She pulled back, and smiled in his face. "Yeah."
Fitz grinned. "So, where is is the Doctor?" the Doctor?"
"Are you through yet?" Falsh complained.
"No. Shut up." Trix turned back to Fitz. "Falsh doesn"t give good hostage.
He got us past stadium security all right, but being the big man around here, everyone we pa.s.s just wants to stare at him. Not good news when you"re trying to discreetly hold a gun to his back. So, the Doctor left me with him backstage while he went snooping for you and the TARDIS. Then I happened to see you and. . . " She broke off. "The TARDIS is is here, right?" here, right?"
"Oh, yes, she"s here all right."
"Then we actually made it," Trix marvelled. "There were times when I never thought we would, but now we can just find some mercury and. . . "
Fitz sheepishly pointed upwards.
"Huh?" Trix craned her neck to see. "Oh. T"riffic."
The TARDIS was held hovering in mid-air by a small fleet of discs, hundreds of feet above them.
"Ready to be lowered down for her dramatic entrance," said Fitz sheepishly.
"Revolutionary s.p.a.ce-saving solution. Halcyon was going to make her a star."
Trix looked at him doubtfully.
166.
"I had to get him on-side somehow, didn"t I?" Fitz shrugged. "Anyway, it wasn"t really me who. . . "
Suddenly white incandescence snapped on from miles above, bathing the hushed crowd, stinging them back into noisy, frenzied bedlam. Fitz had to shield his eyes as the simulated stage lit up a staggering silver. Synthesised fireworks cracked and burst all over the stadium, a light show like nothing Fitz could ever imagine. He"d seen whole worlds go up with less fuss. He fumbled for Trix"s hand, found it and clasped it tight.
Then the loud, idiot-disco music started up, urgent, driving, ridiculously over the top. The make-believe marble steps suddenly sprung into life, one after another, from the bottom up a stairway to heaven building itself brick by ma.s.sive brick. Then the music climaxed vaingloriously on a calamitous chord, the lightshow reached its peak as a pair of vast, virtual doors swung open. Clouds of dry ice puffed out, lit from within by mysterious sparkles of blue and gold. The noise of the clamouring crowds was deafening, even through the barrier.
Fitz found he was holding his breath as tightly as Trix"s hand. It was the biggest moment. The biggest entrance in history. The most "Wait a minute," said Trix. She s.n.a.t.c.hed her hand away to point. "Fitz, look!"
Across the stadium, beyond the far end of the stage, there was a large white door. It was warped, full of misshapen bulges. Like something the other side had left deep dents in it. Another one appeared even as Fitz watched.
" Ladies and gentlemen! Ladies and gentlemen! " The voice boomed from the heavens like a garrulous G.o.d addressing the mult.i.tudes. " The voice boomed from the heavens like a garrulous G.o.d addressing the mult.i.tudes.
Fitz turned back to Trix. "The door wasn"t like that earlier."
" Live. . . from the Medicean Stadium. . . Live. . . from the Medicean Stadium. . . " "
"Something"s trying to get out," Trix shouted. "Something big, and "
" Sponsored by Falsh Industries, Anghelic Systems, Chasric Interfaces. . . Sponsored by Falsh Industries, Anghelic Systems, Chasric Interfaces. . . " "
"Oh b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l." Fitz looked at her. "Those animals!"
" A night of marvels that no one shall ever forget. . . A night of marvels that no one shall ever forget. . . " "
"Huh?"
"A load of tame zoo animals that Tinya had brought in "
" Now meet the man who"s coming to restore the wonder. . . Now meet the man who"s coming to restore the wonder. . . " "
"I can"t hear you!" Trix bellowed.
"She brought a load of animals in for a photo shoot "
" Aristotle Halcyon! Aristotle Halcyon! " "
The lights went out. The crowd went insane. More sparkling smoke gushed from the void at the top of the staircase.
A huge, ringing clang of metal still carried. The floor began to shake. Frantic shrieks took up with the cheers and hollers.
167.
A pillar of white light snapped on. The spindle-thin figure of Halcyon stood dramatically at its centre, his arms held out in triumphant greeting. Two dancing girls appeared dramatically beside him in plumes of virtual flame, spewed up from the darkness below.
In the crimson flicker, Fitz"s jaw sc.r.a.ped the floor as he saw the animals stampede from their makeshift enclosure.
Bull elephants crushed a path through helpless security guards into the screaming audience. Monkeys and apes waded artfully into the crowd, seizing limbs and hair and children. Tigers and panthers and cougars and leopards, already scratched and bloodied, powered ferociously into the crowd. Trampling. Tearing.
Feeding.
168.
Chapter Twenty-one.
Trix had preferred the pitch blackness. A wave of horrible chaos was rippling slowly through the blood-red arena, as people twigged that something bad was happening and made to make tracks regardless of those in their way. So while the frenzied animals themselves were largely confined to the front rows, panic was proving a more effective killer further back in the cheap seats. It was like watching endless dominoes go toppling, the effect spreading further and further back into the shadows.
Halcyon held his pose, a fey triumph amid his tame flamestorm, seemingly oblivious to everything.
Falsh squirmed beneath her feet. "What the h.e.l.l is going on?"
"Shut up!" Trix grabbed Fitz by the shoulder. "Please, tell me this is just part of the show."
"Naturally, this is just a part part of our show," said Tinya, smiling in turn at each of the three silhouettes before her. "An overture." of our show," said Tinya, smiling in turn at each of the three silhouettes before her. "An overture."
