Contest

by Matthew Reilly

  It was oxidised fluorine.

  And fluorine added to Mace would make . . .

  Don’t think! No time. Just do it!

  Swain wrenched the Mace canister clear of Bellos’ belt and aimed it at Bellos’ face.

  But Bellos saw him move and in response, the big man lashed out at the Mace canister with his fist and hit it a glancing blow, snapping its spray nozzle clean off!

  No! Swain’s mind screamed. Now he couldn’t spray it!

  And then he saw another option.

  Gritting his teeth with determination, Swain slid in close to Bellos’ head and then, in one fluid movement, holding the Mace canister tightly in his fist, he banged the base of the canister down on the point of one of Bellos’ horns—puncturing the canister in an instant.

  Blinding chemical Mace sprayed downwards—out from the puncture hole in the base of the canister. Swain then whipped the canister up so that the spray jetted directly into Bellos’ powdered face.

  The chemical reaction was instantaneous.

  The active ingredients of chemical Mace—chloroacetophenone and diluted sulphuric acid—combined with the oxidised fluorine immediately to create hydrofluoric acid, one of the most corrosive acids known to man.

  Bellos roared in agony as bubbles of burning acid rippled across his face. He squeezed his eyes shut and released Swain’s ankle instantly.

  Four feet.

  Swain was free!

  But he wasn’t finished yet.

  As Bellos recoiled, Swain rolled onto his back and let fly with an upwardly directed kick.

  The kick hit its mark—slamming into the underside of Bellos’ jaw, causing the big man’s head to jolt sharply upward.

  The big man’s head snapped up—and his sharp horns penetrated the floor of the descending elevator—and in a moment of pure terror Bellos realised what had happened.

  He was stuck!

  His horns were jammed into the floor of the descending elevator, and he didn’t have enough room beneath it to manoeuvre himself out!

  Three feet.

  Swain was flat on his stomach now, crawling away from Bellos, across the base of the shaft.

  Two feet.

  And he could feel the bottom of the elevator touching his back. It was like crawling underneath a car.

  He reached out for one of the speeding counterweight cables running up the far wall. His hand closed around the cable.

  Behind him, Bellos now lay on the ground, his neck bent upwards at an awkward angle, wrenching desperately at his horns. He let out a piercing high-pitched wail. ‘Arrrrrrggghhhh!!!’

  One foot.

  And Swain felt the cable yank on his arm and he was pulled into the air, his feet sliding out from under the elevator just as it hit the bottom with a resounding boom! and Bellos’ hideous wail cut off abruptly and Swain flew up into the darkness of the shaft.

  Swain swung to a sudden halt.

  The counterweight cable stopped dead as the elevator came to rest at the base of the shaft.

  Everything was silent.

  There was no light, save for the weak yellow haze coming through the crumpled outer doors that led to the Stack.

  Swain was hanging by his arms six feet above the roof of the working elevator, dangling against the wall. He looked down at the elevators.

  It was a peculiar sight—both elevators, side by side, resting on the bottom of the shaft, one totally destroyed, the other just sitting there, silent.

  Suddenly the hatch of the working elevator burst open and Swain’s heart jumped. Bellos couldn’t have . . .

  Holly’s head appeared through the hatch and Swain sighed with relief. Her head swung around anxiously, searching. Finally she saw him, hanging above her, swinging gently from the counterweight cables on the side of the shaft.

  ‘Daddy!’ Holly climbed out onto the roof of the elevator.

  Swain let go of the cable and dropped down onto the roof beside her. She leapt into his arms and held him tightly.

  ‘Daddy, I was so scared.’

  ‘So was I, honey. Believe me, so was I.’

  ‘Did I do the right thing? Did I press the right button?’

  ‘You pressed the right button, all right,’ Swain said. ‘You were great.’

  Holly nodded to herself, satisfied, and hugged him harder.

  Selexin’s head popped out through the hatch. He saw Swain and Holly and then looked around the dark, empty shaft.

  ‘It’s okay,’ Swain said. ‘Bellos is dead,’

  ‘I, uh, gathered as much,’ Selexin said.

  Swain frowned. Selexin nodded back at the elevator’s hatch. Swain looked down through it.

