RAINBOW RUN (25 page)

"Come out of there with your hands up where I can see them," he ordered.

Knowing that we had no chance of stunning him before he could fire, Lyonella and I, as if by telepathic communication, both put our stun guns into our waist pouches before complying with the guard's order.

When we stood up, he asked, "What are you two doing here?"

Lyonella answered, "We were on our way to a jarva jump in the automatic factory session, when we saw some people with bolt guns. We got off the slidestrip and hid."

The guard asked, "Were those people Crusaders?"

Lyonella answered, "I don't know who they were."

"Were they wearing white caps?"

"No."

"Where did they go?"

"They went around the Color Wheel and then I couldn't see them anymore."

"All right. Both of you walk to the Color Wheel entrance. I'll be right behind you. If you try any tricks, you'll find out how fast I am with this gun."

We complied. My mind was churning out possible escape plans. None of them seemed feasible. I tried to remember everything I knew about the Color Wheel, hoping that something would suggest a plan. Kahalyton had told me that there was a choice of environments in the Color Wheel, all of them dangerous. I knew the dangers of the Rainbow Room but I knew nothing but the names of the other choices—the Mirror Maze, the Vibration Vessel, the Laser Lobby, the Hunting House, and the Bouncing Ballroom. I didn't know enough about those areas to make a plan.

I would have to be alert for any opportunity for us toescape. If we didn't, it was highly likely that my life would end here in the building where, as Rathe, my life began. Lyonella and I entered the building with the guard right behind us. As soon as we were inside he ushered us through an open access door with a smashed portal plate into a dimly lit, curved passageway with doors on both sides, doors that appeared to have no locking devices. I knew our guard was looking for Wanklurm and I was mentally searching for a way to avoid such a confrontation when we saw another guard ahead of us.

The man guarding us called out, "I've got two prisoners here. They were lurking around outside."

The guard ahead of us shouted, "Look out!"

We heard the thunder of a bolt gun followed immediately by the sound of the guard behind us falling to the floor.

As if we were one entity, Lyonella and I went through an unlocked door and found ourselves in a maze where all the surfaces were mirrors. We moved through the maze together putting distance between us and the killing in the corridor. The room was quiet except for our breathing. I listened for the thunder of bolt guns but didn't hear them. There were no mechanical sounds in this maze of mirrors. Evidently whatever life-threatening possibilities the room held were only activated when someone used a wristlock to enter as a contestant, someone who wanted to risk a life in the pursuit of an illusion.

Everywhere I looked I saw our reflections in the mirrors. Then I heard a bolt gun blast, followed by the sounds of mirrors cracking and broken glass falling. I grabbed Lyonella by the hand and we started running. I didn't know whether the shooter was an elite guard or a Crusader but I knew we had to get out of this room. Hoping that my sense of direction was accurate, I kept us moving toward the wall opposite the door through which we'd entered. The next shot of the bolt gun shattered the mirror directly before us, exposing an access door just like the one we'd used to enter. Lyonella and I dropped to the floor. We couldn't see the shooter. A second blast shook the door loose from its hinges.

We leaped up, ran through the door, and rushed down the curving corridor. We stopped running when we heard gunfire in the passageway. We looked for a way to escape.

The only door off this section of the corridor opened to our touch. We stepped in and the door slammed shut behind us. I looked around and saw familiar sights. We were in the Rainbow Room in the same spot where I had been dumped to die.

I felt panic stricken. I could feel my heart beat frantically.

Lyonella squeezed my hand. I took deep breaths and tried to calm my jabbering mind.

Lyonella asked, "Can you tell me what you see?"

"The seven colors of tiles. The display board. The door at the small end of the room."

Lyonella, in a very calm voice, said, "The tiles are stationary. The display board is blank. The door at the small end of the room is open."

She was right, panic had affected my senses. I shook myself as if to loosen the anxiety, took a deep breath, and said, pointing to the open door. "Beyond that door is the passageway that leads to the center of the Color Wheel. Let's move across the tiles as fast as we can and get through that door." We ran.

