had been more interesting than most parties. The 360-degree needle jets struck her body from every direction, and it tingled exquisitely. She flicked on the warm air and, once dry, she flopped back on to her bed.

She had had enough of her own reflection for a while, and she dimmed the ceiling mirror, and the surface was covered by a swirl of yellow moiré patterns. She stared at them and gradually she felt her body begin to float.

She flicked on the alphaset and adjusted it to a medium setting. A sense of euphoric wellbeing spread from her head to her toes and fingertips. The combination of the alpha waves and visual stimulation sent her drifting out to a soft yellow haze that was far more beautiful a high than could be obtained from any of the ordinary pharmaceuticals. She rolled sensuously on the bed, and it was slowly twisting across the universe. It was as though she was basking in the light of a thousand lazy suns.

A melodic tune pulsed through her beautiful universe and something suggested that it didn’t fit. The face of the Valentino Steward floated across her memory. It really was a good idea to design her own specials. It was a delicious idea. The idea of a constant stream of custom-made lovers gave her a hot liquid feeling deep inside the warm cosmos of her body.

The tone came again and A.A. Catto realized that it was the console. She was back on the bed again, stretching out an unsteady hand to the answer button.

‘Yeah?’

Her voice was far away and dreamy. Unintelligible sounds came from the speaker and the screen was a random blur of drifting colours. A.A. Catto giggled.

‘Who is that wanting to speak to me?’

‘It’s me, Juno Meltzer.’

‘Juno … how nice to hear … from you … Juno.’

The words became gibberish again. A.A. Catto listened to them with rapt interest.

‘I’m not very sure what you’re trying to say to me, Juno. Your words are not very clear.’

Juno Meltzer’s face swam slightly more into focus, but the colour still changed and floated off the screen.

‘If you shut down the alphaset you might be able to make some sense out of what I’m saying.’

‘Now maybe that would be a possibility.’

‘Switch off the damn alphaset for a minute.’

A.A. Catto didn’t like the idea.

‘Juno, I …’

‘Turn it off for god’s sake.’

A.A. Catto’s hand went out to the alpha control before her brain realized exactly what it was doing. She hit reality with a bump.

‘Damn you, Juno. What do you want?’

‘I suppose you haven’t had your vid channel open.’

A.A. Catto scowled. Surely the stupid girl hadn’t called her from her blissful state to talk about vidshows.

‘Of course I haven’t. I’ve been out of my brain for hours. Why?’

‘There was something very interesting on newsfax.’

‘Newsfax? Are you crazy? You called me up to tell me about newsfax. I had the ceiling going and was right out on alphas.’

‘That was evident.’

‘Well now you’ve brought me down, what was so wonderful on newsfax?’

‘Personnel have arrested two strangers in the L-4 area.’

A.A. Catto shrugged.

‘So? Personnel are always arresting L-4s.’

‘No, no, they weren’t L-4s. They were strangers. They claim they’re from beyond the water. They said they came through the swamp.’

‘You mean that they claim to be …’

‘That’s right. They’re real genuine natural-selection humans.’

‘Not gene-jobs or L-4s?’

‘Plain folks if their stories are true.’

‘Then they’re just like us?’

‘I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. Just because the DNA structure’s intact doesn’t immediately make them the equal of anyone in the five families. Even when there were plenty of natural humans running around, we were still pretty superior,’

‘That’s true.’

‘Punch up a re-run on the newsfax item. They’re quite interesting.’

‘Hold on then, I’ll split-screen.’

A.A. Catto pressed a series of buttons, and Juno Meltzer’s image was pushed to the left of the screen. On the right was a film clip of two hard unkempt-looking men being led across a compound by an escort of Personnel-3s. A.A. Catto clapped her hands in delight.

‘I want one. I want one.’

Juno Meltzer moved back to take up the whole screen.

‘What do you mean, you want one?’

‘I could have a party or something. They look very different. They look as though they might be interesting.’

‘They look dirty, and like they might be carrying all kinds of horrible diseases.’

‘Oh, they can be cleaned up and decontaminated. I still want one.’

Juno Meltzer looked doubtful.

‘Don’t you think it’s going a bit far? I mean, you know, outsiders?’

‘I always thought you told everyone that you couldn’t go far enough.’

