Page 9 (1/2)
Beyond the Gate
Major Chingiz Khuv of the KGB faced his underling, Karl Vyotsky, across a distance of no h a fine white milky film so thin it was almost invisible - yet they orlds apart Khuv could take two or three paces forward, reach out and shake Vyotsky by the hand He could do it, but dared not For in his present condition VyotskyVyotsky out of there, Vyotsky was certainly capable of dragging him in They could still converse, however, albeit laboriously
’Karl,’ Khuv called out ’There’s no way you can get back right now, and you can’t just go on kneeling there like a lost waif Or you can, but it won’t do you any good Oh, we can feed you - of course we can - si about that It was soht out, that’s all But he was right when he said you’ll die You will eventually, Karl! How long that will be depends on how long you’ve got before Encounter Six Do you followthrough the gate was a frustrating business, but eventually Vyotsky nodded and got to his feet Just doing that took hiure of the British agent indling into the distance, oh-so-slowly vanishing frorotesquely, and his words ca Khuv est?’
’Siive you all we can of equipment and concentrated food Then at least you’ll have the same chance he has’
Eventually the answer came back: ’No chance, is that what you mean?’
’A slim chance,’ Khuv insisted ’You won’t know unless you try it’ He called forward an NCO from the squad of soldiers at his rear, issued sharp, rapid orders The man went off at a run ’Now Karl, listen,’ Khuv continued ’Is there anything you can think of that ht be useful to you - other than what Siain Vyotsky’s slow nod, and at last, ’A motorcycle’
Khuv’s jaw fell open They had no idea what the terrain would be like He said so, and:
’So if I can’t ride it, then I’ll ditch the bloody thing!’ Vyotsky answered ’For God’s sake, is it too much? If I could fly a helicopter I’d ask for that instead!’
Khuv issuedtiradually drawing away like an ant across the face of a sand dune
The equipan to arrive, and a trolley to carry it The trolley was loaded and pushed into the sphere, and Vyotsky co as fast as he could, but to Khuv and the other observers it was like watching the progress of a snail The paradox was this: that it was just as bad for Vyotsky He felt that he was the oneat speed, and they were the flies stuck in treacle! While to the from his brow took seconds to strike the invisible floor where he stood
At last his ood working order, with about two hundred and fifty miles of fuel in her belly The bike was put on its stand on a second trolley and wheeled through On the other side, Vyotsky began the incredibly slow process of ine into life But whateverwith time in there, the rest of the physical spectrureat hammers on oak, where the beat of each piston was a distinct, individual sound, and Vyotsky lifted his feet off the ground And slowly, oh-so-slowly - but still a great deal faster than Simmons -so Vyotsky and his machine dwindled into the white distance and finally disappeared from vieo eone, Khuv continued to watch the sphere until his eyes began to hurt Then he turned and crossed the ay to the Saturn’s-rings platforh theat thefor him Khuv came to a halt, said:
’Direktor Luchov, I notice you distanced yourself from this experiment Indeed you were conspicuous by your absence!’ His tone was neutral, or if anything even a little defensive
’As I shall continue to absent myself from such acts!’ Luchov answered ’You are the KGB here, Major, and I am a scientist You call it an experiment, and I call it an execution Two executions, it would seeht it would be over by now else I’d not have been here, but unfortunately I was in time to see that lout Vyotsky take his departure A brutal man, yes, and yet now I pity him And hoill you explain this to your superiors in Moscow, eh?’
Khuv’s nostrils flared a little and he grew slightly paler, but his voice re procedures are ht: you are a scientist and I am KGB But you will note that when I say "scientist" I do not -swill I would advise caution how you emphasize your use of the term KGB Does the fact that I am able to perform certain thankless tasks better than you ht the very opposite And can you truthfully tell me that as a scientist you are not fascinated by the opportunity we have here?’
’You perform these "tasks" better than me because I would not perform them!’ Luchov almost shouted ’My God, II-!’
