The Omega Cage

by Steve Perry

  That was important. It warmed her in a way no man's or woman's touch had ever wanned her. She had never loved a man, and she knew she didn't love this Dain Maro—not yet, at least—but there was a potential here she had never felt before.

  "Tell me about you," she said. "Please."

  Chapter Eleven

  Maro lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling. It was the only place in the cell he could look at for long periods of time without discomfort—staring at the featureless pellucid surfaces of the Zonn walls and floor made him feel as if he were falling into them.

  "Dain?"

  The voice belonged to Scanner, and it came from the compatch receiver stuck behind his ear. He subvocalized his reply. "Yeah."

  "Listen, we're collecting the stuff you wanted. Some of it won't be easy, though. We got Parker, the fat guard on shop detail, helping us."

  "How?"

  He could hear the chuckle in Scanner's voice as the circuit-rider answered. "He thinks he's giving me parts to build a 3-D pornoproj." Maro chuckled as well.

  "So, how are you holding up?"

  "Fine. I think their camera is broken; somebody keeps coming in to check on me every hour or so."

  "What about the hallucinations? They're supposed to be pretty bad."

  "I think whatever caused that is broken, too. It's no worse than ordinary solitary."

  Silence for a moment. "You did something." It was not a question.

  Maro thought about it for a couple of seconds before he answered. It wouldn't hurt at this point if the prisoners thought he held some kind of ace. He needed their help, and they would help more if they really believed that he could pull this whole plan off. "Yeah. I took care of it. Nobody will ever have problems in here again."

  "Amazing. How?"

  "Trade secret. Never mind. Do you understand what I want you to do with the gear?"

  "I understand the theory. I don't know if I can hardwire the system."

  "You can. Did you ask your link for the plans for a single-passenger Bender unit?"

  "I got them."

  "Good. See if you can get a phase generator circuit chip, and a Peen stasis unit."

  "I see what you're getting at, but I checked on something last time I was online. It's been tried, Maro. It doesn't work."

  "Not on regular walls, you're right. But we're dealing with something that only looks like a wall here, Scanner. It's an energy field, and I think it will Bend."

  "I hope you know what you're talking about."

  Maro stared at the ceiling. The trapdoor opened and a guard stuck his head inside. Maro closed his eyes against the bright light. I hope I do, too, he thought.

  Stark's nervousness translated into movement. He tapped his fingers on his desk, shifted in his chair, and finally stood and paced around the office. When he couldn't stand it any more, he went outside into the heat, his cooler humming into life and rolling after him.

  Why wasn't Maro climbing the walls in the Zonn Chamber? Nobody had ever come out of there unchanged, and most had gone totally insane by this time. Yet, as far as he could tell, Maro was unaffected. That didn't fit into his plans at all. Karnaaj would be coming back any time now, and when he did. Stark did not want him around for very long. The SIU man would not like the story that Juete had died. Probably he wouldn't believe it, but there would be no way to disprove it, and once he had accomplished his business with Maro, there would be no further reason for him to stay around. He did not know the prison well enough to find Juete, and once he was gone, life would go back to normal.

  A guard waved at him as he passed, and the warden nodded mechanically. He was not due to visit the albino girl for several more hours, and, while he would have spent more time with her, he did not want to be caught there if Karnaaj showed up unexpectedly early. It would be exactly like the bastard to do that. Juete did not like being alone, that was apparent enough, but she would just have to make do. Sometimes she seemed to forget that she only survived here because of his intervention. She had a treasure hoard of supplies in that cell with her; she should be grateful instead of whining about being alone.

  He stopped walking, finding himself in a half-windowed corridor overlooking the prison infirmary. Prisoners moved around in the atrium below, and he saw a man wrapped in bandages lying in a bed. Somebody caught by a flock of bloodbirds, he remembered.

