The Long War

37

JOSHUA MADE HIS way out of the transEarth facility through the reception building in Madison West 10. Of course he could have stepped away anywhere, but it seemed polite to go back out that way. Besides, he had to give Hiroe his badge back.

Bill Chambers was waiting for him in the foyer.

‘Bill? What are you doing here?’

‘Well, Lobsang sent for me. He figured you would need a companion for the trip.’

‘What trip?’

‘To find Sally, and the trolls. What else?’

‘But we only just spoke about it . . .’ He sighed. ‘What the hell. That’s Lobsang for you. OK, Bill, thanks.’

‘Fair play to him, he says he’ll give us some kind of translation gadget, so we can talk to the trolls.’

‘If we can find them at all. If I’m honest I’ve no idea where to start.’

‘I do.’ His ruddy face creased in a wide smile. ‘Which is, I guess, why he sent for me. We have to start with Sally. Figure out where she might have gone.’

‘How do we do that?’

‘Well, Joshua, you’re as close to her as any member of the human race, like it or not. There must be something she’s done or said, some clue we can follow.’

‘I’ll think about it. OK. What else?’

‘Then we need to track down them troll lads. And I’ve an idea about that. Look at this.’ He dug an item out of his jacket pocket, and handed it to Joshua.

It was a tape cassette, a bit of technology fifty years obsolete, or more. Its plastic was worn and grubby, and the label unreadable. The cassette smelled strange, Joshua discovered now as he handled it. Half rutting goat, half patchouli, half chemical. It smelled, in fact, of clear nights in the High Meggers. ‘Who the hell plays cassette tapes, outside of a museum? What is this, Bill?’

‘A lure.’

‘A lure for what? Or who?’

‘Somebody who’s going to help us. You’ll see. So – what first?’

‘I’m going to see my family. Try to explain all this to Helen.’

Bill looked squarely at him. ‘Ah, she already knows, man.’

And Joshua remembered that fragment of poetry Helen had quoted at the very beginning of all this: A woman with the West in her eyes, / And a man with his back to the East. ‘Yeah. Probably.’

‘As for me, I’m off to get bladdered while I’ve got the chance. See you in the morning.’