The Three Furies (Erec Rex) (44 page)

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Erec and Griffin walked down a hall with purpose, as if they knew just where they were headed. Actually, they had no clue. Somehow, something would give them a lead to where Bethany was. It had to--time was ticking. If only Erec knew what to do . . .

Wood-framed glass double doors appeared at the end of hallway, immediately attracting Erec's interest. He could tell that they led to someplace official. Could this be the Army Security Headquarters, maybe?

But as they approached, a sign near the doors became visible, reading LEYEBRARY.

"That's odd," Erec said. "Want to take a look?"

They pulled their hoods forward more, and Erec hunched over. With his backpack under his smock he was sure he looked ancient.

The leyebrary did not contain books. Instead, jars and jars of eyes floating in liquid filled the shelves of the massive space. Erec could hear Griffin gagging quietly under his hood. The eyes didn't bother him, but he could not believe how many were there. Somehow he thought that Baskania carried inside him all of the eyes he had taken from people--they emerged for him to see through whenever he needed to look through the other eye of its owner, and to read their thoughts. But he had thousands here, all categorized into sections such as "politicians," "athletes," and "recent additions."

A woman sat at a desk, thumbing through stacks of index cards. "What do you have, a new deposit?"

Erec tried to make his voice sound old, but probably just came across like he had a bad cold. "Just checking to see if you need help. We have some time free now."

The woman flipped through a file cabinet. "Well, you can run a delivery for me. We have a few new ones in that the boss wants now. They've just been processed and are ready for use. One of these is really important, they say--it has to go in right away." She stood up

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and gathered a few small jars of eyes and put them on a tray. "Ajax Hunter will be taking these personally. Now run along."

Erec made his voice scratchy. "Um . . . Where can we find Ajax Hunter now?"

She looked irritated. "How should I know? You delivery types are supposed to have all that information. You better hurry along."

Griffin carried the tray--apparently the woman thought he would be better at holding the precious cargo than his hoarse humpbacked companion. They stole back down the hallway, Griffin gagging all the way.

"Take these." He thrust the tray at Erec. "I can't look at 'em"

Erec took over the tray. Ten small jars held floating lumps, some of which were looking at him. Names were written on the lids.
Robert Jeho. Carly Stampers. Marty Allen. Red Friedman. Oscar Felix.

Erec almost dropped the tray. His stomach rose into his throat. "I have to sit down. Quick."

"I knew them eyes would get to yas."

They found a room filled with computers and rows of people at desks. At an empty table by the front, Erec collapsed into a chair. "This." He tapped the jar with Oscar's name on it. "This is my good friend. Oscar Felix." He wanted to say more, but choked on the words, glad that his hood was hiding the tears rolling down his face.

"Cap'n." Griffin lowered his head. "We will avenge this, right?"

Erec shrugged. "I'd be happy just to leave this place safely with everyone. Revenge sounds like a luxury. I wish I knew if Baskania forced him to do this, or just talked him into it. I don't know if it even matters, either way." He shuddered with revulsion, then grabbed Oscar's eye jar. "Well, I'm not letting it happen. We're stealing it back so Oscar can put his eye back in." He paused. "Maybe
you
should find Oscar after we're done here and give it to him. I guess I won't make it that far."

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"Don't think that way, cap'n. I'll fight to the death to get you back home alive."

"I know, Griffin. Thank you, by the way. You're a real friend."

"Aw, shucks, cap'n. Now yer making me get all soppy. Let's shut up about this before I have to sock ye one, okay?"

Erec agreed. Getting socked by Griffin was not what he needed at the moment, on top of everything else.

He stashed Oscar's eye in his backpack and stood up. "We're saving Oscar. And maybe we'll get Ajax Hunter in trouble, too. We're delivery guys now. I guess that's a good reason to learn where everything is in the fortress--like the Army Security Headquarters, the lab tower contained unit, and cell block ten, right?"

After asking around, they finally found the office known as delivery central. Smocked blind followers, with and without hoods, canes, and trays, bustled in and out. Erec and Griffin got in a line. Locators, sitting behind a counter, gave information about where people were at the moment for deliveries.

