City Of Phase

by George Willson

  “This is the answer,” Blake assured them. “This is why it has to be us. We can get close enough through the sewers, and then make it the rest of the way outside where no one from this planet can.”

  “Why wouldn’t someone else have noticed this before?” Perry asked. Blake looked to Hector, assuming he might have an answer to this.

  “Most people are afraid of the town,” Hector explained. “And no one would be willing to test the idea that the sewers would protect you from the phasing effect. Besides, being underground is one thing. Even if you worked your way to right under the generator, you’d have to exit into the field.”

  “It isn’t guarded, is it?” Perry asked.

  “No one could,” Hector scoffed, but Blake knew that Perry was not talking about people.

  “There is security surrounding the panel,” Velata said approaching the table with another box. Blake moved the first box to the floor to allow Velata to set the new box in its place while leaving the other papers on the table.

  “I cannot say whether the security was implemented,” Velata said as he rifled through the box’s contents, “but I can tell you it was planned.”

  “So presuming I’m right about the underground protection,” Blake said, “and presuming our personal protection holds out long enough for us to get to the panel, what are we up against?”

  “The usual sorts of things to begin with,” Velata explained. “Locked doors, mostly. Those were there the last time I was there. There could be an access panel to lock out the lever to shut the system down that requires a code to deactivate it.”

  “And the code is?” Blake asked.

  “Well, it’s supposed to be locked into the same code used throughout the rest of the facility for each individual,” Velata said. “Mine was 2663.”

  “And the code unlocks?” Blake asked.

  “Every door in the place, really,” Velata replied pulling a file from the box and looking through its contents. “The intent with the code was to allow the scientists access at any time of day, so that code should get you from the outer door all the way to the panel and allow you to shut it down.” Velata found the map and unfolded it on the table.

  “That’s useful,” Blake said and then looked down at the maze that Velata had unfolded before them on the table that showed the extensive underground of Carburast. The tunnel map was overlaid by a light grid with labels that were probably street names to help tie together the underground with its overland intersections.

  “Here is your sewer map,” Velata said. “The building containing the phase shield is here.” He pointed to an intersection in the center of the map next to a circle. “You can exit the sewer right next to it. Once you get inside the building, it’ll take both of you to reach the room with the panel.”

  “What do you mean it’ll take both of us?” Blake asked knowing there was a chance either of them could phase before they reached the end. “I thought you said the code would take us all the way in.” Velata stared at Blake dumbfounded for a moment before the answer seemed to dawn on him.

  “Oh yes,” Velata said slowly as if the realization would dampen their plans. “There is one point where a guard was always present, and he had to insert a key before I could enter my code to get into the lab. I don’t know if the key was kept next to that station, or if the guards kept it on them. That might be a problem.”

  “If it’s a regular key, then no problem,” Blake said and Velata affirmed it. “I have something to help me past those.”

  “One of you has to enter the code followed almost immediately by the other turning the key,” Velata clarified.

  “As long as we both make it that far, we should be able to handle that,” Blake said.

  “Then we should go to the point where you had previously exited the city with Gerard and Dorin, which is over here,” Velata said indicating a point on the northern area of the map where the system ended. “Can you memorize the route you need to take from there?”

  “Yes,” Blake said, studying the map. “We should be ready to go in a couple of minutes.”

  Blake studied the lines of the maze before him to memorize the directions required to reach their destination near the center. Initially overwhelming, he found that he could follow a handful of fairly straight lines and predictable turns to reach the central building, so once he no longer had the map, he could reach it quickly just in case his theory about the underground protection turned out to be less than he hoped.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  As soon as Blake felt like he knew the map well enough, they decided to return to Carburast and hope that Halloway was not waiting for them or anticipated their plan. They emerged from the utility room into the subway and surveyed their surroundings for any kind of threat. The only people they could see were paying more attention to the subway schedule than the small group emerging from what everyone would only know to be a maintenance hallway. They looked more conspicuous checking for threats than they would have had they simply walked out.

  They walked across the subway platform to the stairwell that led back up to the surface, all the while carefully watching the throng of people to see if any of them appeared suspicious or at least, looked like they were trying not to be suspicious, but no one really seemed out of place. A subway train squealed to a halt at the platform beside them, and their group joined the mob of people who had exited the cars to head up the stairs to the surface.

  Outside, the rain had stopped, and the streets were more populated under the overcast sky with people coming and going. Another survey of their surroundings still showed no one paying any attention to them more than anyone else who had just come out of the bowels of the city. They had decided to return to the vehicle they had used to get here to see if it might still be available for their use, regardless of how war torn it looked.

  “Does it take long for them to come running when you disappear, doctor?” Blake asked Velata as they walked.

  “No,” Velata said, shaking his head. “They’ll be here somewhere.”

