by James Axler
To Krysty, as she looked up at Doc, muttering to himself, it seemed as though Doc were still toiling on unlocking the door. She smiled to herself and gave a gentle shake of the head, little realizing the deception.
‘Give it up, Doc,’ she said gently. ‘Come and see if you can make any sense of this.’
‘Very well, if you insist,’ Doc replied, trying to mask the relief in his voice.
They were still absorbed by the scroll some half an hour later, when the lock gently snicked back and the door opened. Odyssey stood in the open portal, flanked by two sec men armed with handblasters. He took in what they were doing, then indicated that the sec men should wait outside. He entered and closed the door behind him, leaving it unlocked. His entry had been without ceremony; so much so that he was halfway across the room before Krysty and Doc looked up to see him approach.
Although his squat frame didn’t have the majestic bearing they would expect from such an exalted leader, there could be no doubts as to his identity. Only a man like Odyssey would approach them alone and unarmed, such was his innate assurance.
‘My dear sir, how charming it is to meet you at last. We have heard so much about you. Although I must say, it was a trifle dramatic of you to bring us here in such a fashion,’ Doc added with a chuckle as he walked around the table and grasped Odyssey firmly by the hand, pumping his arm. Doc continued. ‘There’s so much that you can tell us, and so much, indeed, that I would wish to learn from you. Really, all you had to do was ask.’
With which Doc led a momentarily stunned Odyssey toward the portal, asking him about the hieroglyphs, while Krysty looked on, openmouthed. Whatever you thought about Doc, and however many kinds of crazy you called him, he never ceased to surprise you. And maybe—just maybe—this approach would yield some kind of result. Krysty knew that she was looking for a way out. She kind of figured that Doc was after that, too, but to be truthful she couldn’t be certain.
Following in their wake, she reached them just as Doc had finished discussing the artistry on the portal and had smoothly moved on to his next subject.
‘Now, my dear sir, I am sure that you have us here because you have heard of Krysty’s abilities, and you have heard that I—a stranger, no less—appear to have some knowledge of your society even though you live in relative isolation, and I have never encountered you before. I daresay that would interest you, and we will, of course, reveal all in due course. I am, by the way, assuming that you have somehow infiltrated Memphis. The fact that you have not crushed them, but allowed them to flower, shows a certain tactical cunning that I find intriguing. But please, permit me to ask of you this—before we open our own secrets to you, please tell us how your splendid city came into being.’
Doc finished with a smile that he intended to be warm and winning, but came out as unctuous.
Odyssey, waiting for the next outpouring, was silent for a moment. Then, when he realized that Doc was waiting for him to speak, he allowed himself a wry grin and finally spoke.
‘I shall tell you all you wish, in return for which I expect a fair exchange of knowledge. But first, we shall have a less formal atmosphere…’
Odyssey turned to the door, issuing orders as he opened it to the waiting sec men. Within a few minutes, food and wine was brought into the room and musicians entered to play while they ate. The music was played on stringed and wind instruments that resembled a lyre and panpipes. It sounded ancient, with strange scales that were almost atonal, yet at the same time soothing. Although he said nothing about this, Doc suspected it was an attempt by the founders of the ville, prior to skydark, to approximate ancient music. It was, in truth, as genuine as the cracked philosophy on which the ville was based.
‘Our society is based upon ancient ways. The original inhabitants of Atlantis, who were either forced underground or left for the astral skies, sowed the seeds from which all subsequent civilizations reaped. Our ancestors…’
As Odyssey began to tell them of the origins of the society over which he now held sway, Doc began to tune out. It was almost exactly the same thing he had heard from Affinity and had pieced together from speaking to Lemur and Cyran, among others. The litany of Atlantean history was something that, it seemed, every inhabitant learned like breathing, indoctrinated into them from the day they were born. The difference between this version and that he had heard in Memphis being, Doc mused, that Odyssey waxed at great length about how people were happy in their place and glad to serve the greater good, taking their place in society, no matter what that might be. Easy for a man born into the role of leader, waited on hand and foot, to say… However, despite that fact that Doc found him a bore, he couldn’t doubt that there was no insincerity to the man. Odyssey firmly believed in the concept of Atlantis.
