by Tom Andry
The wind kicked up under us and my feet left the ground, "Then we have to hurry." The floor whipped by as we sped down the hallway toward the stairs.
"Wait," I hissed.
"No time, Bob. We've got to get out of here and find the rest of the Bulwark before Ted gets out of the City."
Gale wasn't being as noisy with her flight as I'd heard, but there was no way to be quiet about it. Being supported on a jet of wind just isn't a silent process. I tried to argue with her, but she wasn't having it. We careened down two, three sets of stairs. More. Landings and hallways came and went, but Gale didn't slow. My head was whipping side to side, looking for an ambush at the bottom of each flight. But none came. Finally, we pulled to a halt when we ran out of stairs. It was a room much like the first one after the vault. Except, instead of a vault door in front of us, we were looking at a featureless door of metal that was barely distinguishable from the solid metal wall.
I bit back a curse.
Finally, Gale put me down and I felt the protective sheath of air release. Immediately, my ears started to throb and I had to swallow and force a few yawns to equalize them. It didn't seem like we had gone far enough down to justify having to pop my ears, but maybe it was a side effect of Gale's air sheath.
I blew a breath through nearly closed lips, "That," I pointed at it, "is a big freakin' door."
Gale nodded slowly. "Suggestions?"
"You huff and you puff..."
Gale cut me off with a look, "I thought you had a plan."
I shrugged, "I do. We get to the bottom. We peel off a piece of that bottom. We drop out. You fly us around and back through the blue field."
She turned on me, "That's your plan?"
I squared up to her, "You had a better one? I mean, other than, 'let's do exactly what anyone would expect and try to head back to the surface'."
Gale's lips turned white under the pressure of her trying to come up with a retort. Finally she settled on, "Shut up, Bob."
I smiled, "You're so cute when you're angry." I added under my breath, "And wrong. Definitely cute when you're wrong."
"I heard that."
"You hear everything. When I mumble, that's meant for me. You know that."
"That was a stupid deal when we were married. I don't have to pretend not to hear your snide remarks anymore."
I was looking around the room. It was like the others, except there were no long hallways off to the sides. Curious, I started to run my hand along the right wall where a hallway should be. Felt solid enough. I looked back toward the other wall. Looked solid as well. But something was off. What was it?
"Is this room the same size as the others?" I muttered.
Gale looked around. "I don't know. Looks like it." Gale turned to the metal door and closed her eyes behind her mask, her fingers quivering.
"Yeah," I nodded. "It does." I walked over to the other wall and felt it as well. Yep, it felt solid. "Hmm..."
I took off my right shoe, flexing my metal toes. Ted, whatever he had done, had tried to make me something that worked just like a real foot. I had to give him that. I started kicking at the wall near the bottom and moving around the room. I wasn't sure it would get me anywhere, but it couldn't hurt.
Everywhere I kicked, I got a dull sound. Until I got to the far right corner. It wasn't much of a difference, and honestly, I probably would have missed it if two things hadn't happened. First, the wall rippled slightly where my toe hit it. Second, Gale reacted.
"Wait! She strode over to me, "What was that?"
I shrugged and pointed to the wall. Gale stepped forward and put her ear near the wall and started knocking. When she pulled away, she pointed to a section.
"There. Right there. It is different."
"So, blow it open or something."
"I could," she stretched the word out, "but I'm not sure what's back there. We don't want to risk damaging it. Or setting it off. I thought you said you didn't want me to poke things?"
I scowled and looked around. It wasn't like we had many options. I supposed we could head back up and find some sort of hammer, but...ah, screw it.
I stepped forward and slammed the heel of my foot into the wall about waist high. It sank in like I'd kicked a huge pad of butter.
"Hmm..." I muttered, trying not to fall over, "wasn't expecting that."
Gale grabbed my shoulder and steadied me. "How is that not poking it?" she chided.
"Shut up."
Gale's eyes narrowed and the air around my ankle started to rotate. A moment later, it was like I had stepped into a tornado. The air burrowed between my leg and the viscous wall and pushed the two apart. My pant leg thrashed around violently, but the metal of my leg was undamaged. Didn't feel nice as it blew up my pant leg though.
Finally, I was free and I fell backward. Gale let me fall and stepped between me and the expanding tornado. Gale moved her hands like a conductor, the vortex responding in kind. The opening widened slowly, revealing a short hallway. After a few long minutes, Gale stepped forward and through the center of a tornado holding the wall open. I just stared at her. There was no way I was going to make it through that maelstrom.
Gale turned and scanned her new surroundings. After a moment, she smiled and the tornado disappeared. The wall snapped shut. I jumped to my feet. The room was deathly quiet. I waited, dusting myself off as best I could. My right pant leg was shredded to the knee. Alan was going to be pissed. His Chris disguise was new and he'd just had the clothes tailored for it. They didn't come cheap. Maybe I could get Gale to get the Super State to reimburse me for them. She probably would.
With a 'gurp', the wall fell like a mudslide. The concrete color floated on top of it like oil after the first fall rain. Underneath was a white substance like a milkshake that had been left in the sun for too long. I watched it run across the floor and into the shoe I'd set aside moments ago.
