There were no features in the landscape at all except for scattered stones, of different shapes and sizes, stretching away into the distance. There was something quite dreadful about those stones, which must have lain here like this unseen for hundreds of thousands of years without a single eye to see them – without a single mind, however lowly, to give their existence some kind of purpose.
Then I saw my father ahead of me, lying on his back in a gap between two boulders. He had been there for some time. Poisonous rays had beaten down on him and shrivelled him up. His cheeks were sunken and his chest fluttered precariously, his quivering heart and lungs clinging on by thin strands inside his brown cage of ribs.
But his eyes swivelled round in his skull, his dry mouth whispered my name and I could see he was seeking some sort of reconciliation. I felt that in this final hour he wanted us to become in reality a father and a son. I felt I was expected to stoop and kiss that shrivelled leathery brow.
Reluctantly I took his hand and held it.
But I couldn’t look at him. I looked across the dead world, where the stones, one after another, stretched away into the distance.
Far away I could still just make out one last white sheet of paper, about to disappear over the horizon.
34
A few minutes after the ASPU house opened, I walked in and went through to the lounge.
Lucy was in her usual place. She smiled, stood up and came towards me.
I let her come close so I could be sure that she heard. Then I said: ‘No. I’ve seen a lot of you lately. I think I’ll try one of the others.’
This was the agreed signal to tell her that the day had arrived. She sat down, as I’d coached her again and again, but this time in a vacant seat near to the door.
I looked round the room. I chose the schoolgirl Helen with the scar on her upper lip. She led me up to her fake locker-room and I had her kneel on the floor with her back to me so she couldn’t see me. Then I threatened her.
‘I’m going to smash you with this iron bar. I’m going to break your head in. I’m going to cover the floor with your microchips and wires.’
The syntec issued a standard warning: ‘I will have to contact Security if you damage me in any way.’
I knew, from questioning Lucy about the house procedures, that Security would have already been contacted by ultrasound, and would already be on its way. But I wanted to make sure that Helen did not now send out a ‘false alarm’ signal, so I kept up the threats.
‘It’s too late my dear,’ I said, ‘It’ll be too late. By the time the security robot arrives you’ll be fit for nothing but the scrapyard.’
Then the door opened and Security came in.
‘Excuse me sir,’ it intoned gravely, ‘I understand that you’ve threatened to damage the equipment. I’m afraid that is strictly forbidden. Will you please follow me?’
‘What? No of course not! I was only having a bit of fun. Look, I haven’t even got an iron bar!’
‘Please sir, follow me, we cannot allow…’
The robot suddenly broke off, and for a moment it was as motionless as a statue.
I smiled. I knew why. It was receiving a message from another source. House Control was summoning it urgently to come and deal with an unprecedented event. One of the syntecs was leaving the building.
Security’s sad, blank face turned to the door and then back to me again. No doubt a feverish exchange of ultrasound messages was going on. Should it first complete the business of evicting me, or should it give priority to the new security threat? No doubt House Control was analysing all my previous visits to determine whether I had ever been noted as a possible hazard.
Abruptly, a decision was reached. Security turned to leave the room.
I stepped in its way. ‘Hang on a minute, you can’t just walk out like that! What do you mean by barging in if you aren’t going to do anything?’
(The seconds were ticking by. Lucy was making her way through the streets, through a world that she’d never before experienced. I only hoped that she was not so overwhelmed by the unfamiliar sensory data that she would lose her way to our rendezvous. ‘Walk, don’t run!’ I had repeatedly told her, unaware that running was something that she didn’t know how to do in any case.)
The robot’s silver face looked down at me.
‘Please step aside sir. An emergency has arisen elsewhere. Please report to Reception.’
I counted to five, then stood aside. But as Security moved passed me I put out my foot and tripped it up. It fell headlong, but then got up again and headed off with an unnerving burst of speed.
Lucy had gone to a public toilet, two blocks away from the ASPU House and adjoining a car park where I had left my car. I got the car out and stopped immediately outside the toilet, where I called her softly. She came out, followed anxiously by a middle-aged Croatian guestworker, who had been concerned to find a scantily dressed young girl standing inside the toilet door in a catatonic state.
‘It’s alright,’ I said, ‘She’s my sister. She suffers with her nerves. She gets like this sometimes.’
Clucking sympathetically, the woman helped Lucy climb awkwardly into the passenger seat.
‘There, there my dear. Your brother will see you are alright I’m sure.’
I headed out of the city, took a side road, pulled over into a layby, then helped Lucy to climb into the trunk of the car where I covered her with a rug, two suitcases and a bag. She accepted all this in silence.
‘It’s going great Lucy!’ I gabbled, my bloodstream awash with adrenalin. ‘It’s really going great! I’ll have you out of there in no time!’
I was elated at the success of my plan. I was amazed at my own audacity.
I dropped back onto the Ullman Expressway. I was heading for the border with Epiros which was now, after a stormy period and much covert diplomacy between atheist Illyria and Archbishop Theodosios at Ioannina, the calmest of our frontiers once again.
A high limestone escarpment, across the border in Eprios, loomed up ahead of me. Then I saw the frontier post, with the Illyrian flag fluttering above it, and the high fences of electrified razor wire on either side. My palms began to sweat with terror. Relatively peaceful this frontier might be, but it was still jealously guarded. I was gambling on the fact that the Illyrian authorities were more concerned about people coming in than people going out.
But all it would take to destroy the whole plan would be a very modest burst of zealousness on either side.
Against the dramatic backdrop of sheer grey cliffs, brilliant in the April sun, a big security robot held up its hand to stop me. Behind it in the shade stood a human customs officer.
My hands were now sweating so profusely that I could hardly get a purchase on the steering wheel. But I wound down the window and attempted a friendly remark:
‘Certainly a hot day isn’t it? If it’s like this in April, what’s it going to be like in August?’
The human officer smiled distantly, and left the business to the machine.
‘Are you on business or vacation?’ it asked.