Cradle

by Arthur C. Clarke

  ‘What kind of dope have you been smoking, Commander?’ Carol replied. ‘We freely admit that we’ve been looking for your missile. But that doesn’t make us spies. You have no case against us.’ She glanced at Nick. He was admiring her performance. ‘I’m simply a reporter covering a story. This treason business of yours is pure fabricated bullshit.’

  ‘Oh, yeah,’ said Lieutenant Todd, unable to restrain himself. ‘Then where were these pictures taken?’ He showed the photo of Troy in full diving regalia in the initial underwater room with the red and blue walls. He then turned and pointed to the backpacks sitting in the opposite corner of the room. ‘And what were your two friends doing with fifty pounds of gold after their dive tonight?’

  ‘All right, man,’ Troy remarked in an exaggerated manner. He took a step toward Lieutenant Todd. ‘All right. You’ve figured it out, haven’t you? We found the missile and sold it to the Russians for fifty pounds of gold.’ His eyes widened as he looked at Todd. ‘And now the missile is on board a submarine on its way to Moscow or wherever…. Come on, man, get serious. We’re not that stupid.’

  Lieutenant Todd’s temper flared up. ‘You black bastard—’ he muttered before Commander Winters jumped between them. Winters needed some time to think. Todd’s questions were, after all, still unanswered. Even if there were good answers, it was not difficult to understand how someone could have come to the conclusion, based on the photographs, that there might be a conspiracy involved.

  In addition, there was the issue of defending the actions of his junior officers and the investigating team. If I let these three go now, thought Winters, then we are essentially admitting that we made an error in the first place… Ramirez was gesturing at the commander. He nodded outside with his head. Winters did not understand at first, but Ramirez repeated the motion.

  ‘Excuse us a second,’ Winters said. The two officers walked out on the porch above the steps, leaving Todd with Nick and Carol and Troy. ‘What is it, Lieutenant?’ Winters asked.

  ‘Commander, sir,’ Ramirez answered, ‘my career is the Navy. If we release these three now, after no formal questioning—’

  ‘I couldn’t agree more,’ Winters interrupted abruptly. ‘I wish that none of this today had happened. But it did. Now we must finish it up properly and thoroughly or we have no defence for what we did.’ He thought for a minute. ‘How long would it take you to get the video and sound equipment set up for a formal interrogation?’

  ‘About thirty minutes,’ Ramirez replied. ‘Maybe forty-five at the most.’

  ‘Let’s do it. While you’re getting ready, I’ll prepare the list of questions.’

  Shit, said Winters to himself as he watched Ramirez walk briskly toward his office on the other side of the base. I am indeed going to be here all night. He thought of his missed chance with Tiffani. I’d better call her and explain while I’m drafting these questions. He felt a sudden burst of anger toward Lieutenant Todd. As for you, he thought, if we come out of this unscathed, I will personally see to it that you are transferred to lower Slobbovia.

  It was after eleven o’clock. Lieutenant Todd stood near the front door. He was holding a billy club in his hand. Once before in the evening, just after Nick and Troy had reached the Pelican Resort car park, Todd had used the club on Nick’s back to coerce him into the car. Nick could still feel the welt.

  ‘How long is all this going to take?’ Troy asked. He was standing near the desk. ‘Can’t we go home now and get some sleep and come back on Monday morning…’

  ‘You heard what the man said,’ Todd replied. He was definitely gloating. ‘They’ve gone off to prepare for a formal interrogation. You should be using this time to get your story straight.’ Todd pounded his palm with the billy club.

  Troy turned to his companions. ‘All right, team,’ he said with a wink. ‘I move we blow this joint. Let’s overpower this geek and blast out of here.’

  ‘Just try it, you shits,’ Todd rejoined. He smacked one of the empty folding chairs with his club for emphasis. ‘I’d like nothing better than to report that you tried to escape.’

  Nick had not said much since Winters and Ramirez had left. He now looked across the room at Todd. ‘You know what annoys me the most about this, Lieutenant?’ he said to his captor. ‘It’s that people like you,’ he continued, without waiting for an answer, ‘end up in positions of power or authority all over the world. Look at you. You think that because you have us under your control, that makes you somebody. Let me tell you something. You aren’t shit.’