  “Let’s hope they don’t find us,” Perry commented as they crossed the street to the side where they had originally come out of the alley a block away from Velata’s apartment building. They walked down to the first street that led to that next block, so they could get a look at their vehicle from a short distance away.

  Slowly, they approached the intersection of the two roads to peek around the corner. Hector took the lead and planted his back against the wall of the building on the corner. Carefully, he peered around the edge of the wall toward his vehicle, but he quickly pulled his head back.

  “Someone is there,” Hector whispered.

  “One of Halloway’s men?” Perry asked, but Hector shrugged.

  “Couldn’t say really,” Hector told them. “He’s disguised, but I can just tell.”

  Blake traded Hector places at the corner to confirm for him, and it only took a second. Indeed, there was a man standing on the sidewalk next to their vehicle, and although he was dressed in worn trousers and a ratty overcoat, his face showed a vigor that could only point to guard placed there to wait for them. Whether he was Halloway’s or not was irrelevant. The military was here, and their vehicle was no longer available to them.

  “Now what?” Perry asked.

  “Doctor, I don’t suppose you have some other transport,” Blake asked in order to exhaust their other options before moving onto a less desirable one.

  “I’m sorry,” Velata apologized. “I don’t. Nothing ready to move anyway. I have an old one in storage, but it’ll need a charge before it’ll move. I imagine you’ll want one sooner than that.”

  “We’ll have to steal one,” Hector proposed with such an excitement in his voice that Blake had to wonder if his original one might not be stolen as well. Seemed par for the course.

  “We should find another way first,” Blake said, unwilling to deprive anyone in this part of town of their transportation. In some cities on Earth, that would be the e
quivalent of taking someone’s life away. The facts before them showed that someone was guarding their former vehicle, but that meant he had to have arrived here somehow. Either he was dropped off, or he had his own vehicle. Since they were up against the military, taking one of their vehicles was acceptable.

  “Doctor Velata,” Blake said pointing back around the corner, “was that man one of those who came to your door earlier?” Velata inched to the edge of the wall and studied the man’s face for a moment.

  “I don’t think so,” Velata said. “He doesn’t look like a street man, but he also is neither of the pair who came by earlier.”

  “Do you know what sort of vehicle we should be looking for?” Blake asked.

  “Four door sedan, I would imagine,” Velata said. “When they aren’t moving troops, they tend to drive that sort for its size.”

  “I have an idea,” Blake said. “We have four to one odds, but he’s probably armed. On the bright side, I doubt he will expect much.”

  The plan was simple enough. The person would most likely recognize Velata and maybe Hector. Blake and Perry would not be known by face, though he may be aware of their general appearance. He figured that if he sent Velata out first to walk down the street without paying the soldier any mind, the soldier might take to following him. He might also call in reinforcements, but hopefully, they would be too far away to help. The goal, of course, was to figure out where the soldier had parked and take his vehicle.

  He sent Perry to the same side of the street as the soldier to monitor the situation from there. He crossed very casually, and while the soldier looked at him, Perry clearly did not pique his interest. He sent Hector around to the original alley they had walked down, and based on how long it took him to reach the street, he gave Hector more than enough time to get back to the alley on their side of the street just down from them and across from the vehicle where he would keep his back to the wall and wait for Velata to pass, hopefully trailed by the soldier. With all his pieces in place, Blake sent Velata to the wolves and prayed.

  He watched surreptitiously as the soldier glanced at Velata, and then clearly recognized him. He checked up and down the street once before he limped across the street, keeping his head down. This was perfect.

  Blake signaled to Perry to move quickly along the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street while Blake started right behind the soldier as soon as he reached the sidewalk. No sooner had the soldier passed the alley than Hector stepped out and grabbed the soldier’s head. Blake saw what was going to happen, but before he could cry out, Hector slammed the soldier’s head into the side of the wall. The soldier slumped to the ground, unconscious. Blake and Perry caught up to him as he dragged the soldier’s body into the alley and proudly propped him in a sitting position like a proper wino. Blake was not so amused.

  “He had better be all right,” Blake scolded.

  “Just a minor concussion,” Hector boasted. “Nothing he won’t recover from.”

  “No such thing as a minor concussion,” Blake said, looking over the soldier. The wound on his head was bleeding a little, meaning the damage would be primarily internal. He was breathing, but he was unresponsive.

  “He would have done the same to us,” Hector argued.

  “I should be at least grateful you didn’t kill him,” Blake countered. “Besides, how are we supposed to ask him where he parked?”

  “It’s right there,” Hector said, pointing to a black, sedan-looking vehicle parked across the next street. “Couldn’t be more obvious.”

  “You’re certain of this?” Perry asked.

  Hector sighed and rifled through the soldier’s pockets until he found something that looked very much like a keyfob and pressed a button. The lights on the vehicle flashed in response. Again, Blake was surprised at the similarities between this planet of Keersh and Earth, though less with each passing revelation.

