The Victoria Stone

by Bob Finley

  "What happens if we blow a fuse?", he asked.

  "There's an on-board, triple-redundancy back-up system," Jambou answered.

  "Oh."

  "Any questions?" Jambou asked amicably.

  "How do I know it isn't a fake?"

  "You want a demonstration?"

  Justin looked at him like he was crazy. Which, of course, in a way, he was.

  "No, I think I'll pass on that. Thanks."

  "Seen enough?"

  "Yeah. No. I think maybe I do have a question."

  "Yes?"

  "Would you really...seriously...explode this thing?"

  Jambou smiled. "Do you like ham and eggs, Captain?"

  Justin was thrown. "What?" he asked feebly.

  "Ham and eggs. Do you like them?"

  "Yeah...I guess so. Why?" He hated trick questions.

  "Because ham and eggs demonstrate clearly the difference between being ‘involved’ and being ‘committed’, Captain. In contributing to your breakfast, the chicken is involved. But, the pig, Captain...ah, the pig...he's committed." Jambou leaned ever so slightly toward Marcus Justin. In a hushed voice he said, "Like the pig, Captain, I, too, am not just involved. I am committed."

  "Boy, you sure need to be," Justin thought, watching the other man closely.

  "That's the extent of the tour, Captain," Jambou said as he locked the gate back. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd very much like to take a closer look at our ship."

  Justin shot him a hard look at the use of the word ‘our’ where his ship was concerned. Jambou neatly fielded it with a throaty laugh and led the way back to the cavern where the VIKING lay quayside. Justin didn't like the way this was turning out. He hadn't felt this helpless in a long, long time. And he didn't like it. He didn't like it at all.

  Chapter 41

  Kim was worried. After his confrontation with Banner first thing this morning and Banner's cold-blooded murder of one of his own men, there was no doubt in his mind at all that they were next. Once they were no longer needed as hostages, they'd become liabilities in a hurry. Himself, especially. It was obvious Banner didn't like him and he was sure that his "accidental" death wouldn't grieve Jambou unnecessarily. Since he'd been caught breaking the rules already, his elimination would probably top the list.

  Doctor Layton hadn't seen Frank or Janese all morning and Cy had slept in. "Must be nice," he thought, rubbing his burning eyes. He'd asked one of the mercenaries in the mess hall whether he'd seen either of them, but the man pointedly got up and left the room. Banner had made Kim a pariah when he blamed him for the execution and, in self-defense, people went out of their way to avoid him. Finally, he'd begun a walking inventory of the places they could be and was now deep into a part of the mountain he hadn't been in before.

  He heard a noise! Metal on metal. And muffled voices, then rapid footsteps coming his way. He looked around and remembered a crevasse he'd just passed. He jogged back to it and eased into its dark recess as far as his small frame would go. Whispers. But he couldn't make out what was being said. But...here they came. He squeezed a little farther into the crack. They passed him without looking and he caught a glimpse.

  "Janese......Janese!"

  She whirled around, wide-eyed, with fear in her eyes. Then she realized it was Kim emerging from the shadows.

  "What are you doing here? You scared me to death!"

  "Yeah," Kim agreed, "the two of you about gave me a heart attack, too. I didn't know how I was going to explain being here, much less hiding in there. Where have ya'll been?" He gave them both a look and stepped back for a better look. "Where have you been?" he said again. "You look like you've been wallowing in a pig pen! Both of you!"

  "Thanks a lot," Janese said ruefully, futilely trying to smooth her hair back and tugging her sweat-stained blouse disdainfully away from her skin. "You really know how to make somebody feel good."

  Kim shook his head. "Sorry, I didn't..."

  "Never mind," Frank interrupted. "We don't have much time."

  "You can say that again," Kim agreed.

  "No, I mean we've got to get back and tell this Jambou fella he's got to evacuate this place. It's gonna blow!" Frank was very intense.

  "What are you talking about?" Kim interjected, alarmed.

  "This mountain! We're sittin' on a volcano that's just about to go active!"

  "What?! Are you sure?! How soon?"

  "I don't know. But it won't be long!"

  "How long, Frank? Can't you be a little more specific?" Kim pressed the agitated man.

