Chapter Seventeen
The balloon was growing steadily above them now, but Alendar was having some trouble keeping the hoverboat on a straight line. A particularly violent gust of wind knocked everyone off their feet for the third time, and the Doctor shouted, "Steady on!"
"Sorry," called Alendar. "It's the jet stream, you know. Can't get away from it." There was another jolt, harder this time. The Jamie cried, "I see him! I see him!"
"Where?" said Cerf.
"There," said Jamie, pointing up through the transparent wind shields. "He must've tied himself to the balloon, or he would've blown off." The tiny figure swung and kicked beneath the dragon balloon like a spider in a gale.
"Get ready to open the top," said Cerf. "Just a little, Jamie, so he can fall in."
Behind the cockpit, the Doctor was back-seat driving. "Higher now, yes, that's it... a little more to the right, no, no, the other right..."
Cerf opened a long trunk in the side of the deck and brought out a pair of copper handcuffs, a huge padlock, a long rattling chain, and a battery-operated megaphone.
"What's that for?" said Jamie, indicating the latter item. Cerf winked at him. "Just wait and see. I've always wanted to do this." He watched the tiny Sode with the expression of a stalking cat.
"Hold it there, Alendar!" shouted the Doctor suddenly. "Jamie, open the top!"
Jamie pressed the button and the shields opened halfway. A wall of icy wind hit, making them all stagger. Cerf raised the megaphone. "Let go, Hron! Cut yourself loose! There's no way you'd survive if the balloon popped!"
---
"I've got a blip, Seven."
"That's what we're here for. What is it?"
"I can't tell. "It's... wait, it's coming at us from below... contact." Forty-Two looked up at Seven, relieved. "It's only a giant balloon that must have escaped from the parade down there."
Seven manipulated the image, adjusted it to seek heat, and pointed. "What's that?"
"Good grief, there's a man tied on it."
"I'm getting another craft, coming in fast from below."
"Visual. You won't believe this, sir, it's the Emperor's private hoverjet!"
"Who's piloting?"
"Even I can't tell from here. This thing'll only magnify so far. It's – fire, they're opening the shields! They'll capsize!"
"What do they think they're doing?"
---
"Steady, Alendar!" shouted the Doctor.
The hoverjet bucked and shook in the jet stream as the pilot fought to keep it under the balloon. Sode dangled from the rope where he had tied himself, turning blue with cold, kicking and struggling, screaming something into the tearing wind.
"What's wrong with him?" said Cerf, awed. "Doesn't he know we can't hear him?"
"I don't think he's talking to us," said the Doctor.
"Can't we just go a bit higher and get him off the rope ourselves?" asked Jamie.
"I'm afraid that wouldn't work," said the Doctor. "If the wind changed suddenly, which it does a lot of at this altitude, the balloon would tip us over upside down and we'd all be lost."
"Jamie," said Cerf, "try opening the shields halfway so he won't miss the hole. Get that, Alendar? Everyone hang on now." Everyone hung on and Jamie opened the shields wider. The wind hit the insides of the shield like a moving wall. Alendar wrestled the jet like a live thing and its frame shuddered under the strain of running a steady course. Jamie's eyes were watering.
Cerf raised his needler gun and addressed Sode again.
"On the count of three, when I pop the balloon, the force of the escaping air will throw you and what's left of your rope off in a random direction. Nothing could save you then. You have until three to cut yourself loose. We won't harm you." There was a thread of steel in his voice that Jamie hadn't noticed before. "One."
Sode twisted to look down at the Prince. Cerf met his eye levelly. "Two."
Sode stabbed at the rope, fell neatly between the two halves of the wind shield and landed in a blue shivering heap on the deck. Jamie pressed the shield button, and Alendar turned the hoverjet toward the ground.
---
"They got him!"
"Unbelievable. That's the best pilot I've ever seen. Outside of us, that is."
"There they go, heading back to the Palace."
Seven looked down at the screen controls. Her hand was trembling. "This day," she said, almost to herself, "whatever it is, is going to be important. Whatever it was that just happened, it was something big."
Forty-Two studied her expression in wonder. "They broke jurisdiction, sir," he said tentatively. "Should I--"
"No, leave it. It's not an extreme emergency."
"What would be an extreme emergency in your book?"
"You'll know it when you see it. Come on, back to the sensors," said Seven, and the Chip sank down toward the eastern horizon.
---
For a moment, Cerf kept his needler gun aimed at the traitor, but it was unnecessary. As Gamra and the Doctor applied the handcuffs, the Prince sat down on the trunk, knees only slightly shaky. "I would have done it," he muttered.
"Look at that," said the Doctor, shining his penlight into each of Sode's eyes in turn. "He's almost catatonic."
"Could it be wind chill?" said Gamra.
"Not likely," said the Doctor. "No, it's... almost as if he sustained a massive mental shock of some sort." He put the penlight away and sat down on one of the long metal benches.
Jamie, having reclaimed his dagger, sat down next to him. "So that's over then?" he said quietly. The shield was closed and the jet sank unsteadily through the heavy wind; the quiet was almost oppressive. "The planet's safe?"
"I don't know, Jamie," said the Doctor, looking worriedly at Sode. "I hope so, but I just don't know."
Jamie looked at Sode. The traitor was huddled in a corner, chained firmly to the guard rail, eyes empty, but speaking. Not quite whispering, but mumbling almost inaudibly, two words over and over.
"I'm coming. I'm coming."
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