“PLEASE, Mummy,” began the impassioned message from Leanne, “please Uncle Rupert, Auntie Ruth, please please take me away from this horrid school! From this horrid city!” Her face on the screen showed every sign of acute distress.

  Ruby was taken aback. Everyone was aware that many parts of Earth were slumping into levels of chaos and violence not seen since mediaeval times. But a peaceful, well-found, and well-organised (and very expensive) girls’ boarding-school?

  Leanne had been a student there for a little over three months, and Ruby had assumed that she was settled in well, away from all the mayhem that was swamping the world outside its walls. Such was not the case, it seemed—and this was the first she had heard of trouble from Leanne’s direction. What was she to do?

  It was Ruth who made the decisions. Ruby must make the long journey to Moscow, but when she demurred, pleading unpreparedness for such a task, Ruth agreed to accompany her. It was clear that Ruby needed a helping hand when circumstances turned difficult. How would she cope? Ruth wondered, as conditions on the planet deteriorated further.

  Rupert’s contribution to the discussion was simply to propose that Leanne be withdrawn from the school forthwith.

  “What good’s an education to anyone, these days?” he muttered. “If the world really is finished, defunct; if we are the last of our kind, who will there be to pass our knowledge on to? Not the Overlords, for sure: their science and technology is a thousand times better than ours, and they seem to show no interest in the Arts or Humanities. Apart from Rashy, that is: coming to browse my library—and we all know now why that happened. Where are all the Overlords, anyway? They don’t seem to have been seen around for ages.”

  “From what I’ve heard,” remarked Ruth, choosing a moment when Ruby was out of the room, “they’re spending all their time and resources watching over Australia, and the Children whom they’ve planted there. Goodness only knows what’s happening there. Aust-ralia is totally off-limits: no-one can even get near the country—not even to Tasmania. There was one story of a couple of guys who tried to make it by canoe, of all things—across the Torres Strait from Papua. All of 150 kilometres: that must have been some trip! They just disappeared—no-one knows what happened to them.”

  “Probably the Overlords know what happened to them,” said Rupert. “Perhaps they sank the canoe…”

  “Rupert, you know the Overlords don’t do that sort of thing. My guess is, they somehow conjured up a strong wind or current to drive the canoe off course. And the two canoeists, rather than face returning in shame to their homeland, scuttled their boat and drowned them-selves. That’s my theory, anyway. They must have known it was going to end up a suicide mission…”

  Ruby, who had just re-entered the room, overheard Ruth’s last few words. “Please, please, Ruth,” she wailed, “don’t let’s talk about suicide. Bad enough losing Hugh—”

  “But surely Hugh’s death was an accident,” interposed Rupert, who, not surprisingly, had loathed the man who had supplanted him in Ruby’s affections. “Brought about by his own stupidity. He didn’t need to do that crazy stunt—”

  “Crazy or not,” put in Ruby, angry in her turn, “lots of other people are doing those sort of … those horrible, wicked things … giving themselves a … way out …” Her face puckered and her eyes began to brim with tears. The memory of her loss was still too raw to contem-plate. Ruth stepped towards her and put an arm round her shoulders.

  “Let’s not talk about this any more,” she whispered. “We must plan our trip to Moscow. It’ll be a comfort to be with Leanne once again, whatever trouble she’s got involved in.”

  “I guess you two ought to leave as soon as possible,” said Rupert. He was in fact hoping that they would bring back Leanne with them—he had grown quite fond of the girl during their brief acquaintance. So it was the very next day that he stood and watched as the aircar took off with its two passengers, leaving him all on his own in the villa. He was wondering whether he should have undertaken the journey himself—it sounded as if there might be trouble in Moscow—but he was too much attached to his Reserve: he hated to be away from it, whatever the reason.

  *

  The long flight to Moscow was uneventful, and Ruby and Ruth alighted as soon as the car had settled itself in the one of the large municipal car parks in the city’s outskirts. After the hot humid conditions of central Africa, they found the air comfortably mild, and they decided it would be a pleasant walk to the school, just over a kilometre away.

  But the attendant stopped them just as they were leaving the car park.

  “Where might you be going to, ladies?” he asked, with (surpris-ingly, for one living in Moscow) a distinct American accent.

  “We were just going to walk to my daughter’s school,” replied Ruby. “It’s only a kilometre away and I know the way.”

  “Best if you don’t, ladies. The streets ain’t safe to walk in, these days. When were you here last?”

  “I came here with my daughter when she first joined the school … but on that occasion we had a lot of luggage so we took a cab.”

  “And that’s what you’ll be doing again, ladies, if you value your security—your lives. I can call one for you.”

  After some argument, Ruth and Ruby agreed to call a ground cab: the attendant had tried to persuade them to take a much more expensive air cab but they demurred. They had been airborne long enough! And they had not been allowed to park their own air car any closer to the school—Ruby had wondered at that on her earlier visit, but it seemed to be the rule. So within a few minutes they were away in a ground cab with a not very talkative driver, who, Ruth noticed, carried a seriously no-nonsense-looking revolver in a holster at his hip. Was he a cop as well as a cab driver?

