Deathworld

Mark appeared immediately in the middle of the floor, over by the Rolls. 'Sorry, I was doing some maintenance,' he said, heading over to Charlie. 'What's up?'

'I'm stuck in a public access near the Square,' Charlie said, 'and somebody just tried to grab me off the street!'

'I'll call the cops,' Mark said.

'Don't!'

Mark looked at him as if he was nuts. Charlie could entirely understand why. 'You do that,' Charlie said, 'the minute they turn up there, whoever tried to grab me will just play it innocent and vanish, and we'll be no better off than we have been-either they'll come after me again later, at a better time, or else some other poor kid's gonna get grabbed instead. And probably killed! We've got to do something now. But we've got to keep whoever's chasing me on the hook, until the Net. Force people can catch up with him, with me-'

'I'll hit the panic button,' Mark said. Immediately the whole space filled with an astounding howl of klaxons. He looked around him with intense satisfaction.

'It's not going to help,' Charlie said, 'Winters isn't available!'

'I bet my dad is, though,' said Mark. 'He'll call the cavalry.' He looked around him, then, with some concern, because nothing but the klaxon seemed to be happening. 'Or he would if he was in his office-' he muttered.

'Mark, we have to do something now!'

'That'll go through to his pager,' Mark said. 'No point in us sitting around waiting.'

'The guy chasing me,' Charlie said, 'it's a fair bet he'll realize what I've done. If he has any brains at all, he'll be in some other Net access place right now, trying to find out where I am online. Then he'll try to trace me-and I'm on limited time, all I had was a valuecard. I only have about forty-five minutes now before the door of my booth opens up-'

'Then we'd better get where you're expected to be,' Mark said, 'and stall.'

Charlie stared at Mark. 'You mean Deathworld-'

'Where else? How else is he going to track you if you're in a public access except by your Deathworld ID? And you've got a hot-pursuit situation, haven't you? Well, you don't want to lose the guy, do you? You just said you didn't want him to go to ground! He will, if he loses you.' Mark looked at him, a challenging kind of look. 'You've got to keep him chasing you until the cavalry comes over the hill, Charlie!'

Charlie gulped.

'But you won't be alone,' Mark said. 'Come on, Charlie… the game's afoot. And it's us. But we won't be the ones who get caught. Let's go where you're expected to go when you panic.'

'My workspace.'

'From in here, not direct from your access.' Mark picked up the Magic Jacket from where it had been draped over the chair behind his 'desk' and threw it at Charlie. 'He, she, or they won't expect that. My antitrace protocols outside this space will at least slow them down. And then we'll get into Deathworld. But on the way, you think we might pick up someone else who knows his way around there…?'

Charlie gulped, and began to see how it could go. And slowly he started to smile. It was still dangerous, and he was still scared. But this was exactly what he had been working toward. And he now had someone on his side.

'Nick,' he said. 'Yeah. It's worth a try. Come on, Mark, let's go…!'

Chapter 9

Charlie came out into the ashy darkness between the Lake. of Tears and the Dark Artificer's Keep, and stood looking around him for a second with Mark. Here and there in the darkness beyond the lake, the Damned ran by, pursued by the usual demons. Banies made their way toward the Keep, or into and out of it. There was no sign of any pursuit, but then he wasn't sure what pursuit would necessarily look like. It could wear a seeming as easily as he could, and didn't have to look like anyone he would recognize at the moment. And is it Kalki? Or Shade? Or someone else they've sent after me?

'One thing you've going for you,' Mark said, 'they'll be looking for one kid, not two.'

'Great. That means they'll either pass me by, or find me and also try to trace and grab whoever's with me,' Charlie said. 'Why leave witnesses?'

This thought made Mark widen his eyes briefly. Then he grinned. 'I don't think so somehow,' Mark said. 'I don't care who they are. They're not going to get into my workspace from my ID here. It's too well protected for that.' He looked around them, though, with some concern. 'But I don't think we should just be standing around. Where do we go?'

'For the moment,' Charlie said, 'safety in numbers. There are more people in the Keep than there are out here. Let's get inside.'

They headed in through the front door. There were a fair number of Banies who used this spot as a gateway 'access' while working on solving the Eighth Circle, and most of them were heading past Charlie and Mark toward the entryway that led to the Stairways to Nowhere. 'We could lose ourselves pretty well in there, from the look of it,' Mark said.

'Lose would be the word,' Charlie said, nervous. 'I don't know my way around in there real well-'

'Doesn't matter. Whoever's chasing you,' Mark said, 'we've just got to keep them in here, and occupied, until the Net Force people can get in and identify them.'

Charlie swallowed. 'Will they be able to do that in forty minutes?'

'More like thirty-five now,' Mark said, not even having the grace to sound scared. 'They'd better.'

'But how are they going to find us?'

Mark tugged at the virtual 'fabric' of the Magic Jacket's sleeve. 'I left full details about this in the message to my dad,' he said. 'The tracking routine it uses is piping direct into his space. Anything you see or hear, he and Net Force will, too… and it's all archiving, storing virtual locations and addresses second by second. All we can do now is leave the tracking to him and his people, and get ourselves deep inside here… deep enough that anyone who comes after us is plainly doing it on purpose and not just as some kind of accident.'

Charlie looked around him, looked at the entry to the stairways. 'Okay,' he said. 'I guess we'd better-' 'Manta!'

Charlie jumped. But it wasn't Kalki's voice, or Shade's.

Not that that means anything! He turned, half-furious, half terrified to see Nick hurrying toward them through the great doors. 'Ohmygosh,' Charlie said, grabbing Nick by the shoulders as he got close, 'I'm gonna kill you! Do you know who I thought you were?'

'I can imagine. But I didn't want to yell your real name in the middle of all this. Who knew what could happen? Hey, nice jacket.'

'Never mind the jacket. How did you know my handle?'

'I've been reading the message boards,' Nick said. 'I put some things together. Your message timings, for example. Look, can this wait? I got the message you left me about the people who're after you. Had to be the hero, didn't you?'

Charlie opened his mouth to make some angry retort, and then stopped himself, for Nick's tone wasn't angry or mocking. It was a compliment. 'Uh-'

'Yeah. Well, there's something I've been wanting to try, and we'd better try it now, before somebody grabs us.' He looked over at Mark. 'Who's your friend?'

'Nick, this is Mark. Mark Winters, Nick Melchior. Mark's a virtwrangler, Nick. He's figured a way to track our progress in here.' Charlie displayed the jacket. 'Look, we have to give the bad guys a target, but one that's too tough to actually catch. That means we've got to get in deep enough that the people looking for me won't be able to find me. Help's coming, but we've gotta stall.'

'Great. Come this way,' Nick said, heading off to their right. 'Nine be deep enough for you?'

'Nine?' Charlie swallowed. 'Nick, one of them, the one who called himself Kalki, he said he'd been through the gates of Nine… '

'He's full of it,' Nick said. 'No one can come back after they get through the gates of Nine. There's a 'limited