"All right. Stay away from it. Help's on the way."
"Tell them to be careful. The thing's deadly."
"What can you tell us about it?"
"I can tell you that directed microwaves will disrupt it."
"Microwaves." There was a brief conversation with someone else. Then: "Where did it come from?"
"I don't know. But it's pulled itself together out there and it's starting this way again."
"We'll be there in a couple of minutes."
Kim saw lights coming from the direction of Eagle Point. "Thanks," she said.
She was several kilometers in front of it now, and it was no more than a fuzzy patch of cloud in the moonlight. But she saw the comet head re-forming, saw it moving against the backdrop of other clouds.
Her sensors told her it was gathering speed. Coming fast and coming faster.
She waited, watched it approach, watched it fill the sky behind her. Its mad gaze stared malevolently out of her screens. And when she could stand it no more, when it was climbing her tailpipe, she turned aside and sent it hurtling once again across the sky.
Stupid goddamn critter.
Trailing filaments touched her starboard wing. Lights went off, a red lamp on the console began blinking furiously, and the engine died. The flyer fell. The sky reeled around her and Kim's stomach tried to climb up into her throat. Engine failure was supposed to be something that never happened. But if it did, procedure required taking a minute before trying to restart. Give the automatics time to clear the lines.
She held on as long as she could while the flyer dropped through the sky. Then she hit the button. The magnetics caught and the engine came on.
Trees and hills swept past.
She pulled back on the yoke, gained enough to clear obstacles, but stayed low. Keep down in thicker air.
That should make it more difficult for the shroud.
It was off her screens, but she thought she could see its remnants, long wispy trails against the stars.
The red lamp was still blinking.
Batteries.
She requested a readout on her power supplies.
AT CURRENT RATE OF USAGE, VEHICLE CAN STAY ALOFT THIRTY-FOUR MINUTES.
"Kim." A new voice. A man's. "Steer northeast and gain some altitude. We'll take it from here."
A police cruiser appeared above off to her right.
"Glad to see you guys," she told them. "Heads up. The thing's bad news."
The shroud was re-forming.
A second unit moved in. Kim scanned for their frequency, hoping to hear what they were saying to each other, but without Jerry she couldn't find it.
The warning lamp was blinking furiously. Get down before you fall down. Ordinarily, she'd have looked for the nearest piece of flat land. But not tonight. She returned to her Eagle Point course.
The police had commenced firing. They were using bolt lasers. Big ones, far more potent than the handheld models with which Tripley's security team had been armed.
Caught in the assault, the shroud rippled orange and white. Sections of it were blown away. Tendrils fountained into the air, and the creature began to dissolve.
The cruiser moved in and attacked at point-blank range.
"-Maybe not a good idea-" she told them.
From Kim's perspective it looked like a minuscule electrical storm. But suddenly the charges stopped, the lights went out, and the aircraft disappeared into the darkness. Moments later, near the ground, a fireball erupted.
The radio was silent.
Power reserves gave her thirty minutes. Getting tight. Where was she going to land that she'd be safe from that goddamn thing?
"Kim." Air Rescue again. "Keep moving. Get out of the area."
"I'm trying to do that." The sky to her rear was dark. "The shooting's stopped back there," she said.
"I know."
Her sensors reacquired the shroud.
"You need something more effective than a laser. You have anything that can transmit concentrated microwaves?"
"We're looking into it. Kim, can you move a little faster?"
"I'm losing power. I'm not sure I can make the city."
"Just as well. Head east. Away from the mountains. Look for a place to set down. We have more units en route."
Head east. "Unless you've got something better than you had last time," she said, "you're just going to get people killed. Me among them. Maybe you should call in the fleet."
"Trust us. We'll take care of it."
Right.
The shroud was coming again. Moving with increasing velocity through the night.
Damned stupid Sheyel. Nobody ever listens.
A string of lights raced across the countryside, westbound into the mountains. The night seemed peaceful, orderly, mundane. Whatever aircraft were coming to her rescue had not yet appeared onscreen. In all that vast stillness, only the train and her pursuer were moving. But she had a substantial lead.
Nevertheless the creature was going to kill her, and there didn't seem to be much she could do about it.
The string of lights started to go out, front to rear. The train was entering the Culbertson Tunnel.
She watched until it was gone. "Air Rescue, how long is the Culbertson?"