While Doc waited impatiently for the man to spill any secrets about old tech that may have survived, much of the information was new to Krysty and, added to the baffling discussion between Mildred and Doc in Memphis, things began to take shape and finally make sense.
However, it didn’t need her doomie sense to start screaming at her when Odyssey looked directly into her eyes as he said, ‘At each conjunction of the stars, when alignment is right for the return of the travelers, we gather in the vessel. They haven’t come, and that is our failing. We have not mustered enough power for them. There are rituals that we can perform to give them a sign, to add to our power. Mostly these are simple, but there is one that requires a woman who is able to harness great occult power. We have never had such a woman in our midst, but I have heard things that suggest…’
He trailed off with a gesture toward her, as though he expected her to confirm his suspicions. Krysty felt no inclination to do anything except rip his heart out, regardless of the gathered servants and sec that could chill her. Better that way than anything Odyssey may have in mind.
It was Doc, too impatient now to notice what was happening between Krysty and Odyssey, who broke the mood.
‘These rituals—you have a separate temple for them?’
‘Hmm?’ Odyssey looked blankly at Doc, taking a moment to shift focus and assimilate what the old man asked. ‘Yes…yes, there is a specific temple room dedicated to the old ones in this very building.’
‘I would like to see it,’ Doc snapped.
He was lucky. From the attitude of the servants and sec, it was clear that at any other time such a lack of respect would elicit a harsh punishment. Yet Doc was so strange, so disarming, that he was able to beat the odds. Furthermore, Odyssey was besotted with Krysty, and to show her the temple where his magic ritual would take place was something that was pleasing to him.
‘Yes, you shall see it. And you,’ he added, looking into Krysty’s eyes. ‘While we are there, you can tell me much about your power and about your knowledge. I have fulfilled my side of the bargain. Now it is time for you to fulfil yours. Yes,’ he mused, ‘I feel it would benefit us all to see the temple of the old ones.’
Krysty looked across at Doc. Gaia, old man, what have you set us up for? she thought, consoling herself with the notion that once they were out of this chamber, there would at least be more options to effect an escape.
Trouble was, it was starting to look as though escape was the last thing on Doc’s mind.
Chapter Fourteen
By daybreak, the attack was planned. To take a large force would be to risk two things: a mass wipe-out by the Nightcrawlers and the risk of a traitor sabotaging the assault. A better option was to take a small force, led by Mark and augmented by the companions. Focused, with their game plan to infiltrate hard and fast, heading for the main temple, Ryan figured they had a chance. A small, highly mobile force could dodge patrols, could keep track of one another with much more clarity in the confusion of a firefight, and left a greater force back in the defense of the home ville.
Memphis was smaller than Atlantis, and its fighters, man for man, no match for Atlantis sec. However, Ryan reasoned that it wouldn’t take a complete overthrow to plunge At
lantis into confusion. The ville was so tightly run, the people so oppressed, and the rule so absolute that only one clear strike was necessary: take out Odyssey. With him removed from the game, then Atlantis would be at the mercy of any opposing factions that may wish to assume command, and the uprising of those who hadn’t previously thought it possible to self-determine. In this kind of confusion, it would be easier for them to rescue Krysty and Doc—Ryan’s prime objective, if not that of Lemur—and effect an escape. As attack was so near, Ryan had recalled Jak and Mildred for the final stages of planning, reasoning that any spies making a break for Atlantis wouldn’t have time to deliver a message before the Memphis attack had commenced. Things were running as smoothly as he could hope for in the circumstances.
There was only one obstruction: the insistence of Lemur in joining them.
‘Sir, with the best will in the world, you aren’t a fighter. Nor have you ever been,’ Mark pleaded with him.