As soon as we got through the door I held Lyonella close to me and said, "I'll be all right now. I hope from here we can find a way out of the Color Wheel. Then we'll go to the overseers' urbode and report that both Errox and Wanklurm are here along with a few supporting troops, the ones who survived the headquarters battle."

To our right was an open portal marked with an encircled rainbow. I remembered it from my previous time here. It was the portal to the winner's circle. Perhaps there was an exit there. I put my finger against my lips to signal silence to Lyonella.

She nodded, showing that she understood.

I took the stun gun out of my waist pouch to be ready to deal with any Crusaders or guards with bolt guns. Lyonella was ready with her stun gun too. I was surprised as I looked into the winner's circle to see Errox sitting in a throne-like chair. His left arm was in a blood-stained sling. His left leg, partially wrapped in a bloody piece of tunic material, looked mangled, incapable of supporting his weight.

His right hand held a bolt gun that he was pointing straight ahead. He saw me but the gun never wavered. I took two steps forward to see his target. It was Wanklurm who was holding a bolt gun pointed at Errox. Errox glanced in my direction just long enough for Wanklurm to notice and say, "Welcome. You’re just in time."

Wanklurm saw me, recognized me as Tannet, the man he'd tried to kill, and cried out, "You!"

As he focused the bolt gun on me, Lyonella and I fired our stun guns at the same instant. Wanklurm collapsed. Errox's bolt gun fired, too late to hit the stunned Wanklurm who had fallen to the floor. The noise of the bolt gun was followed by the sound of someone running.

Zuelda, the tall albino with the kinky hair who was Errox's second in command, entered the room in a rush with a bolt gun in her hand. There was a bandage around her head that covered one eye. She asked Errox, "Are you all right? I heard the gunfire."

"Yes. They stunned Wanklurm before he could kill me. My shot missed him."

If Errox recognized Lyonella he gave no indication of it. Errox looked at me and said, "Thanks for saving my life. We're even now."

Zuelda pointed her bolt gun at Wanklurm's chest and fired. The VIS commander’s chest exploded with a spray of blood and gore.

She turned to Lyonella and me, "Thanks for stopping him from killing my lover. Who are you?"

She kept her bolt gun ready and kept shifting the focus of her one good eye between us and the door where someone might enter.

"Just two people who want to stop the fighting," I answered.

Errox put his bolt gun in his lap. With his right hand he reached into the container beside his chair and pulled out several multi-colored wristlocks. "I found the storage bin for removed wristlocks, the ones the winners turn in for new ones if they survive a visit to the Color Wheel. Now I can go into the wristlock business in a big way."

I wondered if his wound was affecting his thought processes. He had to have some idea of all the trouble he was in, even with Wanklurm dead.

Zuelda said, "There are only a few Crusaders and guards left. They are all someplace in the Color Wheel. We're here in the winner's circle, but there aren't going to be any winners today. The building is surrounded by VIS officers who are staying out of bolt gun range. Both the Crusaders and the white caps have lost. That last explosion at Wanklurm's headquarters wounded both of us. Even if we could escape from the guards and elude the VIS, we'd be captured as soon as we sought medical help."

Errox shook his head. "It isn't over yet."

Zuelda replied, "No, but it soon will be."

Then she looked first at Lyonella, then at me, and said, "There's a way out of here for you. I'll show it to you in appreciation for saving Errox."

She turned to Errox and said, "Hold onto your bolt gun and watch the door. I'll be right back."

She led us out of the winner's circle through a small passageway into a large sloping room with a chute at the lower end. It looked frighteningly familiar. She flipped a switch on the wall.

She said, "All will be ready soon. I'll have just enough time to get back and end the Crusade."

"How?" Lyonella asked.

"I'll fire the bolt gun into the container of wristlocks. They'll explode and destroy the entire building. Errox and I and all the other Crusaders will be reborn in the Free Land."

I realized that Zuelda was a true believer in the lies that Errox told about the Freedom Crusade. I knew there wasn't anything I could say that would change hermind. Instead, I asked, "How do we get out?"

Zuelda said, "Go to the far end, and wait by the chute. After I hear the water rush in, I'll set off the explosion."

