Yuen-Mong's Revenge (51 page)

 
     
"You told me to look out for people who’ve bad thoughts about us,
and he has."

 
     
"Yes, I know, but I don’t think he’ll dare to act on them, not anymore."

 
     
"Strange," said Atun, "I just saw him half an hour ago and he was
very friendly. He offered that a UniCom air shuttle should take us from
the roof platform to Soro, that this would save us considerable time."

 
     
"Did you accept?"

 
     
"I don’t like the guy, but I saw no reason why not to accept."

 
     
"Yes, he only did his job."

 
     
After lunch, Atun and Anouk set up the equipment in the UniCom
lecture theater and got ready to take the shuttle to the space port. At
14:00 Pat Young’s secretary called Atun’s office telling them that the air
shuttle was ready. Yuen-mong accompanied them to the roof platform
where they were met by Pat himself.

     
"Atun, I forgot to tell you that this is one of the self-guided shuttles.
It has been programmed for setting you down just next to Vishnu and will
bring you back here again after the demonstration. Are you familiar with
this type of shuttle?"

 
     
"Yes, Pat, thank you."

 
     
"I leave you then. Have a good trip."

 
     
As he talked, Yuen-mong became increasingly uneasy. She felt that
underneath the artificial friendliness lay hatred and something else that
she could not put a finger upon. There was no need to look at Anouk to
know how the girl felt. She briefly hugged her to give her comfort and
then kissed Atun’s cheek. She went to the glass enclosed waiting room
and watched the shuttle depart.

     
That uneasiness stayed with her. She could not shake it off. Suddenly,
she knew what that other emotion was that filled Pat’s mind. It was a
feeling of triumph. But why? Unless … Instinctively, she pressed the
icon on her comunit for Atun’s wristunit.

     
"Yes, Yuen-mong," she heard his voice.

     
"Atun, override the program and immediately set down, anywhere,
and get out of that shuttle, fast."

 
     
"Why? We will be late. Everything works fine."

 
     
"Atun, please don’t ask, just do it. Trust me. Look at Anouk."

 
     
"OK, we are going down. Call you again."

 
     
The next few minutes were pure agony, and then came Atun’s call.
She could breathe again.

     
"We got out, with the equipment, and I sent the shuttle on its course
again."

 
     
"Thank you, Atun, thank you. I may have panicked for nothing, but
I wouldn’t be surprised if that shuttle crashes before it lands."

 
     
"I believe you. Anouk’s face told it all. You should have seen her
when we got off."

 
     
"Be nice to her. She’s very precious.
I will
send an air shuttle taxi to
pick you up and bring you to Soro. Where are you?"

 
     
He gave her the coordinates.

     
"Atun, no word to anybody. We go ahead as scheduled. Bye, love."

 
     
"Love? You’ve never said that."

 
     
"There’s a first for everything and I like that word."

 
     
She went back to read a report on the current expansion plans for the
HST network, although she found it hard to concentrate. With the
imminent introduction of instantcom, these plans were now in question.
Thirty minutes later, Mrs. Oddell buzzed her.

     
"Mr. Young has asked to see you urgently."

 
     
"Let him in."

 
     
Pat’s face, as he entered, showed contrived grief, but she sensed that
it was not matched by his feelings.

     
"Yuen-mong, I have terrible news. We were just advised that the
shuttle Atun took to Soro crashed while landing."

 
     
"And?" she asked, faking being alarmed.

     
"Unfortunately the shuttle exploded in flames. Nobody got out. My
sincere regrets."

 
     
Again that feeling of triumph.
You miserable liar. You probably engineered it.
She hid her face in the palms of her hands so as not to betray
herself, and after a while said softly: "Thank you, Pat. Please leave."

 
     
"Shall I cancel the demonstration?"

 
     
She raised her head. "No,
I will
make an appropriate announcement
in the lecture hall when everybody has assembled."

 
     
"This must be very distressful for you. I would gladly do it for you."

 
     
I’m sure you would, you hypocrite,
was her immediate reaction.
"Thank you again, but I will make an announcement myself," she replied
firmly.

     
She took a few deep breaths when he had left her office. With her premonition about the shuttle suddenly confirmed, she started to question
herself. Was it just coincidence that the shuttle crashed, or should she
trust her instinct that Pat was involved? Would he be foolish enough to
try something like this out of pure hate? What would he gain by it? Hurt
her? It would not affect instantcom, just delay it by a few weeks. It
baffled her. No, both she and Anouk must have been misled by his hatred
for them, fortunately in this case.

     
Half-an-hour later she got another call from Atun. "We’ll take off
shortly. I guess you have heard that the shuttle went up in flames less
than fifty yards from the ship … Yuen-mong, you’re my guardian angel.
Saying ‘thank you’ can’t express what I feel."

