Black Swan (Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow) Read online

  “Like an earthquake, you mean?” His nose was running. He wiped the back of his hand across his upper lip and it came back red.

  Cadence nodded.

  “So what happens if this thing goes off?”

  She looked at him, her face pale. “Everyone dies.”

  “How long have we got until detonation?”

  “I don’t know,” Cadence said, suddenly flustered. “I mean everything about this suggests that the music the orchestra is playing has clearly been composed in order to create the greatest acoustic tension possible as it builds.”

  “How long?” he shouted.

  “Ten minutes?”

  “What happens if we can stop the orchestra before then?”

  “The damage has been done, the feedback loop has already been created. Stopping the orchestra will only lessen the force of the blast, not dissipate the sound energy already collected and focused by the machine.”

  It was getter harder and harder for the two of them to communicate.

  “Then we haven’t a moment to lose,” Ulysses said, taking off his jacket and starting to roll up his sleeves.“Call Dupin and tell him what’s going on. Tell him he’s got to stop the performance and get everyone out as quickly as possible.”

  “I can’t,” Cadence said, her personal communication device in her hand. “There’s no signal down here.”

  Typical, Ulysses thought. “Then get to topside as quickly as you can and tell him in person. Now run!”

  “And what are you going to do?”

  “Try to defuse this bomb. What else?”

  Blood was dripping from his nose and onto his shirt, spotting the floor in front of the organ-bomb.

  “No!” Cadence shouted over the painful pulsing hum of the organ.

  Ulysses shot her a furious glance.

  “No,” she went on, “because we’re going to do this the other way round.”

  Ulysses opened his mouth to argue.

  “Because I’m the one with the engineering expertise. I’ll stay behind and dismantle the bomb while you warn Dupin.”

  A strict middle-class Neo-Victorian upbringing taught him that he should protest, that good manners dictated that he should ensure the young lady was safe and take the more risky course of action himself, but Ulysses couldn’t fault her logic.

  “Very well,” he said, “but I want you to know that I’m only going under protestation. And promise me, if it can’t be done, you’ll get out of here yourself. Don’t take any risks.”

  “I think by far the greater risk,” she shouted over the relentless thrumming, “would be to...”

  The rest of what she said was drowned out by the noise emanating from the weaponised pipe organ.

  Turning on his heels, Ulysses set off at a run.

  ANOTHER STEEL, WHEEL-LOCKED door led him to a flight of brick-laid steps that in turn brought him to a caged elevator. This he rode to a basement tunnel, and from there, via more doors – including one disguised to look like the back wall of a broom cupboard – and a service passageway, he found himself at last backstage at the Paris Opera.

  The fact that he had been right about their location didn’t give him any sense of pride. A madman was prepared to unleash hell on the centre of Paris and hundreds if not thousands of people would die in this terrible terrorist atrocity if Ulysses and Cadence between them failed to avert the disaster. If Cadence failed to deactivate the bomb, Ulysses had to at least ensure that the Opera House had been evacuated.

  It was a mercy to be free of the painful, nosebleed-inducing sonic vibrations.

  Following the appropriate painted signs, picking up a number of disapproving looks along the way, he came at last to the foyer of the Palais Garnier to find Detective Inspector Dupin and his men already there.

  “Quicksilver!” the policeman spluttered in surprise. “Where did you spring from?”

  “There’s a bomb under the Opera House!” Ulysses gasped. “We have to get everyone out now!”

  Dupin didn’t need to be told twice. The look in Ulysses’ remaining eye, coupled with the fact that he was there at all and hadn’t flown the coop when he so easily could have done, was a good enough guarantee for the Inspector that the dandy was telling the truth.

  They set off together towards the auditorium, taking the steps of the grand staircase two at a time. Bypassing the flustered front of house staff they met at the doors to the main auditorium. Through the combination of a flash of Dupin’s badge and the fierce expression on Ulysses’ face, they burst into the gold-ornamented grandeur of the Paris Opera’s theatre.

  The orchestra was in full swing, the ballet itself almost under way, the music swelling to fill the performance void, enhanced by the acoustics of the place. Dancing string melodies merged with parping brass, the tinkling of a piano and the crash of percussion, while the intruders’ unprompted entrance was met by a chorus of tuts, mutterings of disapproval and a fair amount of annoyed head-turning.

  “You have to leave,” Ulysses said, turning to the man at the end of the row nearest to him. “Now!”

  “Hey, get your own seat, buddy!”

  “This is the police!” Dupin announced loudly to all around him. “You must leave immediately.”

  The commotion they were making and the confusion that followed it was spreading throughout the auditorium now, the clamour causing heads to peer from balconies and boxes above.

  The orchestra, however, played on.

  “You have to go now!” Ulysses screamed, grabbing another man by the arm and physically hauling him out of his seat, much to the other’s obvious chagrin. “Get out while you still can!”

  The conductor turned at that, fixing Ulysses with a fierce glare from his pedestal, but kept on conducting regardless. It was clear that nothing was going to halt the premiere of Black Swan.

