Gates of Neptune (13 page)

“Then I think we ought to try to sneak in when they're changing the guards,” Josh suggested.

“That might work to get us to the gate,” Val objected, “but it wouldn't get us through the gate.”

They talked for a while more, and Val at last said, “I've thought all the while this was a wild scheme. I never really thought we'd get this far, but now it looks like it's all hopeless.”

Sarah smiled at him. “You'll think of something.”

Josh frowned at that and got up and walked off.

Sarah saw his movement and found an excuse to leave too. She caught up with him as he walked around the circle of fire, staring up at the stars. “What's wrong with you, Josh?”

“Nothing.”

“You think I don't know you better than that?”

“Maybe you don't know me as well as you think.”

“I know you well enough to know that you're jealous.”

“Jealous? You always think that! You thought it about Abbey. You think I don't do anything but walk around making ga-ga eyes at you?”

“Please, Josh, don't be angry. After all, Val has brought us this far.”

“Well, a lot of good that does.” He snorted. “If we can't get in, what good does it do to be here?”

“Something will come up,” she pleaded. “It'll be all right.”

Josh continued to argue bitterly, and finally Sarah snapped, “What is it with you, Josh? You always have to be the great leader, the one that makes all the decisions?” Instantly she was sorry, for she knew that Josh had been forced into many situations where he had had to prove his courage. She knew also that if it hadn't been for him, they would have all been lost long ago.

Quickly she opened her mouth to apologize, but he said shortly, “Think whatever you please,” then whirled and disappeared into the darkness.

“Josh—Josh!” she cried out. But the only sound was the echo of her voice. Slowly she turned and went back. She sat down beside the campfire.

Val looked over at her. “Your boyfriend mad at me?”

“He's not my boyfriend.”

Val grinned, his teeth very white in the reflection of the fire. “Well, he thinks he is. Don't worry, he'll be all right.” Then he looked around at the Sleepers and said, “Look, we've accomplished one thing. We've discovered we can get within striking distance of the Citadel. Now, here's my plan. I'll go back to Atlantis, and you all wait here. I'll bring a force back—a small army—and we'll wait till the gate is least protected.” His eyes gleamed in the darkness. “Then we'll fall on them and force the gate.”

Sarah stirred nervously. “That's not what Goel said, though. He told us to see Aramis in person, not start a war.”

Val shrugged. “How would you see Aramis if you couldn't get inside?”

Sarah said suddenly, “We could just go right up to the
gate. We'd be prisoners, but surely we'd get to see the admiral.”

“Don't bet on that,” Val snapped angrily. “Aramis used to be a man of honor, but something happened to him. You can't trust anything he says anymore.”

“Well, I'm against your going,” Dave said. “Let's wait till tomorrow. Maybe something will come up.”

Val stared. “All right. Till tomorrow then.”

* * *

Morning came, and they had breakfast.

Wash said, “That's about all the food we've got.”

But Sarah was not thinking of food. Josh was still gone, and she said, “I'm worried about Josh. We'll have to go look for him.”

Val shrugged carelessly. “Nothing much can happen to him on this island—it's such a small place. He's just out there somewhere nursing his feelings, but he'll come in when he gets hungry enough.”

This did not satisfy Sarah.

They waited for half an hour, and suddenly Abbey cried, “Look, there he is. There comes Josh.”

Sarah looked up, a feeling of relief in her heart. She saw Josh step over the crest of a hill and walk rapidly toward them. She ran to him before anyone else could get there, saying, “Josh, I'm sorry about what I said.”

He smiled at her, and there was a light in his eyes that had not been there the previous night. “It's OK. Things are going to be all right.”

By that time the others had come up, surrounding him.

He repeated, “We're all right—I think.” He looked at Val. “That crater—did you know there's a ladder down it, right down inside? When you get to the bottom, there's a
tunnel, and it's headed northeast, right toward the Citadel.”

