“What?”
“Look.”
Sure enough, the pole was the side of a ladder going up at least one level.
They ascended cautiously. Li even climbed facing outward to keep an eye out for anyone wanting to catch them off guard. Sammy reached the top first and peered over the ledge. He could see into a small room with stairs leading out of the back. Judging by how high they had already climbed, he suspected those stairs would take them to the highest level of the labyrinth. Once Sammy was sure the room was empty, they crawled over the ledge and ran up the stairs.
Halfway up, the stairs came to a plateau, splitting into three different directions. Li led them down the path headed right. “Always go right,” he said. All that waited for them ahead was more blackness, but Sammy also heard very soft sounds like people whispering. He grabbed Li’s suit and put his finger to his ear. Li nodded. He hears it, too. They retraced their path a few steps and told Gregor their position and what they heard.
“It’s not someone on our team,” Gregor answered. “Follow them, but don’t engage,” he ordered. “I’m sending Al and the twins your way.”
They went back into the blackness, hanging just around a dark corner where they could watch and wait virtually unseen. As they waited, the Arena grew lighter again. Sammy took a gamble and glanced around the corner. Facing the other direction, watching through another doorway, were two boys and a girl. He was almost positive the girl was Jeffie, judging by the blonde hair peeking out of her helmet—blonde hair he had studied rather meticulously over the last week. One of the boys turned in Sammy’s direction, but Sammy withdrew back into hiding.
“They’re still there,” he hissed into his com.
“Al says he’s almost found you,” Gregor responded. “Just hang tight for another moment.”
Within a minute, silent as spring breezes, three black shadows rushed past the spot where the two scouts were hidden.
“They’re here!” Sammy heard Martin Trector shout.
Spying around the corner again, Sammy saw Kobe, Kaden, and Al fanned out, blasting shots at Parley von Pratt, Martin Trector, and Jeffie. Parley and Martin held their own fairly well, but Jeffie, in her inexperience, struggled to stand her ground. Sammy squelched an urge to rush in and help her. Al dove under a blast sent by Martin, aimed low at Jeffie, and knocked her off her feet. It gave Sammy the impression that she was struck down by an invisible force. The whole situation was comical: a battle where no one threw punches, only thrust their palms out at each other. After knocking her to the ground, Al terminated Jeffie, and the battle turned that much worse for Martin and Parley.
Before Kobe or Kaden could cut off their retreat, Martin led Parley out of the room and into more darkness. Al and the twins gave chase. No sooner had they left the room, than three more shadows flew past Sammy and Li, following Al’s group.
“That bunch didn’t look friendly,” Sammy whispered to Li.
“No, they didn’t.” Li informed Gregor of what just happened.
“Follow them,” Gregor said.
Li and Sammy sprinted past Jeffie, through a doorway, and into another larger room beyond. From inside they could see Al and the Reynolds twins surrounded by Marie’s team on another staircase.
The labyrinth began to shift. The staircase was disappearing, a wall cutting them off from their teammates. They ran as fast as they could, but could not make it in time. Sammy yelled and banged his fist on the wall.
“We got cut off,” Sammy reported.
Gregor swore. “Just a second.”
While they waited for orders, Sammy and Li searched for an escape route from the room. The lighting in the Arena grew brighter again, helping them.
Gregor’s voice came back. “They’re all right so far. They took out Parley before they were ambushed.”
“What do we do now?” Li asked.
“Keep scouting.”
Great, Sammy thought darkly. Not much good that has done.
After extensive searching, Li found a small hole in the corner of the floor just big enough for a body to pass through. With the increasing light, Sammy and Li saw the ground below about two stories down.
“Can you do drop blasts?” Li asked.
“Yeah,” Sammy responded. “I think so.”
“Can you or can’t you?”
“Uh . . . I can.”
Li gave Sammy one last skeptical look and said, “Follow me.” Then he jumped through the hole onto nothing but air.
