"Thank you for the lecture, Constantine," Blake said, "but what is the situation?"
"Revolt, my holy friend, revolt! The Tiberian Arena in Verona and the Darius in Baghdad are just starting the night games and things are happening. But already the Garibaldi in Milan, the Hadrian in Venice, and the Marcus Aurelius in Palermo are in our control. They beat us in Tehran, at Theodora's Circus in Istanbul, and at the Circus of Constantine the Great in Turkey."
"What about here?" Blake asked.
Constantine smiled. "Nero, down in L.A., is ours. The Romulus in New York is still undecided. We are winning all around in the Jim Bowie in Dallas, and in Houston they blew up the whole damn Alamo Arena. We have the Borgia in Atlanta, but I've lost contact with Detroit."
Linda spoke up. "They broke out of the Horatio Nelson Marine Arena in Liverpool in amphibious tanks and are raising hell there."
"Do you know anything about Plaza Montezuma in Mexico City?" Cardinal Crowe asked. "My brother is the chaplain there."
Linda shook her head. "Things are so mixed up. Things are happening so fast –"
"Where are we losing?" Blake demanded.
"The Custer in Chicago. They nerve-gassed the whole Arena. The Hannibal in Naples is a complete wreck. The King Feisal in Mecca was lasered to rubble by the army – people, Prince Hassim, and all. But I have hopes for the MacArthur Arena in Manila. We have some good people there."
"But the people are all bottled up in the arenas," Blake said. "Get them out, get them into the streets, up in the arks knocking out the police, capturing the television stations, moving–!"
"It is happening where people are allowed to concentrate, you know that," Constantine admonished. "We have captured, the majority of stations, but we get cut off, too. That's why we have to get the network here, if it isn't too late."
"I saw them setting up some big fuckin' lasers, all around the studio," one of the men behind Constantine said. "That one is going to be a bitch to take."
"Isn't there some way we can negotiate?" Cardinal Crowe asked.
Both Blake and Constantine gave him disgusted looks.
"I think that time is past," Constantine said. "We tried for years, but they just kept arresting the negotiators." He pulled a laser from his cloak and held it up. "This is what will give us liberty!"
Blake put his hand on the Cardinal's shoulder. "Every generation fights for its own liberty in its own way. I'm afraid this is the only way left to us. Those in power never give up easily. They never have, they probably never will."
Blake now looked at Rio. "Doreen?"
"No trace. One woman said she saw them leaving the Arena together, but was not sure where they were going."
Constantine said, "Your friend Franklin is all right, by the way."
"Granville?" Rio said eagerly. "Where is he?"
"He was recruited by a Mensa cell just after you were arrested. When your friend Voss started working with the bishops, Franklin went underground."
"Voss is working with the churches?" Rio asked, her face sad.
"Went right up into the hierarchy. Birds of a feather, I should say. He is probably holing up with the archbishop at Riot Central."
"Where's Granville now?" Blake asked.
Constantine grinned wickedly. "He has been working on Operation Sword, for the Order of St. Michael, to drive the wicked from the Garden of Eden. It's a strike plan to hit Riot Central."
"Why didn't you tell us Granville was working with us?" Rio asked.
"You had no need to know, my dark-haired wench. The Mensa cell went to considerable trouble to make it look as if your friend Franklin had been dropped in the chute to the torch."
"Why?" Blake looked surprised.
"Because your friend Voss had him on the 'Shoot on sight' list, that's why. But these old arks have a lot of warrens the blackshirts don't know about. He was well hidden."
"Thank God!" Rio said, and Constantine arched an eyebrow at her.
"First things first." Blake said. "We must secure the whole network operation." He gestured to Rio, Constantine, and Linda. "Let's go look at this network studio."
A few minutes later the four crouched behind a pile of concrete rubble, a result of one of Kong's giant footsteps.
The network roof had been broken and Blake could see the sky. Columns of smoke rose here and there, and quite a few military aircars were flying around. The mall before the network was filled with dead bodies, trash, a crying child, rubble, and, at the end, a barricade of unbreakable metal mirrors.
