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later the zargon gas in the entire daylight system of Dome 16 was contaminated
with one part in one million of phosgene gas. Very little, but more than
enough for his purpose. He quickly stowed his gear and left. As a final touch,
he sprayed fast- setting super adhesive around the door frame before pulling
the door closed. A few more squirts around the hinges and catch, and the job
was done.
He returned to his room the way he had come, hid the bag, got undressed,
and climbed into bed, feeling very pleased with himself.
He hoped that Jenine would also be pleased although it was doubtful.
Jenine was conservative and would probably be shocked. But maybe the results
of his little enterprise would help her understand.
And maybe not.
He suddenly remembered that he had taken a glove off when tampering with
the valve and had forgotten to wipe the area clean of fingerprints. He cursed
his foolhardiness, but it was too late to do anything about it - he would
never get the door open now having bonded it closed, and it would soon be
dawn. He worried for some minutes and decided that it was unlikely that Tarant
would think to check for fingerprints.
Ho hum. Try to sleep.
4.
Chief Technician Dom Aster Tarant, Head of the Communications and
Transport Faculty at the GoD Centre, was a man who liked to express his points
of view with great candour; who admired in others the ability to see his views
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with a minimum of debate and explanation; and who gave generously of his time
in acquainting others of his academic achievements. Put another way, Dom Aster
Tarant was an arrogant, boastful, overbearing bully.
It was a few minutes before dawn when he threw open the windows of his
penthouse and office on top of Senate House, and stepped naked onto his 7th
floor balcony - the highest in Dome 16 - to check that all was well with his
empire. It was the first step on the worn path of his daily routine. Dom
Tarant was addicted to his routine. If anything interfered with it, his
demeanour went from difficult to impossible, and the lives of those around him
did likewise.
He breathed deeply, sucking clean air into his stocky body. This was his
favourite time of the day. When all was quiet. When the students were shut
away in their rooms with their appalling smells, and not kicking up a racket
on the glass pyramid in front of Senate House.
A couple of joggers caught his approving eye. Students were a lazy lot.
He reflected on how much more efficiently his faculty could be run without
them.
A faint glow sprang from the zargon lights. This was the only time of day
when it was possible to look directly at the batteries. The glow brightened
and infused the glass pyramid with a curious milky light. Tarant blinked and
shook his head. It was time to visit those frauds in the Health and Hygiene
Faculty in Dome 10 and get his vision checked. Of course, one should not look
at zargon lights, even when they were warming up.
He looked up at the inside of dome and blinked again. He leaned over the
balcony and stared down at Senate House's glass facade. Something decidedly
odd was happening. The joggers had stopped and were looking up. His head
snapped up. The dome was the wrong colour! The lights waxed to a tenth of
their midday intensity and continued to brighten.
If it hadn't been for windows being opened on the residential block and
curious heads and shoulders leaning out, Tarant might have doubted his sanity.
The whole campus was turning blue!
No - that was wrong; it wasn't turning blue - it was BLUE! The lights
were blue, the dome was blue, the buildings were blue, the glass pyramid was
blue, the grass and flowerbeds were blue, even his belly and other bits were
blue; everything as far as the eye could see was suffused with a hideous,
nausea-inducing deep blue light.
"Zenna!" he roared for his secretary, and plunged back into the penthouse
- a far from happy man whose routine for that day was going through Phase 1 of
being well and truly buggered.
5.
Few of the technician-students crowding around the windows of the
residential block were so institutionalised that they didn't secretly welcome
the diversion that the strangely- coloured daylight provided. But Jenine, as
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