The Traveler (41 page)

"Is that going to work?"

"Maybe not."

"Are they going to be waiting for us?"

"Probably."

"Well, that sounds promising." Hollis smiled slightly and that made her feel better. He wasn't like her father or Mother Blessing, but he was beginning to think like a Harlequin. You had to accept your fate, and still be brave.

Nothing happened when they forced open the steel door. They were at the bottom level of a concrete emergency staircase with lightbulbs on each landing. Maya took the first step, and then started moving quickly.

Find the Traveler.

Kennard Nash spoke to one of the technicians monitoring the quantum computer. He gave the man a pat on the back like a coach sending a player back into the game, then crossed the room and sat down next to Michael.

"We've received the preliminary message from our friends," Nash explained. "That usually means that the main transmission will occur in five or ten minutes."

The general's bodyguard, Ramón Vega, refilled both wineglasses as Michael nibbled on a cracker. He enjoyed sitting in the shadowy room and watching the sealed glass tank filled with liquid helium. Little explosions kept going off inside the green liquid as the electron switches at the heart of the computer were manipulated within a cage of energy.

The electrons existed within this world, but the quantum property of superposition enabled these subatomic particles to be on and off, up and down, spinning left and spinning right—all at the same time. For an almost imperceptible moment, they were both here and there, crossing over into a parallel dimension. In this other realm, an advanced civilization was waiting with another computer. The computer captured the electrons, arranged them into a packet of information, and sent them back again.

"Are you waiting for anything in particular?" Michael asked.

"A message from them.
Perhaps a reward.
Three days ago, we transmitted the data obtained when you entered the Second Realm. That's what they wanted from us—a road map from a Traveler."

Nash pressed a switch and three plasma-screen TVs were lowered from the ceiling. A technician on the other side of the room was staring at a computer monitor and he began typing commands. Seconds later, points of light and patches of darkness appeared on the left-hand TV screen.

"That's what they're sending us. It's a binary code," Nash explained. "Light and non-light is the basic language of the universe."

The computers translated the code and numbers appeared on the right-hand screen. Another delay and Michael saw an arrangement of straight and angled lines on the center screen. It appeared to be the blueprint of a complex machine.

General Nash was acting like a true believer who had just seen the face of God. "This is what we were waiting for," he murmured. "You're looking at the next version of our quantum computer."

"How long will it take to build it?"

"My staff will analyze the data and give me a delivery date. Until then, we've got to keep our new friends happy." Nash smiled confidently. "I'm playing a little game with this other civilization. We want to increase the power of our technology. They want to move freely between the realms. You're the one who shows them how
its
done."

Binary code.
Numbers.
And then a design for a new machine.
The data from the advanced civilization flowed across the three screens and Michael was swept away by the images flashing in front of him. He barely noticed when Ramón Vega approached General Nash and handed him a cell phone.

"I'm busy," Nash said to the caller. "Can't you wait until ..." Suddenly the general's face changed. Looking tense, he stood up and began to pace around the room. "You did what? Who gave you permission to open the cages? So where's Boone? Have you contacted him? Well, hurry up and do it. Tell him to come to the computer center right away."

"Is there a problem?" Michael asked when Nash switched off the phone.

"Someone has entered the research facility. It might be one of those Harlequin fanatics I mentioned to you. All this is highly unusual. Those people don't have the resources to enter our facilities."

"Is this person in the building?"

The possibility startled General Nash. He glanced at his body-guard, and then controlled his fear.
"Of course not.
That's impossible."

After wandering through the dark city, Gabriel had finally found the passageway home. Now he felt as if he was at the bottom of a deep pool of water, looking up at the shimmering surface. The air in his lungs pulled him upward—slowly, at first, and then with growing acceleration. He was close to the surface, only a few feet away, when he entered back into his body.

The Traveler opened his eyes and realized that he wasn't lying on a folding cot in a church camp dormitory. Instead he was strapped to a hospital gurney, being pulled down a long hallway with recessed lights. Protected by its scabbard, the jade sword lay on his stomach and chest.

"Where . . ." he whispered.
But his body was very cold and it was difficult to speak. Suddenly the gurney stopped moving and two faces looked down at him—Vicki Fraser and an older man wearing a white lab coat.

