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had imagined that it would be noisy and yet there was no sound apart from the
creak of their baskets and the spluttering of the fire. The escaping ashes
were a worry. Of course, they'd be building up now - dead weight; perhaps it
was just well that the fire basket was shedding them.
Another two plugs were tossed into the fire basket to maintain the
balloon's rate of climb through the still air. Despite the brightness and
warmth of the sun, the cold air stung their lungs if they inhaled too sharply.
"Still no wind," said Jenine dejectedly. "I've got only two bags of fuel
left."
"I've got one bag," said Ewen. "I dropped one by mistake."
Jenine said nothing. Unless the wind came, it was clear that they weren't
going to make the strange land.
"Jenine! Look! There! And over there!"
For some reason they had always thought of their island as being unique.
It never occurred to them that there might be more. Certainly not a whole
string of them lying off the main land mass, and stretching in both directions
as far as the eye could see.
And then came the wind.
12.
The initial gusts before the balloon started moving with the wind caused
the envelope to flatten and distort, squeezing out such huge quantities of hot
air that the couple thought they were in danger of asphyxiation from the
fumes. The loss of height was not so serious this time, but refilling the
envelope cost them the last of their fuel plugs. There was no point in
conserving them. They had learned that once an envelope collapse started, it
was difficult to prevent it from escalating. But the fire continued to burn
briskly, controlling their descent just as Ewen had anticipated it would when
he had designed the balloon.
"We're going to make it!" Jenine cried excitedly.
It certainly looked like it. The coast was edging nearer even though the
wind's general direction was carrying them away from the city. They could see
individual rocks on the broad beaches. Jenine pointed to an enclosed wheeled
vehicle driving along the road at the top of beach.
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"It's watching us," she said. "It keeps stopping. Ewen - there's people
there - worrying about us. Doesn't it make you feel good?"
Ewen was busy estimating the narrowing distance to the coast and equating
it with their rate of descent. It was certain that they would make dry land.
He began worrying about what sort of landing they would make. Unlike the
island there were few trees. With each passing second, the beach looked more
likely to be their landing site. It was going to be a rough, bumpy touchdown,
and a long drag across the sand, but they were unlikely to come to any harm.
The sea, reaching inexorably towards them, now bore a heavy swell. Rollers
were breaking on the beach; ahead a rocky headland was sending plumes of white
spray high into the air. But the fire was holding well on the last of their
fuel, maintaining the envelope's shape and slowing their descent.
The vehicle stopped and five men wearing helmets jumped out. They were
too far to make out who they were but their black uniforms and bearing bore
the unmistakable stamp of the police or the military.
And then disaster struck.
Without warning the bottom fell out of the heat-weakened fire basket and
dumped their precious fire in a great cloud of fumes and smoke from which an
avalanche of hot ashes fell hissing and spluttering into the sea. After that
everything happened with extraordinary speed. The envelope had been on the
point of collapse. Without the sustaining column of heat from the fire basket,
it folded in on itself; its weight acting as a giant bellows, driving a wall
of hot air and fumes through the balloon's wildly flapping throat like a
dragon exhaling.
The wind spun the world about Jenine. A whirling section of the fire
basket, still attached to its rope, struck her on the temple. Her scream was
cutoff by the blackness that closed in and muffled by the voluminous folds
that fell about her.
Ewen heard her cry and looked frantically around, momentarily
disorientated, not knowing which way was up or down. A glimpse of grey water
racing towards him but he had no chance to brace himself before his basket hit [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]