Constantine swore. Those damn mirrors will turn a laser, at least these lasers. But see those muzzles? Those are .5 GE Jupiters. Probably tied into the main circuit, too, or at least into the station's emergency fusion engine. They can outshoot us and outwit us, both. And the soldiers must be on their way by now."
Blake and Constantine turned to sit down below the edge of the rubble.
"If we could have hit fast enough ... Damn...!" Constantine's face was angry and brutal-looking as he pondered the problem. "I'm not certain a curse would work under these conditions," he said.
"GE Jupiters," Blake mused. "Jupiter. Zeus. Isn't there another one of those big monster robots like the Kong – a Zeus?"
"Yes, there used to be. They 'haven't used any of those things for several years. Scared the hell out of people and used to cause more damage than they were worth in production value." He stopped talking and looked at Blake. "I'll be damned..."
"Yes, you probably will. Where are those things now? There were others, the ... uh..."
"The Octobot; a big cowboy one; some kind of legendary dinosaur; a big ape – Kong, they called him – and Zeus. There were several dinosaurs, though, and some big snakes. Symbols of evil they called them – which shows you how people really know about symbology ... or evil ... or opposing forces." Constantine sneered and shook his head in disgust. "But let me see, where were they put?" His face brightened and he sat up, grabbing at Blake's arm. "Here! There's a dinosaur here, in San Francisco!"
"Where? The dinosaur must be Godzilla."
"Let's see ... They were going to have the ape and the dinosaur fight and wreck the old Oakland Bay Bridge; but before they could get all the clearances, some church official committed suicide by ramming an airbus into it. Zongos had been doing that for years; they used to jump off, too. But after they closed it and built cheap condominiums across it, that stopped."
"Never mind that. What happened to Godzilla, the dinosaur robot?"
"They were going to have the fight, anyway, out in the Bay; but about that time some Indian magnabot, Kali, I think, dumped on the Siva Arena in Bombay. Killing a few thousand Indians was no big thing, but the American ambassador and some church people got wiped out. So they called off the fight here, tore down what was left of the bridge; and that was pretty much the end of the big robots. That was what was such a big surprise when the ape appeared."
The warlock pursed his lips and shut his eyes. "Let me think. I seem to remember they stored him in some warehouse along the Bay. I seem to remember a picture of the two of them standing in a big warehouse somewhere in ... South San Francisco!" Constantine opened his eyes. "Yes, I think I know where that is. Right between St. Thomas and Iconium. Yes, that's it. They store a huge Christ there, too, something they use in religious parades, and some rather big angels that they fly around hung from aircars."
"Let's go get the damn thing and stomp this town down!" Blake said.
"Is that the way a pope should talk?" Rio grinned.
"That's the way this pope talks. Come on!"
"A pagan pope, that's what you are, a pagan pope." She shook her head.
They started running back the way they had come, and Blake's heart was pounding.
They paused long enough to give orders that the various factions continue the fighting, whenever possible, in the streets and throughout the arcologs. Constantine sent Linda off to meet with their coven and continue the spell-making, then he guided Blake and Rio down the p
assage that lead to the heliport at the south side of the Arena.
A sudden shout was heard, and the sound of pounding feet. Then a mob of bloodied men and women came out of a side passage waving weapons. Some of them wore full gladiator armor, others had only bits and pieces, and some were in motley civilian clothing. The man in front threw up his muscular arm in a sudden, violent gesture, waving his sword and giving a fierce shout of joy and recognition.
"Blake!"
Through the blood and dirt on his face Blake recognized Bennett, his fellow gladiator. Marta and Kapuki ran forward, too, and they all embraced.
"How did you get free?" Blake asked.
"A member of the cell assigned to freeing us slipped us a laser as we were coming out of the Arena yesterday. We started cutting our way out when we heard the fun starting," Bennett said.
Blake looked around at the group of twenty or so gladiators and others. Some he recognized as being in his training group and others he did not know. "Where's Neva? Rob? Where's–"
"Dead," Marta said. "Rob and Narmada got it two days ago, going up against an old Madman modification. Neva ... was hit an hour ago."
