Merry Christmas, Ms Minerva (1978) by Edmund Cooper

Author:Edmund Cooper [Cooper, Edmund]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fiction & Literature, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780575116504
Google: fnkJDAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Hachette UK
Published: 2016-05-25T21:00:00+00:00

Twelve

Now, as she sat comfortably in the armoured car, on her way back to the lonely mansion in Dorking after the successful if rather pointless shopping spree at Harrods, she shivered, remembering that dreadful phrase: we need to use monsters.

We need to use monsters!

It’s true, she thought dully. In this monstrous world we have created, we need to use monsters to deal with monsters.

Unaccountably, lines from William Blake came drifting into her mind.

I will not cease from mental fight,

Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,

Till we have built Jerusalem

In England’s green and pleasant land.

She remembered hearing them sung a long time ago in the Albert Hall on the last night of the Proms.

Thousands of young faces, shining with idealism. Thousands of young voices challenging the orchestra, drowning it with their fervour and their passion.

So, what had happened to all that idealism? What had happened to all those passionate young people? Had they just simply ‘grown up’ and carved out careers for themselves in the Unions, in politics, in the Civil Service, in industry? And how many of them had become disillusioned enough with this plastic society to express their protest by turning into Easy Riders?

Ms Minerva was shaking again. She badly needed a drink. She dismissed her resolution not to drink any more yet and was just about to programme a large Scotch from the dispenser, when Tom’s voice came over the intercom.

“We are well clear of London now, Ms Maggie – and good riddance. I can’t stand the place … No signs of trouble so far. It doesn’t seem like Christmas Eve at all.”

Dear, good old Tom! She was grateful to him for inadvertently stopping her from taking the drink. She resolved to give him his presents later in the evening rather than on Christmas morning. Let him have a Christmas Eve to remember. The very sound of his voice had calmed her down.

“Go on with you,” she said affectionately. “You know you like taking the car out now and then.”

He laughed. “It makes a change … Are you using the ’scope, Ms Maggie?”

“It’s up, but I wasn’t using it.”

“Have a look. You can see what’s left of Hook since the Easies hit it ’bout a month ago.”

Ms Minerva swivelled the periscope. Hook was a small suburb consisting of little but a main street – along which the armoured car was travelling – and dormitory high-rise blocks.

It was like driving through a ghost town. All the supermarkets had received the Easy Rider treatment. So had the wine shops and the launderettes. All the windows had been smashed, most of the doors had been battered down, and several buildings had been burned to the ground. A number of the high-rise blocks were still in darkness, though dusk was already falling, and stars were beginning to prick through the clear, deepening sky. So the Easies had taken out the electricity supply, too.

Tom seemed to divine her thoughts. “They left the water,” he said laconically. “Maybe by that time, they were too pissed to find the mains.

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