Their presence in the summit room held all manner of grim implications for Jan. It meant that the warlord had remembered the true location of the Sky Angel’s control centre, as Milo had feared he would. It also meant that the warlord might already have sent the signal that would bring the remaining Sky Angel down to Earth.
The sound of flesh ripping distracted her. She turned and saw that the panther had begun to eat one of the dead samurai. She grimaced. “What are you doing?” she demanded.
It swallowed a large gobbet of meat and said, “Cat hungry. Cat eat.”
“Well … can’t you do it somewhere else?” asked Jan, trying not to look at what the cat was doing.
The cat hesitated, growled, then dragged the body towards the door. Jan took off her back-pack and then sat down on it. She needed to think. Already she was having doubts about her initial interpretation of the Japanese presence in the Tower. If the warlord had left them behind to ambush Milo and herself, surely he would deployed more than just three men. He knew Milo’s abilities. Three wouldn’t have stood a chance against him. Nor did they appear to have had guns; they were armed only with swords. Perhaps they were just one of several groups of samurai scattered throughout the city to act as look-outs. Perhaps they were in the Sky Tower just by accident. Hadn’t she felt she was being watched ever since she’d arrived in the city? But why hadn’t they attacked her? Probably because they were on the look-out for two people. A lone woman would have aroused their curiosity, but they had no way of knowing it was her. Besides, Milo was the important one as far as the warlord was concerned.
Whatever the reason for their presence in the Sky Tower, one thing was certain—it meant that the Lord Pangloth, or the Perfumed Breeze, would be returning.
She opened the backpack and reached in for the tube that contained Ashley and Carl. As she was feeling for it she touched something metallic and realized it was Milo’s skull. She took it out and placed it on the floor in front of her. The empty sockets stared accusingly at her. She tried to analyse her feelings about Milo and his death, but everything was too jumbled up in her mind. The pieces would have to settle before she could even begin to examine how she felt.
Jan smiled sadly at the skull. “Well, Milo, we made it. With a bit of help from a cat,” She reached in the bag again and found the tube, then began to examine the different pieces of transparent equipment in the circular room.
Because everything looked so unfamiliar it took her some time to find the part of the computer that housed the software. Then she frowned when she saw, through the transparent top, that the computer contained a whole row of similar tubes. Worriedly, she pressed the buttons that ejected the tubes then inserted her single one. Then she waited.
Nothing happened.
Chapter Thirty
Something made a loud beeping sound on the other side of the room and Jan jumped. She turned. A screen had risen from a console on which a red light was flashing. She hurried over to it with relief. At least a minute had passed since she’d inserted the tube and she had begun to fear that the computer was no longer functioning.
There were words on the screen: “Hi! It’s me, Ashley! ol’ lame-brain Carl has been having a bit of trouble sorting things out. Can’t activate any of the voice synthesizers yet. Wants you to reinsert as many of the original software tubes as you can back into the mainframe. There’s info on them he needs. He wants to copy it on to our software. Hurry, will you? I want to be able to see and hear again. Much love, Ashley.”
Not being very good at reading, it took Jan a while before she understood the bulk of the message on the screen. She frowned. “Mainframe? What’s that?” she asked.
The words on the screen remained the same. She read the message through again and realized that Ashley couldn’t hear her. Then she worked out that the ‘mainframe’ must refer to the computer where she’d inserted the tube. She returned to it and studied the six other tubes that she’d left lying on its glass top. There was only space in the computer for five now. Did it matter which? Well, she would soon find out, she thought, as she began to push the tubes into the opening. The computer hummed as it took the tubes one by one and drew them deep into itself. Jan became aware of more lights starting to flash on other pieces of equipment. She could feel the circular room of crystal starting to come alive.
The air crackled. Then a voice said, “Ah, that’s better! Light and sound! Hi, Jan! Have you missed me?”
It was Ashley. The voice wasn’t the same as the one in the shelter—it was neither male or female—but it was unmistakably Ashley. “Hello Ashley,” said Jan, looking around for the source of the voice. “You can see me now?” And hear me?”
“Yup. Place is loaded with sensors, inside and out. But Carl couldn’t activate them until he got the drill from the other programs. Can you insert the final one now?”
Jan saw one of the tubes starting to emerge from the computer. She took it out and replaced it with the sixth tube. As the computer ingested it, Ashley cried, “Wow, what’s been happening in here? Who are those guys?”
Jan guessed she was referring to the dead Japanese. She had been avoiding looking at them as they lay there in their large pools of congealing blood. “They’re the warlord’s men. They were waiting here.”
“Jesus, did you do that to them?”
“Of course not. Frusa did.”
“Frusa? Who’s Frusa?”
“She’s a cat.”
At that moment the panther, no doubt curious about the sound of voices, came in through the door. “Jesus,” said Ashley, that’s some cat.” The panther sniffed the air and said to Jan, “Hear voice, but no one here.”
“There is someone here, Frusa. Her name is Ashley. She’s a friend. Ashley, say something nice to Frusa.”
“Hello, pussycat. You’re real cute. You know, I had a coat exactly like yours once. Oh, but it wasn’t real fur, it was synthetic.”
The panther looked at Jan. “No one here.” Then it turned and went back out through the door.
“I’m sorry,” Jan told Ashley. “It seems that if Frusa can’t smell someone they don’t exist.”
There was a pause before Ashley replied. “But she’s right. I don’t exist. Carl wants to talk to you. Bye.”
“Ashley …?”
“This is Carl.” It was the same voice but infinitely different. “I have made contact with the computer controlling the Sky Angel factory facility. I am currently transmitting the sequence of codes which will initiate the launching of the Sky Angel from the facility.”
“Oh,” she said, taken by surprise. “That was quick. Where did you find these codes?”
“In this computer’s memory.”
“Yes, of course.” She should have known that. “So everything is going fine. The Sky Angel is going to come down here without any problem?” Jan couldn’t believe it was going to be so easy. …
“All systems are functioning. I can foresee no problem.”
“Great. When will it get here?”
“In eight and a half days from now.”
“Eight and a half days? That’s a long time.”
“It has a long way to travel. It will take four days to reach the Earth’s atmosphere. Its descent path will bring it down over Australia. It will take another four days to reach here travelling at top speed.”