《Childhood's Doom》


 Chapter 1 – Golden Age No More?

    ¡°WHAT is going on? I don¡¯t understand. Am I missing some-thing? Is horny Old Scratch playing at something new?¡± muttered Rupert, more to himself than to Ruth. His attention had been abruptly caught by one or two words in the broadcast, of which, up till that moment, he had barely taken in a word.


    ¡° ¡®Horny¡¯? ¡®Scratch¡¯?¡± demanded Ruth, her attention momentarily distracted from listening to Karellen¡¯s momentous broadcast by Rupert¡¯s interruption. She paused the playback. Her brow was furrowed as she tried to make sense of what he had said. ¡°Are you referring to Karellen?¡± Strangely enough, the appearance of Karellen and his fellow Overlords had become so familiar¡ªso entrenched in the mind of the average human¡ªthat its most salient features passed almost unnoticed by most.


    But not by Rupert.


    ¡°Yes. Of course I meant those things on his head¡ªnot his sexual prowess (as if we inferior beings even knew whether the Overlords have a sex-life). And ¡®Old Scratch¡¯¡ªsurely you know who that is?¡±


    ¡°Ah: ¡®horny¡¯ as in ¡®horned¡¯, OK. A bit disrespectful. But ¡®Old Scratch¡¯?¡± Unlike Rupert, Ruth was not well versed in occult and demonological topics¡ªnor in the slang terminology that accom-panied such topics.


    ¡°Mr Scratch. The Devil. The Devil and Daniel Webster. Short story written in the 1930s¡ªalso a Hollywood movie made a few years after that.¡±


    ¡°Ancient history,¡± retorted Ruth. ¡°But I see what you¡¯re about, Rupert. Of course, you¡¯d know all that sort of stuff wouldn¡¯t you? However nasty and insulting when applied to Karellen. After all, he¡¯s been doing a power of good for us humans. But as usual, I don¡¯t suppose you care.¡±


    ¡°I do care. When he says what I think I just heard. Something about wiping out the whole of humanity. What¡¯s left of it¡­¡±


    Rupert¡¯s choice of the adjective ¡®horny¡¯ was pertinent enough, referring as it did to the twin horn-like appendages which Karellen, like all the other beings of his species, bore on his head. Those horns, a little over four centimetres long, along with the leathery wings and barbed tail, certainly did endow the Overlords with a remarkably diabolic appearance¡ªa fact which had aroused some consternation at the time of the first face-to-face contact between his species and humans. Some panic had occurred¡ªbut not overwhelmingly so. The Overlords had carefully prepared Homo sapiens for this event, and H. sapiens had taken it fairly well. And all this was just history now: the encounter had occurred nearly fifty years in the past and Earth¡¯s people had got used to these strange beings.


    Rupert, whose faith in the Overlords¡¯ supposed benevolence had become sadly diminished of late, had taken to showing disrespect in some manner for the human race¡¯s alien masters¡ªat least when not in the presence of one face-to-face! Nor in Ruth¡¯s hearing¡ªuntil now. He had become annoyed at the number of times an Overlord¡ªRashaverak usually¡ªhad spoken to one or another of Rupert¡¯s fellow humans¡ªRuth especially¡ªabout matters which passed over his head. The fact that Rupert behaved so often in a shallow, selfish, and na?ve manner when he was interacting with his fellow humans¡ªin marked contrast to the unselfish and tender devotion he bestowed on his beloved animals in the wildlife Reserve¡ªthis flaw in his personality had never registered with him.


    But now it was scarcely annoyance: he had caught one or two words from Karellen which caused him to be struck dumb¡ªif un-comprehending¡­


    He and Ruth had been watching¡ªno, listening: there was no video of Karellen, just soothing footage of waves splashing on a rocky shore¡ªlistening to the momentous and fateful final broadcast to the human race by Karellen, the supervisor and de facto leader of the long-term visiting Overlords. The broadcast which had blanketed every receiving device on the planet: every handheld, every phone, every wrist-computer, every pair of video-specs, every VR implant¡ªeven the few antique television sets that some old-fashioned people still cherished. Simultaneously broadcast in every language still spoken anywhere on Earth: it had been almost impossible not to listen to it.


    The broadcast in which Karellen had revealed his purpose in coming to Earth, and the human race¡¯s ultimate fate.


    This was the point at which Rupert had been shaken out of his in-attentive daydream. Those ominous words of Karellen¡¯s¡­


    ¡°Am I missing something important? Is he really thinking about destroying the entire human race?¡± wailed Rupert. ¡°After all the Overlords have done for us?¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯d only paid more attention,¡± replied Ruth, calmly, ¡°you¡¯d know that he doesn¡¯t want to do that. Listen, I¡¯ll replay that bit again,¡± and she rose from her favourite position, sitting on the carpet leaning back against Rupert¡¯s knees. She reached for the controls and fiddled for a moment. Karellen¡¯s voice started gabbling incomprehen-sible high-speed reversed English for a few seconds; then it resumed normal speech:


    ¡°¡­but it will be useless,¡± his deep resonant voice was declaring. ¡°Greater powers than mine are wakening now: I am only one of their instruments. And then¡ªwhat am I to do with you, the survivors, when your purpose has been fulfilled? It would be simplest, perhaps, and most merciful, to destroy you¡ªas you yourselves would destroy a mortally wounded pet you loved. But this I cannot do. Your future will be your own to choose in the years that are left to you. It is my hope that humanity will go to its rest in peace, knowing that it has not lived in vain¡­¡± [see note]


    ¡°So there we have it,¡± explained Ruth, patiently, once the broadcast had ended. ¡°It¡¯s our own choice how we want to die.¡±


    ¡°I know we¡¯ve all got to die sometime,¡± protested Rupert, rather unnecessarily. ¡°But the whole human race dying off? Phhhtt! Just like that? Impossible! It must be some mistake. How could Earth come to deserve this¡ªafter all that¡¯s been done to make Earth a better place?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t quite understand that bit,¡± replied Ruth. ¡°But it does seem so. I guess there will be no more children¡ªand no children means extinction. Perhaps those parents whose children have ¡®transformed¡¯ will be afraid to bear any more; perhaps they¡¯ll fear that any future children will go the same way.¡±


    ¡°Loopy, you mean.¡± Rupert had never really understood the cata-clysmic transformation¡ªthe ¡®Change¡¯ people were calling it¡ªthat had overcome every single child up to the age of ten on the planet. A Change which meant that they were all in the process of melding into a ¡®group mind¡¯, and were no longer capable of communicating by any means with ¡®normal¡¯ adults who still retained their individuality. Children who, their parents felt, were ¡®lost¡¯ to them¡­ Ruth had been doing her best to explain this circumstance to Rupert, but, notwith-standing his passionate interest in occultism, he had found it hard to take it in.


    ¡°Rupert, my dear, it¡¯s not that the Children are ¡®backward¡¯,¡± she protested (like many others, she had grown accustomed to speaking the word as if it began with a capital ¡®C¡¯). ¡°In fact,¡± she continued, ¡°the group mind¡ªKarellen calls it the ¡®Overmind¡¯¡ªwhich they are joining up with, is maybe billions of times more intelligent than any single human being. It¡¯s just that you and I cannot interact with that mind¡ªwith the Children¡ªin any way. We are forever sundered from them. We should count ourselves lucky that you and I have no child-ren ourselves¡ªif you persist in disowning Ruby¡¯s daughter¡ªso we have lost nothing compared to what other people have lost¡­¡±


    Rupert, somewhat cowed at Ruth¡¯s strong rebuke, checked himself and sat in silent thought.


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    Ruby had been his second wife¡ªbefore Maia¡ªbut the marriage had not lasted long. She was a charming and attractive, but somewhat disingenuous young woman: he had married her for her looks. But he had soon discovered that she was having an affair with an Australian dentist¡ªHugh Midgley by name. Then she had become pregnant¡ªand flatly refused to disclose who the father was. That was enough for Rupert: he had let her go with her lover to Australia, and assumed that the daughter Leanne must be Hugh¡¯s. How old would she be now?¡ª around fourteen he reckoned: perhaps too old to have been caught up in the Change. Good luck to them!


    Rupert Boyce¡ªwild animal reserve warden, conservationist, and super-vet par excellence, with ten thousand square kilometres of mixed tropical forest and savannah under his care¡ªwas more at home with animals than with some of his fellow-humans. He had, whether from ignorance or intent, chosen to dismiss as much as he could understand, of the news of the Change enveloping the Children. ¡®If it¡¯s really happening, it doesn¡¯t apply to me¡¯ was his maxim: ¡®I don¡¯t have any children¡ªI don¡¯t like children¡ªespecially those that break into the reserve and mess with my animals¡¯. This last had a grain of truth in it¡ªseveral times he had had to repair a breach of the boundary fence¡ªthe fence that was supposed to be both animal- and human-proof¡ªand the breaches had definitely looked like the work of two-legged, ten-fingered animals.


    And then of course there had been the boy from a nearby village who¡¯d broken in, approached a herd of female African Buffalo with calves, caused them to become alarmed, and was promptly gored to death. Serve him right, was Rupert¡¯s initial¡ªand very uncharitable¡ªreaction. But he¡¯d got into a lot of trouble over this¡ªand not just for that remark. There had been considerable pressure on him to close down the reserve altogether. In the end, much to his surprise, it was the Overlords who intervened: decreed that the reserve should remain open, albeit with a request to strengthen and electrify the boundary fence.


    Why the Overlords had taken sides with him on this dispute¡ªwhy they had saved his job for him, to put it bluntly¡ªRupert couldn¡¯t guess. But his esteem for the Overlords¡ªalready boosted by Rasha-verak¡¯s extended visit¡ªhad risen somewhat.


    Until now. Until Karellen¡¯s fateful broadcast.


    Rupert knew that Ruth was doing her best to soothe him, to reassure him, to ward off the panic-attack that he was likely to lapse into in his confusion. It was his reflection on how much of a comfort Ruth had been to him, over the past few years, that finally calmed him down.


    Ruth Shoenberger had come to live with him, acting partly as a sort of housekeeper to him, partly as a sort of nurse to him, not long after the death of her husband Benny, drowned in a boating accident off Barbados. She had felt isolated and lonely, and she knew that Rupert was feeling lonely too. She had insisted that they would live together ¡®as friends¡¯ only¡ªand after Rupert had once suggested that they might embark on a more intimate relationship, and been firmly rebuffed, he accepted the state of affairs. He had had too many women in his life, and it had never worked out. Perhaps he was getting too old at forty-five?


    The break with Maia, his third and last wife, had hit him especially hard. Although it had seemed to be going so well, the friction had really started only a few days after their marriage. That ghastly party! Well, the party itself had been fine: guests from all around the world had been mingling freely and amicably; the food had been good and the drink was flowing freely: both were much complimented on; even Rashaverak had put in an appearance, much to everyone¡¯s amazement. Only Rupert¡¯s friends George Greggson and fianc¨¦e Jean Morrel had seemed to be ill at ease. And then¡­!


    If only he had not brought out his absurd ¡®ouija¡¯-like contraption! thought Rupert. The Table entirely covered with a sea of ball-bearings, upon which the planchette could slide virtually without friction. He had invited the remaining guests (it had been late in the evening) to take part in the s¨¦ance¡ªonly Ruth had refused, he recalled. Along with Rashaverak¡ªbut then one could hardly expect an Overlord to join in humans¡¯ silly games¡­


    Rupert knew¡ªwell, almost knew¡ªin his heart that no supernatural ¡®spirits¡¯ would actually be summoned¡ªsince there was no such thing as a supernatural ¡®spirit¡¯. All the ¡®messages¡¯ arising from the s¨¦ance would be due to perfectly rational influences: the participants¡¯ sub-conscious minds exerting tiny influences on their hand movements. At least he had been convincing himself of that hypothesis, and hence that there was nothing wrong in the ¡®game¡¯¡ªuntil Jan had butted in.


    Jan Rodricks: Maia¡¯s brother and hence, for a short while, Rupert¡¯s brother-in-law. He had put the simple question ¡®Which star is the Overlords¡¯ sun?¡¯. At that point Rashaverak, his curiosity piqued, had moved closer to the Table, but he had not touched it nor any of the participants. And an answer had emerged¡ªalthough it seemed gibberish at the time.


    And then Jean had fainted¡ªand in the confusion Jan had stolen a page from Ruth¡¯s notebook: the notebook in which she¡¯d been recording all the ¡®answers¡¯.


    Maia had been upset at the outcome, and even more upset as she observed the change which it had appeared to have wrought on her brother. She had taken Rupert to task for engaging in that silly ¡®experiment¡¯ in the first place, and had refused to have anything more to do with his investigations into the paranormal.


    Rupert had tried to be contrite, but still insisted that it was ¡®just a game¡¯. If that final ¡®message¡¯ had had enough meaning to disturb Jan¡ªwell, they would just have to wait and see.


    It was only some months later that Rupert and Maia had learned the truth: that there was some meaning to the incomprehensible message. In his fateful letter to Maia, Jan had disclosed that the ¡®message¡¯ was in fact a catalogue reference to the Overlords¡¯ home star system. And worse¡ªhe had contrived to stow away on board one of the Over-lords¡¯ ships, in the hopes of reaching that system. Because the round trip would take at least eighty years, by Earth¡¯s reckoning, Maia would never see him again.


    And their mother! She had been devastated upon learning of Jan¡¯s escapade. Her health had broken down completely, and Maia had gone to live with her, to care for her in the few months left to her. After her mother¡¯s death, Maia had sent an e-mail to Rupert, saying she wasn¡¯t coming back. Their marriage was over.


