“Sorry about that,” Blake said.
“You’re all crazy,” the technician spat.
“Some of us, anyway,” Blake replied. “So what did we just do? We were somewhat under duress from those guys, but I’d like to know how that shield is powered.”
“The town’s power comes from here,” the technician said. “All you did is turn off the lights for the civilian sectors. There are other plants within the city limits that generally supply the scientific areas. I heard they didn’t want to disrupt the general power in case something went wrong, but I don’t know anything about the shield generator. Look, no one wants those people stuck in there, but you can’t just shut it down.”
“We should go,” Perry prompted.
“Thank you for your info, and again, sorry about the tie down,” Blake said as he and Perry left the room to follow Gerard and Dorin.
“What do you think?” Perry asked.
“Same thing I’ve thought this whole time,” Blake shrugged, “and I have no reason to believe he lied to us, but again, we were kind of stuck weren’t we?” They picked up their pace to catch up to Gerard and Dorin ahead of them.
As soon as they passed out of the bright lights of the power room, they found themselves almost blind in the dark hallways, but they could just make out the forms of Gerard and Dorin passing around the corners ahead of them in the dim glow of the emergency lighting. While he was as interested in the outcome of their actions as their guides, Blake was more concerned about a reception outside the door when they arrived. He was also concerned about what Gerard might do to prove he was right.
They reached the exterior door as it was slowly closing behind the pair ahead of them. Blake glanced to Perry. “You ready for this?”
“Always,” Perry replied, and they pushed open the door to bright spotlights and an army of men surrounding them. Moving from the interior darkness, this momentarily blinded all of them, but even through the haze of his adjusting eyes, Blake could see that nearly every person had a weapon trained on them. They walked calmly to stand behind Gerard and Dorin who looked dazed as if this was not something they had expected.
“Stop where you are,” a voice said mechanically over a loudspeaker.
“This doesn’t surprise me either,” Blake commented as they came to a halt. Neither Blake nor Perry showed any sign of nervousness or distress at this obvious turn of events.
“Put your weapons on the ground and your hands over your heads,” the voice continued. Blake glanced to Dorin and noticed he had his weapon in his hand as if he had a chance against this crowd. He looked at Gerard who gave him a reassuring nod, and Dorin placed his weapon gently on the ground. The four of them raised their hands over their heads.
“You can’t get away with this!” Gerard yelled defiantly.
“Get away with what?” a familiar voice traveled over the air to them. A shadow emerged from the ring of light walking toward them. Major Halloway slowly came into focus as he continued speaking. “I see a bunch of criminals who meaninglessly shut down the power at a public plant. I know you vandalized your way in here, so that’s damage to public property. What I’ll get away with is seeing all of you punished for your crimes.”
“We freed the city,” Gerard insisted. Halloway turned to him with an amused expression and raised eyebrows.
“From here?” he asked condescendingly. The response shook Gerard’s confidence.
“We shut down the power,” Gerard replied but more weakly than Blake had ever heard him speak before.
“Yes, you did,” Halloway agreed, “but that won’t fix Carburast.”
“Impossible,” Gerard said.
“The building housing the phase shield machine has its own generator,” Halloway sighed and sounded as if he had given this speech a hundred times before. It was no wonder they guarded this plant so heavily if this was something people tried all the time. “Wouldn’t make sense for a weapon to be powered by something outside of its effective area, would it?”
Halloway’s question lined up perfectly with Blake’s thoughts on the entire matter, and actually made more sense than most anything Gerard had said. On the one hand, he wondered if he had allied himself with the wrong side, but on the other, it was not as if they had chosen to help Gerard in this plan either.
“You’re lying,” Gerard insisted. “Open the gate to the city.”
“Why?” Halloway asked in a tone that sounded more like he was speaking to a disobedient child.
“Because I’ll prove it,” Gerard replied. Blake turned to look at Gerard and knew in an instant what he intended to do.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Blake warned, but Gerard wheeled on him.
“What do you know?” he asked, raising his voice. Blake was surprised. Gerard had always struck him as the levelheaded type, but apparently, this situation had pushed him to the breaking point. “According to you, you just got here. You don’t know anything about anything that’s going on.”
Blake could not argue with this logic, though he still disagreed with Gerard’s intentions. All he could do was nod in agreement and let Gerard do what he felt like he had to do. He looked back to Halloway who was looking between the pair of them with the realization of the true nature of their relationship dawning on him.
“So he isn’t working for you?” Halloway asked Gerard, but Gerard was finished with this conversation.
“Open the gate,” Gerard commanded. Halloway stared into Gerard’s face for a moment, and then smiled.
“Well,” Halloway shrugged, “who am I to deny a man his last request?”
He gestured to someone beyond the line of lights in the direction of the Carburast fenceline. They could just make out some lights along the fence, though the city beyond was still dark. A mechanical whirring sounded from a motor somewhere near the large gate that would have allowed vehicles from the power plant to drive into the city. The gate clattered and squeaked as the motor dragged it open along wheels that had not been used in years, and before long, the city was open for anyone to simply walk in. The line of soldiers opened to allow the four of them along with Halloway to see directly onto a darkened street just inside the fence.
