Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! - Softcover

Harry Harrison

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0450029972 ISBN 13: 9780450029974

Publisher: New English Library Limited (NEL), 1976

Synopsis

1st NEL 1976 edition paperback, vg In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

About this title

About the Author

Harry Harrison was born in 1925 and lived in New York City until 1943 when he joined the US army. After the war he became a commercial artist before turning to writing. He has lived in Mexico, the UK, Italy, Denmark, Spain and Ireland. He is best known for the Stainless Steel Rat books, the Bill, the Galactic Hero sequence and for Make Room! Make Room! And Star Smashers of the Galaxy.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One
A HURRIED MESSAGE AND
A DANGEROUS MOMENT
Leaving Paddington Station, the Flying Cornishman seemed little different from any other train. Admittedly the appointments were cleaner and newer, and there was a certain opulence to the gold tassels that fringed the seat cushions in the first-class carriage, but these were just a matter of superficial decoration. The differences that made this train unique in England, which was the same as saying unique in the entire world, were not yet apparent as the great golden engine nosed its way over the maze of tracks and switches of the station yards, then out through the tunnels and cuttings. Here the roadbed was ordinary and used by all trains alike. Only when the hulking locomotive and its trailing cylinder of closely joined coaches had dived deep under the Thames and emerged in Surrey did the real difference show. For now even the roadbed became unusual, a single track of continuously welded rails on specially cushioned sleepers that was straighter and smoother than any track had ever been before, sparkling in deep cuttings that slashed a direct channel through the chalk of the downs, shooting arrow-straight across the streams on stumpy iron bridges, a no-nonsense rail line that changed direction only in the longest and shallowest of curves. The reason for this became quickly apparent as the acceleration of the train steadily increased until the nearby fields and trees flashed by, visible as just the most instantaneous of green blurs; only in the distance could details be picked out, but they too slipped backwards and vanished almost as soon as they had appeared.
Albert Drigg had the entire compartment to himself, and he was very glad of that. Although he knew that this train had made the return trip from Penzance every day for almost a year now and had suffered no mishap, he was aware of this only in theory, so that now experiencing it in practice was a totally different matter. From London to Penzance was a total of 282 miles and that entire incredible distance would be covered in exactly two hours and five minutes—an average speed including stops of well in excess of 150 miles per hour. Was man meant to go that fast? Albert Drigg had a strong visceral sensation that he was not. Not even in this year of Our Lord 1973, modern and up-to-date though the empire was. Sitting so bolt upright in his black suit and black waistcoat that they showed no wrinkles, his stiff white collar shining, his gleaming leather portfolio on his knees, he generated no sign of his internal emotions. On the rack above, his tightly rolled umbrella and black bowler indicated he was a city man and men of the city of London are just not given to expressing their innermost feelings in public. Nevertheless he could not suppress a slight start when the compartment door whisked open on silent runners and a cheerful cockney voice addressed him.
“Tea, sir, tea?”
One hundred and fifty miles an hour—or more!—and the cup remained in place on the ledge beneath the window while the tea poured into it in a steady stream.
“That will be thrupence, sir.”
Drigg took a sixpence from his pocket and passed it over to murmured thanks, then instantly regretted his largesse as the door closed again. He must be unnerved if he tipped in so magnanimous a manner, but he was solaced by the fact that he could put it on the expense account since he was traveling on company business. And the tea was good, freshly brewed and hot, and did very much to soothe his nerves. A whisky would do a lot more he realized, and he almost touched the electric button for the waiter when he remembered the Saloon Car, often seen in the pages of The Tatler and Pall Mall Gazette, but visited only by the very few. He finished the tea and rose, tucking the extra length of chain back into his sleeve. It bothered him that the portfolio was irremovably shackled to the cuff around his wrist and indicated that he was something less than a completed gentleman, but by careful maneuvering he could keep the chain from the public view. The Saloon Car, that was the very thing!
The carpeting in the corridor was a deep gold in color, making a subtle contrast with the ruddy, oiled gloss of the mahogany paneling. Drigg had to pass through another coach to reach the Saloon Car, but there was no need to struggle with recalcitrant doors as on an ordinary train, for as he approached, some concealed device detected his proximity and the doors opened swiftly before him to the accompaniment of the hum of hidden electric motors. Naturally he did not look through the compartment windows he passed, but out of the corners of his eyes he had quick glimpses of finely dressed men and elegantly attired women, some children sitting sedately, reading—then a sudden loud barking that inadvertently drew his eye. Two country gentlemen sat with their feet up, emptying a bottle of port between them while a half dozen hounds of various breeds and sizes milled around and sought after their attention. And then Drigg was at the Saloon Car.