 
     
"Then tell me that you love me."

 
     
"I do love you."

 
     
"Good, I like to hear this at least once every day."

 
     
"You’re incorrigible. The most horrible things happen and five
minutes later you joke again."

 
     
"But this
is not
a joke. I really want to hear it often."

 
     
"Oh, Yuen-mong… See you again in exactly 49 minutes."

 
     
Forty minutes later, she entered the lecture hall. Well over one
hundred people were assembled. All men, she noticed. She would have
to do something about that too. The murmurs stopped when they noticed
her. The restlessness she sensed told her that they knew about the crash.
It was an interesting mixture of genuine disappointment by some,
gloating malice by a few, anxiety by many. Standing on the podium, next
to the equipment, she tried to match some of the feelings with faces.
Among the people she recognized, she found few surprises. She noticed
that neither of the senior Dengs, nor Ko Young were present. Had they
been told that the demonstration would not proceed or did they not show
out of principle?

     
"Gentlemen, I assume you all have heard about the rather unfortunate
crash of one of our self-guided air shuttles at the Soro space port earlier
this afternoon. Fortunately, the craft was unmanned." She paused briefly,
letting her gaze sweep over the audience. She sensed the confusion her
remark caused. "Now before I start with the demonstration, I would like
to say a few words about the general principles underlying instantcom."

 
     
Her words were met by a drone of low voices. She paused, noticing
that Pat Young had just entered the hall. As her eyes slowly roamed over
the audience once more, people fell silent one by one, but the pitch of
confusion, now mixed with anxiety rose even more.

     
"Thank you. Instantcom relies on the psychic connection between two
matched empathic mediums. The equipment captures the brain waves
received by each medium and translates them into sound and pictures.
How this is done is patented. So far, we have no idea why a connection
between matched mediums eliminates any delay and can jump enormous
distances in space. All our limited research has shown is that as the
distance grows, there is a slight loss of quality. However, as those of you
who have seen the communication between Palo and Androma know,
even for that distance the loss in quality was hardly noticeable.

     
"During the presentation, the right screen will show you what Anouk
sees and hears, communicated to me via instantcom. She is the medium
who is matched to me. For comparison, the left screen shows the picture
taken by a camera focused on Atun and transmitted to us via the standard
communication channel, but with the sound suppressed.

     
"I will now put on this helmet and establish contact with Anouk. I
would prefer if you did not ask any questions until you see Atun on the
screen."

 
     
She saw a lot of confused faces, but there were also some who tried
to suppress a smile of glee.

     
Contact with Anouk was almost instant. She first switched on the
right screen, showing Atun standing in Vishnu’s lounge, and then the
left, which at that moment had a delay of about two seconds. Renewed
murmurs rose in the audience.

     
"Dear colleagues," came Atun’s voice, "we are right now almost
exactly on the far side of Andromatis. Anouk, look out the window to
provide proof to those who still have doubts. You can see the distinct
mountain chain of Kimtong. The highest peak to the left is Mount
Young, named after one of the founders of UniCom."

 
     
Suddenly, she heard Pat’s high-pitched voice. "Stop that farce. This
is a prerecorded fake. I told you more than an hour ago that the shuttle
Mr. Caruna took to the space port crashed and that there were no
survivors."

 
     
Rather than respond to Pat, Yuen-mong only turned to look at him and
then said: "Anouk, please go close to your screen so that Mr. Young can
see himself on my screen."

 
     
The picture on the right screen shifted rapidly and centered on a
tablet, quickly getting larger. At the same time, Atun vanished from the
left screen that received the standard signal, which then showed Anouk
turn away from the window and look down on the small screen of the
tablet set up on the table.

     
"Mr. Young, would you be so kind as to wave."

 
     
He looked at her stubbornly.

     
"Mr. Young, I asked you kindly to wave … or do you want me to
order you?"

 
     
After a short hesitation, he raised his arm briefly. The movement
could clearly be seen on the big screen in the auditorium.

     
"Thank you, Mr. Young."

 
     
It was greeted with hushed laughter.

     
"I guess you want more proof than that." She nodded to two men who
had been waiting at the side of the podium. They turned off the standard
channel and probed around her with wave measuring equipment. "Any
signals?"

 
     
"No, Miss Shen. Nothing whatsoever."

 
     
"Thank you."

 
     
She turned back to the audience, noticing that Pat Young had left.
What was she going to do about him? "You are now free to ask questions."

 
     
For the next twenty minutes a lively discussion followed between the
audience and her and Atun. At the end, she asked that the standard
channel be turned on again and pointed out that its delay had shrunk to
a fraction of a second as Vishnu approached Soro. At that point she cut
the communication to allow Vishnu to land. She supervised security to
dismantle the equipment and bring it into Atun’s locked office.