Tiger! Tiger! (25 page)

They came in like meteor swarms; not so many, but far more deadly. They came in on the morning quadrant, that quarter of the globe in darkness from midnight to dawn. They collided head on with the forward side of the earth in its revolution around the sun. They had been travelling a distance of four hundred million miles.

Their excessive speed was matched by the rapidity of the Terran defense computers, which traced and intercepted these New Year gifts from the Outer Satellites within the space of micro-seconds. A multitude of fierce new stars prickled in the sky and vanished; they were bombs detected and detonated five hundred miles above their target.

But so narrow was the margin between speed of defense and speed of attack that many got through. They shot through the aurora level, the meteor level, the twilight limit, the stratosphere, and down to earth. The invisible trajectories ended in titanic convulsions.

The first atomic explosion which destroyed Newark shook the Presteign mansion with an unbelievable quake. Floors and walls shuddered and the guests were thrown in heaps along with furniture and decorations. Quake followed quake as the random shower descended around New York. They were deafening, numbing, chilling. The sounds, the shocks, the flares of lurid light on the horizon were so enormous, that reason was stripped from humanity, leaving nothing but flayed animals to shriek, cower and run. Within the space of five seconds Presteign's New Year party was transformed from elegance into anarchy.

Foyle arose from the floor. He looked at the struggling bodies on the ballroom parquet, saw Jisbella fighting to free herself, took a step towards her and then stopped. He revolved his head, dazedly, feeling it was no part of him. The thunder never ceased. He saw Robin Wednesbury in the reception hall, reeling and battered. He took a step towards her and then stopped again. He knew where he must go.

He accelerated. The thunder and lightning dropped down the spectrum to grinding and flickering. The shuddering quakes turned into greasy undulations. Foyle blurred through the giant house, searching, until at last he found her, standing in the garden, standing tiptoe on a marble bench looking like a marble statue to his accelerated senses . . . the state of exaltation.

He decelerated. Sensation leaped up the spectrum again and once more he was buffeted by that bigger-than-death size bombardment.

`Lady Olivia,' he called.

`Who is that?'

`The clown.'

`Fourmyle?'

`Yes.'

`And you came searching for me? I'm touched, really touched.'

`You're insane to be standing out here like this. I beg you to let me '

`No, no, no. It's beautiful . . . Magnificent!'

`Let me jaunte with you to some place that's safe.'

'Ali, you see yourself as a knight in armor? Chivalry to the rescue. It doesn't suit you, my dear. You haven't the flair for it. You'd best go.'

`I'll stay.'

`As a beauty-lover?'

`As a lover.'

`You're still tedious, Fourmyle. Come, be inspired. This is Armageddon . . . Flowering Monstrosity. Tell me what you see.'

`There's nothing much,' he answered, looking around and wincing. `There's light all over the horizon. Quick clouds of it. Above there's a . . . a sort of sparkling effect. Like Christmas lights twinkling.'

`Oh, you see so little with your eyes. See what I see! There's a dome in the sky, a rainbow dome. The colors run from deep tang to brilliant burn. That's what I've named the colors I see. What would that dome be?'

`The radar screen,' Foyle muttered.

`And then there are vast shafts of fire thrusting up and swaying, weaving, dancing, sweeping. What are they?'

`Interceptor beams. You're seeing the whole electronic defense system.'

`And I can see the bombs coming down too. . , quick streaks of what you call red. But not your red; mine. Why can I see them?'

'They're heated by air friction, but the inert lead casing doesn't show the color to us.'

`See how much better you're doing as Galileo than Galahad. Oh! There's one coming down in the east. Watch for it! It's coming, coming, coming . . . Now!'

A flare of light on the eastern horizon proved it was not her imagination.

`There's another to the north. Very close. Very. Now!' A shock tore down from the north.

`And the explosions, Fourmyle . . . They're not just clouds of light. They're fabrics, webs, tapestries of meshing colors. So beautiful. Like exquisite shrouds.'

`Which they are, Lady Olivia.'

`Are you afraid?'

`Yes.'

`Then run away.'

'No.'

`Ah, you're defiant.' 'I don't know what I am. I'm scared, but I won't run.'

`Then you're brazening it out. Making a show of knightly courage.'

The husky voice sounded amused, `Just think, Galahad. How long does it take to jaunte? You could be safe in seconds, in Mexico, Canada, Alaska. So safe. There must be millions there now. We're probably the last left in the city.'

`Not everybody can jaunte so far and so fast.'

`Then we're the last left who count. Why don't you leave me? Be safe. I'll be killed soon. No one will ever know your pretence turned tail.'

`Bitch!'

`Ah, you're angry. What shocking language. It's the first sign of weakness. Why don't you exercise your better judgement and carry me off? That would be the second sign.'

`Damn you!'

He stepped close to her, clenching his fists in rage. She touched his cheek with a cool, quiet hand, but once again there was that electric shock.

