Adam Christopher - The Age Atomic

Carson nodded. “So did I, or at least that was as far as Byron and I had been able to penetrate. But I had always surmised there were more realms, further out. Perhaps even an infinite number of other universes and worlds.”

Kane folded his arms. “And you were right,” he said.

“Indeed,” said the Captain, and he smiled the smug smile that made Rad laugh and think of tea and sawdust shortbread in the Captain’s palatial residence. Then he realized that those days were a very long time ago for the Captain.

“If Byron was in this ship, how did you know it was really him?”

“Oh, that was easy. He had the taken the signal device from the Nimrod — the other Nimrod — and kept it with him. He knew I would be listening.”

“So why didn’t we meet him when we came back here? You’re saying he’s still inside the ship?”

Kane said, “It was empty when you picked us up.”

Jennifer ducked into the Nimrod ’s side door. “Ah, everyone?” she called out from inside. “There’s someone here all right.”

Rad looked at Carson, and pulled himself into the doorway. Ahead of him, a black shadow seemed to sweep past Jennifer. She stopped and looked around her in surprise.

Rad turned back to the Captain, his eyes wide. Carson laughed loudly.

“Byron can’t leave the ship, detective. He’s a ghost. He’s haunting it!”

Carson led them onto the flight deck, where he directed Jennifer to sit in the co-pilot’s chair while he occupied the pilot’s.

Kane pulled on Rad’s arm, leading him to the side while the Captain examined Jennifer’s metal face. Rad kept one eye on them, well aware of what he’d found in the freezer.

“You’re telling me you believe this?” Kane’s whisper was muffled behind the mask.

“Believe what?” Rad hissed out of the corner of his mouth. “That this really is Captain Carson?”

“That, and that he thinks his airship is haunted by his dead friend.”

Rad’s eyes darted around the cockpit. There were plenty of places for someone to hide. Plenty of places for shadows to collect.

“The past few days, I’ll believe lots of things,” he said.

“I can hear you, gentlemen.”

Rad and Kane pulled back from each other, each glancing around the room. The voice had been a low whisper too, as though from a third person standing close. The voice was deep, accented like Carson’s.

Rad saw the Captain looking in their direction, he face split by an annoying smile.

Rad looked at the ceiling. “Byron?”

“At your service,” came the voice, this time from behind Rad. He spun around, but there was no one there.

“OK,” said Rad, nodding as he turned back to Kane. “Byron, fine. Hi, there.” He raised his hand, unsure where Byron was.

“A pleasure to see you again, Mr Bradley,” said Byron.

Kane laughed. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

“And Mr Fortuna,” said the voice, and Rad could have sworn Byron gave a little bow, even though he was nowhere to be seen, nothing more than a dark moving shape in the corner of his eye.

The Captain turned back to Jennifer.

“It is no use,” he said, slapping his hands on the top of his thighs and leaning back into his seat. He glanced up at Rad. “The mask cannot be removed. It, dare I say it, appears to be part of her face now. It’s a remarkable design, remarkable. The improvements in technique are quite staggering.”

“So,” said Rad, his eyes on Jennifer. “You know what happened to her? What the mask is?”

Carson nodded, but before he could speak, Jennifer shook her head.

“It’s fine. I know what happened. It was James. He did this to me. He started the process.”

Rad shook his head in disbelief, but Jennifer stood up and walked toward him.

“He wanted to save me,” she said.

Rad pursed his lips. “Look, there’s something I have to tell you,” he said.

Jennifer tilted her mask, her hands on her hips.

Rad rubbed his chin, looking at the floor. “I found something in the theater, when we were looking for Skyguard’s suit.”

“Well?”

“The King has parts in storage.”

Carson shuffled in his seat. “Robot parts?”

“Body parts,” said Rad, shaking his head. He pointed at Jennifer. “Look, point is, that mask can’t come off, Agent Jones. Not unless we can pull the Corsair — your brother — out of there, maybe see if he can reverse the process.”

Carson let his hands fall into his lap. “I see.”

“It’s OK,” said Jennifer. “We’ll get him back, and he can fix me.”

“He thinks he was doing that already.” Rad held his hands up in apology. “What I mean is, I’m not sure we can count on that.”

“How did you find us?” said Kane. Rad turned to him, leaning against the wall, arms tightly folded. He was grateful for the change of subject.

“Ah,” said Carson. He barked a laugh and pointed to Kane. “This time I followed your signal, my friend. Your timing was exquisite, as I had been watching the city for some time, but I was unsure. Until, that is, I received your signal. Then I knew.”

Rad glanced at Kane, who was now peering at the panel on his wrist. Rad turned back to Carson. “You’ve been trying to get back?”

“Oh, yes,” said Carson. “Once I found Byron and this ship, it was imperative we return to the Empire State. But after so many years of travel, it was… difficult to plot a return course. On the way out, detours to avoid the Enemy aside, I had Byron’s signal to home in on. But coming back, we had nothing to follow. We came to city after city, never sure whether we had seen them before, never sure whether they were real, or illusions, or echoes of the Enemy.

“And then we found a bridge, and we followed it until we reached the shores of another place. A dark city, cold, so very, very cold. But there was something about it, I could feel it. But we couldn’t be sure, so we stayed just outside its perimeter while I investigated. But then came the signal, and that was the final piece of data I required. We came home.”

Kane pushed himself off the wall and stepped closer to the group.

“So now you’re home, what do we do? Go back to the theater and bring them out? Go down to the Empire State Building and come back with agents and police?”

“We have to go back,” said Jennifer. “James is still in there.”

The Captain puffed out his cheeks. “That would be unwise. If the King has activated his robot army early, it will be to recapture Kane. We have no idea how many machines we may be up against.”

Rad pulled at his bottom lip. “There’s still the New York connection. If Kane’s dream is going to come true, it sounds like the gateway only operates in one direction now. We don’t know how long we have before we have another army knocking on the door. But if New York is still there, maybe there’s a way of getting in touch with Nimrod.”

The Captain looked up at Rad, his small eye wet and bright.

“Actually-”

“Mass detection,” said Byron, his voice booming out across the flight deck.

Kane and Rad looked at each other. The Captain looked at the ceiling.

“Byron, report!”

“Units approaching Grand Central from all sides.”

Rad looked at the Captain. “Units?”

“Confirmed.” Byron’s voice rang out in the cabin from everywhere. “Grand Central is surrounded by robots.”

They stood outside on a large balcony, in front of one of the great arched windows that allowed light to fall into the main concourse. Rad brushed the frost off the glass and peered inside; the concourse floor looked a very long way down.

There was a railing in front of them; Carson stood at it like a general surveying a battlefield, complete with binoculars. Rad noticed that when the Captain brought them up to his eyes, he flipped up the eye patch.