Mindgames: Fool's Mate by Neal Asher

Author:Neal Asher
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fool's Mate, Fool's Mate
Publisher: Neal Asher
Published: 2013-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

He had run for at least ten miles.

He was sure of this because he felt as exhausted as he used to feel on a training run and that had always been with a twenty pound pack on and over rough terrain, not this unchanging flatness. But then, on those training runs he had not recently fought for his life, though it had not been unusual to run with injuries like the bruised ribs he now had. He glanced back and saw that the building was almost indiscernible now. He looked forwards and wondered just how far he had to go and what his destination was to be. And he ran on, trying not to think of his thirst, and how foolish he had been not to bring supplies.

It was after what had to be least twenty miles when he looked aside and saw the Clown keeping pace with to him. He slowed to a walk.

‘I can communicate with you now,’ said the Clown. ‘The longer they forego that ridiculous disc-ringing ceremony the easier it is for me to do so.’

‘Where am I heading?’ asked Carroll between gasps.

‘To the edge of what you call the steel plain, then beyond. You are close now. Look.’ The Clown pointed.

Carroll peered ahead and saw that below the sunset a line could be discerned, a horizon.

‘You see, the steel plain is just one face of one of the matter converters I used to construct the solar disc.’

Carroll felt his heart and stomach tighten and he suddenly felt very small. So massive a construction and it was only a tool.

‘Matter converter,’ he repeated, ‘a tool, a machine bigger than a city... How long–’ he stopped when he saw the Clown's pained expression and what could only be described as a crack dividing him in two.

‘They play the game yet,’ said the Clown, and another crack appeared. ‘They think you will die just like the rest, that I have no plan–’ another crack appeared then another and another, and before Carroll the Clown broke apart, flew to pieces, and disappeared.

What the Hell! thought Carroll, and looked ahead towards the edge of the steel plain. There, very faintly, he could see indistinct shapes. He set out towards them at a trot.

The first shape Carroll came to was a desiccated corpse so far gone with age that when he touched it with is foot it collapsed to dust.

‘They think you will die just like the rest.’

He did not know exactly how long it would take for a corpse to get into such a condition in a place like this, but what he did know was that this corpse had been here for a very long time. He moved on, slowing to a walk as he saw another corpse, then another. In all he saw six, two of them burnt, the other four all desiccated. He wondered again about the duration of the game, and he also wondered about the duration of the Clown's game, whatever it might be. How many had died permanently in the Clown's cause? He did not want to be one of their number.

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