"Welcome back," the older man said.

Looking worried, Vicki touched Gabriel's arm. "Are you all right? Can you hear me?"

"What happened?"

Vicki and the man wearing the lab coat pushed the gurney into a room filled with empty animal cages and unfastened the straps. As Gabriel sat up and tried to move his body, Vicki explained that the Tabula had raided Arcadia and flown them to a research facility near New York City. The man wearing the lab coat was a neurologist named Phillip Richardson. He had released Vicki from a locked room and then they had found Gabriel.

"I didn't really plan this. It just happened." Dr. Richardson sounded both scared and exhilarated. "A security guard was watching you, but he was called away. Apparently someone is attacking the research center ..."

Vicki stared at Gabriel, trying to judge his strength. "If we can reach the underground parking lot, Dr. Richardson thought we could drive away in one of the maintenance vans."

"What happens after that?" Gabriel asked.

"I'm open to any ideas," Richardson said. "I have an old college friend who lives on a farm in Canada, but it might be difficult to get across the border."

Gabriel's legs felt weak when he stood up, but now his mind was clear and focused. "Where's my brother?"

"I don't know."

"We need to find him."

"That's way too dangerous," Richardson said. "In a few minutes the staff is going to realize that you and Vicki have vanished. We can't fight them. It's impossible."

"Dr. Richardson is right, Gabriel. Maybe we can come back later and save your brother. But right now, we have to get out of here.

They had a whispered argument until Gabriel agreed to the plan. By now Dr. Richardson was starting to panic. "They probably know everything," he said. "They could be searching for us right now." He peered through a crack in the door, and then guided them down a long hallway to the elevator.

They reached the parking level a few seconds later. The entire floor was nothing but concrete and support pillars. Three white vans were parked about twenty feet away from the elevator bank. "The staff usually leaves a key in the ignition," Richardson explained. "If we can get through the front gate, we have a chance."

The doctor approached the first van and attempted to open the door on the driver's side. It was locked, but he kept pulling on the handle as if he couldn't believe that fact. Vicki stood beside him. Her voice was calm and soothing. "Don't worry, Doctor. Let's try the next one."

Vicki, Gabriel, and Richardson heard a squeaking sound as a fire door was pulled open, followed by footsteps on concrete. A moment later, Shepherd came out of the emergency stairwell.

"Now this is quite wonderful." Shepherd strolled past the elevators, stopped, and grinned. "I thought the Tabula might get rid of me, but now they're going to give me a bonus. The renegade Harlequin saves the day."

Gabriel glanced at Vicki,
then
drew the jade sword. He swung it slowly through the air and remembered what Maya had told him. A few human-made objects were so beautiful—so pure—that they were free of greed and desire.

Shepherd snorted as if he'd just heard a bad joke. "Don't be a fool, Gabriel. Perhaps Maya doesn't think I'm a real Harlequin, but that doesn't change my skill as a fighter. I've been trained to use swords and knives since I was four years old."

Gabriel turned his head slightly. "Look inside the other van," he told Vicki. "See if the keys are in the ignition."

Shepherd reached into his carrying tube. He drew his Harlequin sword and snapped the guard into place.
"All right.
Have it your way. One good thing is going to come out of this. I've always wanted to kill a Traveler."

Shepherd assumed the fighting position and Gabriel surprised him by attacking immediately. Running forward, he pretended to stab at Shepherd's face. When Shepherd parried the blow, Gabriel spun around and slashed at the heart. Steel clashed against steel two, three, four times, but Shepherd defended himself easily. The two swords locked together. Shepherd took half a step back, made a quick movement with his wrists, and twisted the jade sword out of Gabriel's hands.

The sword clattered onto the concrete floor. In the empty parking structure the noise was loud and distinct. The two men looked at each other and the Traveler saw his opponent clearly. Shepherd's face had assumed the Harlequin mask, but something was wrong with his mouth. It twitched slightly, as if the lips couldn't decide if they were going to smile or frown.

"Go ahead, Gabriel. Try to get it back—"

Someone whistled—a sharp, piercing sound. Shepherd spun around just as a throwing knife flashed through the air and buried itself in his throat. His hand released the sword and he fell to his knees.