Blake held Marta close.
Kapuki said fiercely, "But Sergeant White got the sons of bitches that did it!"
Blake looked up from Marta's hair. "What?"
"Sergeant White jumped right in there and got every one of those bastards," the slim oriental girl snapped. "Sergeant White?"
Bennett nodded. "Once the fun started, he joined us. If he hadn't, I don't think we would have gotten out of the cells."
"Where is he?" Blake asked.
"Come on, Blake," Constantine urged.
"He got hit just a few minutes ago," Marta said. "Back there. He was leading, and ... we came up against some blackshirts with heavy lasers."
"Blake!" Constantine tugged at his arm.
"Rio, this is the bunch of fumble-footed zongos I was training with. Look, you children of fate, Rio and Constantine and I have something to do. I can't take any more time to explain, but I need your help and it's important."
Bennett grinned through the blood on his face as he turned to the others. "Come on, you zongos, let's get this revolution on the road!"
Chapter 31
Constantine set the stolen Department of Recreation aircar down next to a large warehouse close to the water's edge. Two massive arcologs rose close by, putting the warehouse in shadows. Between the two arks and off to the north, toward the city, the buildings became larger and larger, filling in all the spaces between the arcological structures, but here most of the buildings were only five or six stories high. The ten-story warehouse was the biggest structure in the immediate vicinity and had a wide ramp up from the Bay.
"They must bring them in on barges," Kapuki said. "No guards," Bennett said, fingering the laser they had taken from a dead policeman.
"Electronic alarms, surely," Constantine warned. "The Blackshirt cops would be too busy right now," Blake said.
The group spread out, lasers and arena swords at the ready. The warehouse door was huge, almost as high as the building and twenty meters wide, but next to it was a smaller door. They lasered this one open. Ignoring the alarms that rang furiously, they cut their way through two additional doors and into the huge main room.
"My God!" Marta said.
"In a sense, yes," Blake said, looking at the massive Christ figure.
Three figures stood in the room. The largest was the twenty-seven-meter Godzilla, a huge mythological beast that looked vaguely like a Tyrannosaurus Rex but with spines. It stood with open jaws, its face enclosed by a safety grid that was part of a ceiling-hung service device. A massive arm had been detached and lay on the floor, partly dismantled.
"Goddamn!" Constantine groaned. "It's not working.
"Maybe we can fix it," Rio said as they crossed the big room.
"No time," Bennett said. "What about that one?" He pointed to the smallest of the three figures, a seventeen-meter Japanese samurai warrior.
"Yeah," said Kapuki eagerly.
They looked toward Blake and found him gazing with a bemused expression at the third figure, standing by itself past the spot where Kong must have stood. The twenty-meter Christ was very realistic, wearing a white floor-length tunic and a deep-red robe. It had shoulder-length medium-brown hair, a short but full beard, and was the epitome of the Anglo-Saxon Christ – blue-eyed and fair, with serene features and delicate hands. They had all followed Blake's gaze.
"Oh, no!" Constantine said.
"You can't fight with that," Kapuki insisted.
"It would be blasphemous..." Bennett said, "I think."
"It only took two to run Kong," Blake said. "We could use both."
Kapuki was running toward the samurai. Before the rest got there, she had opened the greave shinplate to reveal the passage upward, and had disappeared into the samurai's leg. Bennett jumped in after her and climbed the ladder.
"Better get back," Constantine said. "These are likely to be a little awkward at first."
"Do they know how to run it?" Blake asked.
"Everyone does. These huge robots were very popular at one time and they ran lots of vidspecials on them. I wish we had the Octobot, though. That was a terror – eight arms, all kinds of weapons as standard, about forty meters high."
Blake looked up at the big, fierce-looking samurai. "Pageant. Bread and circuses. Shows and executions presented as entertainment. Manufactured excitement. Kill a pagan for Christ!" He shook his head. "I'll never understand human beings. Or gods, for that matter."
Constantine spoke softly. "You'll make a wonderful pope, I can see that."