  "I don't know."

  "You said that. Take a wild guess."

  "It isn't that easy! Nobody can really tell for sure..."

  "C'mon, Frank...what do you think? We won't hold it against you if you're wrong."

  Frank Sheppard looked around the empty cavern for answers that weren't there. He shook his head. "Two days. Two weeks. Maybe." Kim watched him for a long moment, then looked at Janese.

  "We went ‘way down deep in the tunnels," she explained. "‘Way down. We found evidence..." she looked at Frank, "...of a high level of volcanic activity building up. Fast. And close! And then we got locked in. But we found another way out. Frank couldn't climb the ladder, so I..."

  "That'll have to wait," Kim said urgently. "We have a more immediate problem."

  "What?" they chorused together.

  "How long were the two of you gone?"

  They looked at each other. "Since about seven-thirty. Just after breakfast," Frank offered.

  Kim looked at his watch. "It's after eleven, now." He hesitated. "After you left, Banner found out Cy and I were in the VIKING last night. He apparently saw some security videotapes. He called a meeting and killed a guard." Their faces registered shock.

  "Killed a guard?!" Janese exclaimed in disbelief.

  "Well, actually, he had Leo do it. Ripped his I. D. badge off and walked away, cold as ice. Leo electrocuted him. Threw his body into the lagoon as an example to the rest of his men."

  "That's terrible!" Janese objected.

  "That isn't all," Kim added. "He blamed me for the guard's death. Because I got past him while he was on duty." They just looked at him. There wasn't much to say. Kim cleared his throat. "I think I'm next," he said.

  "What do you mean, ‘next’?" Frank demanded.

  "I think as soon as the broadcast is over, they won't need us anymore. And I think I'll be first."

  "They wouldn't do that! Why do you think they would?" Janese was indignant.

  Kim smiled gently at her naiveté. "Because," he explained, "Marc is why we're here. So he can lend credibility to the nut case's claims. The rest of us are just baggage. When Marc is finished, so are we. And I've already made an enemy of Banner, who's already killed twice. So...I'm next. Then Frank, Cy, and Marc."

  "What about me?" Janese asked in a small, timid voice. Kim didn't answer her. Her eyes widened.

  "Oh," she said.

  "What are we going to do?" Frank asked no one in particular.

  "We're going on the offensive," Kim answered.

  "I don't understand," Janese said, puzzled.

  Kim lowered his voice. "While everyone was asleep last night, Cy and I went aboard the VIKING. We built a gadget."

  "What kind of ‘gadget’?" Frank asked.

  "One that, we hope, will castrate...sorry...," he glanced at Janese, "...Leo. Or at least slow him down."

  "How?" Frank persisted.

  "By inserting a data path loop that reroutes Leo's execution of command responses through an FM frequency that goes to Yoko aboard the VIKING. She bounces it around through her circuitry for a few seconds and then hands it back over to Leo. But an early warning signal on the hand-held unit gives me the chance to jump aside and avoid the incoming electrical charge. The trick is to stay one jump ahead of Leo and keep from getting fried."

  "I don't think I understood a word you said," Janese Cramerton admitted, "but if it saves lives, I'm for it."

  "There is one catch,
" Kim said slowly.

  "What?" Frank wanted to know.

  "The gadget's in two parts. One is hand-held. The other has to be...installed."

  "What, exactly, does that mean, ‘installed’?"

  "Well," Kim said reluctantly, "it means we've got to find a way to tap into Leo's main cable."

  "Is that a problem?"

  "Yes and no. The actual placement is simple. You just squeeze and clamp it over the wiring harness. The difficulty is where that wiring harness is."

  They looked at him. "Yeah?" Frank finally asked. "Where is it?"

  Kim sighed. "Seventy or eighty feet up the cavern wall, at the ceiling, near where the catwalk meets the tunnel that goes to the computer room."

  "Out in the open? I mean, exposed?" Janese asked.

  Kim nodded resignedly. "Yep. And I'm afraid if I ask to borrow a hundred-foot ladder, somebody might get suspicious."

  "Is that the only place it can go?" Frank wondered.

  "It's the only place we know of," Kim replied.

