John Rackham (20 page)

"It makes sense," Jasar grunted,
"but what if you run into trouble?"

"I have a blade."

"You'll do better with this." Jack
unhooked his beamer and passed it over. "I'm happier with my arrows. Lead
on!"

Haldar shoved the door open and went, Silvana
after him, and then lasar, handicapped by his short legs, leaving Jack to
follow, and blink at the sudden glare of the big room outside. He ran after the
others,
then
skidded to a halt as he heard a low
grumbling noise. It was dreadfully familiar. Twisting his head he saw a pair of
immense lamp-like green eyes coming at him from the dark under a cabinet. As he
came into the light he saw it as the mate of the cat-thing he had killed among
the weeds. It seemed an age ago. Ridiculously, the names came to mind. That one
had been Milby. This one was Fervil.
Pets to Garmel, killers
to humans.
Glancing ahead he was in time to see Sil-vana's golden head
disappear into the hole, and Jasar running at a rolling gait
...
and he knew he couldn't run the rest of
that way with the impending doom of a crippling paw hanging over his head. That
thought came simultaneously with the practiced shrug of his arm and shoulder,
to get the bow, nock an arrow, and draw to his chin. The cat-thing, like any feline
will,
sank
into a nose-down crouch, eyes alert,
whiskers spread forward. Jack loosed, reached, drew another and had it half
ready, but there was no need. The screeching beast reared monstrously up,
clawing at its ruined eye. Jack turned and ran, to see Jasar standing by the
hole with beamer in hand. The screeching deafened him so that he could only
wave to Jasar to go on, at which the little man nodded and ducked into the
hole. Jack, skidding to a halt, followed him, and felt the floor begin shuddering
to an urgent giant tread.

"Come on!" Jasar growled. "We
have no time to give away. When Garmel sees what you've
done
.
..
!" They galloped in
close order, Jasar peering ahead, but Jack had his ears cocked for the noises
they were leaving behind. Gartners angry roaring:

"All right!
All right! I'm coming!"

"Provena
to BB7 Arc
...
red
...
red
...
red!"

"Blood and bones, you and your red!
BB7 Arc to
Provena.
What
are your coordinates?"

The
interwall tunnel took a sharp right-hand bend. Jack heard Garmel more faintly
now, but in bellowing rage for all that.

"Fervil!
What in Darg's name have you done to yourself? Keep still while I look
. . . blast! That was my hand, you stupid beast! Gah!
Blood!"

Then, suddenly and ominously, that cavernous
shouting ceased. Jack put on speed to get close to Jasar. "Garmel has
found his injured pet. What can he
do,
anything very
bad?"

"Never mind that.
The sparks will really start to fly when he tries to con that ship in.
We had to play tricks with his sensors, because they were linked with other circuits
that we needed. Unless he's a total fool—
which
he is
not—he is bound to smell sabotage. And he
must
have second-line defenses of some kind. Look out; here we go down the
runnel to the brugg-pensl"

The
foul smell had triggered Jack's memory too. Down the white wall to the angle,
pause and turn, then crawl as fast as he could across the wire-mesh roof, Jasar
just ahead. Farther ahead he saw Silvana crawling steadily, her pink rump
swaying. She, with her fear of heights, was going strongly and without any
hesitation. No wonder she was the sort that would think of her duty first. Over
she went, and down. Jasar turned and went over. Jack came to the edge, turned,
started
lowering himself as fast as he could, the red and
black floor coming ever nearer. He glanced down to be sure he wasn't treading
on Jasar, saw the little scout leap clear
...
and in that moment white agony knotted his Angers
...
and arms
..
.
and
legs
...
drew
a yell of anguish that cut off as he fell the rest of the way and landed
heavily and painfully on his side. In a blur of pain he saw Jasar's face come
anxiously near.

"What happened? Are you hurt?"

Jack
dragged in a shaky breath, struggled up,
got
to a
knee. "I think I am sound," he mumbled. "It was as if the metal
shot needles into my hands!"

"Hmm!"
Jasar scowled at the metal mesh, put his hand cautiously close,
then
withdrew it again, nodding to himself. He wheeled and
roared in a voice amazingly big for one so small: "Haldar! Take care!
Touch no metal! Garmel has thrown some switch or other. Everything is alive!
Are you all right now, Jack? Come on; we will have to lead now. The harness
will protect us. You'd have been fried without it. Haldar, wait up!"

They
ran shoulder to shoulder down a lane between growling monster machines to where
Haldar stood, impatient but impressed when he heard what Jasar told him.

"That's just one rick,"
he
mutterer And if he finds those loaded sensor-relays . . .
?"

"That
was in my mind too," Jasar grunted as they started trotting on their way.
"He could undo all our work. Better that I blow them now; agreed?"

Haldar's face set mask hard. Do it!" he
snapped. "It was always a risk. And we are far from dead yet!"

"What
are you doing?" Silvana asked, not in fear but steadily, as she ran with
them. Jasar snapped open a pouch in his belt, brought out a small box.

"We
set trigger-relays," Haldar explained, "that will blow the entire
power-plant of the station in one blast. But we couldn't do that without
tampering with certain other sensor-relays and safety-circuits. Those are
obvious. Gar-mel will see them at once, if he looks in the right place."
The thing in Jasar's hand made a quiet but distinct click. "But it won't
do him a bit of good, now, even if he does find them. It's too late. But he
will
know roughly where we are, unfortunately."

