Part 10 (1/2)

'- the only person on this mountain who's in trouble?' I finished calmly.

He said nothing. Just scuffed his shoes in embarra.s.sment. 'Good. Now shut up and sit down. If the soldiers find us before the Doctor does we're b.u.g.g.e.red. Big time.'

He shut up but I knew he was right. I had asked for help. I had called down the whirlwind.

I dragged in a few gulps of air. My side still felt like someone had poured acid all over it but at least I no longer had the feeling my insides were falling out. And even that discomfort was fading.

It was the rings. Why had I never thought about them before? Why had I never considered what properties they may be invested with? Was my ring exerting a pressure over me simply by virtue of my wearing it? Why had I never taken it off? There was a circle of dirty skin under that ring where I had never washed. Now I became aware that it itched horribly from time to time, but that this had never seemed to bother me until now.

Why had I never thought about the rings before? Was it truly because we had no need of them? No need of help? Or was it because even dormant they seemed so much like eyes you simply didn't want opened? The eyes of the Universe made manifest, watching you, judging you.

That was the closest I have come for many years to agreeing with Jason.

He felt it too. He knew the feeling was right.

What had I done?

But I knew the answer to that: I had called down the whirlwind and now it was coming, and we were standing right in its path, and so was the Earth.

I walked slowly back to the group humming 'Don't fear the Reaper'

nervously under my breath. My thoughts were a tumbled mess that needed sorting out. I felt the past collide with the future and gang up on the present.

It was a feeling I hadn't had since I last saw him, and it made me feel both scared and elated.

Jason lagged behind, staring up at the clouds, humming that stupid little Pepsi Cola jingle, which he does whenever he is thinking hard about something. Or trying to.

I don't think he wanted to walk with me. I'm almost certain he didn't. I didn't feel angry with him any more but I certainly wasn't going to mollycoddle him. We had things to do before he arrived.

I arrived back at the camp to mixed reactions.

When Sam Denton glanced curiously at my no doubt sprightly step I avoided her obvious question by sending her to fetch Jason. She gave me a peculiar glance. Hah. Don't push your luck girlie. You should thank me.

Schofield was sitting hunched on the ground, resting, ignoring everyone.

That was absolutely fine by me.

Tanner was more perceptive. She noticed something had happened to-me straight away. I suppose it couldn't have been more obvious. Even I felt it.

The aftermath of the ring's effect was running in me like a fever in reverse.

My back was straighter, my tiredness gone. My skin felt stretched taut over a body stiff with energy. I was one good feeling piled on top of another and it was as easy to see the change as it was to feel it.

I started talking fast. I didn't know how long the effect would last, or what the cost would be later.

'Right. There are things we have to do. We have to work out what these soldiers want. We have to find out what they've done with Bill Raelsen and the others. We have to rescue them if they're still alive. And we have to make d.a.m.n sure all our data comes with them. We can't let these soldiers have anything.'

Tanner thought about that and then asked the most perceptive question I had heard anyone ask so far: 'Why are there soldiers on both mountains?'

'That's not a question I've overlooked.' 'So what about it then?'

'Just because I've thought about it doesn't mean I have an answer.' A thought struck me then. I realized something had been bugging me about Jason's story. I walked over to where he and Denton were talking. Both of them looked as guilty as h.e.l.l when I approached. Denton took a little half-step backwards. Oh dear. How predictable. Jason looked at me, defiance stamped all over his face. Far too much defiance.

I said, 'Jim's lump of moonrock. Let me have it, will you?'

He seemed almost relieved as he handed it over.

I rummaged around in my bag and pulled out the spectroscope.

Jason pointed. 'That's his.'

I smiled humourlessly. 'It's like being married. ”What's his is mine, what's mine's me own.”' I stared at Denton as I said this. She got the point but the one half-step she'd already taken was all she was going to back down. Fair enough.

I studied the moonrock. It was grey, streaked with black, grainy in texture; just a lump of rock that I held in my hand, yet it was part of another planet.

Moments like this were what it was all about.

I scanned it. Oops.

Take it all back Bernice.

Jason must have seen my expression change - either that or the spillover from the rings still linked us somewhat. 'What?'

'Remember how I said those drogue stones were six billion years old and came from somewhere outside the Solar System?'

'Yeah.'

'Well so did this.' I held up the moonrock, dropped it back into Jason's hand. 'They're the same stuff.'

Tanner came up to us. 'Did you hear it?' 'Hear what?'

'Sshhh!'

For a moment all was quiet. Then something lifted above the drone of the wind. An engine. An aeroplane.

'Is it him?'

I looked up. 'Not unless he's brought the whole Turkish Army with him.'

The sky was full of dark splotches, black on umber clouds, drifting through the sky, moving against the wind. Parachutes. About thirty of them.

I swore.

'We've got company.'

That was true in more ways than one.

All of us heard the next sound to break the silence. Footsteps.

I turned. There was no time for panic to grip me. No time to hide. The image of a gun rammed against my face swam before my eyes.