  ‘Oh, yuck . . .’

  Sticking up through the floor of the elevator were two high-pointed horns—Bellos’ horns. Having pierced the underside of the lift, they now appeared inside it—unmoving, still—like the hood ornament of a Cadillac. The only remnant of Bellos.

  ‘What happened?’ Selexin asked.

  ‘Crushed,’ Swain said.

  ‘Crushed?’

  ‘Uh-huh.’

  Selexin winced. ‘Not a very nice way to die.’

  Holly said, ‘He wasn’t a very nice kind of person.’

  ‘This is true.’

  At that moment Swain’s wristband beeped softly.

  Swain checked it to find that its rectangular display was now filled with scrolling lines of type:

  PRESENCE OF CONTAMINANT CONFIRMED AT STATION 4.

  * PRESIDIAN HAS BEEN COMPROMISED *

  REPEAT.

  * PRESIDIAN HAS BEEN COMPROMISED *

  DECISION TO ABORT PENDING.

  The screen flickered and a new line appeared.

  INITIALISED—1

  OFFICIALS AT EXIT TELEPORT REPORT ONE.

  CONTESTANT REMAINING INSIDE LABYRINTH.

  AWAITING INSTRUCTIONS.

  There was a pause.

  ‘What does that mean?’ Swain asked.

  ‘When only one contestant remains,’ Selexin said, ‘The Karanadon is awakened, if it is not already awake, and then—’

  ‘And then the exit teleport is opened,’ Swain said, remembering. ‘And if you can avoid the Karanadon and get to the teleport, you win the Presidian.’

  ‘Right,’ Selexin said. ‘Only now that Bellos has compromised the Presidian, the officials are deciding whether or not they should abandon the Presidian completely. Because if they do decide to abandon it, they will not open the exit teleport. And we will be left here, with the Karanadon. And as I wanted to tell you before, they will also probably . . .’

  The wristband beeped loudly and Selexin immediately stopped speaking.

  OFFICIALS AT EXIT TELEPORT BE ADVISED THAT A DECISION HAS BEEN MADE TO ABORT PRESIDIAN.

  * DO NOT INITIALISE EXIT TELEPORT *

  REPEAT.

  * DO NOT INITIALISE EXIT TELEPORT *

  ‘They’re calling it off,’ Swain said flatly.

  Selexin didn’t reply. He just stared at the wristband in disbelief.

  Swain shook him gently. ‘Did you see that? They’re calling the whole thing off.’

  Selexin said softly ‘Yes. I saw it.’ He looked up at Swain. ‘And I know what it means. It means that you and I are most certainly going to die.’

  ‘What?’ Swain said.

  ‘Die?’ Holly said.

  ‘You will certainly die,’ Selexin said to Swain, ‘and without the exit teleport, I cannot leave this planet. And what do you think my chances of survival on Earth are?’

  Swain knew the answer to that. The NSA were outside the library right now and they weren’t here to borrow some books. Selexin didn’t have a prayer outside the library. And now there was no way he could leave.

  Swain said, ‘so why do I have to die? Why is that so certain? There’s no guarantee that the Karanadon will find us.’ Now there was an alien that Swain would gladly give to the NSA.

  ‘It is not the Karanadon that comprises your greatest threat,’ Selexin said.

/>   ‘Then what does?’ Swain asked as his wristband beeped again, announcing another message.

  * OFFICIAL SIGNAL *

  PLEASE RECORD THAT DUE TO EXTRINSIC INTERFERENCE IT HAS BEEN DECIDED THAT THE SEVENTH PRESIDIAN WILL BE ABORTED.

  GRATITUDE IS EXTENDED TO ALL OFFICIALS IN ALL SYSTEMS FOR THEIR ASSISTANCE THROUGHOUT THIS CONTEST.

  AN INQUIRY HAS BEEN INITIATED INTO THE CAUSE OF THE CONTAMINATION OF THE LABYRINTH.

  * END OFFICIAL SIGNAL*

  PRESIDIAN COMPLETE.

  STANDBY FOR DE-ELECTRIFICATION.

  Swain said, ‘De-electrification? Is that what I think it means?’

