Engineman - Eric Brown [105]
"Gentlemen, I assure you that these deaths are in no way linked with the project. First, no one but myself, yourselves and Caspar Fekete knew anything about my offer. I told no one, and I presume that you didn't either-"
"We could have been observed at the Gastrodome the other night," Mirren pointed out.
"I made quite certain that no such thing could have occurred. We were not observed or overheard. I had men ensuring that our discussion was conducted in absolute privacy."
"But can you trust all of them?" Dan asked.
"Implicitly," Hunter said in a tone that brooked no argument. "And there is another reason why these deaths and my work are unconnected. Christiana Olafson was killed two days ago, the day before I approached you. No-one but myself knew my motives in contacting you and your team."
Mirren considered. "Olafson died in a flier accident," he said. "But what if it was just that, an accident? Whoever it is that wants us dead would then be spared the trouble of killing her, so they started on Elliott and Caspar."
Hunter was vigorously shaking his head. "I've had my people investigate that so-called accident. It was no accident. Olafson's flier was sabotaged. She was murdered a day before I approached you at Orly."
Mirren laughed without humour. "Then why has each member of my team been attacked, in three cases killed? Who the hell's doing this?"
Hunter gestured. "I wish I knew... I can only assure you that I have my best people working on it. I assure you also that the killings end here. In less than two hours you will no longer be on Earth." He consulted his wrist-watch. "The Sublime is about to undergo a test phase-out. Perhaps you would like to observe?"
They left the lounge, made their way through the chapel and into the main body of the cathedral. They halted beside a bank of computers. As they watched, a group of technicians walked up the ramp and entered the smallship. Behind the delta screen above the nose-cone, Mirren made out the figure of the pilot in the command web. The ramp lifted and became a seamless section of the 'ship's flank. A silence settled over the gathered scientists.
Mirren then experienced something deeply poignant and moving as, for the first time in ten years, he witnessed the miracle of phase-out. The smallship, a solid form just seconds before, gradually lost its definition, and faded. The carved knights and saints of the stonework could be seen through its outline; then it pulsed back again, only for it to diminish just as rapidly. For perhaps thirty seconds it shuttled back and forth between this reality and the nada-continuum, flickering like the image on a spinning coin. Throughout this process of displacement, the air was alternately sucked in and blown out of the space occupied, and then vacated by the 'ship, creating an eerie whistling sound effect in the cathedral's stonework. Mirren gasped for breath one second, and the next was battered by a raging gale.
Then the Sublime vanished with a disconcerting finality which left the eye searching for the 'ship in the middle distance and the senses wondering if it had ever existed. At this moment, The Sublime, the Infinite existed apart from the space-time continuum, its actuality translocated to the null-space of the nada-continuum. Mirren imagined it hanging becalmed, awaiting the mind-power of an Engineman to push it at ultra-light speed through infinite space.
Mirren looked at Dan and smiled, speechless in the aftermath of such wonder.
Minutes later, the 'ship made its re-entry into space-norm. The process of phase-in was identical to that of phase-out; the Sublime showed itself briefly, disappeared, appeared again and then flickered in and out of visibility until establishing its solidity in the nave of the cathedral.
Hunter was smiling to himself. He turned to Mirren and Dan. "Perhaps you would care to board the 'ship, gentlemen? I'll show you around and you can freshen up before phase-out."
The usual complement of Alpha Enginemen aboard a smallship was five, to allow for injuries, illness or just poor performance.