Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones Read Free Book Online Page A

no one in Europe thinks it can be done?’
    ‘Mm. Bearing in mind “no-one” means the handful of people, theorising right out on the edge, who have even heard of the idea… If you want my personal opinion, I think they wanted to do the work, fusion consciousness is incredibly sexy, so they emphasised the mass destruction idea to get Defense Department funding. It may not be the most ethical route, but it is well-trodden. They have the biggest, fastest hardware, they have license to whack a team of military volunteers full of nasty, scary, wrecking-ball neurosteroids. I expect they’re getting somewhere, but probably not the so-called Neurobomb.’
    ‘D’you think it’s true that they got hold of Rufus’s head?’
    The ‘Green Nazi’ European Celtics had planned for Rufus to decimate the population of Europe. When Fiorinda and Sage had brought back the magician’s severed head, from his Irish stronghold, and presented it to the enemy, the bastards who’d taken over in Ax’s absence had found this a convincing argument. Resistance to Ax’s come-back invasion had collapsed, peace had ensued: but the severed head had vanished in the shuffle.
    Sage glanced at Fiorinda. ‘I don’t think it will have done them any good.’
    They’d spent seven years on an insane roller-coaster, and ten months licking their wounds, oblivious of the world. Maybe they’d been fools to think they could cross the ocean and leave it all behind: but they were disconcerted. In Europe, the death of a senior Irish/American celebrity, (known ‘Green Nazi’ sympathiser) had been quietly buried, by everyone including the Gardia .
    We know how to handle these things at home, what’s this Harry Lopez doing, doesn’t he know when silence is best?
    ‘I remember a Fat Man,’ said Ax, after a pause for thought. ‘It comes back to me… Wasn’t that the nickname they gave to one of the first atom bombs, devices, whatever? And there was a Little Boy, too. But Lopez said, Fat Boy. ’
    ‘It’s another nickname. It’s what the Celtic “druidic science” lunatics were aiming for with Rufus. Fiorinda knows.’ They looked at the babe, but she was still idly plonking keys. ‘You take a natural-born magic psychopath, of which thank God, so far Rufus is the only example. You pump up the volume with the rocket fuel he gets from human sacrifice, and he goes critical, like a nuclear pile.’
    ‘And the “‘It’s a Good Life’ scenario?”’
    ‘Same. “It’s a Good Life” is a classic science fiction story, about a little boy, born with a mean mutant brain. Whatever he wants, he can make it so. Everybody has to grovel to this kid, because if he tells you to turn inside out, then you will. If he tells the sun to explode, then it will. It’s what happens when the Fat Boy’s up and running, it’s the doomsday, runaway chain reaction. It isn’t proven, it’s just a weird possibility.’
    ‘I’m glad to hear it.’
    ‘Well, there you go. Fiorinda and I thought we were assassinating Adolf Hitler, to prevent the Holocaust. It turns out we were making a futile attempt to suppress the discovery of nuclear fission. What a bust.’
    ‘Shit. So much for Rufus as our private nightmare.’
    ‘It’s private enough. There are millions or billions who’ve heard of Ax Preston and the Reich, my dear. Very, very few who know what happened to the world last summer; or what’s going on right now at Vireo Lake.’
    ‘And a kid cartoon-movie producer is one of them. I find that most bizarre.’
    Sage nodded. ‘Most bizarre.’
    ‘Can’t help wondering what’s behind it.’
    ‘I suppose we’ll find out what’s behind it when we get to Hollywood,’ said Fiorinda.
    Both men started, and turned to her, shocked and guilty.
    ‘Oh, no sweetheart,’ protested Ax. ‘That’s not what we’re discussing.’
    ‘No, no! We aren’t thinking of taking the gig, we’re just talking—’
    ‘For fuck’s sake.’ Fiorinda brought both hands down on