by Selina Rosen
They dove under the water again. RJ mouthed something urgently at Whitey, but he couldn't understand her. Her fingers were keeping the door from closing all the way. There was a gap, but it wasn't big enough for any of them to get their fingers under far enough to have a good enough grip to lift the door. If they could lift it at all and get out before they wound up in the same shape RJ was in.
Whitey came up for air at the same time as David and Levits. He pulled his sword. "We can use it as a lever. With all of us, we may be able to lift the door enough to get her free."
David nodded and they dove again. Whitey jammed the sword under the door, and they gave it all they had.
Her chest hurt from holding her breath. She was supposed to be able to hold her breath for twenty minutes. That was what she had been told. But it hadn't been even ten, and already she could feel her strength ebbing away. It was getting harder and harder to withstand the urge to take a deep breath. She tried to get Whitey's attention, and finally succeeded, but it was obvious that he had no idea what she was saying. Now they were trying to open the door with the sword. This just might work, but then the tip of the sword broke off. This time, she didn't even manage to get Whitey's attention.
"She's gonna die," David told Whitey as they broke the surface of the water for the third time.
"We're all going to die," Levits said hopelessly.
"We'll try again," Whitey said, and dove back into the water, which was now up to his chest. The others were already treading water. They followed him under.
RJ could no longer help. She was using all her energy to hold her breath. Finally, she even lost that ability.
They put everything they had into it. The sword was thicker closer to the hilt and—stronger this time—it bent, but it didn't break. The door moved. Not a lot, but enough. Levits grabbed RJ, and swam with her to the top.
As soon as Whitey broke the surface of the water, he jerked RJ's lifeless body from Levits. Whitey started to shake her violently.
David looked on in horror. She was limp, and her head jerked back and forth as if it might snap off at any minute. She was blue, and there was no sign of life in her. In his grief, David forgot that he, too, would soon be dead.
"God damn you, RJ!" Whitey screamed as he shook her. "God damn you, you can't die here Not like this. Not by fucking drowning!" Whitey started giving her artificial respiration; not an easy thing to do while treading water, but a lot more effective than screaming and shaking her.
RJ coughed, spitting out what looked like half the ocean, then she took a long, shuddering breath. When her eyes focused on Whitey, she threw her arms around his neck and clung to him.
Whitey held her tight. "I thought you were dead," he whispered.
"GSH kit, you moron!" RJ managed to cough out through her raw throat.
"You need Pronuses?" Whitey asked in a whisper.
"No." Even in her current condition, she knew she didn't want any of the others to see her ingesting what was, for them, a lethal poison. "The knife."
"Oh—OH!" Whitey couldn't believe his stupidity, but he was too elated to let it get him down long. "I kind of like you with your fingers."
Having saved RJ, David and Whitey had temporarily forgotten about their present predicament.
Alexi reminded them. "Good. Now we can all die together." Whitey had hurt him, but not so badly that he couldn't tread water."One big happy family."
"Shut up!" David screamed. He was trying to think. We have to look for a way to open the door . . . Poley said he lost control of audio and visual. I assume that means that they can see us and hear us right now. If what RJ says is true, they may let us live. "Listen, you filthy bastards. We're tired of playing your little game. We've passed all your little tests except this one. The least you can do is see us before you kill us. Give us a chance to explain what we're doing here. We don't want to hurt anyone, we just want some help."
"I don't know," a strange-sounding voice said thoughtfully. "I admit that you did rather well. But this last test . . . Well, it's the easiest of all."
"A member of our party acted against the orders of our leader," David said, giving Alexi an angry look.
"Hum," the voice said.
"What?" David asked.
"Oh, just 'hum.' Every once in awhile I like to do that. So, I take it that the rather limp-looking one is the one you call RJ."
"Are you Reliance?" David asked suspiciously.
"No. Prove to me she's RJ, and we can talk."
"How do you expect me to prove that?" David asked hotly.
"Oh, just anything. Visa, American Express, a major bank card . . ."
"We are running out of time down here. I don't want to play your games. Why not let us go? If you're not Reliance, what can you gain from killing us?"
"A clean entrance hall." He laughed at his own joke.
"You're a raving lunatic!" Whitey screamed.
"Really? I've always thought of myself as demented. Still, I suppose raving has a certain ring to it." He paused as if in deep thought. "Well, that does help me make up my mind."
"Thought it might," a familiar voice said. "Now, let them go, or I blow out brains."
"ALL RIGHT, MICKEY!" they all cheered.
The water started to recede. In a matter of moments, the "entrance hall" was little more than damp. The door opposite the one they had entered opened to reveal a flight of steps going upwards.