Val opened his mouth, closed it, and then straightened up. “That may be it,” he said excitedly. “It could be an escape tunnel that Aramis had built so that if things got too bad in the Citadel, they could come through the tunnel and make their escape through Mount Tor. Let's go look.”

* * *

At the crater's edge they peered down into blackness.

“Here's the ladder, see. And it goes down a long way. Nearly pulled my arms out coming back up.”

“It's dark down there,” Val said. “How did you see?”

“Well, it's dark most of the way, but when you get down to the tunnel, there are some kind of lights in the side, not lights exactly but luminous stuff. Kind of a greenish glow. Enough to see by, not much more.”

Val grunted. “That would be the smart way to build a tunnel—put luminous rock in the sides of it so there'd be no lights to burn out.” He stared around him, then looked at Josh. He put out his hand and said, “I was too sharp with you, young fellow. It looks like you found the way.”

Josh flushed, then took Val's hand. “Well, I'm glad things look a little better.”

Val said, “We'll have to plan well. I've got to make a map of the Citadel. I was there twice, and I can remember most of how it's built. Once we're inside, we still have to get to Aramis.”

Josh said, “Good idea. And all of us need to know as much as we can about what to do when we get inside. You make the map, and we'll all study it.”

“I'll do that, and then I'll just make a reconnaissance. One of us ought to go through and find out for sure where
the tunnel goes and see if it's guarded. The rest of you can study the map while I check it out.”

“Oh, Val, Val, that could be dangerous.”

Val grinned at Sarah. “I don't think so. I think we'll find that at the end of the tunnel there's a door, and we can walk right into the Citadel. But we need to check first.”

Val drew the map, armed himself, and with a wave said, “I'll be back as soon as I can. We may have to move fast, so everyone be ready.” Then he turned and left for the crater.

When he was gone, Jake said, “You're a pretty smart fellow, Josh. How'd you know there's a tunnel down at the bottom of that crater?”

“I didn't know. I was just crazy enough to try anything, so when I saw that ladder, I knew I had to go down it.”

“We're lucky to have you with us.” Jake grinned. “It takes a smart fellow to figure out a thing like that.”

“I'm not very smart, Jake, and we're not inside yet, so let's all keep on saying our prayers.”

Sarah smiled at him. “I'm proud of you, Josh. You did fine.”

Josh's face burned, and he merely mumbled and turned away. He was thinking now about the tunnel and what lay at the end of it. Perhaps as all the rest of them were thinking, he wondered what they would actually do in the Citadel with a thousand different passageways.

He thought,
Goel will have to be with us, or we'll never get there.

T
he tunnel that led underneath the ocean floor was cut out of solid rock. As they moved slowly along, weapons at ready, Val marveled at it. “It must have taken a long time to cut a tunnel like this. Lots of work. But it makes an excellent escape route.”

“What about our beasts?” Sarah asked. “What will happen to them if we don't get back?”

Val smiled down at her, his eyes glowing as a reflection of the pale luminosity of the rocks. “Don't worry. They're trained to eventually go back to the base of Atlantis. They'll be all right.”

The tunnel itself was no more than six feet high and wide enough for only two people, at the most, to squeeze through at one time. It made Sarah nervous to be walking steadily into what could be the lion's mouth, and she asked, “Val, do you think we can find Aramis? I mean, that's a busy place, isn't it, the Citadel?”

“Yes, it is. It's a honeycomb of tunnels, passageways, rooms, a city in itself. But we'll find him.” He smiled down at her. “I don't want you to worry, Sarah. Things are going to be all right.”

Sarah smiled too. “I feel safe with you to lead us, Val.”

Val lost his smile for a moment. “You really trust people, don't you, Sarah?”

“Yes, don't you?”

Val shook his head. “It's not the way of the world.
I've been brought up mostly to trust myself. That's the way it is with royalty.”

“Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown?” she asked.

He stared at her. “That's the way it is. What made you say a thing like that?”

“Oh, that's just a line from a play written by a man called Shakespeare a long time ago.”

“He knew about kings, all right. When you're in line for the throne, everyone either wants to kill you or to get you to do what they want you to do. ‘Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown,'” he repeated. “That's the way it is.”

