"Surely you don't disapprove of William Blake," John said to Sean.
"Of course not. But we Irish never forget."
"Not even since the Reunification?" Roland asked.
"Fat lot of good the Reunification does us out here. I'll never walk the streets of Derry again,"
"Why did you emigrate?"
"Why does any Irishman leave the Old Sod? To get a bleeding job."
I said, "Maybe that line about Byzantium is apropos. This place isn't exactly my idea of a holy city, but it's some kind of big deal, and we've come a long way to get here."
"The Holy City of the Roadbugs," Sean intoned. "A veritable buggy Mecca, and here we are stranded, infidels to a man. Bloody dangerous spot to be in."
"That may be," I said, "but I'm inclined to doubt it. I don't think for a moment that we're completely safe here, but it seems to me that there's only one way to wind up on the wrong side of a Roadbug, and that's to break a rule of the road. As far as we know, we didn't do that."
"We did a bit of vandalism, didn't we?" Liam put in.
"And there were witnesses," John added.
"Good point. But since no one up to this point has ever been able to do damage to a Roadbuilder artifact, vandalism may not be against the law. Understand? In other words, the Bugs aren't programmed to deal with it."
"But can we be sure of that?" Sean asked. "And can we be sure that someone at some point didn't manage to blow a portal to smithereens?"
"Yuri's our newly resident Skyway expert," Susan pointed out.
Yuri thought a moment, then said, "So far as I know, Jake is right. Any damage we encountered was due to geological forces… damage to the roadway, that is. I can't imagine what would damage a portal."
"But geological forces don't really destroy the road," I argued. "Do they? I mean, they just sometimes make the road impassable."
"True. Now, I have heard of stretches of Skyway where the portal is missing."
"We've run into that," I said. "A planet named Splash in the Consolidated Outworlds."
"I'd be very interested in visiting it someday."
"If you ever do, don't go near the water."
"A low-landmass planet?"
"Yeah. Parts of the Skyway are submerged, and one spur, I was told, is a dead end. No portal."
"Is the spur submerged?"
"I believe so."
"I see. Very interesting indeed."
"Very," I said. "The seas rose, and… What happened? Did the portal short out? Explode?"
"Well, if the machinery that suspends the cylinders were to fail…" Yuri smiled and chuckled. "Well, according to conventional thinking, the cylinders would drop and burrow themselves to the center of the planet, where they would do some very nasty things."
"Scratch one planet," I said.
"Eh? Yes, absolutely. But I have my own theories on what would happen."
"I'd love to hear them, maybe later. But to get back on the main track, let me ask you this: Can the roadbed be damaged, or is it impervious to any known force? Everyone knows the road surface doesn't seem ever to wear."
"Not impervious," Yuri said. "There have been some experiments…"
"Results classified, I suppose," Susan said.
Yuri grunted. "Of course. I have seen them, however, and I somehow don't feel constrained to maintain security, under the circumstances. A small fusion device could do considerable damage to a Skyway roadbed."
"Then vandalism is possible," John said.
"Nonsense," Susan scoffed. "Who'd do it, and for what reason?"
"You have a point, Susan," John said.
"I rest my case," I said, "if you can call it that. Which brings us back to what Carl's Green Balloon did to the barrier."
We all turned to face Carl. Lori was asleep in his arms, resting her head on his chest.
Carl grinned. "Lori's last comment was, 'These people sure talk a lot.' "
"Let's talk a little more," I said. "Carl, who built your car?"
"I don't know."
"You don't? But you said―"
"I never saw them. They never showed themselves to me, never told me who they were or why they were doing what they were doing to me… which was to abduct me―kidnap me, dig?" Carl's jaw muscles tensed. "Y'understand what that means? Have you ever been kidnapped, taken against your will? Do you know what it's like to be so scared…" He stopped and lowered his head, nestling his face in Lori's short blond hair. Lori stirred but didn't awake.
"Yes, Carl," I said gently, "I do know what it's like."
Carl raised his head and looked sheepish. "You're right. You do, don't you? I completely forgot. Sorry."
"It's okay. Go ahead, Carl."
"It's hard."
"I know, but it could help. Us as well as you."
I got off the metal canister and sat on the floor, stretching my legs and crossing them, propping my back against a crate of freshwater jugs.
"You said something before about a flying saucer. Did you mean an alien spaceship?"
"I guess that's what it was," Carl answered. "It was night, and I couldn't really see it. All I really remember is this huge thing in the sky blotting out the stars, coming down on us."
"You weren't alone?"
"No. My girlfriend and I were out in my car… up on Mulholland. You know, messing around."
"Uh-huh."
He threw his head back and gave a sudden forced laugh. "God, it was like right out of some monster flick. Teenage couple necking, and this slimy thing comes creeping out of the darkness. The girl screams." After a short bout of giggling he shook his head back and forth. "Jesus, Jesus, it was weird. So weird."
"You said you could see the ship's outline against the sky. Was it saucer-shaped?"
"Nah. It was irregular, and it was big. Had this really complex structure. I couldn't describe it."
"It didn't have any running lights, markings, anything like that"
"Nope. It was just this huge dark shape. The part of it that got near the car was this big rounded thing that opened up to look like the neck of a soda bottle. That's what sucked us up."
"Your girlfriend was abducted with you?"
He shook his head sharply. "Nah. She―" He sighed. "They didn't take her. I mean―" He leaned his head back against the bulkhead and gazed upward. "I pushed her out of the car. I think I might have killed her in doing it. Hard to explain exactly what happened. I guess I'll never really know if she made it."
"Sounds like you tried to do the right thing," I said.
"Maybe," he said dully.
"Was there any sound? Did the ship make a noise?"
"That was the weirdest part. It all happened in complete silence, except for Debbie's screaming." His face contorted with the pain of the memory. "God, I'll never forget her screaming. Never."
I paused before I continued probing. "Now, you said you were in your car."
"Yeah, my Chevy got sucked up with me in it."
"That Chevy?" I asked, pointing to the burgundy-colored oddity parked between the stacks of supplies.
"No, the original from which this copy was made." He shrugged. "I think. This thing looks exactly the same, down to the little nicks and scratches in the paint. But it can't be the same car I was driving that night. Right? So…"
"I doubt it," I said. "Okay, now, you're inside the ship."
Carl drew his lips together, pursing them into a thin line.
"What's the matter?" I said.
"I don't want to talk about it any more."
"Why, Carl"
"Because I'll go crazy if I do."
"It was bad?"
He considered it a while before he answered, "Not bad physically. They didn't do anything to me. But inside the ship, it was… I dunno, strange. I was disoriented. Scared. I couldn't figure out what was going on."
"That's not surprising," I said. "Did they communicate with you at all?"
"Yeah, they talked to me. Somebody did. Some guy. I never saw him. I'll never forget his voice, though."
We were all surprised. "The voice was human?" I asked.