    So: how had this ¡®message¡¯ on the Table originated?¡ªRupert had at first asked himself. It was evident that, without that circumstance, Jan would not have absconded on his crazy exploit. And Rupert recalled that he had unwittingly helped Jan on his way, by revealing to him what his friend Professor Sullivan, the marine biologist, was plan-ning. The delivery of an entire sperm whale carcass for the Overlords to ship to their home planet.


    The whale in which Jan had concealed himself.


    Yes¡ªRupert knew that he was in some measure to blame for Jan¡¯s escapade¡ªand for losing Maia.


    But how? Somehow Rashaverak must have influenced the Table remotely. That was the only logical explanation. No doubt the Overlords possessed controlling powers over inanimate objects that humans could not even dream of. But why would Rashaverak have seen fit to disclose the location of their home planet¡ªif it was the location of their home planet? The Overlords had always been very coy about revealing this sort of information.


    Well¡ªRashaverak might have had a reason. Who could fathom the mind of an Overlord? Rupert now wished he¡¯d never invited Rashaverak to spend so many months ensconced in his vast library¡ªcrammed with thousands upon thousands of books dealing with occultism and the paranormal. He¡¯d never really understood why Rashaverak had wanted to read all his books¡ªas it seemed he had.


    Until now. Rupert hadn¡¯t really taken in Karellen¡¯s speech, but Ruth was explaining the situation to him carefully. The Overlords were indeed engaged in an extended study. A study of humans¡¯ super-natural powers¡ªpowers that really existed after all. Rashaverak¡¯s ensconcing himself in the library was all part of it.


    Then, just a few days after Karellen¡¯s broadcast, came the bomb-shell. An e-mail from, of all people, Jean Morrel¡ªJean Greggson now! Rupert had barely been in touch with George and Jean for many years: ever since they¡¯d moved to that absurd island colony in fact. But he knew that they had two children: a boy about eight or nine years old, and a much younger girl. Both children, it seemed, had succumbed to the Change. They had been the first¡ªbut now it affected every child¡ªand the Children were being evacuated. But this was not the eye-opener which really took Jan by surprise.


    It appeared that Rashaverak had revealed to the couple that it had been Jean who had somehow conveyed to the Table that answer to Jan¡¯s question. Not Rashaverak himself. Was the Overlord lying? And what was more, the information had come via Jean¡¯s unborn son. A son not even conceived. On a somewhat inebriated occasion, long ago it seemed, George had confided to Rupert, in private, that the first time he and Jean had slept together was the night after the party. And Jean had been a virgin until then.


    Impossible, thought Rupert. Rashaverak must be spinning a yarn¡ªto cover his own indiscretion, maybe.


    But, whoever was to blame, Jan was gone. And Maia was gone. That was what mattered most to Rupert. At least he had Ruth.

 Chapter 2 – Cometh the Golden Age?

    One Hundred Years Earlier.


    PLANET EARTH was dying.


    The world was indeed in a parlous state. In the early 2040s, over twenty years of prevarication and compromise over Climate Change and plastic pollution had been argued about amongst the big players¡ªand, unsurprisingly, target after target had been missed. The wild dream, at the beginning of the 2020s, of limiting Global Warming to 1.5¡ãC, was just that: a dream¡ªa dream never to be fulfilled. Even the fallback option, 2.0¡ãC, soon became unattainable. Indeed, by the year 2043, the 2.0¡ãC threshold¡ªthe rise in average global temperature¡ªhad already been reached, and the consequences were being felt worldwide. Was it not enough to point to the catastrophic heatwaves of 2041 and 2042? In South East Asia¡ªIndonesia, Taiwan, and the Philippines especially¡ªan estimated 27 million people had perished from the extreme heat and humidity. At times a wet-bulb temperature in excess of 36¡ãC had been reached, which is not survivable even for a healthy adult after more than an hour¡¯s exposure. China, Russia, Korea, and even Japan, did not escape the worst effects either, losing an estimated 18 million of their combined population.


    In Europe and North America, the effects were less dramatic¡ªalthough parts of Europe had experienced heatwaves surpassing even that of 2003, with 131,000 deaths as compared with 75,000 in the earlier canicule. Meanwhile, a large part of Eastern North America was experiencing the opposite extreme: fortnight-long blizzards with 20-foot drifts and all communication lines cut¡ªthis alone claiming some 30,000 lives. The extreme cold snaps, unfortunately, had lent fuel to the Climate Change deniers¡¯ rhetoric: ¡°Bring on Global Warming¡ªwe could do with a bit of it right now¡± had been their frequently-uttered mantra.


    On top of all this, recent worldwide crop failures had been devastat-ing and had led to widespread famine. With the wheat harvest down some 60%, maize down 43%, and almost continual drought, most of sub-Saharan Africa was affected, with famine being recorded in just about every country. Rice appeared to be one of the few crops that had prospered in the heat¡ªbut the human race had discovered it could not live on rice alone. Even in Southern Europe people were starving, and Government after Government, unable to cope with the crisis, had collapsed.


    The ubiquitous microplastic particles permeating the world¡¯s oceans had poisoned much of the marine ecosystem. Many of those people who subsisted on fishing were likewise suffering famine. The increasing acidification of the waters was also having noticeable effect: molluscs and corals which depended on their calcium carbon-ate shells were on the decline¡ªas were the marine life that fed on them. All the way up the food chain species had been placed in the ¡®critically endangered¡¯ category.


    And then there was the rising sea level. Not as extreme as the scientists in their worst fears had forecast¡ªan average of fifteen centimetres since the year 2000, This was however enough to lead to greatly increased flood risks in many coastal areas. Almost all the sea-ice north of the Arctic Circle had gone¡ªputting marine mammals like the Polar Bear and the Walrus on the Critically Endangered list¡ªbut of course sea-ice melts do not in themselves lead to rising sea level. Some progress had been made in stemming the flow of polar glaciers by pumping out the melt-water beneath them¡ªbut it was only buying a few years. And the pumping itself had consumed yet more energy, which could ill be spared.


    This catalogue of calamities would surely have been sufficient to reduce human morale to a low not seen since Medi?val times¡ªbut it was not all. At least three devastating pandemics had shattered the human spirit as never before in history. In the early 2020s¡ªand again in the mid 2030s¡ªthe death tolls, at just over ten millions worldwide in each case, had been devastating but endurable. However, the far more deadly virus that afflicted Earth from 2043 onwards had claimed over 370 million lives in its first two years alone¡ªmore than the entire population of the United States. A pandemic of depression had been an inevitable side-effect, with suicide rates at an alarming high and birth-rates plummeting: few were keen to raise a child in these circumstances¡­


    The divide between rich and poor had inevitably widened beyond all compare. Democracies had foundered: terrorism and violent crime were soaring, most of the world¡¯s major cities were overwhelmed by slums and shanty towns, and for many folk it was not safe to venture outside their home¡ªif they had one.


    Pundits were predicting that the human race would not survive more than another generation before descending into barbarism¡­


    Was it pure coincidence that the Overlords¡ªor at any rate their robots¡ªhad arrived in the nick of time?


    All that humanity knew was that first contact¡ªof a kind¡ªhad happened: Earth¡¯s first encounter with an intelligent alien civilisation. What physical form those mysterious aliens took¡ªaliens quickly dubbed ¡®Overlords¡¯ although many people disliked that word¡ªremained a mystery: their main fleet of spaceships remained in orbit around Neptune¡¯s moon Triton, beyond the reach of any Earthly spacecraft. There had been clamour for a repeat launch of the Voyager probes which had successfully passed and sent back images of the outer planets¡ªbut this was now impossible, the space scientists explained: the giant planets which had been used as ¡®gravity slings¡¯ were no longer ¡®lined up¡¯ as they had been in the 1970s and 80s.


    So humans had to be content with the arrival of an uncrewed ship of the Overlords which went into orbit around Earth¡ªnot, repeat not, a satellite of Earth origin, the space agencies insisted. It was assumed that the first all-enveloping broadcast to humanity had been transmitted from this ship. The broadcast in which Karellen had first introduced himself, and announced that his race had come to help set right Earth¡¯s current state of distress¡­


    But there was a price to pay. Humanity was now to be utterly sub-servient to the Overlords¡¯ rule¡ªand Karellen took pains to assure his audience that this was in humanity¡¯s best interest. In a few days robots would be sent down to Earth¡¯s surface to enforce¡ªwithout using violence¡ªthis edict.


    It was not, of course, to be expected that humans might take this news calmly. The robots duly appeared¡ªand rather unimpressive they were at first glance. Simple smooth metallic spheres, about six inches in diameter, which floated in mid-air, usually just above head-height. They had no visible apertures or control surfaces, and made no sound except a faint hum¡ªbut they were active: sometimes they would dart from one place to another at lightning speed. They never hit nor even touched anything. They did not need to.


    There appeared to be millions of them. They swarmed all over Earth: no-one could escape their vigilance. Not surprisingly, many people tried to take the robots out, but it was futile. At first they simply dodged bullets¡ªand even more deadly missiles aimed at them¡ªas easily as an adult could dodge a ball tossed by a child. Later on, any gun aimed at a robot would mysteriously jam.


    And that was only for starters. It was soon discovered that any gun or similar weapon would also instantly jam on being aimed at another human¡ªor indeed at any harmless animal. Many owners in desper-ation resorted to gunsmiths, who took the weapons apart, reassembled them, tested them, took them apart again¡ªbut remained totally perplexed. Any bomb planted would simply fail to explode. As to less deadly instruments: knife-wielding or club-wielding ruffians soon found their weapons turning red-hot in their hands whenever they tried to use them aggressively. Some thugs resorted to thick gloves¡ªbut the only result was that the gloves became hot in their turn. Even a fist drawn back in anger (except in legitimate boxing) would instantly suffer painful cramps.


    As to rape and other sexual crimes¡ªit was soon evident that the oldest¡ªand most natural¡ªimpediment to such behaviour was at work here. Some men might feel embarrassed¡ªbut was that not a price worth paying?


    How the robots were achieving all this was a complete mystery, but many people¡ªin fact all those who were not of a violent disposition¡ªcame to accept this situation. Violence and terrorism were being eradicated: at a painful cost but what was worse than this cost? And more was on the way¡­


    Somehow the infection rate in the deadly 2043-nCoV pandemic was plummeting. Epidemiologists the world over were baffled: no effective vaccine had been deployed or even developed, and face-mask rules, social distancing, and isolating were having only limited effect. But every day the death rate was dropping. It must be the robots again: perhaps they were combating the virus with nano-technology. No-one knew for sure.


    At least the means by which the visitors were counteracting plastic pollution and Climate Change were less of a mystery. Plastic-eating bacteria were busy in the oceans, gradually converting the waste plastic into harmless compounds. Millions of tonnes of sulphur dioxide had been deployed in the upper atmosphere, with the effect of reflecting back into space some of the Sun¡¯s radiation. At the same time, larger robots with carbon-sequestering capability were adrift in the atmosphere. As to persuading the human race to consume less fossil fuel, and in other ways to reduce their carbon footprint: the Overlords were apparently leaving it to humanity to face that decision.


    Could humanity be trusted to play fair?


    In another age the inertia which had stymied almost all these necessary changes would have been the inevitable sticking point. Especially in the developed world, people had been simply too attached to their cars, their travel options, their abundance of varied (often imported) food and consumer goods¡­ But by the mid 2040s Earth¡¯s inhabitants had become so enfeebled by the four-fold blows of heat-wave, famine, pandemic, and terrorism, that they were content to accept any measure which might bring back the standard of living to its level of the early 2000s. So was the stage set for the Overlords¡¯ intervention.


    There were deniers and conspiracy-theorists all along, of course. They lost no time in rallying their adherents and protesting against¡ªdenying the existence of, even¡ªthe Overlords and their imposed policies. But the Overlords had an answer even for that. For the first two or three years, they did nothing: they allowed the lies, the hate mail, the death threats, to circulate unchecked. But gradually it was noticed that abusive e-mails would fail to be delivered; that conspiracy-theory websites would suddenly crash for no reason; that gradually the means for such people to communicate with one another were being obstructed. No doubt the robots were still hard at work!


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    Unable to contact each other, the extremists rapidly lost their momentum. People in general accepted the measures. They consumed less power. They travelled less, and used sustainable energy for trans-port as much as possible. They ate less meat, switching to vegetables instead. They eschewed single-use packaging as far as possible¡­


    There were however some obstacles to humankind¡¯s total accept-ance of the Overlords. Why had they done all this good work wholly to Earth¡¯s benefit? Was their motive entirely altruistic? And why¡ªabove all¡ªdid they not come to Earth in person and meet humans face-to-face? Not so much as an image of an Overlord had ever been seen by anyone on Earth. Why did they remain stubbornly in orbit around Triton? Earth¡¯s most powerful optical and infrared telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, had indeed observed the giant ships of the Overlords¡¯ main fleet orbiting that moon¡ªalthough only as tiny dots. There was little doubt that the Overlords were telling the truth when they explained that they were remaining on board those ships for the time being. Only robot ships had been allowed to penetrate deeper into the Solar System.


    But they had set a date, over fifty years in the future, when they proposed to finally visit Earth in person. Why leave it so long? Human life-expectancy was improving again, after its dramatic drop in the 2020s, 30s, and 40s, but a large proportion of people alive today could not possibly live to meet an Overlord in person. The Overlords were coy in offering an explanation for this long delay¡ªthey merely stated that the human race was ¡®not yet ready¡¯ for the encounter.


    Although this pledge was met with grudging acceptance by most, many others were nowhere near satisfied. Among them was Rikki Stormgren, a young and highly intelligent astrophysics, mathematics, and computer science student, originally from Finland but now studying for his PhD at Princeton. Being only in his early twenties, he stood a good chance of living to meet the Overlords, but he was impatient nonetheless. For much of his life, his hero and idol had been Alan Turing, the brilliant mathematician and codebreaker, a man who had been cruelly persecuted for his homosexuality and driven to an early death back in the 1950s. Stormgren, himself in a same-sex relationship, felt a sort of kinship with the long-dead genius. And he felt that his sexuality was in no way in conflict with his devout Christian values, which he had cherished all his life.


