Mitchell laughed. It made my skin crawl. I wanted to strangle him. I took a step toward him. Mitchell took a step back and the light from the tunnel enveloped him. He didn’t leave, though. He transformed. I stopped as he stepped back out of the light in his familiar form. He wore the black suit I knew so well. His bald head was crossed with the red scars that looked like lightning bolts. He grew back to his full height of well over six feet. None of that struck me as much as his eyes. It was always about the eyes. They burned brighter than the light that danced around him, staring me down with their blue-white madness. When he spoke, it was no longer in the voice of Andy Mitchell. It was the low growl of the demon Saint Dane.
“Everything that has happened, all that you see has been planned from the beginning. What is it that your kind is so fond of saying? Ah, yes: ‘That is the way it was meant to be.’ Well, my friends, this is truly the way it was meant to be. The Convergence is nearly here.”
Courtney stepped up behind me and shouted, “Where is Mark?”
“Does it matter?” Saint Dane responded. “You can’t undo what he’s done. Though I will enjoy watching you try.”
He took a step back into the flume. I didn’t want to let him get away. We needed some kind of clue as to how to find Mark.
“Wait!” I shouted. “We have to talk. About the things you told me on Quillan.”
“I’m done reasoning with you, Pendragon.” He sneered. “It is time for the journey to end. The last piece of the puzzle awaits me, on Ibara.” He took another step back into the tunnel. The light grew around him.
“No! Wait!” I shouted.
“You might think about leaving now,” he added. “Before it’s too late.”
The light flashed and quickly grew smaller as it swept Saint Dane off. In seconds the event was over. The tunnel was dark and eerily silent.
“What did he mean by that?” Courtney asked.
“Who knows? He always talks in riddles.”
“That was no riddle,” Courtney countered. “He said we should get out of here before it’s too late. That sounded pretty clear to me.”
A sound came from deep within the tunnel. Not a flume sound. A real-world sound.
“Someone’s in the tunnel,” Courtney gasped.
She grabbed my arm. The footsteps grew louder. It sounded like more than one person.
“Hello?” I called out.
No answer. The footsteps were regular and rhythmic, like marching. The sound of hard leather on stone was unmistakable. Someone was marching out of the flume. More than one someone.
“This is wrong,” Courtney said, backing away toward the door. “Let’s get out of here.”
“No,” I said, holding my ground. “We have to know.”
The marching grew louder. Who was in there? Did someone from First Earth discover the flume and go spelunking? I often wondered what would happen if regular people entered the flume and walked deep inside. Did it go on endlessly? I began to make out human forms in the inky darkness. There were definitely people in there, but I couldn’t tell how many. Three? Six? They marched close together, moving relentlessly from deep inside the tunnel toward the mouth of the flume, and us.
“Bobby?” Courtney called nervously “Not liking this.”
Neither did I, but we had to stay and see. The marchers were twenty yards from reaching the mouth of the flume. I finally saw that it was a group of men. Tall men, with square angular features. I knew those guys. I hated those guys.
“Dados!” I gasped. “From Quillan.”
We backed away from the mouth of the flume as the dados marched slowly, incessantly forward. Toward us.
(CONTINUED)
FIRST EARTH
They were security dados from Quillan. No mistake. I knew them too well. They had that square Frankenstein look that made them seem human but… not. They each had a golden stun pistol in a holster belted at the waist. The odd thing was that they weren’t wearing the green security uniforms. Their clothes were raggy and torn, as if they had been through a war. I definitely got a Night of the Living Dead zombie vibe, which chilled me. Bottom line? These weren’t friends.
“Get outta here!” I shouted to Courtney.
She took a step toward the door and stopped when she realized I wasn’t following.
“C’mon!”
“I’ll catch up. Watch out for trains!”
“Bobby!” she pleaded. “I’m not leaving you.”
“One of us has to find Mark!” I shouted. “Go!”
Courtney hesitated. I knew she didn’t want to leave, but one of us had to be sure to get out of that tunnel or Mark would be lost. She knew that, so she ran for the door. She opened it quickly, glanced back at me, and was gone.
I didn’t know what these goons were after, but it couldn’t be good. Their presence alone on First Earth wasn’t good. I couldn’t let them get beyond this cavern. Problem was, there were lots of them and not-lots of me. I had one chance and I had to take it.
“Quillan!” I shouted.
The flume sprang to life. My idea was to send them back to where they came from. The dados stopped and looked back into the tunnel curiously. They looked like confused dogs who didn’t know what to make of a strange sound. Their curiosity cost them. Light blasted from the tunnel and enveloped them. I didn’t know how many of them were in the flume, but they got sucked back in and sent on their way home to Quillan. My idea worked. I let out a relieved breath…
A little too soon. One of them realized what was happening. Before the pull of the flume could grab him, he sprang forward, leaping out of the tunnel and into the cavern. I was ready. I braced myself, expecting him to jump me. He didn’t. Instead he ran right past me, headed for the door to the subway. Whatever their mission was, it wasn’t to mess with me. In that brief instant I had the sick feeling that they weren’t there because of Courtney and me-I feared they were coming to invade First Earth.
I had to attack. That wasn’t something I was used to doing or even knew how to do. Loor had taught me to defend myself, not be the aggressor. Most of her training was about letting the other guy make the mistakes. If I had done that, the dado would have left me alone standing there at the gate, crouched down, ready to defend myself. Looking stupid.
Bright light from the flume filled the cavern as I spun and tackled the robot from behind, wrapping my arms around his legs. He sprawled forward, hitting the rock wall next to thewooden door with his shoulder. Hard. The impact was strong enough to knock a chunk of rock out of the wall. The robot didn’t even grunt. Not good. Dados didn’t feel pain, which meant they had no fear. I didn’t know what to do, so I held his legs in a bear hug. His clothing crumbled in my grip, as if the fabric were rotten. Weird. But I didn’t let go.
I could feel the strength of his robot legs. He was a machine. I wasn’t. My only hope was to somehow wrestle the dado back into the flume and send us both out of there. There was no way I could beat the mechanical thug in a fight without a weapon.
A weapon! I quickly reached up to grab his pistol from its holster. Bad idea. The dado’s leg was free. He kneed me in the head. I fell back, reeling. I saw stars, and not the kind you see through the flume. I had to shake it off fast or this thing would be loose on First Earth. I scrambled back to my feet to see I had given the dado an idea. He was reaching for his pistol. Oops. I looked around desperately. The light was already receding into the flume. I had missed the bus. Could I activate it again quickly? Nope. Not before this thing would take a shot at me. The only thing I could do was attack.
I leaped forward, launching myself parallel to the ground. I hit the robot as it fired and… Fum! The dado fell