‘Yes but …’

A.A. Catto interrupted Juno’s protests.

‘I don’t care. I want one. I want one before anybody else gets them. I wouldn’t put it past my loathsome little brother to try to get his hands on them.’

‘I heard something about you and your brother …’

‘You keep quiet about that, Juno Meltzer, or I’ll kill you. Understand?’

‘I …’

‘Listen, I’ll talk to you later. I’ve got to call Personnel before Valdo does.’

A.A. Catto cut the connection and punched some more buttons. A hard-faced man in grey appeared on the screen.

‘Personnel. May I help you?’

‘I want the prisoners who claim to be from outside sent up here straight away.’

‘They’re under interrogation at the moment.’

‘The interrogation must be stopped. I want them sent straight up to me, after they’ve been showered and disinfected.’

‘I’ll see what I can do, Miss Catto.’

A.A. Catto slammed her small fist into the console.

‘You’ll do it.’

‘Yes, Miss Catto.’

***

‘Name?’

‘Billy.’

‘Billy what?’

‘Billy Oblivion.’

There were two of them. One playing Mutt, the other playing Jeff. They’d been through his name and origins. The friendly one put a hand on Billy’s shoulder.

‘Where are you from, Billy? Where’s Pleasant Gap?’

‘I’ve no idea. I’ve been through the nothings so many times.’

‘Liar.’

The bad guy lashed at Billy with his fist. His head exploded in a painful shower of stars and he sagged against the restraining straps that held him in the hard, upright chair. The chair was bolted to the floor in the centre of a small bare room. The bad guy pushed the bare light globe so it swung backwards and forwards in front of Billy’s face. The bad guy put his face very close to Billy. Billy could see his strong white teeth and feel his breath on his face. His voice dropped to a vicious whisper.

‘You’re a fucking little liar. You’re a dirty little L-4 who managed to get his hands on a portable generator.’

The good guy smiled sympathetically.

‘You’d do well to tell him the truth. He’ll only hurt you if you don’t.’

‘But I’m not an …’

‘Where did you get the generator, kid?’

‘In Pleasant Gap.’

‘Where’s Pleasant Gap?’

‘I told you. I don’t know any …’

Smash! Billy’s head reeled.

‘Where did you get the generator?’

‘Pleasant …’

Smash.

‘Name?’

‘Billy, Billy Oblivion.’

‘Place of origin?’

‘I …’

‘Are you going to tell us the truth, kid?’

‘I’ve been trying to. I’m not an L-4. I don’t even know what an L-4 is. I didn’t know there were any laws here against porta-pacs. I don’t even know where here is.’

‘How did you get here, then, mister outsider?’

‘On foot.’

‘Through the swamp?’

‘After our canoe sank.’

‘In the swamp?’

‘Yes.’

Smash!

There was a pause while they waited for Billy to be sick. The good guy lifted Billy’s head.

‘You really shouldn’t lie to my friend here. He’s got a whole lot of sophisticated stuff that he could use on you. This kind of thing is only openers for him.’

The bad guy laughed.

‘Think I should tell him about a few of them? Like maybe the needles that you can stick through the flesh and scrape his bones with.’

The good guy shook his head.

‘I don’t think we’ll need it with this boy. I’m sure he’ll cooperates. Let’s try again. Name?’

‘Billy Oblivion.’

‘Place of origin?’

‘I …’

‘Place of origin?’

‘If I tell you, he’ll just hit me.’

‘Not if you tell the truth.’

‘But I WAS telling the truth. I did start out from Pleasant …’

Smash!

The bad guy scowled.

‘I thought we’d sorted out that business.’

‘I don’t know what else to say. It’s the truth.’

‘Why not …’

The door opened and another grey-uniformed figure came into the room. The bad guy smiled at him.

‘What the hell do you want? Don’t you know we’re questioning a prisoner?’

‘They want your prisoner up at the top.’

‘The hell they do, we’ve only just begun to work on him.’

‘They want him and the other one. Straight away.’

The bad guy started to button his tunic.

‘Who wants him? I’ll sort them out.’

‘It’s a directorate order.’

***

‘Directorate?’

‘Miss A.A. Catto called in herself. Shower, delouse, and send them both straight up.’

‘What does she want them for?’.

‘To fuck her, probably. That’s all the families seem to think about.’

