As if in answer, farther down the hall a door opened and Odal stepped out. He was not in uniform; instead he wore a simple dark tunic and slacks. But it was unmistakably Odal. He glanced directly at Hector, a sardonic smile on his lips, then started’ walking the other way. Hector chased after him, but Odal disappeared around a bend in the almost featureless corridor.
A door was closing farther down the hall. Hector sprinted to it and yanked it open. The room was dark. He stepped in.
In the faint Bght from the hallway, Hector saw row after row of life-sized tri-di viewscreens, each flanked by a desk of control and monitoring equipment. A tape viewing room, he reasoned. Or maybe an editing room. He walked hesitantly toward the center of the room. It was big, filled with the bulky screens and desks. Plenty of room to hide in. The door snapped shut behind him, plunging the room into total darkness.
Hector froze rock-still. Odal was in here. He could feel itGradually his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness.
He turned slowly and began retracing his steps toward the door, only to bump into a chair and send it clattering into its desk.
“You defeated me in the dueling machine,” Odal’s voice echoed calmly through the room. “Now let’s see if you can defeat me in real life. This room is soundproof. We are alone. No one will disturb us.”
“Uh ,.. I’m unarmed,” Hector said. It was hard to trace the source of Odal’s voice. The echoes spoiled any chance of locating him in the darkness.
“I’m also unarmed. But we are both trained fighting men. You have no doubt had standard Star Watch handto-hand combat training.”