Nancy blinked.
‘You took some of the computer off the war effort?’
‘We need our religion.’
Nancy looked worried.
‘Was that wise?’
A.A. Catto’s eyes narrowed.
‘Are you questioning us?’
Nancy quickly shook her head.
‘No, no, of course not.’
She took refuge in a dumb sex object pose.
‘You know I don’t really understand that kind of thing.’
‘It’ll be a fantastic coronation. It’ll be held on the top of the ziggurat. Small children will throw flowers in my path as I slowly climb to the summit. The entire valley will be filled with a huge cheering crowd.’
A.A. Catto began to talk faster and faster. She still gripped Nancy’s arm. The circulation had all but stopped.
‘There will be huge vid-link screens erected in every city. None of our subjects will miss a single moment of the whole ceremony.’
A.A. Catto’s manner abruptly changed. She let go of Nancy’s arm. Nancy surreptitiously massaged it. A.A. Catto slammed her fist into the desk.
‘But before we can have our coronation, we have to have victory. We have to complete our war of conquest.’
Her voice took on a hysterical edge. She viciously punched the video screen into life. The face of a nervous aide appeared on the screen.
‘Can I assist you, my leader?’
A.A. Catto instantly became cold and efficient. The drunkenness seemed to melt away.
‘We want a full breakdown on the conduct of the war. We will not tolerate these delays. It is all moving too slowly. We will purge those responsible. You understand? We will have their heads. We will root out the defeatists and saboteurs. We will be merciless. The conquest must be completed.’
Nancy edged away. A.A. Catto was back on familiar form.
***
The shooting had stopped and the corridor had become very quiet, Jeb Stuart Ho and his two companions stood in the middle of the thick swirling gas cloud with the bodies of the Stuff Central defenders at their feet. They could neither see their adversaries nor speak to each other. Each time they’d used their communicators the enemy had been able to pinpoint their position.
Jeb Stuart Ho made the standard brotherhood hand sign for the other two to move away from him and spread out. Lorenzo Binh and Tom Hoa obeyed instantly. Jeb Stuart Ho pressed himself against the wall of the corridor. He tensed himself, ready to jump.
‘I am now breaking communicator silence.’
As he said the last word, Ho threw himself backwards, hit the floor and rolled. He lay prone for a few seconds and then climbed to his feet.
‘They don’t seem to be shooting at us any longer. They may have withdrawn. We will still use the communicators as little as possible. It may be a trap.’
The other two waited silently for Jeb Stuart Ho to give them their instructions. Ho carefully considered his next move. He was beginning to enjoy the position of command. He flashed the signal for ‘follow with caution’, lightened his grip on his gun and started down the corridor.
He’d only taken four or five paces when he was hit by a gale force blast of air. The gas melted away and the three assassins could see again. Lorenzo Binh caught up with Ho.
‘The enemy has gone. They’ve withdrawn. The corridor is empty.’
Jeb Stuart Ho swung round.
‘I said to use the communicators as little as possible. That doesn’t include exclamations that are obvious to all of us.’
Lorenzo Binh took the reprimand with lowered eyes. Jeb Stuart Ho turned and continued down the corridor. The other two followed. They spaced themselves carefully behind Ho.
The assassins walked cautiously for about seven minutes. Then they came to a junction in the corridor where another one crossed it at right angles. In the centre of the junction was a circular aperture. It was just wide enough to allow a man to climb through. A vertical shaft fell away as far as the eye could see.
Jeb Stuart Ho stooped down and put his hand over the tube. He felt the characteristic lift of reduced gravity. He straightened up.
‘It’s a drop tube. It must connect with the lower levels. We’ll go down for two levels and see what we find.’
The other two nodded. Ho stepped into the empty space. He slowly fell out of sight. Binh and Hoa followed. They floated down for three levels. At the fourth, Jeb Stuart Ho reached for a grab rail set in the side of the shaft. He swung himself into an open doorway and waited for the other two to catch up with him.
They were in a short narrow passage. At one end of it was a steel door. The three assassins walked cautiously towards it. Jeb Stuart Ho halted a pace from the door. To his surprise, it slid slowly open. With his gun at the ready, he stepped through the open doorway and found himself in a long narrow room that looked like a power control centre. The walls were lined with an array of gleaming monitoring and switch gear. A handful of slightly built individuals backed up against the equipment. They were of medium height and wore light blue, one piece coveralls with a large letter A and a number stencilled across the chest. They had the same bland asexual faces as the defenders that Ho and his companions had met in the upper corridor, but they lacked their fixed, brutal expression.
Jeb Stuart Ho advanced down the room followed by the other two black suited figures. None of the figures in coveralls made a move to stop them. It seemed to Ho that their function was purely technical and that they had no defence capabilities.
A number of lights were flashing on the panels along the wall. Ho wondered if this was a result of their intrusion, or simply an integral part of the machinery’s function.
At the far end of the room was another steel door. Jeb Stuart Ho made straight for it. Just like the first one, it slid silently open as he came close to it.
The next room was far larger than the one that Ho and his companions had just walked through. It was huge. It housed two vast turbines. Jeb Stuart Ho had never seen anything like them, either in design or construction, They were also totally silent. Blue clad operatives worked around the giant machines. More moved on catwalks high up in the roof. Each time the brotherhood assassins came near a group of them they nervously backed away.
Jeb Stuart Ho began to suspect that he and his companions were possibly in one of the computer’s main power supply centres. A group of operatives were clustered around a panel of dials. Ho walked purposefully towards them. They instantly scattered. Jeb Stuart Ho examined the instruments, but they made no sense to him.
As he turned away he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. A squad of defence troops in white helmets and pale green suits were streaming out of a small door on the opposite side of the turbines. He glanced up. More of them were swarming along the overhead catwalks. Ho swung round and signalled to the other two, but neither of them was looking in his direction. He decided he’d have to risk using his communicator.
‘Get under cover! We’re being attacked!’
Jeb Stuart Ho ducked under the instrument panel. The other two raced for the safety of the base of the nearest turbine. Lorenzo Binh got there first. Tom Hoa was just reaching out to swing behind the thick steel support when a hail of needles all but cut him in half. Jeb Stuart Ho watched in horror as he slumped to the floor.
More needles smashed into the panel above Jeb Stuart He’s head and screamed off the polished, stone housing that protected Lorenzo Binh. The enemy had spread out into a line. They advanced slowly down the turbine room, blanketing the two assassins’ hiding places with continuous fire as they came. A dozen or more of the A class operatives were cut down in the spray of needles. It seemed that individuals counted for very little in Stuff Central.