‘Why can’t she get herself a Steward-1? I got to turn in a report on these two.’

The third man shrugged.

‘It ain’t my problem. Orders is orders.’

‘When Data want their report, I’m going to send them straight to you.’

‘Do what you like.’

He took a slip of paper out of his pocket and handed it to the bad guy.

‘Here’s a receipt for prisoners 79021 and 79022. They’re off your hands now. You don’t have to worry about it.’

The bad guy took it grudgingly.

‘Okay, but I don’t like it.’

Billy felt himself being unstrapped from the chair. He was hauled to his feet, and at that point he passed out.

He came to under the shower. Reave, who’d been holding up Billy’s head, helped him to his feet and supported him.

‘They sure messed you up.’

‘Yeah. You were lucky they picked me to work on first.’

‘Do you know what they’re going to do with us now?’

‘I was pretty groggy, but I heard something about how we were being sent to the top. Whatever that means. Some guy came in and stopped the other two beating me up.’

‘Maybe they’re about to start treating us right.’

The water stopped and jets of warm air dried them. Reave helped Billy out of the shower, and a grey-uniformed guard led them to a glass cubicle and told them to step inside. They both suffered a moment of panic as yellow-green fumes began to fill the chamber. They found that they could still breathe, even when the gas filled the whole cubicle. An extractor fan was switched on and it quickly cleared. The guard opened the door and led them to a table on the other side of the room, where pants and jackets of some striped material were laid out.

Billy and Reave quickly dressed. They were each given a pair of plastic slip-on shoes and led through a series of corridors to a moving walkway. The walkway led eventually to a set of blue steel doors. The guard inserted an electronic key and the doors hissed open.

Beyond them was a lift. A lift, however, that was fitted with contour seats. The guard told Billy and Reave to sit. He strapped them in and then stepped back outside. The doors shut and the lift rocketed upwards at a tremendous acceleration that pushed Billy and Reave down into their seats. Minutes passed and finally they came to rest. The doors sighed open again. Three men in light blue uniforms and short-cropped blond hair were waiting for them. Each held what looked to Reave like some kind of stun weapon.

Billy and Reave were unstrapped from their seats and led on to another moving walkway. High, almost subliminal music came from hidden speakers, and the corridors were decorated in rich gold and pure white. The city seemed to be presenting another face to them. Reave leaned close to Billy and whispered in his ear.

‘This looks a good deal better than down below.’

Their guards seemed to ignore the conversation. They changed direction twice, then left the walkway. They marched Billy and Reave down a short corridor and halted in front of a pair of gold double doors. One of the men in blue pressed a bell. After a short delay the door slid back and with one of the guards, they stepped inside a luxurious apartment. In the centre of the large main room a girl of about thirteen wearing heavy makeup and a slightly incongruous silver sheath dress stood flanked by two well-developed blondes in short pink tunics and thigh-length pink boots. The girl looked angrily at the two guards.

‘Who told you to bring them to me in that condition?’

‘That was how they were sent up, Miss Catto.’

‘In prison suits, and one of them covered in bruises. Is it the way I’m supposed to be presented with people? I want clothes for them, and a Steward with shaving equipment. I also want a Medic for the one who’s been beaten up, and the names and numbers of the Personnel officers who did it. Do you understand?’

‘Of course, Miss Catto.’

‘Then get out and see to it. I want it done immediately.’

The man in blue bowed and hurried out. The girl turned to Reave and Billy, and smiled graciously.

‘I deeply regret that you’ve been treated so badly. Please be seated. The Steward will see that everything is put right. I am, A.A. Catto.’

Reave nodded his head and shuffled a little. He was bemused by the way the girl’s manner was such a sharp contrast to her appearance. She looked like a child who had scarcely reached puberty, but behaved like a mature woman. He made stumbling introductions.

‘My name’s Reave, Miss, and my partner here, he’s called Billy. He normally does the talking but he’s feeling a bit rough since your cops, or whatever they were worked him over.’

A.A. Catto gestured to a pair of antique tubular chrome and black leather chairs.

‘Please sit down. You both must be exhausted.’

Reave grinned.

‘Thanks ma’m, we are kind of ready to cave in.’

Billy said nothing, and flopped into a chair. A.A. Catto turned to one of the girls in pink.

