over his slim shoulder.Cruizell moved slightly, and
Maust flinched.I saw him bite his lip. 'Wrobik,'
Kaddus said again. 'Were you going to leave so
soon?I thought we had a date, yes?'
'Yes,' I said quietly, looking at Maust's eyes. 'Silly
of me.I'll stick around for a couple of days.Maust, I
-' The screen went grey.
I turned round slowly in the booth and looked at
my bag, where the gun was.I picked the bag up.I
hadn't realized how heavy it was.
I stood in the park, surrounded by dripping trees
and worn rocks.Paths carved into the tired top-soil
led in various directions.The earth smelled warm
and damp.I looked down from the top of the gently
sloped escarpment to where pleasure boats sailed
in the dusk, lights reflecting on the still waters of
the boating lake.The duskward quarter of the city
was a hazy platform of light in the distance.I heard
birds calling from the trees around me.
The aircraft lights of the Lev rose like a rope of
flashing red beads into the blue evening sky; the
port at the Lev's summit shone, still uneclipsed, in
sunlight a hundred kilometres overhead.Lasers,
ordinary searchlights and chemical fireworks
began to make the sky bright above the Parliament
buildings and the Great Square of the Inner City; a
display to greet the returning, victorious Admiral,
and maybe the ambassador from the Culture, too.I
couldn't see the ship yet.
I sat down on a tree stump, drawing my coat about
me.The gun was in my hand; on, ready, ranged,
set.I had tried to be thorough and professional, as
though I knew what I was doing; I'd even left a
hired motorbike in some bushes on the far side of
the escarpment, down near the busy parkway.I
might actually get away with this.So I told myself,
anyway.I looked at the gun.
I considered using it to try and rescue Maust, or
maybe using it to kill myself; I'd even considered
taking it to the police (another, slower form of
suicide).I'd also considered calling Kaddus and
telling him I'd lost it, it wasn't working, I couldn't
kill a fellow Culture citizen anything.But in the
end; nothing.
If I wanted Maust back I had to do what I'd agreed
to do.
Something glinted in the skies above the city; a
pattern of falling, golden lights.The central light
was brighter and larger than the others.
I had thought I could feel no more, but there was a
sharp taste in my mouth, and my hands were
shaking.Perhaps I would go berserk, once the ship
was down, and attack the Lev too; bring the whole
thing smashing down (or would part of it go
spinning off into space?Maybe I ought to do it just
to see).I could bombard half the city from here
(hell, don't forget the curve shots; I could bombard
the whole damn city from here); I could bring
down the escort vessels and attacking planes and
police cruisers; I could give the Vreccile the
biggest shock they've ever had, before they got me
The ships were over the city.Out of the sunlight,
their laser-proof mirror hulls were duller
now.They were still falling; maybe five kilometres
up.I checked the gun again.
Maybe it wouldn't work, I thought.
Lasers shone in the dust and grime above the city,
producing tight spots on high and wispy
clouds.Searchlight beams faded and spread in the
same haze, while fireworks burst and slowly fell,
twinkling and sparkling.The sleek ships dropped
majestically to meet the welcoming lights.I looked
about the tree-lined ridge; alone.A warm breeze
brought the grumbling sound of the parkway traffic
to me.
I raised the gun and sighted.The formation of ships
appeared on the holo display, the scene noon-
bright.I adjusted the magnification, fingered a
command stud; the gun locked onto the flagship,
became rock-steady in my hand.A flashing white
point in the display marked the centre of the vessel.
I looked round again, my heart hammering, my
hand held by the field-anchored gun.Still nobody
came to stop me.My eyes stung.The ships hung a
few hundred metres above the state buildings of the
Inner City.The outer vessels remained there; the
centre craft, the flagship, stately and massive, a
mirror held up to the glittering city, descended
towards the Great Square.The gun dipped in my
hand, tracking it.
Maybe the Culture ambassador wasn't aboard the
damn ship anyway.This whole thing might be a
Special Circumstances set-up; perhaps the Culture
was ready to interfere now and it amused the
planning Minds to have me, a heretic, push things
over the edge.The Culture ambassador might have
been a ruse, just in case I started to suspect I didn't
know.I didn't know anything.I was floating on a sea
of possibilities, but parched of choices.
I squeezed the trigger.
The gun leapt backwards, light flared all around
me.A blinding line of brilliance flicked, seemingly