Chains of Freedom (31 page)

RJ picked Mickey up.

The midget smiled smugly at Alexi.

"Be careful. If you come to a junction, follow the air current."

Mickey nodded and scampered into the air duct.

"The midget! You're sending the midget as our advance party?" Alexi laughed.

Whitey took Alexi by the collar, and Alexi was quiet. "Laugh once more, and we'll just have to see if you can fit into the vent."

"Master, I have lost the heat signal on one of the party members," Marge informed him.

"Now, I wonder what they're up to." He shook his head, and sat back to wait.

Just when the hallway became uncomfortably narrow, they entered a small room. In the wall ahead of them was a door. They entered the room cautiously. There were no windows, and there was only the one door opposite the entryway they had just come through. There was a blue button next to the door, but RJ didn't believe for a moment that was the way out. Instead, she started to search the walls for the true opening device that just
had
to be there.

"What the hell are you waiting for?" Alexi strode across the room. Sure, he hadn't walked on the tiles, but he'd show them all now. "Let's just open the door and . . ."

"NO!" RJ screamed, but it was too late. Alexi had pressed the button. She ran towards the entranceway they had just come through. When she heard the click, she flung herself the last few feet—too little, too late. The door started to fall, and to make matters worse, she caught her fingers in the door just as it slammed shut. She was stuck, not to mention in a hell of a lot of pain.

Then there was a hum of power, and the room started to fill with salt water.

"I'll be damned if you're going to drown with the rest of us," Whitey started choking Alexi.

"Poley, quick! Do you see the opening device for the door?" RJ asked.

"I'm wet." He answered, as the water reached his knees. "Have lost control of audio and visual." Poley was in a robotic form of panic. While water wouldn't actually harm Poley, it made him unable to operate to full capacity, and he couldn't swim. For these reasons, Stewart had built in a strong fear of water as part of Poley's personality.

"I'm stuck!" RJ yelled as the water started to go over her head. She was, too. She couldn't get her fingers free. With her hands tied up the way they were she had no way of reaching her kit. She tried, but she couldn't pull her fingers off. They were just too well-made.

Everyone except Poley—who was dealing with his own crisis—and Alexi—whom Whitey dropped in the water like an abandoned toy—ran to her aid. The water was coming in quickly, and by the time they reached her, she was already under. Whitey and David both dove under to see what the problem was. They came up and looked at each other.

"What now?" David asked in a panic.

"We'll have to lift it up," Whitey said. He looked at Levits, and before he had a chance to order Levits to help, he had dove into the water. Even with the three of them giving it all they could, there was no way of moving it, they just couldn't get hold of the door enough to get any leverage. The door didn't budge. They broke the surface almost as, one gasping for air. They knew this meant RJ was in a really bad way.

They dove under the water again. RJ mouthed something urgently at Whitey, but he couldn't understand her. Her fingers were keeping the door from closing all the way. There was a gap, but it wasn't big enough for any of them to get their fingers under far enough to have a good enough grip to lift the door. If they could lift it at all and get out before they wound up in the same shape RJ was in.

Whitey came up for air at the same time as David and Levits. He pulled his sword. "We can use it as a lever. With all of us, we may be able to lift the door enough to get her free."

David nodded and they dove again. Whitey jammed the sword under the door, and they gave it all they had.

Her chest hurt from holding her breath. She was supposed to be able to hold her breath for twenty minutes. That was what she had been told. But it hadn't been even ten, and already she could feel her strength ebbing away. It was getting harder and harder to withstand the urge to take a deep breath. She tried to get Whitey's attention, and finally succeeded, but it was obvious that he had no idea what she was saying. Now they were trying to open the door with the sword. This just might work, but then the tip of the sword broke off. This time, she didn't even manage to get Whitey's attention.

"She's gonna die," David told Whitey as they broke the surface of the water for the third time.

"We're all going to die," Levits said hopelessly.

"We'll try again," Whitey said, and dove back into the water, which was now up to his chest. The others were already treading water. They followed him under.

RJ could no longer help. She was using all her energy to hold her breath. Finally, she even lost that ability.

They put everything they had into it. The sword was thicker closer to the hilt and—stronger this time—it bent, but it didn't break. The door moved. Not a lot, but enough. Levits grabbed RJ, and swam with her to the top.

As soon as Whitey broke the surface of the water, he jerked RJ's lifeless body from Levits. Whitey started to shake her violently.

David looked on in horror. She was limp, and her head jerked back and forth as if it might snap off at any minute. She was blue, and there was no sign of life in her. In his grief, David forgot that he, too, would soon be dead.

"God damn you, RJ!" Whitey screamed as he shook her. "God damn you, you can't die here Not like this. Not by fucking drowning!" Whitey started giving her artificial respiration; not an easy thing to do while treading water, but a lot more effective than screaming and shaking her.

RJ coughed, spitting out what looked like half the ocean, then she took a long, shuddering breath. When her eyes focused on Whitey, she threw her arms around his neck and clung to him.

Whitey held her tight. "I thought you were dead," he whispered.

"GSH kit, you moron!" RJ managed to cough out through her raw throat.

"You need Pronuses?" Whitey asked in a whisper.

"No." Even in her current condition, she knew she didn't want any of the others to see her ingesting what was, for them, a lethal poison. "The knife."