  No, it wasn't fair to blame Juete for his irritation. It was Karnaaj and that goddamned Maro who deserved the anger. Karnaaj for what he was, and Maro for not rolling over and saving him all this trouble.

  Abruptly, Stark turned away from the infirmary. The Zonn Chamber was not going to be the answer for Maro—he knew that now. Maybe he could find out more by releasing him back into the general population and prodding him with one of his dips. If Maro let something slip to one of the dozens of spies working for Stark, the warden would know it before the echoes stopped. That might be a way to do it. He hoped he still had time; Karnaaj was not due back for five or six days yet. A few days might be enough. If worse came to worst, there was always a way out: the mindwipe might dredge up enough to satisfy Karnaaj. Maro would not be Maro afterward, but that was too bad. It would be his own fault.

  Being alone was not quite so bad, now that she had a link with Dain. The cell did not seem as confining, now that she knew she could talk to him whenever she wished. At first, she had worried that Stark might overhear, but Dain had reassured her that the channel was private. He had a friend who had taken care of that.

  "Juete?"

  "Right here."

  "It looks as if Stark is going to let me out. The Zonn Chamber didn't produce the results he wanted."

  She felt a sudden needle of fear, but before she could speak, he wiped the pain away. "I'll keep this circuit open."

  "What will you do?" she asked. "Karnaaj is coming back."

  "I have a couple of ideas." There was a long silence. Then, "How much do you want to get out of here, Juete?"

  "That's a silly question. How much do you want to leave?"

  He didn't answer that, but said instead, "Is there a Zonn wall in your cell?"

  "Yes, the back one. Why?"

  Another silence came, and she felt as if he were making some kind of decision. Finally, he spoke. "Listen, I think there's a way out. It's a long shot, and even if it works, it'll be dangerous. Some of us are going to try to escape. I think it can be done. I'm betting my life on it. If the plan goes like I hope, there's no reason why you can't come along. If you want to."

  She felt her heart beating faster. "No one has ever escaped before," she said.

  "I know. But there's always a first time for everything."

  Juete thought about the life she had in the Cage. Of spending years inside, with Stark as her master and keeper. And that was the best scenario she could imagine. There were men like Karnaaj, there would always be people like him, waiting to prey on those without the power to protect themselves. She was alive here, but the quality of her life left no room for growth, for pleasure, for joy. What did she have to lose?

  "Yes," she said. "I want to go."

  "Good. I'll keep in touch. It won't be long. It'll either work or it won't—we'll know pretty soon."

  She heard the electronic locking mechanism whine on the cell door. "It's Stark," she whispered. "I have to go."

  "Call me when he's gone," he said.

  When Stark entered the cell, Juete wore a smile for him. He hugged her, and she returned the embrace, but the desperate quality was gone. She had to give him credit for some preception; he noticed the lack.

  "What's wrong?"

  "Nothing. I'm fine. Glad to see you."

  He untabbed the front of his coverall, grinning. "I'm glad to see you, too."

  Afterwards, he lay with her on the bed.

  "So, how are things out there?"

  "Not much different. That bastard Maro didn't crack in the Zonn Chamber. Some kind of mind control, I think. Karnaaj knew. The rinthsucker is setting me up to fall if he do
esn't get what he wants from Maro."

  "What can you do about it?"

  "Not a lot. He said he'd be in the city for a week, but he could come back at any time. And if I don't have Maro ready to leak information like an unshielded microwave caster, Karnaaj will skewer me, somehow."

  "Can't you convince this Maro to give you what Karnaaj wants?"

  "I don't think so." He shifted on the bed and cupped one of her pale breasts. Inwardly, she shuddered; no ripple of it showed on the pale surface.

  "Then you're in danger?" she said.

  "Maybe not." He rubbed the pink nipple with his thumb and forefinger. It erected under his touch. "I have a final token I can play in this little game. I can mindwipe Maro, if it comes to that. I'm hoping he'll spill something to one of my dips with the right prodding, but if he doesn't, I can clean his slate and give the recording to Karnaaj in a neat little package."