    Turing had been instrumental in cracking the Germans¡¯ Enigma code during WW2: similarly, could Stormgren somehow interpret the signals which the Overlords were transmitting to their home planet? He determined to find out, working in secret: he would not confide even in his partner and fellow-student Pieter van Ryberg, nor in their close friend Pierre Duval. This was altogether too sensitive a matter!


    It had for some time been known that the Overlords were constantly in communication with their home planet. Aside from the spaceships, the JWST had detected another object orbiting Triton: a slightly elliptical shape nearly ten kilometres across. From the changes in its appearance over the course of a year, astronomers had correctly de-duced that it was a circular disk¡ªin all probability a flimsy parabolic antenna, always maintaining the same orientation relative to the stars. And when the Earth¡¯s alignment was most favourable, a very faint modulated radio signal¡ªevidently not intended for human consump-tion¡ªcould be detected. Astronomers had figured out that the Over-lords¡¯ home planet lay somewhere in the constellation Scorpius[see note] ¡ªbut there was no way of telling which of the myriads of stars in that region it orbited¡ªand hence how far away the Overlords¡¯ home might be. Clearly any two-way conversation between the travellers and their comrades back home must take many years¡­


    And no-one had been able to decipher, or even detect any pattern in, this faint signal. Stormgren was determined to try.


    He worked patiently, secretly, and alone. NASA had helpfully put a copy of the intercepted signal in the public domain¡ªin the faint hope that someone, somewhere, might be able to decrypt it. The Overlords must have known about this, but they didn¡¯t appear to be concerned. Perhaps even they realised that they would be seen as over-oppressive if they tried to suppress even this information¡ªwhich they never expected humans to interpret.


    Over the course of a few months, Stormgren managed to separate out the modulations of the signal into three distinct streams: data, audio, and video. The data stream was packaged in a way not entirely dissimilar to internet protocols used on Earth¡ªalthough he could of course make no sense of the symbols being transmitted, which were nothing like any human symbols, alphanumeric or otherwise. The audio stream, which Stormgren recognised as such from its lower bandwidth, also yielded to his painstaking analysis. There were sounds there which seemed to be rapid-fire speech¡ªthough over a wider frequency range than any human speech. By playing back the sounds slowly, Stormgren could pick out groups of sound which occurred frequently¡ªlike commonly-used words in a human lang-uage. He was convinced that this was the Overlords ¡®talking¡¯ to each other. What they were saying, of course, was a total mystery.


    It was the video stream, of course, which excited Stormgren¡¯s interest the most. It could safely be assumed that the Overlords were transmitting imagery captured on Earth itself¡ªso if he succeeded in cracking the code, some of the images would be recognisable. This gave him a useful start. But there appeared to be several levels of encryption. For months Stormgren tried this and that, without success. He was almost ready to chuck in the whole enterprise; or pass it over to Pieter¡ªor even Pierre Duval¡ªto get a fresh mind working on the problem. But at last, after over a year¡¯s work, he had a breakthrough.


    Some of the patterns in the data stream, which he had dismissed as indecipherable, appeared to repeat themselves with only slight vari-ations¡ªbut precisely at those moments when a video transmission was about to begin. Were these transmissions in fact the keys to decrypting the videos? Was it as simple as that?


    Stormgren¡¯s heart was pounding madly in his chest as he performed what he hoped would be the final stage of decryption. And. stagger-ingly, there it was!¡ªperfect holographic images springing into life before him. Most were recognisable: many images of different types and races of humans were there, some of them clothed, some naked, some even engaged in sexual activity¡ªalso familiar animals like dogs, horses and cattle. Stormgren was almost ready to dance all around his cramped workshop in his exultation¡ªinstead he was content to sit back in his chair, tears welling in his eyes.


    There were images of well-known buildings on Earth, as well as many familiar artefacts. The Statue of Liberty; the Eiffel Tower; the Coliseum; the Kaaba; the Great Buddha of Thailand; the Pyramid of Chichen Itza; and more. A set of knives, forks, and plates; a wine bottle; a portable phone; a stethoscope; a lavatory; a lawnmower; a teddy-bear; a set of Lego; even a gallows. There were shots of wildlife taken in many parts of the globe¡ªthose parts where wildlife still persisted, that is. There were images of the main polluters: giant factories, power stations, cars and other vehicles, factory farms, and the like: clearly the Overlords had been studying the causes of Earth¡¯s woes. Microphotographs of the Coronavirus which had wreaked so much havoc. But also video of the repair work humans were putting into place to set things right and hoping to usher in the promised ¡®Golden Age¡¯.


    But no images of the Overlords themselves; nor of their home planet; nor of their own artefacts. Stormgren had not expected as much. He scanned through hour upon hour of videos: and it became clear that not all of them were of terrestrial origin. There were scans of the Moon and of other planets: even some images of Triton, the moon they were orbiting¡ªwhich Stormgren carefully compared with the images sent by Voyager 2 more than half a century earlier.


    At last he discovered a snippet of video in which the Overlords had made a tiny slip. They were sending imagery of what appeared to be some maintenance work being carried out aboard one of their own ships. The camera, it seemed, was facing down a short passageway watching the little robot spheres zooming around as they worked on an open service panel. Suddenly a hatch opened at one side. A large bipedal creature emerged¡ªconsiderably larger than a man, it seemed¡ªpaused for a moment examining the robots¡¯ work, then quickly disappeared through a hatch on the other side. It had been in view for only a second or two, but that was enough. The creature had to be an Overlord. But what a creature! Stormgren replayed the scene, to make sure¡­


    The leathery wings, the little horns, the barbed tail¡ªall were there. A terrible legend had come to life, right before Stormgren¡¯s eyes. He slumped to the floor, retched, and threw up. He¡ªindeed the whole of Earth¡ªwas not ready for this.


    Having collected himself, Stormgren knew what he had to do next. He raised himself, but only to his knees, and prayed. He prayed, desperately and hopelessly.


    He had always cherished the belief that God was not merely the God of humankind, but of other sapient beings from other worlds. This was surely the true meaning of the phrase ¡®Lord of the Universe¡¯. So any beings from another world would have had to have been created in His image too. Stormgren had always supposed that the Overlords, too, would have been formed in God¡¯s image.


    Now he realised that, for the sins of humankind, Earth had somehow summoned up a creation of Satan, not of God. These beings were not in God¡¯s image. And he had compounded the Sin by un-covering the true identity of the Overlords. Indeed, he now recog-nised himself as the world¡¯s greatest sinner.


    Would any amount of prayer expiate his sins?


    Stormgren¡¯s soul was already compromised¡ªhe knew that. He had caught a glimpse of the personification of Hell and there was no redemption. He had read somewhere the tenet that the mere sight of the Devil was the most extreme calamity the human soul could suffer. In fifty years time, the whole of Earth would suffer that calamity. Armageddon would be upon humanity as had been foretold for millennia. But was it Stormgren¡¯s duty to bring forward this Apo-calypse? Which would be the more grievous sin¡ªtelling the World of his discovery, or remaining silent? And would his soul be eternally damned for committing the most unforgivable sin of all, the ultimate sin: permanently silencing himself?


    It took more than an hour of prayer before Stormgren made up his mind. Earth would be spared any premature Apocalypse. Having cleaned up, he carefully shredded and burnt all the paperwork he had amassed, and destroyed all the drives and memory chips in his computers. He spent a little while pondering the most appropriate place to carry out the deed he was planning. Golden Gate? Beachy Head? No: both those places were too well guarded. He recalled a holiday he had spent in Ireland some years before. Having made up his mind, he gathered his remaining savings, bought a ticket, and boarded a flight to Dublin. He had sent no message to Pieter¡ªPieter would only try to stop him, of course. Once outside the airport, he lost no time in stealing a high-performance car, and motored at high speed straight across country to the fabled Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, which reared their head 214 metres above the Atlantic. Not hesitating for a moment, he swerved off the road near O¡¯Brien¡¯s Tower, kept his foot hard down on the pedal, and, muttering a quick prayer for forgiveness, and before the Garda¨ª patrol were even aware of his presence, drove the car straight over the edge¡­


    So whatever secrets Stormgren held went into the cold Atlantic waters alongside him. Planet Earth would have to continue to wait another half-century. She could afford to wait. Whether Earth had been saved, or whether Earth had been doomed, was this waiting not the best course?

 Chapter 3 – Mass Exit; Mass Exodus

    ¡°WHAT¡¯S happening to the world? There¡¯s terrible news I¡¯m afraid. It¡¯s about Jean and George! Look at this, Rupert,¡± said Ruth, tossing her tablet towards Rupert. He muffed the catch and the tablet landed on his projector console, nudging one of the controls as it did so. As a result, the hologram projection of Rupert¡¯s body veered away from the white rhinoceros that it was stealthily approaching. The rhino, noticing the sudden movement, lifted its head and snorted, but did not bolt¡ªto Rupert¡¯s relief¡ªinstead it resumed browsing the vegetation. Rupert was almost sure that this rhino¡ªa female¡ªwas pregnant: if so, it would be the first successful mating of rhinos in the reserve for over a year. Rupert was anxious to get a closer look.


    With a sigh he adjusted the projection so that his image was once again facing the animal¡ªthen he cast his eyes over the tablet which was displaying a banner news headline.


    ¡°What? ¡®New Athens¡¯. Yes!¡ªthat¡¯s that middle-of-nowhere island where George and Jean live now, isn¡¯t it. The whole place?¡±


    ¡° ¡®Lived¡¯, past tense, not ¡®live¡¯, I¡¯m afraid,¡± replied Ruth. She took the tablet and resumed reading. After a minute she paused to explain. ¡°Yes. It was supposed to be a secret, known only to the islanders¡ªand they were given an opportunity to leave¡ªbut most remained. I don¡¯t suppose a secret like that would be easy to keep from the rest of the world! But the date was kept a secret. Now it¡¯s happened. Thermonuclear bombs planted in boreholes all across the island, all set off at once. One whopper of a mushroom cloud. Then¡ªnothing left: not even a brick wall standing ¡­ And Jean¡¯s and George¡¯s names aren¡¯t among the list of evacuees. They must have stayed¡­¡±


    Rupert was silent for a while. He¡¯d abandoned his scrutiny of the pregnant rhino and switched off his projector. The implication of this piece of news was only just sinking in. Jean had been one of his close friends for years¡ªbefore she had met George, even. He¡¯d even tried to make out with her¡ªbefore Ruby, that was¡ªbut she¡¯d gently but firmly resisted his advances. They had remained good friends all the same. Could she really be dead¡ªand George, too?


    ¡°We must go there and find their bodies,¡± he muttered. ¡°Give them a decent burial, at least¡­¡±


    ¡°Rupert, dear, don¡¯t you understand? No-one can go to the island. There¡¯s a hundred-kilometre exclusion zone around it¡ªradioactive fallout¡ªalthough I bet some folks will have flouted it anyhow: their nemesis¡ªas they¡¯ll discover when their hair and teeth start falling out. There¡¯ll be no human remains on the island. Nothing living at all. Just ashes¡­ and radioactive dust. Like what happened on the Maldives. And Saint Helena. And Samoa. Didn¡¯t you hear about those? So far, it¡¯s been only islands. But it won¡¯t be long before the suicide streak hits the mainlands. Africa even. Surely you care about that?¡±


    Rupert shook his head¡ªthen changed his mind and nodded briefly. ¡°Sorry, I¡¯ve been sort of shutting myself off from all the news these last few weeks. It¡¯s all so unbelievable: I just want to focus on the animals. They don¡¯t have any worries¡­¡±


    Ruth¡ªnot for the first time¡ªrounded on Rupert angrily. ¡°Just like you, Rupert. Don¡¯t give a damn about what¡¯s happening in the world outside your precious Reserve, do you? Whole communities taking themselves out¡ªjust like that. People out there, not wanting to be part of Earth any more. Well, I¡¯m warning you, Rupert. Your animals might be next¡ª¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know ¡­ am I meant to be taking you seriously, my dear Ruth?¡± retorted Rupert, peevish in his turn. ¡°What¡¯s happening in the outside world ¡­ yes it¡¯s like, sort of, group suicides. Of humans. It¡¯s happened before in history.¡±


    Ruth remained silent for a while, not wanting to embark on a full-blown quarrel. Finally she replied, calmly, ¡°OK. Jonestown. Masada. Clifford¡¯s Tower. But never so much as is happening now. What we¡¯re seeing is despair at the coming extinction of the human race. Trust me¡ªit¡¯s happening.¡±


    ¡°All right. But not with animals,¡± said Rupert. ¡°They¡¯re non-sapient. They understand fear, but they don¡¯t really have a concept of death. They might sacrifice their own life through blind instinct¡ªlike when a bee stings someone¡ªbut they can¡¯t knowingly take their own lives. You don¡¯t believe all that ¡®lemming¡¯ nonsense, surely?¡±


    ¡°Of course not,¡± replied Ruth. ¡°OK¡ªI¡¯m not suggesting that all your animals will deliberately gobble up heaps of hemlock stems ¡­ or machineel ¡­ or jimsonweed ¡­ whatever the equivalent is that grows around these parts. But there¡¯s other trouble going on out there¡ªnot just the suicides. It might spill over.¡±


    Rupert shrugged. Of course, even he knew something about the decadence and depravity that were gradually engulfing the world at large. His perceived indifference was partly an act. But there was an element of denialism in it¡­


    It was only a few weeks later that news came from Australia of another tragedy: close to home, in a sense. A plaintive e-mail arrived from Rupert¡¯s ex-wife Ruby: unsurprisingly, sent not to Rupert but to Ruth who was an old friend. The first they had heard from her for years. Ruby had become a widow. She told the full story. She and Hugh had had a second child together¡ªanother girl¡ªbut she had been taken by the Change and was lost to them. They were desolate: even the teenage Leanne, who remained to them, was not enough of a consolation. Hugh, in an attempt to assuage his grief, had resumed his old hobby of daredevil motorcycling¡ªsomething he hadn¡¯t indulged in for years. Ruby was dismayed but powerless to stop him. Many dangerous stunts and near-death episodes later, he¡¯d resolved to try and bike it over Uluru¡ªdisregarding the total prohibition of access to the rock that had been in force for well over a century.


