“The message has arrived-it is time to leave. The search has widened. If we move now we can stay behind the searchers and get to the meeting place. Quickly!”
We quicklied-and I was beginning to get very tired of it. The circular staircase had been a lot easier to come down than it was to climb up. Floyd saw my condition and if he hadn’t half dragged me I doubt if I would have been able to make it. Once more into the black tunnels. I was only vaguely aware of our two guides, Floyd and the scuttling form of Fido. The next time we stopped I sagged against the wall. Enough was enough yet already.
“You will both stay here with Dreadnought,” Indefatigable commanded. “You will be sent for.”
Nor would our watcher answer any questions in the few minutes that we waited. “Proceed,” a voice commanded and we did. Into a dimly lit chamber that appeared glaringly bright to our dark-adapted eyes. A half-dozen young men, garbed like our guides, sat on the other side of a long table.
“Stand here,” Indefatigable ordered, then joined Dreadnought and sat down with the others.
“No chairs for us?” I asked, but was ignored. Fido felt equally irked, jumped up onto the table and barked. Jumped back to the floor to dodge the swing of a fist.
“Shut up,” one of the men suggested. “We are awaiting orders. We are here, Alphamega.”
They all turned to look at a red box on the table. It was made of plastic and was featureless except for louvers on one side.
“Are the two Outsiders you told me of present as well?” the box asked. The voice was flat and mechanical and obviously cycled through a speech occulter.
“They are.”
“I speak to you, Outsiders. I have been told that you come here seeking an object taken from you.”
“That is correct, speaking-box.”
“What is the function of this object?”
“You tell me-you stole it from us.” I was beginning to get teed off at all this cloak-and-dagger stuff.
“Your attitude is unacceptable. Answer my question or be punished.”
I took a deep breath-and reined in my temper.
“I’d like that,” Floyd said cheerfully, as fed up as I was with all this nonsense.
Where the discussion would have gone from here would never be known because at that moment running footsteps sounded and a wild-eyed young man burst into the room.
“Alarm! Watchpatrol coming!”
The sound of a number of thudding feet added a note of urgency to his warning. But at least our captors were prepared for the emergency. A door opened in the wall behind them and there was a rush to get through it. The newcomer, who must have known what would happen, was the last one in the crowd to jump to safety.
The table was in the way. I launched myself across it just in time to have the concealed door slammed in my face. I kicked it but it didn’t budge. I looked at the now silent box.
“Speak up, Alphamega. How do we get out of this?”
The red box crackled-then burst into flame. Melted into a pool of plastic. “Thanks,” I said.
“Any other way out?” Floyd asked.
“Not that I can see.”
The rapid footsteps were just outside. Before I could dig out a gas bomb the scrum of armed men burst into the room.
Things got busy. Floyd dropped the first three who came through the door while I tackled the next two. Then the going got tough because more and more kept pushing in. Some had body armor, all of them had transparent riot masks attached to their spiked helmets. They didn’t try to shoot us, but rather enjoyed clubbing us with their guns.
Something hard got me on the back of the head and I staggered and fell. Before they jumped me the last thing I saw was Fido going up the wall like a spider and vanishing in the darkness there. Then I got thudded and had a nice darkness of my own.
“Feeling any better, Jim?” a distant voice said and I felt something wet and cool on my forehead.