World Enough, and Time

by James Kahn

  Jasmine laughed, too.

  She walked down Heart Street to First Avenue, which was much more crowded with Neuromans and Vampires; then up First away from the castle until she reached the outer wall. She left the city by the main gate. A mile down the road, in the afternoon shade of a grandfather elm, she found Lon waiting for her. He was reading a book.

  “Quite the Vampire of leisure,” she observed.

  “I trust your talent for espionage bore fruitful results this afternoon?” he smiled at her, closing the copy of The New World.

  “It was just like the good old days,” she beamed. Then, diminishing her smile somewhat: “We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

  He handed her the book, put his arm around her shoulder, and started walking toward the distant grove where their friends were waiting. “Indeed, we have,” he agreed. “Indeed we have.”

  CHAPTER 15: In Which The Hunt For The Lost Children Concludes

  “… AND last but not least,” Jasmine concluded, “there’s a two-foot-square electrified wire grid blanketing the entire city, making it impervious to attack or escape.” The others listened in rapt silence as she finished recounting all her impressions of the fortress town. The moon was on the rise. “Frankly, I think the only thing to be said for our position is that they feel so safe in there—so haughty—their security inside is a bit lax. They think they’re invulnerable.” “They may be right,” Sum-Thin shrugged. “Merely challenging,” smiled Lon. “In my reconnaissance flight over the area I found the mouth of the sewage drain you discovered. It is large, and empties directly out of the cliff face, perhaps fifty meters below the promontory on which the castle stands, perhaps two hundred meters above the sea, into which it pours. I believe it is an admirable portal through which to infiltrate this camp.”

  Jasmine grinned. “You sound hungry,” she said in undertone.

  “Starved,” he admitted. He looked at his hands: “I’m starting to atrophy …”

  “But the blood-lust surges back fast …” Sum-Thin interjected.

  Lon looked at her sternly. “I am here to help my dear friend Yasmeen, who is here repaying a debt. I am enjoying my little adventure. And what keeps you here, philosopher?”

  Josh clenched his fist with impatience. “We’re here for one reason, to find our people. If any here be at odds with that—”

  “Tell them, Joshua,” rasped Beauty. He was yet quite weak, and had developed a cough, but refused to falter with the journey’s end so near. There were still too many hunters to suit him.

  “Please, please,” Jasmine calmed them all, “let’s not fall out now, we’ve almost won …”

  Sum-Thin raised her hand. “I am here that I am here,” she spoke to Lon. “I meant no offense by remarking your obvious glee in this pursuit. Indeed, I envy you for it. Jasmine is a friend of mine, as well, and I am honored to accompany her. I am, in addition, curious as to the nature of this New Animal about whom the whole world is whispering, and I think an animal’s true nature is revealed best when it is threatened—another reason for joining in this enterprise. Ultimately, I am content to follow this adventure wherever it may lead me, since it seems to be the direction my life has taken.” She smiled obscurely.

  A moment passed in silence before they all burst out laughing. “I never had such a comrade-in-arms,” coughed Beauty.

  Lon relaxed again. “Truth be told,” he conceded, “I’ve developed a passing interest in this New Animal myself. I like her not.” He held out the book Bal had given him. “She is the Queen of this city, and she would be Queen of the world. This is her manifesto.”

  Josh took the text, looked at the cover. “The New World,” he read.

  “And new it would be, if she had her way,” Lon continued. “No more Humans, except in harem. Vampires, the high priests of a new religion—of which she is the high priestess. Aside from that, no natural animals of any kind. All engineered to her specifications, by her ANGELS, to repopulate the earth. Engineered without disease, without degeneration, without—”

  “I care little for this Queen,” said Beauty quietly. “Neither do I care about her. Let us save our people, and later discuss the future of the Universe.”

  There was a quiet pause. The moon hid behind a cloud, the stars blinked. There was a hot wind off the Ansa Blanca. Humbelly sat sleeping on the grass; Isis sat without movement in Joshua’s lap, staring thoughtfully at the Flutterby.