"Preliminary evidence," Klimt added. He was gesturing to the bank of bubblescreens which fair covered one side of the shed. Many were blank for now. Some showed the carnage in the arena Klimt had tapped into Falsh"s camdroid feeds for uninterrupted viewing pleasure. Other screens showed whole herds of chiggocks slamming themselves against kitchen walls from earlier news bulletins. She listened to the stream of infosignals in her ear-filter, poised to turn on more screens as news came in.
The second of the bidders shuffled forwards on its rectangular base. High ridges at the shoulder flanked its barrel-like torso, and its head was a huge crystalline bud. "We will not comment until the demonstration is complete," it boomed.
"We have been promised a weapon with widespread destructive capacity,"
fussed the third bidder, a tall humanoid creature festooned with dangling fronds. "This display is petty and meaningless. When will we witness the ma.s.s destruction of these humans?"
"Patience," said Klimt. "The ultimate weapon is not simply one of spectacular force."
"It is," countered Bidder One, raising its starfish hand.
"It is not," Klimt insisted.
169.
"It is is."
"Anyone can fuse some atoms to make them go bang," Klimt snapped. "The weapon I offer you is a strategic one."
"What do humans know of strategy?" the squat creature said crossly.
Klimt glared at Tinya. His voice was low and strained. " You You speak to these imbeciles. It"s why you"re here." speak to these imbeciles. It"s why you"re here."
Tinya stepped forwards, a.s.sured, in control. "We do not imply that we are greater versed in the ways of war than any of you. We only state with confidence that this weapon will ultimately annihilate any race you turn it upon."
"Complete dispersal?" came Bidder Two"s mournful boom.
"If you like."
"Well, for how long do you expect us to wait around watching your tedious vidcasts?" complained Bidder Three.
Tinya smiled at the shadow. "You were were briefed that the full demonstration would be of several days" duration. But we a.s.sure you, you will soon become convinced." briefed that the full demonstration would be of several days" duration. But we a.s.sure you, you will soon become convinced."
On the screens behind Tinya, dismissed and ignored, the carnage in the arena raged on unchecked.
"What in h.e.l.l"s name. . . ?" The crazed animals were treading the pulped remains of the first dozen rows like squished grapes. Sook felt bile rising to sting the back of her throat.
"Hold on Halcyon and the light show," Boko snapped.
The computer chimed. "Transmission shutdown."
"They"ve taken us off air," Sook croaked. "We"ve got to clear the stadium.
Voice, tell them! Tell them to clear the area in an orderly. . . "
But The Voice was too busy vomiting into his lap.
"Look at Halcyon!" Boko breathed. "What a pro. Totally unfazed!"
Halcyon"s dancers had fled, but it looked like he was basking in the din of it all.
"Let me speak to him." Sook took a slug of The Voice"s mint.w.a.ter and squeezed over to Boko"s console. "Halcyon? It"s Sook. You"ve got to speak to them. Appeal for calm. Tell them they mustn"t. . . "
She saw he was trying to keep the confusion from showing on his face. He must know he was in close-up.
"It"s no good, we"ve lost the earlink," Sook told Boko. She shoved the retching Voice aside and took his place at the microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen, there is no cause for panic." Her voice came back at her in great booming echoes, and she muted the mike as The Voice heaved noisily behind her.
"Please proceed to the exits in an orderly manner. You are not in danger!"
170.
She saw birds, big, bloodied birds throwing themselves at the control-suite windows, eyes alight, talons and beaks striping the gla.s.s.
"I repeat," she said, "you are not in danger."
"Nice thought, Sook," Fitz muttered. Her voice was galing out around the arena, but the whole place was one mad, b.l.o.o.d.y scrum. Security must have been heaviest down the stage end and those poor sods were probably among the first casualties.
The animals were still thundering about the arena, which seemed as thick with crushed bodies as a forest floor with leaves in autumn. Birds of prey were describing wild circles high above them, soaring and swooping down one after another into the huddling ma.s.s of prey, causing fresh pain and panic.
"What"s got into them?" yelled Trix.
"I don"t know, they were tame as you like this morning. Tinya thought they could be brought on to fill time on the show. . . "
"Making the most of their fifteen minutes of fame, aren"t they?"
They looked away as an agitated gazelle pinned a man to the floor with its horns.
"We"ve got to do something!" Fitz cried. "Falsh? Trix, maybe you could let him up now."
Trix stepped off him silently, but kept him covered with the gun.
Fitz helped him up. "This is your stadium, right?" he said hopefully. "There must be alarms we can set off, hordes of security waiting in the wings to stop those animals?"
"I don"t know," said Falsh shakily; turning his back on the mayhem in the arena. "My company funded this place, I didn"t build it myself."
"T"riffic." Fitz wiped cold sweat from his brow. "Well, someone must be coming to the rescue, surely? The police, the army. . . "
"The Doctor?"
Fitz spun around. "You!"
"Yes, me!" The Doctor took Fitz"s hand, kissed it delicately, then shoved him aside. "Now, out of my way!"
Sook stopped her impromptu broadcast and stared out of the windows at the sea of screaming faces in the main arena. In the upper tiers, things weren"t so bad and evacuation was under way. But in the thick of it, for every blue blob of security there had to be five hundred terrified people swarming in a confused bottleneck before each exit.
"Halcyon"s frozen," said Boko, as the camdroids zoomed in on the slight figure at the top of his impressive stage staircase. "Get out of there man! Get out of there!"
171.
"Oh, Halcyon. . . " Sook saw him swaying around on the top step, looking lost and helpless in the glittering smoke. Boko had killed his mic, but she could see he was shouting for Shanty and Provencale, his leggy escorts.