  It did not take long for the women to find out. They had scarcely gone more than a few hundred metres when they a series of loud bangs coming from the left side of the road. At the same time a noise like a storm of hailstones pounded the body and windows of the cab. Both Ruby and Ruth were screaming, but the driver maintained his compusure. He stopped the cab, lowered his window a fraction, drew his gun, aimed, and fired several times.

  “Just kids,” he muttered. “And don’t worry, ladies, this cab is bullet-proof—bodywork and windows both. It’ll stop everything short of a high-velocity bullet. I think I got at least two of them.”

  “Killed them, do you mean?” cried Ruby, horrified.

  “That’s what I said, lady. Don’t you understand the ways of the world, nowadays? People are killing one another, and themselves, all over the place. There’s no laws anymore. And I says, why bother? Just stay alive, that’s my take.”

  “But, where we come from—” began Ruth.

  “Where you come from ladies! … OK so it’s some sheltered hideout for rich folk far away from real life—is that it? Time you ladies learnt a lesson about what’s happening around you.” As the cabbie said this, he set the car in motion again.

  The short journey was not without further problems. As they rounded a bend, they came up against four young women—barely more than teenagers—strung across the road. The cabbie jammed on his brakes. To say the girls were skimpily clad would be an under-statement: they were dressed in ultra-short skirts, fishnet stockings, high heels, and just bras on top. A couple of them unfastened their bras revealing their breasts, but when they saw that the occupants of the cab were two women, their grins faded and they stepped aside.

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  “If you’d been guys, they’d have had you—if I’d let them. And you’d like as not have ended up shot dead by their pimp. They just do it for kicks—not for sex—not even for money. Sometimes I run them ‘ho’s down, if I’ve gotten mad enough at ’em. That’s the sort of place this is, now. You’d better get used to it, ladies, if you’ve come to stay.”

  It was Ruth who found her voice first. “Run them down? You mean, kill them?” echoing Ruby’s words of a few minutes back. “But they’re only young girls—doing a job! How can anyone be so callous?”

  The driver shrugged. “There are always plenty more to replace the ones I’ve taken out. And other cabbies here will do the same. I don’t like losing fares to them punks.”

  Ruth and Ruby were speechless for the rest of the drive. The cab arrived at the heavy gate guarding the entrance to the school. There was a sign by the gate, but it was in Russian and neither of them could understand it. So much for Earth’s entire population being now able to speak English! A guard came towards them, and upon Ruby presenting her ID and explaining her mission, he opened the gate to let them through.

  As they were paying the driver, Ruby finally managed to come up with her question. “Is the whole of the city like that? I mean, total anarchy, complete collapse of any sort of law and order?”

  “Pretty much, ladies. I’d have thought you knew—most of the world is like this nowadays. Folks just don’t care what they do, not anymore.”

  “I’ve been here before,” continued Ruby, “with my daughter. And we saw none of this. But I suppose it’s because we came by air-cab.”

  “That’s the sensible way to go, ladies—but even that’s not 100% safe. There are some hoodlums around who get a real kick out of stealing an air-car and smashing it into anything they see flying. Usually killing themselves as well in the process, of course. Or else they’ll go for you with a mega-laser. They can’t be stopped. But it’s still safer than a ground-cab. I’m thinking of switching to air myself—but they’re damned expensive.”

  And with that, he was gone, before the women could ask any more questions.

  Walled in by its heavily protected enclosure, the school displayed every sign of both exclusivity and opulence. The grounds were extensive and well-maintained, with ornamental gardens and lakes scattered over many hectares of parkland with copses here and there. There were paths crossing the grounds in all directions, with the occasional bench or summerhouse to pass the time at. How could Leanne have found this place unendurable?

  Best find out. Ruth and Ruby walked in by the main entrance, where to their surprise there was nothing by way of a reception desk; no-one to challenge their entry into a school. They stood there wondering which way to go.

  “This isn’t like I remember it,” wailed Ruby. They were in a plain unfurnished lobby with various doors leading off it. There was a sign on the wall, also in Russian and therefore of no use to them. “They’ve changed everything! There used to be a receptionist here. What can have—”

  “Privet damy!” [see note] sounded a voice behind them, making them both start and wheel round. There was a shady, disreputable man who had come in behind them—a most unsavoury character who was now leering at them in a very unpleasant way.

  “Pardon?” asked Ruth, feeling rather scared.

  “I’m sorry,” continued the man, switching to English but with a strong Russian accent. “Come here for the fun have you, ladies?”

  “Certainly not!” retorted Ruby, having collected herself sufficiently to speak.

  “All right, all right. No offence, ladies. You look a bit past it any-way. Sonya!” he called. Almost at once a short, plump middle-aged woman, well-endowed, wearing a voluminous floral print dress, low-cut at the front, and that reached to her ankles, emerged from a door-way. She greeted the man and asked him a question in Russian.

