forever, so perhaps he'd care to volunteer his own life for the sake of everyone else's? For Zek knew something about the Refuge that no one else, not even the New Zealander, the engineer, knew: that some years ago E-Branch had installed the last of several fail-safes, and down there in the sump there was a way to close this end of the loop for good.
'Powerful explosive charges in the ceiling of the cavern: a blast sufficient to bring down the roof of the place and seal it permanently. And we would have done it long since, but the Gates were closed and the Wamphyri gone and we needed the turbine to power the Refuge.
'There were two switches that had to be thrown, one inside the sump to arm the charges, and the other outside the reinforced concrete barrier that sealed the resurgence and channelled its waters: the exterior switch triggered the thing, obviously. But also, as a sensible safety precaution, there was a fifteen-minute delay after both switches had been thrown. And last but not least by way of safety, both hatches had to be locked from the outside — in fact, they could only be locked from the outside — before the electrical circuit could complete itself.
'Zek calmed Trennier down as best she could, gave him directions to the switchbox, told him to throw the switch and get out of there (if he was able) — but she kept that last reservation to herself. For there was no time, no way she could begin to explain her fears about the Wamphyri. Not that the New Zealander would have understood; he was in too much of a funk. And who wouldn't be, trapped in the dark with the Utterly Unknown? At least Zek had given him something to go on, instructions of a sort.
'Then she hit the alarms, woke the staff, told them to take the kids and move out — all of this taking very little time and none of it making too much sense to anyone except Zek, who just didn't have time to explain.
'And in that chaos of blaring alarms and puzzled, sleepy staff colliding with each other, and scared kids awake and crying in their rooms, the rest of it was up to Zek. Now she must make her way to the basement, set the trigger, and wait at the open hatch for the engineer to come through — and hope that it was only the engineer who came through — before she closed the hatch and locked it, completing the connection that would blow the sump and whatever else it contained to hell.
'But if it wasn't the New Zealander who came through, what then? My God! What a nightmare!
'And now maybe you'll forgive me that I've tried to forget all this, all the panic and sweaty horror of it as Zek, my Zek, rushed to the basement levels, climbed down into the now-silent engine room, and made her way down a spiralling steel staircase into the belly of the Refuge, to the reinforced concrete floor whose underside was the man-made ceiling in the natural cavern of the resurgence. In normal circumstances that floor would have been trembling to the throb of pressured water, but the water was a trickle now and the place no longer vibrated.
'There, in that cellar-like room which now seemed vaguely threatening, a pair of cylindrical turrets stood up knee-high from the floor. The carbon-steel hatch of one of them had been laid back on massive hinges, revealing a dark throat that was more threatening yet. But looking around and seeing a niche in the wall, and a shelf bearing an extension telephone handset, Zek believed she knew how to approach this thing.
'First and foremost there was the hatch: it must be closed, and immediately. If Trennier was on his way out… he would go through hell when he found the hatch locked. But there was nothing else for it, and it was only a temporary measure. And trying not to think of the New Zealander's terrible situation, Zek wasted no time but closed the hatch, locked its wheel, then ran to the open end of the cavern, where concrete steps took her down to the ancient bed of the resurgence.
'From there she climbed rusting iron rungs to a place high in the wall of the cavern, where a deep crevice housed the trigger's waterproof switch. It was stiff— probably a little rusty — but she managed to throw it anyway, then rapidly retraced her route back to the empty, echoing basement.
'By now Zek was feeling shaky: the combination of fear and frantic physical activity had almost exhausted her, but at last the stage was set. By now, too, Trennier should be battering on the closed hatch… but wasn't. And if by now he'd thrown that switch, he only had eight to ten minutes to get out of there.
'Zek had an automatic pistol. Ever since being attacked on Zante, she'd been in the habit of carrying a gun; I don't think I need mention what kind of ammunition she used. Now, preparing her weapon, she stuck it in her waistband and took up the dusty telephone from its shelf in the wall niche. Neglected, its battery was dead, but its generator handle twirled readily enough. In a moment she had Trennier on the other end of the line.