  “Here are the plans,” said Jasmine, unrolling the blueprints on the ground. Everyone gathered closely around to look. Three large pages, spread edge to edge in the dirt, illustrated the whole layout of interconnecting tunnels, like an underground delta of the Sticks River, draining the waste of the city. And every point in the city at which a conduit shaft joined the surface to the tunnels was marked on the blueprint by a number—every waste bin, from the castle to the outer wall, showed up as a number on a diagram.

  The fourth page was a list of these numbers; and next to each number was a city address, or a castle room number.

  “Combining this diagram with the map of the castle here,” Jasmine went on, “I’ve been able to come to some conclusions.” The others followed her intently. “Number 212 … here—” she circled the number on the tunnel blueprint with a piece of charcoal—“should be right at the shaft leading up to the Final Decontamination Lab, whatever that may be. That’s where Rose is.” She looked at Beauty, then went on deliberately: “If she’s anywhere.” She paused to let this obvious truth reiterate itself yet again. “By the way, if you look here, it appears to be directly next to the Throne Room and Queen’s Chamber, numbers 213-18.”

  “And Bal’s house,” Lon nodded, “which was 18 Street of Wings, should be right … here.” He circled numbers 47-91 on the diagram. “I couldn’t find out if Dicey was there or not, Joshua. But he did have a young boy called Ollie.”

  Joshua’s teeth clenched.

  Beauty sat up. “Joshua, you feel well? Here, be careful.”

  The Others looked from Josh to Beauty, concern and question in their eyes.

  Josh looked down. “I had another spell while you were gone,” he admitted. “The most powerful one yet. It gripped me for two hours … while this damned son of a mule held me down.” He smiled weakly and touched Beauty’s hand.

  “Perhaps,” suggested Sum-Thin, “you should not go on this mission. Perhaps that is the meaning of these spells.”

  Josh looked up. “No. That is not the meaning of these spells.”

  No one replied.

  Jasmine pulled scalpels, syringes, and needles out of her pockets, passed them around; demonstrated on herself how to position a syringe in order to inject air into a Neuroman head-valve. She produced two flashlights; one she kept, one she gave to Sum-Thin. “Now,” she said, “I have a plan.

  “Lon will fly three of us into the tunnel exit in the cliff. Two of us—Sum-Thin and I—will make our way through to the power station … here—” she circled the area on the diagram. “We’ll be able to surface there more easily without notice, since we’re Neuromans. The city is not so big or complex, so neither will the power center be. We’re both familiar with electronics. We’ll analyze the situation once we’re there, and plan to cut all power to the city—or as much as possible—at 0400.” She took a stolen watch from her pocket, set it, and gave it to Lon. “This should cause general confusion and diversion, and if you haven’t been able to make your move up to that point, you should be able then, under cover of darkness and alarm, to effect whatever rescue you’re going to. Our sabotage should also cut electricity to the grid covering the city, so if for any reason the tunnels are blocked for our escape, Lon can fly us over the wall. If that should be the case, we’ll rendezvous in room B-347 in the castle. Failing that, we fall back at the main gate to the Outer City.”

  They all listened attentively. Lon noted the time on the quietly ticking watch: 1900 hours. Jasmine continued. “Meanwhile, Lon and Josh will be on the rescue end of things. They will surface
at Bal’s, at the Decon Lab, and wherever else they may have to, to locate the lost family. They will escape back down the tunnels, if possible. Beauty …” she hesitated, “you must remain on the outside …”

  “Absolutely not!” he whispered harshly, then broke into a paroxysm of coughing.

  Jasmine waited until he’d quieted down again before continuing. “I understand your feelings completely, but it’s the only logical way to go. You’re too weak to be of use in a fight the way you are. Your cough would give us away. You couldn’t climb up the shafts into the city in any case.” She spoke compassionately, to soften the blow. “Besides, we need someone on the outside to prepare our retreat. When they finally discover what’s happened, they’ll surely try to follow us. What you must do tonight is ready our hideaway. I want you to go—”

  “What I will do tonight is storm the front gate, if I must, to deliver my people,” he whispered fiercely.

  “To be killed instantly, and give us all away,” Sum-Thin understated. Then, more acerbically: “I didn’t realize you were so keen on being a dead martyr. How Human.”

