Kendra sighed. “You aren’t hearing me. Look. This is a map of the dome. These people sealed all the external exits, but they apparently came in through the aquifer, and sealed that exit behind them. We believe it can be reopened. On our side, the door has apparently been mined, but could be disarmed-from their side. If we can get our gamers to the aquifer, I believe we can get them home.”
The little man’s eyes narrowed. “And just how, exactly…?”
Kendra pointed to the lights. “Kill those, please.”
The lights came down, and an expanded map of the gaming dome appeared, a grid of lines and pipes and glowing conduits.
“This,” she said, “is a map of the dome as it was originally configured. These plans were filed during initial construction. But in the last three weeks, partially as a result of your petition to the IFGS, Xavier,” she nodded to him, “some additional systems were added.”
“Just power systems for the illusions, and communications…”
Wu Lin chimed in. “And the backup video system.”
“What are you trying to say?” Xavier asked.
“The gaming system is less compromised than the main communications and environment systems. We think the kidnappers might not have neutralized all of it.”
The air swirled with dome schematics. Xavier walked into the middle of it, absorbing, sniffing deeply, as if able to sense the information directly, much as he did the gaming data. He grinned, and laughed. And once he started laughing, couldn’t seem to stop.
At last Kendra couldn’t hold her irritation any longer. “May I ask what you find so amusing?”
Xavier couldn’t answer, he was doubled over, holding his sides. Kendra looked at Wu Lin. “Do you mind letting me in on this?”
The Chinese girl smiled. “It is very simple.”
“Elucidate.”
“Xavier feared that the game was over. Instead, it seems that things have just begun.”
Xavier wiped the back of his hand across his eyes. “Yes, if they have the wits to take the first move. I know her. Angelique’s idea of a curveball is dragging an old boyfriend to the party. She will fold under pressure.” He laughed again.
“She needs a miracle.”
Navigating a narrow space between two egg-like structures, Darla crawled, so frightened she had to struggle to remember what the hell she was doing. “Think, think.”
She scooted around, squeezing between the bubbles, feeling with her fingers. There was virtually no light, except a few threads where someone had drilled holes in the bubble, then sealed them with translucent epoxy. She glimpsed people moving, talking. Planning. Moving.
She pressed her ear to the side of the bubble, and could hear muffled voices, followed by silence. Then babble, softer now.
She felt around until she found the edge of a rounded trap door, and pushed against it. She pulled a Swiss Army-style multitool from her side pocket. One of the blades was a knife. She sliced through a layer of sprayed plastic.
All right, Mama. Let’s just see what hope gets me.
The air reeked of fear, as thick as oily rain. Scotty Griffin wrenched at his plastic cuffs again and again, and when he rested the torn skin for a minute before his next effort, spent the time weighing his options. None of them was very good.
“These cuffs are pretty standard law-enforcement plastic. We could probably-” He stopped as he heard the floor open. “What the hell?”
A chubby, redheaded vision appeared, her game makeup smeared.
“Darla?” Wayne asked. She wiggled her way up into the room.
“Wayne?” she said. “Is everyone all right?”
“Compared to what?”
“Can you cut us loose?” Sharmela asked, dark round face anxious.
Mickey cleared his throat. “I’m not so sure about that. We don’t want to antagonize these people. Those air guns look like they’d blow a hole right through you.”
Maud winced. “Michael, you are such a coward. Sometimes I can’t believe Papa let me marry you.”
“Probably couldn’t wait to get you out of the bleedin’ ’ouse.”
“Young lady. Darla? If you can cut my cuffs and leave his attached, there’s a fiver in it for you.”
Darla managed to smile. “Can’t do that.”
“One does one’s best. Ah, well… tell me. Is there anywhere to go?”
“Yes. So let’s see about the cuffs.” She examined one, then took her multitool and selected a soldiering torch. “Plastic,” she said.
“You’re a tech.”
“Bet your baby blues,” Darla said. “Built this dome. Thought it would be fun to play here.” She shook the tool and grinned ruefully. “Don’t leave home without it,” she said.
Darla melted through the first cuff. The stench was sharp, acrid.
“This will take too long,” Scotty said. “We need to get out of here before they come back. They’ll smell burnt plastic. Where can we go?”
“When we built the dome,” Darla said, “there were spaces between the bubbles. Interstitials. We put trap doors in some of them. Just places to squirrel away to without anyone seein’. Real privacy. Not much of that up here.”
Scotty blinked. “Make me understand.”
“Imagine a bowl filled with… I don’t know, darlin’. Cherries. Cherries and oranges and limes. That’s the way the domes were when we filled them with bubbles.”
He could visualize that. “So if we crawl between the bubbles…”
“I can get us to another bubble, maybe one where we can hunker down.”
“Then jam the door,” Scotty said. “Start getting them out the hatch while I work on… Wayne’s handcuffs. You up to it?”
Wayne nodded. “Let’s move before I come to my senses.”
Mickey shook Maud’s hand off his arm. “Wait just a minute.”
“Asako?” Sharmela said, suddenly grasping.
“Exactly.”
“She can’t exactly prowl around in the spaces between bubbles, can she?”
Asako’s mechanized voice cut through their babble. “Don’t talk about me as if I’m not here,” she said. “Don’t worry about me. They won’t see me as a threat. I should be all right. Don’t tell me your plans, and don’t you dare wait.”
Angelique raised her fingers over the glass dome sheltering the woman. “Asako. Are you sure…?”
“Go,” she said.
In the “green room” bubble 37-C, things seemed to have begun to stabilize.
Shotz regarded Ali, who stood leaning against the wall, cuffed hands at his belly. “Are you comfortable?”
Ali ignored the question. “When will you release us?”
Shotz’ expression never changed. Perhaps he had never expected this question to be answered. “I’m afraid that you cannot be freed until… this entire matter is complete.”
“How do you intend to escape? Surely you don’t believe that you can sneak out of here and all the way back to Earth?”
“Are you comfortable?” Shotz’ head inclined slightly to the left, so that, momentarily, he was peeking out from under blond bangs. “Whether you believe it or not, I harbor no animosity toward you. You would be best served by courtesy and cooperation.”
