wait which would last for millions of years.
The plane tilted. Charlie reacted with robotic speed and precision. Again the plane swung and this time it tumbled across the sky in a sickening sliding motion before the robot had it under control again.
The sun went out.
The world went black.
Lottie screamed. Brennan cursed.
Then the sound of wind screaming past the fuselage told us the plane was diving. Charlie hauled back. Be* low us mist coiled as sunlight burst out again, bright ·yellow sunlight that bounced back from that silver mist below and stung our eyes.
Among the oaths and screams and cries, Charlie remained aloof and calm. The aircraft pulled out of that pitching dive and like a s kimmin g skate rose into the sunshine.
Below us the mist extended as far as we could see.
“We’re on course for Khamushkei the Undying,” Brennan exulted. “And he doesn’t like it ! He’s panicking!”
After that terrifying alteration of the world around us, we had to believe, where I think that previously we had not fully comprehended our situation, and with that understanding came fear. I know I wished, then, that we could turn back. But that momentary weakness, or logical reaction, call it what you will, passed in a sense of responsibility for the others. Whatever they felt, they were going on. If that was what they wanted I could not dissuade them. Perhaps pride or fear made me shrink from making the attempt. Whatever it was, I determined not to let myself be deflected again.
Hall Brennan, too, must have shared much of the content of my thoughts, for he glanced across at me with a rueful smile.
“Phoebe,” he said to me. “She’s agreed to go along. We kinda—we kinda fit together, right, like, you know, Bert.”
I nodded. “I know.”
“I’ve no living relations; as far as I know, that is,” he went on as the aircraft drove hard over the mist eastwards. “And Phoebe has decided to join up with me. But George ... ?”
Pomfret stopped talking to Lottie to say briefly, “The same applies to Lottie and me. I decide my own fate. Lottie decides hers, and she’s decided to join up with me, like Phoebe and Hall.”
“I’ve an old mother somewhere,” Lottie said, holding Pomfret’s hand. “But I was the last of seven children. They won’t miss me at home. I took my earnings back to the slums for three good years. Then I quit. After that I bought my own clothes and fought my own battles and, well, a secretary to a financial tycoon like Paul Benenson is something, after all.”
“Hush, Lottie,” said Pomfret. “You did well. But now you’re with me.”
“And if that is the case,” Brennan said, with a fresh accession of cheerfulness that I, for one, found stimulating, “we’re off to see the Wizard.” He laughed. “We’re off to shut Khamushkei the Undying back into his Vault.”
This was as good a time as any, I decided, to tax Hall Brennan about hims elf I asked.
“All you need to know about me, Bert,” he said with that taut facial expression and the crow’s-feet around his eyes indicating plainly that he was not going to tell me anything vital, “is that I’ve been hunting the Time Beast for a long time now, that he killed a couple of my pals, that all my personal inherited fortune has been spent on that one object, and that I’m panting to get even with him.”
“So,” I said to them with what I hoped was not undue levity in my voice, “we’re all agreed and more or less happy about what we’re doing.”
“Yes.”
The plane bore on through the midday sunlight. Below us its shadow danced and. disappeared, reformed and rebounded from the mist. Nothing could be discerned through that bulky cloud layer.
The map I hauled out of my jacket pocket crackled loudly in the muffled cabin. Everyone craned across to look.
“We’d have been here,” I said, putting my finger on a spot nearly halfway from the coast to Baghdad, “if we were still in our own time.”
“We’re still
The plane tilted. Charlie reacted with robotic speed and precision. Again the plane swung and this time it tumbled across the sky in a sickening sliding motion before the robot had it under control again.
The sun went out.
The world went black.
Lottie screamed. Brennan cursed.
Then the sound of wind screaming past the fuselage told us the plane was diving. Charlie hauled back. Be* low us mist coiled as sunlight burst out again, bright ·yellow sunlight that bounced back from that silver mist below and stung our eyes.
Among the oaths and screams and cries, Charlie remained aloof and calm. The aircraft pulled out of that pitching dive and like a s kimmin g skate rose into the sunshine.
Below us the mist extended as far as we could see.
“We’re on course for Khamushkei the Undying,” Brennan exulted. “And he doesn’t like it ! He’s panicking!”
After that terrifying alteration of the world around us, we had to believe, where I think that previously we had not fully comprehended our situation, and with that understanding came fear. I know I wished, then, that we could turn back. But that momentary weakness, or logical reaction, call it what you will, passed in a sense of responsibility for the others. Whatever they felt, they were going on. If that was what they wanted I could not dissuade them. Perhaps pride or fear made me shrink from making the attempt. Whatever it was, I determined not to let myself be deflected again.
Hall Brennan, too, must have shared much of the content of my thoughts, for he glanced across at me with a rueful smile.
“Phoebe,” he said to me. “She’s agreed to go along. We kinda—we kinda fit together, right, like, you know, Bert.”
I nodded. “I know.”
“I’ve no living relations; as far as I know, that is,” he went on as the aircraft drove hard over the mist eastwards. “And Phoebe has decided to join up with me. But George ... ?”
Pomfret stopped talking to Lottie to say briefly, “The same applies to Lottie and me. I decide my own fate. Lottie decides hers, and she’s decided to join up with me, like Phoebe and Hall.”
“I’ve an old mother somewhere,” Lottie said, holding Pomfret’s hand. “But I was the last of seven children. They won’t miss me at home. I took my earnings back to the slums for three good years. Then I quit. After that I bought my own clothes and fought my own battles and, well, a secretary to a financial tycoon like Paul Benenson is something, after all.”
“Hush, Lottie,” said Pomfret. “You did well. But now you’re with me.”
“And if that is the case,” Brennan said, with a fresh accession of cheerfulness that I, for one, found stimulating, “we’re off to see the Wizard.” He laughed. “We’re off to shut Khamushkei the Undying back into his Vault.”
This was as good a time as any, I decided, to tax Hall Brennan about hims elf I asked.
“All you need to know about me, Bert,” he said with that taut facial expression and the crow’s-feet around his eyes indicating plainly that he was not going to tell me anything vital, “is that I’ve been hunting the Time Beast for a long time now, that he killed a couple of my pals, that all my personal inherited fortune has been spent on that one object, and that I’m panting to get even with him.”
“So,” I said to them with what I hoped was not undue levity in my voice, “we’re all agreed and more or less happy about what we’re doing.”
“Yes.”
The plane bore on through the midday sunlight. Below us its shadow danced and. disappeared, reformed and rebounded from the mist. Nothing could be discerned through that bulky cloud layer.
The map I hauled out of my jacket pocket crackled loudly in the muffled cabin. Everyone craned across to look.
“We’d have been here,” I said, putting my finger on a spot nearly halfway from the coast to Baghdad, “if we were still in our own time.”
“We’re still
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