By now, RJ had recovered completely, but she still let Whitey help her. She told herself she did this to keep the others from becoming suspicious. She looked at Poley. He appeared to be undamaged, but still seemed to be having difficulty with the fact that he was wet. She looked at her laser—also wet and useless.
When she looked at Alexi, he shrank from her gaze and looked away.
"You almost got us all killed. I won't forget that, Alexi. The list of your mistakes grows daily. When I feel you have done more harm than good, I will deal with you in an appropriate and extremely violent manner."
Alexi nodded submissively. For once, he had no snappy comebacks. He had almost killed her. It shouldn't have bothered him; she was, after all, a giant pain in his ass. But it did.
They ascended the stairs slowly, weapons drawn.
"Come on, Poley," RJ ordered when she realized he hadn't moved.
At the top of the stairs they entered a long, narrow room. Along its walls—all around them, and ten feet tall, stretching endlessly in both directions—were the components of the biggest computer RJ had ever set her eyes on. Since she had been privileged to see the military computer at Capitol, this was saying quite a lot.
It was better than anything she had hoped for.
David didn't know what it was all for, but with all the flashing lights and whirring noises . . . Well, he was impressed.
The man sat up straighter in his chair to get a better look at his intruders. They were an odd lot, to be sure. Three held weapons on him, the other three did not. The woman should have drowned. So, for that matter, should the dark man in the leather suit, because when the water had gone over his head he had done nothing to keep himself afloat. He'd been nowhere in sight until the water receded. The giant was the only other one that didn't hold a weapon. Apparently, these three knew their weapons would be useless till dry. The others either didn't know their weapons were dysfunctional, or they assumed that he wouldn't know.
"Poley, strip your clothes off," she ordered. The robot started to comply. "Whitey, don't kill anyone till we figure out what's going on."
"But . . ."
"We need all this, Whitey. These people are not our enemies."
Whitey sighed and nodded.
Poley had finished undressing, and now stood buck naked for all the world to see.
"Feel better?" RJ asked.
"Yes, thank you very much," Poley responded.
"Then let us meet our host, shall we?"
"Damn!" Levits exclaimed. "Would you look at the way that weird fuck is hung?"
&n
bsp; They all mostly ignored him.
The man sat in the very middle of the room surrounded by what could only be the control panels. RJ kept a wary eye on the two stories of catwalks above them. Behind the catwalks were what must have once been prison cells, and at the end of the row was a gun gallery. If there was to be an attack, it would no doubt come from there. However, she saw not even the slightest sign of life. The only flesh-and-blood creatures about seemed to be the man she faced, her companions, and herself.
"Like a spider in its web," she whispered to herself.
"What?" David asked.
"Nothing." She looked at the man. Even sitting he looked to be tall. He had a medium frame, with bright, wide, staring blue eyes and a large, aristocratic nose. His mouth was filled with straight, white teeth that seemed too large for his face. His curly brown hair framed a face that shone with boyish impudence and great good humor. This in spite of the fact that he was at least in his fifties.
"Hello," he said. Once again, RJ noted the strange quality of his voice. This time she recognized it as an accent, although it wasn't one she had heard before. "Awfully nice of you to drop in like this. Pardon me if I don't rise." He waived his hand towards the midget with the gun.
"Good work, Mickey," RJ said.
Mickey practically glowed.
"Where are the troops?" David asked.
"He IS the troops." RJ shook her head, hardly believing her own words. She found a blank piece of console and sat down. "I'm right, aren't I?"
"You seem to have solved all my puzzles," he said, putting on his best pouty face.
"Does it do all that I think it does?" she asked, looking around at the huge computer. She was all but drooling.
"Yes . . . and probably more."
"There is no one else here?" Whitey asked in disbelief.
"Just me," he smiled. "Sorry."
"Sorry!" Whitey boomed. "You cracked little creep! I oughtta . . ."
"Calm down, Whitey." RJ patted his back. "You know my name, and these are David, Whitey, Levits, Mickey, my brother Poley, and that stupid crawling worm is Alexi." She pointed at each of them as she spoke. "And you are?"
"Topaz."
"That's an odd name."
"I took it from an old Hitchcock movie."
Not only did he speak with a strange accent, he used strange words. "And all this is?" she asked, indicating the computer with a wave of her hand.
"Marge."
"What does that stand for?"
"A girl whose company I once enjoyed," Topaz said with a laugh. These young ones thought everything had to have a reason.
"Who built it?" RJ asked. "And for what purpose?"
"I built it because I was bored, and because I could," Topaz said with a huge smile.
RJ looked around her. He didn't seem to be lying, and he wasn't shielding. That much she was sure of. Still . . . he might truly believe what he said even if it weren't true. If he were "cracked," as Whitey had suggested, this was a possibility. His having built all of this himself didn't seem logically possible.
