'And they're not the same questions as yesterday, Nick, they change every hour-'
'Come on!' they yelled at him in unison.
'All right,' Wringscalpel said. 'What is the purpose of life?'
'He doesn't want anything easy, does he?' Charlie moaned.
'Shaddup, Charlie. Pain, Wringscalpel! And learning how to deal with it.'
'What is the dawn of the soul?'
'Which version?' Nick said.
Wringscalpel looked surprised, 'then smiled. 'London 2024.'
'The other side, / where the shadows hide, / and the dark no longer falls: the night of pain, / when the final chord / Comes breaking through the walls!'
'Hey, you're serious about this,' Wringscalpel said. 'Are you sure I can't ask you your favorite color?' 'No! Get on with it!'
'What is Joey's middle name?'
'The one on his birth certificate,' Nick said, 'or the one from the press release?'
Wringscalpel grinned. 'The birth certificate.'
Nick swallowed. 'Illusion,' he said.
'There you go,' said Wringacalpel, and began to grow.
The floor of the place shook. The disco ball hanging from the ceiling of the Party Room started to tremble, and stalactites of crystal and onyx began to fall from way above it, causing screams among the partying multitudes, who scattered in every direction, but then returned to the dance floor as if driven there with whips.
Wringacalpel, though, was paying all of this no attention. His uniform was tearing and shredding away, falling to the floor, as the demon grew, lost his potbelly, gained wings that lost the toy look they had worn earlier and now looked seriously functional, gigantic pinions, that spread above him and out to either side. He cried a great cry that shook down more stalactites.
'Is he angry?' Charlie shouted at Nick over the din of the music, the screaming dancers, the crash of falling crystal.
Wringscapel heard this and laughed. 'Angry? You kidding?' he said. 'I get a bonus for this.' He held out his huge hands, and suddenly they were filled with a flaming sword that lit the whole place blindingly in actinic blue- white fire. 'And now I get to leave this job to somebody else, while I go up to Seven and kick some-'
'Yeah, great, later!' Nick shouted, and dodged under his arm, past him, through the suddenly open door.
Charlie and Mark followed him in a hurry. Past Wringscapel, on the other side of the door, it was as dark as the inside of a dog, and involuntarily Charlie looked behind them, back toward the light.
'Whoever's behind us, they can't follow us in here unless they pass the test,' Nick said.
'Yeah, and what if they know the answers, too?' Mark said, looking around him in the darkness with some concern.
'There's still one thing I don't think they'll do,' said Nick. 'Come on!'
He ran into the dark. More slowly they went after him, but their eyes were getting used to the dimness now. They were in a huge, huge cave, the size of a sports stadium, its stony ceiling lost above them.
'What are we supposed to be doing?' Mark said. 'Looking for the Lady,' said Nick.
Charlie looked at him as they ran. ' 'She left the party early'…' he said. 'Or something like that.'
'Something like that. We have to find her. She's the key.'
'Shouldn't be hard, there's nobody but us in… uhoh.'
There were eyes in the darkness. They glowed. The predatory eyes blinked slowly and looked thoughtfully at the three of them.
'Ignore them,' Nick said. 'Look for a single light by itself.'
It was hard. They walked on through the darkness, and it got hot and stifling, and the eyes pressed in close around them, and they could all hear breathing… Charlie shook his head at the oppressive quality of the illusion. And he stopped, then, hearing footsteps behind him.
'There,' Nick said. He pointed. One light, distant-not horizontal like the lights around them, but vertical, not green, but a pure white.
'What's the rush?' said a soft voice from behind them.
Charlie turned, and there she was, Shade, looking at him with an expression that was almost sad… but not quite.
I can't have more than fifteen minutes left, Charlie thought. I've lost track. All I can do now is stall, keep her talking…
'Kalki told me you ran off without a word,' she said. 'Without even looking at him! He didn't mean to frighten you, really… he was just going to give you a ride.'
And she's got to do more than just talk. 'Was he?' Charlie said. 'And what would we have done then? He and I. Or the three of us. If there really are two of you…'
'Why, talk,' Shade said. 'What else would happen?' 'I have two words for you,' Charlie said. 'Scorbutal cohydrobromate.'
She looked at Charlie, and her eyes widened.
Not enough. 'And a white cotton sweater,' Charlie said. 'It must have been very new, one of those teased- cotton ones… because it shed all over Richard Delano's rug.'
The look on her face went horrified for a moment, just for a flicker. Then she got hold of herself again and smiled very slowly, a knowing smile. 'Scorbutal? Someone your age,' she said, 'shouldn't be messing around with drugs, Manta. Your folks would be shocked to find out about it. Maybe some responsible adult should tell them what she thinks you've been up to, hmm? How you tried to buy some from her?'
He went hot with fury.
'But it doesn't matter,' Shade said. Charlie stared at her, kept his mouth shut. 'There are always other people to work with, aren't there? It's not like suicide is going to go away. There are always mixed-up kids who stumble into nasty places like this.' She looked around her with scorn, at the eyes pressing in close. 'Or going to incredible trouble to work themselves deep down into them. Places full of sick images and soul-destroying music and ugly ideas. Who would be surprised when kids who spend a lot of time in a place come to grief? No one would be surprised at all.'
She looked at Nick and Mark. 'It's nice to see you've picked up a couple of friends here, finally,' Shade said. 'But there will always be people who need friends, and aren't so spiteful and suspicious. For them… I'll always be here. Until Deathworld shuts down, some day. Maybe some day very soon… because, if there's justice, nothing lasts forever.'
That smile again: self-satisfied, controlling. Charlie would have loved to have an excuse to punch her in the nose. But then he realized he didn't need to… and he stood quite still, and smiled just a little himself. He couldn't help it.
And a second later he had the satisfaction, as hot as the fury had been a moment before, of seeing her eyes go wide, as she stared at the man and woman who suddenly caught hold of her 'seeming' from both sides. 'Net Force,' said the woman. 'We have some questions we need to ask you, please, so if you'd come this way-'
There were suddenly about six other Net Force operatives there as well, all in their usual dark suits and coverslicks, and they closed in on the group. 'You kids all right?' one of them said.
In the background Shade was shouting, 'What? Who are you? This is an outrage! I want a lawyer-'
'Uh, we're fine,' Nick said, looking around at the ruckus with some surprise. He looked at Mark and Charlie. 'But how'd they get in here without answering the questions?'
'Either a search warrant,' Mark said, looking at them with relief, 'Or a 'back door.' Does it matter?' He looked at Shade as the agents walked her away. 'Looks like it's gonna be a real interesting debrief. Here, wait a minute… ' he said to the agent who had spoken to Charlie.
Mark reached up and helped Charlie out of the Magic Jacket.
'Thanks, Squirt,' Charlie said as Mark handed the jacket to the operative.
'It's still live,' Mark said. 'The evidential trail is still hot, so you'll want to lock it down when you get it back into the examination space at HQ.'
'Thank you,' said the op.
'And,' said another voice out of the darkness, 'I would appreciate it if someone would give me an explanation