‘I know,’ the ville leader agreed, choosing his words carefully. ‘This is true. I realize it is a great risk to myself, and more importantly that it means you are carrying someone who is not supreme in combat. But this is about more than merely fighting. How can I lead my people if I stay skulking in the shadows while I send others to their doom? Surely I cannot claim to love freedom, and to wisely lead those who also seek it, if I’m not prepared to lay myself on the line for the sake of my beliefs. If I go with you, then Memphis will be united in this cause. But if I do not, many will ask themselves about the wisdom of this decision.’
‘You realize that I cannot guarantee your safety, any more than I can guarantee the safety of any of us,’ Mark said.
‘I would not have it any other way. Although I am nominally leader as someone has to head the chain of administration, yet this is a democratic ville. I wouldn’t expect preference.’
‘It’s not only you,’ Cyran said, coming forward. ‘I will join you. I cannot let you go alone, my husband. We are a team, and we stand and fall together.’
J.B. pulled Ryan to one side. ‘What’s going on here?’ he whispered urgently. ‘We can’t let them join us. It’s going to be a difficult enough mission as it is, without—’
Ryan shook his head, interrupting. ‘We don’t have a say, here. Most of the personnel are theirs, and if they want to do it, then we can’t stop them.’
‘Yeah? And we can’t let them buy the farm, either. If they get chilled, and we come back with Doc and Krysty, then we’re in big trouble.’
‘We’ve faced worse,’ Ryan said with a resigned air.
‘Mebbe,’ J.B. snapped, ‘but we won’t be in any kind of state to stand and fight again after—if—we get back from Atlantis.’
While Mark and Lemur discussed the leader’s role in the action, Mildred and Jak had joined the furiously debating Ryan and J.B., catching the end of the argument.
‘John’s right,’ Mildred agreed, ‘but the fact remains that he’s not going to be moved on this, so we’ve got to go with it.’
‘We think about watching backs for them,’ Jak said in low tones. ‘Mark good sec, but men not up to task. Have to be us.’
‘Jak’s right.’ Ryan sighed. ‘It’s something we could do without, but we have to keep those two alive as much as get Krysty and Doc.’
‘Great, make it easy.’ J.B. moaned. ‘Anything else you want while we’re at it?’
Unaware that this had been going on, the Memphis people had finished their affirmations of togetherness and were now waiting for the companions to rejoin them.
‘Everything is well, I trust?’ Lemur said as they approached the table once more.
‘Fine,’ Ryan lied. ‘We just need to finalize the plan of attack.’ There was little point in regaling the Memphis leader with their concerns. The decision had been made, and they would just have to work with it.
Lemur spread out a map on the table. It was a beautifully drawn plan of the two villes of Atlantis and Memphis and the land between.
‘As you can see, the space between us is comprised of woodland much as that you have already encountered. The dangers here are Nightcrawlers. It is unlikely that we will encounter much resistance from them during daylight hours, even though they have, of late, made sorties during sunlight.’
‘I don’t think we can bank on that,’ Ryan said, shaking his head. ‘Odyssey’s no fool. He’s snatched two of my people. He’ll know us by them, and he’ll know that we’ll be coming for them sooner rather than later. His intelligence will have told him what we can do. He’ll have people in wait.’
‘Can we skirt them?’ Mark asked. His apprehensive tone, however, betrayed his concern.
‘You already know that one. They’re more likely to spot us than we are them.’ Ryan grinned coldly. ‘We’ll just have to be ready for them.’
‘No doubt,’ Lemur remarked. ‘But I fear that, even if we should encounter them, they will not be our main problem.’
‘If they aren’t, then who or what is?’ Ryan questioned.
‘The maze,’ Mark replied softly. ‘The great unknown.’
‘You’ve mentioned this before,’ Mildred murmured. ‘What’s so difficult about it? A maze is a maze, and you said that some of your people have escaped through it—so why don’t we just take them with us, to negotiate it?’
