The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [203]
It was true – all the channels and networks were once more open to her.
‘Right, I’m going to find a way through to Konstantin and change the missile targets.’
With headset settled about her crown, she activated the menu and eye-touched through to Target and Guidance then Immersive Interface.
For a brief moment minor distortions rippled through her visual field. Blurring was accompanied by a passing dizziness and when she looked up she was standing in a walled courtyard before a two-storey brick building. Like the sky, the bricks were a cold, grainy blue. She was facing a heavy door in an otherwise solid unbroken wall – the only windows were on the upper floor and were small and quartered. A face appeared at one of them, the face of Konstantin, who smiled, waved and moved out of sight.
There were several bushes planted along the front, low with dark bluish-green leaves. Julia tried the door but it was secure and wouldn’t budge – the lock was a lever-tumbler type and seemed to be the only way of opening the door, which was impervious to her blows and kicks. Julia felt a certain irritation, aware that the seconds were ticking by. She then decided to move back a few yards, to see if she could get Konstantin’s attention, but as she did so her trouser leg brushed against one of the bushes, causing a faint clinking sound. Frowning, she crouched down and saw that several identical steel-blue keys were hanging from the bush. Other bushes she discovered sported different key types, and she swiftly amassed a good selection before returning to the door.
Through trial and error she found the right key and the unlocked door slid rather than swung open, revealing a second door. She then found that she only had about ten seconds to unlock the second door before the first one slid shut and locked itself. And behind the second door was a third, which demanded more trial and error and reopening of the first two doors till at last she stepped through to the foot of a staircase. A door opened at the top as she climbed to the final steps and Konstantin was there, looking tired, grey-haired and dressed in a grubby lab coat.
‘Good to see you again, Julia,’ he said, offering a weary smile. ‘Welcome to Talavera’s puzzle-house. She’s been keeping me here for … well, I’m not sure how long … ’
‘Konstantin,’ she said, ‘we have to stop those missiles – Talavera has targeted them on five hundred suns to create five hundred supernovae … ’
‘Yes, I know,’ Konstantin said. ‘Has the Godhead arrived yet?’
Julia was surprised. ‘How did you know?’
‘It is surprising how much these narcissistic sociopath types will reveal if you can convince them that you are practically an extension of their will.’ He gave a dry laugh. ‘Talavera told me about the ecology of greatness, and later, piece by piece, the Godhead’s plan for its elevation to a higher continuum, a plane of superior existence, complete with hot and cold running enlightenment. All it required was five hundred supernovae and an unimaginable slaughter.’ His lip curled in disgust. ‘So bit by bit I built my own subversion system which would allow me to retarget all five hundred missiles with just a few commands.
‘Unfortunately, I underestimated that paranoia of hers – it’s so reflexive, so ingrained that it’s more than just an ego state. I must have said or done something to touch it off which led to my captivity here, and the isolation of all my control interfaces.’
He beckoned her over to the small quartered window, which no longer looked down into the enclosed courtyard. Instead, about ten yards away there was a long wall of big stone blocks topped with broken glass and rows of spikes. But the window was high enough to reveal that this was just one side of an immense maze. There was an entrance, a gap in the wall a fair distance off to the left. Konstantin pointed towards the centre of the maze.
‘That’s where my control interfaces are,’ he said. ‘So Talavera locked me up in here. But now