The masked hero led them quickly along the corridor towards the exit, which Ravana had fortuitously forgotten to close after unlocking it earlier. There was a loud crash as a door behind them flew open and they were suddenly joined by an extremely enraged Fenris.
“Don’t leave me in this place!” he roared.
Moments later, they charged through the door at the far end of the security lobby and spilled breathlessly out onto the runway. To add to the confusion they were surprised to find Namtar and Inari waiting for them, even more so when Hanuman and Ganesa suddenly turned up driving a stolen open-top ground car. Fenris made an ill-mannered grab for the Raja and quickly bundled himself and the boy into the rear seat of the car.
“Hanuman!” cried Quirinus. “Ganesa! Is all this your doing?”
“Thank your daughter!” Hanuman called over to Quirinus. “We were happy to help a friend in need. Your ship is fuelled and ready to go!”
“What is going on?” exclaimed Ostara. Namtar and Inari climbed into the ground car after Fenris, eager to leave.
“Inari blew up the hoverbus,” said Ganesa. “We needed another way out of here.”
In the sudden rush to escape, Ravana had lost sight of the birdsuit-clad figure and now there was nothing but a plume of smoke across the runway to show where her saviour had been. A whine of distant turbines reached her ears and she saw a sinister-looking Que Qiao ground car racing towards them with sirens wailing. On the other side of the airstrip, the robot refuelling gantry next to the Platypus was retreating into its underground bunker to leave the runway clear for take-off.
“Go!” yelled Quirinus. He passed the borrowed pistol back to Hanuman. “Thanks for everything. I just hope next time we meet it is in more civilised circumstances!”
Hanuman grinned. With a roar of turbines, the stolen ground car shot off like a bullet from a gun, racing in a wide arc towards the approaching vehicle to divert the pursuers from the Platypus and its crew. Quirinus, Ravana and Ostara ran as fast as they could towards the waiting spacecraft. Two figures frantically waved at them from the smoke-filled airlock door.
Ravana reached the cargo bay ahead of the others and made it up the ladder, through the crawl tunnel and onto the flight deck in record time.
“Ship!” she yelled. “Start the engines!”
The thrusters fired almost instantly. An almighty roar bellowed through the open airlock and the spacecraft shuddered into life, shaking the tendrils dangling from the console and knocking Ravana off her feet and into the co-pilot’s seat. Then her father was beside her, rapidly running his fingers over the console as he prepared the Platypus for take-off.
“Main engines running in air-breathing mode,” the AI confirmed, sounding almost smug. “Good to have you back aboard, Captain Quirinus.”
“It’s good to be back,” he replied. He winked at Ravana. “Let’s get out of here.”
The agents in pursuit of the stolen ground car proved to be remarkably persistent. Finding all exit roads blocked, Hanuman forced their car ever quicker along parkland tracks that were no more than footpaths until finally they could go no further. The ground car was not designed for off-road use and their frantic dash through the rugged terrain had shook it almost to destruction. Forced to abandon the smoking vehicle, they were hurrying away through the surrounding woodland on foot when they were abruptly deafened by the sound of a spacecraft blasting its way skywards.
“They made it!” exclaimed Ganesa.
“What about us?” retorted Fenris. “It is imperative we get the Raja to Hemakuta!”
The figure at his side had been badly shaken by the rough off-road escape and without warning suddenly fell to the floor, trembling fitfully. Fenris uttered a yelp of dismay and dropped to his knees in a panic.
“Raja!” he cried. “What is wrong? Are you wounded?”
“Dislocated motherboard,” the cyberclone whispered. A thin wisp of smoke issued forth from his right ear. “Reboot me!”
Fenris lifted his head and screamed. “Idiots! We’ve got the wrong Raja!”
Chapter Twelve
Final curtain call
COMMANDER KARTIKEYA stared out across the packed auditorium and tried not to panic. The stage lights masked the individual faces of the seated audience, but that did not stop him being acutely aware of the thousand or so eyes directly upon him, plus the several million more watching from across the five systems through the wonders of holovid broadcast technology, all awaiting his response. Yet the carefully-prepared closing speech on the rostrum before him was now worthless. His cunning plan had come to nothing, leaving him all alone before all the worlds with nothing to say.
Out of the corner of his eye he could see Yaksha speaking into her headset as she watched from the wings to his left. Her voice in Kartikeya’s earpiece once again whispered the words that had rooted him to the spot.
“I repeat, Fenris is not coming,” said Yaksha.
Governor Jaggarneth leaned forward upon his own rostrum and regarded Kartikeya with a smug, self-satisfied smile. His secretary had eavesdropped upon the hushed backstage conversation amongst Kartikeya’s entourage and relayed the news to him also. His own devious scheme to bring chaos to the peace conference also rested upon the Raja’s surprise appearance, but he seemed happy to settle for watching the rebel leader squirm.
Beside him, the statuesque female presenter of News 120, the Yuanshi-based politics show, quickly sensed the hesitation and stepped in to fill the gap.
“Commander Kartikeya, do you not think this is a valid point?” she asked. “Would Yuanshi not be better served by a government modelled on twenty-third century corporate lines, rather than on what most would see as out-dated concepts of tradition?”
Kartikeya stared helplessly across the stage. He recognised her words as the gist of Jaggarneth’s last argument but was unable to recollect him actually saying it. Looking down at his rostrum, he half-heartedly read the first few lines of the speech on his slate screen but knew he could no longer expect inspiration from that quarter. The military man inside him realised he was cornered. With a grim resolve he decided to come out fighting.
“We are not here to decide which is the best way to govern,” he declared. “My own belief is this is something only the people of Yuanshi can decide. I have come to this conference in good faith, to seek peace and a settlement that offers the best for all!”
Unseen behind the curtain across the stage, Miss Clymene and the three remaining players of the Newbrum Academy band sat listening as they waited for their own turn in the spotlight. Hearing Kartikeya’s words, Endymion looked at Bellona and pulled a face.
“Seek peace, my ass!” he whispered. “Start a revolution, more like!”
“I heard someone backstage mention Fenris,” Bellona murmured. “The people who came with the rebel leader seem very upset. Has there been any word from the others?”
“Nothing since the message Zotz sent me an hour ago,” Endymion told her. “If they were on their final approach as he said, they should have landed by now.”
Miss Clymene put a finger to her lips. “Hush!”
Philyra stared forlornly at Ravana’s cornet and Zotz’s theremin, which they had placed upon the two empty seats in a moment of wishful thinking. Hearing a muted snigger, she glanced over her shoulder and saw Xuthus, Lodus and Maia standing in the doorway of the backstage dressing room, pointing at the Newbrum band and giggling. She was just about to respond with a suitable hand gesture when Endymion’s wristpad beeped.