“Who are you?” Rhea asked again.
Still he did not answer. She returned her attention to the walker robots that blocked the path in front of her.
“I can take them!” Rhea insisted.
“You can, perhaps,” the man said. “But what about them?” He nodded at the Wardenites still lying flat on the floor beside her.
More and more airborne drones continued to join the fray, so that the air above the Wardenites became a thick mass of plasma streams. She could smell the ionized particles.
“Dude, make up your mind!” Will said.
“I’m not coming until you tell me who you are,” she told the newcomer.
The man hesitated, then raised his hands to lower the black hood.
He was square-jawed, with an aristocratic chin and high cheekbones. He had a shaven head.
She recognized him instantly. He had been in the very first flashback she’d ever had, while observing the Parliament Building through Gizmo’s camera feed. In her memory, he’d been wearing a golden medallion around his neck, above white robes, with a red, tasseled rope girthing his waist.
Do not fail me in this task, my Dagger, the man had said to her in the memory.
Seeing the recognition in her eyes, he nodded, and lifted his hood once more. Then he turned around and entered the thin passageway beyond.
She’d looked up images of Khrusos, so she knew this wasn’t him. But was he truly a friend, like he claimed?
The incoming plasma attacks made up her mind for her.
“Follow him!” she said.
She remained in place, holding off the attacks while the Wardenites crawled past her one-by-one into the passageway that had opened.
When the last of them had gone through, she backed inside after them, and the door automatically sealed behind her.
10
The door behind Rhea began to glow red in the center from the impacts it was taking on the other side, and she quickly backed away. As she moved farther away from it, more doors began to seal behind her, further fortifying the passageway and ensuring the escape of her and her companions.
She spun around to face the forward direction. The roof of the corridor was low, almost brushing the heads of the taller members of the party and wasn’t any wider than the employees-only passageway she’d just left, so that she and her companions were forced to travel in single file. She gazed past the Wardenites.
“Where are we?” Rhea asked, projecting her voice toward the black-robed man who guided them.
“The secret underground passages of Hongton,” the man at the fore announced. “The robots cannot come here. They’re programming won’t allow it.”
“Doesn’t seem to stop them from firing at the wall…” Will commented.
In the distance, the corridor was dark, but overhead lights activated in turn as motion sensors detected the advance.
“Who made this?” Horatio asked.
“The Martian government designed this place for its officials, in case of an attack,” the man explained. “It connects all the major government buildings and leads to a series of underground bunkers. I’ve coopted one of them for us.”
“Won’t the city’s AI know we’re here?” Rhea asked. “Considering the robots watched us enter…”
“It will know,” the man agreed. “However, it will not reveal this knowledge to anyone. This is part of its programming and is meant to prevent betrayal in the event the city falls. Would you want the AI of your city capable of revealing your hiding place to the enemy? You’ll also notice there are no cameras in these halls. No one knows we’re here, and the only way we’ll be discovered is if we stay here long enough to encounter the weekly inspectors. That gives us a few days.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Will said. “If I was part of the city’s security operation, and I knew the AI wouldn’t report on anyone who fled into the underground tunnel system, this would be the first place I’d look.”
“Yes, except no humans are part of the city’s security team,” the man said. “Everything is handled by machines. It’s the law here, in fact: robots are impartial, and can’t be bribed or otherwise corrupted. They’re the perfect law enforcement officers. There are, of course, a handful of party officials who know about these tunnels, and they’ll put two and two together. It’s possible they might even come looking for us in here. But since they can’t bring any robot bodyguards with them, I doubt it. More likely they’ll send in bounty hunters, of a cyborg ilk. And we may have to face such bounty hunters at some point, this is true. Or these party officials might simply decide that we’re better off left alone. I suppose we’ll see. It really depends on how long we intend to stay here.”
“Where are you taking us?” Rhea asked.
“A safe place,” the man replied. “Somewhere less claustrophobic, where we can talk.”
The group continued through the tight corridor, which occasionally turned right or left ninety degrees. Side passages began to branch off, but their guide ignored them, at least at first. Finally, he turned down one such passage, and took stairs down into darkness. Overhead lights kicked in when the motion sensors detected them.
The stairs opened into a wide room. Lights activated, revealing an auditorium of sorts. Seats were set in neat rows along a sloping floor to a stage below.
The steps continued downward, forming an aisle between the seats. The robed man started to lead them down this walkway.
Rhea glanced at Horatio. “Keep watch in the corridor outside.”
Horatio nodded, then climbed back up the stairs and out of the room.
Meanwhile, she and the others followed the robed man to the stage.
He beckoned toward the chairs. “Have a seat.”
The man crossed the stage, sitting behind a desk next to a podium.
Rhea and her companions seated themselves in the first row next to the stage.
“So, what now?” Brinks asked.
“Now he’s going to tell us who he is,” Rhea said.
From behind his desk, the man glanced at the Wardenites in turn. “Are you sure you want to