Taking a deep breath, Sammy imitated him. The exhilaration of the drop almost made him forget the steps to a good landing. Fire strong blasts followed by weaker ones to cushion the landing. He slowed his descent and landed neatly next to Li, just like in training.
“Very nice.” Li actually seemed impressed.
As they scouted again, they found some success. Judging by the updates they received from Gregor over the next thirty minutes, they had lost half their team, including the Reynolds brothers. That left only Al, Cala, Gregor, Li, and Sammy. Cala and Al had already managed to find each other, and, thanks to Sammy and Li, were hot on the trail of Marie’s team. Gregor estimated she had between four and six players remaining.
None of this made Sammy feel any better. How am I supposed to learn if I never get a chance to battle until I’m surrounded by Marie’s best fighters? He silently complained. All I’ve done in this labyrinth is find people for Al to fight. Even Brickert had gone down fighting Ludwig, a much older boy.
But who found Ludwig? Li and I tracked him down twenty minutes ago. Maybe Li didn’t mind scouting, but Sammy needed a fair chance to show Gregor and the others that he could fight. He wanted to prove himself. Otherwise, he’d be stuck pulling the same boring assignments every Saturday.
Li led Sammy through a maze of rooms, halls, and stairs. Eventually, they came to a large corridor that looked exactly like the one they’d scouted at the beginning of the match. No, it is the same corridor. It’s repeating the cycle. An idea clicked inside his mind. A risky idea.
The time was getting close for the next change in cycle. He made up his mind. It was worth the risk. While Li was checking behind them for enemies, Sammy took off at a sprint for the middle of the corridor. He heard Li calling for him, but didn’t stop.
“I see someone!” he yelled over his shoulder.
The wall—the same wall he had seen before—rose up in the middle of the corridor, and he blast jumped over it, not giving Li enough time to follow.
He safely landed and turned to see nothing but solid metal.
“Sammy, what are you doing?” Gregor demanded. “Why did you leave Li?”
“I—I thought I saw someone on the other side of the corridor,” he lied.
“You’re supposed to stay together. You need to hook back up with him immediately. Got it?”
“Yeah. Got it.” But Sammy had no intention of following orders.
You’ll understand that I did the right thing, Gregor, after we win.
He climbed some stairs and entered a room at a jog. His stomach gave a lurch as his feet went out from under him. He landed hard on his chest and slid down a long slope into a very large bowl.
“Sammy, what are you waiting for?” Gregor asked.
“I’m kinda stuck.”
On reaching the bottom, he scrambled to his feet and tried to climb back out of the bowl. But, like the half-pipe, he found it too slick, and had to blast out. It took him some time because the bowl was so wide, but he finally managed his way out.
After almost fifteen minutes of good light, the Arena grew dark. As it became more and more difficult to make his way through the passages, he wished he had Li to keep an eye out behind for attacks.
“They got Li,” Gregor announced. “There’s a group of three out to track us all down. Get to Al. He’s near a half-pipe near the dead center of the Arena. If you can make it there, he’ll find you.”
“Okay,” Sammy said, cursing under his breath.
My fault. I stranded Li. If I’d s
tayed with him, I could have helped. And I’d have had a chance to get some people.
He hoped his selfishness hadn’t ruined his team’s chances. He pointed himself in the right direction of the half-pipe, and ran toward it. Just as the half-pipe came into view, he heard Gregor calling out over his com, “Help! I’m surrounded!”
“Where are you?” Sammy shouted back in panic.
No answer.
“Sammy? Where are you?” Al, the de facto honcho, asked through the com.
“I’m right next to the half-pipe. Gregor said you were there.”
“I’m here with Cala, but there’s too much of a risk that you’ll be ambushed if you run out in the open. We think Marie’s been tracking us, so she may spot you. The Arena is about to change again, just sit tight and wait for it.”
“Okay.” He ducked down to the floor and counted. When he reached forty, everything changed. Four walls went up around Sammy.
“Cala and I just found cover in a small room off a big corridor. The room’s partially bisected by a wall, so you’ll have to climb over it to even see us.” Then Al gave him a good description of what the corridor looked like. “Can you find us here?”
