The Lag (The Game Master: Book #1) (22 page)

The timing couldn't have been worse. Attila slid off the seat and crouched on the cart's bed. "You shoot," he said. "All you need to do is pull the short handle."

"It's blocked!" Beast shouted. "I can't turn it!"

He squeezed his body between the turret and the cart's side and strained, sticking out his bulky backside. "Move, you wretched thing!"

He took a good hold of the turret and pulled hard again. It moved a notch, then got stuck again.

"Hold on tight!" Wayfarer shouted.

The cart listed to one side. Its wheels groaned. Attila collapsed on his back. Wayfarer swung the car round so that the turret faced the gate, then braked.

"Now shoot."

Beast was still stuck between the turret and the cart's side. Overcoming dizziness, Attila crawled back onto the gunman's seat and pulled the short handle, his fingers shaking.

The impact thundered through the air. The gate began to list, pulling the lower hinge out of the gatepost.

Where was Beast now? Attila looked from behind the turret. The half-orc was nowhere to be seen. How on earth had he managed to fall off? Attila sprang to his feet, looking frantically around. Beast's blue bulk lay sprawled on his back on the floor, his beard pointing at the cave's ceiling.

Attila vaulted out onto the rock floor. He ran over to Beast and slapped his cheeks a few times, trying to bring him round, then grabbed him under his arms and pulled him toward the rattling cart. The guy weighed at least a ton! Attila's heart fluttered, his vision darkening, but he managed to drag Beast back to the car without stopping once. He leaned him against its side.

"Wayfarer, help!" he shouted.

The broken gate clattered to the ground, revealing a dark void beyond. The cart jerked and sped toward it. Beast dropped to his side, his head barely missing the back wheel.

"Wayfarer!" Attila yelled, darting after the cart whose driver had apparently not even noticed his passengers' disappearance. The cart raced through the breached gateway and disappeared in the dark.

"What's that now!" Attila cast a desperate look around. Only now did he notice a few holes high above in the cave's ceiling. A weak light seeped through them. Was it daylight? He couldn't really tell.

In the meantime, the gate behind them was already peppered with holes. Any minute the dwarves would break through. Attila had better leave the open space.

Attila kicked Beast in the calf, then grabbed his hands and dragged him toward a darker spot by the wall. Beast groaned and opened his eyes.

"What happened?" he sat up. Attila let go of his hands. Beast began rubbing his face.

"Wayfarer's gone, we've got to dash!" Attila blurted. "See that door? Go over there, quick!" he ran toward the door that stood slightly open.

"What do you mean, he's gone?" Beast bleated. "Where's my gun? And the mace, I can't be without it!"

"I've no idea."

By the time the first dwarf squeezed his way through a ragged hole in the gate, they had already slipped through the door. It had a geared locking mechanism on the inside. Beast turned the wheel. The door clanged shut.

"Be quiet now," Attila whispered. "They might not have noticed us coming here."

"Why did Wayfarer leave?"

"Because you got your head smashed in and dropped off the cart unconscious! Then I jumped to get you back in and he didn't notice."

"You sure? What if he did notice? What if he left us here on purpose?"

'You mean he allowed us to trail after him all this time just to dump us here? I don't think so. He probably didn't notice, that's all.

Attila heard a crackling sound. A dull reddish light dispersed the dark. He could see Beast standing with his hand raised in the air, small tongues of fire flickering in his open palm.

"This is my magic," he said, pleased with himself.

Now Attila could see that they stood at a sharp bend in a narrow corridor. His head swam, his ears ringing. The corridor blurred and doubled. Pale spots danced before his eyes; his knees gave way under him. Attila swayed and grabbed at the lock on the door. He shook his head, waiting for the two tunnels in his vision to merge into one. His ears still rang.

Beast hadn't noticed anything. "What a race! It's a good job we still have your mythogun. Shall we go have a look? Come on, then. Pointless just waiting here."

He strode along the corridor. Attila had no choice but to follow him. The little lights flickered in Beast's hand, expiring as new ones kept coming.

"I can keep a light like this going for a long time," he boasted.

His last words echoed at a distance. "Is it another cave?" Attila managed. "I'm sick of them. Actually, I'm just sick. Probably because I'm hungry."

