The Cyber Chronicles Book III - The Core (7 page)

Tassin glanced
up at the patter of running feet. Dena appeared, looking cross, and
Tassin confronted her when she scuttled into the room.

"Did you find
out anything?"

"Of course!"
Dena flounced over to the table and resumed her meal. "The cart is
in an empty shack, and the donkeys are in another one next to
it."

"Are the
weapons still in it?"

"Those tubes?
Yeah."

"Good. Now we
just have to get one."

"You mean I
have to go back there?" Dena looked incredulous.

Tassin's
cheeks warmed with embarrassment at her oversight. "I should have
told you to bring one..."

Dena grinned
and dug in her coarse dress, producing a gleaming laser with the
flourish of a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

"You clever
girl!" Tassin exclaimed.

The Queen took
the weapon and studied it. How did it work? Buttons. Yes, there
were two buttons on the side, one red, and one green. Why two? Her
brow furrowed. There was only one way to find out. Pointing the
weapon at the floor, she screwed up her eyes and pressed the green
button. It clicked. Okay, it was the other one. She pressed the red
button with identical results, and stared at the weapon in
confusion. Dena giggled.

"It needs
this." She dug in her dress again and produced a cylindrical power
pack.

"Oh!" Tassin
scowled. "How do you know?"

"There's a
shed full of these things on the far side of town, all sorts, some
different from that one. Us kids play there sometimes."

"Play there?
These are dangerous!"

Dena nodded.
"I know. A boy was killed; that's how we found out."

Tassin stared
at her, horrified, then held out the laser. "You do it then. You
know what to do."

The child
deftly fitted the power pack into a slot in the weapon's grip and
turned it so Tassin could see the two buttons. "The green one's the
safety; it must be pushed down, or the thing won't work. The red
one's the trigger." She handed it to Tassin, who took it as if it
was a poisonous snake.

"The safety's
on. It's harmless now," Dena assured her.

Tassin put the
laser gingerly on the table, making sure it was not pointing at
either of them. "Okay, now how do we get a priest to come
here?"

"What
for?"

"So we can
make him tell us where Sabre is."

"Oh, that's
easy. I just tell him there's a baby born here."

Tassin looked
uncertain. "Why would that make him come?"

"They always
inspect new babies. If they're too badly twisted, they kill
them."

Tassin
swallowed bile. "Okay. Will you do that?"

"After I've
eaten."

"Now."

Dena grimaced.
"I knew you'd say that."

Tassin smiled
as the girl flounced out again. She hoped her plan would work, but
it was sketchy at best.

Sabre jerked
awake, annoyed to find himself nodding off. Returning to the escape
hatch, he inspected the hole, which had cooled. Easing his hand
into it, he groped towards the centre of the hatch. The handle had
to be there; a blunt nub flattened on the sides. When turned, it
pulled back the four high-tensile steel rods that fastened the
hatch. His groping fingers found it, but it was difficult to grasp,
for his wrist was bent at an acute angle to reach it. Although he
twisted it as hard as he could, it remained solid. Cursing, he
withdrew his hand. He would have to push his arm through, to the
shoulder if he could. That would give him more leverage.

It was a tight
squeeze, and the sharp edges took several layers of skin off his
biceps, but he succeeded. He groped for the knob again and found
it, then used all his strength. The edge of the hole cut into his
arm as his muscles bulged, and the knob turned a fraction. A smile
tugged at his lips. A little more and he would be out. He strained.
The rim cut deeper into his arm, and blood ran down it to drip off
his elbow. His fingers flamed with pain from the amount of pressure
he exerted, but the knob remained solid no matter how hard he
twisted. Withdrawing his bloody arm, he sat back. The skeletons
grinned at his defeat, and he chuckled.

"What are you
two laughing at?"

Catching
himself, he sobered. The first symptom of asphyxiation was
delirium. The situation was far from funny. Be rational. Okay, the
damned thing was jammed. Find something heavy and bang it. Rising
to his feet, he went in search of an object to use as a hammer.

Tassin
listened to the approaching patter of feet. A heavier, slower tread
accompanied them, and she gripped the laser in sweaty hands.

