Part 21 (1/2)

Then - so suddenly he cried aloud - his head exploded with light and sound.

The reactivated icons and screens of PolNet filled his mind, blinding him to reality for a bare instant. Data scrolled down his vision; remote inputs booted up his implanted processor, checked its status and opened the channels he had tried to access on the way to Old North Street. And on top of all of that, Barney's voice urgently called his name.

Cati's fingers found his throat while he was distracted. The killer lifted, began to squeeze. Roads dangled li e a rag doll. The muscles in his throat and the strengthened bone of his spinal column prevented Cati from actually snapping his neck, but there was littlie he could do to stop the closure of his windpipe. He pulled at the clenched fists with all of his fading strength and s.h.i.+fted them less than a centimetre. His modified autonomic systems slowed his heart and diverted as much blood as possible to his brain, yet still he could feet consciousness gradually ebbing.

Gritting his teeth, he stared into the killer's alien eyes. The babble of voices intensified as darkness filled his vision and the fire in his lungs began to go out.

Then the hands suddenly eased, allowing him a brief gasp of air. He struggled, kicking more by reflex thananything else. His body still fought desperately for life, despite its slim chance of survival. Whether any of his blows struck home, he couldn't tell.

His eyes hadn't recovered fr om the lack of oxygen in his blood, and his limbs were little more than vague nerve-endings a long, long way away.

Then he was in the air, flying across the room in slow motion. His eyes cleared enough for him to see the wall coming for him. There was little he could do to stop it. The pain was like a bomb going off in his head as he hit.

He slumped face-forward onto the bare floorboards, retching for breath.

Outrage burned everywhere in his battered body, and the taste of blood was stronger than ever: like failure, sharp and bitter. But he had to move. His life depended on it.

With an effort so draining that he thought it might burst his heart, he managed to roll over and look up.

Frustration cut deep the lines of Cati's face; despair lay in the bottomless black pools of his eyes. But he wasn't coming for Roads. He stood exactly where he had been moments ago, frozen in place as though by some terrible internal struggle.

As Roads watched, the killer shook his head once, raised his clenched fists to the ceiling. His mouth formed an 0, and he screamed silently. Every muscle in his body quivered in rebellion.

Barely had Roads registered this impression than Cati sagged. Every muscle went limp, and the killer looked down at the floor. Any thoughts Roads might have entertained of taking advantage of Cati's distraction vanished. The killer already looked beaten, doomed.

Then Cati moved. So quickly that Roads could barely follow, the killer ran from the lounge and into the bedroom. The crunch of footsteps traced his path to the window and beyond.

352.

k twitched, wanting desperately to set off in Cati was slipping through his fingers for the time that night, and unlike before he had no idea ti;i- the killer might be going. But there was nothing 114-we” F41 do in time; he could hardly even keep his head .MbNbMt listen.

1 @, ft,'i gentle thump from the roof above followed, then a o the building across the lane. Footsteps led into n x;@ distance, gradually fading even to Roads' sensitive 1c. Finally, only Katiya's voice remained, calling the lw back, sobbing helplessly for him to return. Cati was gone. Apart from the voices calling both Mrlt-., and outside Roads' head, the night was silent ffir Will you talk to me, for G.o.d's sake?” ”Take it easy, Barney.” Martin O'Dell leaned over the seat she occupied. ”He's probably busy, and you're fiful, [email protected], the h.e.l.l out of him.” ”For ten minutes? He can't be that busy.”

O'Dell shrugged and moved away. In the dim light glowing from the screens and control panels of the RUSAMC control van, his face looked different. More serious; in a strange way, more at home.

Barney wasn't sure she liked the change, even if he was helping her. For the first time, she felt like an Outsider. ”Phil, this is an emergency. I need to talk to you now!”

Nothing. She closed her eyes and rested her head in her hands. The last sighting of Roads had occurred almost threequarters of an hour ago, when he had stolen a patrol car from the back of Mayor's House. Nothing had been seen or heard of him since.

She was beginning to suspect the worst.Behind her, O'Dell oversaw the rest of the operation. RUSAMC technicians had isolated the frequency of Roads' cyberlink, and were using the control van's transmitters to boost Barney's signal. Also, the information from the old CATI files retrieved from her laptop had enabled them to search for any illicit transmissions through the radio-silence still blanketing the city's official airwaves. They had already detected one such transmission, and were working hard to decode it.

Barney sighed. If the cipher proved to be impenetrable they were wasting valuable time.

Outside the control van, chaos reigned. Visible through a monitor was the ring of MSA officers surrounding Mayor's House, each armed with a rifle and under strict orders to keep everyone out - RSD and RUSAMC included. Search parties had found no sign of Cati, and the city's communication network was still effectively down, despite the mysterious subst.i.tute that had appeared to take PolNets place. Communication was limited to the few intercoms the RUSAMC had loaned to the RSD squads during their retreat from the area.

Yet she refused to give up. The long-run was more important than the short: neither Cati nor the Mole had been captured; both had disappeared along with Roads. She needed him to help them resume the search, before the Mole or Cati went to ground again.

She kept trying, sending her voice echoing across the city, boosted by the RUSAMC transmitters.

Finally, after another five minutes of calling, a weak signal returned: ”Barney, be quiet. I'm here.” Roads' voice issued from the, speakers in the console in front of her as well as in her ear. He sounded terrible, even over the cyberlink, but Barney was too relieved to notice at first.

OW” Her cry brought O'Dell instantly from the far iN of the control van. ”Is that really you?”