"That's only for–"
A screech interrupted Blake, and one arm of the samurai jerked upward. Unfortunately, it was the arm that held the eight-meter sword. The weapon slashed into and through the roof. Bits, and pieces of metal and roofing material showered down upon Blake, Rio, Marta, and Constantine, who ducked away hurriedly.
"Sorry," boomed the samurai. His other arm moved more smoothly; then the sword was pulled from the roof with a loud, ripping sound.
"Get back against the wall, all of you," Blake ordered.
The samurai suddenly made a short hop out into the center of the cleared space. It made a loud growl and the sword swept across the air two meters over the heads of the crouching revolutionaries.
"Hey!" Marta shouted. "Watch it!"
The samurai stopped moving, and its voice boomed out. "I've got it licked," said Kapuki. "I just need a little practice."
"Not in here!" Blake shouted up at her.
"I'll get the door," Rio said.
"Don't do anything in here!" Constantine shouted.
"All right. But hurry up!" Kapuki boomed. "I'm anxious."
The door moved aside with a rumbling like thunder and Kapuki guided the samurai carefully outside. Almost at once, Blake heard her using her sword, cutting slashes into walls and severing a few poles.
Blake and Constantine ducked under the hanging robe of the Christ figure and began prying open the locked access hatch in the ankle. Marta and Rio lifted the robe edge and stepped in as they popped the door open. Constantine climbed in, followed by Blake. They climbed quickly up through the shin, the thigh, and into the pelvic compartment.
The magnacreature was a scaled-down version of Kong, as far as its interior went. Blake grabbed the ladder in the center and climbed into the chest-cavity control room.
The arrangement of control panels was very similar to Kong's, and the central sphere was exactly the same. Constantine was turning on equipment, and looked up as Blake opened the sphere door and stepped in. For a second he looked angry, then he snorted amiably.
"No, I guess I would be inappropriate in this," he said, waving around him. "Whereas Christ in you, your Holiness, would be more appropriate."
Marta looked from one man to the other, and Blake said, "Later. I'll explain later."
"Your dear friend from the gladiator days
is now head of the Roman Catholic Church," Constantine told her. He seemed wryly amused by this. "Pope Blake the First."
"Don't mind him," Blake said to Marta. "Help me."
Marta and Rio helped him attach the many sensors to his body while Constantine came over and thumbed through a manual he found.
"I think you can do almost anything in this," the warlock said. "Sit, run, bend over – though it recommends you squat rather than bend over. I think they don't want you to run, though, as they had a governor on that control. But I took it off. We are on green, with a functioning fusion engine, and the last maintenance was less than three weeks ago. They must keep this thing ready for religious functions, though I can't remember when they used it last." He laughed. "But then, those aren't my biggest interests. The churches have been trying everything in the last few years: big spectacles, bigger and bloodier arena events, holograms a kilometer high of Biblical nonsense, these big brutes here. They weren't above staging a few phoney miracles, either."
Constantine backed away from the sphere and started to fiddle with more of the controls. "This isn't my field, you know. Lucky they made these things fairly simple."
"I had some training tapes on big robots, but nothing like this," Blake said.
"There, that's the last one!" Rio said, stepping back.
"Better get out of the sphere," Blake advised.
The boom of his voice startled him. Constantine made a gesture at his throat, and Blake cut the exterior speakers.
"No use everything we say being broadcast."
"All right, let's try it." Blake spoke with no great enthusiasm.
"The board is green," Constantine reported.
"Hold on!" Blake said, leaning forward. "Activate."
Constantine pushed a button and the control room lurched violently. "Goddammit, Mason, will you stand like the figure should stand, to start? That adjustment is a killer!"
"Sorry. Okay, screens on."
The big screen in front showed the other side of the warehouse. The side screens showed views both beneath the robe and immediately outside it. Blake had no full-length shot of the whole figure he'd had inside the Kong.
To THE LAND OF THE ELECTRIC ANGEL: Hugo and Nebula Award Finalist Author (The Frontiers Saga) Page 29