Griffin tapped Erec's shoulder. "Turn around, cap'n."

Before them on the wall--nonsensically, as the deliverers were blind--was painted a schematic map of each floor of the fortress. Some of the blind servants ran a hand across it as if they were looking for something, which was when he saw that the paint was raised, with Braille words as well as painted ones describing the rooms.

"Try not to look like we're staring at it," Erec whispered. "Remember, we're blind." He stayed in line and stood still, studying the maps. There was the front entrance. Here is where they turned and followed the hallways into the servants' quarters. The lunch room, the leyebrary . . . what floor were the archives on? Oh, on the sixth.

Jam, Melody, and Jack had been taken straight back from the front door. Jam said they took elevators to the eleventh floor and followed

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passages back. . . . There they were! Erec's breath caught. He saw rows of cell blocks on the eleventh floor. He stepped out of line and ran his finger over it as if he were blind. Cell block ten. Right there.

Kyron had run the opposite way. That led straight into the army wing. Floors and floors of training facilities, research and development, officer entertainment, sleeping quarters . . . and on the top, thirtieth floor, the Security Headquarters. There it was. The alarm clock that could save Wandabelle from the Nightmare Realm.

Now where was the lab tower? He felt himself shaking. If he could just see it, and know where Bethany was, how close they finally were. Not on the first floor. Not on the second. He couldn't find it anywhere. Then he noticed other maps off to the side that didn't fit in with the rest. They were small, round floor plans, broken into levels. . . . Towers! Here were maps of dozens of the towers that sprouted from the huge complex.

Where was it? He traced a finger along some of them, running it over the Braille to fit in with the others. Many weren't labeled, some were dungeon towers, which sounded ghastly. A sorcery tower--that was a big one--and a few empty ones . . .

Then he spotted it. The lab tower. It wasn't tall, just six stories. And the top level was labeled CONTAINED.

Erec rested a finger on it. Bethany was right there. So close now.

Everything he wanted was within his reach.

They had kept the tray of eyes, which made roaming around the complex look more official, but took a few more of the jars off and left them under a desk in an empty room. When the tray finally was turned in--not that Erec planned on doing it himself--it might throw more suspicion on him if only Oscar's was missing. If it was just one of several misplaced eyes, nobody would make the connection right away.

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The room they stayed in was still empty, so they went back inside to make plans. Erec decided to try looking for Kyron again. He thought about how good of a friend he was, and how much he missed having Kyron around. Then he slipped the Seeing Eyeglasses on.

Suddenly he was in a huge mess hall full of uniformed men chowing down on dinner. Kyron sat at a crowded table, speaking to nobody and eating some gray slop.

"Kyron," Erec whispered. But the noise level was so loud that Kyron didn't hear a thing.

Erec could talk louder without anyone noticing. Everyone around Kyron was wrapped up in conversations--they probably wouldn't notice another voice nearby. "Kyron.
Kyron!
"

Kyron glanced up in shock, then looked around.

"Kyron, it's me. I'm right here, but you can't see me."

Kyron continued to search around him and under the table.

"Go somewhere quiet. Can you get away? Just get up and go."

A few people around Kyron started to look at him funny as he was staring at the ceiling and then looking under his plate. An officer nearby tapped his head to hint that Kyron was crazy.

Erec sighed in frustration. "It's
me
, Erec. I'm wearing glasses that let me see you, and you can hear me. Leave that place, okay? Go!"

Though mystified, Kyron got up and walked toward the door.

"Do you have a room, or somewhere quiet to go?"

Kyron jumped when he heard Erec's voice, as if he was not expecting it again. "Erec? Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I can hear you. But so can everyone else, so stay quiet. Find someplace where you are alone so nobody hears me, either."

Kyron went into a narrow hallway that led to an empty room stacked with bunk beds. He sat down on one. "Are you still here?" He looked around the room.

"I am right next to you, but you can't see me. I can see you, though.

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These glasses I have are magical. They let me see people I miss."

He nodded. "Did they catch you and Griffin?"

"No. We saw you escape, and we stayed hidden. What happened when you ran away?"

