John Brosnan - The Sky Lords

Jan nodded. She had already guessed that the voice was an artificial one like Carl’s, or Ashley’s. It was being produced by some kind of machine in the pillar. “Please let me in,” she commanded. “I am authorized. I’m on an important mission.”

“Are you really? What’s your authorization code, then?” asked the voice. It sounded vaguely sarcastic.

“Uh, I don’t have one, but you must believe me—it’s vital that I get into the top of the tower.”

“I hear that every day, madam, believe me. Now please be on your way. Visiting hours are almost over. And take your pet with you.”

Jan began to feel angry. “Look, machine, or whatever you are, visiting hours have been over in here for quite a long time. Several hundred years, in fact. The city out there is dead. My ‘pet’ and I are the only living things around for miles. Whatever instructions you were given once upon a time don’t matter any more. So I demand you let me in !”

The voice didn’t answer for some moments, then it said, “The summit of the Sky Tower is off-limits to unauthorized personnel.”

Jan groaned, then kicked the door again. The voice said, “That’s it, the last straw—I must warn you that I am calling the police.”

“Don’t hold your breath,” muttered Jan. After some deliberation she unshouldered the laser and, warning Frusa to stand clear, aimed it at the lock and fired. Sparks flew and metal sizzled. The voice said, “Well, you’re in big trouble now, madam!”

“Oh, shut up!” cried Jan as she continued to fire the laser.

She had to cut right through the door before it finally swung open to reveal a tightly spiralled staircase made of some translucent material. The voice, after several more warnings and threats about the police, had fallen silent. Jan experienced a feeling of triumph as she began to climb the staircase. Almost there ! And she had done it without Milo.

At the top of the staircase she found herself in a small, circular area and facing another door. Jan sighed, anticipating further debate with a mechanical voice, but when she touched a glowing button on the door it slid open without any problem. A stream of fresh air wafted over her and she stepped through the door. That should have alerted her to something being wrong, but she was too preoccupied with her sense of achievement to notice.

Then she saw the three samurai. They had been sitting, cross-legged, around a brazier on which bowls of food were steaming. Their bed rolls and weapons lay scattered about and they had obviously been in the Sky Tower for a considerable length of time. They hadn’t been aware of her presence until the door had opened but now they were reacting with alarming speed, grabbing for their swords and leaping to their feet.

Jan lifted the laser and pressed the firing button. Nothing happened. She guessed she’d exhausted its power supply by cutting through the door below. One of the samurai, the nearest, gave a shrieking cry as he charged at her.

She was knocked to one side as something large and very heavy bounded past her. It was Frusa. The leading samurai screamed as she brought him down under her weight. She gave him what seemed to be nothing more than a cuff on the side of the head, but it took half of his face away. Frusa did this without even pausing in her forward rush. She was on the second samurai before he had time even to attempt to defend himself. The third one stood frozen, eyes wide, as Frusa tore out the other man’s throat. Then he came to life and raised his sword to hack at Frusa.

Jan threw the laser at him. It hit him on the shoulder, making him stagger sideways. Jan drew her short sword and ran forward, but before she could reach him Frusa struck again, knocking the samurai off his feet with a murderous swipe of her paw. Jan turned her head as the great jaws snapped shut on fragile flesh and bone, cutting off the man’s screams.

When she looked again the panther was sitting calmly beside the corpse, blood running down the black fur on its chin. “Thank you,” Jan said weakly.

“They men. Cat don’t like men. Kill men.”

“Yes, you certainly do …” Jan said. “How did you know they were here?”

“Smell them. After you go up ladder. Strong man smell.”

Jan nodded. That had been when she’d opened the other door. She remembered the breeze as she’d entered and looked around. The summit room of the Sky Tower was like the interior of a giant crystal. The curving walls and ceiling were made of faceted, translucent glass which gave the air a luminous quality. All about were pieces of equipment with glass exteriors which enabled you to see the mysterious patterns created by their electronic nervous systems. Jan spotted where the samurai had gained entrance to the summit room—there was a four foot hole up by the base of the ceiling. On a catwalk below the hole were three folded-up gliders. They had either smashed their way through the crystal or used an explosive charge.

Their presence in the summit room held all manner of grim implications for Jan. It meant that the warlord had remembered the true location of the Sky Angel’s control centre, as Milo had feared he would. It also meant that the warlord might already have sent the signal that would bring the remaining Sky Angel down to Earth.

The sound of flesh ripping distracted her. She turned and saw that the panther had begun to eat one of the dead samurai. She grimaced. “What are you doing?” she demanded.

It swallowed a large gobbet of meat and said, “Cat hungry. Cat eat.”

“Well … can’t you do it somewhere else?” asked Jan, trying not to look at what the cat was doing.

The cat hesitated, growled, then dragged the body towards the door. Jan took off her back-pack and then sat down on it. She needed to think. Already she was having doubts about her initial interpretation of the Japanese presence in the Tower. If the warlord had left them behind to ambush Milo and herself, surely he would deployed more than just three men. He knew Milo’s abilities. Three wouldn’t have stood a chance against him. Nor did they appear to have had guns; they were armed only with swords. Perhaps they were just one of several groups of samurai scattered throughout the city to act as look-outs. Perhaps they were in the Sky Tower just by accident. Hadn’t she felt she was being watched ever since she’d arrived in the city? But why hadn’t they attacked her? Probably because they were on the look-out for two people. A lone woman would have aroused their curiosity, but they had no way of knowing it was her. Besides, Milo was the important one as far as the warlord was concerned.

Whatever the reason for their presence in the Sky Tower, one thing was certain—it meant that the Lord Pangloth , or the Perfumed Breeze , would be returning.

She opened the backpack and reached in for the tube that contained Ashley and Carl. As she was feeling for it she touched something metallic and realized it was Milo’s skull. She took it out and placed it on the floor in front of her. The empty sockets stared accusingly at her. She tried to analyse her feelings about Milo and his death, but everything was too jumbled up in her mind. The pieces would have to settle before she could even begin to examine how she felt.

Jan smiled sadly at the skull. “Well, Milo, we made it. With a bit of help from a cat,” She reached in the bag again and found the tube, then began to examine the different pieces of transparent equipment in the circular room.

Because everything looked so unfamiliar it took her some time to find the part of the computer that housed the software. Then she frowned when she saw, through the transparent top, that the computer contained a whole row of similar tubes. Worriedly, she pressed the buttons that ejected the tubes then inserted her single one. Then she waited.