Within
ten more jogging paces Jack heard a subtle change in the growling chorus of the
surrounding machinery. Haldar heard it too, lifted his head in suspicion,
then
shouted, "Come on! Run! The pumps are stopping.
This whole section will flood! Run!"

At
a mad gallop they raced down the lane between the machines that were groaning
to death. Somewhere off to one side there came an enormous, wet blurting
explosion, a great gust of moist air, and a foaming wall of water ran down on
them. In another moment they were knee-deep and splashing crazily onward.
Another bursting roar came from behind. A hissing wave caught up with them and
washed them helplessly forward. Jack saw Silvana stagger and almost fall. Jasar
was in dire trouble, the swirling flood being deeper for him. Then Haldar
fought his way to and managed to grasp the upright of a ladder leading to the
surface. Struggling, he got himself to the first rung, and promptly folded
himself over it to stretch down his hands for Silvana. She reached, but a
foaming crest struck her between the shoulders and swept her away. Jack hurled
himself after her, seeing her surface and
shake
the
water from her face.

"To me!" he shouted, wading,
stretching out his hand to catch hers and heave her close. Now he had to turn
and battle against a turbulent flow, leaning into it, his arm around her
shoulders, straining furiously until he could reach out and grab the upright.
Jasar was already there, chin-deep.

"Climb
on me!" Jack shouted. "Haldar will help." Jasar bobbed his head,
made a scramble, achieved Jack's shoulder, and his weight went away up.

"Now
you, princess.
Your foot on my knee, the other in my palm, and up!"
He
steered her foot to his shoulder, steadied her as she went up, and felt her
weight lift. Leaning back he saw her soar like a bird in the grip of the other
two, to scramble leggily over the first rung. Then Haldar strained down.

"Now
you, lad," he grunted, a fierce grin parting his saturated beard.
"Give me your hand." It was a good stout grip. In a moment Jack was
up and by his side on the rung, the water swirling noisily below. Then he
looked up into the tube, at the far-distant circle of daylight, and shook his
head ruefully.

"Don't
look like that!" Haldar cried. "We can do it, if we organize
ourselves. Jewel bags first, like this!" He stood on the rung, bracing one
hand on the upright, held one bag by its bottom comer and swung . . . and
looped the other one up and over the next bar. He laughed, reached for Jasar's
bags. Jack managed to stand and copy him, and again with Silvana's.

"Now,"
Haldar declared, "we're the tall ones, so we lift. Jasar, you have the
strength. Let's try this. Up you go, on our palms, shoulders, to the next bar
...
and that's fine! Ready? My
lady, up you come
!" They held her foot until she could
stand on their shoulders
,
then Jasar had her up and
over. "Now you make a stand for me, Jack." And up went Haldar nimbly,
to rum and fold over and grab and

hoist
__
and
they were one more rung higher. "And that's

it
!"
the goldsmith of Berden declared, grimly confident. "We won't rush it.
Just a steady routine pace.
We can do it. Ready,
Jasar?"

It
was a reasonable effort for the first five or six rungs, but then the all-out
strain began to find weaknesses, tendons
that burned and
protested, arms
that were strangely heavy, legs that shook. Jack was
aghast, at one moment, to find
himself
shivering like
a leaf as he tried to brace alongside the upright for Haldar's mounting.

"I
begin to fail!" he muttered, and Haldar thumped his shoulder lightly.

"You
fail? Tve been ready to drop for the past
three rungs! We will take a breather on the next one. My arms are
useless!"

They sat in a dejected row, weary and sore,
trying to rest. Silvana leaned her head on Jack's chest, her heart thumping in
her breast as he held it in his palm. "Is it all worth it?" she
whispered, so that only he could hear. "I lose heart, my love. So many
blows have bruised me, so many good things have been torn from me, that I begin
to believe fate shows me joy only to rip it away once
I
have tasted it. And now you . . ."

"I'm
still here!" He hugged her tightly. "I will not believe in any fate
that can throw us together like this for nothing at all. I was fated to save
you, and save you I will!"

"I'm
not sure anymore what to believe"—she lifted her face to him—"except
that I love you as I never loved man before. That much I have, no matter what
else may happen."

"Nothing
will happen. We are going to escape. Take heart; we are at least halfway to the
surface." He hoped it was true. He didn't dare look. His heart
sagged
a little as he heard Jasar growl:

"We
cannot afford to wait too long, Haldar. We have a time limit, and no way of
knowing what other tricks Gar-mel may play."

"Right!"
Haldar agreed resignedly. "Come on; now we know the trick of it,
the rest will be easy."

But
it wasn't. They went on, rung by arduous rung.
Up with the
bags.
Up Jasar, by himself.
Up
Silvana, with assisting strong arms.
Then Haldar.
And then reach, heave, climb, and struggle. And do it again.
And
again.
Jack felt his legs crumble and become like knotted string, his
arms numb from the shoulders on, his fingers feeble. Silvana began to sob
helplessly. When she couldn't get her feet to their shoulders they made her
sit, instead, in their palms, and shoved her up that way, and Jack came to
dread the warm weight of her bare bottom on his hand, and the anguish of
shoving it away up. The time came when he found the whole business so utterly silly
that he had to laugh, and couldn't stop his laughing until Haldar grabbed bis
ear and slapped
him
painfully with the other hand. He was too utterly
weary to care, so weary that it took him a long moment to realize what Haldar
was trying to say, croakingly.