Infinity Beach (34 page)

“Blow it apart.”

“Yes. Precisely.”

“I might not have a hurricane handy. What else?”

“It would also be vulnerable, I would think, to short circuiting.”

She took the cab back into town, to a tech shop, tended by an aging woman in a trim black suit. Her hair was silver and her expression placid. She looked out of place, the sort of culturally resplendent woman one might expect to find discussing art while presiding over a salon. “Can I assist you?” she asked, with perfect diction.

“Yes,” Kim said. “I wonder if anyone has recently asked you to make a model starship?” She showed her a picture of the
Valiant
. “It would have looked like this.”

The woman studied the picture. “Why, yes,” she said. “We
did
do something very much like that. In fact, we still have the template.”

Gotcha, Sheyel. “Would you be willing,” asked Kim, “to make one for
me
?”

“The same model?”

“Please.”

“If you like.” She brought up a schedule on her screen. “Tomorrow at about this time?”

“Oh,” said Kim. “That won’t do, I’m afraid. I’m just passing through. Out on the next train. I hoped you might be able to do it while I wait.”

The woman nodded to herself, consulted the screen again. “I’ll need about an hour,” she said.

“Good. Do it. I’ll be back.”

“There’s an extra charge.”

The third edition of the
Valiant
looked as good as either of the others. When this was all over, she promised herself, it would make a fine souvenir.

The proprietor sealed it in a box, accepted payment, and
Kim rode to the station, arriving just in time to see an eastbound freight passing. Its lights winked out as her own train appeared around a bend.

The ride from the Preserve to Eagle Point was just under two hours. She tried to sleep, but she was too tense. She gave up after a while and sat watching the countryside begin to grow dark.

At 8:20 local time she walked into the lobby of the Gateway, registered, went up to her room, and activated the phone. “I’ll need a flyer tonight.”

“Certainly, Dr. Brandywine,”
came the electronic voice, neither male nor female.
“Did you have any particular model in mind?”

“The same one I had last time, if it’s available.”

“It is. Will there be anything else?”

Kim thought it over. “Yes,” she said. “A crucifix, a wooden stake, and a silver bullet.”

“Pardon me?”

“Never mind,” she said. “It’s a joke.”

Next she called Plaza Sporting Goods and ordered a portable microwave oven. “I’m going into a protected area,” she explained. “Where they don’t allow fires.”

“Ah.”
The voice belonged to an automated clerk.
“We have just the thing. What size does madame prefer?”

“The biggest you have.”

“The family size. Very good. This model is big enough to cook a large game bird.”

“Excellent. That’s exactly what I want.”

She just had time for a quick snack, after which the hotel informed her that her flyer was ready, and that her package from Plaza Sporting Goods had arrived. She pulled on her jacket, and took a moment to gaze around the room. The last time she’d been in the Gateway, Solly had been with her. And had urged her not to go back to Severin without him.

She put a laser cutter into her pocket, picked up the spare
Valiant
, and headed for the roof.

Ten minutes later she was south bound, moving through a night sky illuminated by the distant flicker of lightning over
the western mountains. It was a beautiful evening, crisp and still. Two moons were rising through a filmy haze. Another was directly overhead.

Kim watched the lights of the city begin to fade. She tried to relax in the darkened cabin, and to anticipate the reaction she’d receive from her old teacher. She expected that he’d be pleased to see her, to show off his trophy. And perhaps to have a witness to the presence that he hoped to entice. But she wasn’t sure. Sheyel was becoming unpredictable.

The screens showed another aircraft off to the east, a little behind, moving parallel. It was a black-and-white Cloudrider, a luxurious vehicle favored by VIPs and corporate executives.

She watched it for several minutes until it changed course and veered away.

“Doctor,”
said the AI, whose name was Jerry,
“you haven’t specified a destination.”

“We don’t have one yet,” she said. “Stay southwest. Toward Mount Hope.”

She had come to the realization that Sheyel wasn’t going to want to give the
Valiant
back.

Had she an ethical responsibility to urge its return? To
insist
? Probably. But somewhere down deep she was pleased that he’d gotten away with it. And she didn’t really want to see it returned to Tripley. What right had he to a treasure of this magnitude? He’d walked into it by accident, and had never understood its significance.

“We have arrived, Doctor,”
Jerry said.
“Have you further instructions?”

She couldn’t see anything down there. Even Remorse was lost in gloom. “Circle,” she said. “Stay at six hundred meters. Keep just offshore. We’re looking for a landed flyer.”

