I
Lynda Bird to wed George Hamilton?
The next day Jerry and Karen went to the pictures. They sat in the front seats of the Circle and ate popcorn as they watched Drums Along the Mersey. Sir William Harrison played the moody, introverted explorer, Ina Shorrock was the proud Queen of Port Sunlight and Eric Bentcliffe emerged in one of his best roles as the rascally trader from the interior.
2
My teenage wife won't let me out of her sight
Leaving the cinema they walked hand in hand down West-bourne Grove in the late sunshine. A West Indian with a tray around his neck sold Jerry a pot of Chaulmoogra, guaranteed as treatment for leprosy.
A squadron of M-6o tanks, mounted on guarded flatcars, went past them towards Queensway. A crowd of dancing children followed the tanks. The grinning soldiers threw Hershey Bars and Tootsie Rolls to the children.
3
How a banana endangers the Lennon sisters
Jerry signalled for the gate of his Ladbroke Grove H. Q. to be opened. A Corporation Dust Cart turned the corner.
Balanced on the cab was a man in a fur jacket and a fez. His right hand clung to the truck's canopy and he shouted vigorously through a megaphone.
'Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!'
4
Why Connie threatened Eddie with a lawyer
Jerry poured himself a Pernod and handed the glass of Tio Pepe to Karen von Krupp. They were dressed in identical velvet suits of violent violet from Mr Fish. The effect was a little more pleasing than a Pre-Raphaelite painting. Their flies were undone.
5
The secret Mia won't tell Frank
They lay naked on the red plush bed cover staring up at the blue plush canopy of the brass four poster. Their skins, black and pink, shone with health.
'Fresh air,' he said. 'That's it.'
'Why?'
'It'll be necessary to go to the country sooner or later. We've been in London a fortnight, you know.'
'And nothing's happened. Are you worried by the stillness?'
'I suppose so. There's a shipment tomorrow. It could go straight out again.' He sniffed at her hair.
She began to stroke the skin of his inner thigh.
'It's too good to be true.' She nipped his forearm with her teeth.
First Incision
Newly and/or unexpectedly imposed tyranny can make people commit suicide.
I
How much longer can this last????
Having left one Phantom VI in Paris, Jerry didn't feel up to using another. Besides, he was in no hurry. 'We'll go by river, I think.'
He drew his vibragun and went upstairs.
When he next passed the door he was herding a group of sullen transmog patients in front of him. They all wore strait-waistcoats and most of them would have looked handsome or pretty if they had been able to manage a smile or two. Karen von Krupp patted her hair.
Jerry reassured her as they reached the cool main hall. They'll soon be laughing on the other side of their faces.'
It was a lovely day.
Waiting in the courtyard was a white hovertruck with red crosses painted on its sides. When he'd stowed the passengers comfortably at the back Jerry joined Karen in the cockpit and started the engines. Whining, they lifted up and began to move forward through the open gates.
Soon they were whistling down the road, passed the scarlet gloom of Chelsea, and reached the Thames Embankment. 'Oh, it is wunderbar!' Karen von Krupp looked out at the wrecks of the tankers poking up through oil that shone with dozens of bright colours.
'You can't beat it,' Jerry agreed affectionately.
They crossed Waterloo Bridge with the siren going and were waved through by a Marine with a sensitive earnest face who leaned one hand on the butt of his Navy Colt and held a cigar in the other. The white hovertruck sang onwards into the ruined roads of South London that were full of colombine, ragged robin, foxglove, golden rain, dog rose, danewort, ivy, creeping cinquefoil, Venus's Comb, dead-nettle, shepherd's purse and dandelion, then turned towards Greenwich where Jerry's cruiser was moored.
As Jerry directed his patients up the gangplank Karen von Krupp pointed to a battered, broken-looking building in the distance. 'What is that, Jerry?'
'Greenwich Observatory,' he said. 'It's a bit redundant now, I suppose.'
She came aboard and he cast off.
In a moment they were chugging away from London, moving strongly against the current.
The banks of the river and the fields and ruins beyond them were carpeted with flowers of every description. While Jerry switched the boat over to automatic steering, Karen stretched out on the deck, breathing the warm summer air, staring up at the deep blue sky and listening to the bees and the crickets on the shore.
When they were sailing through a forest of oaks and elms Jerry came and lay down beside her. From the cabin came the faint strains of Ives's Symphony No .1.
'That is a favourite of yours, I would say,' she said.
'In a manner of speaking.'
'This is the life, is it not?'
'Which?'
'Which do you like?'
'Oh, all of them really.'
The prow pushed on through the rainbow oil and every so often a quaintly shaped fish would leap out and rest on the surface until the ripples opened the top up and it would fall back under again.
The river turned out of the forest and they sailed between fields and old, ruined farmhouses, deserted villages and abandoned pubs. Once, as they moved under a bridge, an armoured car roared over their heads and moaned off down the road. A little later a scrawny young woman threw stones at them from the bank and screamed incoherent insults. Jerry caught a few words. 'Pantalones — el jardin zoologico — la iglesia inglesa!
Lavabo — negra — queremos un — vino duke — de oro, plata, platino, diamantes, rubies, zafiros, esmeraldas, perlas...'
'American immigrant, poor cow.'
Karen cocked her head, brushing back her long red hair. 'What was that? Not bees.'
The woman had disappeared into the undergrowth. Jerry listened.
'Hornets?' Karen suggested.
Jerry shook his head. 'Westland Whirlwinds. I'd better just...' He jumped up and ran to the bridge. Karen got up and then fell over on her bottom as a small missile launcher purred from the forward hatch. She crawled to the bridge. He was watching the radar.
'About eight of them,' he said. 'Hard to say whose they are.' He peered through the window. They've seen us. They're coming to take a closer look.'
'Are they ours, Jerry?'
'No. I think they're yours. Perhaps your husband...'
'My husband?'
'Maybe.'
Jerry switched on the laservision and tuned it to the radar. Now he had a close-up of the leading Whirlwind and its pilot.
The pilot was thoughtfully chewing a chocolate layer cake as he stared down at Jerry's boat.