Maya and Hollis came through the open doorway. The Harlequin glanced at Gabriel—making sure he was safe—then approached the wounded man. "You betrayed my father," she said. "Do you know what they did to him, Shepherd? Do you know how he died?"

Shepherd's eyes could barely focus, but he nodded slightly as if admitting his guilt could somehow save his life. Maya pushed the palms of her hands together like a nun about to pray. Then she made a quick, jabbing front kick that struck the handle of the knife and drove it deeper into his flesh.

Maya turned and pointed her shotgun at the tall man wearing the white lab coat.

"Don't!" Vicki said quickly. "This is Dr. Richardson. He's a scientist.
A friend.
He's helping us get out of here." Maya made an instant evaluation and decided that Richardson was frightened, but harmless. If he panicked in the tunnels, then she would have to deal with that problem. Gabriel was alive; that was all that mattered.

As Hollis explained how they had entered the research facility, Maya approached Shepherd's body. She stepped into the blood that trickled in bright red lines across the concrete floor, knelt beside the dead man, and retrieved her knife. Shepherd was a traitor, but Maya didn't feel happy about his destruction. She remembered what he had told her in the storage room of Resurrection Auto Parts.
We're the same, Maya. We both grew up with people who worshipped a lost cause.

When she returned to the group, she saw that Hollis was arguing with Gabriel. Vicki stood between the two men, as if she was trying to negotiate a compromise.

"What's the problem?"

"Talk to Gabriel," Hollis said. "He wants to look for his brother."

The idea of remaining at the research facility seemed to terrify Richardson. "We've got to leave immediately. I'm sure the guards are looking for us."

Maya touched Gabriel's arm and guided him away from the others. "They're right about this. It's dangerous to stay here. Maybe we can return some other time."

"You know that's not going to happen," Gabriel said. "And even if we did come back, Michael won't be here. They'll move him to another place with even more guards. This is my only chance."

"I can't allow you to do this."

"You don't control me, Maya. This is my own decision."

Maya felt as if she and Gabriel were tied to each other like two mountain climbers on a rock wall. If one person slipped or if a ledge crumbled, both of them would fall. None of her father's lessons had prepared her for this situation. Come up with a plan, she told herself. Risk your life. Not his.

"All right.
I've got another idea." She kept her voice as calm as possible. "You go with Hollis and he'll get you out of the building. I promise to stay here and look for your brother."

"Even if you found him, he wouldn't trust you. Michael has always been suspicious of everyone. But he'll listen to me. I know he will."

Gabriel looked into her eyes and for one
breath—
one heartbeat—she felt a connection between them. Desperately, Maya tried to figure out the right decision, but that was impossible. This time there was no right decision, only fate.

She hurried over to Dr. Richardson and grabbed the ID card clipped to his lab coat. "Will this open any doors around here?"
"About half of them."

"Where's Michael? Do you know where they're holding him?"

"He usually stays in a guarded suite of rooms in the administration center. Right now we're on the northern edge of the research center. Administration is on the other side of the quadrangle, directly south."

"And how do we get there?"

"Use the tunnels and stay out of the upper passageways."

Maya pulled some shells out of her pocket and began to reload the combat shotgun. "Return to the basement level," she told Hollis. "Get these two out through the ventilation duct while I go back with Gabriel."

"Don't do this," Hollis said.

"I have no alternative."

"Make him come with us. Drag him out of here if you have to." "That's what the Tabula would do, Hollis. We don't act that way."

"Look, I understand why Gabriel wants to help his brother. But both of you are going to get killed."

She pumped a round into the shotgun's firing chamber and the snapping noise echoed through the empty parking area. Maya had never heard her father say "thank you." Harlequins weren't supposed to feel grateful to anyone, but she wanted to say something to the person who had fought beside her.

"Good luck, Hollis."

"You're the one who needs the luck. Take a quick look around and get the hell out of here."

***

A FEW MINUTES later Maya and Gabriel were walking down the concrete tunnel that passed underneath the quadrangle. The air was hot and stuffy. She could hear water running through the black pipes attached to the walls.