"Oh—OH!" Whitey couldn't believe his stupidity, but he was too elated to let it get him down long. "I kind of like you with your fingers."

Having saved RJ, David and Whitey had temporarily forgotten about their present predicament.

Alexi reminded them. "Good. Now we can all die together." Whitey had hurt him, but not so badly that he couldn't tread water."One big happy family."

"Shut up!" David screamed. He was trying to think.
We have to look for a way to open the door . . . Poley said he lost control of audio and visual. I assume that means that they can see us and hear us right now. If what RJ says is true, they may let us live.
"Listen, you filthy bastards. We're tired of playing your little game. We've passed all your little tests except this one. The least you can do is
see
us before you kill us. Give us a chance to explain what we're doing here. We don't want to hurt anyone, we just want some help."

"I don't know," a strange-sounding voice said thoughtfully. "I admit that you did rather well. But this last test . . . Well, it's the easiest of all."

"A member of our party acted against the orders of our leader," David said, giving Alexi an angry look.

"Hum," the voice said.

"What?" David asked.

"Oh, just 'hum.' Every once in awhile I like to do that. So, I take it that the rather limp-looking one is the one you call RJ."

"Are you Reliance?" David asked suspiciously.

"No. Prove to me she's RJ, and we can talk."

"How do you expect me to prove that?" David asked hotly.

"Oh, just anything. Visa, American Express, a major bank card . . ."

"We are running out of time down here. I don't want to play your games. Why not let us go? If you're not Reliance, what can you gain from killing us?"

"A clean entrance hall." He laughed at his own joke.

"You're a raving lunatic!" Whitey screamed.

"Really? I've always thought of myself as
demented
. Still, I suppose
raving
has a certain ring to it." He paused as if in deep thought. "Well, that
does
help me make up my mind."

"Thought it might," a familiar voice said. "Now, let them go, or I blow out brains."

"ALL RIGHT, MICKEY!" they all cheered.

The water started to recede. In a matter of moments, the "entrance hall" was little more than damp. The door opposite the one they had entered opened to reveal a flight of steps going upwards.

By now, RJ had recovered completely, but she still let Whitey help her. She told herself she did this to keep the others from becoming suspicious. She looked at Poley. He appeared to be undamaged, but still seemed to be having difficulty with the fact that he was wet. She looked at her laser—also wet and useless.

When she looked at Alexi, he shrank from her gaze and looked away.

"You almost got us all killed. I won't forget that, Alexi. The list of your mistakes grows daily. When I feel you have done more harm than good, I will deal with you in an appropriate and extremely violent manner."

Alexi nodded submissively. For once, he had no snappy comebacks. He had almost killed her. It shouldn't have bothered him; she was, after all, a giant pain in his ass. But it did.

They ascended the stairs slowly, weapons drawn.

"Come on, Poley," RJ ordered when she realized he hadn't moved.

At the top of the stairs they entered a long, narrow room. Along its walls—all around them, and ten feet tall, stretching endlessly in both directions—were the components of the biggest computer RJ had ever set her eyes on. Since she had been privileged to see the military computer at Capitol, this was saying quite a lot.

It was better than anything she had hoped for.

David didn't know what it was all for, but with all the flashing lights and whirring noises . . . Well, he was impressed.

The man sat up straighter in his chair to get a better look at his intruders. They were an odd lot, to be sure. Three held weapons on him, the other three did not. The woman should have drowned. So, for that matter, should the dark man in the leather suit, because when the water had gone over his head he had done nothing to keep himself afloat. He'd been nowhere in sight until the water receded. The giant was the only other one that didn't hold a weapon. Apparently, these three knew their weapons would be useless till dry. The others either didn't know their weapons were dysfunctional, or they assumed that
he
wouldn't know.

"Poley, strip your clothes off," she ordered. The robot started to comply. "Whitey, don't kill anyone till we figure out what's going on."

"But . . ."

"We
need
all this, Whitey. These people are not our enemies."

Whitey sighed and nodded.

Poley had finished undressing, and now stood buck naked for all the world to see.

"Feel better?" RJ asked.

"Yes, thank you very much," Poley responded.

"Then let us meet our host, shall we?"

"Damn!" Levits exclaimed. "Would you look at the way that weird fuck is hung?"

They all mostly ignored him.

The man sat in the very middle of the room surrounded by what could only be the control panels. RJ kept a wary eye on the two stories of catwalks above them. Behind the catwalks were what must have once been prison cells, and at the end of the row was a gun gallery. If there was to be an attack, it would no doubt come from there. However, she saw not even the slightest sign of life. The only flesh-and-blood creatures about seemed to be the man she faced, her companions, and herself.

"Like a spider in its web," she whispered to herself.

"What?" David asked.

"Nothing." She looked at the man. Even sitting he looked to be tall. He had a medium frame, with bright, wide, staring blue eyes and a large, aristocratic nose. His mouth was filled with straight, white teeth that seemed too large for his face. His curly brown hair framed a face that shone with boyish impudence and great good humor. This in spite of the fact that he was at least in his fifties.

"Hello," he said. Once again, RJ noted the strange quality of his voice. This time she recognized it as an accent, although it wasn't one she had heard before. "Awfully nice of you to drop in like this. Pardon me if I don't rise." He waived his hand towards the midget with the gun.

"Good work, Mickey," RJ said.

Mickey practically glowed.