‘The injured one is no use to me as he is. You’d better arrange for him to have a guest suite down on 1009. Detail two Hostess-1s to look after him. They’re to extend him the full service. Get them to explain what that includes. He can be taken down there when the Medic comes.’

She turned her attention back to Reave.

‘So where do you two wanderers come from?’

At the question, Billy’s eyes opened and flickered round. Then he saw where he was and closed them again. Reave coughed and shuffled his feet.

‘A place that goes by the name of Pleasant Gap, Miss.’

‘Is that beyond the water?’

‘Beyond the water and then some.’

‘How wonderful. We meet very few new people here.’

Reave smiled.

‘Sometimes you can meet too many new people. Perhaps you got to meet our friend the Minstrel Boy. He was leaving town as we were coming in.’

A.A. Catto frowned politely.

‘I don’t recall anyone of that name. Does he come from Pleasant Gap, also?’

‘I don’t rightly know where he comes from.’

Before the conversation could go any further, the door buzzed, and one of the Hostess-1s admitted a Medic, two Stewards and three more Hostesses. A.A. Catto hurried about the room supervising the various operations. She chose wardrobes for Billy and Reave from a design catalogue, she watched as the Steward fitted Reave’s chin into a permashave, and stood beside the Medic-1 as he gave Billy a series of shots, and prepared to have him moved. Once the clothes had been ordered and Billy dispatched to his temporary apartment, she sat down next to Reave.

‘Now that’s all done, you must take off those ugly clothes and get better acquainted.’

She patted his knee and smiled. Reave gestured to the two remaining Hostess-1s.

‘What about them?’

A.A. Catto looked up.

‘What about them? They’re here to assist us in any way we want. Unless of course they embarrass you, then I’ll send, them away.’

Reave looked at the two girls appraisingly.

‘No, let ‘em stay. They look like they might come in handy.’ He stood up and slowly began to strip off his striped suit.

Before he’d finished, A.A. Catto was already pressing her thin hard body up against his.

***

Billy could remember very little of what happened after he’d been taken out of the lift. He dimly recalled a strange young girl talking to them. He could remember a figure in white who did something that made the pain stop, but after that everything had been a drowsy jumble of dreams and reality. He was carried along corridors, through doors, the images of his grey-uniformed interrogators loomed in front of him. He’d screamed and fought, and then been comforted by visions of blond hair and pink material stretched over firm breasts. A machine that buzzed and gave off violet light was moved over the damaged areas of his body. The figure in white had come and gone. The pink visions had remained to save him from the questions. The column of ghosts had shuffled past. Briefly he had imagined himself in Pleasant Gap, then he had sunk down into a dark warm pit of unconsciousness.

***

A.A. Catto and Reave lay naked on her huge bed. The ceiling above them was a large glowing mirror. Her reflection smiled down at him and her lips nuzzled his ear.

‘Do you like me, Reave? Do I please you?’

‘Yes, very much.’

‘Do you think I’m beautiful?’

‘Very beautiful.’

She propped herself up on one elbow.

‘I have a present for you, Reave.’

‘You mean the clothes? They’re too much. I’ve never had clothes like that.’

A.A. Catto smiled and shook her head.

‘No, not the clothes. Something else.’

Reave sat up.

‘What is it?’

‘Wait and I’ll show you.’

She called to one of the Hostess-1s.

‘Bring my special present for Mister Reave.’

They came over to the bed carrying a box made of purple leather. A.A. Catto opened it, and Reave saw, lying on a pad of dark red velvet, a collar that looked as though it would fit round a man’s neck. It was made of silver, about three inches wide and decorated with fine gold inlay. Beside it was a tiny ring, its exact miniature. A.A. Catto picked up the collar and snapped it round Reave’s neck.

‘There.’

Reave put his hand to it.

‘It’s very pretty. I don’t normally wear jewellery.’

A.A. Catto smiled.

‘You’ll wear it for me?’

Reave stroked her tiny breast.

‘Sure.’

She slipped the ring on her third finger, and chanted in a childish singsong.

‘The collar for you, and the ring for me.’

It was the first time Reave had heard her sound anything like she looked. Her lovemaking was in no way childlike. Reave remembered being surprised by some of the things she’d suggested. His finger fiddled with the fastenings at the back of the collar.