    He hadn¡¯t got very far. Airborne patrols had spotted him and order-ed him by loudhailer to turn back. After repeated warnings which Hugh ignored, they fired a warning shot. Startled, Hugh slipped a wheel into a crevice, lost his balance, and went sprawling. He didn¡¯t at first seem badly hurt, but the patrols picked him up anyway and flew him to hospital at Alice Springs. There, he went into shock and suffered a brain haemorrhage. He was dead before Ruby reached him.


    Why, oh why? Ruby had pleaded in her distraught message to Ruth. It wasn¡¯t just Hugh. People all over the country¡ªmen, mostly¡ªwere embarking on ever more dangerous exploits, with a devil-may-care attitude. Perhaps it was that they wanted to depart the world in spec-tacular fashion: they had lost their kids, the human race was at its final generation¡ªso everything was lost and they may as well die¡­ Perhaps Hugh had planned an elaborate suicide: perhaps he had wanted the patrols to shoot him.


    Well, his wish was granted, in a sense¡­


    Ruby¡¯s elder daughter, Leanne, who was convinced that Hugh had been her true father, was of course utterly distraught. She had retreat-ed into a shell, talking to no-one, not even crying: just utterly unres-ponsive. It was almost as bad as losing their younger daughter. ¡°Please, Ruth,¡± Ruby concluded, ¡°could you come over for a while? Rupert can spare you for a bit, surely? I could really really do with your company.¡±


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    It took a lot of work for Ruth to persuade Rupert to let her go, but in the end she was able to board her aircar and programme a course for Ruby¡¯s house, just south of Cairns. She found Ruby much cheered upon her arrival¡ªthey were after all old friends¡ªand as partners in early widowhood they hoped they would find much solace in each other¡¯s companionship. But Ruth made no progress at all with Leanne, whom she had met only on the odd occasion up till then. Leanne remained stubbornly locked away from all human contact. Still¡ªmaybe time would tell.


    But only a few days after Ruth¡¯s arrival in Australia, there came the most sensational bombshell of all.


    Australia was to be evacuated.


    Every human soul remaining on the continent would have to move to another part of the world. The message came from the Overlords, but it was not attributed to Karellen himself: any one of his team could have delivered it. This was of no consequence. Not only the people of Australia, but the entire world, were numb with shock.


    Karellen must have realised that without some sort of explanation, riots would erupt which even the Overlords, for all their power, would not be able to contain. So a few hours later a further message was issued. This edict originated, not with the Overlords, they explained, but with their superiors, the so-called ¡®Overmind¡¯. The Children who had undergone the Change¡ªall three hundred million of them!¡ªwere currently being accommodated on the Overlords¡¯ vast spaceships, in orbit round the planet. Ruth knew about that¡ªand so did Rupert: they had watched, horrified, as one of the ships settled on the ground near the cluster of villages just north of Rupert¡¯s animal reserve, and gathered up all the affected Children, their sobbing parents bewailing their loss. Were all the affected Children worldwide being crammed into these ships, they had wondered? The huge volume of an Overlord spaceship notwithstanding, the kids would have to be packed together more tightly even than the victims of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century slave trade, crammed into the holds of ships and scarcely able to breathe. Surely the Children would suffocate, starve, and die of heat exhaustion!


    Karellen had been obliged to reassure Earth on that point. The Children were no longer conscious of their physical surroundings, so they did not suffer psychologically. And they were being provided with adequate oxygen and nourishment, and their ambient temper-ature was carefully controlled.


    But even so, this arrangement was only temporary, and the Over-mind had directed that a sufficiently large, isolated landmass be cleared of human inhabitants and allocated to the Children. After discussing the matter with Rashaverak and several other Overlords, Karellen came to the conclusion that only Australia would fit the requirements. Hence the evacuation order.


    A century earlier, virtually every other country in the world would have utterly refused to take any of the evacuees, and the ensuing mayhem would almost certainly have led to world war. But this was the twenty-second century, not the twenty-first, and humanity was far more benign and tolerant that it had been. Moreover, Earth¡¯s popula-tion had diminished, from its peak of over ten billion in the first half of the twenty-first century, to just over four billion. There was room to accommodate the approximately fifteen million Australians who would need to be relocated. Every country¡ªevery local district¡ªtook its share.


    Ruth, along with Ruby and Leanne and all their belongings, arrived on Rupert¡¯s doorstep a few days later. Rupert was none too pleased at meeting his ex-wife again: he would have much rather it had been Maia¡ªbut she was well settled in Glasgow with her new partner and there was no chance of her returning. Nevertheless he formally wel-comed Ruby and Leanne (whom he had never met) and agreed that they could share a spare bedroom in the house. He had room enough.


    Ruby helped with looking after the house, and spent much time chatting with Ruth. There was a sort of easy acceptance of each other¡¯s presence which helped in the healing process.


    ¡°Ruth,¡± said Ruby one afternoon, as they were relaxing in Ruth¡¯s bedroom while Rupert was working at his projector, ¡°there¡¯s some-thing I haven¡¯t told anyone. Not Leanne, not even Hugh¡ªthough he might have guessed. I¡¯m wondering if I should tell you¡­¡±


    Ruth made a shrewd guess. ¡°It¡¯s about Leanne, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Ruby hesitated for a while. ¡°Rupert is Leanne¡¯s father. Not Hugh. I¡¯m sure of it: the timings work out. I haven¡¯t dared tell her. All her life she¡¯s thought of Hugh as ¡®Daddy¡¯. And until now she didn¡¯t even know about Rupert. I think I should keep it from her still¡ªshould I?¡±


    Ruth pondered this for a long time. ¡°I don¡¯t think you should tell her¡ªnot now,¡± she finally declared, decisively. ¡°And don¡¯t ever tell Rupert, either. You¡¯re right: this must be a secret between you and me only. Leanne is grieving over her lost father¡ªso soon after her lost little sister too¡ªbut she¡¯ll come out of it in her own time. A sudden revelation that Hugh wasn¡¯t her father at all would break her utterly. And Rupert wouldn¡¯t take it well, either. He¡¯d be a poor father in any case: too full of himself, as you well remember. Better let him be cast as a benevolent uncle¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± replied Ruby. ¡°But I had to tell someone. Thank you so much for hearing me out.¡±


    So Rupert remained in total ignorance of the fact that he had a daughter. He accepted his guests as ¡®boarders¡¯ and was civil to them when they met¡ªthat was all. And he soon had other worries.


    He had at first been dismayed at being allocated twenty Australian refugees to share his wild animal reserve with him¡ªbut once it was explained that all the newcomers had some experience at working with animals, he grudgingly accepted them. Builders were brought in to construct a row of cottages on scrubland behind Rupert¡¯s spacious mansion: everyone would live close together, and the wildlife would be disturbed as little as possible. With ten thousand square kilometres at his disposal, Rupert could spare the land. And he was secretly cheered at being relieved of some of his workload.


    Among the new intake was Rupert¡¯s old friend Jack Sullivan, some-time Professor of Marine Biology, and now a world celebrity for all the wrong reasons.


    Sullivan it was who had connived at Jan Rodricks¡¯ escape from Earth¡ªescape from the Solar System¡ªstowed away on an Over-lords¡¯ ship bound for their home planet. Sullivan it was who had provided the sperm whale¡ªor rather, as it later emerged, the mock-up of a sperm whale carcass¡ªin which Jan had concealed himself. Sullivan had hoped to keep his part in the venture a close secret until his dying day¡ªbut such was not to be his fate. Within a relatively short time¡ªsoon after Karellen had revealed Jan¡¯s escapade to the Press¡ªthe secret had leaked out. Sullivan¡ªwhile becoming the darling of the popular Press¡ªwas at once blackballed by virtually the whole of academia. His World Government grant was suspended, preventing him from continuing his research¡ªand he was left stranded, so to speak, on terra firma. He had been kicking his heels in Sydney until the great Evacuation forced him to leave.


    Sullivan was not a happy man. He had lost his wife Anna a few years before: she had deliberately plunged to her death from the historic Sydney Harbour Bridge¡ªfor what reason, nobody knew. He was quite alone, and missed her dreadfully. Moreover, he had spent a large part of his fortune in legal battles, in an attempt to retain his underwater habitat¡ªbut in the end it had been confiscated: allocated to a colleague. Being set to tending antelopes and wildebeest was a sad comedown for the man accustomed to encounters with giant squid and manta rays.


    If only he had refused to assist Jan in his madcap venture!


    And now, with humans on Earth facing obliteration, what were his thoughts? Rupert, of course, was oblivious to Sullivan¡¯s anxiety, but Ruth could sense his unease. So could Ruby.


    What effect would the news of the self-destruction of New Athens and the other island communities have upon him?

 Chapter 4 – Mad Diversions

    SULLIVAN did not remain brooding for long. After a few weeks, during which he had partaken only fitfully in the work on the Reserve, and was often absent, he sought out Rupert, looking some-what more cheerful than of late.


    ¡°I¡¯ve just learnt that I may get one of my deep water submarines back,¡± he announced. ¡°Had a long legal battle, but I was finally able to convince the World Court that it was my own personal property and not that of the World Oceanographic Institute. No such luck with the Deep Sea Lab: I just hope that pipsqueak Jennings takes good care of it (he was once a student of mine¡ªdid you know?). So, any-way, I plan to go on another voyage of exploration. I¡¯ll take Wilson, my colleague (he¡¯s the one who pilots the sub¡ªhe met Rodricks and was ¡®in the know¡¯ all along). Care to come along, Rupert?¡±


    ¡°Me? You¡¯re joking, of course,¡± replied Rupert, hastily. ¡°Thanks¡ªbut no thanks!¡ªyou know I¡¯m far too claustrophobic¡ªand there¡¯s far too much work for me right here in the Reserve. Where are you going, anyway?¡±


    ¡°Lake Kujuteldamatu.¡±


    ¡°Lake Kuju¡ªwhat did you call it?¡±


    ¡°Lake Kujuteldamatu. Sorry, it is a bit of a mouthful! Word means ¡®unimaginable¡¯ in English.¡±


    ¡°Never heard of it.¡±


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t suppose you would have. It¡¯s a huge sub-glacial lake of fresh water deep down under the ice-cap in East Antarctica. Only recently been discovered. You¡¯ve heard of Lake Vostok, of course¡ªthat one¡¯s been known about for nearly two centuries. Well, this one¡¯s even bigger. There may be all sorts of strange life-forms in there¡ªcompletely cut off from the rest of the world¡¯s biosphere. I intend to explore.¡±


    ¡°In a submarine?¡± replied Rupert, incredulously. ¡°How are you going to get it through all that ice? Through a borehole?¡±


    ¡°A twelve-foot wide sub? Don¡¯t be silly! Anyway, there aren¡¯t any boreholes that have reached the lake yet. Very little is known about it. No¡ªwe¡¯re going to fix a heating device to the front of the sub. Slowly melt our way through the ice¡ªthat¡¯s the idea.¡±


    Ruth, who had joined them by this time, interceded.


    ¡°Jack,¡± she said, alarmed. ¡°you can¡¯t really be contemplating such a mad endeavour? How long will it take? How will you do for air? And fuel? What if you get stuck? Don¡¯t do it, for Heaven¡¯s sake!¡±


    ¡°What else is there for me to do?¡± retorted Sullivan, angrily. ¡°What else is there for anyone to do, now that Homo sapiens is kaput? You tell me! Might as well fulfil my dreams. Please don¡¯t even try to stop me. And we¡¯ll be carrying enough oxygen and supplies for two months. That should be plenty. So stop bugging me.¡±


    So, despite all Ruth¡¯s¡ªand others¡¯¡ªattempts to dissuade him, Sullivan, accompanied by Wilson and three other crew members, set forth on the voyage a few weeks later. Boarding their submarine, currently berthed at Dunedin, they sailed south. Within a week or two they sent a message saying that they had successfully made landfall on Wilkes Land, and were making preparations to tunnel into the ice¡­


    And that was the last that was heard of them.


    Ruth, Rupert, and Ruby¡ªalong with those of Sullivan¡¯s other friends who knew about the trip¡ªwaited anxiously. Two weeks passed. Then a month. Then another month. Then a third month¡­


    ¡°He¡¯s dead¡ªI know he must be dead,¡± wailed Ruby. ¡°And so soon after Hugh¡ªand poor Anna too! We ought to have stopped him. We all knew he wouldn¡¯t make it¡­¡± She lapsed into uncontrollable sobs.


    ¡°Jack probably knew too that he wouldn¡¯t make it,¡± remarked Rupert, casually. ¡°It¡¯s what¡¯s happening all over the world now. People embarking on more and more madcap exploits, regardless of the danger. I suppose it¡¯s their way of saying ¡®goodbye¡¯ to Earth, goodbye to humankind¡ªnow that we¡¯re doomed.¡± Rupert had finally come to accept the state of affairs. ¡°But I intend to stay alive as long as I can,¡± he continued. ¡°I¡¯ve got my animals to look after¡ªand that¡¯s a great comfort. And Ruth.¡± He purposefully didn¡¯t even glance at Ruby.


