As I spoke the APC vanished, the night rolled back and we were walking hand in hand through a small wood by the side of a stream. It was summer and the water babbled excitedly among the rocks, the springy moss a warm carpet to our bare feet. The blue sky was devoid of clouds and the sunlight trickled in among the verdant foliage above our heads. We pushed aside low branches and followed the sound of a waterfall. We came across two bicycles leaning up against a tree, the panniers open and the tent half pegged out on the ground. My heart quickened as the memories of that particular summer's day flooded back. We had started to put the tent up but stopped for a moment, the passion overcoming us both on the warm ground. I squeezed Landen's hand and he put his arm round my waist. He smiled at me with his funny half-smile.
'When I was alive I came to this memory a lot,' he confided to me. 'It's one of my favourites, and amazingly your memory seems to have got most things correct.'
'Is that a fact?' I asked him as he kissed me gently on my neck. I shivered slightly and ran my fingers down his naked back.
'Most – plock — definitely.'
'What did you say?'
'Nothing – plock-plock – why?'
'Oh, no! Not now of all times!'
'What?' asked Landen.
'I think I'm about to—'
'—wake up.'
But I was talking to myself. I was back in my bedroom in Swindon, my memory excursion annoyingly cut short by Pickwick, who was staring at me from the rug, leash in beak and making quiet plock-plock noises. I gave her a baleful stare.
'Pickers, you are such a pest. Just when I was getting to the good bit.'
She stared at me, little comprehending what she had done.
'I'm going to drop you round at Mum's,' I told her as I sat up and stretched. 'I'm going to Osaka for a couple of days.'
She cocked her head on one side and stared at me curiously.
'You and Junior will be in good hands, I promise.'
I got out of bed and trod on something hard and whiskery. I looked at the object and smiled. It was a good sign. Lying on the carpet was an old coconut husk – and better than that, there was still some sand stuck to my feet. My reading of Robinson Crusoe hadn't been a total failure after all.
14
The Gravitube
* * *
'By the time this decade is out, we aim to construct a transport sy
stem that can take a man or a woman from New York to Tokyo and back again in two hours …'
– US President John F. Kennedy
'For mass transport over the globe there were primarily the railroads and the airship. Rail was fast and convenient but stopped short of crossing the oceans. Airships could cover greater distances – but were slow and fraught with delays due to weather. In the fifties the journey time to Australia or New Zealand was typically ten days. In 1960, a new form of transportation system was begun –the Gravitube. It promised delay-free travel to anywhere on the planet. Any destination, whether Auckland, Rome or Los Angeles, would take exactly the same time: a little over forty minutes. It was, quite possibly, the greatest feat of engineering that mankind would ever undertake.'
VINCENT DOTT – The Gravitube – Tenth Wonder of the World
Pickwick insisted on sitting on her egg all the way to Mum's house and plocked nervously whenever I went over twenty miles per hour. I made her a nest in the airing cupboard and left her fussing over her egg while the other dodos strained at the window, trying to figure out what was going on. I rang Bowden while Mum fixed me a sandwich.
'Are you okay?' he enquired. 'Your phone's been off the hook!'
'I'm okay, Bowd. What's happening at the office?'
'The news is out.'
'About Landen?'