Let me get my daughter!' she screamed, but nobody
heard her, and she was jostled away.
An old woman, who couldn't run as fast as the others, snapped like an
autumn twig. A man who bravely tried to help her, fell broken
alongside her. The empty-faced killers were unstoppable.
Stellar couldn't see what was happening, and was puzzled by all the
commotion. She decided she had better sit where she was until her
mother told her what to do.
The mercenaries' instructions had been to create terror, and drive
everyone towards the Docking Bays. Their orders were to leave no one
alive in Iceworld. They looked around the Restaurant now and saw no
one left alive. Most of the diners had fled, only to find themselves
driven towards the Docking Bays by other mercenaries. The few who
hadn't run, or hadn't run fast enough, were lying dead on the floor.
Stellar didn't understand why her mother had left her behind. She
looked around from under the table. A tall, horrible-looking man was
stumbling towards her. She sat still under the table. She saw his strong
legs stagger up to her table. He stood right over Ted, with one foot
either side of the toy.
The mercenary was unsure; it thought it could sense a living creature
close by, but it couldn't see anything. From beneath the table, a small
arm emerged. The mercenary shuffled. Its feet brushed against a child's
plaything on the ground. It looked at the dead bodies on the floor. The
small arm pulled at the teddy bear between the mercenary's feet, but it
was standing on one of the toy's ears. The mercenary looked round and
shuffled again. The small arm pulled the teddy free, and took it under
the table. The mercenary looked at the ground where it stood, but saw
nothing there. Then it stumbled off after its colleagues.
The Restaurant was silent.
Stellar looked round from under the table. She
couldn't see anybody. Carefully, she crept out, bringing Ted with her.
She stood up.
Chairs were lying broken. Plates and dishes were smashed on the floor.
An old woman and a man were lying asleep in the most uncomfortable
positions. Food was spilt everywhere.
'Naughty Ted! Look what's happened, all because you jumped under
the table.'
The refrigeration cabinet stood waiting as Kane strode into the
Restricted Zone. He needed time alone -time to prepare himself. After
three thousand years of waiting, he needed to concentrate his mind.
He lay down inside the cabinet, folded his arms across his chest, and
closed his eyes. With a slight hiss, the lid of the cabinet closed and
sealed itself shut. Refrigerating gases began to fill the cabinet.
'Current cabinet temperature: minus 15 °C... Target cabinet
temperature: minus 193 °C... Cabinet temperature falling... minus 20
°C... minus 30 °C... minus 40 °C...'
This would be the last time that Kane would ever need to refresh his
body temperature here on Svartos.
The customers in Iceworld fled from the relentless mercenaries like
terrified animals. They were used to living civilised lives on civilised
planets. If any kind of disaster threatened, they had leaders to guide
them - that was why they elected governments and leaders in the first
place. Now they found themselves without leaders to tell them what to
do, and they were terrified. After a lifetime of relying on other people
to make their decisions, and of doing what they were told, they had lost
the ability to think clearly in an emergency. They were easy prey for the
empty-faced men and women.
The mercenaries herded them like senseless sheep. They drove them
from the Freezer Centre, from the
Refreshment Bar, and from the Sports Hall. They stampeded them
down corridors, and gradually herded the panic-stricken people
towards the Docking Bays, as Kane had ordered.
Stellar knew nothing of this. The mercenaries had missed her, and left
her behind. She trailed through the empty corridors with her teddy,
wondering where everyone was, and why her mother had left her.
There was no one about. No muzak drifting from the loudspeakers. No
cheery announcements from the Bing-bong Woman. Nothing.
Stellar supposed she would have to find her own way back to the
spacecraft, but she wasn't sure which way to go. She looked at the signs
on the walls, as she had seen her mother do when she wanted [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]