Engineman - Eric Brown [168]
From this far out the satellite is an oblate spheroid, a yuletide bauble set against the Pleiades. The lower hemisphere is in darkness - the maintenance section that keeps the whole show ticking. Above, the working end of the Sat is a fuzzy golden blur. Closer proximity provides resolution: I see avenues and arcades, rides and sideshows. One big fun city down there.
Massingberd's saying: "... carved up two hundred Japanese and American tourists before the emergency shuttles could get the rest out. There's around a dozen workers still in there, plus the killer."
"You sure he didn't sneak out on a shuttle?"
"I had a 'head screening every ship that left, Is." He looks up at me solicitously. "Hey, you be careful, okay?"
The sentimental old bastard. "I'll be fine, Mass."
"I'm putting you through to the Director who's still in there-"
But he's cut off by a screenful of static. I shake my hand impatiently and the screen clears. Now another mugshot regards me - the big cartoon head, all ribbons and grin, of Minnie Mouse.
"I'm fouled up with an entertainment channel, Mass!" I yell. I'm approaching the Satellite fast and I need the Director's talk-down. I can't hit destination cold. I'd be easy meat for the laser-slayer.
"Massingberd!" I cry again.
"Manchester?" Minnie Mouse asks.
"Huh?" I goggle.
"Are you reading, Manchester?" Minnie's fatuous grin belies the impatient tone.
"Reading," I say. "Who the hell...?"
"Director Maria Da Cruz," Minnie says, a girl's voice muffled by latex.
"Why the fancy dress, Director?"
"You'll find out when you get here. Frankly, your surprise cannot equal mine. I was expecting a combat squad, at least. We have a maniac rampant up here, and they send me a..." She subvocalizes the rest, not for my ears, but I make out what might be, "... a witch-doctor."
I smile. "What's the score, Minnie?"
"I'll meet you at rim-lock twelve. The killer's somewhere on the far side of the complex. Could be anywhere within an area of twenty square kilometres. My workers are in the central plaza, in the dorms. They fled there when the shooting began." As Minnie prattles I have the weird sensation of watching a kids' video crossed with the soundtrack of a cop show. "They're pinned down and can't get out."
"Have they tried?"
"You're joking, of course. The fire came from the far rim, and the dorms open onto the central concourse. It'd be an automatic death sentence for the first person who shows their face. You've got to get these people out."
"My job is to get the killer," I tell her. "Then they're safe."
"In that case I hope you're well armed," Minnie says condescendingly.
I have the last laugh. "As a matter of fact I don't believe in the things."
The Minnie head deprives me the satisfaction of seeing her face drop. She grins idiotically until I cut the link.
The shutt makes one hi-altitude orbit of the satellite and glides towards the docking rig in the underbelly, blindside of the killer. We contact with the delicacy of balloons kissing.
Seconds later I float out, cycle myself through the airlock and peer cautiously into the long, curving corridor. I scan for the killer's manic brainvibes, but the coast is clear. I move inside.
Minnie stands arms akimbo, awaiting me.
Maria Da Cruz is tense and afraid, of course, but beneath this I access her identity. She's an intelligent, lonely kid, twenty-one in a week, and in any other circumstances I'd like to get to know her better.
As it is-
"So here you are at last!" She kicks something towards me, a black rubber puddle sprouting ears.
"What the hell?"
"Get into it. Don't argue." She looks me up and down, appraising. "You're tall, but you'll fit at a stretch."
I pick it up. A Mickey suit. I step into the booties and pull up the clinging rubber leggings over those of my onepiece. "Now, if you don't mind telling me what all this is about?" I could take time off scanning for the killer and read her, but I'm jumpy at the thought of being fried alive.
"This allows us greater freedom," Da Cruz says. "The killer isn't potting cartoon characters