Part 15 (1/2)

'And the last one you treated? Nyssa? Did she survive?'

'She is recovering.'

'Where?'

There was an awkward pause. Then: 'Follow me.'

The Garm turned to go. Olvir, having no better ideas, did as he was told.

Bor hadn't moved from the bunk where they'd laid him. Even if he'd wanted to, he probably couldn't have managed it. Sigurd was the only one who stayed around after trading his rostered duties against a promise of extra work in the future. He'd had some absurd idea that he might be able to help. Instead, he could only witness Bor's slow defeat by the effects of an overlong stay in the zone.

'Try to relax,' he urged, as Bor stiffened with a particularly bad spasm of pain.

'It doesn't matter,' Bor gasped after a while, as the spasm ended and left him with a few moments of relief. He'd already had all of Sigurd's Hydromel, protesting at the sacrifice. 'In a couple of hours there won't even be a Terminus. Or a company. Or anything... I found out all about it in the zone.'

'What's going to happen?'

'That's the trouble. I can't remember.' Bor managed a weak, wry smile. 'Short-term memory's always the first to go.'

Another spasm threatened. Bor waited it out, but for once it didn't last. Perhaps even that was a bad sign. Sigurd said, 'Look, I'll get more Hydromel.'

'Eirak won't release any.'

'Who said I was going to ask him?'

Sigurd went across to the thin curtain that divided the sleeping quarters from the larger s.p.a.ce of the headquarters section. For all of the great size of the Terminus, the amount of usable s.p.a.ce that was available to the Vanir had always been small. But even the best-s.h.i.+elded sections gave only temporary protection, and without any means of controlling the circulation of contaminated air their effect was limited.

The Hydromel container was on open view,. The two chains that held it down were thin, but the real problem lay with the trembler alarms to which they were connected. Any attempt to cut them or to smash the lock would bring Eirak running. And if that happened Sigurd knew that, within a few days, there would be another Vanir lying sick and delirious on the other side of the curtain, and it would be him. Eirak could cancel his supply and make it stick. If he could order Valgard into the zone and get away with it, he could get away with anything.

'It really isn't worth the trouble, you know,' Bor called feebly from the sleeping area. And the pity of it was, Sigurd had to agree.

The Garm said nothing more, gliding along ahead of Olvir. The young raider kept his distance. Silence only added to the aura of power around the beast, and Olvir could still remember how ineffectual his burner had been against its armoured skin. They'd already come down through open deck areas with strange markings drawn out on the floor, and pa.s.sed through a long corridor that seemed to be lined entirely with black gla.s.s. Now they emerged about half-way down a metal gantry onto a spiralling access ramp.

The Garm led him upward. They were back in the open, and the ramp led them between vertical cooling fins several storeys high. Olvir took one look at the drop from the unguarded edge of the ramp, and wished he hadn't the air turbulence between the fins tugged at him and tried to pull him over. The wind was nowhere near strong enough, but it was an uncomfortable feeling.

They climbed into the support structure at the top of the fins, and Olvir could see the metal-honeycomb skin of the Terminus only a few metres overhead. The ramp ended in a grillework deck that groaned slightly as the Garm's weight came onto it, seeming hardly enough to protect them from the long fall into darkness below. It began to occur to Olvir that he'd trusted the Garm too readily, but he was already so apprehensive that he didn't think it could get any worse. Besides, if the animal meant him harm, none of this would have been necessary.

In the far corner of the deck was a square tank about the size of a double cabin. It had probably been some kind of monitoring or flow-control room for the cooling fins, but now the window overlooking the drop had been covered with metal sheets spot-welded at their edges. The only other access was by a door with some kind of wheel-operated lock. The Garm raised a ma.s.sive paw to indicate this. Olvir was, it seemed, where he wanted to be. Wherever it was.

He looked at the Garm and said, 'Well?' But the Garm didn't move. This was as far as it felt able to go without running against some earlier instruction. Olvir went across to the door and took a closer look. There was no provision for a key or anything like a key, so it was possible that the mechanism was just a simple catch.

This could be a problem. The simple things always were. Races sharing some part of their culture and history could take for granted such things as catches and switches and dials, whilst to outsiders they became complex puzzles. Olvir turned again to the Garm. At least he could try asking for some guidance.

But the Garm's head was turned slightly to one side as if to listen to something that no one else could hear.

Olvir realised that the Vanir must be sounding the signal to bring the Garm back to the storeyard for another Lazar. As if in confirmation, the Garm turned and began to descend the ramp.

Olvir felt strangely alone. The Garm had hardly been good company, but at least it had been alive and, in spite of the surgical alterations that had been carried out to ensure its obedience, it had seemed intelligent. Doing the best that he could to fight the solitary feeling. Olvir set to work on the catch.

It didn't take as long as he'd feared. It was simply a case of performing two operations at the same time, and the door swung open. As Olvir stepped forward, hands grabbed him and jerked him roughly inside.

Taken off-balance, the weight of his armour brought him cras.h.i.+ng to the floor. He had an impression of dazzling whiteness and a dark shape poised over him and ready to strike. I'm glad Kari didn't see this I'm glad Kari didn't see this, he was thinking, what an embarra.s.sing way to go what an embarra.s.sing way to go.

But then vision started to clear, and the dark shape filled out with detail as its small fist was slowly lowered.

'Olvir!' Nyssa said. 'What are you doing here?'

She climbed off his chest and let him sit up, blinking at the brightness of the room. It had been tiled in white throughout, and there was some kind of pulsing illumination from above that gave off a faint ozone smell.

There was also something else; Nyssa was showing none of the signs of the Lazar disease.

Olvir said, 'You came through the cure?'

'Just about,' Nyssa said, and from her expression it had been a pretty grim process.

'What happened?'

'Just a ma.s.sive dose of radiation and nothing else.

There's no proper diagnosis, no control.' She gestured around. 'And this is supposed to be someone's idea of decontamination.'

Olvir got to his feet. 'Let's go,' he said. 'The sooner we can put the Terminus behind us...'

'You don't understand! There must be thousands of people who've pa.s.sed through here and think they're cured. It's all just hit and miss. n.o.body cares.'

Olvir tried to get her towards the door, but she wouldn't be distracted. 'Listen to me,' she went on urgently. 'The cure works, but it has to be controlled.

Otherwise you just trade one killer for another!

Radiation-induced diseases that may take years to show!'

'All right!' Olvir said firmly. This was a rescue, and the rights and wrongs could be argued out later. 'Let's concentrate on getting away.'

Nyssa allowed herself to be ushered towards the outside. 'It could all be changed,' she said as they stepped out onto the decking.

'I don't doubt it,' Olvir a.s.sured her. 'But for now, we've got a lot of ground to cover.

The Vanir hadn't given the signal for the Garm. The Doctor had.

The small box housing the subsonic generator had been fixed to its upright by a couple of bolts, and removing it hadn't been a problem. The Vanir might have a back-up, but after seeing the rest of their shoestring operation, he doubted it. Without the box the Vanir couldn't recall the Garm; with it, the Doctor and Kari had the exclusive use of the animal's strength.