“I’ll find you.”
Fresh guilt surged through him. He pushed it aside. He did not want to—could not think he had caused his team to lose the fifth match. He ran in and out of rooms, trying to find his team so he could fix his mistake.
It was almost pitch black again. He came to an area matching Al’s description. Investigating inside one of the rooms he saw a wall that rose about a meter off the ground, easily enough space for Al and Cala to be hiding behind.
“Al?” he whispered. “Are you in here?”
“Sammy, I don’t think you’re in the right room,” Al said over his com.
Sammy figured if the rooms were that identical, he must be close. He made to leave the room when he heard something outside. He jumped over the wall and hid.
“Al, I think they’re near me,” he breathed into his com.
“You’re sure he went in here?” Sammy heard Marie whisper.
“Yeah,” Miguel answered.
“They’re definitely here,” Sammy hissed.
There were at least two enemies in the room. Sammy knew he could eliminate one of them with the right element of surprise. Laying on his stomach, he flattened his hands against the floor, flipped his legs into the air, and while standing on his hands, blasted blindly with his feet.
Someone hit the ground. Were they ducking or falling? Using one arm, he hovered just high enough to see over the wall, and held the other arm out in front of his head using a blast shield.
Two more people had entered the room. Sammy recognized all of them: Marie, Levu, Ludwig, and Miguel. Two boys and two girls, all at least two years older than Sammy. All ready to jump the wall and surround him. He blast-jumped into the air trying to rain down blasts with his palms on the two closest enemies, Marie and Ludwig, but missed. He launched himself again.
After a series of jumps and attacks, he had still managed to hold off Ludwig and Marie, but was unable to get a head shot. Miguel and Levu stood guard in the doorway of the room, blocking off his escape.
“Where are you, Al?” he cried.
“I don’t think we’re as close as we thought,” Al said. “Just hold on!”
In a move of desperation, Sammy curled up his body, resting knees and hands on the floor, feet against the back wall. He shot his body upward with hand blasts, and extended his legs, pushing off the wall. Then he shot a blast off the wall with his feet for maximum velocity. He shot toward the exit like a bullet, firing blasts at Miguel with one arm, protecting his head with the other. Miguel went down, and Sammy fired both palms at Ludwig and Marie.
“Woohoo!” Sammy yelled in uncontainable excitement.
Ludwig went down next, but Marie seized a chance to take careful aim at his poorly protected head.
Direct hit.
The fibers in Sammy’s jumpsuit stiffened, forbidding any more movement. His com turned off, his helmet expanded over his eyes, and everything went black.
9. Dantès
The misery Sammy endured at the loss of his first Game was compounded by Gregor’s sullen mood for the next several days. With Gregor’s low confidence, Sammy should have been determined to carry out his honcho’s orders implicitly. He wanted to confess his fault for abandoning Li, but he was too embarrassed. And since Gregor showed no hints of anger, Sammy said nothing. The only person suspecting anything was Al.
Sammy didn’t know how Al knew, but he knew. He never mentioned it, but his attitude toward Sammy was noticeably icy for the next few days. Sammy wondered why no one got in his face and yelled at him. That’s how he’d done things with his old friends, and it worked fine. His respect for Al made him resolve never to be the cause of his honcho losing again.
Jeffie, on the other hand, was thrilled Sammy had lost. She told Natalia and Kawai she thought it was good for him—something about building character, as Sammy heard it from Natalia. Jeffie never said anything directly to Sammy, but hinted around it regularly. For the next three weeks, she took advantage of every opportunity to remind Sammy her team had beaten his in their first Game. Brickert and Sammy got very good at rolling their eyes and holding their tongues. By the Sunday of his fourth week at headquarters, Sammy was pretty much over his crush on Jeffie.
Because it was still too cold on Capitol Island in March to do much outside (“except make spit icicles on your tongue,” Brickert liked to say), most Sundays they spent inside relaxing. The Betas rarely did anything as a large group except gaming, but Al and Kobe decided to organize a slam dunk contest (“now that all the pukes aren’t so pukey anymore,” as Kobe put it). Sammy pointed out that if they weren’t pukes, then he should drop the title, but Kobe pretended not to hear.