Gerard smiled because he knew victory was his at last. He looked at Dorin standing at his side.
“Are you with me?” Gerard asked his faithful friend.
“Always,” Dorin replied without hesitation. They had been working toward this goal for so long that some part of them was ready to accept oblivion in the town if they failed.
“I don’t think so,” Halloway said, interrupting their moment. Gerard’s eyes changed from triumphant to cold again. “I know it has not been fixed, so I am not allowing both of you out of my hands.”
Gerard and Dorin exchanged a look that said they were going to run for it, and it was clear that Halloway saw this as well though he did not do anything in response. The pair looked back toward Carburast still dark and as empty as it always was. It seemed as if Halloway wanted them to make a run for it, as he only stood still and waited for them to do it. His face clearly said that he knew what they were up to whether they thought he did or not, but he was a man very much in control at all times, so no matter what they did, he would be ready. Blake and Perry both hung back and decided not to interfere with the inevitable. It was bad enough they had been caught siding with people who would be considered terrorists, but they did not want to make their situation worse by interacting further with them while they were planning another ridiculous action.
Then the inevitable occurred. Gerard nodded, and together, he and Dorin darted toward Carburast. Blake looked at Halloway who still stood by stoically, watching them run off. Before they could reach Carburast, a group of soldiers converged on Dorin. He tried to fight them off, but they finally tackled him to the ground, leaving Gerard alone to pass through the gate to the city, stand on the street and turn back to them. Dorin struggled against his captors, but he was very outnumbered and pinned to the g
round. All he could do was watch.
Gerard held up his hands in triumph. “You see?” he yelled back to Halloway. “It’s done.” Halloway was unmoved. He only stood silently and allowed this to play out without the slightest indication of defeat. “We fixed it!” Gerard continued. “It’s done. You lost!”
Halloway gave the sigh of someone who believed this was a waste of his time. He crossed his arms and watched Gerard like a scientist might watch the same experiment for the thousandth time, knowing the results. Blake and Perry fixed their eyes back on Gerard, who continued in his tirade stating how he was right all along, that he knew this would work, and so on.
What Gerard failed to notice as he carried on were horizontal stripes crossing his body, making parts of him momentarily transparent. Blake checked Halloway’s face and noted that a small smile had crossed it. The expected results were starting.
“Gerard!” Dorin called out desperately. “It didn’t work!” But Gerard had not heard his friend. He continued his chattering speech of victory. The stripes wrapped Gerard faster and faster causing his transparency to increase.
“Now you’ll have no choice but to admit that,” Gerard started to say, but the phase shield overtook him, and before he showed any reaction, he disappeared. It was Halloway’s turn to smile triumphantly as Dorin dropped his head in defeat. The soldiers roughly dragged Dorin off the ground and carried him by his arms to a waiting vehicle. Dorin gave no struggle, only barely walking with them. Halloway turned his gaze back to Blake and Perry.
“So that’s one problem taken care of,” he said coldly. “Now what to do about the other?”
“Might I ask you a question, sir?” Blake asked, hoping to find out if Michelle was at the base.
“I’m the one who asks the questions,” Halloway replied. “You are the one who follows orders or finds himself in a tighter spot than he already is. Understand?”
Blake nodded and simply hoped that they would be reunited once they inevitably arrived back at the base.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Following the loss of Gerard, Halloway had shuffled Blake and Perry into the vehicle where he had already placed Dorin. It was a large transport with a set of benches in the back section under a covered top, and the three of them were accompanied by six soldiers: two in the front and four next to the opening in the rear. Dorin only stared at the floor the entire time, saying nothing to either of them, although Blake and Perry really had nothing to say during the trip from the plant back to the military base either. Halloway had not permitted any further discussion or questions after Blake had attempted to talk to him, so they rode in the vain hope that Michelle would be waiting for them when they arrived.
The trip seemed to take forever since driving the route to the base involved their driving out of the forest moving away from Carburast and then passing around the far outside roads nowhere near the city before they could loop back around and drive toward the base. The main gate opened at their approach, and they drove in and stopped near the main headquarters where they had started not so long ago. The four soldiers in the back hopped out as one of them in the front ordered Dorin, Blake, and Perry to exit.
The soldiers escorted them through the stone halls of the headquarters to the holding area where they were forced into a cell where they found Michelle waiting. As soon as the door closed, she jumped up and hugged Blake.
“Oh, my God, I am so glad to see you,” she gushed.
“Yes, well, I’m happy to see you’re all right as well,” Blake said. He had never been comfortable with any kind of physical affection, even of the friendly variety, so while he was certainly overjoyed to see her well, her outpouring was a bit much for him. “What happened to you?”
She told them of waking up to Halloway’s interrogation, and how he had threatened her with torture if she did not tell him everything. She admitted to not being able to tell much, and Blake suspected Halloway would try to learn more from them, especially regarding the Maze.
“Why?” Dorin finally said. “Why should he care about this thing or wherever you’re from?”
