The Unborn

by Brian Herbert

  A construction worker heading down the ramp stopped to ask if she needed any help. She shook her head and said she was fine, without telling him anything. He shrugged and continued on. She watched him turn right onto a walkway and catch an elevator that took him up to the high girders and beams. That was the route she wanted to take this time.

  She gazed down at the electronic plan-set she’d found in one of the suitcases, located pages that showed all vatorcars, as well as the layout of the high-level construction, including the walkways. She looked up, got her bearings and identified the walkways and the numerical designations for them. All were permanent, to be available for maintenance of the artificial sun, which was marked on the schematics as “Sunny.” She imagined herself up there, high over the ground level below, and felt the emptiness in her stomach that she always experienced when she had to face heights. Tatsy took a deep breath, vowed to overcome it.

  In a few minutes she was stepping off the vatorcar onto the lowest of several walkways that spiraled around the ceiling. It reassured her that the railings were sturdy and not too low, protecting her from tumbling over the edge. Trying not to think about falling, she activated the Seismic-Scan, causing the symbols to light up around the outside of the hoop-shaped device. She peered through the viewing area, pointing the scanner in various directions to make it appear she knew what she was doing. Then she walked farther along, taking one ramp or another, doing the same thing and pausing very officially on occasion, as if considering her findings. A number of workers passed but did not interrupt. It helped that she saw two job supervisors inspecting the work themselves and making entries into their own electronic equipment.

  In half an hour, she found herself on a higher walkway that was on the bottom level of the artificial sun, and linked to the nearest walkways by temporary scaffolding. She took long, deep breaths, and was pleased to find that her acrophobia was fading into the background of her consciousness. The fear was still there, but she would not let it get the best of her.

  She was at the highest level of the facility, and noticed an elevator on her left that went the short distance up to the surface, as well as a spiral staircase alongside it. She took a long, agitated breath, trying to keep herself calm.

  She saw two doors, one marked “maintenance” and the other “electrical,” and located these on the electronic plan-set as well. She looked inside the rooms. The maintenance room was larger than the other, with wooden crates stacked inside and tools on the floor. Behind the crates, she found a place where she could hide and wait for Meredith to appear during her inspection, just one of several options she’d come up with. If anyone saw Tatsy there, she could just produce one of her seismic-analyzers and say it looked like she’d found a weak spot that needed reinforcing—and it would go into her report.

  Back out on the walkway, she held the railing with one hand and looked over the edge, down past the scaffolding to the floor of the cavern, a very long way to fall. For a moment she had that funny, unsettled feeling in her stomach, the familiar sensation she wanted to get the better of. This time it went away quickly, and she was proud of it.

