Our predicament, indeed, our immediate problem, is this—how do we get inside that Safe Base? It’s definitely occupied by someone, and they aren’t just going to let us in, based on our good word.
“What?” Zaap says, barely understanding Brie.
“I said, how do we get inside that Safe Base?” she restates in a hostile loud tone. And then adds in English, looking at me: “There’s obviously someone inside, probably making more wicked booby traps, even as we mill around here like moo-cows.”
“Honestly, I’ve no idea,” I reply tiredly, wiping my forehead with the back of my hand.
Brie narrows her eyes. “Aren’t you supposed to be super smart and resourceful? Or is that just a pretty rumor circulated because the Prince had to have a solid reason for wanting to get in your pants?”
My mouth parts. “What? He didn’t—and what—I mean—” I stutter, becoming absolutely incoherent in my outrage.
“Oh, whatever,” Brie says with disdain, and then ignores me to watch the Entertainer who is farther than the rest of us along the walkway, past the fallen trapdoor and closer to the Safe Base.
Carefully stepping on the panels, testing each one, the Entertainer advances toward the door hidden around the corner. The rest of us begin moving after him.
Chihar and I pause when we reach the gaping trapdoor section with the missing panels. Up-close it’s a pretty long leap. . . . The opening in the floor shows the several stories of scaffolding and the structures at ground level below.
“Either jump or walk on the side rails,” Zaap says, pushing past the two of us, and easily clears the gap with a jump.
I bite my lip. Then I carefully step on the right side-rail that holds the walkway panels in place. My foot wobbles. . . . Ugh, not good.
“Come on, that’s just two quick steps, Lark,” Brie says from behind me. “You can do it.”
Zaap, standing on the other side of the trapdoor, nods at me. “I’ll reach for you if you fall,” he says, stretching out his hand to me.
“Yes, if you move fast enough, you will not have time to lose balance,” Chihar adds, making up his own mind.
Encouraged by the sight of Zaap’s hand, I take a deep breath. And then I quickly step on the side-rail, then step again with my other foot—even as I begin to feel it slipping.
Before I fall, Zaap grabs me and I am pulled across, while I feel Brie’s hand on my back keeping my momentum going forward.
“Thanks,” I say to Zaap, who merely nods seriously.
Brie leaps across easily and fearlessly, and then Chihar takes great care as he quickly runs across the other side-rail, and grabs our offered hands as he too almost falls.
Just as we all make it across, the Entertainer calls out a warning. “Look, there!” he says. “In the air right behind you! Hovering platforms! I think that’s our food and water!”
Of all the bizarre sights I’ve seen yet in this Stage One of the Games, the floating food “delivery trays” have got to be the strangest yet. We turn around, and see them—small, rectangular, table-sized platforms, about four-by-six feet, levitating at various heights all around the arena, as far as the eye can see. On each platform, there are either rows upon rows of golden water-filled grail goblets, or rows of small packs that must be our packaged meals. They are sailing slowly and steadily like clouds, just out of reach. . . .
How to get to them is the big question.
If the use of Voice were allowed, it would be a no-brainer, we could simply call a platform over and take our stuff. But now?
“This is just insane!” Brie says. “Are we supposed to jump to grab the food?”
“We could somehow lasso a platform over, I suppose,” I say. “I happen to have sufficiently long cord weapons packed in my bag.”
“Lasso?” Chihar asks.
I explain the Earth term.
“Oh, you mean bichugai,” Zaap says. “Way of roping animals. Yes, that might work.”
“Except, how do you intend to lasso or bichu-whatever these platforms without knocking over all those cups and food packs?” Brie says.
As we ponder this, the nearest platform at our level continues sailing forward aimlessly, and then simply comes to a stop only a few feet away, bumping against the Safe Base structure on the opposite side of the walkway veranda, right near the doorway.
“Quick!” Chihar says. “We need to get to it now, before anyone else!”
