Frank Schätzing - Limit

‘We’ve looked at the images from the external camera,’ she said. ‘The flames have clearly led to a partial breakdown in the steel skeleton within Gaia’s neck. So the fire should have been extinguished, but now the structure is damaged. There are a number of gaping leaks up there.’

Dana was silent. She seemed to be thinking.

‘Come on, Dana,’ pressed Lynn. ‘I need your assessment of the situation.’

‘Well, what’s yours?’

‘That there’s only one way out for Miranda, Olympiada and Finn, and it’s not downwards.’

‘Over the viewing terrace, you mean?’

‘Yes. Out through the airlock in the Mama Quilla Club.’

‘We’d have to overcome two problems with that,’ said Dana. ‘First, you can’t climb up over the outside of the head.’

‘Yes, you can. We planned for a roll-out ladder in case of emergency.’

‘But it wasn’t installed.’

‘Why not? According to the safety regulations—’

‘For optical reasons. On your instructions, by the way,’ added Dana, with audible satisfaction. ‘We could carry out the installation of course, but it would be dreadfully complicated under the prevailing conditions and it would also take a considerable amount of time.’

‘The second problem is harder to solve,’ interjected O’Keefe, who was switched on to their frequency. So the fibre-optic connection still seemed to be intact at least. ‘We don’t have any spacesuits up here. So the terrace won’t be much help to us.’

‘Couldn’t we bring some up?’ asked Ögi. He was relentlessly pacing the room, taking equally long, precisely measured steps, or so it seemed to Tim. He was the only one who had stayed behind in the control centre. The others were seated in the lobby, trying to get a grip on things with Heidrun’s help. ‘E1 still seems to be functioning.’

‘But E1 only goes to the neck,’ said Tim.

‘Forget it.’ Lynn shook her head. ‘The shaft is completely sealed off to protect us from the vacuum. After the structural changes up there the doors wouldn’t open up again anyway. There’s only one option.’

‘Through the airlock,’ said Dana.

‘Yes.’ Lynn dug her teeth into her lower lip. ‘From the outside. We have to get the suits inside through the airlock of the viewing platform.’

‘But for that you’ll have to bring them up first,’ said Finn. ‘And it won’t stop creaking up here so it has to be quick! I don’t know how much longer the head will hold.’

‘Callisto,’ said Dana. ‘Bring them up on the Callisto.’

‘Where is Nina anyway?’ asked Tim.

Lynn looked at him in surprise. In the heat of the moment she had completely forgotten the Danish pilot.

‘Wasn’t she with you in the bar?’ asked Lynn.

‘Who – Nina?’ O’Keefe shook his head. ‘No.’

‘And has someone down here—’ Lynn paused. ‘Oh, shit! In order to bring up the Callisto, we need someone who can carry out precision manoeuvres in a large craft.’ The last trace of colour drained from her face. ‘We have to find Nina!’

‘We can’t wait that long,’ urged Finn.

‘Then—’ She tried to catch her breath in an effort to fight off a panic attack. ‘We could – we have ten grasshoppers in the garage! Almost all of you have already flown a craft like that.’

‘Sure, close to the ground,’ said Dana. ‘But do you think you could manage this? Climb up more than a hundred and fifty metres with a grasshopper and carry out a precision landing on the terrace?’

‘The precision landing isn’t a problem,’ said Tim. ‘But the height—’

‘Technically speaking the height is the least of our worries; theoretically they can be used to fly in open space.’ Lynn brushed her hands over her eyes. ‘But Dana’s right. I don’t trust myself. Not in my condition. I’d lose my nerve.’

It was the first time she had publicly dropped her guard. Tim had never known her to do that. He took it as a good sign.

‘Okay, fine,’ he said. ‘How many of the things do we need? Each hopper can take one additional person, so three all together, right? Three pilots. I’ll do it. Walo?’

‘I’ve never been up that high with one, but if Lynn thinks it will work—’

Tim ran into the lobby and clapped his hands.

‘Someone!’ he called. ‘We need one person for the third hopper.’

‘Me’ said Heidrun, without knowing what it was even about.

‘Are you sure? You have to land the thing on Gaia’s head. Do you think you can do it?’

‘Generally speaking, I think I’m capable of doing anything…’

‘No fear of heights?’

‘… but whether I manage it or not is a different matter.’

‘No, it’s not.’ Tim shook his head. ‘You have to manage it. You have to know now whether you can or not, otherwise—’

She stood up and brushed her white hair behind her ears.

‘No, no “otherwise”. I’ll manage it.’

There were spares of all the spacesuits concealed behind a wall in the lobby, which meant they didn’t have to go up over the bridges to the lockers. They helped each other into the suits, put the gear for Olympiada Rogacheva, Miranda and Finn together and packed it into boxes.

‘Are there problems in the corridor?’ asked Tim.

‘No, the sensors are registering steady values.’ Lynn went ahead of them, led them to a passageway the other side of the elevators and opened a large bulkhead. Behind it was a spacious stairway with steep steps.

‘You’ll get down below this way. I’ll open the garage from the control centre.’

Tim reflected that she should perhaps have built a route like this upstairs too, but bit back the observation.

‘Good luck,’ said Lynn.

Tim hesitated. Then he put both arms around his sister and pulled her close. ‘I know what you’re going through,’ he said softly, ‘and I’m unbelievably proud of you. I have no idea how you’re coping with all this.’

‘Nor do I,’ she whispered.

‘Everything’s going to be fine,’ he said.

‘What’s left?’ She pulled away from his embrace and grasped his hands. ‘Tim, you have to believe me, I have nothing to do with Carl, no matter what Dana says. It’s myself I’m destroying, not anything else.’

‘This isn’t your fault, Lynn. There’s nothing you can do!’

‘Now go.’ The corner of her mouth twitched. ‘Quickly!’

There was something inherently calming about the empty, coolly lit corridor, designed to reinstate and strengthen trust in technological advancement. Its rationality made it seem immune to corruption from recklessly caused catastrophes, but Tim reminded himself that, in a way, it had all started here, with the appearance of Carl Hanna rousing Julian’s mistrust. He wondered whether the bomb was hidden below them. A few hours hadn’t been enough to search every nook and cranny. How small was a mini-nuke? Was it under the conveyor belt that stretched out alongside them? Under one of the floor tiles? Behind the wall, in the ceiling?

They had suggested that Sushma, Mukesh, Eva and Karla take the Lunar Express to the foot of the Montes Alpes and wait there at a safe distance until they had either freed the prisoners or been blown to smithereens with the hotel. But they had all insisted on staying, even Sushma, who had bravely tried to suppress her fear. In order to give their battered morale a boost, Lynn had ended up sending the women to look for Nina Hedegaard, since this would at least keep them occupied. Tim hoped fervently that his sister wouldn’t crack up back at the control centre, but was reassured to a certain extent by the fact that Mukesh had stayed with her. They reached the garage and saw the rafters of the retractable roof disappear into their cases. The starry sky was twinkling above them. A dozen buggies stood there waiting for a party that would never take place.