  “We’ll talk English for now, Sonya. Just so’s not to confuse these two lovely ladies here. Who’ve you got for now?”

  “Well there’s Sophia, and there’s Julia…”

  “OK, I’ll take Sophia. I know the way.” He handed a bundle of bills to Sonya, which she tucked in the front of her dress, and a moment later he had gone off through one of the doors.

  Ruth was perplexed. Sonya had all the appearance of being a sort of ‘Madam’…

  “So, what can I do for you ladies?” asked Sonya. She spoke with a soft American accent with a touch of Irish burr.

  “Something tells me this isn’t a school anymore,” whispered Ruth to Ruby. But Sonya had caught her words.

  “You’re dead right there, ladies. Why should we go on teaching these kids when they don’t want to learn anything? They’re better off, and there’s more money coming in, the way we are now. But I guess you’re not come here for that.”

  “We most certainly have not!” exclaimed Ruth, angrily. “We had no idea. We’ve come here to see my friend here’s daughter. Leanne Midgley. Is she here?”

  “Leanne … Leanne. Let me check.” Sonya disappeared through the door she had come in by, and Ruth and Ruby could do no more than stand and wait…

  *

  It was about twenty minutes before Sonya returned. “Yes, Leanne’s here, but she’s not been too well lately. Don’t worry, it’s nothing serious! She’s in the sick bay. I’ll take you to her.” And with that Sonya led them through several corridors until they entered a large brightly-lit room lined with beds, like a hospital ward. Leanne was there, but not in bed: instead she was sitting in a chair beside her bed, looking pale, sullen, and listless. She was wearing a skimpy top, short skirt, and fishnet tights—the sort of clothing that neither Ruby nor Ruth had ever seen her wear before. But, as she dashed up to her, Ruby noticed a dark damp stain on the front of her skirt.

  “Leanne, darling, what’s the matter? And don’t they have any tampons here?”

  Leanne seemed to notice her mother for the first time. She lifted her eyes to meet Ruby’s. “It’s not my p-p-period, Mummy,” she said, weakly, barely conscious. “It’s … it’s … I’ve been …” She could not finish her sentence and burst into tears. Ruby sat on the bed and she too started sobbing uncontrollably.

  It was left to Ruth to take charge of the situation. “It’s plain enough what we have here. This place has turned into a brothel. And we’ve got to get Leanne out of here straight away. I hate to even think what might have happened to her. Can you walk, Leanne?” She had to repeat the question several times before Leanne responded.

  “I’ll try.” Leanne stood up. There were a pair of high-heeled shoes by the bed: she put them on and tried to walk, but soon stumbled and fell onto the bed and became unresponsive once more.

  “Let’s leave the shoes,” ordered Ruth. “Listen, Ruby. I’m going to make my way back to the car park, bandits or no bandits—and then bring the aircar here, rules or whatever. Then—Leanne, do you hear me?—we’ll take you back home to your f—— … to Uncle Rupert. You two wait for me here.” She turned to Sonya, who was standing behind them. “Did you understand all that?”

  “Sure I did,” said Sonya, slyly. “But if you’re taking Leanne off my hands, I’ll want compensation. Alright, she’s not much use to us in her present state, but still … how about, say, five hundred bucks? Cash.”

  “You fucking bitch!” screamed Ruby. “You get some bastard, some creep in here to rape my daughter—yes, rape!—and God knows what else’s happened to her—and now you want money!?”

  “Ruby—please let me handle this,” said Ruth, quietly. “If she won’t let Leanne go for less than five hundred, I’ll pay five hundred. It’s her business she’s running here, whether we like it or not. So, Sonya,” she added, turning to face the ‘Madam’. “I’ll trouble you to call me a cab right away, if you please. And take me back to the entrance.”

  “I’ll want another ten for calling the cab, if you don’t mind,” put in Sonya, rather sourly.

  “Shit! Oh well—all right then, I guess we don’t have a choice: 510 dollars it is. I assume there’s a bank still functioning here in this city.”

  It was more than an hour before Ruth finally returned, having parked the aircar right in front of the school gates. Ignoring the ex-postulations of the guard, she brushed past him and marched straight into the school and made her way to the sick-bay. Sonya was still there, and Ruth rudely shoved a wad of notes into her hands.

  “You can count it if you like, but it’s all there,” she grunted, but Sonya merely tucked the notes into her dress as before.

  Meanwhile Ruby had done her best to spruce up Leanne. She had found some of her more ordinary clothes in a closet, and procured a few sanitary towels. Leanne was still bleeding, although not heavily, and she was still very weak and semi-conscious. Between them, Ruth and Ruby supported her as they stumbled their way out of the building and bundled Leanne into the car.

  “Now for home,” announced Ruth cheerily, as she launched the car into the air. “And goodbye Moscow!”