Last Ranger (17 page)

“Whoa, hold it right there,” Stone said, holding his hands up. “The missile systems—what do you mean by that?”

“I thought you knew.” She laughed. “I guess there’s no reason to think that. In my mind, as I read about you over the last
few months I guess you became my—” she blushed and looked up shyly like a young girl. “Heroes know all.”

“Oh Christ,” Stone groaned. “Please, no hero stuff. I’m too fucked up myself. Too many vices, neuroses and cowardices lurking
in these bones.”

“Anyway,” she went on, looking nervously at the door and then back again. “Aside from this complex being a survival operation,
it was also the control center of the entire Star Wars missile defense system. That includes over a hundred atomic missiles
that can be targeted on any part of the Earth. From controls down here in this station they can launch anywhere, anytime.
They are going after nothing less than world control. Like Hitler all over again. The Ten Hitlers. And with the missiles,
as I’m sure you can imagine, they’ll be able to take out anyone who gets in their way. There will be thousands, hundreds of
thousands like them—and me. A world of freaks and burning ruins. That is their vision. And that is why I will help you—to
destroy them. I only pray that I get to drive the stake into the Dwarf bastard’s heart. I ask only that you give me that pleasure
if God help us we ever get that far.”

“You’ve got it,” Stone said, hardly able to speak, feeling the sheer waterfall of hatred inside the twisted woman.

“Now tell me what do you need? Quickly, I’ve got to get out of here. If they catch me with you I’m dead on the spot.”

“All right,” Stone said, dropping to one knee and placing his hand gently on her shoulder. She wasn’t used to being touched,
just hit. And the contact made her pull back for a moment.

“I’m a monster and shouldn’t be touched,” she said, turning her face away in shame.

“I’ve seen worse,” Stone said. “Now, I need a map of this place—of particularly April’s room, the missile command, the Dwarf’s
quarters—and a way out. Preferably alternate routes to all of these places as well. Any weapons storage you’ve seen. And if
you can get me a pistol, anything like that. But the map is most important. If I know where I’m going—at least I won’t be
traveling blind.”

“I’ll do what I can,” she said, slipping away from him and aiming the transmitter at the door, which whooshed open. She looked
both ways quickly up and down the hall and then was gone. The door started to close behind him. Stone had the sheerest instant
of wanting to leap through the opening and get out of this claustrophobic place. But he wasn’t ready—he had to have the map.
He stared back at the now sealed wall and just sat and waited. And he wondered if the fate of America itself rested on the
twisted shoulders of an old dwarf woman.

W
HEN Elizabeth came the next morning with food, but with the guards present behind her, she winked at Stone as she handed him
his usual bowls and water for him and the pit bull.

“The Dwarf said to give you an extra serving today,” she said. “With all the trimmings.” She handed over the extra plastic
container and then stood up. “You’ll be missing dinner tonight, for you have a three o’clock appointment with—”

“Shut up, dwarf bitch,” one of the greenshirts shouted, kicking out at her with his boot. The blow sent the dwarf woman flying
sideways with a strange sound coming from her throat. Before any of them could move an inch Excaliber launched himself into
the air and fastened his teeth around the offending boot, dragging the guard down onto the floor where the bull terrier proceeded
to shake the living shit out of the dwarf kicker.

“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” the man on the floor screamed out at his companion, who was trying to get a bead with his 9mm.
“The Dwarf will kill us both if either of them are harmed.”

“Get off him, Excaliber,” Stone shouted, reaching down and pulling the dog up by its tail and one back leg and dragging it
backwards. It released the boot with some reluctance. The greenshirt was trembling and staring at them both with hate-filled
eyes. It was clear he wanted nothing more on this Earth than to be able to blast them into non-existence at that very moment.
But he couldn’t.

“Let’s go,” he screamed at Elizabeth, who had already gotten up from the concrete floor and was heading toward the door. She
smiled quickly at Stone as if to let him know that she was okay; indeed, she had suffered a lot worse than that. This time
neither guard laid a hand on her. Stone waited until the door had shut and then waited another thirty seconds just to make
sure that there wasn’t going to be some sort of sudden peek-a-boo. He gave the dog its chow, not wanting a stampede, then
opened the extra bowl.

His eyes glistened with hope. A long icepick, industrial strength, solid as a rock, and a good twelve inches long. Nasty and
lethal as a hand weapon could get. And next to it, crudely drawn on a piece of white linen used for the Tribunal tablecloth,
she had drawn a map of the different levels and the locations of the places Stone had requested, plus a few more. Like where
the boiler system was, the Dwarf’s secret emergency exit, little things like that. She’d come through like a pro. It felt
good to heft the icepick and stab out at the air a few times, testing the weight and balance of the wood-handled weapon. He
could hide it in his sleeve, and then whip it out in a flash. Possibly not even be noticed handling the weapon if he moved
quickly. Next to a machine gun it was the perfect choice.

Stone had a few hours before the blessed event, and he found himself growing increasingly edgy. The dog too somehow knew something
was very nearly up. Not that it minded a good fight, just that it didn’t like the unknown. And it could sense Stone’s discomfort
and anxiety as he paced around fast trying to figure it all out. But there was nothing to figure out. Stone had to go into
battle—and most likely he was going to die. And take the dog down with him. He tried to calm down, yet couldn’t. It was one
thing to fight when someone suddenly came at you. It was another to worry about it all morning and into the afternoon like
a fighter going into the ring. Elizabeth had doubtless been trying to be helpful in telling him the time. But it was grating
on him now like a dull razor cutting across his nerves.

Suddenly the door whooshed open and this time four guards stood at the entrance. One handed him a muzzle.

