New Pompeii’s rotation was fairly rapid, and not a little disconcerting. The Well World filled half the sky, but it was eerie, distorted by the atmosphere and plasma skin through which it was viewed, and the stars in the brief night periods were equally nebulous.
It took the Ghiskind less than an hour to return. As agreed, it merged with the Bozog for communications purposes.
“They are there,” it told them. “A small colony, mostly young and all looking and acting quite wild and animalistic. Two males, five females, four young. Very strange.”
“No sign of Belden, then,” Mavra noted. “Interesting. I wonder if he died? An accident, or maybe that woman took him with her somehow. I hope so. We’ll leave them there. Did they seem hostile?”
“Frightened of their shadows,” the Yugash responded. “But definitely without much more than rudimentary reason, which probably explains why there are so few young. Few would survive.”
They nodded. Yulin sighed. “Well, then, I propose we leave them, keep on guard just in case this Belden is still around someplace, and go Underside. That’s safest anyway.”
They were tired and still sore, but they agreed. Underside was much more defensible, and it was where they had to be anyway.
Mavra walked with them to the large stone structure to one side of what was once a park in front of the main hall. It, too, was overgrown now, but both the former syndicate scientist and Renard knew its operation.
“It’s pretty cramped in there,” Yulin warned them. “I’d say Mavra and Wooley by themselves, and we’ll take the backup car. Bozog, you’re going to have a rough fit.”
The face of the seemingly solid marble cube vanished after a series of carefully spaced taps on the outside. The grass, moss, and vines didn’t vanish, though, and had to be pulled off.
The car before them had eight seats designed for humans. Wooley managed to fit in back by scrunching down and flexing her wings uncomfortably. Mavra managed to sprawl across the front three.
“See you down there—and be careful. Belden would know about this, too,” Yulin warned, and punched a new combination.
“
Mavra said nothing. The drop was too uncomfortable. It was a long way to Underside, and although the rate of descent was controlled, it felt as if they were falling at all times—an uncomfortable sensation, and it was a long, long ride.
Above them the others clambered into the service car, which was not quite as roomy as the first one. The Bozog managed, with great difficulty, although if the Ghiskind had had feet or if Vistaru and Renard had been larger, it would have been stepped on the whole way. Yulin was scrunched up trying not to step on the strange creature.
Finally it ended, and the front of the car dissolved again. Mavra climbed out with difficulty, and Wooley almost snagged a wing, doing the same. They found themselves in a sterile, brightly lit hall, resembling any of the tens of millions of halls in the stark technological centers common since the dawn of technical civilization. The others arrived almost immediately; the smaller car’s speed was determined by the larger one, and let out a floor above.
Yulin’s bull’s head nodded and he looked around in satisfaction, tail swishing back and forth in anticipation. This was his element—the metallic walls and artificial lighting, the bowels of a great machine. He had helped design the place and supervised its construction. It seemed a part of him.
They walked along the hall, ready for anything. After a bit, it opened to reveal a broad platform and an overlook from which stretched a great wide bridge across a huge, impossibly deep pit.
“No bodies again,” Yulin noted, surprised. “Then Belden has been here.”
“Look!” Renard called. “Out there—across the bridge! Isn’t
They all strained. The Yaxa had the best vision, and her death’s head nodded. “Yes. A man. Outlandishly dressed, too. Very dead, I think—maybe for an awfully long time. A good deal of decomposition is evident.”
Yulin considered it. “Looks like he tried for the computer. In the defense mode he’d just about get across before the lethal charges hit him. Even at this end, it’s got fifty volts as a discouragement, so he was nuts, driven, or determined. Probably all three.”
“Think it’s Belden?” Vistaru voiced the other’s thoughts.
“Probably,” Wooley replied. “The man has a horse’s tail, he’s big, and he’s dressed in flowing robes, a wreath on his head. Looks like the new Emperor of New Pompeii finally got bored Topside and decided he was able to defy the computer. That explains everything, I think.”
Renard was thoughtful. “Well, if it’s just an electrical defense, I can walk right through it,” he noted confidently.
“It’s about ten thousand volts where Belden got,” Yulin pointed out. “It’s not on until needed, of course. The system senses a life form, then zaps it, then there’s no life form any more and it shuts off.”
“Ten thousand wouldn’t bother me,” the Agitar replied. “The excess would simply discharge.”
“But only Obie can open that door,” the Dasheen told him. “And it will defend as it has to. There are guns here, too, as a fail-safe. Lots of nasty stuff. No, it’s got to be by proper code, everything done in the proper sequence, or no go,” he said earnestly.
“Want to get it over with?” Mavra asked him. “What do you have to do?”
He was thoughtful. “All right, first I walk out on that bridge in a certain manner—that will cancel the voltage to a particular point. Then I say the password and advance in the same manner. The door will open as I approach it. Then I must go to the panel and cancel the defense mode or it will be reinstated.”
“One of us will go with you,” Wooley said suspiciously.
He shook his head. “No, it’s got to be one, only. Don’t worry. Even if I don’t cancel the mode you’ll know how to break into it, right? Hell, haven’t I played square with you all up to now?”
He had, but he’d played square with Trelig for years, too.
“Perhaps the Ghiskind,” Mavra suggested.
“No!” Yulin was adamant. “Nobody! Sure, it
They were uncertain, and there were whispered conferences, but the conclusion was inescapable, as Yulin knew it had to be. Wooley voiced it.
“We haven’t come this far to turn back now,” she pointed out. “All right, Yulin. Go ahead.”
He nodded to her, satisfaction and confidence mirrored in his manner. He turned and walked to the foot of the bridge, then raised his arms and turned palms out. He hesitated a moment, as if expecting a jolt, then stepped onto the bridge and started across.
A bit more than halfway he was a small figure that they watched anxiously. Wooley and Renard drew weapons and aimed them at Yulin without a word.
Yulin walked nervously, head bobbing, trying to look at both sides of the bridge. Long ago he’d shot a mark into it for the proper place. For a moment he was afraid that the mark had somehow been erased, or that his less efficient vision would miss it, but then—there it was! It was farther along than he remembered, but he hadn’t been zapped yet, so that must be it.
Keeping arms upraised, palms out, he stopped and nervously cleared his throat.
“Obie!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing across the chamber and up and down the great shaft. “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is His Prophet! Hear me, Obie? There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is His Prophet!”
He hesitated a moment more, took a deep breath, and walked on.
Nothing happened.
He reached the other end of the bridge, a tiny figure very far away and almost invisible to all but Wooley, whose pistol remained firm and dead on.
Yulin looked down at the body. It was badly charred and decomposed. Very ugly. That bastard Belden deserved every volt of it, he thought without pity.
The door slid back and he was surprised to feel a warm blast of air greet him. He stepped inside, then to