‘I don’t seem to be able to get this off.’

A.A. Catto kissed him.

‘You can’t.’

‘I can’t?’

She held up her finger with the ring on it.

‘Only if I want you to. It’s controlled from here. I twist the ring one way, and the collar’s locked. I twist it the other and it’s released.’

‘Can I take it off now? I’m not really used to wearing it.’

A.A. Catto rolled over and began to play with him.

‘Not yet. It does a lot of other things as well.’

***

Billy opened his eyes. He was in an unfamiliar room, lying on the largest, most comfortable bed he had ever slept in. One of the pink and blond girls came into his field of vision. She smiled at him.

‘May I help you, Mister Billy?’

Billy struggled to sit up.

‘I don’t know for sure. How long have I been out?’

‘Just over five hours, Mister Billy.’

Billy stretched, and patted his face with exploratory fingers.

‘I feel amazingly recovered.’

‘The treatment has an almost total success rate.’

Billy grinned.

‘So it would seem,’

Another Hostess-1 joined the first one.

‘How may we serve you, Mister Billy?’

Billy scratched his head. They were both smiling at him so invitingly that he began to wonder if maybe he was still delirious.

‘What can you do for me?’

They both chorused.

‘Anything you might ask, Mister Billy.’

‘How about some coffee and a cigar?’

‘Certainly, Mister Billy. Shall we both fetch them, or would you like one of us to stay here and entertain you?’

Billy laughed.

‘Does that mean you tell me jokes or join me in bed?’

‘Whatever you wish, Mister Billy. If you find one of us attractive we are available to serve you in any way.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Of course.’

‘Okay then. Let’s do it. One of you go get the breakfast and the other climb in with me.’

One of the Hostess-1s began to take off her pink tunic while the other went to arrange the food. Billy grinned at the one who was leaving.

‘You can join us when you get through.’

***

A.A. Catto and Reave were locked together, intertwined, moving furiously against each other. The gasps and groans mingled as their excitement grew and grew. Reave moaned as he felt himself on the verge of orgasm. A.A. Catto opened her eyes and her hand moved to the ring. Reave screamed as the collar sent a violent shock flashing through his nervous system. His spine arched and his body shook in uncontrollable spasms. A.A. Catto dug her nails into his back and then sank back with a satisfied smile. Reave shuddered and passed out.

***

She/They floated up a flat area that ran between the human habitations. Her/Their energy was depleted, and She/They moved very slowly, but now She/They was within reach of the stasis point and everything would be well.

The human beings spilled out of their crude buildings and gawped at the strange creature who floated down their main street. She/They had always found the childish curiosity of humans an inconvenience, but under the circumstances it couldn’t be avoided. The stasis point was all important to the task She/They had to perform.

A sense of relief came over Her/Them as She/They reached the absolute centre of the field. The standing pair carefully laid their injured third fractionally above the dust of the street. The inert form was supported a few inches above the ground by a faint blue glow. The remaining two stood erect, and one of them slowly raised the energy wand.

A crowd of humans had surrounded the triple form, but remained at a safe distance. Their shouts and chattering died away as a dim red light enveloped the three figures. They backed away a few paces as the light grew in intensity and rose up the spectrum through orange to yellow. The light became stronger and stronger, turned green, blue and finally an intense violet that almost hid the figures from the view of the crowd.

The sky above the little town flickered on and off as She/They drained incalculable amounts of energy. Lightning flashed in the distant, grey hills, and claps of thunder rattled the buildings. The glass in some of the windows shattered and collapsed, and a tree, down beyond the last house, crashed across the main street. The town generator whined and vibrated as it tried to cope with the incredible overload. A gale-force wind howled down the street whipping up tall spirals of dust. Some of the older humans sank to their knees and began praying.

There was a flash of intense white light. The humans who had been watching it turned away, temporarily blinded. The light around Her/Them slowly faded down to the dull red again. The pitch of the generator fell to normal, and the sky returned to its usual colour and brightness. The inert figure on the ground slowly rose to join the other two. She/They was once again complete. The triple form rose slightly and begin to drift back the way She/They had come. Towards the end of the street, She/They began to gather speed. Her/Their desire was to get away from the gawping, ignorant humans. Her/Their trials and pain were over, all that remained was the continuing search for the place of invulnerability. A place of solitude that She/They could render stable and make secure from the inroads of the disrupters. There She/They could restore Her/Their power, meditate and study, and prepare for the ultimate campaign. There would be other battles and other reversals, but Her/Their projections always led to the final conflict. It could only resolve itself in one of two ways. Her/Their form would be broken and become part of the chaos, or She/They would restore order to every level of the fabric of reality.