'The New Zealander was still in a state — even worse than before — and he hadn't done what Zek required of him. Oh, he'd found the switch in its secret place, but he hadn't thrown it. Trennier wasn't a stupid man. An engineer, he'd taken one look at that switch and known that the sump was rigged for destruction. Knowing Zek, however, he was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen while he was in there, but still he wasn't taking any chances. And in a panting whisper, he demanded to know what was going on, what it was all about, and what it was that was keeping him silent but observant company down there? Something was watching him, he felt sure.
'She couldn't tell him, could only tell him once again to throw the switch and get back to one of the ducts — either one, it made no difference — and climb out of there. As long as they stayed in
contact, she would know it was him and no other; she wouldn't shoot him as he emerged.
'But telling him that was a mistake. No other? What other or others was Zek going on about? What did she know that Trennier didn't? Others that needed shooting? Others that were capable of stuffing a big man into an eighteen-inch pipe? What in hell were the murdering things down there in the dark with him, in the sump? But no, she needn't bother to tell him. And fuck the switch! He'd be going back to the duct right now — and up through the hatch
— and God help anyone or anything that got in his way!
'Zek yelled into the phone then, screamed into it to get his attention, and finally she got it; but she knew she had to be hard on him. It was the only way. And so she told him about the hatches, how they were closed and she wasn't going to open one until she was sure he had thrown that switch! Oh, Zek knew she would let him out anyway, however it went, but she daren't let him see that.
'And so he did it, threw the switch; and Zek knew he had, because she'd reached out to him with her telepathy and 'seen' him do it! And now there were just fifteen minutes to go…
'But in reaching out to Trennier, she had opened her mind
— and it wasn't only his thoughts that came through the breach. Then, however briefly, she found herself listening to something else, the Thing that had terrified the children. It was a fleeting experience, momentary, but all the same it chilled her mind like a blast out of some frozen hell:
''Ahhh, see! Now he makes a move. Now he flees this place, and in so doing shows us the way out.. 'That much and no more, before Zek closed her mind again. But more than enough, surely? Panicked, Bruce Trennier was on his way… and how many of the Wamphyri were following on behind him?
'But it also showed a degree of uncertainty on their part — showed that they weren't entirely sure of what they were up against in this world — for they hadn't simply taken Trennier and made him show them the way out. What would that cold Thing have learned, for example, from the damaged minds of the Refuge's children? Nothing, except perhaps something of the caring warmth and attention of the Refuge's staff. But that in itself might have been seen as a weakness, for on Starside such children wouldn't have been spared. Mentally — and frequently physically — unfit, their only use would be as fodder for the beasts. Even on Sunside the Szgany would have thought twice before accepting such burdens, especially under threat from the Wamphyri. What could such children be, except an enormous hindrance? Yet here they were cared for? It spoke volumes for the inhabitants of Earth, but mainly that they were soft, riddled with unnecessary guilt, self-doubt, and pity for their society's underdogs. But in Starside underdogs were eaten.
'What Zek didn't know, of course, was that Vavara and the others — had already seen something of Earth's awesome firepower. At the Starside Gate, they'd clashed with General Mikhail Suvorov's men: an unequal battle, yes, but at the time they'd been an army. Now there were just the three of them, plus a handful of lieutenants. Not only that, but Malinari also knew that at least one of this world's inhabitants was a powerful telepath. While she wasn't of his order (but then again, who was?) still she was proof that the Hell-Lands weren't entirely defenceless.
'The minutes ticked by, and Zek was on tenterhooks. Five minutes, six, seven. Even if she returned to the dry bed of the resurgence and climbed up to the crevice with the switch, still she wouldn't be able to reverse the process now. The clock was ticking and nothing could stop it, and the only way to delay it would be to open one of the hatches, a temporary measure and definitely the most dangerous of all.
'The basement was lit by half a dozen naked light bulbs in the ceiling. Since these were powered by a small
