LITMIR.BIZ

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the bluff. But scientific enquiry will sort out the truth from the lies – if we are honest in our observations!’

      ‘So what was that ghost train, then?’ demanded one of the girls. ‘You tell us.’

      Bodenland sat down next to Mina again. ‘That’s what I’m saying. I don’t know. But I’m not discounting it on that account. If everything that could not be readily understood was discounted by some crap system of belief, we’d still be back in the Stone Age. As soon as we can talk to the outside world again, I’m getting on to the various nearby research establishments to find who else has observed this so-called ghost train.’

      Clift said quietly, ‘I’ve been working this desert fifteen years, Joe, and I never saw such a thing before. Nor did I ever hear of anyone else who did.’

      ‘Well, we’ll get to the bottom of it.’

      ‘Just how do you propose to do that, Mr Bodenland?’ asked the girl who had spoken up before. Supportive murmurs came from her friends.

      Bodenland grinned.

      ‘If the train comes again tonight, I’m going to be ready to board it.’

      The students set up such a racket, he hardly heard Mina say at his side, ‘Jesus, Joe, you really are madder than they are …’

      ‘Maybe – but we’ve got a helicopter and they haven’t.’

      Towards evening, Mina climbed with Bernard Clift to an eminence above the camp, and looked westwards.

      Joe had been away most of the day. After having persuaded Larry and Kylie to stay on a little longer, he had ridden out with them to see if they could track down any signs of the ghost train.

      ‘What’s out there?’ Mina asked, shielding her eyes from the sun.

      ‘A few coyotes, the odd madman rejecting this century, preparing to reject the next one. Not much else,’ Clift said. ‘Oh, they’ll probably come across an old track leading to Enterprise City.’

      She laughed. ‘Enterprise City! Oh, Joe’ll love the sound of that. He’ll take it as an omen.’

      ‘Joe doesn’t believe what we’ve got here, does he? That’s why he’s allowing this train thing to distract him, isn’t it?’

      Mina continued to stare westwards with shielded eyes.

      ‘I have a problem with my husband and my son, Bernard. Joe is such an achiever. He can’t help overshadowing Larry. I feel very sorry for Larry. He tried to get out from his father’s shadow, and rejected the whole scientific business. Unfortunately, he moved sideways into groceries, and I can see why that riles Joe. No matter he’s made a financial success, and supplies a whole south-eastern area of the USA. Now marrying into Kylie’s family’s transport system, he’ll be a whole lot more successful. Richer, I should say.’

      ‘Doesn’t that please Joe?’

      She shook her head doubtfully. ‘Whatever else Joe is, he’s not a mercenary man. I guess at present he’s just waiting to see if a nice girl like Kylie can cure Larry of his drinking habits.’

      ‘As you say, she’s a nice girl right enough. But can she?’

      She looked straight at Clift. ‘There’s danger just in trying. Still, there’s danger in everything. I should know. My hobby’s freefall parachuting.’

      ‘I remember. And I’ve seen the articles on you in the glossies. Sounds like a wonderful hobby.’

      She looked at him rather suspiciously, suspecting envy. ‘You get your kicks burrowing into the earth. I like to be way above it, with time and gravity in suspense.’

      He pointed down the trail, where three figures on mules could be discerned in a cloud of dust.

      ‘Your husband’s on his way back. He was telling me he’s also got time in suspense, in his laboratories.’

      ‘Time isn’t immutable, as the science of chaos proves. Basically Joe’s inertial disposal system is a way of de-stabilizing time. Ten years ago, the principles behind it were scarcely glimpsed. I like that. Basically, I’m on Joe’s side, Bernard, so it’s no good trying to get round me.’

      He laughed, but ignored the jibe.

      ‘If time isn’t immutable, what is it? Being up against millions of years, I should be told.’

      ‘Time’s like a fog with a wave structure. It’s all to do with strange attractors. I can send you a paper about it. Tamper with the input, who knows what output you’ll get.’

      Clift laughed again.

      ‘Just like life, in fact.’

      ‘Also subject to chaos.’

      They climbed down the hill path to meet Bodenland and his companions, covered in dust after the ride.

      ‘Oh, that was just wonderful,’ Kylie said, climbing off her mule and giving Mina a hug. ‘The desert is a marvellous place. Now I need a shower.’

      ‘A shower and a dozen cans of beer,’ supplemented Larry.

      ‘It was wonderful, but it achieved nothing,’ Bodenland said. ‘However, we have left a pretty trail of flags behind. All I hope is that the ghost train calls again tonight.’

      ‘What about Larry?’ she asked, when they were alone.

      ‘He’s off with Kylie tomorrow, whatever happens tonight.’

      ‘Don’t look so sour, Joe. They are supposed to be on honeymoon, poor kids. Where would you rather be – on a beach in Hawaii, or in this godforsaken stretch of Utah?’

      He smiled at her, teasingly but with affection. ‘I’d rather be on that ghost train – and that is where I’m going to be tonight.’

      But Bodenland was in for disappointment.

      The night brought the stars, sharp as diamonds over the desert, but no ghost train. Bodenland and his group stayed by the mobile canteen, which remained open late to serve them. They drank coffee and talked, waiting, with the helicopter nearby, ever and again looking out into the darkness.

      ‘No Injuns,’ Kylie said. ‘No John Wayne stagecoach. The train made its appearance and that was it. Hey, Joe, a student was telling me she saw ghostly figures jumping – no, she said floating – off the train and landing somewhere by the dig, so she said. What do you think of that?’

      ‘Could be the first of later accretions to what will be a legend. Bernie, these students are going to want to bring in the media – or at least the local press. How’re you going to handle that?’

      ‘I rely on them,’ Clift said. ‘They know how things stand. All the same … Joe, if this thing shows up tonight, I want to be on that helicopter with you.’

      ‘My god, here it comes,’ Mina screamed, before Bodenland could reply.

      And it was there in the darkness, like something boring in from outer space, a traveller, a voyager, an invader: full of speed and luminescence, which seemed to scatter behind it, swerving across the Escalante. Only when it burst through mesas did its lights fade. This time it was well away from the line of flags planted during the day, heading north, and some miles distant from the camp.

      Bodenland led the rush for the helicopter. Larry followed and jumped into the pilot’s seat. The others were handed quickly up, Mina with her vidcam, Clift last, pulling himself aboard as the craft lifted.

      Larry sent it scudding across ground, barely clearing the camper roofs as it sped up into the night air.

      ‘Steady,’ Kylie said. ‘This isn’t one of your models, Larry!’

      ‘Faster,’ yelled Mina. ‘Or we’ll lose it.’

      But they didn’t. Fast though the ghost train sped, the chopper cut across ground to it. Before

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