For an instant She/They wondered what would be the fate of the humans when that time came, then, dismissing it as scarcely relevant, Her/Their form rose up the surface of the grey hills and vanished into the formless, swirling nothing.

The crowd in the main street slowly dispersed. Old Eli went to inspect the damage to the windows in his store. Jed McArthur scratched his head and looked at his cousin Cal.

‘Did you see that?’

‘Right in the main street of Pleasant Gap.’

‘Without so much as a by-your-leave.’

Cousin Cal looked around suspiciously.

‘It was them two boys leaving the town and wandering abroad. I knew it was tempting fate. Outlandish things was bound to happen, if folks started coming and going just as they pleased.’

Jed McArthur spat in the dust.

‘I don’t know what things are coming to.’

***

Billy was having trouble accepting that the whole thing was real. The two young girls who now lay, one on each side of him, in the huge luxurious bed were hard to reconcile with the horror of the arrest and interrogation. The girls, whose pink uniforms littered the floor of the apartment, acted as though they were totally devoid of character. Their whole existence seemed to be directed towards pleasing his slightest desire. Beyond that, there was nothing. It was something that made Billy slightly uneasy. They were more like programmed machines than real people.

They showed this constant anxiety over Billy’s welfare, to the point where he felt almost under an obligation to produce more and more petty whims for them to indulge and keep themselves occupied. There seemed to be something strangely unhealthy about the whole city. All the people he had encountered, with the possible exception of the strange child whom he half remembered from his delirium, seemed to have had large sections of their personalities erased. Even the brutality of the Personnel men seemed to have been aimed, not so much at getting information out of him, but at rearranging his memory of the outside world. He stared at his reflection in the mirror ceiling and worried at the problem.

One of the girls seemed to sense his mood, and sat up.

‘Are you unhappy, Mister Billy?’

Billy shook his head.

‘No, not really.’

‘You seem troubled.’

‘I was just thinking, that’s all.’

‘You are unhappy.’

‘I’m not, really.’

‘Aren’t thinking and unhappiness the same thing?’

‘Not usually.’

‘Would you like us to distract you?’

Billy laughed.

‘I’m completely wiped out from being distracted.’

‘Perhaps you’d like to watch one of the entertainment channels?’

‘Okay.’

The girl reached out a hand to the bedside console and the screen flickered into life. Men in period costume hacked savagely at each other with swords and axes. Billy shook his head.

‘I don’t think so.’

The girl changed the channel. Two women and a crowd of dwarfs were engaged in slapstick pornography. Billy rolled over.

‘I think we can forget the entertainment.’

The girl looked concerned.

‘We are not pleasing you at all.’

‘Sure you are. I’m quite happy.’

She gestured to the other girl.

‘Perhaps it would amuse you if my colleague and I had sex with each other while you watched. We are often asked to do this. We are quite highly skilled.’

Billy laid a hand on her shoulder.

‘Do you ever think of anything else but what would please the people you serve?’

The girl frowned.

‘Of course not. What else is there?’

‘Don’t you ever just please yourself?’

‘I’m a Hostess-1. I take pride in my rank. I find my pleasure from pleasing those I am assigned to. That is the natural order, it’s the function of my class.’

Billy found it impossible to get through to her.

‘Are you happy, though?’

‘Of course.’

‘Wouldn’t you like to have people serve you?’

The girl immediately brightened.

‘Does it please you to say obscene things to me? Perhaps you’d like to beat me?’

For a moment, Billy thought she was mocking him. Then he realized that she was perfectly serious. The concept of someone serving her was obscene according to her programming. The paradox was that she accepted it with pleasure. Before Billy could probe any further, the console buzzed and the girl reached out to answer it.

‘Mister Billy’s apartment. May I help you?’

Reave’s voice came over the speaker.

‘Let me talk to Billy, will you, babe?’

Billy moved into range of the camera.

