Time Out Of Mind (v1.0), page 16
He had no plan at all unless it was to hold them off for as long as possible. He knew there was no escape just as surely as he knew that Magobion would be satisfied with nothing less than his dead body. But this knowledge filled him not so much with fear as with a curious kind of ice-cold fury which bordered almost upon exultation.
Bent double he scuttled crab-wise along behind the parapet and gained the cover of the huge “Arrival and Departure” indicator which was braced out a few feet in front of the barrier by a series of latticed alloy struts. From this vantage point he risked a peep downward and saw that the center of the vast hallway had been swept clear of people as though by a gigantic broom. They were huddled around the sides of the terminal, their faces turned up toward him, a thousand anonymous dots of human confetti.
Close beside him a loudspeaker bawled: “Attention Security! Linton now concealed behind upper deck parapet! Coordinate to secure!”
Glancing up, Laurie saw the predatory beak of a remote-controlled monitor camera perched on a high gantry, come jerking around in quest of him.
Resting the barrel of the Semling on the rim of the parapet he took deliberate aim at the lens, fired twice, and missed with both shots. Nevertheless one bullet must have nicked some vital hydraulic artery because the camera slowly drooped as though its neck was broken and a thin thread of. emerald green liquid began to waver downward.
Immediately, a fusilade of shots smashed through the indicator. One of them ripped out a long splinter, leaving a narrow slit which afforded him an almost perfect view of the whole arena. His first glimpse revealed that the guard who had been clambering up the stationary flow-way had got to within ten yards of the parapet. Aiming deliberately low, Laurie fired and saw the man drop his gun and clutch at his thigh. In so doing he lost his balance, toppled backward and rolled away down the long slope between the pavements.
In immediate response half a dozen more shots crashed into the indicator which now began to fizzle and throw off angry violet sparks. Laurie thrust a fresh clip into the Semling and, risking electrocution, took another peep through the crack. Some sort of tactical conference appeared to be going on down below. He could see Magobion and the Superintendent talking to two of the guards who then doubled away to left and right and passed out of his view. He found himself wondering in an oddly detached sort of way what it would feel like to die, and from there his mind flickered back to Lynn and the dreamers where it hovered doubtfully for a moment before fluttering off to himself as a boy and to Carol who was yet Billie and had dreamed a dying dream. Could Time really be turned inside out like an old sock so that yesterday was beyond tomorrow? “Who are you, Laurie Linton?” he murmured. “Do you really exist?”
The words were still on his lips when two gas grenades lobbed up and burst like rotten-ripe pears within ten feet of where he was crouched.
He realized that he had at last traveled this road to the very end but, even so, some mulish instinct still drove him to suck in one last huge gulp of clear air and, having done so, to squirm over the top of the parapet on to one of the -metal struts of the indicator panel.
He clung there while the choking tendrils writhed toward him and his eyes began to sting and blur, but a current of air was funneled up between the parapet and the board and though, from below, it was quite obvious that no one could possibly survive the poisonous cloud that is exactly what he did.
Three minutes later as they moved in confidently to take him he pushed the muzzle of the Semling through the narrow crack, blinked the tears from his smarting eyes, waited until he dared wait no more and fired just two’ shots. One struck Colonel Magobion in the left eye; the other hit him in the chest. He died without ever knowing how it had happened.
In the savage pandemonium of firing which followed Laurie too was hit twice, once in the right . shoulder and once in the left forearm. As a direct result he lost his grip on the stanchion, fell forty feet in a fraction over one second and was still conscious when he reached the ground.
During that single interminable second he knew the peace that passeth all understanding and was happier than he had ever been. The last thing he remembered was hearing the seashell whisper of a girl’s voice saying: “b’hoot.”
As Carol stepped out of the expressaviator capsule on the 57th floor of the Barbican Intensive Care Unit she caught sight of a uniformed police sergeant and walked down the daylit corridor toward him. He glanced at the identity pass she held out to him and his expression altered. “Oh, so you’re the Miss Kennedy we’ve been hearing so much about,” he said with a smile. “It’s a privilege to meet you, Miss.”
“I bet you wouldn’t have said that a week ago, Sergeant.”
“Ah, well,” said the Sergeant and shrugged, conceding the point.
“I can go in?”
“Carry on,Miss.”
She knocked on the door and without waiting for a reply, depressed the lever handle and walked in.
Laurie was sitting up in bed savoring a blush-making account of himself in an illustrated journal. He was naked to the waist and his right shoulder and his left forearm were swathed in what looked like gold foil. Two enormous black eyes gave him a remarkable resemblance to a racoon…“Caro!” he cried delightedly, flinging the paper to one side. “I wasn’t expecting you till tomorrow!”