’Direktor?’ Khuv raised an eyebrow; the line of his ly now
’Some people never learn!’ Luchov stor? Don’t you knoe’re still bringing people to justice for - ’ He saw the look on Khuv’s face and stopped
’You compare me with Nazi war criminals?’ Khuv was now deathly white
’That er at the sphere, ’was one of our own!’
’Yes, he was,’ Khuv snapped ’He was also psychotically brutal, devious, insubordinate and dangerous to the point of being a downright liability! But haven’t you wondered why I never reprimanded him? You think you know it all, don’t you, Direktor? Well, you don’t Do you knoho Vyotsky worked for before uard to Yuri Andropov himself - and we still don’t know exactly how he died! But it’s a fact they didn’t get on, and that Andropov intended to demote him Oh yes, you can believe it - Karl Vyotsky was implicated! Very well, and now I’ll tell you why he was sent here - ’
’II don’t think that’s necessary,’ Luchov grasped the landing’s handrail to steady himself All of the blood had drained from his face until he was as white as Khuv ’I think I already know’
Khuv lowered his voice ’I’ll tell you anyway,’ he whispered ’But for his ht, Karl Vyotsky was to have been our next "volunteer"! So don’t cry for hiazed aghast at Khuv where he turned away and clih the shaft ’And he didn’t know?’ he said
’Of course not,’ Khuv answered without looking back ’If you were in my shoes, would you have told hiy needlessly, and it wasn’t as if anyone or thing was going to sneak up on hith He didn’t kno far he had to go, anothera vast lake of salt, whom the sun had already blinded Yes, it was like that: as if hesun, but one which held no heat Only light He sweated, yes, but purely from his efforts and not from any external source of heat It was neither hot nor cold in this white tunnel between the worlds; the teht actually live here, except one couldn’t possibly live here No one could ever really live here; not in a place where he was the only reality and everything else was white!
Twice he’d taken a swig fro lost ht to himself: is this all there is, this eo anywhere?
But then, where had the bat and the wolf coo soazine off his SMG and throw it away, and fit a good one fro he wanted to happen was for a duff round to jam itself in the breach
It was then, just after he’d fitted the newelse about this weird Gate place Fastening the straps of his pack, he’d looked up -and discovered that he didn’t knohich direction hich He had a compass on his wrist, but it was a little late for that; he should have checked it i the sphere He’d looked at it anyway - and seen the hand circling aiain he’d looked all about hi in a full circle, or what he believed was a full circle But he couldn’t even be sure of that
It was all the sa as far as the eye could see in every direction Even a white floor and a white sky,but hiravity, for without the sensation that there was so solid underneath hione mad With itat least he knehich as up!
Then he’d looked back over his shoulder Had he really come from over there? Or from over there? Difficult to tell How did he knoas still heading in the right direction? What the hell was ’direction’ in this Godforsaken place?
But when he’d tried to ain there had been resistance, a wall of invisible foam that pushed hiainst it To the right it wasn’t so bad, but still difficult, and to the left likewise There was only one way to go, which ht way That hy he hadn’t noticed it before; because he’d auto the path of least resistance And after that there’d been , until now - ti ahead, and as he pulled at the bottle and let the water cool his er pure white That came as a shock, so that he almost choked on his water Nohat the hell? There in the distance s? A dark-blue sky and stars? It was like looking through a sea-fret; better, like looking down a tunnel at aOr at a scene faintly etched on a white silk screen But how far away?
Jazz plodded on, erly now - and at the sarowing brighter as the stars blinked out and were replaced by weak beah the ht of the picture’s frame And that hen Jazz heard the sound
At first he associated it with the e scene, but then he realized that it canized it for what it really was: a motorcycle! He turned and looked back
Karl Vyotsky rode with the sling of his SMG across his right shoulder, the gun itself hanging under his arm, muzzle forward As yet he couldn’t see the distant scene that Jazz had spotted, but he could see Jazz The big Russian gritted his teeth into a snarling grin, guided the bike with his left hand and his knees and took the handgrip of the gun in his right fist He laid his index finger along the trigger-guard, turned up the throttle and felt the bike surge forward ’British,’ he grunted to hioodbye!’