"In here,
Exalted," Dena's piping voice said.

A tall, albino
priest ducked into the hovel and straightened in surprise, banging
his head on the roof. He rubbed his bald pate, his pink eyes
riveted to the laser Tassin pointed waveringly at his chest.

"Do you know
what this is?" she asked, trying to act fearsome.

The priest
nodded, his mouth open.

"Tell me where
the man with the lights on his head is, or I'll blow your leg
off."

"Head," Dena
corrected.

"No, leg. He
can't talk without a head."

"He may not
have legs; a lot of people don't."

Tassin frowned
at her. "He can walk."

"They have
false ones."

"Oh." Tassin
waved the laser at the priest, who looked from one to the other
with growing panic. "Do you have real legs?"

The man
nodded.

"Right, tell
me where the man with the lights on his head is, or I'll blow one
off."

"The - the
high priestess took him to the room," he stammered.

"What room?"
Tassin demanded. Dena munched her supper again.

The priest
said, "The one with the machines."

Tassin
scowled. "Tell me where it is! I don't know any room with machines
in it."

The priest
made a vague gesture. "From the altar room, you go down a passage,
turn left, then right, down some steps, and it's the big door in
front of you."

"Where's the
key?"

"Key?"

Tassin
snorted. The man was a simpleton. "The key to the door!"

"There's no
key. It's a combination."

"Combination?"

"It's a
special lock; you turn the dial to unlock the door."

Tassin glanced
at Dena, who shrugged. "Okay. What's the combination?"

The priest
shook his head. "I don't know. Only the high priestess knows the
combination. I don't, I swear! Don't hurt me -"

"Shut up."
Tassin considered the problem. "What's the door made of?"

"St - steel."
The priest gulped.

"How
thick?"

The man held
his hands up, about twelve centimetres apart.

"Damn! Too
thick for a... for this. What about the wall next to it?"

The priest
moved his hands almost half a metre apart.

Tassin
remembered Sabre's tirade after she had brought the walkway down on
her head. The pretty blue gun she had found there was designed to
destroy matter.

"A sonlar,"
she muttered.

"Huh?" Dena
looked up, her mouth full.

"That's what
we need." She turned back to the terrified priest. "Unless your
priestess values you enough to release Sabre in exchange for your
life?"

He shook his
head. "She'd kill me herself."

"Just as I
thought." Tassin looked at the munching child. "Dena, did you ever
see a pretty blue crystal thing in that shed?"

A frown
puckered the child's forehead. "I'm not sure; maybe."

"I need
one."

"Now?"

Tassin nodded,
and Dena pulled a face, her cheeks bulging. "That's all the way
across the city. It'll take ages!"

"Do you want
to come across the desert with me?"

The girl
nodded.

"Then I need
one of those pretty blue crystal things, and fast."

Dena sighed.
"I bet he's dead already."

"You better
hope he's not."

"No! He
isn't!" the priest said. "It will take a few more hours."

Tassin glared
at him. "Thanks for the titbit. I think you've outlived your
usefulness. Take off your robe."

He fell to his
knees. "No! Ple-please, please, don't kill me! Please, I beg
you!"

She regarded
him contemptuously. "Get up and take off your robe."

The priest
obeyed, his expression despairing. Underneath it he wore a pair of
baggy shorts, and one of his legs was twisted and withered. He
stared at the floor, cringing. Now that she had reached the crucial
moment, however, Tassin was unable to push the button and end his
life. It was easy when someone else did it for you. She glanced at
Dena, who watched her, wide-eyed.

"Get some
rope."

"You're not
going to kill him?"

"No, we'll tie
him up."

Dena blinked,
then went and rummaged amongst the rubbish in a corner, emerging
with some stout leather thongs. The priest sobbed his gratitude
while she tied his hands behind his back, then they made him sit in
a corner and bound his legs. When he was trussed, Tassin turned to
Dena.

"Will you go
now?"

Dena heaved a
sigh. "Go here, go there, fetch this, bring that!"

Tassin smiled.
"This is the last time, I promise."