"Twenty-six kilometers, Kim. Why do you ask?"
She'd been through it, and she tried to visualize the interior of the tunnel. But all she could remember was that it had been too dark to see anything.
She looked up the train schedules for Eagle Point. There were a half dozen commuters daily and eight long-distance passenger carriers. Freights were more numerous, but the schedules less exact. Three-oh- four was due shortly from Worldend, on the west coast. A freight. This one would be carrying flyers, furniture, building materials. Nine cars. Fully automated. No people on board. Scheduled to arrive in twenty minutes.
She opened her channel to Air Rescue. "Can you check to see whether 304 is running today and whether it's on schedule?"
"Sure." He paused. "Why?"
"Just do it for me. I'll explain later."
She brought up a map of the maglev routes. The freight would be coming in on the western line. Through the Culbertson. Its normal speed through open country approached 400 kilometers per hour. But it would slow down to 220 for the run under the mountain.
"That's affirmative on the train, Kim," said Air Rescue. "They're coming and they're on time."
"To the second?"
"What do you mean?"
She told him what she wanted to do. He caught his breath. She couldn't do that. Too dangerous. It wouldn't be permitted. His instructions were that she was simply to keep running until they could bring down the shroud.
"That's not going to work. Lasers aren't going to kill it and I'm running out of power and I'll be a sitting duck for it on the ground."
"Why is it after you?"
"It doesn't like my political views." Kim glared at the radio. "I don't know." Several sets of lights had appeared in the sky. "Your people are here," she said.
"Okay. Just keep moving."
She counted four more police cruisers. This time they kept their distance, firing from long range, moving away when it veered after one or another of the units. She admired the coordination of the attackers, who kept hitting it from different angles. Nevertheless, the shroud did not seem to be suffering grievous damage.
Kim banked the flyer and made for the tunnel.
Behind her the red and white beams of the lasers flashed like sabers. Then her angle changed and she couldn't see it anymore.
She was riding through the night when the sky behind her lit up.
The Air Rescue channel had been silent for several minutes. Now her contact came back up: "Okay, Kim, looks like you were right. We're going to try something else."
"What?"
"We're going to attempt a midair extraction. It'll be quicker than setting down."
She looked at the forest below. "No," she said.
"It's perfectly safe."
Her stomach turned over at the prospect. "I'm sure it is. But it's after me. Not the aircraft. It won't do any good to move me."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure. Look, can we discuss this later?"
"I'm sorry. I know things are a little tense."
"I'd be inclined to agree with that."
"We've just never seen anything like this before."
"Not covered by the operating instructions, I take it."
"Look, Kim. We're doing the best we can."
"Yeah." She softened her voice. "I know. But I'm going to do the tunnel."
"We don't think it's a good idea."
"Offer me a better one."
The talker on the other end was silent.
"I need you to help," she said.
"Wait one."
"Make it quick. Time's getting short."
She saw the southern route as she passed over it, the one used by trains traveling between Eagle Point and Terminal City. It consisted of a magnetized band about as wide as her hand was long. In forest areas it was usually set at treetop level, and was supported by a sturdy metal framework. When the angle was right, the band reflected moonlight.
Had the sun been up, she'd have been able to see the path cut through the forest by the maglevs. Moving at supersonic speeds, they created sonic booms and explosive winds that pushed aside everything close to the track. Trees and shrubbery leaned sharply away on either side, as far from passing trains as they could get. The effect was like that of the parting of the Red Sea, a leafy wilderness this time, divided by irresistible power.
She picked up the maglev route west and began to follow it toward the mountains. Beyond Eagle Point the peaks bunched up into a vast rampart, the tallest range on the planet. They were snow-covered, majestic, impassable without the tunnel. The approaches were scarred from ancient movement: deep canyons, sudden ridges, precipices.
"Hello? Air Rescue, are you there?"
Nothing. She imagined a hand over the mike and people arguing, making calls.
"For a start," said Kim, "you need to turn off any safety devices." Anything that would stop the train if detectors noted an obstruction in the tunnel.
"Go ahead, Doc. If you still want to do this-"
They had her title, which meant they'd checked her out. "Good. Listen, I need some details. How long is the tunnel? Exactly? What are its dimensions? Does it curve? If so, where and how much? And when will the freight enter it? I need to know to the second."
"That might be hard to come by."