    After a lot of persuasion, the World Antarctic Council finally agreed to launch a search for the missing explorers. After many days of scanning the ice cap, they finally located, by sonar, what appeared to be a submarine. It was trapped in the ice about six hundred kilometres inland, two hundred from Lake Kujuteldamatu, and about three thousand metres deep. Completely immobile, with no signs of life aboard. There were some indications that it had made it as far as the lake and was on its return journey. Despite pleas from Sullivan¡¯s friends, Rupert especially, no attempt was made to drive a borehole down to the sub. Let the frozen chamber in the ice be the undisturbed tomb of the four men and one woman trapped there forever.


    Like¡ªover two hundred and fifty years earlier¡ªanother team of five had perished on the Antarctic ice, on the return from another ill-fated expedition¡­


    But Rupert did not have leisure to mourn his friend¡¯s loss for long. Trouble was erupting on his own doorstep.


    It soon emerged that the assistant ¡®workers¡¯ who had been lodged in his Reserve were not endowed with the conservationist ideology he had expected. They seemed to be regarding the area as a game reserve, set apart for hunting, rather than caring for the animals. One morning, just before dawn, Rupert was awakened by the sound of one of his all-terrain groundcars being moved. Alarmed, he hurriedly dressed and dashed outside, but the car had disappeared into the bush. He checked his lockup shed, and sure enough, the door had been forced and three shotguns and a small-bore rifle had been taken (Rupert was one of the few people on Earth still permitted to own firearms).


    In a panic, Rupert collected up a couple of dartguns and set out in his aircar. There was no knowing how far the ¡®hunters¡¯ had got: the groundcar was fully charged and would have had a range of nearly fifty kilometres, so they could be almost anywhere. But it had been driven without great skill, and the trail was easy to follow.


    Rupert soon came upon the first scene of carnage: a herd of male waterbuck¡ªleft lying where they had been shot. There was no sign of the hunters, and the animals were as yet unmutilated. Rupert wondered whether to wait, in case the hunters came back for the horns. But after sadly inspecting the animals, and assuring himself that they were quite dead, he decided to press on.


    Passing over areas of forest, he could see further signs of slaughter: several small monkeys and at least one chimpanzee lying dead under the trees. But he did not pause to examine the bodies, because he could sense a commotion, along with an ominous column of smoke, far ahead.


    The hunters appeared to have set fire to an area of scrubland and then attempted to shoot a fully-grown bull Bush Elephant. With the weapons they had, and what with the fire, the only effect would have been to frighten and enrage the beast, and it had charged at them. Once Rupert reached the spot, he could see that all four of the hunters were lying dead or injured, and the groundcar was wrecked. Rupert had to dart the animal several times and then hover for nearly half an hour, before the elephant was sufficiently subdued and he could safely land.


    Three of the hunters were already dead, and the fourth was badly injured. Rupert wasted no time trying to tackle the smouldering fire: he had no fire-fighting equipment with him apart from a small extinguisher, and anyway the fire did not seem to be spreading too rapidly¡ªyet. Tending the wounded must come first. He hauled the wounded man into his aircar, administered what first aid he could, and then flew straight to the hospital in Kampala. To his relief, the doctors there told him that, with luck, the man would live: once he recovered sufficiently, Rupert would be anxious to interrogate him.


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    When Rupert finally returned to his villa, he found Ruth anxiously awaiting him. She already knew what had happened: she had been told by some of the other workers. But Rupert¡¯s first priority was to try to tackle the fire. He quickly started up his big firefighting truck, called to two of his workers¡ªthose he felt were most trustworthy¡ªto accompany him, and set out to retrace the route he had followed earlier.


    When they at last reached the scene of the encounter with the bull elephant, they discovered to their surprise that the fire was completely put out. There was about a square kilometre of burnt-out savannah but the surrounding area was untouched. Rupert was puzzled. Why had the fire not spread? They inspected the ground but could not find any area still smouldering, and the soil and ashes were cold. The bodies of the hunters were still lying where they had fallen, but the wounded elephant was no longer to be seen: evidently it had come round and made off.


    Had the Overlords intervened? Rupert had not met an Overlord in months: he was wondering if they had abandoned humanity.


    That question could wait. The three collected the bodies and made their way back to the villa. Without further ado Rupert had the entire remaining group of fifteen migrants assembled in his living room, and confronted them furiously.


    ¡°Three of your mates are dead¡ªtheir bodies are in the fire truck and I¡¯m expecting you lot to take them on and give them a decent burial¡ªunless you want to leave them to the vultures, that is. Anyone else here fancy messing with the animals on the Reserve? If so, you¡¯re out of here at the double¡ªwith the cops on your backs. Any questions, anyone?¡±


    The entire group were silent, shocked.


    Later on, when Rupert had calmed down sufficiently, Ruth told him that things like this were happening all over the world. And not just violence towards animals. Gangs of men (and even some women) armed with spiked clubs were staging pitched battles with rival gangs¡ªfights to the death. Others had formed themselves into Russian Roulette clubs¡ªwhere they got the revolvers from no-one knew¡ªand would continue ¡®playing¡¯ until the gun went off¡ªthen re-load and play again. The Overlords were sometimes doing a bit to calm these situations, but were being largely ignored. They refused to use force on humanity. Perhaps they had decided that, once the human race realised it was doomed, it had better be left to seek its own routes to oblivion, however unpleasant or violent¡­


    Rupert¡¯s problem with his unwelcome ¡®visitors¡¯ was resolved, at least. A few days after he reported the ¡®hunters¡¯ outrage, Rashaverak contacted him and told him that the Australian contingent would be removed from his Reserve and relocated elsewhere on Earth. It had been a mistake to lodge them there, Rashaverak admitted. So Rupert was left to manage the Reserve on his own, with just Ruth, Ruby and Leanne for company.


    Rupert was warming slightly towards Ruby, as time passed. He no longer cold-shouldered her and they were comfortable chatting together, along with Ruth. Leanne, too, was communicative again. The adults debated as to how, or even whether, her schooling should be resumed: after the great Evacuation most countries¡¯ education systems were in abeyance¡ªif not in utter chaos. Leanne was nearing her fifteenth birthday, and the World Education Council had announced that school was no longer compulsory for the remaining children on Earth¡ªnone of whom were under the age of eleven. Few children still went to school. What was the point, many people felt, when the world was doomed anyway? Some argued that humankind¡¯s vast wealth of knowledge, both in Science and in the Humanities¡ªmuch of which was not duplicated in the Overlords¡¯ archives¡ªought not to lapse into oblivion. But what would happen when the last human on Earth died?


    Meanwhile, shielded from these depressing concerns, Leanne was happy helping ¡®Uncle Rupert¡¯ with the animals, displaying a gentle and sympathetic touch which Rupert was pleased with.


    In the end Ruth and Ruby concurred: Leanne must spend some time, at least, at a boarding-school. She had been enjoying her time at Rupert¡¯s, but they all realised that she was missing the company of people her own age. Finding a suitable school was not that easy, but in the end Ruth and Ruby, searching together and with minimal help from Rupert, settled on a large and formerly exclusive co-educational school a few miles outside Moscow. It was a long way from central Africa but that couldn¡¯t be helped. The online prospectus described it in glowing terms ¨C a ¡®wonderful¡¯ setting surrounded by its own park; presumably not a park as well-stocked with wild animals as Rupert¡¯s reserve, which was just as well. In its heyday, before the Overlords came, it had been one of the world¡¯s most expensive schools. But money no longer held the power it once had.


    Ruby accordingly secured a place for Leanne, at least until her eighteenth birthday. Leanne reluctantly accepted the arrangement. So in a few weeks there were just three left in Rupert¡¯s house.


    It was no respite for Rupert, however. His Australian migrants might be gone, but news of their dangerous exploit had spread far and wide. There were of course no longer any boys in the neighbouring villages as young as the one who had been killed by the buffalo, but there were plenty of young men willing to chance their lives in similar exploits. Every two or three days, it seemed, there was a break-in at the boundary fence¡ªeven the electrification did not stop them. With ten thousand square kilometres under his watch, Rupert could not survey every part at once. He pleaded with the Overlords to deploy their little levitating, spherical robots which had played such an important role at the time of first contact¡ªbut the Overlords replied that they had too few to spare¡ªthey were needed elsewhere on the planet.


    It was not until some time later that people came to realise that almost all the robots were deployed in Australia, to watch over the recently-settled Children as they underwent their slow amalgamation with the Overmind. It was evident that the Overlords were diverting most of their resources to caring for and studying the Children, rather than the remaining humans. Some argued, who could blame them? What more could be learnt from an ever more decadent and self-destructive version of ¡®civilisation¡¯?


    So the intruders gained a foothold in the Reserve, and the first of their exploits was to seek out the very same herd of buffalo that had killed the boy, years earlier. Having located them, they did their best, having torched part of the surrounding savannah, and with the help of a pack of half-trained but ferocious dogs, to drive several of them into a fenced compound outside the Reserve, where they were planning to set up a sort of rodeo-cum-bullfight combo.


    Several dogs were killed, and also four of the men¡ªbut in the end they managed to separate a few of the younger females that didn¡¯t have calves, and bring them to the corral. Then the ¡®sport¡¯ began.


    By this time Rupert had learnt of the atrocity by means of his remote viewer, and he called the nearest outpost of Community Guardians (¡®Police¡¯ they would have been called in an earlier age¡ªpeople still called them the ¡®cops¡¯). He pleaded with them to come and help him investigate the scene¡ªit looked as if murder had been done¡ªbut they refused to commit themselves. They could spare no-one, they replied, and anyway murder was no longer considered a serious crime. There were too many of them, and the cops could not investigate all of them¡­


    So Rupert went to the scene alone. All the buffalo were dead, cruelly slain with spears and machetes. There were signs that some had been butchered¡ªpresumably for bushmeat, despite the fact that the eating of wild animal meat had been outlawed worldwide for over a century. There was no sign of the perpetrators who had fled long before he arrived¡ªleaving two of their number dead.


    All that the Guardians had asked him to do was search each of the dead humans for his or her identity papers, and report the details back. Rupert sat on the ground and wept. When he had recovered himself somewhat, but still distraught, Rupert overcame his revulsion and complied with this unpleasant request. The cops weren¡¯t bothered about the animals. They just didn¡¯t care what had happened.


    Nobody cared any more. That was the pattern.


    This and similar events were bringing about a noticeable change in Rupert¡¯s character. Far from exhibiting the shallow and na?ve person-ality of his earlier years, he was learning compassion¡ªtowards his fellow humans, that is, as well as his beloved animals. He was even showing tender thoughts towards Ruby¡ªand Leanne¡ªthe days when he¡¯d been treating them with scorn were long past.


    Would Ruby be looking to seek some sort of ¡®way out¡¯ like the would-be rodeo riders? worried Rupert. He was sure Ruth wouldn¡¯t: she was too well-adjusted for that. Yet group suicide was becoming very much the norm in human behaviour. So many folk had lost everything that meant anything to them when they lost their Children. And Ruby had lost a Child.


    But Rupert still lacked the skill to reach out to her in her distress. If anyone were able to offer comfort, it would have to be Ruth.


    As for Rupert himself, he at least had no thoughts of taking himself out. As a confirmed materialist he planned to stay alive. Yes, he knew he was at heart ever a materialist, notwithstanding his manifest passion for books on the occult and spiritualism. Having no fund-amental beliefs in the soul or the afterlife, he intended to go on living¡ªwhatever the fate laid down for him¡ªand whatever the fate of Mother Earth itself.

 Chapter 5 – A Planet in Anarchy

    ¡°PLEASE, Mummy,¡± began the impassioned message from Leanne, ¡°please Uncle Rupert, Auntie Ruth, please please take me away from this horrid school! From this horrid city!¡± Her face on the screen showed every sign of acute distress.


    Ruby was taken aback. Everyone was aware that many parts of Earth were slumping into levels of chaos and violence not seen since mediaeval times. But a peaceful, well-found, and well-organised (and very expensive) girls¡¯ boarding-school?


    Leanne had been a student there for a little over three months, and Ruby had assumed that she was settled in well, away from all the mayhem that was swamping the world outside its walls. Such was not the case, it seemed¡ªand this was the first she had heard of trouble from Leanne¡¯s direction. What was she to do?


    It was Ruth who made the decisions. Ruby must make the long journey to Moscow, but when she demurred, pleading unpreparedness for such a task, Ruth agreed to accompany her. It was clear that Ruby needed a helping hand when circumstances turned difficult. How would she cope? Ruth wondered, as conditions on the planet deteriorated further.


    Rupert¡¯s contribution to the discussion was simply to propose that Leanne be withdrawn from the school forthwith.


