Calidore had been a mentalist once. Did he still think like a mentalist and thus desire beautiful female servitors?
I wouldn’t doubt it.
I entered a side hall. This had a pang of memory, one that I’d stolen from Ammon’s mind. I counted doors, and I tried the third. It did not open. I debated for three seconds how to do this, and finally rapped my knuckles on the steel door.
I waited…until I heard someone on the other side. I rapped again, more lightly.
The door swished open, and I stared into the smiling and astonishingly attractive face of Red Schaine. She did not wear leather garments as before on the raid or on the plateau, but silky ones like a female genie on TV, from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves in ancient Bagdad. Her red hair still looked like a lion’s mane, and her large bosom heaved as her bare belly shivered. She wore curled slippers like some harem girl.
The smile slipped and her eyes widened in fright. “Jason?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said, pushing into her room so the door swished shut behind me.
“Oh, Jason!” she cried, as if in delight. “I’m so happy to see you. I thought I’d never see you again.” And she tried to throw her arms around my neck.
“Knock it off,” I said, tearing one of her arms from me.
“What’s wrong, darling?”
I kept hold of one of her elbows as I scanned the bedroom. It had a big round bed with rumpled covers, a dresser and mirror, clothes on the floor—
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Schaine attempting one of the most basic moves of all, trying to knee me in the balls. Yet, it wasn’t as easy to do as people believed. Men had an instinctive desire and thus reflex to project the family jewels. I turned my hips, blocking the up-thrusting knee with my left hip. She drove hard, though, and would have knocked me down, but I still clung to her elbow, making her stumble as I used her weight to help keep me standing.
She cringed from me as I regarded her. “Please, Jason, I was told—oh!” she cried.
I spun her around, circling an arm around her throat, cinching my arm tight. I allowed her to breathe—barely. Then I brushed some of those lovely curls from her nearest ear.
“That wasn’t bright, Schaine,” I whispered.
“Please, Jason,” she whispered. “I—”
I tightened my arm, making her gurgle, and I realized there was a red choker around her throat with a bulky torc in the center of it.
I released my hold and spun her back around to face me, fingering the torc. It was red and black, made of hard, segmented pieces.
“What is that?” I asked.
Fear shone in her eyes. “Nothing,” she said.
I gave her a crooked wolf’s grin. “Listen to me, Schaine. Your life hangs by a thread. If you do one thing wrong in the next few minutes, I’m going to kill you and spit on your body the way you did to Esteban Dan.”
She frowned at me.
I produced my stolen laser pistol. “Do you recognize this?”
Her frown deepened until understanding lit up in her cobra-bright eyes. She looked up at me.
“Uh-huh,” I said. “I killed Lord Ammon to get it. I’ll kill you next if you force my hand.”
“What do you want?” she said, flatly. The fear was gone from her eyes and demeanor—it had been an act. This was one tough girl, and we both knew it.
“Where’s Calidore?”
She shrank away from me, shaking her head.
“Fine,” I said. “I’m going to enjoy beating you to death the way I did Esteban Dan.”
“You won’t hurt me,” she said. “I know you, Jason—”
The crack of my hand against her cheek belied her statement. Red Schaine was beautiful to look at, but she had a black heart and a weasel’s love of seeing blood. Sorry to all them weasels out there—I know Schaine was ten times worse.
Schaine touched her reddening check. “For that,” she hissed, “you will die.”
“Yeah,” I said, raising my hand again.
“Don’t,” she said, cringing. “I’ll—I’ll take you to Seer Calidore.”
I laughed. “Schaine, you’re Calidore’s special carrier. I know that because Lord Ammon told me. If the good doctor isn’t here—”
A part of the bedroom’s wall slid up.
Schaine whirled around in terror. “I wasn’t going to tell him, Seer. I swear it! I swear by all that is holy—”
“Enough,” Calidore said from his computer-slate speaker. “I want to hear what the boy has to say. I’m beginning to think it could be interesting.”