  Most of all she felt excitement about the imminent violence she was about to commit, and great anticipation.

  ~~~

  Sam Howe was not a handsome man in any classical sense. The nose was too long and wide, the eyebrows overly raised and the forehead sloped back in an almost Neanderthal fashion. He had a weak chin and an atrocious profile, especially with that peculiar 19th-century goatee.

  Nonetheless, Meredith found him attractive, with his athletic build, ruddy complexion and facial creases that would not look good on some men but only served to make him more weathered and interesting. The lines in his skin were like the aging of fine wine, and made her wonder how many sailing adventures, mountain climbing expeditions and long-distance bicycle trips he’d been on to attain that particular molding of his features. She had been thinking about making him a character in one of her stories.

  In the passenger seat, she sipped coffee from a plastic cup. It was hot, and surprisingly good.

  With Sam manually operating a pair of chrome control sticks, the heliplane sped east, boosted by an increasing tailwind, with Mount Rainier visible on the right through a mist of rain. The peak loomed like an inverted cone, rising more than fourteen thousand feet above sea level. Presently the suburban residential tracts outside Seattle and Tacoma gave way to farms, dairies and ranches, and occasional small fishing lakes. As they turned to the southeast, in what Sam said was the final vector to Sun Under, they caught sight of the forested slopes of the Cascade foothills and brown, blighted areas that had been clear-cut by loggers, removing virtually all vegetation.

  Although Meredith had never considered herself an environmentalist to the degree that Zack was, it angered her to see such large areas of denuded forest. Logging should be done out of sight, in more remote places where most people didn’t have to see its results. After all, she reasoned, cities and suburbs were essentially blighted areas, and their inhabitants should be able to find pristine woods nearby, for escape and contrast.

  It was a tenuous line of reasoning, she realized, because civilization demanded timber products. She and Zack lived in a city neighborhood that had once been forest, meadow or farmland. And now she was going to inspect an underground resort development, in an area where some people would consider it sacrilege to construct anything more substantial than a lean-to.

  “You’re deep in thought,” Sam said, glancing in her direction.

  “Just watching the scenery,” she said, raising her voice to be heard over the rhythm of the wind-beating rotors.

  Meredith had no intention of revealing her thoughts to her client. Having not been to Sun Under before, she hoped Sam had not destroyed the land and that he had proceeded judiciously, preserving existing vegetation as much as possible. She knew he had bulldozers on the site, lowered in by heliplane, because that was the most efficient way to get them there. Meredith had arranged for insurance on many big Caterpillar tractors.

  She also knew from reading Sam’s literature that he’d hired specialists in explosives and tunneling, aspects of the job that had been insured through the tunneling contractor’s insurance broker. A certain amount of vegetation had been cleared away, Sam said, and he hoped she wouldn’t be shocked. As if sensing her concerns when he’d described it to her, he’d insisted the clearing was only out of necessity, and that extensive replanting would be done on the surface after the subterranean portion of the job was complete. He said that there would ultimately be broad, lush parklands on top, so that resort visitors could enjoy the beauty of nature when the weather was nice. But most of the amenities would be underground.

  They flew over the river for a few minutes. The wind increased, buffeting the aircraft. With their new course, it was hitting them from the side, instead of being a tailwind.

  It began to rain heavily, and Sam grew very quiet. He was having trouble with visibility, even with the windshield wipers going at a furious pace.

  Looking tense, he banked the heliplane to the left and pulled both control sticks toward him, so that the craft climbed, clearing a high, rocky point of elevation. “I won’t lie to you. This is worse than I expected.”

  Meredith was afraid, but felt reassured by Sam’s flying experience and skills.

  With the tiny heliplane being buffeted by weather, and losing and gaining altitude as Sam fought for control, they passed over a rocky butte with a small lake on top, and then a valley.

  Now Sam pointed straight ahead. “There it is!” he exclaimed.

  In the distance, Meredith saw a large area of cleared ground in the midst of evergreen trees. As they neared the site, her pulse accelerated in anticipation.

  A large, gaping hole in the earth came into view with denuded land all around it, large mounds of dirt, construction equipment, and job shacks. The site was worse than Meredith had imagined, worse even than the logged hills over which they had flow
n. She was about to make a comment that it would look better when the replanting was completed, until Sam suddenly pushed the control sticks away from him and the heliplane dove, heading straight for the hole.

  Meredith gasped, held her breath.

  Just before reaching the hole, the heliplane slowed and flew above the dirt ramp and the construction vehicles and workers on it, at the same angle. Meredith saw them waving, so Sam must do this all the time, presumably in better weather.

  A great cloud of dust rose as the heliplane entered the hole, making a loud rotor noise and causing wind to swirl, and Meredith could not see where they were going. She knew only direction—down a slope—and she expected the rotors to strike something at any moment, sending them careening to the floor of the cavern far below, crashing in a ball of flame.

  Down they flew amidst the dust, and Meredith smelled it entering the passenger compartment. Terrified, she didn’t look straight ahead and instead kept her face turned to her right toward the side window.

  Still, they were descending smoothly and she heard no utterances from him, no curses.

  Slowly she turned to face front, and peripherally she saw Sam’s hands holding steady on the control sticks, working them. She absorbed details of his face: jaw muscles tight, bulging blood vessels at the temples, eyes unmoving and focused. His face was a picture of intensity.

  The heliplane vibrated violently. She closed her eyes and tried to say a prayer, but she was so upset that words would not come. If only she had been more religious in her life! A relationship with God would comfort and guide her now, making her feel less afraid, part of something larger, a greater and wiser power. An image of Zack’s ruddy, smiling face filled her mind, and of the sweet child they had brought into this world.

  She heard a loud clatter of noise, and was jostled around. This must be the end.

  Then a deep voice called her name. “Meredith...”

  Her first impression was that it must be God summoning her to the life ever after, where all of her worldly troubles would be lifted from her shoulders. At any moment she expected to see the heavenly firmament.

  “Meredith...”

  The voice wasn’t so deep this time, but seemed to be masculine.

  She opened her eyes, saw a thin coating of dust on the windshield, with something unknown moving beyond, and rumbling noises. Unable to comprehend, she thought she smelled the loamy odors of moist earth.

  “Meredith, are you all right?”

  A man with a goatee was on her right, looking at her. It was Sam’s face, very close to hers. But he should be on her left in the pilot’s seat. Dizzy, she closed her eyes, then slowly reopened them. Sam was outside the heliplane, holding her door open and leaning in. His eyebrows were bunched, with furrows of concern on his forehead and around his eyes. Caring eyes.

  The heliplane must have landed roughly, but part of her was continuing to descend. She still expected a crash and a fireball.

  She felt confusion. “Sam, I—”

  His hand touched her arm reassuringly, and she fell silent. Beyond him she saw scaffolding and a building under construction, and through the dusty windshield she saw more scaffolding in the distance and more buildings under construction, with trucks and caterpillars rumbling back and forth. From all around came machinery noises, and the shouts of men.

  He helped her out of the heliplane. “Welcome to Sun Under,” he said, with a big smile. “Now where’s my hat?” He reached back inside, brought it out and put it on his head. The full Uncle Sam costume.

  Gazing up she saw the excavated hole way up there at the top of the ramp, defined by the lights of construction equipment.

  ~~~

  From high overhead, Tatsy had watched the turbulent landing. She saw two people outside the heliplane, a man and a woman. Even from this distance she was able to identify Sam Howe, because of the colorful costume he wore, with the high top hat.

  She glanced at her watch. Fifteen minutes after nine. The timing was right for the appointment Meredith had with him. She must be the passenger.