Al and Kobe made everyone play whether they liked basketball or not. Kaden arranged the competition into a tournament of sorts. Each round half of the Betas were knocked out of the competition by receiving the lowest votes from their peers. Sammy wasn’t much of basketball player, his experience was limited to a recreation team in grade five. It was part of his parents’ theory that he should try every sport at least once. American football was his favorite.
Sammy made it past the first round using a big blast to give himself plenty of time to do a 360° turn before dunking the ball, but his ball handling skills weren’t good enough for him to stay in the mix for any longer.
“What a waste of size,” Jeffie teased as she gave him his lowest score: 5 of 10.
Sammy went out in the second round, but he was content to watch the others. The five Betas who stood out the most were Kobe, Levu, Kaden, Li, and Jeffie.
The competition heated up as these five took the court. Of course, Sammy knew Jeffie had played basketball at the Junior Olympic level, but he had no idea she was that good, after all, she was still a girl. Everyone used blasts to get high enough to dunk, but she controlled the ball as well as anyone Sammy had seen. She had a graceful poise that even Kobe lacked with all his finesse. So it wasn’t a surprise when the championship round was between Jeffie and Kobe.
Kobe went first, dribbling the ball from the half court line to the tip of the three-point arc, then launching himself into the air with a blast. His movement was fluid, his body frozen in an angular pose. At the peak of his jump, he performed an aerial somersault, pulled the ball high over his head, and jammed the ball home.
Despite being genuinely impressed, Sammy barely clapped.
Jeffie had that gleam in her eye that Sammy had seen before. She needed to win. Dribbling a few times, she sprinted down court up to the free-throw line and blasted hard—much stronger than Kobe—until even her feet rose above the rim. Oh wow, she’s going through the hoop. It was the perfect choice because her frame was just slender enough to fit through. Kobe, with his more athletic build, could never hope to duplicate it.
Her legs went through cleanly, but she had t
oo much forward momentum for the rest of her body to get through so easily. She must have realized this because she tried to grab the rim to stop herself.
Use your landing blasts! Sammy shouted at her mentally.
The panicked expression on Jeffie’s face told him enough. He threw down his score sheet and tried to cover the distance from the sideline to the hoop before she hit the ground. Jeffie’s sweaty hand missed the rim and threw off her balance even more. Several people gasped as she toppled onto the floor with a gut-twisting CRACK!
Sammy just missed her by a second.
Jeffie moaned in pain, squirming on the floor, trying to grab her ankle. The blood in her face was draining fast.
“Are you okay?” Sammy asked as several other Betas ran to help her. Kobe was among the first.
“I’m fine,” she groaned, “just give me a second to get up.”
“No,” Sammy insisted, “Let me help you. You don’t look so good.”
“I’m fine!” she repeated louder, but as soon as she was upright, hobbling on one foot, her face went glue-white, and she fell again. This time Sammy caught her.
He picked her off the ground in his arms, and turned to Brickert. “Can you call Byron? I’m taking her to the cafeteria.”
“You got her okay?” Kobe asked with genuine concern.
Sammy hoisted her up to improve his grip and pushed through the crowd until they parted for him. “Yeah, thanks.”
Inside the cafeteria, Sammy lay Jeffie down on a table and made sure she was still breathing. After a few seconds, she recovered from her faint but was still quite pale. Just before she vomited, Sammy grabbed a garbage bucket and held it for her while she emptied her stomach.
“Feel better?” he asked when she finished.
“No,” she mumbled. Sammy could see in her face that she was determined not to cry in front of him. “Dang it. I hope it’s just broken.”
Sammy put the bucket of barf down and wiped his nose to try to change the smell in his nostrils. “Why would you hope it’s broken?”
“Breaks can be fixed in a week; sprains take like a month.”
Psion Beta (Psion series #1) Page 12