“I will tell you if I detect one.”

The aircraft moved deliberately around the perimeter of the lake. Kim watched for a light, but saw no break in the darkness. After a while Jerry reported they had done a complete sweep.
“There is no other aircraft in the vicinity,”
it said,
“either aloft or on the ground.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Do you wish to expand the search?”

“No.” Sheyel wasn’t here yet, but he would arrive before the night was over. “There’s some open space in the town. Set down there. But keep the door closed.” Not that she had any illusions that a locked door would be sufficient to keep out unwelcome
critters
. But it would make her feel a little safer.

She put a hand on the microwave oven, then made another effort to raise Sheyel, but once again she got only the recording.

Kim was reasonably certain she knew what he planned on doing with the
Valiant
: it was going to serve as a lure, to summon the phantom, the
thing
that had been left over from the Mount Hope incident. Sheyel Tolliver wanted to make first contact. He believed as she had that the creature could be reasoned with. One had only to draw it into conversation.

Deadly naïveté.

The flyer eased down between ruined buildings. The sky was clear and the stars ran on forever.

She turned off the lights but left the engine running.

The ruined buildings cast long shadows in the moonlight. A cool, sharp wind whipped in off the lake. It howled through the abandoned town and shook the flyer. Kim was embarrassed sitting locked in the cabin like a frightened child. Eventually she opened up and climbed down onto the ground. But she stayed alert.

Somewhat before midnight Jerry broke into her thoughts:
“Aircraft approaching.”

A blip appeared on the screen. Inbound from the southwest. From the general direction of Terminal Island.

She was back in the cabin. “Can we talk to them?”

“Wait one.”

Kim felt behind her for the duplicate
Valiant
, brought it up front and set it on the seat beside her.

“Channel is open, Dr. Brandywine.”

“Sheyel,” she said, “is that you?”

“Kim.” He sounded genuinely surprised. And delighted. “Where are you?”

“I’m embarrassed for you,” she said. “You took the man’s starship.”

A long pause. Then: “Yes, I did.”

“And what are you planning to do with it?”

“I am going to talk to its pilot. If possible. I’d be pleased if you joined me. Where are you?”

“On the ground. In town.”

“There’s a strip of open beach to the east. I’m going to set down there.”

She saw his lights approaching. “It’s not possible, Sheyel. What you want to do.”

He sounded surprised. And disappointed. “Why not?”

“Whatever the local goblin is, it’s not someone you can talk to.”

“How do you know?”

“I know. Take my word for it. It’s some sort of disembodied AI. Designed to perform specific functions, as best I can judge. Maybe it’s a kind of automatic pilot. But it won’t do negotiations.”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions, Kim.” The other flyer had begun to descend. “Everything points to the fact that it’s intelligent.”

“The thing’s deranged, Sheyel. And it’s dangerous.”

“It’s lost and alone. It’s been stranded here for almost three decades. You have to start by understanding that.”

“Sheyel—”

“You want to say hello to the unknown, there’s no way it can be anything
but
dangerous. I accept that possibility. Still, I’ve never heard of a malevolent AI.”

“I have.”

“You’re letting your imagination take over, Kim.

“No, goddammit. I know what I’m talking about. Let it go, at least until—”

“I think you’re running scared, Kim. I’m disappointed in you. But after what you’ve been through, I can understand—”

“Don’t be stupid, Sheyel. This may be the thing that killed Emily and Yoshi. Look, let’s take the night to talk
about it. Go up to Eagle Point. Hear me out. If you still want to do this tomorrow, then okay, I’m with you.”

She watched the lights of his flyer disappear below the trees. “Kim, do you know for sure of anyone it has attacked?”

“No. But—”

“There you are then. We’re going to make history tonight, you and I. Are you with me?”

“Sheyel—”

“Do you know what I have on board?”

“Yes,” she said. “I know.”

“No, I don’t think you do. You think I have a replica of the celestial.”

“No. You
have
the ship itself.”

“Oh.” She heard the respect in his voice. “Well done, Kimberly. Well done indeed. How long have you known?”

She was tempted to lie, to tell him she’d realized, as
he
undoubtedly had, from the moment she found out there were identical ships on the mural and in Tripley’s office. “I’ve known for a while,” she said. “You didn’t tell me the whole truth, did you?”