‘Hey Reave. How you doing, old buddy?’

Reave grinned.

‘Just fine. It’s a wild set-up they got here. Is everyone treating you right?’

Billy laughed.

‘Falling over themselves to show me a good time. I got two broads down here that you wouldn’t believe.’

‘How you feeling after that going-over you got?’

‘Fine. Completely recovered.’

Reave looked relieved.

‘That’s great. A.A. Catto’s really sorry they did that to you.’

Billy lit a cigar and inhaled.

‘Yeah? How you making out with her?’

Reave winked.

‘I’m doing okay.’

He paused.

‘Listen Billy. I got something to talk to you about. Can you come up here?’

Billy nodded.

‘Sure. How do I get there?’

‘I’ve, no idea. Hold on.’

Reave vanished from the screen, and A.A. Catto moved into frame.

‘Just tell your Hostess-1s. They’ll bring you up here.’

Again Billy nodded.

‘Okay, fine.’

The connection was cut, and Billy sat up in bed.

‘I’ve got to go to A.A. Catto’s apartment.’

The two girls sprang out of bed, hastily dressed and then helped Billy on with some of the clothes that A.A. Catto had chosen for him. Billy wasn’t too sure about the red velvet jump suit that A.A. Catto had picked out of the catalogue, but Billy couldn’t be bothered to argue, particularly as the Hostess-1s kept telling him how cute he looked. The girls led Billy along a series of walkways and corridors. They were admitted to A.A. Catto’s apartment. Billy dismissed the girls, and went inside on his own.

Reave was sitting crosslegged on the floor. He was wearing a white silk robe and a fancy silver collar. Billy looked at him in surprise. It was a far cry from his dungarees. Billy smiled to himself but said nothing. A.A. Catto was sprawled across the bed covered only by a black shawl that did little to hide her nakedness. Reave glanced up as Billy crossed the room.

‘Hey old buddy, how are you?’

Billy sat down in one of the antique chairs.

‘Fine. You?’

‘Oh, I’m okay.’

A.A. Catto sat up.

‘Don’t you think Reave looks pretty since I went to work on him?’

Billy noticed that, as well as the collar, Reave was wearing lipstick and eye shadow. Billy grinned.

‘I never exactly thought of Reave as being pretty.’

***

A.A. Catto pouted.

‘Of course he is. He’s very very pretty.’

‘Yeah, maybe.’

He turned to Reave.

‘What did you want to talk to me about?’

Reave looked a little uncomfortable.

‘Oh yeah … uh … would you like a drink or something?’

‘I’d like to know what you want to talk to me about. You’re stalling, Reave.’

Reave looked at the floor, and then up at Billy.

‘Well … It’s as simple as this, man. I want to stay here.’

‘What?’

‘I like it here, Billy. I want to stay.’

‘You’re kidding?’

A.A. Catto moved to the end of the bed. Her shawl foil away revealing tiny breasts with small brown nipples.

‘He’s quite serious. Reave has decided to stay here.’

‘But why?’

‘I like it here, Billy. You kept telling me that we were looking for something. Well, I’ve found it. I want to stay here.’

‘Don’t you think it’s a bit early to decide?’

A.A. Catto answered for him.

‘He’s made up his mind. He’s staying,’

Billy turned to face her.

‘What have you done to him? Reave never used to wear makeup and jewellery.’

A.A. Catto’s large blue eyes flashed with anger.

‘What’s wrong with makeup and jewellery?’

Billy shrugged.

‘Nothing. It’s just …’

‘It’s just that you’ve got a narrow hillbilly mind.’

Reave fingered his silver collar.

‘It’s not exactly how it appears, Billy. It’s …’

A.A. Catto interrupted him.

‘Shall I tell you how it really is, Billy? Shall I tell you what his pretty collar’s really for?’

There was the hint of a sneer in her voice. Billy sat very still as A.A. Catto went on.

‘The reason that Reave likes it here is that he doesn’t have to think too much. It’s easy for him.’

She held up her hand.

‘See my ring. See how it matches Reave’s pretty collar. They are linked together. With my little ring I can give him amazing pleasure, or I can punish him. He doesn’t have to think about a thing.’

Billy swung round on Reave.

‘Is this true, man? Is this what you want?’

Reave stared at the floor and said nothing. A.A. Catto again answered.

