فصل 54

CHAPTER 54

THE LAUNCH

THE STREETS OF MAKNAR, normally empty at night, teemed with the city’s inhabitants, who’d left their homes to witness the amazing heavenly display. Children shouted and shrieked with excitement as lines of bright light, dozens at a time, streaked silently but spectacularly across the black sky. The adults remained more subdued, muttering to each other, trying to fathom the meaning of this strange phenomenon. Many of them cast nervous glances toward the dark hulking walls of the palace compound.

The mood inside the walls was no less tense. King Zarboff the Third had emerged from his palace to watch. He was accompanied by his personal guards and the two slave boys known as the twins, who were charged with carrying the heavy basket containing the king’s beloved Kundalini. A well-cushioned chair had been set up a safe distance from the rocket so the king could sit and watch the launch in comfort.

Lord Ombra had also arrived, appearing suddenly as though materializing from the night itself. He spoke to nobody, keeping to the shadows outside the circle of torches surrounding the rocket; but the soldiers were quite aware of his presence—and the sudden chill in the air. Even Viktor Glotz noticed it, in spite of his preoccupation with the final preparations for the launch.

All watched as Glotz inserted the fuse into the rocket and laid it out on the ground, cutting it at precisely eight and a half feet. He’d calculated it would burn for ninety seconds before reaching the fuel—plenty of time for him to get a safe distance away. Glotz was not particularly worried about an explosion; this was why he’d decided to launch the rocket from the palace courtyard rather than the desert. Compared to the earlier rockets, this one contained surprisingly little black-powder fuel, given its weight. Most of the lifting force would come from the huge quantity of starstuff; the main function of the fuel was to propel the rocket forward, enabling the monkey to steer it on the correct course.

Glotz glanced at the sky, then checked his pocket watch. The ideal launch time was quickly approaching. He looked around impatiently, and…

There!

Soldiers appeared from around the side of the dungeon, escorting the four gold-suited boys who were carrying the trunk of starstuff. They held the trunk by handles at each corner and carried it easily; the starstuff made it essentially weightless.

The gold-lined trunk had been built with great precision; its seams and joints were fitted perfectly, allowing no light to escape. Even so, the air around the trunk hummed and even glowed faintly because of the immense energy it contained. The soldiers kept their distance from it; the gold-suited boys turned their heads away from it as they walked. Ombra drifted back into the deepest shadows as the boys brought the trunk into the torch circle and set it down next to the scaffolding that stood alongside the rocket.

Glotz approached the boys.

“There is an open hatch right above the monkey’s chamber,” he said, pointing up at the rocket. “You will carry the trunk up there—carefully—and set it inside the rocket. Then you will release the trunk lid by pressing the button on the latch. The hinges are on springs, so the lid will open by itself. As soon as it starts opening you must close the hatch. Quickly. Then come straight down. Do you understand?”

The boys nodded their gold-hooded heads.

“One more thing you should understand,” said Glotz. “I will be watching you closely. If you deviate in any way from my instructions, I will order these soldiers to shoot you off the scaffold. Do you understand?”

The boys nodded again. Glotz looked at his watch and said, “You have ten minutes.” The boys, two above the trunk and two below it, took hold of the handles and began ascending the steep ladderway inside the scaffolding.

Peter and Slightly were at the upper end of the trunk. When they were far enough from Glotz, Slightly whispered to Peter through the gold mesh.

“What are you going to do?”

Peter had been thinking about just that. His first idea had been to simply dump the starstuff out of the trunk from the top of the scaffolding, but he’d rejected that idea. For one thing, it would get the other boys, and very likely himself, killed. For another, he feared Glotz would find a way to get the starstuff back into the rocket and proceed with the launch. What he needed, he knew, was a way to get the starstuff away from Glotz, Ombra, and Zarboff, but also to prevent it from being released into the sky. He wasn’t yet sure how he would do this. All he said to Slightly was, “I won’t do anything until we’re back on the ground. Keep the other boys close by, and be ready.”

“Ready for what?”

“I’m not sure. But you may have a chance to escape. If you do, run to the harbor. Look for James and the others. They’re getting a ship.”

“They’re getting a ship?” said Slightly, his tone suggesting that he found this highly unlikely.

“Well, they’re going to try,” Peter said.

Slightly nodded. “What about you?” he said.

“I’ll be along as soon as I can,” said Peter.

They had reached the platform on the top of the scaffolding. They faced a hatch patterned with small air holes. Peter noted it was latched from the outside. Through the holes, he could hear the monkey making soft whimpering noises. Tink, still stuck inside Peter’s gold suit, made sympathetic sounds in return.