"Whatcha mumbling about?

"I'm saying, is it another underground hall or what is it? You'd better slow down. Anything can happen."

"No dwarves here. The place is dead silent. I think they all went after Wayfarer. This corridor isn't long, is it? Look, there's a room."

"It's called a rotunda... I think," Attila noticed.

The corridor ended in a round room with a domed ceiling. A weak light glowed through a hole in its center. The walls were covered with sculptural reliefs depicting a Dwarven army bristling with weapons. A few larger figures in horned helmets towered over the warriors. Were they the same as that burly monster with the sledge hammer? They looked like some specially bred race, Giant Dwarves of something. Some games did introduce such deviations from standard races.

The floor was decorated with a large cross design of pale stone. Its two criss-crossing stripes ended in deep niches in the opposite walls. Three of them were empty but the fourth... The outline of a tall figure glistened in the dark. Attila whipped out his mythogun.

The little flames danced on Beast's hand, illuminating the curved armor plates, tubes, springs and gear wheels. Definitely not a human being — more like a robot.

"Keep your hair on," Beast walked over to the niche. "What do we have here? A suit of armor? or... wait up. It can't be an exosuit, surely!"

"This is a world of high fantasy," Attila pointed out. "Not cyberpunk or anime. Where would they get the idea... Jeez, you're right!"

"Exactly," Beast squeezed his bulk into the niche between the wall and the steel figure. "At first I thought it was probably a suit of armor like they put in castles for decoration, you know. But this
is
an exosuit. And it's huge, look. Definitely not a Dwarven size. It would fit me — too big for me even."

Attila pointed at the figures cut in the rock. "It
is
Dwarven size. Apparently, they have a special race among Engineers. Like the one who jumped at us with the sledge hammer in that first cave. I saw a few more like him in the crowd too."

"That's right. Giant Dwarfs. I wonder if their Engineers dabbled in genetic selection? They probably tried to grow big warriors and made these exosuits to equip them."

"I don't think
exosuit
is the right word for this."

"What's the right word, then?" Beast climbed deep inside the niche, rattling something.

"Dunno... a walking suit? No. A cybersuit? You be careful, eh?"

"Look, it's got a ribbed sphere thing just like those rifles in that shooting-range cave, only three times bigger!"

"I think these spheres contain concentrated mithrinol. They power the guns. Some sort of magical energy source."

"Hey, look, he's got a hatch in his back! I've opened it. Can you imagine?"

"Wait, don't rush into-" Attila began. A powerful blow on the barred door resounded through the corridor.

"Wretched dwarves!" Beast yelled, punching the suit. It swayed. "They did notice us head over here, didn't they? Trust them to break this flippin' door! Listen, what if I... You stand there for a while! Keep the door in your sights, will you?"

Another blow. Then yet another. The door rattled. Attila expected to hear the Dwarves' stomping and howling, but all he heard was a strange quiet rustling sound.

The niche flashed with purple light. The suit whirred, the cracks between its joints filling with fine threads of the same purple hue. Beast's eyes blinked behind the visor. Apparently, whoever built this suit had a penchant for spikes: they covered the suit's knees, helmet, its steel gauntlets and massive sloping shoulders.

A weak light flashed inside the suit, accompanied by the crackle of electricity. The mesh-cased lantern built into the suit's steel chest sliced through the dark with its yellow beam. Attila took aim, pointing at the corridor. Such a shame it wasn't straight! He just couldn't tell who was stealing toward them along the bending rock wall. One thing was for sure: this kind of creepy behavior was so unlike the local dwarves.

Gear wheels rattled. The cybersuit raised its leg and stepped heavily out of the niche. There was a sheath slung to its other leg. The suit's steel gauntlet reached for it and pulled. The suit's every movement was accompanied by clanking and rattling.

Beast pulled the weapon out. It turned out to be a mace with a spiked steel ball at its end.

"Cool!" his voice boomed inside. "And what's this?"

He bent his other arm at the elbow and stuck the gauntlet's index finger out. A small cap on the finger's end snapped open. A wheel whirred against flint. A tiny blue light escaped the round hole at the fingertip as if an invisible burner had come on inside.

