Ark Angel - Anthony Horowitz [100]
Alex tensed himself, preparing to make the next leap. He reached out with the palms of his hands. And froze.
A man had appeared in front of him, dressed in an identical suit to his own. The man was wearing a skullcap but, seeing Alex, he tore it off, revealing a mirror image of the world three hundred miles below.
Kaspar. Of course.
Alex had forgotten about him. So had everyone else. But Professor Sing must have known that Kaspar had been on board Gabriel 7 – that was the one piece of information he had been keeping to himself. Why? Had he been so scared of Kaspar that he couldn’t bring himself to reveal the whole truth?
It looked as if Alex would never know. Kaspar had seen him. He was only twenty metres away, at the other end of the corridor. He hadn’t spoken a word but now – expertly, as if he had been trained – he pushed forward, floating through the air towards him. He was confident, in perfect control.
And he was holding a knife.
RE-ENTRY
It was something straight out of a nightmare. It was every nightmare rolled into one. The hideously tattooed face, the knife, Ark Angel, outer space… Alex could only watch helplessly as Kaspar headed towards him, flying, arms outstretched, legs trailing behind.
What was he doing in the space station?
And suddenly Alex understood.
The second rocket, the orang-utan, Drevin’s so-called experiment in weightlessness – they had all been part of the plan. There was no experiment. There never had been.
Kaspar had gone up in Gabriel 7. And Alex knew why. His own experience of the launch should have made him see that it would have been completely insane to try sending an armed bomb into space. The terrible vibrations would have set it off before it had even left the atmosphere. Only when it was in space could it be armed, and that had meant sending someone up with it. Kaspar. But now he needed to get back again. That was the point of the second rocket. Professor Sing must have known all along. The Soyuz had been sent up to collect him. And Kaspar would surely have left instructions behind. If anything went wrong, if the rocket didn’t arrive, the professor would have been killed. No wonder he had looked so nervous! In the end, he had made a choice. Send the rocket and let the two of them fight it out.
That was something else Alex understood. There were now two of them in the space station. But there was only one seat home.
Kaspar passed through the first node, where he was bathed momentarily in soft, pink light before he emerged into the glare of the next module. He seemed to be adept at manipulating himself in zero gravity. He had aimed carefully and pushed off lightly. One hand touched a wall to correct himself; the other still clasped the knife. He was taking his time – but then he knew Alex had nowhere to hide. Just seconds remained before they would come face to face in a module barely large enough for them both.
Alex searched around him for a weapon, anything he could use to defend himself. But everything was packed down too neatly. The cupboards and lockers were closed. He was still feeling sick and disorientated and every movement he made threatened to propel him in the wrong direction. If he lost control and went into another spin he would be finished. Kaspar would cut him to pieces.
Kaspar passed through the next node. In a few moments he would arrive in the same module as Alex. The sleeping area. This was the place Professor Sing and Ed Shulsky had shown him on