"Damn."
I walked over to the shoe and poured it out. I wondered if it would stain. Those were really comfortable shoes. It'd be a shame to waste them. With two fingers, I set the shoe down and slipped it back over the metal foot. It was hard to find shoes that were easy to put on metal feet. A problem I'd never really thought I'd have. Plus, they fit.
"This way," Gale said from the now clear opening, "there are a couple of doors down here."
I stepped through. The hallway was longer than I thought. There were three total doors: one about halfway down each wall and one at the end, facing us. The one at the end was labeled "Engines".
I nodded at the end of the hall, "Well, we can be reasonably sure Ted isn't anywhere in here."
Gale nodded. "Do you hear that?"
I shook my head.
"A sort of...hum maybe? It's hard to describe."
Once again the air around me grew tight and I felt Gale at my side. She, again, took my hand. I turned to her, "It's probably just the engines, right?"
Gale nodded, but it didn't look like she was convinced. We walked forward tentatively. I think we were both afraid we'd find another room like the one with all the bodies. When we reached the first door, we paused, smiling at each other nervously. Gale moved to the knob, but I pulled her back. I reached down and made sure my Inertial Dampener was still active. One of the advantages of moving it into my leg was that it drew on the leg's power source. Something that I was told was highly radioactive, but was assured wouldn't breach or give me cancer.
I spent a good number of nights not sleeping when they had told me that. After I bought a Geiger counter and confirmed it for myself, I started sleeping better. I still, occasionally, ran a scan. It was reassuring to have that little needle stay immobile. Mind assured me that she could tell me if something was wrong, but some things you just like to do for yourself.
Convinced that my Dampener was still on, I turned the knob and repeated the tests I'd done on the first few doors. Again, I didn't find any traps of any kind. That was something at least. When I pushed the door open, I found that it would
only open about half way before it met resistance.
We poked our heads in. The room was filled with machinery. Huge machines that were clanging and banging like old steam engines. Except without the steam. The most noticeable feature was a huge, central cylinder that stretched nearly the length of the room - somewhere in excess of thirty feet. There were metal grates on the cylinder and through it, a blue light glowed. There were huge cables running from the end of the cylinder and into the far wall. The wall that would have, I guessed, connected to the room at the end of the hall.
"Generators," Gale whispered over the din, her mouth nearly touching my ear.
I nodded and tried to ignore the shiver that ran down my neck as her lip made momentary contact with the side of my ear. I slowly closed the door and we crossed the hall to the second door. This room had the same machinery.
When we left the second room and the door was securely shut, Gale stopped me.
"It doesn't make sense," Gale whispered. Those generators are the main source of power for the City. I've seen them before. They power everything."
"Looks to me like they are powering the engines," I motioned to the door at the end of the hall. "Makes sense they are still online, seeing as we haven't fallen out of the sky."
"I suppose," Gale acquiesced, but I could tell from her expression, and the thickness of the air, that she was still wary.
Together, we approached the engine room door. I turned to Gale, "I'm hoping, if nothing else, there is an opening that can get us out through here. If not...well, we might have to head up and try it your way."
Gale smiled, "You better hope that doesn't happen. I'll make you walk the whole way as atonement."
I cringed, "Um...any chance I can trade one of those kisses in for a ride up?"
She turned to me, "Bob...you know..."
My eyes fell to the floor. I knew what she was going to say and I didn't want to hear it. A finger on my chin pulled my eyes back to hers again.
Her masked eyes searched mine, "I'll always love you." Her smile was sad.
I couldn't respond.
She leaned in and gently, tenderly kissed me. Her lips were...soft, but firm. Warm and just a touch wet. She had such precise control over the air around her that she always felt so soft and yet, underneath, there was such strength.
I brought a hand up to her cheek, but she pulled away. I licked my lips, savoring what little of her she'd left behind.
"But," she continued as if she hadn't interrupted herself, "sometimes love isn't enough." She placed a hand on my cheek. "You understand. I know you do."
I nodded, forcing a smile, "Doesn't mean I have to like it."
"I know. But don't you think it's been long enough? Haven't we given it enough time?"
I turned away. Logic was on her side. Of course it had. More than enough. And now she was having Rod's baby. If that wasn't the final nail, I didn't know what else could be. Maybe another marriage. That was probably in the works. She was probably softening me up for the marriage announcement with the pregnancy. She knew how I felt about kids.
Nineteen's face flashed across my mind. She didn't know everything. She didn't know about Nineteen. Only Mind did and she wouldn't talk.
Mind. It'd been such a crazy few hours that I hadn't had a chance to process our momentary contact. She'd said she was under attack, but that she had it in hand. I could believe it. She'd had me and teams of subcontractors installing all manner of upgrades and protection. I doubted that a direct nuclear strike could take out my apartment any more.
I shook my head, trying to clear it, my eyes squeezed tight.
My mind was trying to find anything to think about other than the woman in front of me. The woman trying to tell me that it really was over. Kiss or no, she wasn't coming back. I could lose all the weight in the world, stop drinking, become the man she remembered, and it wouldn't be enough. She'd moved on. I was the past.