  Josh stood up, enraged. “How dare you …”

  “Please,” Jasmine tried interceding. “We have to remain …”

  “I was merely making a point,” Sum-Thin commented calmly.

  “Maybe if you spent more time on feeling and less on points …” Josh muttered.

  “All of you. Cease!” Lon boomed. Quiet fell, like a sulking child. “We are all of us tense anticipating tonight’s campaign,” he went on, “but let us not release the tension on each other. We must remain cohesive and single-minded, else we are lost. Now, I have a role for Beauty—it may or may not prove to be crucial. Will you listen?”

  The others sat silently, feeling chastised but calmer from the” small release of pent-up energy. Lon continued. “Good. Now the river breaks into several tributaries just to the east of the castle. One has been dammed, to feed into the power generator. Two more branch at the castle, and surround it to form a natural moat before pouring over the cliff’s edge in waterfalls into the sea. A third seems to run directly under the castle—this is the one that undoubtedly forms the subterranean tunnels, emptying in its own waterfall out the cliff face beneath the castle’s western wall. It is this last tributary that Beauty must enter.

  “If we look at the map here …” he went on, drawing their attention to the blueprint of the sewage system, “we can see that the shaft to the Decontamination Room is quite near the point where the tunnels begin, at the entrance of the river beneath the city’s eastern wall. Beauty—as I see it—will enter the river east of the city, float downstream along this tributary, dive briefly underwater—under the outer wall—float as invisibly as possible down the river as it turns through the city, then once the inner river enters the castle sewage system proceed past what appears - here to be two short turnings in the tunnels, to the shaft below the Decontamination Room. There he must wait. There we will all meet—with Rose, if we can find her. If it happens that, for unpredictable reasons we cannot exit the cliff face as planned, it may be that our only escape will be upriver out the tunnel source, back out the way Beauty will have come.”

  They considered this plan. Jasmine spoke first. “Why don’t we all enter this way, with Beauty? It does seem considerably more direct.”

  “Mainly because Beauty is the strongest swimmer amongst us—even in his weakened condition, I think. He is the natural choice for this approach. As for me,” Lon raised his hands apologetically, “I fear and detest water. I cannot swim, nor can I hold my breath. You’ve already outlined my only feasible approach. As for the rest, I think we are less likely to be noticed entering from the west. One of us can surely float through the city’s river without being noticed in the dark—but all of us? I think not.”

  Beauty nodded slowly. “And if all goes well? If escape back out the cliff with our people is successful?”

  “Then your role will have been a superfluous precaution. You will go back upriver—swimming against the current where it runs too deep to walk—and leave the river some point east of the city. I suggest we all rendezvous where the river meets the Rain Forest, in the east.”

  “It is the hardest thing I have ever said,” replied Beauty, “but I hope I am not needed.”

  They all smiled. On a keener note, Josh added, “There’s another reason for your exit to be separate from ours. If all else fails, if we don’t return, someone must be left to carry on.”

  There was a quiet minute during which everyone reflected. “I do foresee some problems,” said Lon at last. “If we lose these maps, or if the lights in the tunnel go out, how will we find our way back in all that maze?”

  Jasmine pulled four lumps of chalk out of her pocket, giving one each to Lon, Josh, and Sum-Thin. “We have one flashlight per group, if the lights go out. As we go in, every ten paces, we make arrows on the tunnel walls. If we lose our bearings we simply follow the arrows back to the exit in the cliff face. For Beauty, a similar solution occurs to me. Let him string together a hundred yards or so of vine, collected from the forest east of the city. He can tie one end to the eastern wall, and unravel the rest as he goes, into the tunnels. When it’s time to leave, he can just follow the vine back out.”

  Lon nodded in agreement.

  “Howww ‘bout me?” Isis meowed.

  Josh scratched her head affectionately. “I want you to hide in the shadows of the eastern wall, and make certain Beauty’s not seen entering. If anyone wanders too close at the wrong moment, it’ll be up to you to cause a diversion, to let Beauty slip in unnoticed. It’s a very important task, Fur-face, and I’m counting on you.”

  She purred contentedly.