  ‘Yes,’ Selexin nodded. ‘They will bring down the electric field surrounding the labyrinth.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘As soon as possible, I suppose.’

  ‘What about the Karanadon?’

  ‘I presume that they will simply leave it here.’

  ‘Leave it here?’ Swain said, incredulous. ‘Do you have any idea what something like that would do in this city? When they cut the electricity around this building, that thing will be loose, and there will be no way to stop it.’

  ‘It is not my decision,’ Selexin said sadly, vacantly.

  Swain knew that the little man had other things on his mind. Without the exit teleport, Selexin could not leave. They had survived the Presidian and yet he was stuck on Earth.

  ‘Well,’ Swain said, looking up at the dark elevator shaft around him. ‘It’s not going to help us standing around here doing nothing. If they’re going to pull the plug on the electricity, I suggest we find a place where we can get out when they do.’

  Holding Holly, Swain stepped from the roof of the working lift onto the roof of the damaged one. Selexin didn’t move. He just stood there sadly, deep in thought.

  Swain and Holly climbed out through the crumpled outer doors into the Stack and looked back at Selexin.

  ‘Selexin,’ Swain said gently. ‘We’re not dead yet. Come on. Come with us.’

  On top of the lift, in the darkness of the shaft, Selexin looked up at him, but said nothing.

  ‘We have to get to an exit,’ Swain said. ‘so we can get out when the electricity is cut off.’

  ‘Bellos.’ Selexin said flatly, thinking.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Bellos knew of a way.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Swain said, checking the Stack behind him. ‘Come on, we have to go.’

  ‘He had to get the hoods out,’ Selexin said. ‘He said so himself.’

  ‘Selexin, what are you talking about?’

  Selexin explained. ‘We were on another floor, I think it was number Two. Bellos was there, and he spoke to us briefly before the Rachnid arrived and they fought and we escaped. But at the time, I asked Bellos what he planned to do with the hoods if he won the Presidian, because I knew that if he left them here, they would certainly be discovered. What he told me was very strange. He said that the hoods would be long gone from the labyrinth by the time he went through the exit teleport.’

  Swain watched Selexin intently, watched him thinking.

  ‘But the only way he could do that,’ Selexin said, almost to himself, ‘was if he had a teleporter.’

  ‘A teleporter?’

  ‘A large chamber in which a teleportation field is created. And as you are no doubt aware, there are no teleporters on Earth.’

  Swain thought for a moment, a hazy picture beginning to form in his mind. A picture of a puzzle that hadn’t yet been solved.

  ‘Just how big is one of these teleporters?’ he asked Selexin.

  ‘Usually very large, and very heavy,’ Selexin said. ‘And technologically, extremely complex.’

  It was now Swain who was lost in thought. The hazy picture in his mind was slowly becoming clearer.

  And then it hit him.

  ‘Bellos brought a teleporter with him,’ he said flatly.

  ‘We don’t know that,’ Selexin said.

  ‘Yes, we do,’ Swain reached into his pocket, pulled out a sheet of paper—Harold Quaid’s list of energy surges at the State Library that night.

  ‘What’s that, Daddy?’

  ‘It’s a list.’

  ‘Where did you get it?’

  Swain turned to Selexin. ‘I found it in the pocket of another mystery guest who happened to find his way into your Presidian.’

  ‘What is it a list of?’ Selexin asked.

  ‘Take a look.’ Swain held out the sheet of paper.

  Selexin stepped from one elevator roof to the other and then climbed out into the Stack. He took the sheet and examined it.

  ‘Something from Earth,’ Selexin scanned the list. ‘Detecting energy surges of unknown origin. What are these numbers on the left?’

  ‘Times,’ Swain said.

  Selexin was silent for a moment. ‘So what is it?’ he asked.

  ‘It’s a list of every teleportation that has happened in this building since I was teleported here from my home in Connecticut at 6:03 this evening.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘And now I’ve figured it out,’ Swain said. ‘Thirteen teleportations detected. Twelve in the library, one in Connecticut. Before, I could only account for eleven of the twelve surges that occurred in the library: namely, seven contestants with their guides, plus four hoods, equals eleven surges.’

  ‘Uh-huh.’