-37-
The computer slate was slotted in a recess in the wall, with a bright light shining down on it. Schaine was on her knees with her head bowed toward the slate.
“Why is Schaine so terrified of you?” I asked.
“Tut-tut,” Calidore said. “You have many other concerns. Don’t worry about her.”
“Take him down,” I told Schaine.
She didn’t move.
“We’re leaving,” I told Calidore.
“You haven’t convinced me yet,” the computer slate said.
I aimed the laser pistol at him.
“Don’t you realize that I can release jets of knockout gas at the two of you?” Calidore asked. “Even better, I control hidden sniper rifles aimed at you.”
“Alpha-Nine-Gamma-Three-Three-Two,” I said.
Locks clicked open on the shelf.
“Oh my,” Calidore said. “This is a different matter. Now I’m glad I haven’t sounded the alarm yet. I can, you know. If I do, Myrmidons will come running. You’ll die, if you’re lucky. If you’re not, they’ll capture you. For killing Ammon—tut-tut, his brother will take a long time making you suffer.”
“Before that happens, I’ll burn you. Terra is safe then.”
“Let’s not be hasty,” Calidore said. “We can come to an accommodation, I’m sure.”
“Not in here, we can’t. Pick him up, Schaine. If you don’t, you die.”
Her head lifted the slightest bit. “If I do, I also die.”
“If you shoot her, Calidore—”
“Enough,” the doctor said. “Schaine, I’m ready. Let’s see what this good old boy has for us. Hurry, now. Don’t take all day.”
Schaine catapulted from her knees, rushing to him, delicately picking the computer slate from the wall recess. Holding the slate against her bosom, she turned and approached me.
“Why does she treat you like that?” I asked.
“It’s a secret for now,” Calidore said. “If I like your deal enough…I may give her to you. I know she likes to rut. She’s found some servitors here and has had a grand old time rolling in the hay with them. She thought one of them was knocking earlier, why she opened the door for you.”
“You don’t mind that?” I asked.
“Mind?” asked Calidore. “I love it, as it will help me make my move when the time comes. Lord Ammon and his brother are sharp customers, but they’ve underestimated this woman’s hunger. It’s unnatural, I tell you.”
“You’re using her,” I said.
“Of course, I am. I hope to use you, too, just like you’re planning to use me.”
I made a show of holstering my pistol, and then I unfolded with all the speed I could muster. I did not enter the heightened speed of earlier. With the Lorelai worm gone, I had a feeling I could no longer do that. I snatched at the computer slate from Schaine. She grunted, trying to hold onto it. As I lifted the slate, she kneed me again, aiming at my groin. I shielded with another hip twist and then tripped her so she sprawled onto the floor.
“That was unnecessary,” Calidore said. “Now, if you’ll just return me to—”
I pressed the small red button on back of the slate, and Calidore groaned in agony.
“Please,” the slate said. “If you’ll just—” The computer entity screamed the next time, as I held the red button down for a while. “Don’t do that anymore,” Calidore gasped, once I released the button.
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Schaine stared up at me from the floor, bewildered by the turn of events.
“How do you control her?” I said. “Hurry, Doctor, or I won’t release the button so quickly next time.”
A tiny slot opened behind the slate. I pried an even tinier device from it. It was small like the breadth of my thumbnail. It had a tiny switch to depress.
“What happens if I press that?” I asked.
“The deodex in the torc around her throat will explode, blowing off her head,” Calidore said.
Schaine whimpered.
“That’s how you control her?” I asked.
“It has worked until now,” Calidore said.
I looked down at Schaine, and I raised the tiny device so she could see it, with my thumb hovering over the switch.
“If you betray me,” I said, “I’ll press the switch. If you displease me in any way, I’ll depress the switch. If we live through this and get off-planet, I’ll destroy the switch and find a way to remove the torc from your neck.”
“Thank you,” she whispered. “I would like that.”