For a moment Jazz was stunned Ahi it! The problee? But as he’d walked, so Jazz had been giving the Gate’s weird physics a thought or two Now he believed he had the answer ’OK, Ivan,’ he murmured to himself, ’so let’s see if you’re as smart as you think you are’
Vyotsky rode closer, revved up until sixty showed on his clock and the bike throbbed under hi the SMG would not be easy It would be, literally, hit or miss But he did have the element of surprise, or if not surprise, shock at least Whatnow, he wondered, to see this powerfuldown on him?
He’s a little less than half a ot down on one knee, turned his body side-on so as to decrease his target silhouette, turned his gun in Vyotsky’s direction Not that he intended to shoot at hio, and Vyotsky’s face a mask of hatred where he thundered to the attack But suddenly his quarry had grown sone down on one knee And at the same time Vyotsky saw the scene on the other side of the Gate For a moment it threw hi, naan toof a sloobble; and at the sale shots in Jazz’s direction
One hundred and fifty yards, and Jazz held his fire He hadn’t even released the safety-catch, hadn’t cocked the weapon It seemed obvious that the crazy Russian intended to run hi his nerve and et out of the way But Jazz had some ideas of his own Finally he clicked off the safety-catch, cocked the weapon, re-sighted and waited For if he was correct it would be useless to fire anyway
Fifty yards, and Vyotsky firing on automatic, a stream of lead that buzzed and plucked at the air all about Jazz, too close for comfort And at the last possible moment he hurled himself to one side Vyotsky’s bike careened by hi turn; the bike stood on its nose and hurled him out of the saddle!
Thenin different directions, and Jazz walked carefully forward toward the on the other side of the Gate Miraculously, Vyotsky ca and found hiround’ here was obviously different He had bruises and one sleeve of his coh it, but that was all He clilishman maybe fifteen paces ahere he walked toward him ’Hello there, Ivan!’ Jazz called out ’I see you got here the easy way’
Vyotsky grabbed up his weapon, checked it was unda ene like that? Because of the accident? He’d found it a; but Simmons, hehiun in his arms, came forward at a casual stroll
’British, you’re dead!’ said Vyotsky He deliberately lowered his airoin and belly - and squeezed the trigger The weapon was on auto shots before Vyotsky’s finger was jerked froun sla backwards to sprawl on the floor Vyotsky felt as if his chest had caved in, as if his ribs were broken; possibly one or two of the his teeth and , ’Ah! Ahr from the pain, he looked at Jazz In the distance between the on the floor The SMG had ’fired’ them insofar as they’d escaped from its barrel, but only just And that had resulted in threein rapid succession, blohich even the huge Russian’s bulk hadn’t been fully able to absorb
Vyotsky un where it lay, but that was in Jazz’s direction, which was the wrong way He tried harder, and of course failed The SMG was all of fifteen inches beyond his straining fingertips - hardly a great distance - but it ht as well have been a mile, or not there at all Thedirection
Jazz reached the bike, hauled it upright, stood astride the front wheel and wrenched the handlebars back into position fronored Vyotsky’s groaning Then he wheeled the bike forward and picked up the Russian’s gun And at last he spoke:
’Sound and light are the only things that seem to work in both directions here,’ he said ’We can hear each other, talk to each other, and even though you’re ahead of et back to me Likewise your picture, for I can see you But while we’re standing like this, nothing solid can ever coh I’d be dead, except that isn’t the case So there’s no way you could have har These three rounds - ’ he kicked the three spent projectiles aside, ’ - they fired the gun! If you weren’t so burned-up with hate, you’d have worked it out for yourself’
It all sank in, and finally Vyotsky scowled and nodded