‘It’s what he wants. Watch.’

She turned her ring. Reave gasped and arched his back. Billy’s mouth dropped open.

‘You did that to him.’

Reave was shaking his head dazedly. A.A. Catto laughed.

‘My little ring, and his pretty collar. He doesn’t have to worry any more. He likes that.’

‘You’ve made him into a pet.’

‘He likes it.’

Billy stooped beside Reave.

‘Do you, Reave? Is this what you want?’

Slowly Reave nodded.

‘I guess so, Billy.’

‘But you’re her slave, man. Just an object to keep around the place. Is that the way you want it to be?’

‘I think so, Billy.’

‘You’re crazy. What’s going to happen when she gets tired of you?’

‘I don’t know. I’ll deal with that when the time comes.’

A.A. Catto rolled over on the bed and smiled spitefully.

‘What’s the matter, Billy, are you upset because he’s mine now? Did the two of you use to be lovers?’

Billy looked up in surprise.

‘Of course not. It was nothing like that.’

‘What was it like, then?’

‘We … we were partners.’

‘That’s different.’

‘Sure.’

‘Well, you’ve lost him.’

Billy looked helplessly at Reave.

‘Tell her, Reave. Tell her how we left Pleasant Gap to look for something good. Tell her how it was. Reave.’

He waved his hand round the room.

‘We didn’t come all this way, and go through all those troubles to end up with this. This ain’t what we came looking for.’

Reave looked up at Billy. His voice was very quiet.

‘I didn’t come looking for anything, Billy. I didn’t have no dream. I just came for the ride.’

Billy slumped in his chair. A.A. Catto draped her shawl round her shoulders, and stood up.

‘It looks like that’s it, Billy. You’ll have to follow your dream on your own now. Reave’s staying here with me. That’s right, isn’t it, Reave?’

Reave nodded silently. She smiled sweetly.

‘Of course, you must feel free to be our guest for as long as you like. Maybe you’ll decide to settle down here. I know some of the other ladies have their eyes on you.’

Billy stayed exactly three days.

On the first he lay around his apartment and sported with the Hostess-1s.

On the second he went to a party that A.A. Catto threw to show off Reave, and was taken off by Juno Meltzer to sport with her.

On the third he decided to leave. He left Juno Meltzer still asleep and made his way back to his own apartment. The Hostess-1s were waiting for him.

‘Did you have a good night, Mister Billy?’

‘Yeah. It was fine.’

‘How may we serve you today? We have a few suggestions.’

‘I’m leaving.’

‘Leaving, Mister Billy?’

‘That’s what I said.’

‘Have we displeased you?’

‘Of course not. It’s just time to move on.’

‘We’re sorry you don’t like it here. Are there any services we may perform before you leave here?’

‘Yeah. You could get me my old clothes, my porta-pac and my gun. If it’s possible, I’d like some transport to the edge of town.’

‘We’ll have to clear it with Miss Catto.’

They had a brief conversation with A.A. Catto through the vid-screen and then turned back to Billy.

‘Miss Catto has authorized your request. We’ll arrange everything.’

They left the room, and reappeared half an hour later. They presented Billy with his clothes, which were cleaned and pressed, his belt, his porta-pac and his gun. He quickly changed and came back to the Hostess-1s. One of them gave Billy a leather shoulder bag.

‘A gift from Miss Catto.’

It contained food concentrates and a water bottle.

‘Did you fix transport?’

‘There’ll be a Personnel car in the compound. It will take you to the edge of the valley.’

‘Okay. I guess I’ll be going.’

He kissed both the girls, and grinned at them.

‘Thanks for everything.’

They looked confused.

‘It’s not your place to thank us.’

He touched the door stud.

‘I thought it would make a change.’

The doors closed behind him. He rode down in the lift, and followed the signs to the Personnel compound. A grey-uniformed driver saluted smartly and opened the car door. Billy sat in the back and smoked a cigar as he was whisked past the shacks and ruins. The car halted at the edge of the hills. Billy climbed out of the vehicle and the driver sped away without a word.

Billy turned and started to walk up the track. The thought crossed his mind that maybe he should have waited till the end of the day. Then he could have walked off into the sunset in the grand classic manner. He dismissed the idea as pointless. There was, after all, no one to watch.