'It's no dream, Hugo.'
Again, Hugo opened his eyes; now there were tears in them. 'Did Loge throw you in here?'
'No. Actually, we dropped in here on our own-and we're all going to get out after we find another man who's down here someplace. How the hell did
Hugo sat up, moaned with pain. He cupped handfuls of water, splashed them on his legs. 'I landed on a ledge. It knocked me unconscious. When I woke up, I was… burning. I managed to crawl in here, by the water.'
'Anything broken?' I asked as I scooped water, dribbled it over his burns.
'No. At least I don't think so.'
'I know these burns hurt like hell. Do you think you can walk?'
With Golly lending him her not inconsiderable support, Hugo struggled to his feet. Leaning on Golly, he took a few tentative steps, then nodded. 'I can walk.'
'Good. See if you can walk and shout at the same time. Lippitt is the name of the man we're looking for.'
'Mongo, Garth… I'm sorry I was so incredibly fucking stupid. I don't know what else to say.'
'You don't have to say anything, Hugo. We all have our deep psychological needs, dreams and fantasies; sometimes they're all we can see.'
One hour, three levels, and four tunnels later we found Mr. Lippitt. He was seated with his back against a wall, his profile sharply outlined by the fiery tunnel behind him, casually swatting with his extinguished torch at the occasional creature that scuttled out of the darkness at him.
'It's about time you got here, Frederickson,' Lippitt announced gruffly as Golly chased the creatures with a few obscenities. 'I've been hearing the booming voice of your big friend there for the last forty-five minutes. I shouted myself hoarse. There are some hungry little things around here. What the hell took you so long?'
'Meet Mr. Lippitt,' I said to Hugo and Golly. 'When you get to his advanced age, little things tend to upset you. I'd like to say that he isn't always this crotchety, but it wouldn't be the truth.'
'Hello, Garth,' Lippitt said, rising to his feet and taking my brother's hand in both of his. 'Thanks for coming along on the rescue party.'
'You're welcome, Lippitt.'
'This is Hugo and Golly,' I said. 'Golly's the pretty one, and don't you forget it. She's very sensitive.'
HELLO MISTER FUCKING LIPPITT
'Hello, fucking Golly,' Lippitt said as he affectionately patted the gorilla's head. He shook Hugo's hand, grimaced when he noticed the burns on the giant's legs. 'You've got some pain, Hugo. We should wrap those burns.'
'If you don't mind,' Hugo replied, 'I'd just as soon wait until we get out of here.'
Lippitt looked at me. 'Are we going to get out of here, Frederickson?'
'Hey, are you joking? Are there dragons in Mount Doom?'
'This is just about what I'd expect to find in this loony bin,' Mr. Lippitt mumbled. 'One dwarf, one giant, a foul-mouthed gorilla, and a New York City police detective rapidly going to seed.'
Lippitt's tone was gruff, but his physician's touch was exceedingly gentle as the Defense Intelligence Agency operative knelt beside another brackish puddle and wrapped Hugo's burns with strips of cloth I'd cut from my overalls.
Although we were 'camped' less than a dozen yards from a thick column of fire that shot up through an elevator shaft, the flame sucked air past us and, like so many other areas in the mines, it was quite cold. By my reckoning, it was almost dawn in the outside world. I longed to see the sun again, wondered if we ever would.
'How are we doing, Mongo?' Hugo asked tentatively.
'We're okay. We have to hang a left the next chance we get. That'll put us back on track to the south. Don't worry. There's plenty of fresh air in these mines, and it has to come from someplace.'
Lippitt had asked Garth and me to describe in detail what had happened to us since we'd parted company in Nebraska. We'd complied. Now, when he had finished wrapping Hugo's legs, he asked us both to undress. We stripped, and by the light cast by the column of fire, he carefully examined our bodies; his face was impassive as he ran his fingers through Garth's fur and stroked my scales, and he made no comment.
Next, he interrogated Hugo on the Ramdor operation, and then Golly. Not surprisingly, Golly was able to provide the most useful information on the overall operation, and if Lippitt felt at all strange chatting up a gorilla, nothing in his tone or manner betrayed it; the man would ask questions in a flat voice, and the gorilla would flash the answers on her computer display screen.
'How do Garth and I look to you?' I asked Lippitt when he had finished talking to Golly.
'You look like you're still alive.'
'So are the things down here.'
'That hasn't escaped my attention, Frederickson. Obviously, more changes have taken place in these animals-but their general deterioration was arrested. Not only have they survived, but they've reproduced. Interesting. I wish I had a dissection kit.'
'Sorry we neglected to bring one along. Let's get back to Garth and me. How close are we to cellular explosion?'
'I have no way of predicting that. What I can tell you is that Garth seems to be devolving along a fairly straightforward humanoid and ape line.'
'Loge told us that.'
'You, Mongo, are a mess.'
'For Christ's sake, Lippitt!' Garth snapped.
'It's all right, Garth,' I said. 'He knew I wanted it straight. Lippitt, make an educated guess. How long can I last?'
'A pessimist would say that you could explode at any moment. An optimist might give you a couple of weeks-a month at the very most. Then, even if you don't explode, you're not going to make very good company.'
'I hear what you're saying, Lippitt, and I thank you for laying it out like that. I consider you my friend. If I get too, uh, snaky, I want you to look out for me.'
'I will, Mongo,' Lippitt said quietly. 'And I promise you there'll be no pain.'
'You'll do shit unless
'That goes without saying,' Lippitt replied evenly.
PLEASE NO KILL FUCKING MONGO
'It's all right, Golly. Nobody's talking about doing anything I wouldn't want them to do.'
'What about your mental faculties?' Lippitt asked.
Garth and I looked at each other. 'No changes at all, as far as we can tell,' I answered. 'I don't think we're any loonier than we've ever been. Just seriously pissed.'
'I agree there's been no apparent intellectual or psychological change in either of you,' Lippitt said in a somewhat distant tone. 'That's also interesting.'
'And now I'm really glad we didn't bring you a dissection kit. How did you find this place, Lippitt?'
'I didn't find it; a team of Warriors found me.'
'Then you haven't killed Siegmund Loge?'
'Not yet,' Lippitt said tersely.
'Good,' Garth said. 'If we can get to him, there's still a chance for Mongo and me.'
'It's possible Loge knows of, or can cook up, an antidote. But one thing must be clearly understood: If we can find an antidote for your condition, that's wonderful, but nothing is more important than putting Siegmund Loge out of commission for good, because that's the only way of ensuring that the Valhalla Project will never be completed. No life, obviously including my own, matters more than stopping whatever it is Loge is up to.'
'We know what he's up to. He's trying to develop a biochemical agent that will enable him to control behavior genetically-everyone's behavior. He's set himself the modest task of ruling the world.'
Lippitt's reaction was somewhat unexpected; he threw back his head and laughed. 'Who the hell told you