A shadow flashed across the corridor. Attila fired, watching the purple lightning disappear behind the bend. He ducked into the vacated exosuit niche and stumbled against a door lurking in its dark recesses.

The gun needed time to recharge, anyway. Lowering it, Attila pushed the door open. Behind his back, steel feet thundered over the rock floor, their every step accompanied by a flash of purple light.

Behind the door lay a dark spacious hall barely lit up by the pale spots of aberrations. Right in front of Attila, a Magneto flickered its blue electric lights, blocking the way. Further on, a Jelly glowed its poisonous green.

Attila whipped out a bird's bone from his belt pouch and hurled it at the aberration. Nothing happened. What was that now? Magnetos always reacted with them. Having said that, this thing didn't look like a real Magneto: more like a clever imitation. And it really blocked your way — was he supposed to step right into it?

Attila looked over the room. "I know it's weird but this looks like a testing site."

"Get that, you bastards!" Beast bellowed instead.

A scorching jet of fire roared through the rotunda.

Pressing the laptop to her chest, Yanna hurled the phone at Bagrov, investing all her fear in the effort. Only when it hit the man in the face busting his nose did she realize what she'd just done.

The phone's plastic casing cracked. With an alarmed ping, the phone's screen went dead as it fell into Bagrov's lap. Well done, girl. She'd just severed all communication with Gryad!

Bagrov stirred in his chair. A streak of blood ran down his face. Yanna leapt back to the door, swinging it open, then slammed it back shut as she saw Baboon Face and the two guards running along the corridor. Too late: they saw her and hurried toward her.

She span the golden knob of the lock, barring the door, cast a desperate look around and rushed toward the door on the other side of the room.

Bagrov, restless in his chair, mumbled but didn't even attempt to get up.

Behind the door lay another corridor: short and posh, lined with expensive carpet. At its far end, an elevator's steel door gleamed.

Yanna darted toward it. Lights flickered on. She noticed an electronic groove by the elevator door and swiped the card. With a quiet ping, the door slid open. Yanna dove in and pressed the button for the lower floor just as she noticed Baboon Face and the others emerge from Bagrov's office.

The elevator glided quickly down in almost complete silence. It was too cool for words. The elevator she'd used to go up was nice too, but this... what was that over there, gold leaf? The floor buttons were made of some precious green stone and as for the carpet... its few square feet probably cost more than her entire apartment that she rented back in St. P. No mistake: this was Sergei Bagrov's very own elevator.

A mirror in a gold frame reflected a rather disheveled but determined nurse in a lab coat a few sizes too big for her. The nurse was panting, her blond hair sticking out in all directions. Her face was just a tad scared but also resolute and angry.

Angry, yes! Yanna stomped her foot on the carpet realizing she wasn't the least bit afraid any more. And the way she'd handled that perverted ER doctor in the utility room? Yesterday she'd never have been able to do anything like that! And now she'd done it. Now she had to simply make sure that her timid old self didn't take over her again.

Clutching the laptop under one arm, she rearranged the lab coat and smoothed her skirt. Then she looked up in the mirror again, enjoying her own daredevil appearance.
Good job, girl. You show them!

The elevator hissed to a stop. The door slid aside, filling the cab with the hum of many voices and shuffling of feet. They echoed all around her, a bit like in the movie theater.

She walked into a small hall. A door opposite stood ajar from where a female voice, amplified by loudspeakers, sounded festive and businesslike.

"Ladies and gentlemen, do take your seats. To the left of each seat you'll see our corporation's pride and joy, the latest MnemoSensoric helmet. It will allow Internet users to enjoy the same range of online experience without going through the trouble of donning a sensory suit. This helmet alone guarantees the illusion of full immersion. Please put the helmets on in order to begin the demonstration. The procedure is perfectly safe. These helmets are the result of hundreds of thousands of man hours of research and thorough testing."

Listening, Yanna walked over to the door and took a peek. She saw a small hall with a stage and a pulpit fronted by a woman in a red suit who spoke into a microphone. The stage faced rows of seats and in them...