Mark sighed. ‘If only it were that simple. If it was a fixed maze, then of course anyone who had managed to find their way through it would have no problem on their return. But alas, it is far from that easy.’
On seeing the quizzical glances from the companions, Lemur took up explanation. He knew more about the maze than anyone, for in his previous existence in Atlantis he had worked on the project in his work capacity.
One of the men named Odyssey, several generations before the current incumbent, had devised the maze as way of keeping out intruders and keeping in those dissenting workers who sought escape. The idea of surrounding the city with a wall or moat wasn’t defense enough. It would neither keep out—or indeed, keep in—the determined. So the leader decided to surround his domain with something that had a degree more security. He would build a maze around his city, a puzzle that would kill those who couldn’t solve its mystery.
It was based on something that had come down to them in legend. The Cretan maze of Minos, with the centaur at its heart, had been the inspiration. The walls of the complex puzzle were constructed of stone, and instead of one beast at its heart, it had a series of traps that were manned by wild beasts bred to be vicious and kept in a semistarved state, ravenous for anything or anyone that might stray into their path. The hidden beast traps and the labyrinthine nature of the walls made them difficult enough for the unwary escapee to negotiate; Odyssey had another trick to make it almost impossible. The walls themselves were movable, by a remarkable feat of pivot engineering that required no driven machinery.
This meant that the dead ends and open passages could be changed whenever the ruler so decreed. To insure that no one worker or sec man overseeing the operation would know the new layout of the maze, as planned by Odyssey, each team of movers and sec who worked on each section of the maze had plans that told them only what they were to do in their given sector, and they were dispatched at different times to insure that no two or more teams could liaise to build a better picture of the new maze.
As he told them this, Lemur indicated the maze area on the map in front of them. It was surrounded by a dotted line, the maze walls delineated only by a series of horizontal and vertical lines that formed a grid.
‘So you’re telling me that we’re going into something that we have no idea how to get through?’ Ryan asked.
Lemur shook his head reluctantly. ‘I wish I could tell you otherwise, but that wouldn’t be the truth.’
Ryan whistled. ‘You really don’t want to make this easy for us, do you?’
‘It isn’t easy for us, either, if it comes to that,’ Mark pointed out.
Ryan nodded slowly. It was a fair point. ‘Okay,’ he s
aid at length, ‘if that’s the way it’s got to be, then that’s the way it’s got to be. Get your sec force together. It’s daybreak now, and before too long the sun will have risen enough for good light. We head straight out, try to catch them before they have a chance to marshal their forces.’ He added to himself, Because if they do, then we don’t have too much of a chance…
WHEN ODYSSEY HAD OFFERED them the chance to view the temple dedicated to the old ones, Doc and Krysty had no idea that they would be privy to such a treasure trove of preskydark artifacts. Neither did they expect that those items would reflect such a skewed version of prenuke society.
The temple room was lit by scented candles—incense, rose and a sweet blend of herbs and spices that Krysty couldn’t identify, but that reminded Doc of something from another lifetime, something he had once smelled when in the southern swamps, taken by a colleague in pursuit of voodoo ceremonies. In the dim light, it was possible to see that a stone alter was surrounded by tapestries that depicted the sinking of the old island, and also saucers arriving from outer space. There were old paintings in dusty glass that they could identify, on close inspection, as being framed movies posters for 1950s, 60s and 70s movies about the coming of aliens. Earth Vs Flying Saucers, Invasion of the Saucer Men and Close Encounters of the Third Kind were those whose titles could be easily read. With others, the ravages of time and the elements, despite the reverence in which they were obviously held, had crept beneath the glass and made the print illegible, leaving only the lurid images of men from space and their craft.
An old TV and video recorder stood on the altar, powered by a generator that looked as though it had ceased to be supplied with fuel many generations before. A thick layer of dust covered the screen and the carefully arranged pile of tape boxes beside it. They were all movies and documentaries about occult and UFO phenomena. Krysty and Doc could tell this from a perusal of the titles and the pictures on the boxes.