  Todd did not try to hide his dislike for Nick. ‘At least I can find white men to be my friends,’ he replied sarcastically.

  ‘I do declare,’ Troy chimed in swiftly. ‘I believe our associate Lieutenant Todd may be a bigot. We may be talking to a true life honky. Let’s see if “nigger” is his next—’

  ‘Boys, boys,’ Carol interceded as Todd started to move toward Troy. ‘Enough is enough.’ The room became quiet. Troy walked back over to his friends and sat down in his chair.

  A minute later Troy leaned over to Nick and Carol. As he was whispering to them, he put the gold bracelet right next to his mouth. ‘You know, folks,’ he said, ‘if we don’t get out of here soon, we may be here all night. I can well imagine the questions taking three or four hours. And that means the Navy will get to the dive site before us in the morning.’

  ‘But what can we do?’ Carol asked. ‘It would be a miracle if they let us just walk out without any questions.’

  ‘A miracle, angel,’ said Troy with a grin, ‘is just what we need. A good old-fashioned miracle. Like the blue fairy.’

  ‘What are you shits whispering about over there?’ The truculent Lieutenant Todd began to walk toward the bathroom at the west end of the long room. ‘Knock it off. And don’t try anything. The outside door is locked and I have the key.’ He didn’t close the bathroom door. The urinal was fortunately out of view to the right.

  There was not much light in the back of the small bathroom. As Todd was finishing his piss, he became aware of a strange sensation all over his right side, as if a thousand very small needles were sticking in him. Puzzled, he turned toward the corner. What he saw there sent an incredible shock of terror racing through his system.

  In the corner, partially hidden in the poor light, was what could only be described as a six-foot carrot. The thicker end of the creature was balanced on four webbed pads planted on the floor. There were no arms, but about five feet above the ground, just under a maze of blue spaghetti of unknown purpose on top of its ‘head’, four vertical slits, each a foot long, were cut in what might have been its face. Out of each of these slits something strange was hanging. Troy would later explain to Nick and Carol that these were sensors, that the carrot saw, heard, smelled, and tasted with these dangling extensions.

  Lieutenant Todd did not wait to study the creature. He let out a whoop and backed quickly out of the bathroom. He did not stop to zip his fly. When the weird orange thing next appeared in the light at the door to the bathroom, the lieutenant was certain it was going to follow him. He stared at it, petrified and immobile, for half a second. Then, when it did indeed move toward him, Todd immediately turned around, unlocked the front door, and burst through it.

  Unfortunately he forgot about the eight concrete steps. In his panic he tripped and fell. He smacked his head hard on the second step and tumbled down to the bottom. He lay unconscious on his back on the sidewalk in front of the building.

  Carol had cowered against Nick when she had first seen the carrot. Then they had both glanced at Troy. He was smiling and humming to himself, ‘When you wish upon a star… makes no difference who you are.’ He seemed so blasé about everything that Nick and Carol even relaxed temporarily. However, after Lieutenant Todd disappeared out of the front door and the carrot turned to face them, it was difficult to remain calm.

  ‘Nuts,’ said Troy with a big smile. ‘I was really hoping for the blue fairy. I thought she might make me rich, or mayb
e even white.’

  ‘All right, Jefferson,’ Nick said. His face looked as if he had just eaten a lemon. ‘Please explain what that thing in front of us is.’

  Troy first walked slowly over to the corner of the room to pick up their backpacks. ‘This, Professor,’ he replied as he then walked directly up to the carrot, ‘is what we might call a holographic projection.’ He put his hand into and through the orange body. ‘Somewhere in the universe there is supposedly a real life creature like this, but they have only sent his image to help us escape.’

  Even with Troy’s explanation Nick and Carol did not want to come any closer to the stationary carrot than was absolutely necessary. They moved with their backs against the walls until they reached the door. ‘Don’t worry,’ Troy laughed. ‘It won’t hurt you.’

  The sensor hanging out of the slit on the far right of the carrot’s head was totally incomprehensible. Carol could not take her eyes off of it. It looked like a wad of gooey honeycomb stuck on the end of a majorette’s baton. ‘What does it do with that?’ Carol asked, pointing as she preceded Troy out the door.