Yanna gasped as she recognized the communications minister whose face she knew from TV. Next to him, a famous sports commentator followed by a woman with a bouffant hairdo and a diamond necklace; a pretty TV hostess, a media oligarch, a financial mogul, an astronaut and the head of the Ministry of Emergencies. A famous singer, an Oscar-winning actor and next to him...

"Mister Bagrov is to arrive at any minute," the woman spoke again. "In the meantime, you and I can enjoy the widest range of sensations our products can deliver to humankind. Please put the helmets on. In a few moments we will commence data transfer."

"Hold the entrance!" Attila shouted. He took a deep breath and stepped into the aberration.

The flamethrower whooshed behind his back. Beast yelled something in excitement. The wheezy growling couldn't be dwarves. It was something else in there.

Bolts of lightning clung to Attila's body. After the accident, he'd spent a lot of time in physio receiving
d'Arsonval
electric current treatment. This sensation was similar: his skin tingled with miniature lightning discharges.

He stepped out of the Magneto and breathed a sigh of relief. This wasn't the most pleasant of sensations but it was nothing like a real aberration. A real Magneto would have killed him on the spot.

He looked back at where he'd come from. The doorway flashed with surges of light; he heard a powerful thump as if Beast had attempted to squash something or someone with his mace but missed and had hit the floor — or the wall — instead. Who had it been, running around the bend? The creature's wheezy growl sounded familiar, and still he couldn't quite place it.

Attila took a few more steps along the wall. Now he could make out a stone pedestal that looked like an altar. A large emerald glowed in a hollow at its center, surrounded by a carved pattern of sunrays running away from it.

He reached out a tentative hand when the doorway shuddered with a thunderous roar. Apparently volleyed in by a powerful kick in the butt, a goblin somersaulted into the room.

So that's who it had been growling! It took Attila some time to recognize this creature indigenous to the underground world because it had long limbs and abnormally long lithe fingers ending in curved claws. His sloping forehead, large soft ears and bloodshot eyes glowing crimson looked typical for his race, but his lips were gone: either rotted away or mutated, sharp teeth sticking out of the bleeding gums. His body hair was gone, his hide rough like cracked rubber. The only clothes he wore was a loincloth, his abnormally large feet too ending in claws. Basically, he resembled a malicious monkey with fangs.

The goblin rolled across the floor, then sprang up on all fours right in front of Attila and raised his paw, about to claw him. Instead, he received a bolt of purple lightning in the face.

The goblin's head — complete with fangs, crimson eyes and other gory details — disintegrated into nothing. His body collapsed in a heap on the floor. What were goblins doing in Steam Tunnels? Weren't they the dwarves' sworn enemies? They had to be, considering they were fighting over the same turf which was, figuratively speaking, their natural habitat. The only difference being, dwarves were sentient and you could play them if you wanted but goblins were nothing but a bunch of savage mobs. The Engineers under the Mountain must have found some way of domesticating them, that was the only possible explanation.

Attila stepped back from the dark pool of thick liquid that had started to spread around the headless body. Turning, he mechanically did what he'd been trying to do when the goblin had assaulted him. He lay his hand on the emerald and pressed.

The emerald sank into the altar. The rays cut in the stone swelled with green light. Then they disappeared as the altar soaked them in. Radial lines of light ran across the floor from the altar's base, then went out. The room filled with a soft popping sound as lanterns all around it began to come on, casting a pale light around their wrought cast-iron lampposts.

"The master switch," Attila muttered, stepping back.

The faint green light illuminated the cave. Attila could now see that it was crowded with trees growing in round stone beds. Deep earth-filled ruts were cut into the rock floor, overgrown with grass and shrubbery. The lanterns' magic glow must have served as sunlight to the greenery — provided the game writers had bothered to consider such details at all.

This greenery formed a complex maze. Not far from Attila stood a small wooden tower barricaded with a heap of stones. Further on, more fake aberrations glittered among the trees. Attila peered at them. What an abundant choice! They seemed to have everything here: another Jelly glowing its toxic green, a Witch Fire droning, three Magnetos crackling their magic; further on, a good dozen Crushers rippled the air above them. This had to be some kind of imitation magic: the aberrations looked perfectly normal when he looked directly at them, but every time he glanced aside, he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, tiny colorful runes that seemed to rise over the aberrations and dissolve into the air.

