The Sleeping Army Awakes

31Country Drive

The obscenely stretched and ridiculously widened Zeli Motors Silver Shadow Corniche oozed into sight in the same way that a foul wind drifts in. The car was unmistakeable not only for its bizarre width and length but also because of its genuine yellow and black snake skin roof, glinting in the sunlight below. Spencer guessed, correctly, that there could not be anything similar anywhere in the world. Few people in the world had a more gauche taste than Sir Percy's. He had taken his father's lovingly kept and pristine Rolls and after he had bought the company that produced them, had turned it into a grotesque parody of a vehicle, belying it's former existence as a regal carrier of Kings.

The oversized, bullet proof Corniche had coasted effortlessly into position even before Spencer had managed to pick his way down the last escarpment. Sweating like a pig and intensely uncomfortable, Spencer stopped and looked down dubiously at the final portion of his walk. It looked like a vertical, rather uneven, and in places, slimy path... but from where he stood it was the only way down to the road. Spencer who liked to remain dignified at all times, was pessimistic about the prospects about being able to remain upright all the way down, but there were only twenty metres left now before he reached the roadway. Hill climbing was nice in theory, but in practice it would be much easier to be chauffeured the rest of the way.

Spencer's Dudat had displayed all the contours on the map correctly but then marks on a map were one thing and reality was another. These contours had been so close together as to be almost indistinguishable from each other at the resolution that the Dudat displayed them in. Spencer hadn't been prepared for just how steep some of the slopes had been. He slid rather than walked down the last few metres fending off the ground with his hands to prevent himself from ending up on his back. Still he was down now and very pleased to see that Ivo had managed to reach as near to the rendezvous point as possible.

Spencer had given Ivo the coordinates, but he hadn't been confident that the geo-positioning system would be accurate enough to guide Ivo to the correct location. In the last few years, five or six, satellites had spontaneously plummeted out of orbit and burnt up ignominiously, making coverage patchy. The technology relied on the user being in the line of sight of three or four of them at once for an accurate fix and sometimes there were only two, in addition the GPS had been built for a static earth whereas the continents moved on their tectonic plates. The upgrade to correct for this had never been implemented.

The familiar shape of the Corniche, as hideously decorated and constructed as it was, provided a comforting sight for Spencer. The monstrosity had been flown in especially, at a really obscene cost, just in case it was needed. In contrast to the expenditure on the vehicle, Ivo, who was a local chauffeur, had been forced to walk the twenty kilometres or so to the airport to collect it. Sir Percy could be penny pinching with his staff but he was always willing to shell out when he wanted something for himself.

The car came to a stop and sat with its engine running, making little perceptible noise apart from a quiet assured purring. The twelve point eight litre V16 engine ticked over sedately, sending no perceptible emissions to pollute the atmosphere. Mere wisps of ephemeral water vapour escaped each of the quadruple exhausts, with just a dribble of water leaking from the end of each gold plated pipe. The car was a throwback to a more genteel times when the laws limited emissions. Nobody cared enough to limit emissions in anything newly built.

The quiet, non polluting aspect of the Corniche was in stark contradiction to the convoys of large driver-less trucks and trailers thundering past, sending clouds or acrid thick black smoke into the air. The robotic trucks ran on what was essentially cooking oil. The Corniche looked somewhat out of place somehow, sitting idling on the gravelled verge of the main road burning one of the most expensive fuels on the planet.

Spencer was late, and he hated being late more than anything else in the world, except for being unclean and he was both now. He had already used all the wipes in his pockets and his hands were still not as clean as they should be.

Due to the roughness of the terrain, it had taken him far longer to descend the hill than anticipated and although he had already added a fifty percent leeway to his original calculation. He had enjoyed the wonderful scenery, when he had had the privilege of viewing it rather than having to look at his feet to avoid injury, but he was also sweating profusely. Perspiration was to be avoided at the best of times. No matter what duties that Spencer was required to do he was expected to always look his best. He hoped that Ivo had a towel and at least a clean shirt that he could borrow until tomorrow.