"By yourself?" She gave him a cynical look.
"By myself."
RJ wiped some water off her face. She looked again at the computer. "You lie. This could not be built in one lifetime by one man."
He burst into maniacal laughter. "Quite true. Quite true." He quit laughing, and jumped out of his seat, oblivious to Mickey and the laser he still had trained on him. He started to pace back and forth. They all kept a wary eye on him. Finally, he stopped in front of RJ, and tapped his chin with his finger. "It's a rather long story. Do you care to hear it?"
"Yes, please," RJ said as patiently as the situation allowed her to be.
"Well, it all started some time ago, when I used to be a guy called Bob. After the first five centuries, I got tired of being Bob, so I changed my name to Topaz—it being one of my favorite movies, don't you see. It's not my birthstone, if that's what you were thinking."
"See, I told you . . . cracked," Whitey whispered to RJ.
"Shh!" RJ ordered. He wasn't lying—or at least he didn't think he was.
"There was a crash and a ray of light!" Topaz started to ramble.
"So, Topaz. You have lived a long life. Long enough to have built Marge. How and why?"
"You are a very suspicious young woman. Are you married?"
"No," RJ answered with a sigh. It wasn't going to be an easy task to get anything of value from Topaz.
"In that case, how would you like to . . ."
Whitey interrupted him with a growl. "She's my woman."
RJ temporarily forgot all about Topaz and Marge and the Reliance. She turned and gave Whitey a cold look. "Your woman?" she spat."Your woman!"
Whitey smiled and pushed a strand of wet hair out of her face."My woman," he said lovingly.
RJ took a deep breath. This had been a very trying day, and it wasn't over yet. "I'm no one's woman," she grumbled.
Turning to Topaz, she resolutely pushed Whitey out of her mind and asked, "Could you please continue?"
"Well, to make a long story short, in 1986, or was it '68? Maybe it was '2002 . . ."
"Please," RJ begged.
"Anyway, I was a biochemist . . ."
"Biochemist?" RJ asked, looking around the room again.
"Computers are a hobby," Topaz explained. "Anyway, I was looking for a cure for a disease called AIDS. It was being called the 'plague of the century.' Since initially it affected mostly homosexuals and needle users, at first it was vastly ignored by the government and became rampant in this part of the country. See, San Francisco . . ."
"San . . . fran . . . cisco?" David stumbled through the strange name.
"San Francisco. That's the real name of the town you live in. When the Reliance came into power, they changed all the place names, often distorting them. Alcatraz. That used to be the name of this island. They distorted the name to Alsterase, and it became the name of the town, not just the island." He had everyone's attention now. He sat down in his chair and felt rather like a father telling his children a bedtime story about the days of his youth. "Anyway, the disease was greatly ignored until it started to affect the heterosexual community. By the time they started to try to really cure the disease, millions had already died. I jumped on the bandwagon early and started experimenting with real cures. It wasn't easy. You see, AIDS – which stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome—destroyed the victim's immune system, so I was trying to create a vaccine that would make the body regenerate itself. Everyone said I was mad. They were right, of course, but I didn't like the way they said it. I worked day and night trying to prove them wrong. What I wound up with was something that caused near total regeneration. I gave it to a rat. I cut its leg off, and it grew a new one. I fed him deadly poison, and he got fat and healthy. I kept him up for days on end, and he didn't even get tired. I blew enough smoke into his lungs to corrode them six times, and he didn't even cough. Finally, I cut it in half . . ."
"And it lived?" David wondered in awed shock.
"No, it died. But I thought I'd never kill the bastard. Hell, I didn't even like the bloody thing. Had a dog I loved once, it caught cold and died, but this thing I couldn't kill . . ."
RJ coughed.
"At any rate, I took the stuff . . ."
"And became immortal," RJ said.
"I wanted to say that," Topaz said with a pout. "Unfortunately, I couldn't reproduce the drug."
"Why not?" David asked.
"Because apparently it wasn't my genius that created the serum in the first place, but the will of God. To be more specific, somehow something got into it that I didn't put in it. Something fell into it, or the weather caused an unrecorded reaction. Or maybe I did do it during one of those sleep-walking stages I drove myself into, and I didn't record it. I don't know. I only know that I was never able to reproduce the shit. And believe me, I have tried many times. It's just as well, I suppose. Man was never meant to live forever." He paused. "Although they used s
ome of my research when they created the first GSHs. So, how mad was I?
"As for why I built Marge. Well, that is very simple. When one lives forever, one is constantly bereft of loved ones. I have watched friends, lovers, even my own children die of old age. Marge can't die. So, I can have a fondness for her without fear of loss."
RJ had no problem knowing what he was talking about.