Malva's voice filled the cockpit.
"You will turn back! You will turn back! Return to the place from which you took off! Return to the place from which you took off! You will be escorted back! You will be escorted back!"
Jack said, "For God's sake!"
Though his mind threatened to rupture from the strain of its resistance to the commands, it was making him turn the plane.
If his mind could have teeth, it would be gritting them so hard it would break them off.
"Tappy! Order me to disobey Malva!"
But how could she do that? She could not speak.
He was desperately trying to think of an idea. His mind was running around like a squirrel looking for nuts it had buried during the summer. It knew they were somewhere in this area.
But exactly where?
The plane was by now going in the direction from which it had come.
"Tappy!" he said loudly. "Can you write?"
She nodded.
He released the pressure on the wheel rim. Let the plane slow down. He was in no hurry to get back. A few seconds later, he handed her a pencil and the small notebook he car.-led in the leather holder in the inner jacket pocket.
"Write down your order to me to disobey anybody but you.
Then show it to me. I don't know if it'll work, but we've got to try everything!"
Why didn't I do that long ago? he thought.
Then, Well, things've been happening too fast. I can't think of everything.
Tappy, frowning in concentration, wrote on the topmost paper of the notebook. She held it in front of him.
He groaned.
The writing was in Gaol characters.
He was surprised that she knew that. She had fled this planet at the age of six, and how many that age could write? Though he could not read the characters, he could see that her penmanship was beautiful. She must have been precocious. Or, maybe, the Daws had continued her Gaol education. Which meant that they were not just your ordinary Earth citizens.
"No, in English," he said.
Looking distressed, she shook her head.
"Do you know any foreign language? I mean, non-English Earth language. Like French or Spanish?"
Again, she shook her head.
That squirrel in his mind was frantic now. It was whirling around like a furry gyroscope.
"All right! Let's try something else! You used body and hand language to tell me to fly this plane! Can you do the same to tell me to turn back to the north? Malva will give her orders again, but you could cancel them."
Malva would repeat her command. And Tappy would have to override Malva's orders. And then Malva would give her orders again. The plane would yo-yo until the pursuit planes caught up with it.
The bitch might be listening in now via the radio.
He leaned over and whispered to Tappy.
"You didn't point out the radio switches. We have to find them and turn them off."
Malva's voice had come from a grille inset above his head. But there were no buttons or switches near it.
First, he eliminated the controls and indicators the function of which he knew. That left about twenty-five unknowns. What if resetting one caused a serious change in the performance of the craft? Like shutting off the power to the engine?
He had to do something very soon. The three pursuers were steadily growing larger.
At that moment, Malva's voice rang in the cabin.
"You will obey), the orders transmitted to you by your escort!
One aircraft will guide you! Follow it! Stay at the same level as it! Descend when it descends!"
"Ah!" Jack said.
When the voice had come on, a green panel inset in the center of the steering wheel started to glow.
"Repeat!" Malva said. "You will . .
Jack had cut her off by pressing the green panel with his fingertip. The panel ceased to glow.
"Gotcha!"
He pressed the panel again.
follow the plane in front of you and . .
"Sure, we'll just do that, you bitch"' Jack shouted. And he turned the radio off.
All that time, the radio had been on, and he had not noticed the glowing panel. But then he had been busy. Moreover, he was not a trained pilot.
He laughed as he wheeled the craft around and headed for their destination. Some of his dread and uncertainty was gone.
That Malva's commands were being ignored must be whirling her around as if she were glued onto a jet engine vane. She would be horrified, burning with panic. Her masters would not be tolerant about her failure.
He did not feel the least bit sorry for Malva.
Now the air had suddenly become much rougher. The plane fell and rose as if it were diving into and out of express elevators. This was the forerunner of the storm. What would it be like when they were inside its troubled heart?
If it were not for those aircraft catching up with him so swiftly, he would have tried to climb over the storm. But the chasers would overtake him sooner if he lost speed by ascending. They might do so, anyway. The only way to escape was straight ahead.
The electrical disturbances there might affect whatever detectors the pursuers had. If this happened, they would lose him and Tappy.
Might ... if ...
It did no good to wonder about might-have-beens. But that was an integral part of the human mind. Animals never worried about these. Humans found it necessary they had to fantasize.
So, maybe, it was good for them.
No time for that.
He squeezed the inflatable rim again. "Go ahead, Tappy. Try to cancel the spell, whatever it is, the control she has over me.";
Tappy seemed to be thinking hard. Then she smiled. After tearing off the sheet she had written on, she drew a single character.
She held it in front of him.
"You know I can't read it."
She half turned and gestured behind her. Then she passed her hands over her face and twisted her features. She was trying to look like somebody. But she was blind.
"You mean," he said slowly, "you're giving me the impression of a face from the voice of that person?"
She nodded, and she pointed behind her again.
Her expression was haughty and arrogant.
"Oh! You mean Malva?"
She nodded and smiled happily.
"But knowing that, how's that going to help me?"
She opened her mouth wide, stuck the sheet of paper close to t, and moved her mouth and jaw as if she were chewing. Then she pointed at him.
He started to ask her what she meant when she reached over, felt along his face until she found his mouth, and jammed the piece of paper between his lips.
Before he could protest, he found the paper stuffed into his mouth. She was still making the chewing motions.
"Grrbgrrbgrrbgrrb!
Which meant, "You want me to chew this and swallow it?"
Evidently, she did. So he did.
Tappy threw up her hands to indicate that all was well.
He was not so sure. Only one way to find out.
He activated the radio again and said, "Malva, you slimy evil slut! What do you think about your control of me now?"
He winced at the hatred and viciousness of her not all of which was in English.
Then Malva, after her hard breathing had ceased, shouted, "You will obey me! You will obey me! Come back as commanded!
Come back as commanded!"
Jack did not have the slightest urge to turn the wheel. He pressed the green-glowing panel again and grinned at Tappy.
"Now we can get back to business."
But the roughness of the air had become a savagery. He and Tappy had been bouncing up and down and swaying hard from side to side. Now they might soon be lifted from their seats.