  He leaned over then and kissed her on the neck, and she stroked his back mechanically as she thought about what he had said. A week. Dain only had a week at most, to make good his—and their—escape. After that he might be little more than a mental infant if Stark carried out his plan. She would have to get this information to him as soon as possible.

  It was that thought which made her realize that she had shifted her allegiance from Stark to Dain Maro. Stark was her jailer and Maro might be her saviour. The choice was simple, and it had been made.

  "You look pretty good for a man who spent four days in the Zonn Chamber," Sandoz said.

  Maro grinned. Standing around him in the yard along with Sandoz were Scanner, Raze, Chameleon and Patch. Maro said, "Ah, I needed the rest. Nice and quiet in there. If the warden offers it, you might spend a couple of days; it'd do you good."

  "No, thanks," Chameleon said. Everybody laughed.

  "So, Scanner tells us you've got a plan working. You want to let us in on it?" That from Raze.

  Maro nodded. "I need a couple of minutes with Scanner, first. You can listen."

  The circuit-rider said, "I've got the confounder specs and the basic hardwiring is done. It'll take some programming to make it work, but I think I can manage it. The biochips for the Bender and the stick-links are on the way. Parker is helping; he thinks he gets the pornoproj unit when we're done. I had to use Fish and Berque, they had contacts we needed, and I'm stalling them, but they'll want to know what we're doing pretty soon."

  "Berque is a pipe to the warden, you said?"

  Scanner nodded.

  "All right. We can use that to feed him what we want him to know, maybe. What about Fish?"

  "He's crazier than a burnt din, but he wants out pretty bad. I dunno. You'll have to decide on him."

  Sandoz said, "Come on, Maro. What's the play here? Scanner has been laying smoke since you went into the Zonn Chamber."

  Maro took a deep breath. "Okay. There's a theory about the Zonn: the walls of the cities they built aren't walls at all, but energy fields. And they have locked up, somehow, the same kind of power that a Bender uses to shift from real to sub-space for FTL travel. I knew some scientists who owed me favors, and I had it all checked out before they shipped me to the Cage. The story's in pieces— some on one world, some on another, some in the Galax InfoNet, some of it not. But if you put it all together, it might mean a way out."

  Raze looked at Sandoz. "I think I understand. You said it before, remember?"

  Sandoz looked blank.

  "Through the walls," the bodybuilder said, with a short laugh. "He thinks we can walk through the walls."

  Sandoz stared at Maro. "Is that right?"

  Maro took a deep breath. "Yes."

  "You're crazy," Sandoz said flatly.

  "Maybe not," Scanner said. "We won't be able to test it until we put it all together, but it looks like it might work. Either that, or it'll clean the Cage completely off the face of the planet, along with most of the continent. We're talking a lot of pent energy here."

  Sandoz laughed. "I like that. Go out with a bang and fuck 'em."

  "That's not what we want to do," Maro said.

  "Either way is fine with me," the assassin replied. "Stark loses with both. I'm in. Whatever you need me to do, let me know."

  Maro nodded. "Good. Anybody else want to walk now?"

  Nobody said anything.

  "Good. From what I hear, we've got less than a week. Let's move."

  Chapter Twelve

  When Stark left his office, it took only a second for him to notice what was missing: his cooler was not following to protect him from the heat with focused currents of chilled air. Dammit, where was it? Juete was in solitary, and it was only programmed to respond to the two of them. The heat in the hallway was not nearly as intense as it was outside, but it was enough to trigger his sweatpoint in a hurry, and the robotic sensor was tuned to that.

  It took him a few minutes to find the mobile unit. It was on its back, just past the turn for the infirmary view. By this time sweat had soaked the cloth under his arms and across his shoulders and he was in no mood for jokes. One of the goddamned guards or prisoners had turtled the machine. Very funny.