  They all sat, comfortable with the plan, unable to find flaw save for the unknown. There ensued a moment of quiet contemplation.

  “And if you cannot find your people?” Sum-Thin put the question to Josh.

  “If they’re alive, I’ll stay until I’ve saved them. If they’re dead … I’ll go home.” He looked at Beauty, spoke more softly: “I’ve done with Venge-right.”

  Beauty nodded sadly. “That suits me.”

  Sum-Thin shook her head. “I think this Queen may not be so agreeable.”

  Beauty stood. “A fruitless thought,” he said, “and the night is aging. I’m off to the river. Fare thee well, good friends.”

  They all stood. Josh put Isis on Beauty’s back, then placed the still-sleeping Humbelly on Isis’ back. Isis was not pleased, but did not move.

  Jasmine approached Beauty. “I feel I’ve grown in your company,” she said quietly. “Thank you.” They both knew they might not see each other again; or if they did, that it might all be changed. They hugged briefly, wanting more, but Beauty had no words for his feelings, and had to turn away in tender confusion.

  He found himself facing Joshua. They also knew they might not see each other again; but even that being so, they knew they would abide with each other forever. They hugged long and richly, and their feelings were clear, without shadow.

  “Until soon, good friend,” Beauty murmured.

  “Until soon,” said Josh.

  Then, without looking back, the graceful Centaur trotted over the hill to the north, the Cat and the Flutterby on his back.

  “Go in good blood,” whispered Lon.

  Sum-Thin closed her eyes. “Joshua, Beauty, Jasmine, Sum-Thin, Humbelly, Isis, Lon. Go now we magnificent seven samurai into the breach,” she proclaimed.

  Lon gathered his remaining three comrades up in arms, and flew with them out over the sea.

  Night flight was a scary, exhilarating experience for Josh. Like a real dream. The few minutes it took to reach their destination was quite enough to prime his adrenaline pump for the night ahead. They approached the cliff from the west, flying low over the water. Perhaps a quarter of the way down the sheer rock face, a black hole gaped, like a huge maw; and out of it water rushed, white in the moonlight, tumbling to the sea below in a great w
aterfall. Lon flew directly for the mouth of the cliff.

  The opening was just a foot wider than his wing-span, so he had to judge his entry with detailed accuracy: even a slight error would have caught his wing tip on the rock, and probably sent them all crashing down to a watery death. Fortunately, he used his batlike sonar, and with a series of continuous high-frequency beeps, kept them right on course.

  Once inside the main tunnel, he continued flying in the absolute blackness for twenty or thirty yards, the water rushing just beneath them. Josh was terrified, but at the same time, strangely, had a profound sense of safety in the Vampire’s arms. At last Lon set down, waist deep in the turbulent stream. It almost knocked him over.

  He waded quickly to the side of the tunnel, where the velocity of the flow was considerably less. Bracing himself against the wall, he put the others down. Joshua, a little vertiginous from the flight, immediately lost his footing and fell into the grip of the current. He was churned rapidly toward the falls into the sea. Only by great will was he able to cling to a jutting rock at the last moment, pull himself upright, and wade against the heavy flow back to his friends. They kept then” flashlights trained on him—once they’d steadied themselves—helpless, at that point, to do anything but watch him as he made his way slowly back to them.

  When he reached them, no one said a word. Jasmine drew a chalk arrow on the wall. Single file, they walked upstream, into blackness.

  At the first major bend, progress became considerably easier: a light bulb glowed dimly from the ceiling, allowing them to pause, turn off their flashlights, check the map; the water level contracted precipitously to a manageable one foot, and the current was reduced to a fraction of its outflow strength. They collected themselves, breathed deeply; and exchanged broad, nervous smiles. The assault was begun.

  Isis crouched in the shadow of the drawbridge on a piece of the one-foot perimeter of land that ran all around the outer wall, between the wall and—ten feet lower—the flowing river. She’d jumped off Beauty’s back at the first sight of the river. When the Centaur turned east to collect lengths of vine from the nearby jungle, the Flutterby nestled in his mane, Isis ran west. After much thought, she’d decided she didn’t want to miss the fun; nor did she trust Joshua to take care of himself without the benefit of her watchful eye.