They walked on for what seemed hours, and then Val held up his hand. “The door is just up ahead.”

“Did you open it when you were here checking it out, Val?” Sarah asked.

“Oh, yes. And there are no guards on the other side. Our only problem, if we get through it, will be to find Aramis alone.” He looked at them. “You know, all these spear guns won't help us a bit. There are a thousand guards in there, and we can't fight all of them.”

“What do you think we ought to do?” Josh asked.

Val said, “I think we'd better go as quietly as we can, and these things make a lot of noise clanking around. We'll leave them out in the tunnel, then when we come back we can pick them up again.”

Even as he spoke, they reached a large door that seemed to be made of heavy metal or glass. “Just pile them here,” Val said and stripped off his own spear gun and dagger. “We may need them when we come back through.”

Josh said, “I don't like this idea. We may meet just one man …”

“Well, that's up to the group, of course,” Val said.

“But I know that right now it's more important to be quiet than it is to have a useless spear gun.”

Sarah put her hand on Josh's arm. “Please, let's do what he says, Josh. After all, you can't fight a thousand men.”

Slowly Josh turned to her, then shrugged. “All right,” he said quietly. He stripped off his quiver of darts and spears and laid it down with his spear gun beside the wall.

When the rest of them had done the same, Val said, “All right. You all remember the map. We go in, and we follow the map that I laid down. That will take us right to Aramis's private quarters. We'll just have to hope we don't meet any guards. If we do, we'll have to hide.”

“Doesn't sound too promising to me,” Jake said. “If there's a thousand men in there, how're we going to dodge all of them?”

“Well, Aramis's quarters aren't very far.” Val thought a moment. “Instead of all of us trying to get through, why don't we do this? You wait in the storeroom on the other side of this door. You should be safe there. And I'll go get Aramis.”

“Why, he wouldn't come for you, would he?”

“He might. After all, we know each other, and he might listen long enough to hear what I have to say. I don't think all eight of us can move down these halls without being seen. But I could pass for one of Aramis's men. There are so many, they wouldn't know one more mariner. I think I could bluff my way through.”

He talked rapidly, and in the end Sarah said, “It sounds right to me. Are we all for it?”

She saw most of them nodding, but Josh said nothing at all. Disappointed, she said, “Most of us are for it. Take us inside, Val.”

“All right. Now be very quiet.” He moved forward,
turned the handle, and the door swung smoothly back on its hinges.

Light flooded into the dark tunnel, and Sarah blinked against the brightness. They entered a large room, at least thirty feet long and twenty feet in breadth.

Val shut the door and came back to whisper, “There's the door that leads inside. You wait here and don't make any noise until I get back.”

Sarah put her hand on his arm. “We'll be asking Goel to help you, Val.”

He nodded briefly, then left without another word.

Sarah and the other Sleepers looked around the room. It was bare except for a few tables and chairs and several storage compartments that mostly stood empty

When they had explored, they all sat down, except for Reb. “I'm nervous,” he said, pacing back and forth. “Never did like waiting.”

Josh said heavily, “You might as well sit down. It may take a longtime.”

Sarah sat beside Josh. He did not meet her gaze. Finally, speaking so quietly that the others could not hear, she said, “Josh, I wish we were like we used to be.”

“I guess you can't go back again and be what you were.”

“Of course you can! Good friends can. Even though we don't agree, we're not enemies, are we, Josh?”

He looked at her. “No, we could never be that. We've been through too much together.” He suddenly reached out awkwardly and patted her shoulder. “You know how much I think of you, Sarah, and always have.”

Tears burned her eyes. She captured his hand and pressed it against her shoulder. “Thank you, Josh. I needed to hear something like that.”

There was nothing to do, and when there is nothing to do, time crawls by. No one had a watch, and they were
too nervous to do much talking. After a long time, Josh said, “Listen. Do you hear anything?”

Instantly, they all came to their feet, their heads cocked toward the door.