“You mean about my conversation with Yoshi? Yes, that’s so. I did hedge a bit. She told me they’d brought back a ship. But she wouldn’t answer any questions. Told me I’d have all the details soon enough.”

“What did you think? That they’d hidden it in the outer system somewhere?”

“To be honest, Kim, I didn’t know what to think. I suspected maybe they’d brought back something completely different from what we’d expect. And I wasn’t sure they hadn’t hidden it in the lake. It’s why I came here so often.” She heard his engine shut off and his door open. “Now, I have to get set up. Come join me if you want.”

“I wish you wouldn’t do this, Sheyel.” She ordered her flyer to lift off, to find the other vehicle and land beside it. It left the ground and followed the shoreline east.

Sheyel’s aircraft was down on Cabry’s Beach, where she and Solly had landed. “Careful,” Kim pointlessly cautioned
her own vehicle. There wasn’t much room left. And then to Sheyel: “We don’t know what this thing might be able to do if it gets access to the microship.”

“It won’t go anywhere with
this
.” He was out of the flyer, dragging a packing case down from the cargo compartment.

“Why not?” Her aircraft settled into weeds and high grass, and she popped open the door and jumped out.

“Because I’ve scanned it. It has an antimatter power source. But there’s no fuel. No antimatter.”

“Oh.”

“So now we know what blew the face off Mount Hope, right?”

“I guess we do.”

He pulled a collapsible table from the flyer, locked its legs in place, and set it on the sand at the water’s edge. He pushed on it to make sure it was stable.

Now he opened the case, moved the packing out of the way, and lifted out the
Valiant
. He gazed at it with affection and reverence, and put it on the tabletop.

Kim could have seized it by force. She could have thrown it into the back of her own aircraft and gotten out of there with it. But something stopped her, an inability to defy her old teacher, a need to see what might happen, perhaps simply a reluctance to make the decision.

Whatever the reason, she chose not to act.

He brought out a battery-powered lamp, set it on the table beside the spacecraft, and snapped it on. The
Valiant
sparkled. Kim walked toward it, trying to grasp what she knew to be true: that it was a vessel built by celestials. That it had traveled among the stars. That it had housed an entity like the one that had stalked the corridors of the
Hammersmith
.

Sheyel watched her carefully. For the first time she read distrust in his eyes. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked.

“You said you’ve scanned it. What’s inside?”

“Other than the dimensions, and the propulsion system, or lack thereof, it could almost be one of ours. Control room,
individual quarters, pilot’s room of some sort. No chairs. Nothing to sit on.”

“What about the propulsion system?”

“I can’t find one. But that just means we need some experts to look at it.”

Kim thought about Kane’s offer to assist. “It must have been in trouble when the
Hunter
found them.”

“Why do you—?” Something out on the lake caught his eye. She followed his gaze and saw a reflection. Possibly distant lightning. She looked off toward Mount Hope and saw flashes around its summit.

“Do you have pictures of the interior?” she asked.

He was slow to look back toward her. “Yes.”

“May I see them?”

“Of course.” But he made no move to get them. His attention had returned to the lake.

She saw again the luminous patch. Far out, but brighter this time.

Uh-oh.

His right arm went slowly up in a gesture of triumph.

It might have been a cloud of fireflies, out on the water, but it moved with unnerving precision, a spiral mounting up as she watched, a cloud, a fog, a mist.

Sheyel raised both hands to welcome it.

“Back off,” said Kim. “Get into the flyer.”

The cloud was alive with tiny stars, floating, moving, swirling.

It was growing noticeably larger. And brighter.

“Coming this way,” said Kim.

“Hello,” he called. His voice echoed in the night. “I know you can’t understand me. But we need to talk.”

The cloud was lovely, but its purposeful advance filled Kim with alarm.

“We brought your ship.” Sheyel half-turned to indicate the
Valiant
.

The wind picked up and the trees shuddered. Kim was suddenly aware that another flyer was setting down back in
the trees somewhere. It was the Cloudrider. Its lights blinked off and the engine died. Sheyel was too preoccupied to notice.

Moments later, three figures, two men and a woman, appeared out of the woods. They surveyed the situation and fanned out. Kim thought she could see weapons. And then a fourth person came out of the trees.

Tripley.

“We want to talk to you.” Sheyel continued to address the manifestation. “We are your friends.”

The cloud kept coming.

Kim measured the distance between the
Valiant
and her flyer and the angle the intruders had if she decided to grab the starship and run.