  The music swelled to a marvellous crescendo. Despite the desperate nature of his current situation, a part of Ulysses’ mind could still appreciate that Roussel’s final magnum opus had been a triumph.

  A tremor passed through the floor of the auditorium, making Ulysses and the policemen start, and members of the audience jump in their seats.

  Ulysses looked about him in panic, suddenly fearing for Cadence’s safety.

  Then came another.

  Even the orchestra felt it this time, the conductor faltering. There was a cracking sound from above him and a piece of ornamented plaster thudded onto the carpeted floor beside Ulysses.

  Someone was screaming. He suddenly realised it was him. “Get out! Get out! GET OUT!”

  A third tremor and the massive chandelier suspended high above the prized seats of the stalls began to jangle and shake.

  “GET OUT!”

  There were screams all around him now. And panic, and terror, and people running for the doors.

  Ulysses joined the mass exodus of the Opera, the tide of humanity carrying him towards the exit as plaster shards rained down upon their heads.

  He was barely through the auditorium doors himself when he felt the seismic shockwave that heralded the city’s demise.

  And then the world turned upside down.

  End of Part Two

  About the Author

  JONATHAN GREEN is a freelance writer, with more than twenty-five books to his name. Well known for his contributions to the Fighting Fantasy range of adventure gamebooks, and numerous Black Library publications, he has also written fiction for such diverse properties as Doctor Who, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Sonic the Hedgehog and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

  He is the creator of Pax Britannia, and Time’s Arrow is his eighth novel for Abaddon Books. He lives and works in West London. To find out more about the steampunk world of Pax Britannia, set your Babbage engine’s ether-relay to www.PaxBritannia.com.

  WHAT WILL COME OF OUR DASHING HERO NEXT?

  Have you ever read a book and wished you could get into the story?

  Have you ever wanted to shout a warning to the hero, or advise him on h
ow best to proceed?

  Now's your chance!

  In the third and final thrilling instalment of Time's Arrow, “White Noise,” Paris faces utter destruction, and our hero is faced with a deadly dilemma. And what of the enigmatic Cadence Bettencourt, if she even survived the destruction of the Opera House? Is she to be trusted or not?

  Is Cadence the friend she appears to be, helping a stranger in need out of native kindness?

  or

  Does Cadence have a hidden agenda, in service to those Ulysses is determined to stop?

  For more information, and to cast your vote, head over to the Abaddon Books website now!

  VOTING CLOSES ON FRIDAY, 15TH JUNE 2012!

  WWW.ABADDONBOOKS.COM

  In which the city of Paris faces destruction, and our hero is faced with a deadly dilemma.

  But is Cadence Bettencourt to be trusted or not? Is she the friend she appears to be, or does she have a hidden agenda in offering to help our hero?

  www.abaddonbooks.com

  Start a new life on the moon!

  Ulysses Quicksilver visits the British lunar colonies, searching for his missing brother, Barty, believed to be on the run from gambling debts on Earth. The clues lead our detective and his faithful butler into the path of unsolved murders, battling robots, shady millionaires and stolen uncanny inventions. Used to working inside the law, Ulysses is stalled when his pursuit puts him on the wrong side of the Luna Prime Police Force.

  But why is Ulysses’ ex-fiancée Emilia also in the colonies? Who is the strange eye-patched man following Ulysses? And what is really happening in a secret base on the dark side of the moon?

  Used to meeting every adventure with a devil-may-care attitude and a snappy one-liner, Ulysses will be forever changed by the revelations he discovers on this most deadly of trips

  www.abaddonbooks.com

  Born of Science - Born of Madness!

  Ulysses Quicksilver, agent of the crown, jumps into a time vortex pursuing Daniel Dashwood, a madman bent on sharing modern technology with Hitler’s forces and changing history to suit his evil ends. Rewind several decades, to the time of the Second Great War, to Darmstadt. The Nazis are battling the steampunk empire of Magna Britannia, cooking up necrotic super-soldiers in the gothic towers of Castle Frankenstein.

  In the forests outside the castle, other forces are gathering. Ulysses’ father is there, proving that dashing good looks and a talent for swashbuckling adventures run in the family, and wondering why his British masters have partnered him with weakling scientist Dr. Jekyll. The ladies of the Monstrous Regiment are also there to help, but there may be other gothic monsters in the hills...

  www.abaddonbooks.com

  Title

  Series

  Indicia

  Part Two: Black Swan

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  About the Author

  Now Choose...

  'Time's Arrow, Part Three: White Noise' by Jonathan Green

  'Dark Side' by Jonathan Green

  'Anno Frankenstein' by Jonathan Green

  Table of Contents

  Series

  Indicia

  Part Two: Black Swan

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  About the Author

  Now Choose...

  'Time's Arrow, Part Three: White Noise' by Jonathan Green

  'Dark Side' by Jonathan Green

  'Anno Frankenstein' by Jonathan Green