No automatic devices here but the best of personal services. A grand carved door with massive brass handles and a pillbox-capped boy, his double row of uniform buttons glinting and catching the eye, who saluted and tugged at the handles.
“Welcome, sir,” he piped, “to the Grand Saloon Car of the London and Land’s End Railway.”
Now that he saw it in its full splendor Drigg realized that the newspaper photographs did not do the establishment justice. There was no feeling at all of being in a railway carriage, for the atmosphere was rather that of an exceedingly exclusive club. One side contained immense crystal windows, from floor to ceiling, framed by ruddy velvet curtains, while arrayed before them were the tables where the clientele could sit at their leisure and watch the rural countryside speeding by. The long bar was opposite, massed with ranked bottles that reflected in the fine cut-glass mirror behind it. There were windows to the right and left of the bar, delicately constructed stained-glass windows through which the sun poured to throw shifting colored patterns upon the carpet. No saints here, unless they be the saints of railroading, like Stephenson or Brunel, sturdy, far-seeing men with compasses and charts in hand. They were flanked by the engines of history with Captain Dick’s Puffer and the tiny Rocket on the left, then progressing through history and time to the far right where the mighty atomic-powered Dreadnought appeared, the juggernaut of the rails that pulled this very train. Drigg sat near the window, his portfolio concealed beneath the table, and ordered his whisky, sipping at it slowly while he enjoyed the gay music-hall tune that a smiling musician was playing on the organ at the far end of the car.
This was indeed luxury, and he relished every moment of it, already seeing the dropping jaws and mute stares of respect when he told the lads about it back at The King’s Head in Hampstead. Before he had as much as finished his first drink the train was easing to a stop in Salisbury, where he looked on approvingly as a policeman appeared to chase from the platform a goggling of boys in school jackets who stood peering into the car. His duty done, the officer raised his hand in salute to the occupants, then rolled majestically and flat-footedly on about his official affairs. Once more the Flying Cornishman hurled itself down the track, and with his second whisky Drigg ordered a plate of sandwiches, still eating them at the only other stop, in Exeter, while they were scarcely done before the train slowed for Penzance and he had to hurry back for his hat and umbrella.
The guards were lined up beside the locomotive when he passed, burly, no-nonsense-looking soldiers of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, elegant in their dark kilts and white gaiters, impressive in the steadiness of their Lee-Enfield rifles with fixed bayonets. Behind them was the massive golden bulk of the Dreadnought, the most singular and by far the most powerful engine in the world. Despite the urgency of his mission Drigg slowed, as did all the other passengers, unable calmly to pass the gleaming length of her. Black driving wheels as tall as his head, drive rods thicker than his legs that emerged from swollen cylinders leaking white plumes of steam from their exhausts. She was a little travel-stained about her lower works, but all her outer skin shone with the seamless, imprisoned-sunlight glow of gold, fourteen-karat gold plating, a king’s ransom on a machine this size. But it wasn’t the gold the soldiers were here to guard, though that was almost reason enough, but the propulsive mechanism hidden within that smooth, unbroken, smoke-stackless shell. An atomic reactor, the government said, and little else, and kept its counsel. And guarded its engine. Any of the states of Germany would give a year’s income for this secret while spies had already been captured who, it was rumored, were in the employ of the King of France. The soldiers sternly eyed the passersby, and Drigg hurried on.
The works offices were upstairs in the station building, and a lift carried him swiftly to the fourth floor. He was reaching for the door to the executive suite when it opened and a man emerged, a navvy from the look of him, for who else but a railway navvy would wear such knee-high hob-nailed boots along with green corduroy trousers? His shirt was heavy canvas and over it he wore a grimy but still rainbow waistcoat, while around his pillarlike neck was wrapped an even gaudier handkerchief. He held the door but barred Drigg’s way, looking at him closely with his pale-blue eyes which were startlingly clear in the tanned nutbrown of his face.
“You’re Mr. Drigg, aren’t you, sir?” he asked before the other could protest. “I’ve seen you here when they cut t’tape and at other official functions of t’line.”
“If you please.”
The thick-thewed arm still prevented his entra...

About this edition

• Publisher: New English Library Limited (NEL)
• Publication date: 1976
• ISBN 10: 0450029972
• ISBN 13: 9780450029974
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192