She turned and left.

As Lyonella and I hurried toward the chute, I said, "I can’t swim."

"I can,” she said. “Just stay close to me."

We heard the boom of an explosion as the water rushed in and swept us away.

A wave of water came like a returning nightmare and swept me away. I was better prepared for the ordeal this time. I kept my mouth closed, my head up, holding onto Lyonella. She was a skilled swimmer and steered us away from some of the walls I’d banged into before, although I did hit my head hard against some protrusion. We eventually reached a channel with shallow water, one we could stand up in as the current diminished.

We staggered to the bank, wet and dripping. We hugged each other, very glad to be alive even though we were somewhat battered and bruised.

The persistent hum in the air reminded me that we were in the automated factory section. When I had been here before, Errox had led the way out by a complex route that I had not been able to commit to memory. My mental map didn't include much about the autofactory areas. I asked Lyonella if she knew how to get to the overseers’ urbode from here.

She said, "I know we’re somewhere near the building where the drummers play. The nearest slidestrip isn’t far but I think we should go to the Medical Complex first. The back of your head is bleeding and I think I have one or two broken ribs."

I held her gently and kissed the top of her head.

"We’ve got to tell the Alliance what happened,” I said. “They don’t know that Errox and Wanklurm are dead.”

"They probably suspect that both of them were killed in the explosion. Zuelda said that VIS personnel had surrounded the Color Wheel."

I remembered Zuelda saying that and I wondered how the Alliance had learned where Errox and Wanklurm were. I asked Lyonella, "How do you think the Alliance found out where the Crusaders had gone?"

"I don't know but I'm sure we’ll find out. Medical Complex first."

With Lyonella leading the way we went past a dozen or so of the large autofactories to the nearest slidestrip and got on. I pressed a piece of my ripped tunic against my head wound in an effort to reduce the bleeding. By the time we arrived at the Medical Complex I was shaky and weak from loss of blood. My eyes wouldn't focus right. I seemed to be experiencing double vision.

I passed out in the lobby.

* * *

When I returned to consciousness, I was on an individual sleep platform in unfamiliar surroundings and Lyonella was sitting beside me. A surge of joy went through me just to see her. I reached out to take her hand.

She said, "Welcome back. You suffered a concussion."

"How long have I been gone?"

"Several shifts."

"How are you?" she asked.

"I’m still sore, but my two cracked ribs are mending."

"Does the Alliance know what happened at the Color Wheel?"

"Yes. I reported what we witnessed. I also found out how the VIS learned that Errox was there. A scout saw Wanklurm using a tracking device and was sure that Crusaders were being tracked. She saw Wanklurm enter the Color Wheel and reported it to the VIS in the overseers' urbode."

"The fighting is all over?" I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

"Yes. Most of the Crusaders and guards who survived the battle at Wanklurm's headquarters were killed in the explosion. The survivors have been arrested. The Counter Colors have joined the Alliance. Together they've set up a temporary governing body to handle the transformation. Nobody knows what comes next, but it will be better than this false existence."

"What about the Universalist Council?"

"They haven't been informed of recent developments. Nordel and the rest of the governing body are planning to prepare a final report and deliver it to them along with the terms and conditions under which we are willing to continue supplying Delphic data. If you're feeling well enough there's a briefing meeting in the overseers' urbode after second meal."

"I'll be there,” I said, “even if I have to be taken on a gurney."

The medics released me for the meeting. Lyonella and I held hands as we traveled the slideways. The world seemed like a better place to me, as if everything had been renewed, myself included. The briefing meeting was held in a large conference room in the overseers' urbode.

Kahalyton, Quenlu, Nordel, Yondoka, Clandine, Arvon, and many others were there along with some unfamiliar faces. I didn't see either Prevance or Incate. I wondered where they were.

Nordel opened the meeting by saying, "I'm delighted to see that Rathe is well enough to join us today. Speaking for all of us, I'd like to say how much we appreciate the efforts that he and Lyonella made to end the Crusader-guard conflict. Rathe and Lyonella, would you stand up please?"