She didn’t reach the top of the tower until the middle of the afternoon. She had been obliged to stop and rest several times, her legs throbbing with pain and her lungs heaving. The panther, who had accompanied her, stopped when she did, though it didn’t show any sign of undue exertion. Jan guessed it could have loped to the summit and back down again without any problem.
During one of her first rest-stops she had asked the panther why she was coming with her. By that time they had reached a position of mutual trust—Jan had the laser strapped over her shoulder again. The panther, who called herself Frusa, had shrugged and said, “Cat bored. Cat curious.” Jan had accepted this. Unlike normal animals the enhanced animals were prone to such human ills as boredom. She’d tried to explain the reason for her mission to the Sky Tower, but she wasn’t sure how much the panther understood.
“Thank the Mother God!” Jan cried with relief when she reached the end of the staircase. But then she saw she still hadn’t found her destination. The floor she was on was devoid of equipment and was obviously once used simply as a viewing platform, as it was encircled by windows. The Sky Angel’s control centre had to be on the floor above, but how was she to gain access to it?
In the centre of the circular floor was a thick metal pillar which appeared to be the only means of support for the uppermost section of the tower. As the panther sat watching, she went to the pillar and examined it. It took two circuits round the pillar before she noticed the outline of the door set flush in its shiny surface. There was also a narrow opening about two inches long which presumably took some kind of key. She tried to prise the door open with her fingernails but it was useless. Out of frustration she kicked it, and jumped back with alarm when a voice said, “Do that again and I’ll call the police.”
Jan looked around, but apart from Frusa the place was empty. She looked back at the door. The voice had come out of the pillar. Was there someone behind the door? “Who are you?” she asked warily.
“I’m a public information facility and for your information, you being a member of the public, you can’t come in here. The summit of the Sky Tower is off-limits to unauthorized personnel.” The voice, a man’s, sounded testy.
The panther had come over and was sniffing at the door. “Sound like man but no man. No one here,” she told Jan.
Jan nodded. She had already guessed that the voice was an artificial one like Carl’s, or Ashley’s. It was being produced by some kind of machine in the pillar. “Please let me in,” she commanded. “I am authorized. I’m on an important mission.”
“Are you really? What’s your authorization code, then?” asked the voice. It sounded vaguely sarcastic.
“Uh, I don’t have one, but you must believe me—it’s vital that I get into the top of the tower.”
“I hear that every day, madam, believe me. Now please be on your way. Visiting hours are almost over. And take your pet with you.”
Jan began to feel angry. “Look, machine, or whatever you are, visiting hours have been over in here for quite a long time. Several hundred years, in fact. The city out there is dead. My ‘pet’ and I are the only living things around for miles. Whatever instructions you were given once upon a time don’t matter any more. So I demand you let me in!”
The voice didn’t answer for some moments, then it said, “The summit of the Sky Tower is off-limits to unauthorized personnel.”
Jan groaned, then kicked the door again. The voice said, “That’s it, the last straw—I must warn you that I am calling the police.”
“Don’t hold your breath,” muttered Jan. After some deliberation she unshouldered the laser and, warning Frusa to stand clear, aimed it at the lock and fired. Sparks flew and metal sizzled. The voice said, “Well, you’re in big trouble now, madam!”
“Oh, shut up!” cried Jan as she continued to fire the laser.
She had to cut right through the door before it finally swung open to reveal a tightly spiralled staircase made of some translucent material. The voice, after several more warnings and threats about the police, had fallen silent. Jan experienced a feeling of triumph as she began to climb the staircase. Almost there! And she had done it without Milo.
At the top of the staircase she found herself in a small, circular area and facing another door. Jan sighed, anticipating further debate with a mechanical voice, but when she touched a glowing button on the door it slid open without any problem. A stream of fresh air wafted over her and she stepped through the door. That should have alerted her to something being wrong, but she was too preoccupied with her sense of achievement to notice.
Then she saw the three samurai. They had been sitting, cross-legged, around a brazier on which bowls of food were steaming. Their bed rolls and weapons lay scattered about and they had obviously been in the Sky Tower for a considerable length of time. They hadn’t been aware of her presence until the door had opened but now they were reacting with alarming speed, grabbing for their swords and leaping to their feet.
Jan lifted the laser and pressed the firing button. Nothing happened. She guessed she’d exhausted its power supply by cutting through the door below. One of the samurai, the nearest, gave a shrieking cry as he charged at her.
She was knocked to one side as something large and very heavy bounded past her. It was Frusa. The leading samurai screamed as she brought him down under her weight. She gave him what seemed to be nothing more than a cuff on the side of the head, but it took half of his face away. Frusa did this without even pausing in her forward rush. She was on the second samurai before he had time even to attempt to defend himself. The third one stood frozen, eyes wide, as Frusa tore out the other man’s throat. Then he came to life and raised his sword to hack at Frusa.
Jan threw the laser at him. It hit him on the shoulder, making him stagger sideways. Jan drew her short sword and ran forward, but before she could reach him Frusa struck again, knocking the samurai off his feet with a murderous swipe of her paw. Jan turned her head as the great jaws snapped shut on fragile flesh and bone, cutting off the man’s screams.
When she looked again the panther was sitting calmly beside the corpse, blood running down the black fur on its chin. “Thank you,” Jan said weakly.
“They men. Cat don’t like men. Kill men.”
“Yes, you certainly do …” Jan said. “How did you know they were here?”
“Smell them. After you go up ladder. Strong man smell.”
Jan nodded. That had been when she’d opened the other door. She remembered the breeze as she’d entered and looked around. The summit room of the Sky Tower was like the interior of a giant crystal. The curving walls and ceiling were made of faceted, translucent glass which gave the air a luminous quality. All about were pieces of equipment with glass exteriors which enabled you to see the mysterious patterns created by their electronic nervous systems. Jan spotted where the samurai had gained entrance to the summit room—there was a four foot hole up by the base of the ceiling. On a catwalk below the hole were three folded-up gliders. They had either smashed their way through the crystal or used an explosive charge.