Don't start that again. I'm not up to it.” '”We've been looking for you everywhere. Where the 11 have you been?” ”Hunting,” he said, ”and being hunted. I saw Cati [email protected] from Mayor's House and guessed he was heading to Old North Street. The Mole must have guessed well or followed me part of the way, because it beat at. here. By the time I arrived, the place was a mess and [email protected] Mole had gone.

Then Can arrived, thought I'd done and _” He stopped. ”And?” she prompted uneasily. ”Let's just say I'll live, and leave it at that. I've no 1r;P.- where he is now. Katiya's still here. She's been To MTN around too, but she'll be okay.” ”Cati hit her?” ”No, the Mole did. Why, though, I'm not sure.” ”Maybe to enrage Cati,” said O'Dell, leaning across the console to talk into a microphone. i ”Is that you, Martin?” Roads asked, surprised to hear the extra voice through the cyberlink.

6cyes.” ”I guess you'd know better than any of us what the L Mole really wants. It's your toy, after all.” ”Perhaps.” O'Dell glanced at Barney. ”But we'll talk about that later. For now, we're in the control van listening in on the old military frequencies. There was an unauthorised transmission about fifteen minutes ago that we think came from Cati's controller -”

”It did,” Roads interrupted. ”If not, I wouldn't be talking to you now. Have you translated it?” ”Not yet. We're doing our best. Do you have any ideas?”

”No. As I told Barney, I'd only heard of the CATIproject by name - no details. You've tried all the standard encryption keys?”

”Everything in the old files. None of them match.” ”Then it must be something unique to the project, and could take hours to crack. Although . . .” Roads thought for a moment. ”PolNet's back on the air. Does that mean RSD is up and running again?” ”No,” Barney answered. ”PolNet just started working again.

No-one knows why. We thought you might have had something to do with it.” ”Me?

No - in fact, it d.a.m.n near killed me. But I have an idea who is behind it.”

Again Roads hesitated. ”And I think I know him well enough to guess that he's listening in right now. If he'll hear us out, I'd like to ask him for help again. And to be given the chance to apologise.”

Barney opened her mouth to ask Roads what the h.e.l.l he was talking about, but a new voice over the cyberlink cut her off. ”Apologise?” The voice spoke from the console's speakers with an amused - and familiar - air. ”My dear boy, what on earth is there to apologise for?” ”For thinking that you were Cati's controller, of course. ”

Laughter filled the line. ”Really? If you believed that even for a second, then you don't know me as well as you think.” ”No?” responded Roads. ”You're here now, aren't you?” ”Too true. . . ” The chuckle tailed off into silence.

Barney stared at the console. ”Phil, is that who I think it is?” ”Probably.

You tell her, Keith.” ”Keith Morrow at your service again, my dear.”

Barney wasn't quite sure what to say. She and O'Dell exchanged quick, disbelieving glances.

RUSAMC captain cleared his throat. ”I'd always agined our first meeting to be on somewhat less rdial grounds,” he said. Again the Head chuckled. ”I'll bet you did, Captain 'Dell. And don't bother trying to trace this nsmission.” ”Why would we do that?”

You know very well why,” returned the Head. ”For meone so cruelly maligned by both RSD and the 'Reunited States, I have certainly gone out of my way to --help you all in the last week. I hope you appreciate that.”

-We do, Keith,” said Roads. ”We do. And if your face hadn't appeared in Cati's diary, I wouldn't have @suspected you at all. It took me far too 1()ng to work out the real reason behind that.” ”Wait - let me get this straight.” Barney rubbed a hand across her forehead, trying to retie the threads of the conversation.

”You resurrected PolNet? ”Of course,” replied the Head. ”Do you think Phil is the only person in Kennedy with a working copy? Or that my motives are necessarily malign?” The Head tsked impatiently. ”Did you pick up the CATI command?” Roads asked. ”If you mean the most recent, from nineteen minutes ago, then yes.” ”Can you decipher it for us?” ”Decipher, yes; I already have.

For you, though, I don't know. Should I?” ”That's entirely up to you. just remember, we only want the controller. Cati's as innocent as I am, despite all he's been made to do. He had no choice in the matter, and shouldn't be punished.” . Barney opened her mouth to protest, but O'Dell touched her on the shoulder and shook his head.”My thoughts exactly,” said Morrow. ”The controller ordered Caei to rendezvous with him at Patriot Bridge in forty-five minutes. Twenty-six minutes from now.” ”Did he say why?” Roads asked. ”No.” ”Then that probably means he suspects we're listening, and doesn't want to broadcast too much.” ”I'd say so. All previous transmissions were quite explicit. ”You mean - ?” she began, but again the hand on her arm silenced her. ”What about the control code?”

asked O'Dell before she could push him away. ”No,” said Morrow. ”One person has it already, which is bad enough.” ”But having it would save us a lot of trouble. We could just order him to -” ”My point exactly.” Morrow's voice was regretful but firm. ”Humans don't know when to stop. How you ever reached the point where you were able to create an intelligence as sublime as mine is quite beyond me, to be frank. ” ”We've had this conversation before, Keith,”

interrupted Roads. ”And now isn't the time. You've given us what we need and, for that, I'm grateful. The rest can wait until later. Did you catch all of that, Barney?” ”Clear as a bell.” ”Okay, tell Margaret to send reinforcements ASAP. Keith said 'he' every time he mentioned the controller, so she's in the clear. But be careful who else you talk to. We don't want to scare Carl's controller away.” ”Understood, but -” She paused. ”It may not be as easy as that.” ”What do you mean?”