  “What about the keypad inside?” Velata asked Hector. “I doubt he kept it on a slip of paper.” Hector had no response to this. The vehicles they had seen so far on Keersh used a numerical keypad to lock out the ignition, so by knocking out the soldier, it appeared that they had also upset their clean getaway. Not that the soldier would have given this up anyway, but Blake never saw this as a problem. Blake took out his scanner and set it to take the soldier’s vitals. Everything appeared to be all right, and his breathing had quickened a little meaning he was coming around. That was good for him, but it also meant they needed to move.

  “Don’t worry about the keypad,” Blake assured them. “Let’s get out of here before he comes to or anyone comes to check on him.”

  The four of them walked quickly down the street and across the next intersection to the black sedan. Fortunately, no one was inside or guarding it, so Hector was able to unlock the doors and they all got inside. Hector took the driver’s seat again since, despite his injury, he was still the most qualified. Blake took shotgun while Perry and Velata climbed in the back. Once inside, Hector looked at Blake who took out his electronic lockpick, and flipped out a small extension on the side that resembled a metal plate.

  “What is that?” Hector asked.

  “Just one of my toys,” Blake said, not wishing to tell this rather violent individual too much about them. Such a toy could be dangerous in the hands of someone like Hector or his co-conspirators. He recalled Dorin also being very interested in the lockpick.

  Blake pressed the button on the side of the lockpick and held it briefly over the keypad which suddenly lit up to red. After a few seconds, the keypad changed from red to green. Blake closed the metal plate and put the lockpick back into his pocket as he said, “Press the start button.”

  Hector eyed Blake a bit distrustfully but pressed the button anyway. To his surprise, the vehicle roared to life. Hector’ jaw dropped.

  “How?”

  “We should probably go,” was all Blake responded nodding to the road before them. Hector understood that Blake would tell him nothing about this particular wonder, and so he decided not to ask any further about it. He pressed the forward button on the accelerator handle, angled it forward, and drove down the street to leave the city and return to the north side of Carburast to re-enter the sewers from where they had emerged what seemed like ages ago.

  * * * * * * *

  Halloway was not a fool. Another one of Gerard’s gang had blown a hole in his headquarters and taken the two troublemakers away, but given their trajectory down the main highway, it was clear they were going to the resistance’s old fallback, Doctor Velata. He was getting tired of this game.

  By this time, he had heard that Velata had been visited by the criminal, Hector, along with the other two he had taken from custody, but Velata had turned them out. However, when this information was followed by Velata’s disappearance, it was only too obvious that the old man was making one last ditch effort to use the impossible immunity those two claimed to possess to make a run on the city. He needed to know how and where, but while the information on Velata’s whereabouts was easy to acquire, anything about his mind was impossible.

  They had found the all but destroyed stolen vehicle Hector had used to spring them, and his people were not only watching it, but keeping their eyes peeled for any sign of any of them. He hated waiting.

  There was a knock at his door, and he called in one of his captains. The man walked in, saluted, and stood at attention.

  “At ease,” Halloway said. “Tell me.”

  “Sir, they have left Domus and are driving back to Carburast,” the captain reported. “We will be initiating protocol 22 shortly.”

  “Any word on their plan?” Halloway asked. “They certainly wouldn’t be coming in the front door.”

  “No sir,” the captain said. “Soldiers on site report they had seen them enter the subway at one point, but were unable to determine where they went from there. At some point, they circled back, incapacitated the guard on their vehicle, and stole his.”

  “Will the man be
all right?” Halloway asked.

  “Yes, sir,” the captain replied.

  “So other than their departure, we have no intelligence,” Halloway said angrily.

  “No sir,” the captain answered.

  “Aptly put captain.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “To prepare for the almost certain failure of protocol 22, we have to plan for their attempt to enter the city, so place detachments at key points preventing their approach to every possible entry point,” Halloway ordered. “I want coverage on gates, access tunnels, sewers. Based on how you’ve done so far, I don’t have high expectations. Am I understood?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Dismissed.”

  “Yes, sir,” the captain said, and with a turn on his heels, he was gone. Halloway turned over in his head everything that had been tried over the years, and he was certain Velata was aware of most of them. What was left? He knew it had to leverage the immunity of these newcomers, but even the one called Blake did not know how long they would last, and their third member had proven they were as susceptible as anyone else.

  All he could do now was wait.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Since they had left Domus, Hector had managed the drive without any problems despite his injury. Either it healed quickly, or he had chosen to ignore the wound altogether. Given how Hector had been so far, the latter explanation was the most likely. He said it felt much better once the bullet was removed.

  Velata revealed that he had brought the map of the tunnels with him, and while everyone was watching the sparse scenery go by, he stared at the paper. Blake wondered what was going through his head at this point to have volunteered to jump into this situation with them when he could have just as easily let them go. Some sense of responsibility, perhaps.