Tripley stood watching, his gaze shifting between Sheyel and the cloud. Apparently he wasn’t as dumb as she’d thought.

The cloud was now just a few meters off the beach. It floated on the water, almost, she thought, taking sustenance from it. Several patches of internal luminescence formed, distributed randomly through its upper levels, and as she watched they became eyes, the same eyes she’d seen in Kane’s sunken villa.

Everyone on the beach froze.

The eyes were deranged. This was not the cool malevolence she’d seen on the
Hammersmith
. This was pure madness.

Kim edged closer to her flyer.

Where the entity touched the lake surface the water misted and swirled, and Kim recalled the missing footprints on her first visit to the area.

Tripley moved up beside her. “My God, Kim,” he whispered, “what
is
that thing?” The people who were with him brought weapons to bear. They wore gray uniforms, and they looked efficient. The woman was only a few meters away. Her name patch identified her as
BRICKER
.

“I think it was the crew of the
Valiant
,” Kim said, recognizing that Tripley’s presence demonstrated that he now
knew the truth about his model. She was pleased that her voice sounded almost normal. “I’m glad you brought help.”

“Security. I thought the thief might be dangerous.”

“You followed me.”

“Of course. You have a number of talents, Kim. But acting is not among them.”

Sheyel stumbled forward into the water, advancing on it. He was continuing to talk to it, raising his hands in greeting. The emerald glow alternately intensified and faded, as if a great heart were beating somewhere within.

“Get away from it, Sheyel,” she cried.

It resembled a
shroud
, diaphanous and pale and insubstantial. As she watched, he splashed toward it and it opened to embrace him. A sudden gust of wind threw the entire structure out of coherence, almost, one might say, out of
focus
. But it drew quickly together again.

Tripley’s guards whispered to one another and leveled their weapons.

Sheyel suddenly seemed to realize his danger. He screamed and fell backward. In a single smooth motion, the entity rose around him and engulfed him.

The security people waited for the command to fire. But Tripley hesitated.

She could see Sheyel’s silhouette through the folds of the shroud. His body convulsed. Bursts of green light rippled through the thing.

Then he went limp and it dropped him smoking into the shallow water, and flowed up onto the beach. Kim realized it was making toward the table and the
Valiant
.

Tripley gave the signal and his people opened fire. The woods came alive with frightened animals.

The security force had placed themselves well and they had the entity in a cross fire. Laser bolts whispered through the darkness. They struck the creature and bursts of vibrant colors forked through it. It spasmed. Some shots went awry, ripping into trees and the lake. The night filled with steam and geysers and shouts. Then with surprising swiftness it darted to one side and enveloped one of the men.

Kim ran forward to help but Bricker almost casually knocked her flat. “Stay out of this, honey,” she said. “You’ll just get yourself killed.”

Tripley, who did not have a weapon, pulled her out of the line of fire.

The area became a cascade of brilliant light, a gaudy pyrotechnic display. Shouts mingled with the murmur of the lasers and the screech of birds.

Kim recalled her own weapon and broke away from Tripley. She ran back to the flyer.

The struggle raged across the shorefront, illuminated in stark flashes. The shroud let go of its victim, who fell unmoving to the sand, and turned toward Tripley. She thought she saw recognition flicker in the thing’s eyes. It ignored the two still firing and flowed toward him. He looked around for a weapon but could find nothing better than a plank.

The two remaining guards threw everything they had at it. It shuddered, and a curious keening rose into the night, but it needed only seconds to overwhelm Tripley, to suck him within its amoebic folds.

Kim pulled the microwave out of its container. It looked like a fold-up tin box. She tugged at it and it opened into a cube about a half meter on a side.

The entity disappeared with Tripley into the trees. The guards raced after it, still firing, the bursts coming a little less frequently and with somewhat less authority as the battery-powered weapons began to wear down. The forest was ablaze with light. A tree trunk exploded and someone screamed. Kim couldn’t tell whether it was a man or a woman.

She set the cube down and unwrapped the magnetron. It was an orange sphere about the size of a baseball. She inserted it into its slot.

Behind her, the ruby flashes of the lasers became sporadic. And stopped. Only the slow emerald pulse remained.

The forest fell absolutely silent, save for her own labored breathing.

The green light began moving in her direction.

She thought of abandoning everything, of jumping in the flyer and getting out, but that meant leaving everyone. Leaving the
Valiant
.

The shroud
drifted
through the shrubbery and paused.