Below, strange buildings lay along the highway. Maybe these were the ancient ruins Yuri and everyone had been looking for. But maybe not―from this height they didn't look ruined, just incredibly varied and uniformly strange and wonderful. Were they temples?―palaces?―residences? I hoped we would get to find out.
Our magic carpet was coming in for a landing.
"Okay, people, this is it," I said. "Whatever 'it' is."
"I wouldn't be worried about Moore too much," Sam tried to reassure us. "I'd be wary, of course, but I suspect he and his boys are going to be on their best behavior. Wouldn't do to scrap in front of Roadbuilders, and I can't believe they'd be stupid enough to do it."
"I'm half-inclined to believe you," I said, "but I wouldn't put anything past that slimeball."
"Maybe they're dead," Lori said. "We haven't heard a peep out of them for a while."
"That would be a bit of luck," John said. "We haven't had a fart's worth of good luck on this entire trip."
"We're alive, aren't we?" Susan said.
"Are we? I hadn't noticed."
We swooped over the roadway and came to a sudden stop, hovering momentarily before drifting down. There were docking ramps here, too, and the silver disk lined up over one of them and settled down. Our train was pointed toward the road.
As soon as we had landed, the Bugs dragged us off the disk, swung out onto the Skyway, and stopped. Then they decoupled us.
The rig's main engine groaned and turned over. A quick check of the instrument panel told me we had full power and total control of our weaponry.
The Bugs were pulling away. The three of them, locomotive, tender, and caboose, shot ahead and quickly disappeared. We were free.
But Moore and his gang were heading the other way. The rearview cameras showed all four vehicles wheeling around and tearing off down the road.
Twrrrll's vehicle followed them all, though the pursuit was halfhearted. The domed bubble-top of his buggy was opaque, but I could just imagine him looking over his bony shoulder, camera-eyes on extreme zoom, hoping to catch sight of his quarry one more time before he beat a hasty but strategic retreat.
"See?" Sam laughed. "They're more afraid of us than we are of them."
"Since when?" I said. "They have a guilty conscience, is all. They're afraid of the Roadbuilders."
"So am I," Susan said. "Let's get the hell out of here."
"What, and miss shaking hands with the Mayor?" I said. "Not on your life, Suzie." I looked around. Susan was hunched over on the seat, thin arms wrapped tightly about her and holding the gun she abhorred tightly against her side. Her eyes were wide and worried, her face tight and strained.
I reached back, took her shoulder, and squeezed it consolingly. "How far do you really think they'll get, honey?" I asked gently. "Hmm?"
Gripping my arm, she bent her head and kissed my hand. "I know," she said quietly. "I know." She looked up. "I'm just… you know, a little scared."
"It's okay."
We sat for a while. Nothing happened.
"You know," I said finally, "this is a high speed road. We should either pull over or get moving."
"What'll it be?" Sam asked.
"I hate to sit and wait. If our destiny's down this road, let's go have a look at it. What say, everybody? Shall we take a vote?"
"The ayes have it, Jake, me boy," Sean said, speaking for everyone. "Let's roll."
"Ragna, are you back there?"
"Indeed. I am hardly elsewhere."
"Do you want to get back in your vehicle or leave it here and come with us?"
"Being that I am scared to the point of voiding my nitrogenous wastes, no, thank you, I think. We will be space truckers for a while."
I started forward.
The road followed a trough between two low grassy hills. There wasn't much to see except a few strange trees and some shrubbery. This area had a manicured look to it, like a park. The grass was short and the trees had a pruned and cared-for look to them, though that very well could have been their natural state. There was a lot of color here. The green of the grass was brilliant, almost iridescent, and the trees and shrubs were of various pastel shades. Pink and blue strata of rock ran along the slopes higher up.
"Pretty," I heard Darla say.
Everyone nodded in silent agreement.
The valley began to wind and the road bore slowly upward.
"Anything sneaking up behind, Sam?"
"Not a soul."
"Hmm. I was just thinking."
"What?"
"Did you erase the Wilkes Al program yet?"
"No."
"How come?"
"I haven't been ordered to. You know I can't erase any files without your okay."
"Oh, right, sorry."
"So why haven't you?" Sam asked pointedly.
"Huh?"
"Why haven't you ordered me to erase Wilkes?"
"It's harmless now, right?"
"Absolutely. I got him right where I want him."
"Well, maybe we should let it be. That program may have some information we need. There are still plenty of question marks that need clearing up."
"Whatever you say."
"You're sure you pulled its teeth, now."
"Don't worry about it. You can't fool this computer twice."
"Well, we don't want a repeat of that takeover bid."
Sam grew exasperated. "Hey, did anybody else just hear me tell him not to worry about it?"
"I'd never count Corey Wilkes out," Darla said. "I wouldn't even trust death to cramp his style."
"Yeah," I said. "He's soma like you, Sam, in a way."
"How would you like to walk, son of mine? Next time you get out of this rig, I just might not let you back in."
"Sorry."
"No respect for the dead." The road leveled off on a bluff overlooking a wide plain. I slowed and pulled off the road. I wanted to have a look at this.
"Oh, it's beautiful," Susan said.
"Sam, something tells me the air here is just fine." "It certainly is." "Let's get out."
"Uh, I'll stay in the truck."
"Okay. You―" I did a double-take. "Yeah," I said, and laughed.
We all spilled out, walked off the shoulder, and stood looking at the marvel across the valley below. On a far hill stood a magnificent structure.
It was a palace or maybe an entire city, a massive yet graceful array of tall domed cylinders and lofty spires all enclosed behind a fortress wall. It was a fairy city, an imperial palace in a never-never land. It was El Dorado, or Xanadu, or Shangri-La. And it was all a glossy, brilliant green. Flying buttresses of green glass soared between towers, sparkling in the late afternoon sun. Crystalline ramparts looked out across the valley.
Susan was awed. "It's the Emerald City."
"It is looking quite like our fables and stories of old," Ragna commented.
I looked down. The Skyway cut across the valley and went into serpentine turns as it climbed the citadel atop which the city stood.
The black dot of a vehicle had just come down from there and was heading across the valley toward us at a terrific clip.
"Well," I said. "Here comes something."
Everybody caught sight of it and drew back a little, getting closer together.
We waited.
The dot grew into a vehicle that was sleek, long and black with green trim. After shooting across the valley, it slowed a little and began its ascent up the near side, taking sharp turns with effortless grace.
In another minute it gained the crest of the hill. It pulled off the road about twenty meters away from us.
The vehicle was magnificent, a technological rhapsody in shining ebony and jade green, its aerodynamic surfaces whimsical and free yet somehow mathematically precise as well. Fins angled up from the rear, thin swept-back wings flared from the sides. The fuselage was set about with tear-shaped bubbles and rounded protrusions. The needle-nose was tipped with silver. It looked more like a plane than a ground vehicle, and I didn't doubt that it could fly.