James P. Hogan by Migration Read Free Book Online Page A

Others followed suit in quick succession.
    But by then the front of the room was deserted, with no trace of Korshak to be seen.
     
    Korshak caught up with Vaydien and Ronti where the side passage from the kitchens joined the palace’s escape tunnel. They emerged at a landing place on the riverbank, where Mirsto had opened the concealed gate and was waiting with a boat. They followed the river for a little over a mile downstream to a copse just outside the city, where four fast horses, watched over by Sultan, were hitched among the trees – saddled, provisioned for lightweight travel, and ready to go.
     

SIX
    Tranth City, with the surrounding region that it dominated, which extended a couple of hundred miles or so in each direction, was located on the opposite side of Merka from Sofi. From a descending surface lander launched fifteen minutes previously by a mother craft from Aurora cruising in the upper stratosphere, Lois Iles contemplated the scene enlarging gradually below. At the far end of the cabin behind her, looking bored and indifferent in a baggy suit, his mouth working absently on a piece of chewing root, Quentago sat between two hefty escorts from the ship. Although Lois’s principal field was optical physics – she had played a major part in working out the functions of devices found in the ruins of several old-world astronomical observatories preserved in Sofi’s central mountain range – she was also active in recruiting for the mission, which meant being on the lookout for exceptional individuals. People like Quentago, with the contempt they displayed for every kind of principle in their pursuit of self-gratification, repulsed her. Not only did they debase everything it meant to be human; they bragged about it.
    Tranth was ruled by a gangster faction that had come to power through violence and made law as expedient. They had rebuilt a hydrocarbon-based technology of sorts and were putting all else second to expanding their industrial base to achieve military dominance in the region. Mills, mine heads, and factory buildings disgorging smoke cluttered the outlying areas, with grimy houses growing denser farther in to become a belt of ugliness choking the urban center. After the open, airy townships of Sofi, the narrow streets hemmed in by tall, austere buildings looked airless and cramped.
    From their earliest days, the Sofians had progressed quickly in deciphering old-world scientific texts, enabling rapid advances in physics that had resulted in a decision to move directly to nuclear techniques for power generation and supplying process heat for materials extraction, manufacture, and other needs. Such boldness of innovation was characteristic of the Sofian way of going about things, leading them through a succession of breakthroughs in the furthering of knowledge and its application to practical matters. This, and their policy of not making their discoveries widely available, had given them uncontested technical supremacy and made possible its culmination in Aurora .
    The lander came down as directed in an open space behind a line of high, solid-looking stone buildings. It looked like a site being cleared for new construction, walled on either side and enclosed at the front by a chain-link fence with a wide gate. Maybe a dozen armed guards, who could have been police or soldiers, were stationed at the gate and outside in the street. A vehicle with two figures waiting in front of it was standing inside, clear of the touchdown area. As the lander’s power died, Lois picked up the document wallet containing her notes, unbuckled her seat restraint, and rose to her feet. The exit was forward from the passenger cabin, through a bulkhead door and behind the crew stations. Farther back, Quentago remained seated with his two escorts.
    “Nice flight down,” Lois complimented as the pilot got up from his seat and moved back to unlatch the door.
    “We try to please,” he acknowledged as he operated the control