Gabriel kept glancing at her. He looked uncomfortable, almost guilty. "I'm sorry we have to do this. I know you wanted to leave with Hollis."

"This was my choice, Gabriel. I didn't protect your brother when I was in Los Angeles. Now I have another chance." She avoided his eyes and tried to sound reassuring. "We're making an emotional decision. Not a logical one. Perhaps they won't anticipate this."

They reached the administration center on the other side of the quadrangle and Dr. Richardson's ID card allowed them to go up a staircase to the lobby. Maya used the card to open the elevator and they went to the fourth floor. Both of them walked down a carpeted hallway, looking inside empty offices and conference rooms.

Maya felt odd holding a shotgun while she stared at a coffee machine and filing cabinets, a screensaver on a computer that showed angels drifting across a blue sky. She remembered her job back at the design firm in London. She had spent hours sitting in a white cubicle with a postcard of a tropical island taped to the wall. Every day at four o'clock a plump Bengali lady came around pushing a tea cart. Now that life seemed as distant as another realm.

She grabbed a wastebasket from one of the offices and they got back into the elevator. When they reached the third floor, she left the basket wedged between the elevator doors. Slowly, they began to walk down the hallway. Maya made Gabriel stay six feet behind her as she opened each new door.

The lighting panels set in the ceiling left a particular kind of shadow on the floor. At the end of the hallway, one of the shadows looked slightly darker. It could be anything, Maya thought.
Maybe a dead lightbulb.
As she took a step closer, the shadow began to move.

Maya turned to Gabriel and tapped a finger to her mouth. Be quiet. She pointed to a private office and motioned for him to hide behind the desk. When she returned to the corner, she looked down the hallway. Someone had left a janitor's cart near one of the offices, but the janitor had disappeared.

She reached the end of the hallway, moved a few inches around the corner, and then jerked back when three men fired their hand guns at her. Bullets cracked through the walls and made a splintery hole in an office door.

Holding the shotgun, Maya ran back down the hallway and fired at the sprinkler head in the middle of the ceiling. The fixture was split open and a fire alarm began ringing. One of the Tabula peered around the corner and fired wildly in her direction. The wall beside her seemed to explode and chunks of plaster were scattered across the carpet. When Maya fired back, the man retreated around the corner.

Water sprayed from the shattered sprinkler head as she stood in the hallway. When most people were in a dangerous situation, their vision became restricted, as if they were peering down a tunnel.
Look around you,
Maya told
herself
and glanced up at the ceiling. She raised her shotgun and fired twice at an overhead lighting panel above the janitor's cart. The plastic grate disintegrated and a hole appeared in the plaster.

Maya slid the shotgun beneath her belt and climbed onto the janitor's cart. She reached through the hole and grabbed the water pipe. With one quick kick, she shoved the cart down the hall and pulled herself up into the hollow ceiling. All she could hear was the fire alarm and the water squirting out of the sprinkler head. Maya removed the shotgun from her belt. She wrapped her legs around the pipe and hung upside down like a spider.

"Get ready," a voice said.
"Now!"
The Tabula stepped into the hallway and fired their guns. The alarm stopped ringing a few seconds later and suddenly it was very quiet.

"Where'd she go?" a voice asked.

"Don't know."

"Be careful," the third voice said. "She could be in one of the rooms.

Maya peered down through the hole in the ceiling and watched one, two, three Tabula mercs pass beneath her, carrying their hand-guns.

"Prichett here," said the third voice. It sounded like he was talking into a radio or a cell phone. "We saw her on the third floor, but she got away. Yes, sir. We're checking each—"

Holding on to the water pipe with her legs, Maya swung through the jagged hole. Now she was upside down, her black hair dangling above the floor. She saw the backs of the three Tabula and fired at the first man.

The recoil from the shotgun snapped her backward and she somersaulted through the air, landing on her feet in the middle of the hallway. Water sprayed from the sprinkler head, but she ignored it and shot the second man as he was turning. The third man was still holding his cell phone as shotgun pellets punched through his chest. He hit the wall and slid to the floor.

