‘What d’you mean, “you people”? You’re with us, no matter what you might pretend.’
The Wanderer disengaged himself.
‘You really have got to stop grabbing me like that.’
‘I’ll do worse than that if you don’t shape up.’
Another rocket exploded and lit up the sky. The airship rocked noticeably.
‘They seem to be getting closer.’
The Wanderer chuckled.
‘They’re not very good shots.’
Bannion looked at him with exasperation, but said nothing. Kronski frowned.
‘What I can’t understand is, if they’re shooting at us, how come they’re so wide of the mark.’
Bannion pushed back his steel helmet and scratched his head.
‘As far as we can tell they don’t have any kind of sophisticated sensor equipment. It appears that all their hardware is geared to total attack. They probably suspect that we’re up here, but can’t pinpoint us. I figure they’re just banging off these rockets on the off chance.’
‘They’ll see us in the flash of the explosions if they go on much longer.’
Three more rockets came in quick succession, and then they stopped. Kronski looked anxiously out of the side windows.
‘Think they’ve let us go?’
Bannion remained silent for a moment. He stared intently at something in the darkness. He glanced at Kronski and pointed.
‘What do you make of that?’
Kronski followed Bannion’s finger and squinted into the dark. He could just make out the dim outline of a single flying machine. It seemed to be climbing slowly and clumsily in the rough direction of the airship.
‘It looks like something’s coming up to take a look at us.’
In the far distance the faint glow and flicker of the nothings was just becoming visible. Kronski bit his lip.
‘You want me to make a run for it?’
Bannion shook his head.
‘No, not yet.’
They both watched the moving shape. As it got closer they could just make out its somewhat ungainly outline. Bannion was puzzled.
‘It don’t look like one of theirs.’
Another rocket arced upwards and exploded quite close to the strange flying machine. In the flash, Bannion and Kronski got a short clear glimpse of it. It was a stubby, seven winged multiplane with a huge radial engine. Kronski pushed his cap back.
‘What the fuck is that?’
‘It’s not one of their regular machines.’
‘It could be some freebooter with a Red Baron complex who’s hired on with the opposition.’
Bannion nodded.
‘More than likely. Point is, what do we do about him?’
Kronski reached under his seat.
‘I’ll soon fix that fucker.’
He pulled out a miniature fuse tube and slid open a section of the side window. He took aim. Bannion’s hand flashed out and knocked the gun away.
‘Don’t be a fool. If you let go with that thing, it’ll give them a direct fix on us straight away.’
The multiplane continued to meander closer.
‘So what do we do?’
Before Bannion could answer, the airship was shaken by a rocket exploding close by. Another one went off almost immediately afterwards. Smoke drifted past the gondola. Kronski’s mouth fell open.
‘It’s gone! It’s fucking gone!’
The flying machine was nowhere to be seen.
‘It must have been hit by one of those rockets.’
The Wanderer grunted.
‘I said they weren’t very good shots.’
Bannion ignored him. He motioned to Kronski.
‘Give it full power. We must be past their lines now, we might as well make a run for the nothings.’
He turned to the Wanderer.
‘You better get yourself ready or whatever you got to do. We’re going to want a course as soon as possible.’
The Wanderer shrugged.
‘I’m ready when you are. It just depends where you want to go.’
Bannion’s head jerked round.
‘Huh?’
‘I was just wondering where you wanted to go.’
‘What kind of double talk’s this? You’ve been briefed. You know where we’re going.’
The Wanderer looked sideways at Bannion.
‘I was thinking you maybe want to desert.’
Kronski inhaled sharply.
‘He’s got a point there.’
Bannion swung round and stared at him.
‘What are you two saying?’
Kronski peered from under the peak of his cap.
‘I was figuring that the old man might be right.’
Barinion’s mourn formed into a grim line.
‘You saying that you want to desert?’
Kronski avoided his eyes.
‘Why not?’
‘We got a mission.’
‘What mission? It’s more than likely we’ll get killed, and even if we do make it, the city will have fallen long before we’re through.’
‘So?’
‘So we got a ship, we got weapons. We got a generator. We could make a run for it, and hole up in some quiet place. If we found ourselves some little town, you know, with women and all, hell, a man could have a good tune. What d’you say, Bannion?’
‘But that’s desertion.’
‘Desertion from what? We’re too late to save the city, and we got a unique chance to get the fuck out of this mess.’
Bannion looked troubled.
‘I don’t like it.’
‘It’s just your goddamn sense of duty.’
The Wanderer butted in between the two of them.
‘We’re coming up to the nothings. You two better make up your minds what you’re going to do.’
‘Don’t you have an opinion, old man?’
‘I been going too long to have opinions. I just make suggestions. You two got to decide what you’re going to do.’
Kronski looked hard at Bannion.
‘What’s it going to be, Bannion? Are we going to run, or go on with this craziness and get ourselves killed?’
Bannion looked confused. He slowly shook his head from side to side. The whole idea of deserting went completely against the grain. He did realize that it was also the sanest course. He looked at Kronski.
‘Yeah, I guess you’re right.’
‘You know I’m right. If you just bother to think about it.’
Kronski turned to the Wanderer.
‘Okay, old man, let’s … GodDAMN!’
A bright fireball of light illuminated the centre of Litz. It appeared to drift lazily into the air. At the height of a thousand metres or so it faded and vanished.
‘What in …’
The airship was tossed around by a violent shock wave. The Wanderer grabbed hold of Kronski, and yelled at him.
‘Turn on the ship’s generator!’
As Kronski hit the generator switch, the whole of the city and the area surrounding it was suffused by an eerie blue glow. It seemed to come from deep underground, radiating through the buildings as though they had suddenly become translucent. The landscape alternately dimmed and grew brighter like a faulty video picture. The on and off flickering grew faster and faster. The very fabric of the ground and buildings seemed to be made up of blue light. The three men in the cabin of the airship shielded their eyes as it became too bright to look at.
Then abruptly it went out. They were in the middle of the nothings. Litz had vanished without trace.
The cabin was filled with something close to superstitious fear. For long minutes nobody spoke. Then the cabin door opened. One of the troopers from the main cabin stuck his head through it.
‘What happened? What was all that commotion? Was the city getting bombed?’
There was a pause before Bannion replied.
‘It was worse than that.’
‘Worse?’
‘They must have got to the generators.’
‘The city generators? The main ones?’
Bannion nodded. The trooper struggled to grasp what had happened.