Marooned in Realtime

Parker nodded. 'I —' The picture smeared into an abstract pattern of colors. A screeching noise rose past audibility.

'Signal jammed,' said Lu.

'Della? Can you get through to the Peacers?'

Lu shrugged. 'It doesn't matter. Why do you think Parker called just then? She thinks she finally broke out of NM security. In fact, the enemy has taken over their system. Letting her through is part of a distraction.'

'Distraction?'

'One we can't ignore; he's going to start 'em killing each other. I see ballistic traffic going both ways across the Inland Sea.... Someone's blocking my wideband link to Yelen.'

A section of window suddenly showed Yelen's office. Korolev was standing. 'Both sides are shooting. I've lost several autons. Both sides have high-tech backing, Della.' Disbelief was mixed with rage and fear. Tears glinted on her face. 'You'll have to do without my help for now; I'm going to divert my forces. I can't let my peo- I can't let these people die.'

'It's okay, Yelen. But get the others to help you. You can't trust your system alone.'

Korolev sat down shakily. 'Right. They've agreed to bring their forces up. I'm starting my diversion now. There was a moment of silence. Yelen stared blankly, swapped out. The silence stretched... and Yelen's eyes slowly widened. In horror. 'Oh, my God, no!' Her image vanished, and he was looking into empty sky.

Wil flinched, the motion floating him against his restraint harness. 'More jamming?'

'No. She just stopped transmitting.' There was a faint smile on Della's face. 'I guessed this might happen. To shift her forces, she had to run control routines that the enemy could not start — but which he had perverted. He's finally shown himself in a big way: Yelen's forces are coming out for us. What she has in far space is moving to block our exit.

'Another minute and we'll know who we've been fighting all this time. Yelen can't take me alone. The killer is going to have to stand up with his own equipment....' Her smile broadened. 'You're going to see some real shooting, Wil.'

'I can hardly wait.' He tucked his data set in the side of his acc chair.

'Oh, don't expect too much; with the naked eye, this won't be very spectacular.' And she was humming!

Please God that this insanity does not affect her performance.

The horizon jerked once again. There was no acceleration, no sound. It was like botched special effects from an old-time movie. But now they were better than a thousand kilometers up, the Inland Sea a cloud-dotted puddle. And the Earth was visibly falling away from them; they were moving at dozens of klicks per second.

Surely — even without Yelen-the others could protect the low-techs from a few ballistic missiles? Malicious fate gave him quick answer: Three bright sparks glowed on the southern coast, a third of the way from West End to the Eastern Straits. Wil groaned.

'Those were high air bursts, at Town Korolev,' said Della.

If the Dasguptas spread your warning, there may not be too many casualties.' There was puzzlement in her voice.

'But where are Chanson and Genet and Blumenthal? Surely —'

'Surely they could prevent this?' Della finished the question. She swapped out a moment. Then: 'Oh... wow!' Her words were almost a sigh, fiIled with endless wonder and surprise. She was silent a moment more. Then her eyes focused on Wil. 'All this time, we were expecting to flush the killer into the open. Right? Well... we have a little problem. All the high-tech forces have turned on us.'

Like a gruesome short story Wil once read: Detective locks self in room with suspects. Detective applies definitive test to suspects. All suspects guilty.... Unmarked grave for detective. Happy ending for suspects.

'We are now outgunned, Wil. This is going to be very interesting.' The smile was almost gone from her face, replaced by a look of intense concentration. Sudden light and shadow flickered across the cabin. Wil looked up, saw a pattern of point lights glowing, fading in the blackness. 'They have a lot of stuff at the Lagrange zones. They're bringing it down on us-while their ground-based stuff comes up. No way we can get to my quarters just now.'

And they were back at low altitude, the horizon spread flat around them, the Indonesian Alps drifting by below. His restraint harness stiffened and the flier surged forward at multiple g's, then slammed to the side. Wil's consciousness faded into red dimness. Somewhere he heard Della say, '... lose realtime every time I nuke out. Can't afford it now.' They were in free fall for almost a second, then more crushing acceleration, then free fall again. Brightness flashed all around them, lighting sea and clouds with extra suns. More acceleration. Things don't get this exciting when they're going right.

The horizon jerked, and acceleration reversed. Jerk, jerk. Now each translation of the outside world was accompanied by changed acceleration, the agrav being used in concert with the nukes. Della's words came in broken gasps. 'Bastards.' Around them the horizon rose, kilometers per second. Acceleration was heavy, spacewards. 'They're past my defenders.' Jerk. They were lower, hurtling parallel to the vast wall that was the Earth. 'They're zeroed on me.' Jerk. 'Seven direct hits in —' jerk. jerk.

Jerk. Free fall again. This last had taken them high over the Pacific. All was blue and