Contest

The wristband beeped loudly and Selexin immediately stopped speaking.

OFFICIALS AT EXIT TELEPORT BE ADVISED THAT A DECISION HAS BEEN MADE TO ABORT PRESIDIAN.

* DO NOT INITIALISE EXIT TELEPORT * REPEAT.

* DO NOT INITIALISE EXIT TELEPORT *

'They're calling it off,' Swain said flatly.

Selexin didn't reply. He just stared at the wristband in disbelief.

Swain shook him gently. 'Did you see that? They're calling the whole thing off.'

Selexin said softly, 'Yes. I saw it.' He looked up at Swain. 'And I know what it means. It means that you and I are most certainly going to die.'

'What?' Swain said.

'Die?' Holly said.

'You will certainly die,' Selexin said to Swain, 'and without the exit teleport, I cannot leave this planet. And what do you think my chances of survival on Earth are?'

Swain knew the answer to that. The NSA were outside the library right now and they weren't here to borrow some books. Selexin didn't have a prayer outside the library. And now there was no way he could leave.

Swain said, 'So why do I have to die? Why is that so certain? There's no guarantee that the Karanadon will find us.' Now there was an alien that Swain would gladly give to the NSA.

'It is not the Karanadon that comprises your greatest threat,' Selexin said.

'Then what does?' Swain asked as his wristband beeped again, announcing another message:

* OFFICIAL SIGNAL *

PLEASE RECORD THAT DUE TO EXTRINSIC INTERFERENCE IT HAS BEEN DECIDED THAT THE SEVENTH PRESIDIAN WILL BE ABORTED. GRATITUDE IS EXTENDED TO ALL OFFICIALS IN ALL SYSTEMS FOR THEIR ASSISTANCE THROUGHOUT THIS CONTEST.

AN INQUIRY HAS BEEN INITIATED INTO THE CAUSE OF THE CONTAMINATION OF THE LABYRINTH.

* END OFFICIAL SIGNAL*

PRESIDIAN COMPLETE.

STANDBY FOR DE-ELECTRIFICATION.

Swain said, 'De-electrification? Is that what I think it means?'

'Yes,' Selexin nodded. 'They will bring down the electric field surrounding the labyrinth.'

'When?'

'As soon as possible, I suppose.'

'What about the Karanadon?'

'I presume that they will simply leave it here.'

'Leave it here?' Swain said, incredulous. 'Do you have any idea what something like that would do in this city? When they cut the electricity around this building, that thing will be loose, and there will be no way to stop it.'

'It is not my decision,' Selexin said sadly, vacantly.

Swain knew that the little man had other things on his mind. Without the exit teleport, Selexin could not leave. They had survived the Presidian and yet he was stuck on Earth.

'Well,' Swain said, looking up at the dark elevator shaft around him. 'It's not going to help us standing around here doing nothing. If they're going to pull the plug on the electricity, I suggest we find a place where we can get out when they do.'

Holding Holly, Swain stepped from the roof of the working lift onto the roof of the damaged one. Selexin didn't move. He just stood there sadly, deep in thought.

Swain and Holly climbed out through the crumpled outer doors into the Stack and looked back at Selexin.

'Selexin,' Swain said gently. 'We're not dead yet. Come on. Come with us.'

On top of the lift, in the darkness of the shaft, Selexin looked up at him, but said nothing.

'We have to get to an exit,' Swain said. 'So we can get out when the electricity is cut off.'

'Bellos.' Selexin said flatly, thinking.

'What?'

'Bellos knew of a way.'

'What are you talking about?' Swain said, checking the Stack behind him. 'Come on, we have to go.'

'He had to get the hoods out,' Selexin said. 'He said so himself.'

'Selexin, what are you talking about?'

Selexin explained. 'We were on another floor, I think it was number Two. Bellos was there, and he spoke to us briefly before the Rachnid arrived and they fought and we escaped. But at the time, I asked Bellos what he planned to do with the hoods if he won the Presidian, because I knew that if he left them here, they would certainly be discovered. What he told me was very strange. He said that the hoods would be long gone from the labyrinth by the time he went through the exit teleport.'

Swain watched Selexin intently, watched him thinking.

'But the only way he could do that,' Selexin said, almost to himself, 'was if he had a teleporter.'

'A teleporter?'

'A large chamber in which a teleportation field is created.

And as you are no doubt aware, there are no teleporters on Earth.'

Swain thought for a moment, a hazy picture beginning to form in his mind. A picture of a puzzle that hadn't yet been solved.

'Just how big is one of these teleporters?' he asked Selexin.

'Usually very large, and very heavy,' Selexin said. 'And technologically, extremely complex.'

It was now Swain who was lost in thought. The hazy picture in his mind was slowly becoming clearer.

And then it hit him.

'Bellos brought a teleporter with him,' he said flatly.

'We don't know that,' Selexin said.

'Yes, we do,' Swain reached into his pocket, pulled out a sheet of paper -- Harold Quaid's list of energy surges at the State Library that night.

'What's that, Daddy?'

'It's a list.'

'Where did you get it?'

Swain turned to Selexin. 'I found it in the pocket of another mystery guest who happened to find his way into your Presidian.'

'What is it a list of?' Selexin asked.

'Take a look.' Swain held out the sheet of paper.

Selexin stepped from one elevator roof to the other and then climbed out into the Stack. He took the sheet and examined it.

'Something from Earth,' Selexin scanned the list. 'Detecting energy surges of unknown origin. What are these numbers on the left?'

'Times,' Swain said.

Selexin was silent for a moment. 'So what is it?' he asked.

'It's a list of every teleportation that has happened in this building since I was teleported here from my home in Connecticut at 6:03 this evening.'

'What?'

'And now I've figured it out,' Swain said. 'Thirteen teleportations detected. Twelve in the library, one in Connecticut. Before, I could only account for eleven of the twelve surges that occurred in the library: namely, seven contestants with their guides, plus four hoods, equals eleven surges.'

'Uh-huh.'

'But I couldn't figure out the last surge,' Swain pointed to the bottom line of the sheet: