Arena

by Karen Hancock

  They headed next for the Holographic Transmission Station, or HTS, where residents donned virtual-reality helmets to contact participants in the Outer Realm.

  “Most commonly we speak to those who have gotten off the road,” Tucker explained as they exited the library, “trying to get them back on it.”

  This is what Meg must’ve done! “Can you send messages anywhere, then?” Callie asked. “You don’t need a receiver?”

  “No. But you have to find the person you’re sending to. Which isn’t easy.”

  “I have a friend—Meg. She might—”

  But Tucker was shaking his head. “I’m terrible with names, and there’s over fifty people here.”

  Before she could launch into Meg’s description, Wendell said, “The holographs we received at the temple told us Mander was the true Benefactor.”

  Tucker grimaced. “There’s a whole army of aliens who don’t want anyone to get through these gates. And we don’t have a corner on this equipment.”

  “But Mander brought people up here.”

  “Just ’cause you’ve gotten up the cliff doesn’t mean you’ve gone through one of the gates.” Tucker led them up a short bank of stairs. “In fact, you can’t even find one apart from going up that miraculous stairway in the cliff. And even then, once you’ve gone through, the Gate vanishes.”

  “Yes!” Callie said. “I saw that! But I thought it was just to keep me from standing there staring at it for the rest of my life.”

  Tuck smiled at her. “You might be right—who knows? Anyway, we just had a couple like that come through a few hours ago, Unchanged and still looking.” He stopped in a small courtyard at the top of the stair and turned back as the others drew around him. “I told them they’d have to go back down and come up through the cliff like the manual says, but they didn’t believe me.”

  “So it was all a fraud,” Wendell murmured, his round face pale, his gaze turned inward.

  Tucker nodded soberly.

  “Hey,” LaTeisha cried. “I’ll bet that couple was Brian and Jacki! Are they still here?”

  Tucker shook his head. “We offered ’em a place, but they were determined to find the Gate and moved on. At least they were honest about it. Some try to pretend they’ve already gone through, when it’s obvious they haven’t.”

  “You can tell they’re Unchanged just by looking?” Callie asked.

  Tucker nodded. “Changed folk like you all have a glow about them. It fades after a few days, of course, but at first it’s obvious.”

  He was right. Now that Callie looked for it, she saw it—her companions shone with the same iridescence she’d seen on her hands. Even Rowena had it, for all her bitter complaining.

  “Is there a way to get back down from here?” Wendell asked as they started walking again.

  “Sure. There’s a portal up at the HTS they can use. They never do, though. Least not that I’ve seen. Maybe some of them go down at one of the other complexes—there’s thirteen more, just like this one,” he added with a grin, heading off the inevitable question. “One for each gate. Maybe after they’ve gone to all of them and found nothing, maybe then they believe. More likely, though, they just head inward for the Exit. After all, they’re up here, aren’t they?”

  “But didn’t you say,” Callie asked, “that you can’t pass through the Exit unless you’ve been Changed?”

  “That’s right. And if you try it, you’re toast, so I’m told. But they never believe it, so you just have to let them go.”

  The HTS was shut down for the night, so they got no active demonstration of its capabilities. They did get to see the portal that would return one to the Outer Realm in order to pass through the Gate properly. It looked like a simple elevator car, though Tuck said it apparently only worked for the Unchanged.

  After touring the HTS they returned to the dorm and there met Morgan Dunway. Tall and broad shouldered, he had small, close-set brown eyes and a large nose. He smelled of aftershave, and his shoulder-length blond hair had been styled and sprayed into position. He was in excellent physical condition—a big man who exuded the same kind of charisma Garth had. Callie disliked him the moment she met him, and his way of sizing them all up and declaring their group to be another “strikeout” did nothing to change her impression.

  “Are you the Morgan who’s putting together the trip to the Inner Realm?” Rowena asked.

  He grinned. “Tuck’s told you about that, huh?”

  “Just that you’re thinking—” “Callie?”

  Callie’s head jerked up, her gaze darting across the gathering. Meg?

  Meg pushed around Morgan and fell upon Callie with a shriek.

  CHAPTER

  15

  “No wonder I couldn’t find you today,” Meg cried as she let Callie go. “I was searching that horrid canyon, and you were already back at the Gate. I am so glad to see you!” Before Callie could speak, Meg turned to the white-haired man shadowing her. “Look, Mr. C! She’s come through.”

  The man smiled warmly. “Welcome to Rimlight, Miss Hayes.”

  Callie took to Mr. C—for Chapman—as quickly as she had reacted to Morgan. He had a friendly face—not nearly as age lined as his white hair and beard would indicate—and laughing brown eyes. He was one of those people you instantly like because they seem to instantly like you.

  “Mr. C’s been helping me track you,” Meg offered, hooking a black curl behind her ear.

  “And Mr. Andrews, as well,” Mr. C added. He glanced around. “I don’t see him, though.”

  “Mr. Andrews?” Callie asked. “You mean Pierce?” She glanced around, too.

  “He’s gone up to his room,” John said.

  “He’s not much of a socializer,” Callie explained.

  “He’s a head case is what he is,” said Rowena.

  Callie frowned at her. “I wouldn’t call him a head case.”

  “What would you call him?”

  Awkward silence ensued. Then Meg plunged on. “So what happened, Cal? You were so far from the Gate when I saw you—”

  “Didn’t you know?” Rowena persisted, her tone acidic. “She’s an acrophobe. Couldn’t hack the heights and turned back.”

  Callie gaped at her. Meg frowned.

  “That was Garth’s story,” John said.

  “She hasn’t denied it,” Rowena countered. “Nor Whit, for that matter, and he was there.” She looked to the black man for confirmation, but he ignored her. Her gaze returned to Callie and she laughed. “It’s a good thing, though. If not for her, we’d all be dead. Right, honey?”

  Callie regarded her in bewilderment. Rowena was smiling now, as if her scorn had never been, and when Callie did not reply, she turned to Morgan. “So. About your plan—?”

  He grinned. “I’ve been studying the maps in the manual, and I’ve got some ideas.”

  “When do you intend to launch this expedition?” She was coming on to him strongly, and he couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off her. Perhaps with good reason—with the glow of change upon her, Rowena was more attractive than ever.

  “Haven’t decided yet,” he said.

  “Are newcomers invited?”

  “Certainly.”

  Rowena took his arm, and as they sat down on one of the side couches, Mr. Chapman started conversing with John and Whit, and Meg drew Callie away.

  “Is she always that catty?” Meg asked, settling on a blue sectional behind a screen of potted palms.

  “No. I have no idea what her problem is.” It seemed unlikely she was jealous over Garth, since he’d clearly rejected Callie. But what other reason could there be?

  “I s’pose you’re pretty mad at me, huh?” Meg asked, worrying a hangnail. Her hair was longer, and she wore the standard jumpsuit, but she was still Meg, and it was vaguely disorienting to find her here.

  “I was furious at first,” Callie admitted. “But now . . . well, you couldn’t have suspected the truth. And it’s not like you aren’t in this mess, too.” Sh
e shook her head wryly. “Though I must say you’ve done better than me.”

  “At least I’ve had an easier time. So far.” Meg’s hands twisted around her interlaced fingers, then fell apart as she heaved another sigh and let the subject go. “So why did you turn back? Was it my message?”

  “Partly. The transmission wasn’t very good—”

  “I was afraid of that. I’d forgotten to program the ground shielding. The Watcher was on it before I’d even stopped transmitting. Then it was too dark to start again, and the next morning I couldn’t find you. I found the others halfway up that canyon, but you weren’t with them anymore. I had a feeling you wouldn’t be. . . . I mean, I’d have a hard time climbing that trail. But I was afraid they’d murdered you, or you’d fallen off a cliff or something. How in the world did you hook up with those people, anyway?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  Meg hooked the recalcitrant lock of black hair behind her ear again and grinned. “We’ve certainly got the time, girl.”

  So Callie told her. She said nothing of her ill-considered attraction to Garth, but Meg was aghast all the same to learn how he had abandoned her. Thankfully she dismissed him with an unladylike word, then honed in on Pierce. “So. Is he cute?”

  “Good grief, Meg!” Callie collapsed back on the sectional with a laugh. “Is that all you think about?”

  “Is he?”

  “He’s a friend.”

  “You aren’t answering my question.”

  “This is silly! No, he’s not ‘cute.’ He’s just an ordinary guy with a brown scraggly beard.” And a gorgeous smile. And eyes the color of the sky.

  “But you’ve got feelings for him.”

  Callie grimaced. “He’s a friend, Meg. A plain, regular guy.” With a lot of problems. Change the subject. “So what about you? How long have you been here?”

  “About six weeks.”

  To Callie’s chagrin, Meg had done everything by the book. Deposited in a small side canyon similar to Callie’s grotto, she’d accessed a car by means of the Auxiliary Supply Box glowing in the glass wall beside the Drop-Off sign and ridden all the way to the Gate. From the safety and comfort of her vehicle, she’d observed a pride of rock dragons sunning themselves on the cliffs, eaten a tasty box lunch, watched the eerie flight of a group of harries silhouetted on the skyline in late afternoon, and reached Manderia by evening.

  “The whole temple thing was so obviously a trick. The TV screens, the robes—I just couldn’t buy it. So I backed up, and sure enough, the road forked.”

  “But how did you know what to do when you got to the cliff?”

  “Same way I knew about the car—Alex told me in the briefing. Though it is right there in the manual.” Meg’s tone was gently chiding.

  Callie made a face. “Well, it’s sure not something that screams out at you. And I was pretty upset about it all, especially at the beginning— to think they’d kidnapped us like that!” She frowned at the end of her braid. “But that never bothered you, I guess.”

  Meg drew her legs up, encircling them with her arms. “I didn’t think of it as kidnapping. We did walk in and sign up.”

  “I signed up for a few hours of negotiating an obstacle course and solving some problems.” She gestured around. “This is . . . something else entirely.”

  “True.” Meg rested her chin on one knee. The lock of hair had fallen free of her ear again, dangling now against her cheek as she gazed into the darkness beyond the window. “But I suppose I was looking for something more from the beginning. Romance. Adventure. Fulfillment.” She sighed. “I thought I wanted Alex, but I think I really wanted a new self.” She tilted her head to glance at Callie. “A new life.”

  Callie kept silent, thinking her own reasons hadn’t been much different. And while she had expected a smaller course than the one she’d encountered, it wasn’t because they’d lied about it. She supposed it was the part about not being able to back out that had disturbed her the most. And yet they had warned her of that, too. . . . Odd howclear that had become.

  “We intend this for your benefit, Callie.”

  She believed that now. Completely. As if somehow she had entered Alex’s mind and had seen his true thoughts. Or maybe not Alex’s but . . . whoever she’d run into there at the Gate. The Benefactor?

  “Anyway,” Meg said, releasing her legs and slouching back on the sectional, “I’m not sorry. I love it here. The scenery’s gorgeous. The food’s terrific. There’s all kinds of things to do.” She paused. “Helping someone find the Gate is pretty exciting.”

  “And sometimes pretty frustrating, too, huh?” Callie grinned.

  Meg shook her head soberly. “That’s been my one curse—worrying about you. When I discovered you’d left the road, I was frantic. If not for Mr. Chapman, I’d have gone crazy.” She faced Callie directly. “I was so afraid you were dead, or that the Guide would get here before you did. Then what would I do? I felt guilty enough as it was. When we finally spotted you in the temple at Mander I was ecstatic, but before I could figure out how to send a message you’d actually notice—the Tohvani run interference like you wouldn’t believe—you’d vanished again.”

  “And the Tohvani are—?”

  “The Watchers. The other side. The ones that don’t want us to get out.”

  “And the side that does?”

  “They’re the Aggillon. Actually, I think they were all Aggillon once, and there was a war.”

  The men in white standing with the Watchers at the base of the cliff, Callie thought. Were they Aggillon?

  “That’s what Alicia says anyway,” Meg went on. “Have you met her? White hair, kind of an addled look?”