Dena turned
and flounced out again.

"Good girl!"
Tassin called after her.

Sitting down
on Dena's pile of sacking, Tassin eyed the bound priest, hoping the
girl would find a sonlar.

Sabre pounded
on the escape hatch with a wrench he had found in one of the
cabinets. The intense clanging hurt his sensitive ears, and it was
rapidly giving him a headache. He stopped to rest, sweat beading
his brow. He panted and his heart raced from the slight exertion,
which meant the air was getting bad. He had been trying to unjam
the escape hatch for what seemed like hours, maybe it had been
hours.

At first, he
had administered a few taps and tried to turn the knob. Then he had
hit it harder, and tried again. Now his arm was badly lacerated,
and he pounded at the hatch with all his might. Easing his bloody
arm through the hole, he tried the knob again, but it remained
solid. Maybe, when they had sheared off the inside knob, they had
damaged the mechanism. He strained, veins bulging on his temples.
Nothing. Sliding his arm out, he gripped the edge of the hole and
tugged at it like a demented ape with its hand glued to the floor,
roaring with rage and frustration. The hatch did not even
rattle.

Releasing it,
he flopped down on his back, gasping. His vision swam, and pretty
lights floated before his eyes. How long did he have left? He
consulted the cyber's information, but there was nothing useful
there. His bio-status had dropped considerably and his blood-oxygen
level was low, but that was no news to him. Perhaps, if he found a
long, strong bar, he could put it in the hole and lever the damn
thing up. No, that was a silly idea, the hatch was too strong. A
weird notion of dousing himself in oil and squeezing through the
hole entered his mind, and he realised that he was going off the
deep end. Would he die a raving lunatic?

Chapter Five

Tassin
fidgeted. Dena had been gone for ages, and the Queen could not
shake off a growing sense of urgency. The priest had said that
Sabre had a bit more time, but how much? She scowled at him.

"How much
longer does he have?"

He looked up,
startled from his gloom. "I'm not sure. It depends on what he's
been doing. If he's been exerting himself, not long, if not, maybe
another hour or so."

Tassin cursed
under her breath. Where the hell was that little brat? "What's
happening to him? What's he dying of?"

"Lack of air.
He's in an airtight room."

She groaned.
Asphyxiation. "How did you get him in there?"

"The priestess
tricked him."

"No
violence."

The priest
grimaced. "We hate violence."

"But not
killing."

"It's
necessary."

She snorted.
"We're just a couple of harmless travellers. Why must we be
killed?"

The man
shifted. "You would lead armies to us. Tell them what we have."

"Rubbish! What
have you got, apart from a horrible disease, and who would want
that?"

The priest
looked confused. "What disease?"

"The
deformities! Maybe disease is not the right word, but whatever you
call it, it's horrible."

"It's not a
disease."

"But it is a
sickness," she retorted.

"Of a sort...
I suppose."

Tassin glared.
"I, for one, wouldn't live anywhere near this place if you paid me.
There are beautiful places to live, like my kingdom, Arlin. Green
fields, vast forests, plenty of game, herds of cattle, sheep and
horses, crops of vegetables. Everything anyone could wish for. Why
would I want to live here?"

He stared at
her, wide-eyed. "Truly? But you have wars, don't you?"

"No, we don't.
Everyone has enough, why would we fight?" Tassin winced inwardly at
the lie. Certainly there were no wars due to a lack of food or
land, only those caused by power-hungry kings.

"That's not
what we were told. We -"

He broke off
as Dena scurried in. Tassin jumped up, banged her head on the roof
and sat down again, swearing. Dena grinned, and Tassin forced a
smile.

"Did you find
it?"

Dena dug in
her dress and pulled out a glittering blue crystal sonlar with a
flourish. Tassin flung her arms around the startled child. "You're
an angel! When we get to Arlin, I shall adopt you. You'll be a
princess!"

"Really?" Dena
pulled away, grinning.

Tassin nodded.
"For saving the man I..." She gulped. Love? No, not love. Care for,
admire, am indebted to. Not love. "...Need to get us across the
desert," she finished lamely.