Above the hatch was an opening just large enough for the trunk, leading into a compartment lined with gold. On the right side of the opening was a small door on hinges. On its left side was a latch attached to a steel cable that snaked down through a hole into the monkey compartment. Peter assumed this was how the monkey, in the chamber below the trunk, would open the door and release the starstuff.

The boys lifted the trunk and slid it through the opening into the gold-lined compartment. When it was inside, Slightly reached for the button on the big gold trunk latch. Peter put a hand on his arm, stopping him.

“I’ll do it,” Peter said. “You three get back.”

Slightly, Curly, and Nibs stepped toward the ladder. Peter reached inside the rocket and pressed the button. With a snick the latch flipped open. The lid began to rise. Instantly, the compartment filled with a blinding light and a roaring sound. Peter quickly grabbed the door and closed it; the latch clicked tight. The air around the top of the rocket hummed and glowed.

From below, the boys heard Glotz shouting at them to come down. The four gold-suited figures hastily descended the ladder. As soon as they reached the ground, a group of soldiers dragged the scaffolding away from the rocket. Glotz looked up into the sky, then at his pocket watch. He shouted for everyone to move back, and proceeded to pull a torch from the earth and walk over to the fuse. The sky was alight with meteors now, the courtyard so bright that even through the mesh Peter could clearly see Glotz’s face.

All eyes focused on the scientist as he stood over the fuse, checking his watch. King Zarboff rose to his feet to get a better view, though Peter noted that he kept his guards between himself and the rocket. A movement at the outer edge of the crowd of spectators caught Peter’s eye. He looked that way and noted, with a small smile, that Slightly and the other boys, including the twins, had slipped away unnoticed, five shadows trotting toward the palace gate.

Peter’s eyes returned to the crowd, scanning the spectators until he found Ombra, a dark shape among the shadows on the far side of the torchlight circle. Peter stared at Ombra for a moment, and as he did, the dark hood shape swiveled and seemed to look right at him. Peter felt a chill and quickly looked away, hoping desperately that he had not been too obvious.

His eyes returned to Glotz. The scientist stood holding the torch and looking at his watch for several long minutes. Then, slowly, his eyes still on his watch, he began to lower the flame to the fuse. The courtyard fell utterly silent as the flickering flame descended until it touched the fuse. Sparks erupted from the ground and began crawling toward the waiting rocket. Glotz watched for a few seconds, then began slowly walking toward the circle of spectators. He stopped near Zarboff and turned back toward the fuse.

Peter was also watching the fuse now, trying to get a sense of when to move. He needed to time it perfectly—too soon and the soldiers would shoot him out of the sky; too late and the rocket would be out of his reach.

The sparks crawled across the dirt and, reaching the rocket, began to climb the fuse. Peter tensed; it would be in a moment, now. A nagging worry made him risk a look across the circle of spectators into the shadows.

Ombra wasn’t there.

Peter looked around frantically but didn’t see the dark shape. He heard a roar and turned back toward the rocket. The fuse had ignited the fuel; flames and black smoke billowed from the base. The rocket shook and started to lift. Peter, for a fraction of a second, felt something cold and horrible in his legs. With a shout, he crouched and hurled himself upward.

Glotz saw the gold-clad figure flying toward his beloved rocket. He screamed in rage and shouted at the soldiers to shoot. Transfixed by the rocket’s roar, they took several seconds to understand what he wanted, and several more to get their rifles into firing position.

Peter flew straight to the top of the rocket. He searched desperately in the billowing smoke for the latch to the door covering the monkey’s compartment. He heard a shot; a bullet zipped past. He yanked the gold hood off his head so he could see better. Another shot went past. He found the latch and yanked the door open, hurling himself headfirst in with the monkey as a bullet clanged off the hatch door behind him.

Glotz screamed when he saw Peter duck into the rocket, which was now off the ground, rising slowly on a cushion of fire and smoke. Glotz shouted incoherently, nearly insane with rage and helplessness as he watched his life’s work, the crowning achievement of his genius, being threatened by a boy. He ran toward the smoke, his face twisted in fury.

And then, suddenly, he stopped, and the fury on his face turned to hope. For he saw something in the roiling smoke, a dark shape rising, twisting, and contorting itself—now thick, now thin, but always moving upward through the bib lows, upward to the base of the rocket, and then along its side—a black blot, oozing in through a seam in between two metal plates.

Glotz smiled.

Ombra was aboard the rocket.