For once we’re all in agreement. The Entertainer, who is ahead of us, gestures silently, pulls out a needle-gun from his sleeve, and then carefully turns the corner, disappearing around the structure. No immediate explosion or gunfire follows, which is a good sign.
“You, me, in the opposite direction . . .” Brie whispers to Zaap, making a circle with gestures. In other words, we approach the door from both directions.
“Keep going.” She gestures to me and Chihar to continue after the Entertainer.
Holding my breath, I do as she says, and circle the structure, keeping my stun gun pointed and ready.
I turn the corner and see a curious sight.
The platform with the water grails is hovering at waist level against the wall, right near the door, on one side. On the other side of the door, nearest to me, is the Entertainer. He is completely motionless, possibly paralyzed, with his mouth open in an unspoken warning, but apparently alive. I realize he is stuck full-body in some kind of translucent fine web that stretches from floor to the low roof overhang—a web of glue, oozing liquid strands that sparkle in the sun. The only things moving are the Entertainer’s widened eyes. . . . They dart at me, and then back to the person at the door.
Because, yes, there’s someone at the door.
The person is a young girl with an extremely annoyed expression. She is petite and wiry, with short pixie-hair that has streaks in four colors similar to the Entertainer’s four-color braids—the four-color streak thing seems to be a recurring fashion statement in the Games. She’s wearing a blue uniform with a Technician logo. She has some kind of brass knuckle gadget on each hand that has tiny wicked-looking projectile heads pointing at me. I am guessing they are lethal or at least very painful.
Oh great, another Technician, the unhappy observation strikes me, as I freeze in place, staring at her.
“Don’t come any closer,” the girl says in a bored tone in Atlanteo, without changing her annoyed expression. Her voice is a young soprano, and I’m guessing she is Gracie’s age, no more. “If you do, you will end up like him.” And she motions with one scary brass knuckle-gun at the Entertainer. “Or worse. So, go away. This Safe Base is occupied.”
The Entertainer makes a muffled sound, barely able to move his lips, and he continues to stand or hang in the clear gooey web that is likely permeated with some kind of nerve agent.
“Look,” I say, keeping my voice steady. “I mean you no harm—we mean you no harm—but we need to share your Safe Base.”
“No,” the girl Technician says, narrowing her big blue-green kohl-outlined eyes.
“How many of you are inside?” I persist. “Are there others or just you?”
“Go away!”
“If it’s just you, then it must be really hard defending this Safe Base all by yourself.”
“Doing just fine so far.”
I hold back a smile. She just confirmed that she’s alone.
The girl realizes it in that same moment, and frowns, saying, “And who says I’m alone?”
“Okay, so you’ve got some friends in there with you,” I continue mildly. “Doesn’t mean there’s not room enough for a few more.”
“You need to leave now, or I will kill you,” the Technician says, glaring at me. “And that goes for your other ‘friends’ hiding around the corner—one right behind you, and two on the other side of me. I can see all of your stupid movements.”
“Really?” I say. “If you can see so much, then tell me, what’s behind my back?”
The Technician pauses, frowns, parts her lips. I t
hink I’ve just stumped her for at least a second.
Meanwhile, I’m thinking fast, my pulse racing, because this is me trying to grasp at straws here, and honestly, I have no idea what I’m doing. It’s sheer luck that I’ve kept my left hand slightly behind me as I turned the corner—it’s sort of down at my side and to the back, obscured from her vantage point—while my right hand is raised, pointing the stun gun at her.
“You don’t know, do you?” I continue, staring her in the eyes. “You can see this gun, but what’s in my other hand?”
“You—you have—there’s nothing in your other hand!” the Technician says after another second. But I can tell by the way her attention seems to be split between my gun pointing at her and my hidden hand, I’ve planted my doubt, and she is unfocused.
“You don’t know,” I persist. “You can’t see whether I have nothing or a detonator that’s going to set off an explosive device that I’ve secretly dropped on the walkway behind me—not too far from where you set off your own rigged trap door. Only my explosive is much bigger, and it’s going to level this whole floor, together with the Safe Base.”