    ¡°What good¡¯s an education to anyone, these days?¡± he muttered. ¡°If the world really is finished, defunct; if we are the last of our kind, who will there be to pass our knowledge on to? Not the Overlords, for sure: their science and technology is a thousand times better than ours, and they seem to show no interest in the Arts or Humanities. Apart from Rashy, that is: coming to browse my library¡ªand we all know now why that happened. Where are all the Overlords, anyway? They don¡¯t seem to have been seen around for ages.¡±


    ¡°From what I¡¯ve heard,¡± remarked Ruth, choosing a moment when Ruby was out of the room, ¡°they¡¯re spending all their time and resources watching over Australia, and the Children whom they¡¯ve planted there. Goodness only knows what¡¯s happening there. Aust-ralia is totally off-limits: no-one can even get near the country¡ªnot even to Tasmania. There was one story of a couple of guys who tried to make it by canoe, of all things¡ªacross the Torres Strait from Papua. All of 150 kilometres: that must have been some trip! They just disappeared¡ªno-one knows what happened to them.¡±


    ¡°Probably the Overlords know what happened to them,¡± said Rupert. ¡°Perhaps they sank the canoe¡­¡±


    ¡°Rupert, you know the Overlords don¡¯t do that sort of thing. My guess is, they somehow conjured up a strong wind or current to drive the canoe off course. And the two canoeists, rather than face returning in shame to their homeland, scuttled their boat and drowned them-selves. That¡¯s my theory, anyway. They must have known it was going to end up a suicide mission¡­¡±


    Ruby, who had just re-entered the room, overheard Ruth¡¯s last few words. ¡°Please, please, Ruth,¡± she wailed, ¡°don¡¯t let¡¯s talk about suicide. Bad enough losing Hugh¡ª¡±


    ¡°But surely Hugh¡¯s death was an accident,¡± interposed Rupert, who, not surprisingly, had loathed the man who had supplanted him in Ruby¡¯s affections. ¡°Brought about by his own stupidity. He didn¡¯t need to do that crazy stunt¡ª¡±


    ¡°Crazy or not,¡± put in Ruby, angry in her turn, ¡°lots of other people are doing those sort of ¡­ those horrible, wicked things ¡­ giving themselves a ¡­ way out ¡­¡± Her face puckered and her eyes began to brim with tears. The memory of her loss was still too raw to contem-plate. Ruth stepped towards her and put an arm round her shoulders.


    ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about this any more,¡± she whispered. ¡°We must plan our trip to Moscow. It¡¯ll be a comfort to be with Leanne once again, whatever trouble she¡¯s got involved in.¡±


    ¡°I guess you two ought to leave as soon as possible,¡± said Rupert. He was in fact hoping that they would bring back Leanne with them¡ªhe had grown quite fond of the girl during their brief acquaintance. So it was the very next day that he stood and watched as the aircar took off with its two passengers, leaving him all on his own in the villa. He was wondering whether he should have undertaken the journey himself¡ªit sounded as if there might be trouble in Moscow¡ªbut he was too much attached to his Reserve: he hated to be away from it, whatever the reason.


    *


    The long flight to Moscow was uneventful, and Ruby and Ruth alighted as soon as the car had settled itself in the one of the large municipal car parks in the city¡¯s outskirts. After the hot humid conditions of central Africa, they found the air comfortably mild, and they decided it would be a pleasant walk to the school, just over a kilometre away.


    But the attendant stopped them just as they were leaving the car park.


    ¡°Where might you be going to, ladies?¡± he asked, with (surpris-ingly, for one living in Moscow) a distinct American accent.


    ¡°We were just going to walk to my daughter¡¯s school,¡± replied Ruby. ¡°It¡¯s only a kilometre away and I know the way.¡±


    ¡°Best if you don¡¯t, ladies. The streets ain¡¯t safe to walk in, these days. When were you here last?¡±


    ¡°I came here with my daughter when she first joined the school ¡­ but on that occasion we had a lot of luggage so we took a cab.¡±


    ¡°And that¡¯s what you¡¯ll be doing again, ladies, if you value your security¡ªyour lives. I can call one for you.¡±


    After some argument, Ruth and Ruby agreed to call a ground cab: the attendant had tried to persuade them to take a much more expensive air cab but they demurred. They had been airborne long enough! And they had not been allowed to park their own air car any closer to the school¡ªRuby had wondered at that on her earlier visit, but it seemed to be the rule. So within a few minutes they were away in a ground cab with a not very talkative driver, who, Ruth noticed, carried a seriously no-nonsense-looking revolver in a holster at his hip. Was he a cop as well as a cab driver?


    It did not take long for the women to find out. They had scarcely gone more than a few hundred metres when they a series of loud bangs coming from the left side of the road. At the same time a noise like a storm of hailstones pounded the body and windows of the cab. Both Ruby and Ruth were screaming, but the driver maintained his compusure. He stopped the cab, lowered his window a fraction, drew his gun, aimed, and fired several times.


    ¡°Just kids,¡± he muttered. ¡°And don¡¯t worry, ladies, this cab is bullet-proof¡ªbodywork and windows both. It¡¯ll stop everything short of a high-velocity bullet. I think I got at least two of them.¡±


    ¡°Killed them, do you mean?¡± cried Ruby, horrified.


    ¡°That¡¯s what I said, lady. Don¡¯t you understand the ways of the world, nowadays? People are killing one another, and themselves, all over the place. There¡¯s no laws anymore. And I says, why bother? Just stay alive, that¡¯s my take.¡±


    ¡°But, where we come from¡ª¡± began Ruth.


    ¡°Where you come from ladies! ¡­ OK so it¡¯s some sheltered hideout for rich folk far away from real life¡ªis that it? Time you ladies learnt a lesson about what¡¯s happening around you.¡± As the cabbie said this, he set the car in motion again.


    The short journey was not without further problems. As they rounded a bend, they came up against four young women¡ªbarely more than teenagers¡ªstrung across the road. The cabbie jammed on his brakes. To say the girls were skimpily clad would be an under-statement: they were dressed in ultra-short skirts, fishnet stockings, high heels, and just bras on top. A couple of them unfastened their bras revealing their breasts, but when they saw that the occupants of the cab were two women, their grins faded and they stepped aside.


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    ¡°If you¡¯d been guys, they¡¯d have had you¡ªif I¡¯d let them. And you¡¯d like as not have ended up shot dead by their pimp. They just do it for kicks¡ªnot for sex¡ªnot even for money. Sometimes I run them ¡®ho¡¯s down, if I¡¯ve gotten mad enough at ¡¯em. That¡¯s the sort of place this is, now. You¡¯d better get used to it, ladies, if you¡¯ve come to stay.¡±


    It was Ruth who found her voice first. ¡°Run them down? You mean, kill them?¡± echoing Ruby¡¯s words of a few minutes back. ¡°But they¡¯re only young girls¡ªdoing a job! How can anyone be so callous?¡±


    The driver shrugged. ¡°There are always plenty more to replace the ones I¡¯ve taken out. And other cabbies here will do the same. I don¡¯t like losing fares to them punks.¡±


    Ruth and Ruby were speechless for the rest of the drive. The cab arrived at the heavy gate guarding the entrance to the school. There was a sign by the gate, but it was in Russian and neither of them could understand it. So much for Earth¡¯s entire population being now able to speak English! A guard came towards them, and upon Ruby presenting her ID and explaining her mission, he opened the gate to let them through.


    As they were paying the driver, Ruby finally managed to come up with her question. ¡°Is the whole of the city like that? I mean, total anarchy, complete collapse of any sort of law and order?¡±


    ¡°Pretty much, ladies. I¡¯d have thought you knew¡ªmost of the world is like this nowadays. Folks just don¡¯t care what they do, not anymore.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been here before,¡± continued Ruby, ¡°with my daughter. And we saw none of this. But I suppose it¡¯s because we came by air-cab.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the sensible way to go, ladies¡ªbut even that¡¯s not 100% safe. There are some hoodlums around who get a real kick out of stealing an air-car and smashing it into anything they see flying. Usually killing themselves as well in the process, of course. Or else they¡¯ll go for you with a mega-laser. They can¡¯t be stopped. But it¡¯s still safer than a ground-cab. I¡¯m thinking of switching to air myself¡ªbut they¡¯re damned expensive.¡±


    And with that, he was gone, before the women could ask any more questions.


    Walled in by its heavily protected enclosure, the school displayed every sign of both exclusivity and opulence. The grounds were extensive and well-maintained, with ornamental gardens and lakes scattered over many hectares of parkland with copses here and there. There were paths crossing the grounds in all directions, with the occasional bench or summerhouse to pass the time at. How could Leanne have found this place unendurable?


    Best find out. Ruth and Ruby walked in by the main entrance, where to their surprise there was nothing by way of a reception desk; no-one to challenge their entry into a school. They stood there wondering which way to go.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t like I remember it,¡± wailed Ruby. They were in a plain unfurnished lobby with various doors leading off it. There was a sign on the wall, also in Russian and therefore of no use to them. ¡°They¡¯ve changed everything! There used to be a receptionist here. What can have¡ª¡±


    ¡°Privet damy!¡± [see note] sounded a voice behind them, making them both start and wheel round. There was a shady, disreputable man who had come in behind them¡ªa most unsavoury character who was now leering at them in a very unpleasant way.


    ¡°Pardon?¡± asked Ruth, feeling rather scared.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± continued the man, switching to English but with a strong Russian accent. ¡°Come here for the fun have you, ladies?¡±


    ¡°Certainly not!¡± retorted Ruby, having collected herself sufficiently to speak.


    ¡°All right, all right. No offence, ladies. You look a bit past it any-way. Sonya!¡± he called. Almost at once a short, plump middle-aged woman, well-endowed, wearing a voluminous floral print dress, low-cut at the front, and that reached to her ankles, emerged from a door-way. She greeted the man and asked him a question in Russian.


    ¡°We¡¯ll talk English for now, Sonya. Just so¡¯s not to confuse these two lovely ladies here. Who¡¯ve you got for now?¡±


    ¡°Well there¡¯s Sophia, and there¡¯s Julia¡­¡±


    ¡°OK, I¡¯ll take Sophia. I know the way.¡± He handed a bundle of bills to Sonya, which she tucked in the front of her dress, and a moment later he had gone off through one of the doors.


    Ruth was perplexed. Sonya had all the appearance of being a sort of ¡®Madam¡¯¡­


    ¡°So, what can I do for you ladies?¡± asked Sonya. She spoke with a soft American accent with a touch of Irish burr.


    ¡°Something tells me this isn¡¯t a school anymore,¡± whispered Ruth to Ruby. But Sonya had caught her words.


    ¡°You¡¯re dead right there, ladies. Why should we go on teaching these kids when they don¡¯t want to learn anything? They¡¯re better off, and there¡¯s more money coming in, the way we are now. But I guess you¡¯re not come here for that.¡±


    ¡°We most certainly have not!¡± exclaimed Ruth, angrily. ¡°We had no idea. We¡¯ve come here to see my friend here¡¯s daughter. Leanne Midgley. Is she here?¡±


    ¡°Leanne ¡­ Leanne. Let me check.¡± Sonya disappeared through the door she had come in by, and Ruth and Ruby could do no more than stand and wait¡­


    *


    It was about twenty minutes before Sonya returned. ¡°Yes, Leanne¡¯s here, but she¡¯s not been too well lately. Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s nothing serious! She¡¯s in the sick bay. I¡¯ll take you to her.¡± And with that Sonya led them through several corridors until they entered a large brightly-lit room lined with beds, like a hospital ward. Leanne was there, but not in bed: instead she was sitting in a chair beside her bed, looking pale, sullen, and listless. She was wearing a skimpy top, short skirt, and fishnet tights¡ªthe sort of clothing that neither Ruby nor Ruth had ever seen her wear before. But, as she dashed up to her, Ruby noticed a dark damp stain on the front of her skirt.


    ¡°Leanne, darling, what¡¯s the matter? And don¡¯t they have any tampons here?¡±


    Leanne seemed to notice her mother for the first time. She lifted her eyes to meet Ruby¡¯s. ¡°It¡¯s not my p-p-period, Mummy,¡± she said, weakly, barely conscious. ¡°It¡¯s ¡­ it¡¯s ¡­ I¡¯ve been ¡­¡± She could not finish her sentence and burst into tears. Ruby sat on the bed and she too started sobbing uncontrollably.


    It was left to Ruth to take charge of the situation. ¡°It¡¯s plain enough what we have here. This place has turned into a brothel. And we¡¯ve got to get Leanne out of here straight away. I hate to even think what might have happened to her. Can you walk, Leanne?¡± She had to repeat the question several times before Leanne responded.


    ¡°I¡¯ll try.¡± Leanne stood up. There were a pair of high-heeled shoes by the bed: she put them on and tried to walk, but soon stumbled and fell onto the bed and became unresponsive once more.


    ¡°Let¡¯s leave the shoes,¡± ordered Ruth. ¡°Listen, Ruby. I¡¯m going to make my way back to the car park, bandits or no bandits¡ªand then bring the aircar here, rules or whatever. Then¡ªLeanne, do you hear me?¡ªwe¡¯ll take you back home to your f¡ª¡ª ¡­ to Uncle Rupert. You two wait for me here.¡± She turned to Sonya, who was standing behind them. ¡°Did you understand all that?¡±


    ¡°Sure I did,¡± said Sonya, slyly. ¡°But if you¡¯re taking Leanne off my hands, I¡¯ll want compensation. Alright, she¡¯s not much use to us in her present state, but still ¡­ how about, say, five hundred bucks? Cash.¡±


    ¡°You fucking bitch!¡± screamed Ruby. ¡°You get some bastard, some creep in here to rape my daughter¡ªyes, rape!¡ªand God knows what else¡¯s happened to her¡ªand now you want money!?¡±


    ¡°Ruby¡ªplease let me handle this,¡± said Ruth, quietly. ¡°If she won¡¯t let Leanne go for less than five hundred, I¡¯ll pay five hundred. It¡¯s her business she¡¯s running here, whether we like it or not. So, Sonya,¡± she added, turning to face the ¡®Madam¡¯. ¡°I¡¯ll trouble you to call me a cab right away, if you please. And take me back to the entrance.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll want another ten for calling the cab, if you don¡¯t mind,¡± put in Sonya, rather sourly.


    ¡°Shit! Oh well¡ªall right then, I guess we don¡¯t have a choice: 510 dollars it is. I assume there¡¯s a bank still functioning here in this city.¡±


    It was more than an hour before Ruth finally returned, having parked the aircar right in front of the school gates. Ignoring the ex-postulations of the guard, she brushed past him and marched straight into the school and made her way to the sick-bay. Sonya was still there, and Ruth rudely shoved a wad of notes into her hands.


