The adviser took a long time to die. When he finally did stop screaming, A.A. Catto lay back on her cushions with a contented sigh. It was the closest that Nancy had seen her come to relaxing for a very long time. She stared wistfully at the high ceiling.
‘We think we would like to be remembered as Catto the Great.’
Nancy smiled blandly.
‘It sounds very impressive, my darling.’
‘We think it’s only fitting when you think of our glorious achievements.’
‘I never stop thinking about them, my sweet.’
A.A. Catto suddenly sat up.
‘I must have the latest information on the continuation of the war.’
She snapped open the video link. The face of another, somewhat worried looking adviser filled the screen.
‘Yes, my leader?’
‘Report in full.’
‘Yes, my leader.’
He reeled off information as though he had been expecting the order for hours.
‘Ground forces in sectors D7 and D8 are meeting only token resistance and are advancing at optimum speed. The air assault In G4 has been completed and ground forces are ready to move within hours. In B7, B8, B9, C4 and B10 the principle of Population Rationale has reached second phase implementation. The human population is concentrated ready for shipment to the designated area.’
The adviser stopped. His face stared anxiously out of the screen. There were tiny beads of perspiration on his upper lip. He waited to see if A.A. Catto was satisfied with his report. A.A. Catto shut off the link. Nancy could imagine the adviser’s relief. A.A. Catto swung round and stared at Nancy.
‘You see?’
A.A. Catto’s eyes had a look of glazed fanaticism. Nancy made her face a blank.
‘See what, dearest?’
‘Our combat troops are still loyal to us. There is no seed of treason among our brave fighting men. They don’t hatch plots and conspiracies. They are too busy defending our empire against our enemies.’
‘I thought they were attacking your enemies, my love?’
‘Attack is the most efficient form of defence.’
‘Yes, my love, of course.’
A.A. Catto warmed to her subject.
‘Attack is what we are using here. We will purge the traitors from this headquarters if we have to liquidate the entire staff.’
Her words were punctuated by the roar of the firing squad’s guns. The flow of paranoia and the plans for revenge went on and on. Nancy made all the correct replies, but they didn’t quite have the precision and snap that they normally had. Nancy’s thoughts were elsewhere. She had finally made the decision. She could no longer stay in Quahal. She knew the risk of attempting to get away was now outweighed by the risk of staying.
Nancy had very little idea of how to escape from Quahal. She had no experience of travelling through the nothings, or even where to go. The only place she knew well was the city of Litz, and that no longer existed.
The only plan that Nancy could formulate was to get to the surface. After that, she could only play things by ear.
Nancy knew that her first move had to be to get away from A.A. Catto. She also knew that it might be the most hazardous part of the whole operation.
Her opportunity came sooner than Nancy had expected. In a sudden burst of energy, A.A. Catto had left the execution spectacle and hurried to the war room. While she ranted and accused, surrounded by a crowd of frightened aides, Nancy sidled furtively towards the main entrance.
She now had to wait for a chance to get out of the war room. To open the constantly monitored steel doors would attract too much attention. She needed a diversion to cover her exit.
Nancy waited beside the door while A.A. Catto stood in front of the big board and launched into a hysterical tirade. Nancy didn’t pay very much attention to the harangue. Nancy had heard it so many times before. She kept hoping that someone would come through the armoured steel doors.
A.A. Catto’s voice rose even higher in pitch. Nancy suddenly realized that she had started ordering arrests. The doors slid open and a gang of security men crashed into the war room and seized a number of struggling aides. In the confusion, the doors were not closed again.
Nancy quickly slipped through. Shouts and shots came from inside. The guards posted outside the door pushed past Nancy and rushed to help the security men. Nancy found herself alone in the short corridor between the two sets of doors that protected the war room. She saw to her delight that the outer set had also been left open.
Nancy hurried on, into the corridors of the bunker. Soldiers and technicians streamed backwards and forwards around her, but none of them thought to challenge A.A. Catto’s constant companion. She reached the main lift that led direct to the surface. This was heavily guarded and Nancy decided it might be too dangerous to use it. She walked on, making for one of the smaller emergency lifts.
The first one she came to had a single guard standing in front of it. Nancy hesitated for a moment. Then she took a deep breath and marched up to the guard with as much authority as she could muster.
The guard simply clicked his heels, saluted and moved to one side. He even pushed the button to open the lift doors for Nancy.
Nancy stepped into the lift and punched out the coordinates for the surface. The lift rose swiftly and silently. The journey took less than two minutes, but to Nancy it seemed more like two hours.
The lift finally stopped, and the doors slid open. Nancy found herself in one of the dim cavernous rooms of the now almost deserted ziggurat.
Nancy realized that she had only the haziest idea of the above ground parts of the ziggurat. She spent a long time wandering through the cold echoing chambers and the seemingly senseless arrangement of stairs, ramps and corridors. Nancy didn’t meet a living soul, and for a while she began to be afraid that she would wander for ever inside the black stone maze. Then, just as she was starting to despair, Nancy saw a glimmer of sunlight at the top of a flight of stairs.
Nancy ran up the stairs as fast as her steel supported lame leg would allow. At the top she turned to face a narrow entrance. Nancy went through it and found herself in the outside world for the first time in weeks.
She had emerged on a small flat terrace about a third of the way up the ziggurat. A small man-made stream ran across it and trickled down the building in a series of artificial waterfalls. The water sparkled in the sunlight. It all seemed so quiet and peaceful after the horror in the bunker.
It took a while for Nancy’s eyes to become accustomed to the daylight. She stood, for some time, just breathing the clean fresh air, Then she pulled herself together and started looking round for a way down to the plain.
A ramp ran down to the next terrace. Nancy had only taken one step towards it when she heard the unmistakable voice of A.A. Catto behind her.
‘Nancy, darling.’
Nancy spun round. A.A. Catto was standing in the entrance flanked by four security men. Nancy felt her stomach turn to jelly.
‘Listen, I only …’
A.A. Catto’s expression was almost impossible to read. Her eyes were hidden by large black glasses.
‘You really shouldn’t have done this, sweetie.’
Her voice was sad and almost little-girlish. It contrasted with the small gold plated needle gun that she held in her hand. Nancy backed away a couple of paces.
‘Really, I just needed to get away for a little while. I was going to come back. You’ve got to believe me.’
‘You’re telling lies, my pet. You shouldn’t tell lies to your best friend. It will only make it worse.’