  Callie nodded.

  “She knows a lot, but she won’t talk.” Meg flicked her fingers through her hair. “They say the Trogs put her through a fire curtain.”

  The couch seemed to shift under Callie’s weight. “We’re not going to have to face Trogs and fire curtains again, are we?”

  Meg shrugged. “It’s just a rumor. No one here knows much of anything. The real answers are all in the manual.”

  “Which only the Guide can interpret.”

  “Right. Anyway, Mr. C suggested I search along the river.” She smiled. “He was almost as caught up in it as I was! And he didn’t even know you. But that’s Mr. C. He is one impressive guy. Been everywhere you can imagine. And the jobs he’s held! Writer, fisherman, naturalist— he’s got degrees in astronomy, psychology, and physics, even dabbled in art. He knows just about everything, but he’s still really nice.”

  “He reminds me of someone—”

  “Dr. Haller from Algebra I, right?” Meg grinned.

  “Well, yeah, now that you mention it. But I was thinking of someone else.”

  She glanced through the palm fronds at Meg’s new friend. He and the others had settled together on the central U-shaped sectional, with Morgan and Rowena conspicuously off to themselves. Someone had apparently cracked a joke, because the group burst into laughter, even Whit, who was usually sober as a monk.

  With his white hair and neatly trimmed beard, Mr. Chapman was easily the oldest of them. In fact, he was close to being one of the oldest people Callie had seen in the Arena. She wondered how he came to be here. Had he been seeking life’s answers, or was he one of those people who’d died and was getting a second chance? On the surface he looked as solid and satisfied as they came.

  The laughter faded and Rowena began to talk, drawing everyone’s attention. She leaned forward in her chair to project across the gap separating her and Morgan from the others. Morgan nodded approvingly, but Wendell and Tuck frowned.

  “Well,” Meg murmured, “looks like Morg’s won another convert.”

  Callie stood. “I want to hear what they’re saying. Do you mind?”

  They took up positions behind Whit and John. Rowena frowned at Callie but finished her speech without a break: “. . . see no reason to wait. Haven’t we wasted enough time? At this rate, wh
en we get home no one’ll remember us.”

  “You must’ve led an awfully shallow life, Row, if you’re worried about that,” John said, fingering the gold hoop in his ear.

  She made a dismissive face. “You think you’ll just step back into things the way they were?”

  “ ’Course not, but it’s been years for some of us! What’s another few weeks?”

  “And you’re assuming time works the same way here as it does on Earth,” Mr. C pointed out. “Maybe it doesn’t.”

  “You mean like a month here is equal to a day back home?” Rowena asked. “I wouldn’t count on it. And the fact it’s been five years is exactly the point.”

  “How can you talk like this?” Callie burst out, exasperated. “I mean, what was the main lesson of the Outer Realm? Follow the manual’s instructions! We haven’t even been here a day and already you wanna go traipsing off without the Guide. Has it occurred to you the Exit may be right here?”

  “This is a training facility. You heard him.” Rowena gestured at Tucker. “No doubt meant to prepare all the people who got into their little cars and motored straight to the Gate. Well, we’ve had our training, babe. Years of it. I don’t think we need any more.”

  “Actually we haven’t even begun,” Pierce said.

  Startled, Callie turned to find him standing behind the sectional to her left. He held a dark book in one hand, and his face wore a pinched expression that made her stomach tighten with sudden concern.

  No one said anything, not even Rowena, until John broke the tension in his oblivious way. “Pierce buddy! You missed the grand tour. Not that we saw much of interest, since most everything was locked, but—”

  “Those are armories and shooting ranges,” Pierce said.

  His statement took John aback. “How would you know that, bud?” He glanced at the others, smiling indulgently. “I mean, you haven’t seen—”

  “We’re going to have to be in prime shape, mentally and physically,” Pierce went on, ignoring him. “Because the Exit is at the middle of the Inner Realm in a Trog city called Splagnos. The route will have to be worked out from information in the manual along with direct guidance from our Benefactor.” He drew a deep breath and let it out. “It’s not going to be easy.”