  "How do we get to the catwalk? Without anybody seeing us?" Frank complained. "And then, how do we get from the catwalk over to the wall? It must be, what...twenty feet away? And eighty feet down is a long way to fall. And, if that weren't bad enough, if anybody on the floor just happened to look up, there's no way they could miss seeing you. It's impossible. It would be a suicide mission."

  "Yeah, I know," Kim agreed. "And I wish I had the answers. But I don't."

  "I do," Janese Cramerton said. "Both of them."

  They looked at her. "Both of what?" Kim asked.

  "Both answers: how to get to the catwalk and how to get to the wall."

  "You do?" he managed a smile.

  "Yes," she shook her head. "Me."

  Now Kim shook his head. "You, what?"

  She smiled in return. "I'm your answer."

  "You?! " they said as one.

  She rolled her eyes. "Yes, me. I have other hobbies than jumping out of airplanes."

  "Such as?"

  "Such as rock climbing."

  "You rock climb?" Kim was incredulous.

  "Class 5, free-solo."

  "What does that mean," Frank asked.

  "If you have to ask, you don't want to know," she answered sweetly. "When do we do this?"

  "The sooner the better. Marc goes on the air at two. After that, it's anybody's guess."

  "We'll need a diversion," Frank observed. "To keep anybody from looking up."

  "I heard a guard say at breakfast this morning that the broadcast will be on closed circuit on the monitor in the dining hall," Janese offered.

  "Think everybody'll be there?" Kim asked.

  "It's why they're here," Janese said. "I think everybody who can be there will be."

  "You want to do it then?" Kim was concerned.

  "It's as good a time as any. Can you stand guard for me?"

  He looked at her. The thought of trying to climb that wall scared him. "You sure you're okay with this? That's a long, hard climb."

  "I won't have to climb the whole wall. I can get to the catwalk without it."

  "How can you do that?" he challenged.

  "I was going to tell you before, but you stopped me. When I climbed the access shaft down in the lower tunnel so I could unlock the door and get Frank out, I found out that the shaft opens onto another level. I came out in a tool locker in what looked like some kind of machine shop. Anyway, it's on the same level as the computer room and the catwalk. So, all I have to do is go back down the lower tunnels where Frank and I were, climb up the shaft, and get to the catwalk from the machine shop. Then it's just a matter of climbing over to the wall and hooking up your gadget. Piece of cake."

  "Uh huh."

  "What then?" Frank interrupted.

  "Then I'll just have to keep the remote where I can get to it all the time," Kim said.

  "Are you sure this thing will work?" Janese sounded worried.

  Kim shrugged. "No. But I think it will. And, of course, Cy helped me build it, and he thinks so, too."

  "But you haven't tested it."

  "Nope. Can't test it without somebody knowing about it. And when that happens, it'll all be over, anyway."

  "What do you mean, ‘over’?" said Frank.

  "I can't test it until Leo actually tries to kill me, or they'll know about it. When he tries and fails, they'll know they have a problem. And they'll come after me with everything they've got."

  "But, we don't have any weapons."

  "True."

  "Then, how do we protect ourselves?" Frank demanded.

  Kim looked at him. "I don't know, Frank. At this point, I'm taking it one thing at a time. Something'll come along."

  "Couple of hours until air time," Janese Cramerton wrinkled her nose and deflected the conversation, "I've got to get a bath and change clothes. I'll see you in a little while." Kim nodded and she walked swiftly away down the tunnel.

  "You'd better do the same, Frank," Kim suggested. "Before somebody starts wondering where you got so dirty."

  Frank started to turn away and then had a thought. "What are you going to do?" he asked. "Hide?"

  Kim was touched by the older man's concern. "No, I think they're at least smart enough to leave me alone until after the broadcast. I doubt if Marc would be very cooperative if they tried to...harm me before he went on the air. It's in their best interests to wait."

  Frank looked at him in somber silence for a long moment. "You really think they'll do it?" he finally asked.

  Kim smiled gently. "Don't you?" he murmured. He waited as Frank searched Kim's face for...what?

  "Be careful, son."

  Kim nodded. Frank gave him one more careful once-over and hurried furtively away toward the crews' quarters.