  ‘I don’t know, angel,’ Troy answered. ‘But it must be fun.’

  Nick and Troy joined Carol on the platform at the top of the stairs. They all saw Todd at about the same time. They were naturally surprised to find him lying at the bottom of the steps. His head was bleeding. ‘Should we help him?’ Carol wondered out loud as Troy bounded down the stairs in front of her.

  ‘No way,’ Nick replied quickly.

  Troy bent down beside Todd and carefully examined the unconscious lieutenant from head to toe. He slapped the big man lightly on the cheek. Lieutenant Todd did not move. Troy winked at his friends at the top of the stairs. ‘The professor was right, my man,’ he said, breaking into a grin, ‘you really aren’t shit.’

  ‘So I kissed her,’ Carol said with a laugh.

  ‘You did what?’ asked Nick. They were in Troy’s old Ford, driving toward the Hemingway marina. After leaving the base they had walked the mile and a half to Troy’s duplex to pick up his car. Carol was beside Troy in the front seat and Nick was in the back next to the backpacks containing the gold and the information discs.

  Carol turned around to Nick. ‘I kissed her.’ She laughed again as Nick screwed up his face in disgust. ‘What was I supposed to do? The woman is stronger than most men. She had me pinned on the floor. There was something just a little suggestive about the way she was holding me….’

  ‘Whoooee, angel,’ Troy slapped the dashboard with his left hand. ‘You are amazing. What did superkraut do next?’

  ‘She released her grip on my wrists. Just for a second. I think she was deciding whether to kiss me back.’

  ‘Yuch,’ said Nick from the back seat. ‘I think I’m going to be sick.’

  ‘So you smashed her on the side of the head and then ran off?’ asked Troy. Carol nodded. Troy laughed heartily and then became more serious. ‘Be careful if you ever see her again, angel. Greta does not like to lose.’

  ‘But you’re wrong about her in one respect, Carol,’ Nick remarked. ‘Greta’s not into women at all. She likes sex with men too much.’

  Carol found Nick’s comment smug and even irritating. She spoke across the front seat to Troy. ‘Why is it, Troy, that men naturally assume that any woman who has sexual relations with men could not possibly be interested in having sex with another woman? Is this another example of their belief in their own innate superiority?’ She didn’t wait for an answer. Carol turned around again to talk to Nick. ‘And in case you’re wondering, the answer is no, I’m not a lesbian. I am relentlessly heterosexual, as much because of my San Fernando Valley middle class background as anything. But I will admit that sometimes I grow extremely tired of men and what I call their baboon demonstrations of machismo.’

  ‘Hey,’ Nick replied, ‘I didn’t mean to start an argument. I was just suggesting—’

  ‘Okay, okay,’ Carol interrupted, loosening up a bit, ‘no harm done. I guess I am a little quick on the trigger.’ She was quiet for a few seconds. ‘By the way, Nick,’ she remarked then, ‘there’s one part of this that I still don’t understand completely. Why did Captain Homer go to such great lengths to hide the rest of the treasure all this time? Why didn’t he just sell it off as soon as he could?’

  ‘Lots of reasons,’ Nick replied. ‘Not least of which was fear that he might somehow be discovered and indicted for the perjury he committed during our trial. But this way he also escapes the IRS, the value of the gold appreciates in time, and, most importantly, Greta has to hang around if she wants her whole share. He almost certainly converts some of it to cash from time to time, probably through a third party. But never enough to call attention to the transaction.’

  ‘So you see, angel,’ Troy said, ‘that’s why there’s no way he can call the police. Because he would have to admit everything. I bet he’s really pissed off.’

  Troy pulled into a left-hand turn lane and waited for the signal to change. A car pulled up beside them on the right, next to Carol, and she just happened to look idly in that direction. It was a Mercedes.

  Later, Carol would recall that time seemed to dilate for her. Each second of the next minute was recorded in her memory in super slow motion, as if it were covering a much longer period of time. Greta was driving Captain Homer’s car and was staring at Carol. Homer was sitting beside her, waving his fists, shouting something that Carol couldn’t hear through her closed window. Carol focused on Greta’s amazing eyes. Never had she seen such hatred. For just an instant Carol looked away to alert Troy and Nick. When she turned back she saw that Greta had a pistol pointed directly at her.