    ¡°You can count it if you like, but it¡¯s all there,¡± she grunted, but Sonya merely tucked the notes into her dress as before.


    Meanwhile Ruby had done her best to spruce up Leanne. She had found some of her more ordinary clothes in a closet, and procured a few sanitary towels. Leanne was still bleeding, although not heavily, and she was still very weak and semi-conscious. Between them, Ruth and Ruby supported her as they stumbled their way out of the building and bundled Leanne into the car.


    ¡°Now for home,¡± announced Ruth cheerily, as she launched the car into the air. ¡°And goodbye Moscow!¡±

 Chapter 6 – Crisis and Revelation

    LEANNE started bleeding heavily again during the long flight home. It was evident that she had lost a lot of blood and both Ruth and Ruby were getting seriously worried about her. Ruby, especially, was nearly hysterical: she was continually trying to get Leanne to talk to her¡ªto give some account as to what had happened to her¡ªhowever unpleasant.


    In the end Ruth had to take charge of matters once again. She decided that it would be best not to head straight for home, but to make for Kampala where there was a good hospital. Having set the course and made sure that the autopilot was functioning smoothly, she turned to Ruby first, and endeavoured to calm her down, to soothe her.


    ¡°Leanne¡¯ll be all right: I¡¯m sure she will. We¡¯re taking her straight to hospital¡ªonce they get a blood transfusion into her she¡¯ll be right as rain¡ªyou¡¯ll see. It¡¯s the emotional scarring I¡¯m worried about. And such a young girl too¡ªbarely fifteen! So awful! What has come of this world? Is it all down to the Change? Has the human race given up?¡±


    Ruth was not expecting Ruby to answer these purely rhetorical questions, but Ruby ceased her sobbing for a moment.


    ¡°Of course it¡¯s the fucking Change!¡± she snarled, furiously. ¡°You would know if you¡¯d lost a kid to the Change. Everybody¡¯s like that now. We just go on¡ªuntil we all die. That¡¯s all that¡¯s left for us. Death.¡±


    ¡°Please, please, Ruby¡ªplease don¡¯t despair. There are still good things on this Earth of ours. It doesn¡¯t have to be Moscow¡ªthat was a mistake. We can go back to Rupert. And I think that, for all his faults, you still have feelings for him. Am I right? And should we now tell Leanne that Rupert is her father?¡±


    ¡°You have no right to tell me what my feelings for Rupert are! And maybe I should remind you, Ruth, that it was you who nearly let on about Rupert being Leanne¡¯s father. Back in the sick-bay. Stopped just short of blurting it out¡ªyou idiot! I don¡¯t know whether Leanne¡¯s took it in. I hope she did not. And maybe she¡¯s now going to die without ever knowing it. That would be best.¡±


    ¡°How can you say such a thing, Ruby! Leanne won¡¯t die, she¡¯ll live¡ªI know she will live. We just have to get her to hospital as quickly as possible. No thanks to you of course¡­¡±


    The quarrel continued sporadically for some time¡ªbut at least it stopped short of becoming violent. Leanne, Ruth hoped, was unaware of the spat¡ªshe was drifting in and out of consciousness, and delirious at times. Secretly Ruth wasn¡¯t sure of her assurances about Leanne¡¯s coming through this¡ªthough she dared not let Ruby in on her uncertainty. In the end Ruby ran out of argument and sobbed herself to sleep. Ruth, much relieved, occupied herself with checking their course on the autopilot from time to time, and in between times watching over Leanne, checking her pulse and breathing. She wished she had a sphygmomanometer in order to check the girl¡¯s blood pressure¡ªbut the car was not equipped with one. It would have to wait until they reached the hospital.


    They were passing over South Sudan¡ªstill more than a thousand kilometres to go until they reached Kampala¡ªwhen Ruth¡¯s anxiety over Leanne increased. Ruby, Ruth was relieved to notice, was still sound asleep and it seemed best not to wake her. Leanne¡¯s breathing and heartbeat were becoming irregular and she seemed to be sinking into a coma. How Ruth wished she still had all her nursing skills!¡ªbut she had retired from nursing a long time ago. There was emergency oxygen in the car: intended for use if the car lost pressure at high altitude, but it would have to serve. Ruth quickly rigged up an oxygen feed for Leanne. She wished she had thought to stow a medikit in the car.


    Then Leanne went into cardiac arrest.


    Ruth did what she could: applied CPR and after several minutes was relieved when Leanne once again showed a pulse, and was breathing¡ªalbeit irregularly¡ªbut was still unconscious. This was now an emergency. Had Leanne been without oxygen to the brain for too long? Should Ruth wake Ruby? Better not: there was nothing they could do now until they got to the hospital.


    Ruby woke just as the car was making its descent towards the hospital car park in Kampala. Ruth said nothing about the crisis she hoped she had managed to overcome. Let the doctors explain things to her.


    It took a few minutes to get Leanne taken into the Emergency ward. Ruth explained that Leanne had lost a lot of blood, and then explained to the doctor in a whisper, whilst Ruby was occupied with tending to her daughter, about the cardiac arrest. The doctor was of course immediately very concerned: she quickly arranged for a blood transfusion, an ECG, and a brain scan. There was nothing the two women could do, now, but sit and wait.


    It was now that Ruth decided it was time to contact Rupert. She explained the emergency situation, but they both agreed that nothing could be served by Rupert coming over to Kampala. It would be better for him to stay at the villa to watch over his animals.


    ¡°There¡¯s something I ought to tell you,¡± added Rupert over the video link. He looked shaken. ¡°Some idiot tried to set fire to the place. Bottle full of some inflammable stuff¡ªsort of oil I think¡ªand a burning rag stuffed in the neck, tossed through a window during the night. Luckily I was there and able to smother the fire before it did much damage. And I went out to try and catch the hooligan, but he¡¯d disappeared of course.¡±


    ¡°Good gracious, Rupert! Did you call the cops?¡±


    ¡°No point. They wouldn¡¯t come, not if no-one got killed. You know how useless the cops are these days. But whoever it was might try again. I¡¯ll have to be on the alert.¡±


    ¡°Well, Rupert, you¡¯ve got to stay put of course¡ªbut please take care! And don¡¯t worry about Leanne¡ªshe¡¯s in good hands and should recover physically. As to the emotional damage from the rape¡ªthat¡¯ll be harder to cope with. We¡¯ll all have to work at that, when she comes out of hospital.¡±


    When she comes out of hospital, thought Ruth as she closed the connection. That¡¯s a significant ¡®when¡¯. Leanne was still in a coma, and the doctors weren¡¯t saying much. Perhaps she had suffered too much brain damage after all. What will happen when Ruby finds out? Leanne is everything to her¡ªand she has suffered so much loss!


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    *


    ¡°Ruth! Ruth! Come quickly!¡± Ruth shook herself awake and sat up in the makeshift bed she had been sharing with Ruby for the past few nights. Ruby was not there and it was still dark. Quickly she put on a dressing gown and made her way to Leanne¡¯s ward, where she found Ruby kneeling beside the bed.


    ¡°Leanne spoke! She said ¡®Mummy¡¯ quite distinctly.¡±


    ¡°You were here when she spoke?¡±


    ¡°Of course. The night nurse came and told me she was showing signs of waking up. Of course I came as quickly as I could¡ªI didn¡¯t even stop to wake you¡ªsorry.¡±


    As they watched, Leanne appeared to stir once again. Her hand, which Ruby was holding, clasped Ruby¡¯s fingers. She mumbled, almost inaudibly, ¡°Rupert!¡±


    ¡° ¡®Rupert¡¯! Why does she ask for Rupert?¡± whispered Ruth.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±


    But Leanne¡¯s eyes were open and she was speaking again, her voice slurred and hard to follow but quite coherent:


    ¡°I want Rupert. I want my Daddy.¡±


    ¡°But darling, your Daddy¡¯s not with us any more. He died. Don¡¯t you remember?¡± said Ruby.


    ¡°I know now. Rupert¡ªRupert is my real Daddy.¡±


    ¡°She heard me,¡± whispered Ruth to Ruby, shamefaced. ¡°I thought I¡¯d caught myself in time¡ªbut I didn¡¯t. Leanne¡¯s a clever girl. Well, now it¡¯s happened¡ªso do we confirm it? Tell her the truth?¡±


    ¡°I think we¡¯d better,¡± replied Ruby.


    ¡°All right,¡± continued Ruth out loud. ¡°Yes, Leanne my dear, ¡®Uncle Rupert¡¯ really is your biological father. The one you thought of as ¡®Daddy¡¯ up till now, poor Hugh: he was your stepfather. But Uncle Rupert doesn¡¯t know this¡ªnot yet.¡±


    ¡°How can he not know?¡± pleaded Leanne, weakly. ¡°Surely he must have slept with Mummy. Had sex with her.¡±


    Ruth was somewhat taken aback at Leanne¡¯s way of putting things, but she tried not to let it show. She glanced at Ruby, but Ruby wasn¡¯t saying anything. So: ¡°Yes, dear,¡± Ruth continued, ¡°but then your Mummy left him and went to live with Hugh. And started sleeping with him. That was before either of them even knew you were on the way.¡±


    ¡°Will my real Daddy come to see me, then?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll have to see,¡± replied Ruby, speaking up for the first time. ¡°You should rest now, my dear; you¡¯ve not been well.¡± Then in a whisper to Ruth: ¡°I knew this would happen. Didn¡¯t I warn you about that little faux pas, Ruth dear? So what¡¯s going to happen now? How will this new emotional shock affect Leanne, in the state she¡¯s in? And should we fetch Rupert here, after all?¡±


    Leanne persisted. ¡°Will I see Daddy before I die?¡±


    Ruby was shocked. ¡°Who said anything about dying? You¡¯re not going to die, my dear!¡±


    ¡°The doctor did. At least, I think she was the doctor. When I first came in. I could hear her faintly, although I couldn¡¯t speak: I couldn¡¯t answer her. I think she said something like ¡°this one¡¯s a goner.¡±


    ¡°Well, that doctor deserves a rap on the knuckles, that¡¯s all I can say,¡± remarked Ruth. What else had Leanne overheard, while seem-ingly in a coma? Or had she dreamt it? ¡°Leanne, you¡¯re going to be quite all right, and we¡¯ll be going back to Rupert¡¯s¡ªto your Dad¡¯s¡ªas soon as you¡¯re well enough to travel. You¡¯re not about to die¡ªnor are any of us.¡±


    ¡°Everyone¡¯s going to die, in the end. That¡¯s what we were all being told¡ªat the school, before¡ªbefore¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s all right, Leanne. You don¡¯t have to continue¡ª¡±


    ¡°But I want to, Auntie Ruth. It¡¯s true: when those horrid men did those¡ªthings¡ªto me, I wanted to die¡ªalong with everyone else. But now I¡¯m with you and Mummy, I want to stay alive. I want to stay alive long enough to be back with my real Daddy. Please!¡±


    ¡°You will, darling. I promise.¡±


    *


    When the doctor returned, it was Ruby who confronted her, despite Ruth¡¯s having urged her to hold her peace.


    ¡°Did you, or any of the doctors, tell my daughter she was dying?¡±


    ¡°Of course not,¡± replied the doctor, resentfully. ¡°Why would I do that? Or any of my colleagues? Your daughter is making good prog-ress¡ªconsidering what she went through. I¡¯m still worried about that cardiac arrest though. But you did an excellent job, Mrs Shoenberger. Without your intervention on the way here, we would have lost her. But as things stand, the ECG doesn¡¯t show up anything abnormal. We think she¡¯ll be fine. Which leads me¡ª¡±


    ¡°Well¡ªmy daughter declares,¡± insisted Ruby, interrupting, ¡°that, although apparently unconscious at the time, she overheard someone say ¡®this one¡¯s a goner¡¯.¡±


    ¡°Well it wasn¡¯t me¡ªthat¡¯s all I can say. Perhaps one of the porters who brought her in ¡­ we¡¯re losing a lot of patients these days ¡­ so many brought in DOA¡ªdead on arrival. Do you want me to make inquiries?¡±


    ¡°No¡ªNO!¡± intervened Ruth. ¡°Please let it rest. Leanne¡¯s upset and worried enough as it is. Best if she thinks it¡¯s just something she imagined¡ªor dreamt.¡±


    ¡°Very well,¡± said the doctor. ¡°I was about to explain to you, we¡¯d really like to keep Leanne here for a few days longer, but we can¡¯t spare the bed space. I¡¯m sorry. There are too many people being brought in with more urgent needs than hers. It¡¯s all chaos outside, as you surely know¡ªand we¡¯re getting overwhelmed. We¡¯re discharging Leanne this evening. I take it you have transport?¡±


    Both Ruby and Ruth were dismayed at this piece of news. Ruby was minded to argue the case: ¡°but it¡¯s far too early!¡± but in the end she decided she¡¯d had enough of arguing. Nor did Ruth feel inclined to demur. She merely stated ¡°We have our aircar outside¡ªbut I wasn¡¯t expecting to leave so soon. Can I get it quickly re-charged for the trip?¡±


    So it was that a few hours later, the three of them were airborne once again, and heading straight for Rupert¡¯s villa. At least the journey was much shorter this time, only a little over one-and-a-half hours, and it passed without incident. When they touched down, late at night, Leanne insisted on alighting and walking to the villa without help¡ªa little unsteadily. Rupert was standing at the porch to greet them, and Leanne practically flung herself into his arms.


    ¡°Oh¡ªDaddy!¡ªDaddy!¡± she cried, weakly but clearly enough for Rupert to hear.


    ¡°What the¡ª?¡± was Rupert¡¯s first reaction.