  CHAPTER 38

  Inside the tubeway, Zack’s van rounded a turn too fast. Directly ahead, an overturned tractor trailer rig blocked the road, with a car and a pickpanel truck stopped between the van and the wreck. Zack used psi-link to hit the brakes hard, a fraction of a second before the automatic collision sensor went on, taking control of the brakes and steering away from him. The van skidded and scraped a guard rail on the right, then came to a stop with its nose against boxes that had spilled out of the wreck.

  Men were shouting, and they opened the driver’s door of Zack’s vehicle, letting in cold air. At the head of the group a young man with shoulder-length red hair asked, “Are you all right?”

  Zack said he was. He felt his safety harness disengage.

  “Truck driver’s dead,” one of the men said.

  Looking up, Zack saw that a large cedar tree had fallen on top of the tubeway, but had not broken through the tough material. The impact of the tree might have startled the truck driver and caused the accident.

  As Zack surveyed dents and scrapes on the side of his van, the men said warning markers were needed on the turn, and they hurried off to do what they could. Traffic was continuing to pass in the other direction, separated from the eastbound lanes by a high median. There was no way for Zack to get around the overturned tractor trailer.

  After moving his van into line behind the car and pickpanel, Zack carried a red towel back to the turn, to wave down any approaching vehicles. None were in sight yet. He stood shivering in a howling, cold tubewind, a tubeway engineering problem in some places. He wished he had worn his parka, but it was back in the van. He sneezed, and lamented the bad luck that placed him here.

  In a compartment of the wrecked truck, the men located electronic emergency triangles, which were set up at intervals on the tubeway and began to flash orange.

  After half an hour in the frigid tubewind Zack returned to his van and put on a parka, which was insulated. Remaining inside his vehicle, he began to feel warmer but sneezed repeatedly, cursing after each at the potential affliction that could weaken him when Meredith most needed him.

  No tow truck was in site, and no Tube Patrol. It would take a big rig to move the sprawling accident out of the way, and he muttered to himself angrily, “Come on, come on. Hurry it up!”

  He thought of the dead driver, but felt more concern for his ex-wife. It was nearly 10:00 in the morning, and he was an hour and a half behind schedule.

  Through the windshield he watched a green and white Tube Patrol hovercraft fly inside the tubeway, with its blue emergency beacon flashing on top. The craft flew over him and landed. A big cop in a green jacket got out, then disappeared into the truck cab for several minutes. When he emerged he looked grim.

  It occurred to Zack that he might appeal to the officer, describing the emergency with Meredith and how he had to reach her. If a tow truck didn’t show up soon, he would do exactly that. Maybe the patrolman could radio for someone to come in from the other side of the wreck and take him to Sun Under, or fly him there himself.

  But how would I explain my feelings to the police? he wondered. I only suspect something is wrong, with no proof. He’d think I was wasting his time.

  But a powerful sense of foreboding told Zack that Meredith really was in danger, terrible danger. With this accident blocking the road, the forces of evil were aligning against him, preventing him from reaching the only woman he had ever loved.

  ~~~

  Looking around, Meredith was impressed by the immensity of the cavern. While the heliplane had kicked up considerable dust and dirt in the descent, it was from the ramp of dirt that led from the cavern floor to the hole in the ceiling. She saw comparatively little soil on the bottom of the cavern, which appeared to consist primarily of volcanic rock, on which foundations for buildings were being laid.

  Sam explained that excavation was nearly complete (except for the periphery where the high-
rise hotel rooms would be), and while much dirt had been removed the remaining cavern was primarily rock. The site had been selected by a team of geologists for its potential cavern dimensions and stability. Much of the rock ceiling had been reinforced with ceramcrete.

  Sam talked proudly about the ongoing construction, while pointing out various features. Surrounding the shopping village and other amenities on the ground level, first-class hotel rooms would be constructed around the perimeter of the immense chamber, vatorcar-accessible structures that would rise like cliff-dwellings on sheer rock surfaces. The rooms would feature state of the art electronics and amenities found in the leading hotels of the world.

  “They’re about to begin hotel construction now,” he said.

  As they walked across the floor of the cavern Sam showed his excitement when he described everything. A large natural indentation, with a man-made sandy beach, would soon be filled with water, simulating a tropical beach and ocean. No expense was being spared. His only regret that there was not enough space to create big artificial waves, so that his guests could surf.

  “I could do it if we didn’t have much else on the main level,” he said. “We’d have to excavate the natural indentation more, bring in a lot more sand, and set up the wave-making machinery.” He nodded. “It could be done, but would not be practical. I like the decisions I’ve made. It’s just that my imagination is always envisioning more, so many marvelous possibilities.”

  Meredith jotted notes on an electronic etchpad she’d brought along. She asked questions about costs and projected completion dates, to make sure he was carrying adequate property insurance, including course-of-construction coverage.

  “Based upon what you’ve told me in the last few minutes,” she said, “I can see that a number of coverage increases are necessary. I’ll need more information, and then I’ll transmit it to the insurance company right away. I also need to scan for safety issues, the risk-management side of my duties.”