  As he got closer, however, he saw that the problem with the cooler was much more than a prank. The belly plate was open, and proteinprint circuit boards lay scattered and dripping around the cooler.

  It had been gutted. Destroyed.

  Lepto stood impassively as Stark shouted orders at him. "First, find out who had passes to be in the hall! And I want the duty roster checked! Second, figure out what biochips were taken, if any. I don't want somebody cranking up a laser on me with parts spagen-rigged from my own damned cooler! And I want all this done stat!"

  "Yes sir."

  "Go! What are you standing around for?" Lepto left, and Stark stared through the denscris window at the yard. Damn them all! The one piece of comfort he allowed himself and the bastards had killed it! Somebody was going to pay. Somebody was going to be sorry they were ever born.

  "He was very upset," Juete said into her com.

  In the shadow of the Cage's outer wall, Maro allowed himself to chuckle. "Too bad."

  "He won't let it just lie, Dain. When he left here, he was still smoking with it. He was… rough with me."

  Maro felt a surge of anger curl his hands into fists. "I'm sorry, Juete."

  "Don't be. I can deal with him. But he's got everybody searching for whoever wrecked his cooler."

  "He can look until he goes blind," Maro said. "The pass was electronically issued and then deleted. The door computer won't remember admitting the one who did it. We're covered."

  "Why did you do it? It'll only make things tougher."

  "We needed a part. That was the only available place to get it."

  Silence for a moment. "Is it going to work, Dain?"

  "I think so. I hope so."

  Maro shuffled across the heat-shriveled grass toward the shade of the tool shed. As he approached he heard what sounded like a flute, and somebody singing. The voice was high and clear—a soprano—and the flute's tone almost seemed to sparkle. He listened to the words:

  His face is like rainy skies, stormy and gray

  She told him something bad, what he won't say

  But I know if I wait awhile, the sun will shine again

  On the face of my darling, my lover, my friend.

  He moved closer and saw that the instrument was not just a flute, but an arofloj, an electronic version of that instrument. He didn't know who was playing it, but whoever it was was good, had programmed a whole run of contrapuntal beats to work against the melody. The singer swung into the chorus:

  And I laugh when he thinks it's not funny

  And sometimes I make him so mad

  But he's still with me after all these years.

  The best friend that ever I had.

  It was Raze. To hear that sweet song coming from her muscular form astonished him. He stood silently along with a dozen others, listening until she finished the ballad. There came a strong burst of
applause then, and Raze grinned at the small crowd. Most of the listeners drifted away, and Maro moved closer to Raze.

  "Nice song," he said.

  "Thanks. I used to sing it to my lover, back when I was in the Real Galaxy. He was a teacher; taught children how to play music. Never knew what he saw in me."

  "You loved him a lot?"

  "What's it to you?"

  "Nothing. I liked the song."

  She softened. "Yeah. He was all right, Celine was. We got along pretty good. I wonder where he is now."

  "Maybe you can find out."

  She turned to face him. Muscles roiled in her neck and shoulders like a ripple spreading in a pond. "You really think we can make it out of here?"

  "What have to got to lose?"

  "I copy that, Slick. I'm at the point where I want to swing on Lepto every time I see him. I might even take him, but it'll cost me. Everything in here costs. Too much."

  "Tomorrow night we should have everything patched together enough for a test. We'll know then if we're just spinning dust or if we have a real chance."

  Raze looked at him with a peculiar expression of mingled humor and bitterness. "I don't know if I like you, Maro. You've made me hope this'll work. If it doesn't work, I'll probably be real disappointed."

  He laughed. "If it doesn't work, I'll probably be real dead. And if not, you'll have to stand in line to take it out on me."

  "I'll be right behind Sandoz," she said, grinning.

  He returned the smile and turned to leave. "Where you headed?" she asked.

  "I need to go start a pipeline to the warden. We don't want him spoiling things before we're ready."