  ‘But I couldn’t figure out the last surge,’ Swain pointed to the bottom line of the sheet:

  13.18:46:00 N.Y. Isolated energy surge/Source:UNKNOWN

  Type: UNKNOWN/ Dur: 0.00:34

  ‘Look at it. It’s thirty-four seconds long—three times longer than any other surge. And look at when it occurred: 6:46 p.m. That’s nearly twenty-three minutes after the surge before it. All of the others occurred within twenty minutes.’

  Swain looked at Selexin. ‘The last surge was a separate surge. And it was big. Very big. Something that took a long time to teleport—thirty-four seconds to teleport.’

  ‘What are you saying?’

  ‘I think Bellos had someone teleport a teleporter into the library so he could get the hoods out of here before he left.’

  Selexin took it all in silently. He examined the list again. Finally he looked up at Swain. ‘Then that means . . .’

  ‘It means,’ Swain said to Selexin, ‘that somewhere in this building is a teleporter. A teleporter that we can use to get you home.’

  Selexin was momentarily silent as it all sunk in.

  ‘So what are we waiting for?’ Holly said.

  ‘Nothing now,’ Swain said, grabbing Selexin’s shoulder, starting to run. ‘Let’s find it while we still have time.’

  James Marshall stood at the base of the ramp leading to the parking lot. He was watching the grid of blue electricity stretched across the metal grille when his radio operator came up to him.

  ‘Sir?’

  ‘What is it?’ Marshall didn’t turn around.

  Status Check: 0:01:00 to De-electrification.

  Standby.

  ‘Sir, we’re not even getting a signal now. Commander Quaid’s radio is completely off the air.’

  Marshall bit his lip. The night that had begun with so much promise was not panning out well at all. They had already lost two men inside the library, destroyed one Radiation Storage Unit, lost track of a bum who had been seen by the southern wall of the library, and now had a building that was burning itself to the ground. And for what? Marshall thought.

  Jack shit, that’s what.

  They had nothing to show for their night’s work. Not a single fucking thing.

  And Marshall would be responsible. Too much was riding on this operation. Sigma Division had been given complete authority on this matter and they needed something to show for it.

  Christ, not long before, the New York Fire Department had shown up in response to all the explosions and the NSA had held them back. The building was the source of a National Security Agency investigation, he’d said
. Let it burn. But it’s a National Register building. Let it burn. That wouldn’t go down well with the bosses upstairs.

  So now the situation was clear: if Marshall didn’t get anything from this building, he would be the scapegoat. His career now depended on what they found inside that library.

  They had to get something.

  As it turned out, Swain, Holly and Selexin didn’t have to run very far before they found the teleporter. In fact, they didn’t even have to search beyond the Stack. But they almost missed it altogether. It was only Selexin’s keen eye that had caught sight of a deviation in one of the long aisles of the Stack as they had been zigzagging their way toward the floor’s central stairwell.

  Status Check: 0:00:51 to De-electrification.

  ‘It’s so big,’ Holly said in awe.

  That was an understatement, Swain thought as he stood in the aisle and stared at the enormous machine.

  It looked like a massive, high-tech, steel-sided telephone booth, with a glass door in its centre, and thick grey walls that almost reached to the ceiling. All of its edges had been rounded off to give it an elliptical shape and a big grey box sat on the floor beside it, connected to the teleporter by a thick black cord.

  Surrounding the giant teleporter was a perfect sphere of emptiness that had been cut into the bookshelves and the ceiling around the big machine. The spherical hole in the air through which this machine had travelled had simply vaporised whatever had been standing here when it had arrived.

  ‘That’s a portable generator,’ Selexin said, pointing to the grey box. ‘Bellos had to bring one of those in order to operate the teleporter on Earth.’

  Swain stared at the teleporter and at the bookshelves around it. They were right in the middle of the eastern section of the Stack, at least thirty yards from any entrance to the floor and surrounded by the towering floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. It was highly unlikely that anyone had been through here during the Presidian.

  ‘Well hidden,’ Swain observed.

  ‘I do not think Bellos had much choice,’ Selexin said.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Well, I have been thinking about this—about how Bellos teleported his hoods into the labyrinth. Do you remember that every time we saw him, Bellos always had his guide draped over his shoulder?’