“You’re lying! You’re not going to kill yourself.”
“Of course not,” I say. “It’s just insurance, so that you don’t do something stupid to me. Because if you do, well, we’re all going out together.”
“I don’t believe you!”
The Entertainer, stuck in the gluey web, makes a whimper sound.
The girl Technician darts a troubled glance at him, and then back at me. Seconds tick.
“You don’t have to believe me . . . but you might as well. Because I’m offering you a pretty good deal. We simply share the Safe Base, all of us, and no one needs to get hurt. And I promise, we’ll help you defend it against all those others who might not be as reasonable as we are. Other Contenders won’t be nice or willing to share. And they won’t stop coming. . . . How long do you think you’ll last against all of them?” I remain in place, motionless in the same pose, looking at her without blinking. “So, how about it? The hand behind my back is getting tired.”
The Technician makes a small sound of frustration. And then she lets out a breath and lowers her hands with their knuckle-guns. “All right,” she says grudgingly. “But you will keep far away from me. I let you enter one by one, and if any of you tries anything, I shoot.”
“Agreed,” I say, slowly lowering my stun gun. And then I nod in the direction of the Entertainer in the web. “Now, would you please free him from whatever that trap is? He’s okay, I hope. . . .”
The girl looks at the Entertainer and narrows her eyes. “Why should I? He tried to attack me.”
“He won’t—not anymore.” I take a step forward, both of my hands now down at my sides, and glance at the hovering board with the water grails. “Please let him go. While you do that, I’m going to turn around and hold the board with the water for the rest of us, in case it starts to drift away.”
The Technician sees both my hands, and is again glaring at me. “There wasn’t anything in your hand behind your back! I knew it! You lied—”
“No, I didn’t,” I respond tiredly, taking hold of the hovering board and steadying it as it bumps and presses against the wall. “I never actually said there was anything in my hand.”
“That’s right, she did not.” Brie appears from around the other corner, moving carefully so as not to startle the girl. “Whoa, I won’t hurt you. And the guy behind me won’t either.”
“Truce!” Zaap says quickly, as he emerges after Brie.
“Hands down! Approach very slowly!” the Technician tells Brie and Zaap, raising her brass knuckle gadgets once more, but pointing them only in their direction.
“All right,” I say as calmly as possible. “What’s important is that we have water, and we have shelter—all of us. By the way, I’m Gwen—Gwen Lark. What should we call you?”
The girl Technician glances at me, still wearing a petulant expression, but I can tell she is no longer threatened by me. “Lolu,” she says, pronouncing her name softly. “Lolu Eetatu.”
And then Lolu adds, “Tell the other one behind you to come out.”
Chihar carefully steps into view from behind me.
Lolu, the Technician, gives him and his similarly blue uniform a sharp look of appraisal, but seeing the Scientist atom symbol as opposed to her own Technician sine wave, apparently finds him acceptable. Then, keeping one eye on all of us, she gets to work with agile, quick movements, using a knife-like gadget to cut through the translucent glue strands that hold the Entertainer captive. When done, she sprays him with something from a tiny bottle, at which point the remainder of the glue on him dissolves. It also reverses the nerve paralysis, and in a few seconds the Entertainer is able to move and speak.
The first thing he says is some kind of florid Atlantean phrase, heavily slurred through chattering teeth—at which Zaap makes a snort. And then the Entertainer stretches his long limbs, with a minor groan. “What kind of infernal poison did you use on me, amrevet? Of all the terrible things to happen to my muscles—But never mind, I thank the wind and the gods, it was not a permanent solution.”
Lolu says nothing, merely nods at him and at the door with the round four-color Safe Base placard and light sconce attached over the threshold.
Moving with residual stiffness, the Entertainer passes me, taking one goblet of water from the hovering table which I’m still holding steady. He’s the first one of us to enter.
Moments later, we’re all inside the Safe Base.