"I got lucky. The halls were pretty deserted, and I kept going until I got lost. This army officer came out in the hall and grabbed me--I thought it was going to come to a fight, but he had no clue who I was. He assumed I was one of the new recruits trying to escape. So he sat me down with a 'Look, Sonny' talk about how there was no way out, and it was my time to serve humanity, all that. Tossed me into this barracks filled with bunk beds, so I found an empty one and fell asleep. Everyone assumes I'm just another new guy. They even gave me fatigues."

"Good. We got lucky too. And we found out where Bethany is. Jam, Melody, and Jack are in cell block ten. We need to meet you somewhere and try to get them out."

"I'm ready anytime. I don't know my way around this place, though."

"Have you heard of the Army Security Headquarters? It's up on the thirtieth floor of the military wing."

Kyron shook his head. "Why?"

"We need to get something up there. It's really important. I think it will be hard to find, and I'm sure it's highly guarded."

"What is it?" Kyron leaned forward, interested.

"An alarm clock."

Kyron raised an eyebrow. "I don't think I heard you right. An alarm clock?"

"Yep."

"We're risking our lives to get a highly guarded alarm clock?"

"Yes. It's more than just a regular alarm clock, though. It's the only hope for Wandabelle--the Clown Fairy. Its alarm is set to let

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her leave Nightmare Realm, and we have to free her before Baskania comes for her."

"Okay, then. Let me check into it. No need for you guys to risk your necks going up there."

"I don't know, Kyron. Griffin would be pretty angry if you had a good sword fight without him, I think."

Griffin slammed his hand down on the table. "What did Kyron say? Planning to get that clock without us? Tell him I'll do him in meself if he doesn't take me along."

"Did you hear that, Kyron?" Erec said. "Why don't we meet you and we'll all go up? What floor are you on?"

They made arrangements to meet at a mess hall on the third floor of the army wing. After one more peek at the maps in delivery central, memorizing all that they could, they picked their way through the fortress more easily. Everyone stepped out of their way when they saw the eyeballs Erec was carrying, avoiding him as if he was diseased.

Erec laughed. He fit in so well here--with a hunchback, a hooded smock, and a tray of eyeballs--that nobody bothered them. Kyron looked right past them as they approached, then jumped when Erec's voice came from under his hood.

"Is that . . . ?"

"It's us."

"But what's that . . . You don't look right. . . ."

"Shh. It's my backpack."

"Oohhh."

They found the elevator and took it to the thirtieth floor. Griffin held his sabers under his smock. Kyron had fitted his sword inside his shirt back.

"Any ideas of what we're going to do?" Kyron asked.

Erec shook his head. "Just see if we can find out where the alarm

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clock is. We could always sneak back later and try to steal it."

Kyron nodded. "I have an idea."

The elevator opened into a small room. A secretary sat behind a tall counter and a burly guard stood at the end of it, before a closed door. Both of them looked up when Erec, Kyron, and Griffin filed out of the elevator. Erec figured they must not have many unexpected visitors.

Kyron smiled broadly. "I've been asked to get an updated list of everything stored up here, and where it is. Ajax Hunter wants it right away."

The secretary sighed, annoyed. She glanced through Erec and Griffin as though servants were invisible. "It's going to take me a while to update it. Do you want to come back in an hour?"

Erec cheered inside at Kyron's idea. How perfect--a list would show where things were. It made sense that she would be organized.

Kyron leaned on the counter. "Would you like to be the one to tell Mr. Hunter that he can't have his list now? Should I bring him here, so you can explain your limitations to him? Or can you think of another way to make this work?"

She was flustered. "Hhff. I'll try and do it quicker, then. But I can only work so fast. Will he settle for an older version--like last week's?"

Kyron conferred with Erec, who nodded slightly. "I suppose so. But . . . what would probably be better is to give me last week's list, and then I'll walk through and look at any new items. I can add them myself."

The secretary looked doubtful. "Do you have a top-security pass on you? That's the only way you can go in. Plus, it would take you as long as it takes me to find everything."

"That's no problem," Kyron said. "I don't need to find all of it. I know the specific things Ajax is looking for. So it will be quick." He held his hand out for a paper.