‘If is right. According to Justin, they had them located. Located, hell. By the time we got dropped off, they were god knows how far ahead of us. All we were supposed to do was buzz in, splash ’em from a distance with these new rifles and get ourselves back to Splash One, ready for the sunder. Oh, yeah, Justin had it all plotted.’
‘You didn’t say splash them to me, My. You said take care of …’
‘What the fuckin’ hell did you think we meant, Affy? Invite ’em to a tea party? Convert ’em into bein’ good little Crystallites?’
She was silent for a time, finally asking with at least an appearance of meekness. ‘Well, when we catch up to them and you dispose of the Tripsinger, then nobody needs the woman and kid, do they!’
‘Insurance,’ he growled, almost beneath his breath, hearing the crunch of hooves narrowing the distance between themselves and Spider Geroan. ‘The woman and the kid are just insurance, Affy, and mind your fuckin’ tongue.’
Inside one of the massive walls of the BDL building, a lean and dusty figure lifted a soil-filled bucket high above her head and felt the weight leave her hands as it was hauled away.
‘That’s enough for now,’ came a whisper from above. ‘Come on up, Gretl.’ There was the sound of water running. The dirt dug out of the mud brick wall was being disposed of, washed into the sewers of Splash One.
Gretl Mechas started to object, then sagged against the wall of the vertical shaft, unable to muster the strength to move. She could not have continued, even if he had been willing. The makeshift mallet and chisel fell from her hands.
‘Gretl?’
‘Coming,’ she said at last, setting her foot on the first of the laboriously inserted pegs that formed a spiral ladder in the chimneylike shaft. When she came to the top, Michael, the doctor, reached for her hand and pulled her out, like a cork out of a bottle. They stood in what had been Gretl’s cell when she had been alive. Now that she was dead – for the second time – it was presumably empty, at least temporarily. Michael placed a mud-covered bit of planking conveniently near the opening, then moved the cot back almost to cover it.
‘How much farther do we have to go down?’ she sighed.
He ran the length of hauling rope between his hands, measuring off the yards. ‘Another twenty feet, maybe. That should bring us into the cellars.’ He dropped the bucket and coils of rope into the shaft. ‘I can get us down another foot or so tonight, after I’m sure he’s asleep.’
‘You’re sure he’s got a tunnel?’ She asked the question for the twentieth time and he gave her the answer he had given each time before.
‘According to the guards I overheard, yes. It was put in when the building was constructed. It runs out to the east, through the farmland. There’s a door out there. According to the men, it’s so well hidden from the outside, it isn’t even locked.’
‘We should be able to move faster now that I’m dead,’ she said tonelessly, wiping the dust from her eyes. ‘I won’t have to listen for that damned door every minute, wondering if he’s coming down the hall.’
The doctor nodded, fetching a damp cloth from the attached convenience so she could wash the dust from her face. ‘There’s no one else alive in this corridor, Gretl. Unless he brings someone new in here, I think you’re safe. And from what the ladies say, he’s preoccupied with other things right now.’
‘Ladies,’ she snorted weakly.
‘They hate him just as much as you do. They just had a lower breaking point, that’s all.’ He stroked her hair. ‘You did your part very well. You looked as though you were dying.’
‘You were right. He didn’t want me any more when he couldn’t get any response. It was hard not to show anything, Michael. Oh, God, but I do hate him.’
‘I know.’
‘I’ve meant to ask, how did you make him believe I was dead?’
‘The same way he made everyone out there believe Gretl Mechas was dead before. There’s no shortage of bodies. There are two or three rooms down the corridor that have bodies in them. I just bagged one of those and gave it to the guards. They weren’t likely to look. They saw what they expected to see, just as your friends did when they saw your clothes on that other poor soul, whoever it was.’ Michael’s voice shook with despair. ‘The place is full of death. I know it. God, I hoped for so long, but I saw it in his eyes this last time.’
‘Why did he pick you?’
‘The historic press published a story on me. I’d developed some new treatments for diseases of aging using biological products I’d found here on Jubal. Nothing very significant, but the historic news blew it up into something. He asked me to work for him full time as his personal physician. I thought that was ridiculous and said so….’
‘Justin told me once that no one can say no to him.’
‘He said the same thing to me. “Nobody gets away with saying no to Harward Justin,” and “What’s mine stays mine.” ’
‘What’s his stays dead,’ she whispered. ‘Did he think you could keep him alive forever or something?’
‘Who knows what he thought. I can’t extend his life, no matter what. So far I’ve been lucky. He hasn’t been sick. And, of course, when the escape shaft is done …’ His head came up, listening. ‘I hear something. Better get through onto my side in case he pays me a visit.’ He crawled headfirst into the opening, bent his body into a ‘U’