The sprinkler stopped spraying water and she stood alone looking down at the three bodies. It was too dangerous to remain in this building. They had to get back to the tunnels. Once again, she saw the shadows change on the wall and then an unarmed man appeared at the end of the hallway. Even without the family resemblance, Maya knew that it was the second Traveler. She lowered her shotgun.

"Hello, Maya. I'm Michael Corrigan. Everyone around here is scared of you, but I'm not frightened. I know you're here to protect me."

An office door opened behind her and Gabriel stepped into the hallway. The brothers faced each other and she was standing between them.

"Come with us, Michael." Gabriel forced a smile. "You'll be safe. No one will order you around."

"I have a few questions for our Harlequin. It's a strange situation, isn't it? If I left with you two, it would be like sharing a girlfriend."

"It's not that way," Gabriel said. "Maya just wants to help us." "But what if she has to make a choice?" Michael took a step forward. "Who are you going to save, Maya?
Gabriel or me?"
"Both of you."

"It's a dangerous world. Maybe that's not possible."

Maya glanced at Gabriel, but he gave no indication of what she should say. "I'll protect whoever makes this world a better place."

"Then I'm the one." Michael took another step forward. "Most people don't know what they want. I mean, they want a big new house or a shiny new car. But they're too frightened to decide the direction of their lives. So we're going to do it for them."

"The Tabula told you that," Gabriel said. "But it's not true."

Michael shook his head. "You're acting just like our father did—making a small life, hiding under a rock. I hated all that talk about the Grid when we were growing up. We've both been given this power, but
you
don't want to use it."

"The power doesn't come from us, Michael. Not really."

"We grew up like crazy people. No electricity. No telephone. Remember that first day at school? Remember how people pointed at our car when we drove into town? We don't have to live that way, Gabe. We can be in charge of everything."

"People need to be in charge of their own lives."

"Why haven't you figured it out, Gabe? It's not difficult. You do what's best for yourself and to hell with the rest of the world." "That's not going to make you happy."

Michael stared at Gabriel and shook his head. "You talk like you have all the answers, but one fact is clear." Michael raised the palms of his hands as if he was blessing his brother. "There can be only one Traveler ..."

A man with short gray hair and steel eyeglasses stepped around the corner of the hallway and raised an automatic pistol. Gabriel looked as if he had lost his family forever.
Betrayed.

Maya shoved Gabriel down the next hallway as Boone fired. The bullet hit Maya's right leg, slamming her against the wall, and she fell facedown on the floor. It felt as if all the air had been squeezed out of her body.

Gabriel appeared and scooped her up in his arms. He ran a few feet and lunged into the elevator while Maya tried to pull away from him.
Save yourself,
she wanted to say, but her mouth couldn't form the words. Gabriel kicked the wastebasket out of the doors and punched at the buttons.
Gunshots.
People shouting.
The doors closed and they were moving to the ground floor.

***

MAYA BLACKED OUT and when she opened her eyes they were in the tunnel. Gabriel was on one knee, still holding her tightly. She heard someone talking and realized that Hollis was there. He was stacking up bottles of chemicals that he had taken from the genetic research building.

"I can still remember the little red warning signs in my high-school lab. All this stuff is dangerous if it gets near a flame." Hollis turned the nozzle on a green canister.
"Pure oxygen."
He picked up a glass bottle and poured a clear liquid onto the floor. "And this is liquid ether."

"Anything else?"

"That's all we need. Let's get far away from here."

Gabriel carried Maya to the fire door at the end of the tunnel. Hollis lit the propane blowtorch, adjusted the hissing blue flame, and then tossed it behind him. They entered a second tunnel. A few seconds later, there was a loud popping noise and the expanding air pressure slammed the fire door open.

When Maya opened her eyes again, they were climbing down the emergency staircase. There was a much louder explosion, as if a massive bomb had just hit the building. The power went out and they huddled in the darkness until Hollis switched on the flashlight. Maya tried to stay conscious, but she glided in and out of a dream. She remembered Gabriel's voice and a rope lashed around her shoulders as she was pulled up through the ventilation duct. Then she was lying on her back in the wet grass, staring at the stars. She could hear more explosions and the wail of a police siren, but none of that mattered. Maya knew that she was bleeding to death; it felt as if all the life within her body was being absorbed by the cold ground.