Runaway World

Gone Astray

     The three policemen seemed content to allow Andrew to do most of the driving. They were too busy unpacking the equipment they'd brought with them from the bus and carrying it up to the childrens' bedroom which they had taken over for their own use. Now and then one of them would enter the cockpit to keep him company and take over the driving when he wanted to get something to eat or answer a call of nature, but whatever they were doing in the upper level took most of their time and Andrew was content to leave them to it.

     At around noon, though, Kartoshka entered the cockpit and sat in the co-pilot's chair beside him. "A satellite passed overhead a few minutes ago," he said. "They were able to get an image of our quarry."

     He called it up onto one of the monitor screens. Fox's rover had been circled in red but the highlighting wasn't necessary. The image was a temperature map and the rover was a bright, vivid yellow amongst the various shades of blue. It was the radiator fins on the top of the rover, Andrew knew. The fins that ensured that waste heat was only emitted upwards, and not down or sideways where it would have caused the nitrogen ice to sublime explosively under the rover, surrounding it in a perpetual cloud that would have cut visibility to zero as the nitrogen froze again almost immediately and fell back to the ground in a glittering shower of ice crystals.

     "He's less than an hour ahead of us now," the Constable added with satisfaction. "Cheval's delighted. He's still heading due east. No clue what his destination is, if he has one."

     "You have your own communications equipment," said Andrew in surprise. "You've been talking to New London."

     "The package we brought over from the bus contained enough equipment to turn your childrens' bedroom into a command and control suite including an encrypted communications link with New London that Fox can't eavesdrop on. You drive the rover, but Cheval's running the whole show from up there." He glanced upwards at the ceiling. "I'm afraid you're banned from the room." He smiled ruefully. "He considers you too much of a security risk."

     "You told him what we talked about yesterday?" said Andrew, his eyes widening in alarm.

     "Of course not, but you made no secret of your true feelings back at the dig site. Cheval's been interviewing the other families to find out what he can about you."

     "I would never help Fox escape. I have my doubts about The Return, it's true, but I would never be so arrogant as to think that my opinion outweighs that of nearly a hundred thousand other people."

     "I believe you, and I think Cheval's willing to give you the benefit of the doubt for the time being, but I'd be careful what you said around him if I were you. No frank conversations like the one you and I had yesterday."

     "It's come to something when a man can't speak his mind any more."

     "Andy, I agree, but that's where we are I'm afraid." He pointed at the image on the monitor screen. "And that's where Fox is. Or at least, where he was half an hour ago."

     "So we should catch him pretty soon now," said Andrew. "Sometime in the next hour or so."

     "Unless he has some nasty surprises in store for us."

     Andrew looked across at him apprehensively. "You think he might lay an ambush for us?"

     "Cheval wants to be prepared for any eventuality. Fox's theft of the dysprosium is the most sensational crime since The Freeze. I mean, there have been rapes, murders, that sort of thing. Awful, of course, but this is in a league of its own. The whole city's sitting up and watching avidly. The news channel barely talks about anything else since this all started."