From the door behind him, the roaring of flames and Beast's excited screaming mixed with the sounds of blows and desperate growling. How long would he be able to hold them? With his exosuit, a huge mace and a magic flamethrower... should he be asking how long the goblins would hold instead? Then again, he had no idea how many of them had crowded onto the rotunda.

Attila stepped back toward the little tower and rose on tiptoe, peering into the gloom at the other end of the square cave. This was something he hadn't expected to come across! Shame he couldn't see it properly... he really should take out the God's Eye and send it over there to have a clear picture. Was his sight deceiving him or was it really...

He didn't finish the thought. A gnoll appeared out of nowhere and lunged at Attila, brandishing his sword and kite shield. Attila screamed. The monster didn't follow him though: instead, it disappeared back into the floor. Immediately an enormous wild boar jumped at him like a jack-in-the-box, only to be sucked back under the floor after a few feet.

And they all seemed sort of flat, like cartoons. They would fail to convince anybody. But of course! These were targets for shooting practice from the tower and barricades. Another gnoll crawled out of nowhere and immediately clattered back, followed by a ghoul sprawling his plank-like limbs. Some of the targets moved on rails hidden within the floor, others jumped out at you only to disappear again.

Beast roared. The purple light flashed across the rotunda filled with dozens of shadows.

"You need help?" Attila shouted, raising his mythogun.

Beast didn't hear him. Attila stepped toward the little tower built of roughly hewn logs. He slung the gun behind his back, jumped through the small window and peered at the opposite end of the cave. No, it hadn't been his imagination. Just think what the dwarves had built for their test range cave! Actually, how sure was he that it
was
a cave? The ceiling wasn't stone, was it? He could even see the wooden beams. Of course. This wasn't a cave at all but a house built on the surface.

"Beast!" Attila yelled. "We're retreating! I've found an exit!"

Now he could make out the black slabs of granite, the steel gate and the narrow gunslits... The far wall of the test range was in fact the wall of the Citadel! Not the real one but a copy. Weak daylight seeped through the barely-open gate. And what was that little marble structure surrounded by a low fence? That was a crypt — or rather, another imitation. A crypt by the Citadel's walls, why? Never mind. He had more important things to take care of.

"Beast!" he yelled, jumping down to the floor.

Beast backed off, forcing his bulk through the doorway, blocking it. Attila could see the hatch on his back — and above it, between the exosuit's broad shoulders, a ribbed sphere flashing purple mithrinol light.

The helmeted head whirred round as Beast looked at him.

"We're already on the surface! That's the exit!" Attila pointed at the cave's far corner. "Quick, run!"

As he stepped away from the tower, he didn't even notice walking right into yet another Magneto. This one, however, did go off even though it wasn't as powerful as a real one. An electric charge hit Attila; he cried out, jumping and dancing on the spot. Grinding his teeth, he finally managed to force himself away from the aberration. The palms of his hands felt on fire. Dragging one leg, Attila hobbled across the hall. Only now did he realize that Beast wasn't in the doorway any longer. Goblins poured through the opening and flooded the hall. They ran on all fours, their pointy ears flapping.

Beast, where was he? Aha! He was already behind the altar, scrambling to safety.

"Go for the Citadel!" Attila repeated just in case, not entirely sure Beast had heard him. Then he hurried after him.

They moved in synch: Attila across the center of the hall, threading his way between the trees and leaping over earth-filled ruts, while Beast mirrored his route scrambling along the wall. His steel feet clanged over the floor, the ribbed sphere behind his back pulsating with light. So far, the goblins didn't seem to notice Attila in their chase after Beast.

Suddenly Beast turned round. A large mass rose above his shoulder. This was the mithrinol cannon which had been folded at his side. This one was even bigger than the one on the power cart. Why hadn't he used it earlier?

The cannon made a deep popping sound. A purple flash illuminated the cave. Momentarily blinded, Attila stumbled onto a stone pedestal, hitting his knee. He cussed. When he could see again, he discovered that the wall of the rotunda had collapsed in a heap of rock. A gray cloud hung in the air; goblins' body parts were scattered everywhere, covered in sand and dust as if breadcrumbed. Why so much dust? Had the blast actually pulverized the rock?