“First,” I said, “you have to earn it.”
“Take me to bed,” she said. “I’ll show you—”
“Schaine,” I said, gently. “This isn’t a sexual thing. This is life or death for all three of us. If Calidore behaves—what is it you really want, Doctor?”
“Eh?” the computer slate asked.
“What do you want—well, out of life? What do you hope to achieve more than anything else?”
“You mustn’t laugh if I tell you,” Calidore muttered.
“Why would I laugh?” I asked.
“Lord Ammon did when Seer Calidore told him,” Schaine explained.
The computer slate did not rebuke her. Instead, after several seconds, he said, “I want a body, even if it’s just a robot body that looks human. I’d be more than grateful for that. I want all my computer circuits inside the robot. Then…then I want the same thing as you do.”
“Oh yeah,” I said. “What’s that?”
“Killing the Avanti that did this to us,” Calidore said.
I nodded, even though I didn’t particularly want to kill the Avanti. I wanted to protect Terra, to free everyone from the crystalline stasis the planet was presently under. I suppose I wanted to stop the mentalists, if the mentalists meant to despoil my home planet in their effort to capture the Arch Ship and the ancient Avanti technology. In fact, I figured Terra deserved that advanced tech for all its troubles.
But that was a long way in the future. First, I had to survive the mentalist and get out of this underground complex.
“Okay,” I said. “You want a robot body to house your digitized self. That seems doable, and I’m more than willing to help you achieve that.”
“Lord Ra has also promised me a robot body,” Calidore said.
“Ra is Ammon’s mentalist brother?” I asked.
“That is correct.”
“It’s a biological relationship?”
“Of course,” Calidore said. “What else would you expect if he calls Ammon ‘brother’?”
I nodded. “The ancient artifact they’re seeking is in water?”
“It isn’t an artifact per se, but the ruins of a Master stronghold on this world that could contain any number of artifacts, as you put it. The stronghold is ancient, and the ruins of it are deep underwater in a subterranean underworld as you surmised. The first attempt to dam the waters failed miserably. Lake Paga drained instead, and the underwater springs broke, flooding the subterranean chambers worse than before. The chambers, by the way, are gargantuan, some of them larger than your Nevada Territory. However, you’ve made me curious. Why did you suggest it was a single artifact?”
I shrugged.
“No,” Calidore said. “I think it’s more than that.”
It was, but I wanted away from here before I told him how I knew. It was obvious that Ammon and Ra had been keeping Doctor Calidore in the dark.
“We have to escape this place,” I said. “Are there any flying machines we can use?”
“I have no reason to leave,” Calidore said.
“You mean other than my destroying you if you don’t?” I asked.
“That would be a sacrilegious act, especially considering all that I’ve done for you.”
“I suppose you mean by screwing me at every turn.”
“Tut-tut,” Calidore said. “Because of me, you’re alive instead of dead as an Allan Corporation test experiment.”
Had he forgotten I’d brought a knife to the cat man test, earning my own survival?
“Because of you,” I said, “my best friends are dead, and my planet is under stasis. Yeah, I’m super grateful for all you’ve done, so much that I think I’ll kill you right now.”
I tossed him onto the floor so he clattered, and intercepted Schaine when she tried to retrieve him.
“Goodbye, Doctor Calidore,” I said, drawing and aiming the laser pistol.
“On second thought,” the computer slate said. “I do know of a way to slip out of here, one that might actually work.”
“I’m listening,” I said. “And it better be good.”
“Yes,” Calidore said. “You see…”
-38-
Our escape from the subterranean base struck me as too easy, but the old saw said not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Yet, when one took into consideration Calidore’s reputation as a former sneaky mentalist—
I peered into the desert-like distance as Schaine piloted a sky-raft, rising over dried-out Lake Paga. We’d just flown up through the giant hole I’d seen before with a Wind Runner spyglass, back when Captain Gosso had still been alive. Incredibly, the subterranean base had been under the lake. Calidore said the base had also been to the side of the lake as well, but that was quibbling.