She ran to him, leaned down and gave him a long, open-mouthed kiss that did nothing to improve his pulse rate. “Didn’t you get my videogram?”
“Yes, it’s here somewhere,” he said, groping around in the wild jumble of letters and newspapers that littered the bed and spilled over on to the floor. “It’s been a real madhouse these last three days.”
“I can imagine. How do you feel now?”
“Half drunk most of the time. They’re taking this lot off on Sunday.”
“I saw you on Euro So-Vi.”
“Did you recognize me?”
“Just.” She laughed. “I can see why you wore the . dark glasses though.”
“Aren’t they a pair, of beauties? The old M.I.S. plastic boot must pack quite a punch. Not that I knew a thing about it at the time. Just as well, maybe.”
Carol scooped up an armful of letters, dropped them on the floor, and sat herself down on the side of the bed. “Well, where do you want me to start?” she said.
“Better make it the beginning. When you scooted into the terminal.”
She nodded. “Well, I hared straight for the flight office and found there were two flights due out in the next fifteen minutes. I tried for the Rome one Jirst but they wouldn’t let me have a Credit seat and I hadn’t enough cash to buy an ordinary one so I had to settle for Geneva. That turned out to be a real stroke of luck in the end, but I’ll explain that in a moment.
“Anyway I grabbed my boarding ticket and rushed off to the Departures bay. I wasn’t looking to see if I was being followed, I was just desperate to get on board that plane. You’ll never know how relieved I felt when I eventually sank down into my seat.
“I heard the broadcast announcement about you just before they closed the doors and I don’t think I’ve ever come much closer to passing out. I was so sure you were on your way to Harwich. I just crossed my fingers and prayed. There wasn’t anything else I could do. I was positive that they’d hold back the flight. But they didn’t. I looked back as we took off, but the fact is I could hardly see a thing because I was crying…’
‘
“When we got over the Channel I went into the toilet. I was worried stiff about those K-12 ampoules. Then I remembered what, we call a girl’s advantage and slipped two of them in you-know-where.
“It’s just as well I did because I’d no sooner got back to my place than a man came and sat himself down in the seat next to me. At first I assumed he was just another prowling wolf and I was all prepared to give him my special anti-wolf treatment when he said: ‘Mam’selle Kennedy, I believe.’
“Talk about going into free-fall! When I found I could speak again I asked him who he was. ‘I am a business associate of M’sieur Benoit,’ he said. /I have followed you and M’sieur Linton to the skyport. I suspect you may be in possession of a certain piece of property which would be of great interest to Mondiale.’
“Well it was pretty obvious that he wasn’t the type to take ‘no’ for an answer so I told him that I was just on my way to see Benoit. That’s what I meant when I said the Geneva flight was a lucky break. I don’t know whether he believed me, but he made it very clear that he wasn’t going to let me out of his sight, just in case I might feel like changing my mind. And he stuck to me like a plaster right up to the moment he ushered me into Benoit’s office.”
At that point Carol paused and eyed Laurie apprehensively.
“Well, go on,” he said. “Don’t keep me in suspense. What happened?”
Instead1 of answering she unzipped her handbag, took out a long blue envelope and laid it on the sheet beside him.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“It’s for you.”
“From Benoit?”
She nodded. “Go on. Open it.”
Laurie fumbled the envelope open and shook out four crisp new currency bills. Each was for ten thousand Swiss francs. He stared at them incredulously. “Oh, no,” he groaned. “I don’t believe it.”
“They’re real, Laurie.”
He picked one up, turned it over between his fingers, and then began to chuckle. Within seconds they were both leaning helplessly against each other howling with hysterical laughter.
When eventually Laurie began to sober down he fisted the tears from his cheeks and groped around on the bed till he found that morning’s copy of The Telegraph. “Just listen to this!” he gasped. ” ’The announcement from Paris yesterday evening by Professor Henri Martell that he has succeeded in manufacturing the psychodrug known as ‘Kállos-12’ coming together with the publication of his results, adds a somewhat ironic footnote to the events which have occupied the world’s headliners for the past five days’…”
It was no use, Laurie was laughing too much to go on.
“What wouldn’t I have given to see Gabriel’s face today?” gurgled Carol. “Do you suppose he’ll write it off to research expenses?”
“I don’t imagine he’d even miss it,” said Laurie. “You know Martell sent a message about me to the P.M.?”
She nodded. “Did it help?”
“Gross seemed to think it might even have tipped the balance. After all it came right on top of the Peking resolution and the NARCOS petition. You know they’ve convened a Special Commission of Investigation?”
“No,” said Carol. “What’s that?”
