Descent from Xanadu Read Online Free PDF Page A

stateroom,” Judd told the steward.
    “Yes, Mr. Crane.”
    Judd walked to the flight deck staircase, behind which his personal cabin was located. He turned back to the steward. “Could you ask Merlin to see me?”
    “Right away, sir.”
    Judd went up the steps and through the door that separated his cabin from the operating crew on the flight deck. Fast Eddie was waiting with an ice-cold Coca-Cola. Judd slipped off his jacket and picked up the drink. Merlin knocked at the door as Judd sipped his drink. Fast Eddie opened it.
    “Yes, Mr. Crane,” Merlin said, his notebook in his hand.
    “Dr. Ivancich, Sofia,” Judd said. Merlin was already making notes. “I want a security and computer check on her. Everything we can find out.” He quickly added everything Dr. Zabiski and Sofia had told him. “I don’t want any surprises.”
    “Anything else, sir?” Merlin asked.
    “Yes,” Judd asked. “Ask Doc Sawyer at Medical Research if he’s heard anything about work being done on human self-cell-cloning implantation.”
    “We’ll get on it as soon as we take off, sir,” Merlin said.
    Judd looked at Fast Eddie as Merlin left the cabin. “Ice up a bottle of Cristale,” he said, picking up the interphone and buzzing the chief steward. “When the doctor returns,” he said into it, “ask her if she would like to join me on the flight deck for takeoff.”
    Fast Eddie already had the bottle of Cristale in the bucket, as well as the two iced champagne glasses on the stand next to his seat. Judd walked to the rear of the cabin to his bedroom and began to take off his shirt. “Get me a terry-cloth jumpsuit,” he said.
    Fast Eddie opened one of the closets and took out the jumpsuit and laid it on the bed. Next to it he placed a pair of terry-cloth slippers and on the bed a French silk bikini. Judd went into the small shower stall in the bathroom, pressed the button that automatically mixed water and soap, then rinsed after the water cleared again. Steam lifted out of the stall automatically; he dried himself with an oversized towel. He dressed quickly and combed his hair. He looked at himself in the mirror. Okay, he thought, but only okay. He still felt tired. And he didn’t like that. He had several things he had yet to do.
    He pulled out a drawer and took out a gold vial and opened the cap, exposing a plastic bullet-type screw. He unscrewed the plastic top and a tiny opening appeared. He placed it in one nostril, squeezed the bottom of the vial, and the cocaine shot up as he snorted. He did it again with the other nostril. He felt the hit bring him up immediately. He threw the vial back in the drawer without closing it. He looked in the mirror again. He didn’t look so tired now. He smiled to himself. That’s one advantage of owning a chemical company of your own, he thought. You never have to worry about the street shit.
    Fast Eddie was waiting in his cabin. He smiled. “Nothing like a hot shower and a snowstorm, boss,” he said. “You look better already.”
    “You’re too fucking smart,” Judd smiled. “Are they on board yet?”
    “Just coming on now, sir,” Fast Eddie said.
    Judd picked up the telephone and called the chief steward. “Suggest to the doctor that she would be comfortable in one of the jumpsuits. I think a size eight might be okay.”
    “I’ve already thought of it, sir,” Raoul said quietly. “But I left a size seven on the bunk. That’s more her fit.”
    “I defer to the French couture,” Judd laughed, and put down the telephone.
    ***
    The captain’s voice came over the address system. “All personnel secure. Takeoff in one minute.”
    Judd looked at Sofia in the next seat. She was peering through the window. He felt the slight shudder as the big plane began to move. He glanced at her hands. They gripped at the arms of the seat. He was silent as they moved quickly on the ground and then, suddenly, softly, slipped into the air.
    Her voice was low. “It seems almost like a house