  Chapter 42

  Marcus Justin, having just left the penthouse, was crossing the vast cavern when he saw Kim Matsumoto coming toward him. He was wearing his ‘inscrutable’ face, so Marc knew something was wrong.

  "I was just looking for you," Kim said, his eyes wandering around the cave. "Where you headin'?"

  "Well, Zeus up there has decreed that I should go to lunch early so I'll be on time for the broadcast. Sort of a ‘Last Supper’, I suppose."

  Kim looked at him hard. "Not funny," he said.

  "Oh? Why not?" Marc smiled lightly.

  Kim looked more closely at him this time, frowning and searching his eyes.

  "You don't know, do you?"

  It was Marc's turn to be concerned. His assistant was obviously upset. And very nervous, now that he reconsidered.

  "What is it?" He wondered whether he really wanted to know.

  "Jambou's killed another one."

  Justin's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open.

  "What? When? Who was it?!"

  "'Bout an hour ago. One of the guards. Actually, Jambou didn't do it. Banner did." Kim looked away. He shifted from one foot to the other.

  "What else?" Marc realized there was more.

  "The one they...Ferrell, I think his name was...he was one of the guards on duty last night when Cy and I went aboard the VIKING. I mean, actually, he was in the mess hall when..." Marc watched the young man struggle and waited. "Well. Anyway. Apparently he fell asleep on the job later, after we'd gone aboard. Banner said he had him on videotape. So, not only did he not see us, he..." Kim turned back and looked Marc squarely in the eye. "Banner decided to make an example of him. He beat him up, in front of all the other guards, and then ripped his I. D. badge off of him, so Leo would...he didn't stand a chance. Not a chance! As soon as he moved, there was a huge flash of light, and a bang, like a transformer had blown, and he..." Kim looked around again, his eyes darting, and took a shuddering breath. "Banner blamed the whole thing on me. I can't even get near a guard anymore. They avoid me like I was wearing a black robe and carrying a sickle."

  "They'll get over it. They probably know Banner well enough to know it wasn't your fault. He's done it before, remember?"

&
nbsp; Marc locked eyes with his boss. "That isn't it."

  Justin was puzzled. "What do you mean?"

  Marc took another deep breath. "They know I'm next, and they don't want to be too close when it happens."

  "You mean...?"

  Kim nodded. "When Banner, or Jambou, turns Leo loose on me."

  Justin frowned and shook his head. "I don't think that's..." The look on Kim's face stopped him. They looked at each other. Then Marc looked around the cave, took his assistant by the arm, and guided him away from the penthouse elevator and toward the stairs across the way. As they passed near the guard on duty near the VIKING's berth, neither could help notice the hostility with which he regarded them both.

  "I see what you mean," Marc muttered.

  When they got to the foot of the stairs they stopped and stood with their shoulders almost touching, each facing a different direction so no one could approach them unseen.

  "Wha'ja come up with last night? Anything?" Marc asked in a voice that only carried a few feet.

  "Maybe. Cy's got a lot of smarts. You ought to hire him when we get out of this. If..." The look his boss gave him shut him up. "We've got a two-part mechanism. One's hand-held, like a T.V. remote, but smaller. Easy to hide. The other's a test meter modified into a field transceiver. We clamp it over Leo's feeder co-ax. We think that if we interrupt Leo's input it'll trip his security alarms. But, if instead of interrupting the input, we reroute it to Yoko and she kicks it around for a few seconds before she gives it back to Leo, Leo won't know the difference. But it'll give us enough time to get out of the way of a killer blast.

  "And that'll work?"

  Kim shrugged. "It's all we've got."

  Marc took a slow breath and let it out. "Um," he said.

  Kim leaned closer. "I've also got Yoko working on something else, but I don't know if anything will come of it. I'll let you know."

  "Well, if he's going to do anything, I don't think he'd do it until after the broadcast. Do you?"

  "No," Kim agreed. "But he isn't the only one we've got to watch out for. Banner's one dangerous man. And cold. Just before he killed the guard he told me he was going to...how did he say it?...to ‘improve the quality of his security procedures’. Can you believe it? You don't get any more hard core than that!"