“Well, it’s a simple matter of military desire,” Blake explained. “We showed up in the middle of a secure city out of nowhere. If you were a military commander, wouldn’t you want a way to, say, show up behind enemy lines?”
Dorin nodded, and Michelle asked about him. Blake explained what had happened to them after the explosion in Point Light through meeting Dorin and the failure at the power plant that resulted in the loss of Gerard. Blake’s emotionless retelling of the story angered Dorin.
“How can you be so cold?” Dorin asked.
“I’m not cold, Dorin,” Blake said, trying to justify himself. “I had to tell Michelle what went on, so she’d be caught up, and while I am sorry about what happened, that it happened remains a fact.”
“Don’t you care?” Dorin asked. “Or are you just like Halloway?”
“I want to fix this as much as you do,” Blake said.
“Why?” Dorin asked. “It doesn’t make sense why you should care. Tell me.”
“Because we can’t go home until it is done,” Perry said. “I still don’t know how it works, but we never leave until we finish whatever we have to do. We believe that shield has to shut down before we can go.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Dorin said shaking his head.
“Whether it makes sense or not to you won’t change the truth,” Blake said. “Sometimes, you have to take everything that happens as truth to the one who states it whether you believe it to be true or not. Only by doing so will you discover what is really out there. What I love about traveling and going where we go is the ability to be constantly proven wrong. I think I know what’s going on, and then we drop in somewhere that changes everything. What I’m telling you right now is the truth to me, but tomorrow, everything could change. Maybe my truth is wrong, and I have to find a new truth. The universe is in a constant state of flux and even laws we hold to be so important or unchangeable become irrelevant or impossible. We have to accept change as a part of reality. You might say that change is the only constant.”
“What is my truth then?” Dorin asked. “What do I do now that everything I’ve believed is wrong?”
“Not everything,” Blake encouraged. “You know the power plant didn’t shut down Carburast, but we do know that the shield is powered from somewhere. I believe Halloway when he says that it is inside the city. This means that to find the answer, we have to get inside the city without phasing and know what to do when we get there.”
“Halloway won’t let us go,” Michelle warned.
“That’s all right for now,” Blake said. “We have nowhere to be.”
“What are we going to do?” Perry asked.
“Wait,” Blake replied. “I think Halloway will willingly tell us quite a bit without realizing it. He is interested in the Maze, and that’s fine. He’ll never get it. This planet is too primitive to be any kind of threat. “
“So just wait?” Michelle asked.
“Couldn’t be much simpler than that,” Blake said.
The four of them slept uncomfortably, if at all, cramped in the cell, and it was fortunate that the sun had barely started to peek in the window when the Major sent for them. The soldiers wordlessly pulled them out of their cell, and each of them had their hands cuffed behind their backs. A dozen soldiers surrounded them as an escort from the cell to lead them out of the headquarters toward the road that led into Carburast. Its fence was open.
“Now you will see what Halloway does with those who cross him,” Dorin said.
“The open fence?” Perry asked.
“At least one of us is going in,” Dorin said.
“That’ll certainly put a damper on our plans,” Blake observed.
“So this is what you do?”Michelle asked cynically. “Get captured and sacrificed to a hungry city?”
“Not every time,” Blake said trying to lift the mood. “This is the first time it’s
been a city.” He looked to Michelle who did not appear particularly encouraged.
Their escorts guided them through the throng of soldiers surrounding the Carburast entrance until they stopped short of the fenceline. Major Halloway stepped onto the road and stood before them as the soldiers left them alone. Michelle stopped playing with the handcuffs. Powerless to rebel, they stood calmly before Halloway who still had the triumphant expression he held the previous night.
“Good morning,” Halloway greeted warmly, “welcome to your trial.”
“What trial?” Dorin said.
“I suppose you could say it is more of a hearing,” Halloway said, “of a sort anyway. I guess it’s more of a sentencing depending on how you respond to me. Call it a choice on your part. One where you only know you made the right choice by the outcome.”
“So now that Gerard is gone, you’ll talk,” Dorin spat.
“Gerard Keppler was a thorn in my side for some time,” Halloway said simply, “spreading rumors and such. Now that he’s gone, we can all sleep a lot easier.”
“Why let him run in there,” Blake asked, “knowing it wasn’t fixed?”
“What could I do?” Halloway shrugged. “When an insane man makes up his mind, there’s no stopping him. He’s been fixated on that power plant for ages, and only by getting with you was he able to accomplish his goal. Now he’s gone. Though to be fair, I did warn him.”
“It was still cruel,” Dorin said.
“Hardly,” Halloway said. “He made his choice.”
“You stopped me. Why not stop him too?” Dorin asked.
“Well, I would have let you both go,” Halloway said, “but I had to try and question one of you. Couldn’t lose all my prisoners. If I wanted you dead, we could have opened fire.”
“You’ll get nothing out of me,” Dorin said.
“No?” Halloway asked and gestured to the soldiers closest to him. They surrounded only him, pushing the others out of the way, and forced him toward Carburast. Halloway walked close behind them. “Who else do your groups have to lead them? Who do I have to worry about next? Where do I look?”
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