    ¡°It¡¯s true, Rupert,¡± said Ruth, calmly. ¡°We¡¯ve known for some time¡ªRuby and I¡ªbut we didn¡¯t know how or when to tell you. Yes, Leanne is your dau¡ª¡±


    She got no further, because Rupert had fainted.

 Chapter 7 – Bonfire Day

    ONCE HE had come over his shock, Rupert was delighted in his new role as a father. Indeed he was bonding with Leanne even more emphatically than he had before she was sent to Moscow.


    Leanne was still weak, of course, but she did not seem to be showing visible after-effects of her ordeal at the ¡®school¡¯¡ªnor of the crisis in the aircar. And as the weeks passed she gradually became stronger. She was able to walk around the compound, though not to assist in any strenuous work. Rupert devoted all the time he could spare from his animals in caring for her and attending to her needs. Indeed, he had delegated both Ruth and Ruby to take on some of the routine work on the Reserve.


    Furthermore, he had taken on six trustworthy workers to help with some of the work. He had chosen them, not from among the Australian emigr¨¦s¡ªdespite Ruby¡¯s insistence that the earlier ¡®problems¡¯ must have been out of character¡ªbut from an African community with which he maintained good relations. They came, not from the ¡®rodeo¡¯ village which appeared to now be deserted, but from a larger village to the south.


    As part of their initiation, Rupert was very eager to show Ruth and Ruby the new white rhino calf who was now just over four months old. He did not activate the holo projector of course: the mother would be very protective and would quite likely attack any sudden apparition. Of course, the apparition being no more than a hologram, no-one would be put at risk. But Rupert wanted to minimise upsetting the mother as much as possible. So they used just the viewer in ¡®invisible¡¯ mode.


    Both women were not slow, of course, to notice the change in Rupert¡¯s character. Ruby, especially, was feeling more attracted to him than at any time since their separation. She wondered how he would take it if she offered to get together with him once more. She opened her heart to Ruth.


    ¡°First of all, Ruby dear,¡± Ruth began, ¡°I want you to fully understand: there¡¯s nothing between Rupert and me. Never has been. We¡¯ve just been living together as friends, all these years. All right¡ªyou know Rupert as well as I do: yes he did try to come on to me once or twice¡ªbut I refused him. I¡¯m quite a lot older than either of you, and it isn¡¯t my ¡®thing¡¯ anymore. You do understand, don¡¯t you, Ruby?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I understand. So do you think Rupert will take me back? It¡¯s not just what I want¡ªit¡¯d be so good for Leanne. The world¡ªhuman society¡ªwhat¡¯s left of it may be falling apart outside from here, but for Leanne to be part of a conventional nuclear family again¡ªit would really help her along. And she needs all the help she can get¡­¡±


    ¡°Of course she does. I think you should approach Rupert. Be prepared for him to be ¡®difficult¡¯ about it though. He¡¯s often told me, how angry he was when you left him for Hugh¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll try. Oh, and of course, Ruth, I¡¯m hoping you¡¯ll still want to live with us¡ªright up until the end of things. You¡¯re such a pillar of support, and I need someone like you. And if you don¡¯t live with us, where else is there for you to go?¡±


    ¡°In this ¡­ what this world has become ¡­ ¡± Ruth didn¡¯t finish her sentence.


    So it was settled. Ruby would try to get back together with Rupert.


    *


    Ruby¡¯s approach was, perhaps, more direct than wisdom might have dictated. But it worked.


    She waited until a clear moonlit night, when the cicadas were chirping even more loudly than usual. Rising from her bed around midnight, and wearing only a short thin nightdress, she tiptoed out of the room she shared with Ruth, and made her way to Rupert¡¯s bedroom. Once inside, she slipped the nightdress over her head and let it fall to the floor.


    ¡°Rupert, darling, are you asleep?¡±


    ¡°Trying to. Those damn bugs, making such a racket: I¡¯m finding it hard tonight.¡±


    ¡°Same with me. Like some company?¡±


    Rupert opened his eyes for the first time. He turned his head and glanced drowsily at Ruby, whose outline was dimly illuminated in the moonlight shining through the window. Then he snapped wide awake. He drew in a sharp breath.


    ¡°Ruby! What the¡ª¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you like it, Rupert my love? You always liked to see me like this, when we were together.¡±


    ¡°Yes¡ªof course! But I thought that was all finished.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Rupert, it was finished. But that doesn¡¯t mean it can¡¯t start over again. You do want me, Rupert, don¡¯t you?¡±


    Rupert gulped. He sat there on his bed, unable to move or speak, for almost a minute. This was all very sudden. Wasn¡¯t he too old for this sort of thing? After all, the sight of a naked woman didn¡¯t arouse him in the way it had in his more youthful days. But Ruby! His instincts were taking control of him. He realised what he had missed, all these years. Slowly he unbuttoned his pyjamas and took them off. Ruby tiptoed towards him and flung herself into his arms¡­


    *


    Rupert¡¯s moment of blissful re-awakening was short-lived. It was only a few days later that Ruby, who¡¯d been using the holographic viewer to explore round the site, came to find Rupert. She looked rather anxious.


    ¡°Rupert, dear, I think your pyromaniac¡¯s at it again. Big column of smoke, over to the west.¡±


    ¡°Oh dear. Is it within the Reserve?¡±


    ¡°No, it looks like it¡¯s beyond the perimeter fence.¡±


    ¡°How far beyond?¡±


    ¡°I couldn¡¯t tell. Some distance, I think. Sorry, Rupert, I¡¯m not very good at working with the viewer¡ªnot yet.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d still better go in person and have a look. I¡¯ll go in the light aircar, and take Raphael.¡± Raphael was the foreman of the newly-recruited team of wardens, a giant of a man nearly two metres tall, who could be relied upon to pull his weight in a crisis.


    ¡°Can I come too?¡± asked Ruth, who had overheard the conversa-tion.


    ¡°Sorry, not a chance. I want to take some firefighting gear and there¡¯ll be no room for another passenger. Anyway, the two of you need to take care of Leanne. Make sure she knows nothing of this: Raph and I are just ¡®out on a routine inspection¡¯, that¡¯s all.¡±


    *


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    Rupert was back in a little over an hour. He showed every sign of being alarmed and angry. He summoned all the workforce.


    ¡°It¡¯s a good ten kilometres off. Looks like a forest fire. I need to take the heavy car¡ªboth aircars in fact. All right, Ruth, you may as well come along: you can go in the light car with Raph, while I take the heavy car with some tree-cutting equipment and a water-scoop. You two: Adam, Luke: you bring two of the groundcars along, as quick as you can. Go through no.5 gate and make for the smoke. The rest of you come with me in the heavy. There¡¯s no way we can tackle anything that big¡ªand we all know it¡¯s no use calling the Guardians¡ªnor whatever passes for a firefighting service these days! Best we can do is fell some trees, hope to create a firebreak and stop it spreading to the Reserve. Ruby, you need to stay and take care of Leanne.¡±


    Having landed about five hundred metres from the wall of flames, where there were only young trees suitable for felling, Rupert and his team were soon busy at work with the chainsaws, but Ruth was keen to advance a bit further and take a closer look. She ran back to the light car.


    ¡°No, Ruth, don¡¯t!¡± yelled Rupert once he realised what Ruth intended. But, realising that he couldn¡¯t stop her, he shouted desper-ately ¡°For God¡¯s sake be careful then!¡±


    But Rupert knew: Ruth was always the most careful and sensible one of their extended ¡®family¡¯, the least likely to panic in a crisis¡ªshe too knew that full well¡ªbut what she saw as she neared the blaze made her want to scream and throw up. In desperation she wheeled the car around and headed back to Rupert at full speed. Stumbling out of the car, her nausea overwhelmed her and she threw up. Seeing her plight, Rupert dropped his chainsaw and dashed towards her.


    ¡°Rupert,¡± she finally managed to gasp, ¡°there are people there! People tied to trees! Waiting to be burnt alive!¡±


    ¡°There are what?¡±


    ¡°Like I said. People about to be burnt alive! I heard them scream-ing.¡±


    ¡°Have the flames reached them yet?¡±


    ¡°Not that I could see, but it can surely be only a matter of minutes. There¡¯s a lot of smoke.¡±


    ¡°So you think there are people still alive?¡±


    ¡°Yes! But not for long.¡±


    Rupert, with a further crisis to deal with, showed remarkable acumen as he barked out orders. ¡°Right. Raph!¡± he shouted. ¡°You come with me in the heavy: we¡¯ll deploy the water scoop. I saw a pond about half a kilometre back: we¡¯ll try to buy some time. The rest of you, put on smoke masks, take bolt cutters, and see if you can get to the victims. Don¡¯t take any risks.¡±


    By the time the rescue party got to the victims, the flames were very close and the heat was intense. Working as fast as they could, they cut the victims loose and carried them a little way back from the flames and smoke. At the same time Rupert and Raphael arrived with a scoop full of water and doused some of the nearest flames, giving them some respite. With further scoops of water, the fire was driven back a few hundred metres.


    Then Rupert and Raphael landed the heavy car, and Raphael, with his immense physical strength, was single-handedly lifting the surviv-ors into the car. There were four women and two men¡ªall of them middle-aged and all of them white. This set Ruth wondering¡­


    But even as she pondered the implication or this, another of the party made a further grim discovery. Among the burnt and blackened stumps of trees, there were further bodies tied to them, charred beyond recognition but still clearly human remains.


    And another, larger body, also burned, which wasn¡¯t human¡­


    ¡°Rupert!¡± screamed Ruth, after staring at the charred remains from where she stood. ¡°Look! Over there!¡±


    Following her gaze, Rupert realised what he was looking at. The large body, almost twice the size of a man. The little horns still visible on the defaced head. The stumps of what could have been wings, pressed against the tree trunk¡­


    Could it be true? Could humans have actually captured an Over-lord, tortured him and put him to death by immolation? Surely that wasn¡¯t possible! The Overlords were too powerful to permit that.


    Or were they?


    For a brief moment Rupert was rooted to the spot. Then he made up his mind, and sprinted across the smouldering ashes to the tree to which the ¡®Overlord¡¯ was tied. The body seemed to be charred all over: could the Overlord possibly still be alive? How resistant were they to physical harm? Tentatively he reached up with the handle of his hatchet and touched the arm.


    The arm instantly broke off at the elbow, and what looked like charred sawdust poured out of the stump.


    Rupert looked up at the ¡®horns¡¯ and then it dawned on him: they were merely sawn-off buffalo horns, attached to the ¡®head¡¯ with wires. For a moment he laughed¡ªfor some reason one of Desperate Dan¡¯s ¡®cow pies¡¯ sprang to mind. Then he collected himself.


    ¡°It¡¯s only a dummy!¡± he yelled at the others. ¡°A burnt effigy. Like Guy Fawkes! I repeat¡ªit¡¯s not a real Overlord!¡±


    He quickly checked over the other burnt-out bodies: these appeared to be real humans but clearly beyond all help. There might be more still enveloped in the flames which were beginning to spread again. Clearly the scene of some monstrous massacre, and Rupert felt ashamed at having laughed. He returned to the others.


    ¡°We¡¯ve got to shift these trunks and branches to one side, to create a firebreak. But how are the survivors?¡± he called to Raphael.


    ¡°Three of the men are goners, I think,¡± shouted Raphael. ¡°But I think the two women and one of the men might make it. We must get them back to the house quickly.¡±


    ¡°Right. Darren, you take the heavy car back with the victims. Ruth, you go with him and see what you can do for them. The rest of us will stay to continue the clearing, and shift some of the brushwood while we wait for the groundcars. Then we need to drag the heavier logs out of the way.¡±


    Very efficient when under pressure, Rupert has become, thought Ruth as she clambered into the aircar.


    It was nearly an hour before the groundcars arrived. By then the team had felled a strip about two kilometres long, but the raging fire was only about two hundred metres away. They had to work fast, looping cables round the logs and using the cars to haul them clear.


    ¡°The fire will probably spread past the ends of our firebreak,¡± remarked Rupert, once the work was finished. ¡°But it¡¯ll buy us some time. We¡¯ll have to hope for some heavy rain.¡±


    *


    Once back at the villa, Rupert immediately went to find Ruth.


    ¡°Three of the men died, I¡¯m afraid,¡± was her report. ¡°The ones Raph said were ¡®goners¡¯. But the remaining man and the two women will pull through, I hope. I¡¯ve given them oxygen. One of the women seems well enough to talk, Rupert: you¡¯d better go see what she has to say. Though she¡¯s obviously in a state of extreme distress.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve done all we can: at least you¡¯re safe now,¡± were Rupert¡¯s first words as he came to the woman¡¯s bedside. She opened her eyes and looked at him. ¡°You a doctor?¡± she murmured weakly. Her voice had a noticeable Australian accent.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m a vet,¡± Rupert replied. ¡°But we have people here who can look after you and the others¡­¡±


    ¡°The others! Brian? Donny? Alice?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid only one other woman and one man survived. I¡¯m awfully sorry. We did all we could.¡±


    The woman was silent for a while. Tears were starting from her eyes. ¡°I expected to die,¡± she muttered. ¡°We all expected to die. And the others would have died eventually. We¡¯re all going to die event-ually¡­¡±


    ¡°But not just now. You still have a life to live. I¡¯m Rupert, by the way. What¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°Tamara,¡± she replied, weakly.


    ¡°Are you from Australia?¡±


    ¡°Yes. All of us are evacuees from Australia. And other people hate us!¡±


    ¡°So¡ªit was local people¡ªwho did this to you?¡±


    ¡°No. It was some of the other Australians. There¡¯s feuding among us. But no-one thought it would come to this¡­¡±


    But Rupert knew better, now. Anything was possible in this world of chaos and anarchy. But he kept his thoughts to himself.