Calidore took it upon himself to lecture me regarding the situation. After years of study and various planetary surveys, Ammon and Ra had concluded the existence of subterranean seas. They had brought special equipment to Aiello in order to breach those seas and had subsequently discovered the ancient underground base below Lake Paga. By revitalizing ancient locks—gigantic things—they had attempted to dam up the chambers so they could drain the one holding the ancient ruin. After so much time—millennia—the hydraulic strain had broken the dams, flooded vast areas and smashed the ancient spring-system. That drained Lake Paga, among other more serious problems for the mentalists. Instead of opening the way, the brothers had sealed the ancient ruin more permanently.
“It seems obvious what they should do,” I said.
“Oh?” Calidore asked.
“Use submersibles to reach the ruin,” I said.
“In fact, you are correct,” Calidore said. “That has been the latest debate between the brothers. Ammon wanted to try a few other ventures first, including breaking your mind like an egg and scooping up the data. Ra desired to leave at once and come back later with the submersibles you just suggested.”
“Why break my mind? How would that have aided them in gaining the ruins here?”
“Perhaps the Avanti knew more than she let on to either of us,” Calidore said. “Perhaps she planted critical knowledge in you—or in me, for that matter—and if the mentalists could breach your mind or my programming…”
It was making more sense now, our easy escape. Our raft was undoubtedly carrying a tracking device. Possibly, Calidore and/or Schaine had tracking devices planted in them. Maybe her torc was one. I was going to have to play this differently than I’d first intended.
“Ammon is dead,” I said. “Does that mean Ra will leave the planet for the equipment?”
“I doubt it. You and I are too fantastic a prize to simply abandon. We prove the Avantis still live. We hold the coordinates, well, since she’s here, I can’t say exactly. But you know the coordinates we possess that any mentalist would kill to have.”
I nodded, thinking about something else.
“I saw an im
age in your mind once,” I said. “It was on the Arch Ship when they had you in the test tube. The image showed many mentalists surrounding and worshiping a great floating ball. What was that all about?”
“I have no idea,” Calidore said. “Are you certain you saw this…floating ball?”
“Uh-huh, and you want a robot body, right?”
“I fail to see what the one has to do with the other.”
“You’re lying to me, Doctor. But we’re supposed to be a team, remember? We should be honest with each other, especially as I’m going to help you achieve your great desire.”
“Very well, if you insist,” he said. “Your gamesmanship is quite tiring, if you must know. The floating ball, as you put it…was a Beholder. That is a mentalist construct, a quite delicate one. The Beholders are also secret to mentalists. Among other things, the Beholders allow mentalists to communicate with each other over hundreds of light-years.”
“What? How?”
“Beholder to Beholder,” Calidore said. “With them, one municipality of mentalists can speak with another. It is a taxing event, however, although incredibly rewarding.”
“You’ve been to one of these Beholders?”
“That is a crude and loutish way to say it. The event is beyond stimulating. It is a sacred ceremony as we mentalists join into a linked group mind, a Beholder. With a Beholder, a united municipality of mentalists can achieve mental miracles. One of those miracles is telepathic-like communication across hundreds of light-years, as I’ve said, with another municipality, another Beholder.”
“So, these municipalities are secret societies?” I asked.
“Must you profane such a unique—oh, never mind. You are a lout and thus must conform to your nature. How can I chastise you for being you?”
The sky-raft left dried-out Lake Paga and headed toward the yet hazy Kurgech Mountain Range. No one had told Schaine which way to head. She just seemed to know.
“You must still think of yourself as a mentalist,” I said.
“So what if I do?” Calidore snapped.
“That must be an act. You’re a computer. You’re digitized, no longer emotional, with no biological glands to upset your mind. So why speak as if you’re suddenly upset?”
The Imprisoned Earth Page 17