`No, it's too late, my dear,' she said quietly. `Here comes a whole cluster of red streaks . . . down, down, down, directly at us. There'll be no escaping this. Quick, now! Run! Jaunte! Take me with you. Quick! Quick!'

He swept her off the bench. `Bitch! Never!'

He held her, found the soft coral mouth and kissed her; bruised her lips with his, waiting for the final blackout.

The concussion never came.

`Tricked!' he exclaimed. She laughed. He kissed her again and at last forced himself to release her. She gasped for breath, then laughed again, her coral eyes blazing, `It's over,' she said.

`It hasn't begun yet,'

`You mean the war?'

`The war between us.'

`Make it a human war,' she said fiercely. `You're the first not to be deceived by my looks. Oh God! The boredom of the chivalrous knights and their milk-warm passion for the princess. But I'm not like that . . . inside. I'm not. I'm not. Never. Make it a savage war between us. Don't win me . . . destroy me!'

Suddenly she was Lady Olivia again, the gracious snow maiden. `I'm afraid the bombardment has finished, my dear Fourmyle. The show is over. But what an exciting prelude to the New Year. Good night.'

`Good night?' he echoed incredulously.

`Good night,' she repeated. `Really, my dear Fourmyle, are you so gauche that you never know when you're dismissed? You may go now. Good night.'

He hesitated, searched for words, and at last turned and lurched out of the house. He was trembling with elation and confusion. He walked in a daze, scarcely aware of the confusion and disaster around him. The horizon now was lit with the light of red flames. The shock waves of the assault had stirred the atmosphere so violently that winds still whistled in strange gusts. The tremor of the explosions had shaken the city so hard that brick, cornice, glass and metal were tumbling and crashing. And this despite the fact that no direct hit had been made on New York.

The streets were empty; the city was deserted. The entire population of New York, of every city, had jaunted in a desperate search for safety . . . to the limit of their ability . . . five miles, fifty miles, five hundred miles. Some had jaunted into the center of a direct hit. Thousands died in jaunte-explosions, for the public jaunte stages had never been designed to accommodate the crowding of mass exodus.

Foyle became aware of white-armored Disaster Crews appearing on the streets. An imperious signal directed at him warned him that he was about to be summarily drafted for disaster work. The problem of jaunting was not to get populations out of cities, but to force them to return and restore order. Foyle had no intention of spending a week fighting fire and looters. He accelerated and evaded the Disaster Crew.

At Fifth Avenue he decelerated; the drain of acceleration on his energy was so enormous that he was reluctant to maintain it for more than a few moments. Long periods of acceleration demanded days of recuperation.

The looters and Jack-Jaunters were already at work on the avenue, singly, in swarms, furtive yet savage; jackals rending the body of a living but helpless animal. They descended on Foyle. Anything was their prey tonight: `I'm not in the mood,' he told them.

`Play with somebody else.'

He emptied the money out of his pockets and tossed it to them. They snapped it up but were not satisfied. They desired entertainment and he was obviously a helpless gentleman. Half a dozen surrounded Foyle and closed in to torment him.

`Kind gentleman,' they smiled. `We're going to have a party.'

Foyle had once seen the mutilated body of one of their party guests. He sighed and detached his mind from visions of Olivia Presteign.

`All right, jackals,' he said. `Let's have a party.'

They prepared to send him into a screaming dance. Foyle tripped the switchboard in his mouth and became for twelve devastating seconds the most murderous machine ever devised . . . the Commando killer. It was done without conscious thought or volition; his body merely followed the directive taped into muscle and reflex. He left six bodies stretched on the street.

Old St Pat's still stood, unblemished, eternal, the distant fires flickering on the green copper of its roof. Inside, it was deserted. The tents of the Four-Mile Circus filled the nave, illuminated and furnished, but the circus personnel were gone. Servants, chefs, valets, athletes, philosophers, camp-followers and crooks had fled.

`But they'll be back to loot,' Foyle murmured.

He entered his own tent. The first thing he saw was a figure in white, crouched on a rug, crooning sunnily to itself. It was Robin Wednesbury, her gown in tatters, her mind in tatters.

`Robin!'

She went on crooning wordlessly. He pulled her up, shook her and slapped her. She beamed and crooned. He filled a syringe and gave her a tremendous shot of Niacin. The sobering wrench of the drug on her pathetic flight from reality was ghastly. Her satin skin turned ashen. The beautiful face twisted. She recognized Foyle, remembered what she had tried to forget, screamed and sank to her knees. She began to cry.

`That's better,' he told her. `You're a great one for escape, aren't you? First suicide. Now this. What next?'

`Go away.'

`Probably religion. I can see you joining a cellar sect with passwords like Pax Vobiscum. Bible smuggling and martyrdom for the faith. Can't you ever face up to anything?'

`Don't you ever run away?'

`Never. Escape is for cripples. Neurotics.'

`Neurotics. The favorite word of the Johnny-Come-Lately educated. You're so educated, aren't you? So poised. So balanced. You've been running away all your life.'