Gavein forced open the emergency door with a shoulder and his back. The metal stairs, a spiral braid of steel, were suspended in space; most of the supporting struts had been broken. At the floor Gavein and Saalstein were on, the stairs were about a meter from the wall of the building, and the next landing, like a small bridge, was at least one and a half meters below them.
56
Gavein took a step back.
“Now what?”
“We take the other.”
He leaned out: the other fire escape lay below, twisted on a pile of rubble.
The courtyard of the Division of Science looked as if giant moles had been at work; it was covered with a great assortment of slabs and chunks. Stones, large and small, still fell, hissing as they flew past. Someone in a white coat lay motionless.
In the distance the sky was clear. Sun shone on the buildings of Davabel, but over the DS hung a cloud, violet-brown and stinking.
“Listen, Saalstein. On this floor there are only two fire escapes?”
“That’s correct.”
“Then that’s the other in the courtyard.”
Saalstein swore under his breath. “What do we do?” he asked.
“We jump. A meter across, one and a half meters down…”
“I can’t with this arm.”
“You have a better idea?”
“What I think I’m seeing outside, it can’t be.”
“I see it too. A volcano is forming.”
“If it forms in that trench, we’re done for.”
“We haven’t got to the trench yet,” said Gavein. “There’s no reason to wait here. No one will come flying in for us.”
“On the contrary,” Saalstein said under his breath.
“I’ll jump first, then you. I’ll try to catch you.”
Gavein concentrated. The jump wasn’t difficult, but he couldn’t afford to miss. A fall from the fourth floor would break both legs.
He made it, grabbing a rail to stop himself. He banged his knee painfully.
The fire escape, connected to the top of the building by only one or two struts, began to jerk like a giant spring. A meter down, a meter up. Gavein held on; he could picture the last strut snapping, the whole fire escape separating from the wall and plunging to the ground.
Not this time: the oscillation stopped.
“Your turn, Saalstein. I’ll break your fall.”
“I can’t,” said Saalstein. “My arm.”
He jumped then, and Gavein caught him, but unfortunately Saalstein’s arm hit metal. He howled like an animal and moaned until the fire escape ceased its rocking.
“That’s the end of my arm,” he gasped, when he could speak. “I must have torn nerves.”
“Stop,” Gavein told him. “We either get off this thing or we fall with it. If you’re dead, your arm will make only an ornament to be set beside you in the coffin.”
As if to second his warning, the iron structure groaned and was hit by a ball of lava. Carefully, but as quickly as they could, they descended. The accompaniment of roars and hisses increased in volume. The sky over the ocean glowed a rusty red. The flying lava was coming from that direction.
The fire escape stopped in midair, the stairs ending two and a half meters above the ground.
“I’ll go first,” said Gavein.
He chose a level spot and jumped, somersaulting and turning a few times when he hit, hoping in this way to lessen the impact. But even so he fell hard, and it hurt. The hospital coverall and slippers were not made for acrobatics. Overhead, in response to his jump, the fire escape was shaking and groaning again. He ran, limping clumsily, from under the reach of the stairs. But the anchoring metal at the top held.
Saalstein jumped and landed heavily, on both feet. He tried to remain standing to protect his arm. He had come down on a flat piece of concrete. He screamed from the pain.
“Something tore in me,” he grunted. “My back too.”
“You should have fallen as I did. You probably ruptured yourself.”
They moved away from the falling stones, Gavein limping, Saalstein stepping with exaggerated care, holding the sling with his good arm, not sure if his intestines were in place.
It was on an incline. The last quake had lifted the ground near the trench. To leave the DS area, they had to climb.
They passed a figure in a lab coat. It resembled a white moth with wings outstretched. Aurelia had fallen from a window during the shocks. Her head was surrounded by a smear of black blood.
57
The sky toward the ocean continued to burn red. Explosions rumbled, light flashed. The cone of the volcano couldn’t be seen—it might not have formed yet. Rocks fell, some breaking into pieces in the air. On the ground, they hissed and steamed. Gavein was struck in the back, but the bills cushioned the blow.
He and Saalstein had no difficulty crossing the trench, which was partly filled with rubble. But then they had to climb the steep, crumbling escarpment that now formed one of the edges of the trench. Saalstein panted, exhausted.
When they were almost at the top, Gavein saw a helicopter approaching.
“We have to show him where we are, so he can pick us up.”
“Don’t be in a hurry, Throzz. Let’s keep our heads down. Maybe he won’t see us. The sod above us, it’s like a roof.”
Gavein was astonished.
“Wait,” said Saalstein. “And watch.”
The helicopter hovered over the ruins of the DS. Then it circled the volcano’s column of fire and plume of smoke. It was keeping low, to avoid retardation of time, and went lower still. A line of white dots unexpectedly flew from the copter to the ground. The shots couldn’t be heard in the thunder of the volcano.
“What is he doing?!”
“General Thompson is in command. Possibly they saw the body of Aurelia, or someone else’s body.”
I am stupid, stupid, Gavein thought. Only now did he recall the things that were said as they were putting him to sleep on the gurney.
Overhead flew a squadron of combat copters equipped with missile launchers. The craft were flying low, at the altitude of real time; the roar of their rotors could be heard over the volcano.
The two fugitives, under the overhang of sod, were not visible from the air. The squadron executed a model attack, unleashing all its firepower upon what was left of the Division of Science. After completion of this mission, they regrouped, turned above the ocean, and headed back to Davabel. The first copter still hovered, still circled, apparently to oversee and direct.
A second squadron came, then a third, fourth, and fifth. Each raked the area. The reconnaissance copter also fired at chosen targets.
“I wonder if Thompson himself is in that one.”
“Not unlikely. It’s his style. He likes to take part personally. Throzz, bring it down!”
“If only I could…”
“And you call yourself Death?”
“At least I have no qualms about this loot,” said Gavein, patting his belly.
“Doesn’t tickle anymore?”
“I shifted most of it to the back, where I have the skin of an elephant. All those years, you know, of sitting behind a desk…” He stopped. More squadrons were coming from Davabel. The destruction would be methodical. “They’re the same copters. I recognize their markings. They refueled, got more ammo, are going back to work.”
“Thompson is thorough.”
“Sparing nothing to put me out of the way.”
Saalstein nodded.
“Why that masquerade with the tests?” Gavein asked. “They could have killed me in my house.”