“Four M.P.’s—two Government and two Opposition—and a legal boffin from the Home Office. They all trooped in to see me this morning and grilled me for over two hours. When it was over they all queued up and shook me solemnly by the hand. It was quite a touching little scene.” ,
“Are they still going to arraign you?”
“They wouldn’t say. It’s up to Parliament apparently. There was a lot of airy-fairy chat about what constitutes high treason. They even suggested I might have to apply for a royal pardon. You know treason still carries the death penalty?”
“They wouldn’t dare!” Carol averred stoutly.
Laurie grinned. “Between you and me I’m inclined to agree with you. What they’re looking for is a way out without losing too much face. They know it’s not a national thing any longer. There’s a long telegram from Delhi down there somewhere saying they’re going to raise the whole matter before the U.N. General Assembly and offering me the freedom of Kerala or somewhere. According to Le Monde the force de frappe is now as passé as trench warfare, and for once the Americans and the Russians seem to agree with them. But Fleet Street beats the lot! Last week you’d have thought I was Klaus Fuchs, Burgess, Blake and McLean all rolled into one. Killing Magobion was the most infamous act of treachery since Guy Fawkes. Now it seems all that was a misunderstanding. So exit Public Enemy, enter International Hero. I tell you, Caro, you see before you the biggest P.R. resurrection job since Lazarus.”
“You wait,” laughed Carol. “They’re probably planning to have you publicly beheaded on Tower Hill.”
“Not me. I’m b’hoot”.
“You’re what?”
“B’hoot. Have you forgotten? It’s what Lynn called me.”
“What’s it mean?”
“I only found out yesterday. It means ‘ghost’ in Hindi. One of the nurses told me. As far as I’m concerned it’s what allows you to be shot full of holes and then fall forty feet on to reinforced concrete without even a bruise to show for it. If that isn’t enough to prevent a simple thing like having my head chopped off then nothing is.”
Carol shook her own head in mock despair and then said: “Oh, by the way, I asked Henri about that stuff prozatamine. You remember? The drug which was supposed to let you jump backward in Time.”
“Oh, yes. What about it?”
“It never even got off the ground. Jean Roland, the genius who dreamed it up went and got himself killed last year in a road accident.”
“Last year! You’re sure you don’t mean nine years ago?”
“Last year,” she repeated firmly.
Laurie sighed philosophically. “So yet another beautiful hypothesis bites the dust. Too bad.”
Carol nodded. “There was one rather odd thing though,” she said. “I’m not sure whether I ought to tell you.”
Laurie growled threateningly.
“What would you say if I told you that Roland dropped right out of scientific research in 1987?”
Laurie opened his mouth and then closed it again without saying anything.
“He cleared off and joined some weird religious sect in Ceylon.” She pursed up her lips teasingly. “Do I need to tell you the month?”
Still Laurie said nothing.
“Don’t you believe me?”
He laid his head back on his pillows and closed his bruised eyes. “Oh, I believe you, all right,” he said. “But no one else ever will. No one.”
“Are you sure you do?” she asked with a smile.
He opened his eyes and looked up at her. “I know it’s true, Caro,” he said. “And I’ll tell you how I know. After they’d shot that gas up at me and I saw Magobion starting to walk toward me I stuck my gun through the crack but 1 didn’t point it at him! I aimed at a place ten feet in front of him and four yards to the left! I simply held it there and waited. And instead of coming straight on as he should have done, he moved across to his right! When I pulled that trigger I knew he was already dead. And when I fell it was as though I was falling out of a dream I’d already dreamed. It was what I’d seen over my own shoulder all those years ago—the thing I couldn’t remember. It was what 1 had to do!”
“So you still think they sent you back to kill him?”
“I do, yes. Or sent me on to do it.”
“But for all we know Magobion might never have done anything.”
“Perhaps not here—to us. But there, where that other Laurie came from, things must have been different. After all, we both know Magobion was as mad as a hatter. Perhaps in their time he was just too big a risk altogether and so they had to get rid of him by getting in touch with me.”
“If they ever did,” murmured Carol.
“Oh, they did”Caro. And it worked.”
“For us, maybe,” she said.
The door opened and a pretty little Indian nurse came in dragging a gleaming trolley on which was mounted a large U.V. lamp. “Time for your sunbathe, Mr. B’hoot,” she grinned.
Carol stood up, retrieved her handbag, and then picked up the four currency bills. “And these?” she asked.
“A generous donation from Mondiale to the Linton-Kennedy Appeal Fund?” suggested Laurie.
“Or the Magobion Memorial Fund?” countered Carol.
“If there’s a point where charity becomes. hypocrisy,” said Laurie, “then as far as I’m concerned that would be it.”
Carol laughed. “Could it be that you’re biased?” she said.
Unknown Author, Time Out Of Mind (v1.0)