Lolu Eetatu enters right after the Entertainer. Once inside, she stands at a reasonable distance, with her back against a wall and her guns pointed, as we all pass through the door, one at a time, making sure we make no threatening movements. Each of us now has a water goblet, so that’s definitely a plus. Lolu’s water grail is on the floor at her feet—she took it, with a suspicious glance at me, before entering the room.
I enter last, taking my own water, and letting go of the hovering board-table at last—now that we all have our portions, it’s free to sail away elsewhere.
The interior of the Safe Base is a single empty, windowless room with a low ceiling and neutral blue-grey walls, a plain rectangular box very similar to the yellow “shelter” that almost fried us to death. The difference is, there’s only one entrance here, with an actual door that closes. A single plain light sconce on the back wall casts a faint yellow light revealing a corner nook with what appears to be boxes of medical supplies, and four rolls of blankets. In another corner on the floor is a small round hatch opening which, when lifted, shows a deep hole and darkness, which we assume is our toilet hole. And one of the walls has a video surveillance smart screen that’s split up into six windows showing various sections of the Game Zone arena, and next to it are several control pads.
I notice, two of the lesser screens are showing the view directly outside our door, and the view of the veranda circling the back of the structure, the way we had approached. So, that’s how the Technician was able to see us coming, I think. Very useful!
The next thing I notice is, we’re not alone. A Red Contender lies on the floor, trussed up in the same gooey web stuff. Except, he is almost completely covered with the glue, including his face, and he appears to be dead. It occurs to me, this is that same Red who was climbing here ahead of us. So, Lolu the Technician is sufficiently lethal, and not to be underestimated. . . .
“Home, sweet home,” Brie says in a brash voice, breaking the silence, as we all stare cautiously around us. “Who’s the dead guy?”
“He was going to kill me, so I killed him first,” Lolu says coldly, still pointing her guns generally at us. She glances at the Entertainer as he continues to flex his muscles lightly. “Be grateful. I gave you an antidote for the nerve toxin—unlike him.”
“Oh, I’m very grateful,” the Entertainer says, slightly slurring his words. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to sit down.”
Lolu poin
ts to the empty wall. “Yes, the effect takes time to wear off. Sit—over there.”
“Why don’t we take the body outside before it starts to smell,” Chihar says gently.
Lolu shrugs. “Do it. I don’t care.”
“You will start to care in a few hours as he begins to reek.” Brie raises one brow, then nods to Zaap. The two of them drag the heavy Red outside, while Chihar holds the door open, and Lolu and I watch.
“Where are you going to put him?” I begin to say, when I hear a heavy thud. Brie and Zaap just dumped the dead guy unceremoniously over the scaffolding to the ground level below. I suppose I should be disturbed or shocked, it occurs to me. Instead, I find that I’m shockingly indifferent.
What’s happening to me?
I bite my lip, then sit down against the wall in the same spot where the dead body had been lying.
Lolu Eetatu observes me with her annoyed expression, and then looks at Chihar, and then at Brie and Zaap as they return inside. “Feel free to make yourselves comfortable.”
She then shuts the door behind them, and locks it from the inside.
Immediately the stadium noise is reduced considerably. We can still hear the bursts of audience roar and the gunshots and explosions around the arena, but it’s all muted, creating a false sense of comfort. In this new level of quiet, in the weak light, we all look at one another as we settle down around the perimeter of the walls, keeping our distance from each other.
The Entertainer clears his throat. “It seems a good time for introductions,” he says with a minor slur. “I am Kokayi Jeet, and my Entertainer specialty is acrobat and body contortionist. Of course, thanks to you, amrevet”—he nods at Lolu with a pained smile—“I’m not going to be any good at what I do best, not for some time.”
“I let you live,” Lolu replies, setting down one of her brass knuckle-guns and picking up her water goblet to take a careful sip.
The rest of us follow her lead. Introductions go around, and we drink as little water as possible, conserving our rations.
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