“Put it on the dog, now.” He motioned with his 9mm, slamming the barrel into Stone’s stomach, who didn’t appreciate the gesture
at all and got a good look at the bastard’s face, hoping they’d meet up again under better circumstances. Stone put the muzzle
around Excaliber’s mouth, who pulled back from the thing. The dog hated being muzzled but he allowed Stone to proceed, knowing
somehow he had to for some weird human reason. With the muzzle on, the guards led Stone and the mutt down the long corridor
to the far end of the level and the elevator banks. Stone tried to memorize everything and fit it into the schematic that
he had spent hours going over all afternoon until he felt like it was drilled into his head. It better be if he got the chance
to test it out. One wrong turn in this twisting puzzle of corridors and seamless walls and he’d be as lost as a retarded rat
in a maze.

They took them down two levels in a wide freight elevator and then marched out again down the corridor. Two immense black
steel doors were already pulled back and Stone was led inside. It was the biggest of all the chambers he’d been in since being
underground. Not just wide, but high too, going up nearly sixty feet. On all four sides of the hundred foot square beginning
about twenty feet up were rows of seats behind thick bulletproof glass. Stone suddenly got the message. This was the football
of the psycho set. The Dwarf and his pals kept their underlings happy with a little controlled blood letting. So he was Superbowl
Sunday—him and the dog. He scouted around and saw the ten freaks, staring down at him through tinted blue glass. They were
in good moods, drinking and laughing, gesticulating with their claws and stumps. Stone saw the Dwarf among them, staring down.
He wasn’t moving but just still as a rock as if in a trance. Across the floor from the ten were the rest of the military crew,
rows of greenshirts all jumping around behind their glass partitions. They were usually subdued and businesslike around the
subterranean headquarters, but here they were allowed to let it all hang out. And they where whooping it up, screaming for
his blood. Stone had a lot of fans out there.

“I think they like us,” he lied to the pit bull after the guards had pulled back and the wall was once again as flat as a
sheet of glass around the entire square. Stone felt for the icepick rigged up with some thread he had taken from his slacks
and wrapped around the thing. It was hanging loosely so he could whip forward with his hand and it would slide right into
his palm, then back again if he reversed the flicking motion of the wrist. Or so it had worked in the cell. Out here facing
God knew what was something else. Stone made a quick onceover of the place but didn’t see a single opening or crack in the
lining.

Then he heard the low hum of the pneumatic systems of the main Games door operating and a ten foot section of the arena pulled
back. There was just darkness on the other side and Stone strained his eyes to see as he pulled back instinctively. Then he
saw them, darting forward into the bright light cast down from dozens of spots above. Two mastiffs, the largest of the species
he’d ever seen. They could have been the brothers of the Hound of the Basker-villes, standing a good five feet at the shoulders.
Stone estimated their weight at two-fifty plus, more like small lions than dogs. Even Excaliber made a low sound that got
caught in his throat and stepped behind Stone like a kid behind his older brother when the neighborhood gang shows up. Only
Stone had the same idea about the dog.

The crowds above cheered wildly and Stone could hear them even through the two inch thick Plexiglas. The mastiffs slowed down
as they trotted around to see just what the hell was going on. Even dinosaur-sized dogs with teeth that could have done construction
work liked to check out the situation. And seeing what it was, they both seemed to laugh canine-style, snorting up a storm
and bumping into each other as they jumped around in some sort of ritual dance. Stone got the feeling they’d done this sort
of thing before, which didn’t encourage him greatly.

The pit bull growled at his heels as it kept looking up at Stone, wanting to know what the plan was as the two monsters pawed
at the cement preparing to make their move. But Stone had no plan. Or he thought he had no plan until the mastiffs, who looked
like they should have been guarding the royal tomb at Thebes, came charging from across the floor. Then Stone turned and ran
like a sprinter, with the pit bull right at his heels. With some firepower it would be a different story. But the dogs didn’t
seem like they would be open to any sympathetic pleadings to let him go out and buy a few. Stone tore straight to the far
wall until he was about ten feet away. At the last second he turned and saw the right hand mastiff just yards behind him and
ready to leap. He slowed slightly and let the thing get right up to him, sensing just when it was going to leave the floor.

Just as Stone was about to slam right into the wall he suddenly threw himself down to the cement, taking a hard hit on his
shoulder. But the mastiff, which had launched itself at his head, took an even harder hit as its own head slammed into the
wall of steel at about thirty miles an hour. The mastiff came sliding down the side of the wall on top of Stone but was too
spaced out to do more than make sputtering sounds and quiver. Stone pushed with all his might and slid out from beneath the
oppressive weight. As he came to his feet he heard a terrible yowling a few yards away and saw Excaliber and the other mastiff,
this one with a gold coat almost like a lion’s, going at it hot and heavy. At least the mastiff was trying to go at it but
the pit bull with its penchant for tactics and fucking with the other animal’s head had grabbed hold of the canine’s back
left paw and kept dragging it backwards. The mastiff was hopping around like a kangaroo who’d drunk Super Test, unable to
get a good footing and stop itself from being dragged, no matter what it did. Of course once Excaliber stopped he was in a
shitload of trouble. But he wasn’t thinking about stopping.

Suddenly Stone heard a fierce growling from just behind him and turned to see that the knocked-out mastiff who had been on
his ass seconds before wasn’t knocked out anymore. Its eyes were focused and it was up on all fours, pointing its teeth at
him like a hundred spears ready to enter flesh. Stone rushed a few feet off, sliding along the wall as he shook his right
hand with the icepick in it, and it flew up into his palm. He was proud of himself, the contraption worked like a charm. Now
he just had to make like a bullfighter and lure the dog toward him, make it jump at exactly the right angle.