  Three things happened almost simultaneously. Carol ducked, Troy pulled into the intersection against the red light, barely missing a speeding car, and Greta fired the gun. The bullet ripped through Carol’s window and crashed into Troy’s door, somehow miraculously missing them both. Carol sat cringing under the dashboard in the front seat. She fought against panic and tried to catch her breath.

  The chase was on. It was after eleven-thirty on a Saturday night in Key West and the traffic in the residential area was light. Troy’s Ford was no match for the Mercedes. Twice more Greta manoeuvred into position and the Ford was sprayed with bullets. Windows were broken and pitted but none of the occupants of the car was injured.

  Nick was lying on the floor in the back seat. ‘Get downtown if you can,’ he shouted at Troy. ‘Maybe we can lose them in the traffic.’

  Troy was hunkered down behind the steering wheel as far as he could go. He could barely see the roadway in front of them. He was driving like a lunatic, swerving across the four-lane street into oncoming traffic, honking frantically, and making it impossible for Greta to predict his next move. ‘Where are the cops when you really need them?’ he said out loud. ‘We have maniacs firing guns at us in the middle of Key West and there are no men in blue anywhere in sight.’

  After Nick’s suggestion Troy suddenly spun around in the middle of the street and started heading in the opposite direction. Greta was not prepared. She hit the brakes on the Mercedes, went into a skid, caromed off a parked car, and then resumed the chase.

  There were now no cars on the street in front of them and the Mercedes was closing the gap. ‘Uh oh,’ said Troy, fearing another attack. He violently pulled the steering wheel to the left, shot through an alley, into a car park, and back on to a narrow street. A few moments later he made a quick turn into a driveway. The car became flooded with light and Troy jammed on the brakes. ‘Everybody out,’ he yelled. While Nick and Carol were trying to determine what was happening, Troy was giving his car keys to a tall figure dressed in a red uniform.

  ‘We’re just having drinks,’ he said. They heard the screech of the brakes on the Mercedes. ‘And those people behind us,’ Troy said in a loud voice to the half dozen onlookers, including two parking attendants, who were standing nearby, ‘have guns and are trying to kill us.’

  It was too lat
e for Greta and Homer to escape. Troy had driven into the parking entrance of the Miyako Gardens Hotel and already another car had come into the circular drive behind the Mercedes. Greta threw the car in reverse, smashed against the grill and bumper of the Jaguar behind her, and then tried to make a run for it by squeezing around Troy’s Ford. Troy and the uniformed attendant dived for cover as Greta hit the open door of the Ford, lost control of the Mercedes, and eventually crashed into the parking kiosk in the middle of the driveway. As Nick and Carol stumbled out of the car, four hotel security men surrounded Greta and Homer.

  Troy walked over to join his friends. ‘Anybody hurt?’ Both Carol and Nick shook their heads. Troy broke into a grand smile. ‘I guess that ought to take care of those characters,’ he said.

  Carol gave him a hug. ‘It was a brilliant idea to drive here,’ she said. ‘What made you think of it?’

  ‘Birds,’ Troy answered.

  ‘Birds?’ Nick responded. ‘What the fuck are you talking about, Jefferson?’

  ‘Well, Professor,’ said Troy, opening the door to the elegant hotel and following his colleagues inside into the open atrium, ‘when they were about to catch us that last time, I realized that they were probably going to kill us for stealing their gold. And I wondered if there really were birds in heaven. My mother always told me that there were.’

  ‘Troy,’ Carol said with a smile, ‘you are so full of shit. Come to the point.’

  ‘Exactly, angel,’ he answered. ‘Look around you.’ In the atrium of the Miyako Gardens was a magnificent aviary whose tiny, threaded wire rose four storeys into the air under a bank of skylights. Hundreds of colourful birds played among the vines and palm trees and brought the real sound and feel of the tropics to the lobby of the hotel.

  ‘When I thought about birds,’ Troy could no longer restrain a crazy laugh, ‘I realized we were in the vicinity of this hotel and the plan sort of jumped into my mind.’

  The three of them stood together and gazed up at the aviary. Carol was in the middle. She reached out her hands to both men.