I turned back to her, nodding, "Okay."
"Okay?" she cocked her head to the side.
"Yeah, okay. Fine. It's over. I get it."
"You've said that before, Bob."
"Gale, seriously. Fine."
Her eyes narrowed, "Okay."
I grabbed the doorknob again, "Just one thing."
Gale sighed, a smile playing at the corner of her lips. "What?"
"Consider making me Godfather of the little tyke."
Gale's mouth dropped open, "Oh, I don't know, Bob."
"I'm not just doing it to piss off Rod, I swear," I put a hand up with two fingers extended.
"It's three fingers. Weren't you a boy scout?"
I raised an eyebrow, "Did you think about that question before you asked it?"
Gale laughed, "Sorry."
I opened the door. The first thing I noticed was the lack of red light. A soft, white light illuminated the room. Inside, instead of banks of engines, there was a mostly empty room. I had half expected large banks of huge propellers. The cables from the walls that led from the generators ran to a huge, but ancient, computer console. If I had to guess, I'd say it was of a similar technological sophistication as my terminal back home, putting it at least five or six years behind the times.
The console was on a raised platform. The part of the device that was closest to us was a good ten feet long and sat about waist high. Behind that was a wall of ancient monitors, reel-to-reel databanks spinning madly, and large devices with lights, dials, switches, and readouts all over them. I couldn't see much beyond the wall of monitors though the length of the walls indicated that the platform was located about a third of the way into the room from the back wall.
Near the roof, just above the console platform, was a glass half-sphere filled with electricity. Inside were clouds and lightning and, I thought I could just make out, thunder. Electricity crackled and arced, but it didn't, I was thankful to note, pass through the glass.
I turned to Gale, "Does this look like an engine to you?"
Gale shook her head, her eyes scanning the room for any sign of familiar equipment.
From around the side of the wall of monitors and equipment strode two figures. The first was about my height or maybe a bit shorter and wore a lab coat. The second was on all fours.
Gale's voice was elevated with confusion, "Doe?"
Doe looked at us and smiled, the scar on his forehead bending under the force of his raised eyebrows, "Golly! Gale, Bob. So glad you're here."
His arm extended and I caught a glimpse of a metal box with a number of buttons on it. With a clang, two glass tubes slammed down from the ceiling. Gale and I were trapped inside one, though the other was empty.
Doe's smile didn't change, but his eyebrows dropped, "Well, I have some good news and some bad news."
* * *
Chapter 20
"Doe!" Gale snarled, "What's going on?"
Doe smiled and sighed, like a parent about to address a child who was throwing a fit in a supermarket, "Oh, I do so love this part." His voice had a slight accent to it. Not English, not Australian...I couldn't place it. "This is the part where you make the threats. Where you promise to stop whatever I have planned." His smile deepened, "Please, continue."
The air around us started to swirl. Gale was grunting and muttering to herself. I, on the other hand, couldn't keep my eyes off the second occupant of the room. Leon. My assistant. The super known as It. On a leash. My eyes narrowed as Leon avoided my gaze.
"It won't work, you know," Doe continued. "That tube is completely sealed. I've calculated the amount of air you'd need to break the glass. You don't have enough. Even if Bob wasn't in there taking up space. So, don't bother."
"It was you? All this time?" Gale hissed, her eyes burning behind her eyemask. "But you built the City. You've given us so many devices. You're on track to be a member of the Bulwark in a few years. Why would you throw all that away?"
"Golly, Gale," Doe affected his previous voice, ending with a laugh and switching back to what was his real voice. "When
you say it like that, I'll just give up."
"Because he's not who you think he is," I muttered. "What's the deal with Leon? Your first hostage?"
Doe turned his gaze to me, his eyes unreadable, "I suppose so. Though, not the only." He ran a hand over his head, his hair now obediently lying down, "I have to say, I'm surprised you're here. Either of you."
I placed a hand on the tube, "Not that you weren't ready..."
Doe laughed, the hesitancy I'd noticed in his voice now gone, "Quite." He moved over behind the shorter console and started pressing buttons. "But, as I was saying, good and bad news. The good news, if you choose to see it that way, is that Ted is, and always has been, innocent."
"A convenient patsy," I shook my head stealing a glance at the second tube. Could Ted be in there?
"Quite." Doe looked up at me, "He really did make it easy. Looking for the engines, hating me so readily...plus, no one really trusts someone who won't reveal what they look like." Doe shrugged, "Between that and some of the pranks he's pulled...well, it was very easy to shift the focus from me."
I nodded toward the second tube, "What's the deal with that? Press the button twice by accident?"
Doe smiled, "Just making sure your sentry is also immobilized."
I turned and Chevalier slowly faded into view, like a faraway gas station materializing through the heat waves rising off a desert road. She whipped out her sword and struck the glass. It didn't so much as chip. Without a second attempt, she replaced the blade and spread her legs. I thought she'd try something else, but she just stood there, head slightly bowed, her grey hood completely hiding her features.
From behind the wall of equipment, a hulking figure emerged - the blue and white clad super that Doe used as a sentry. Over his shoulder was draped a huge sack.
"Hey, 'dis da last of 'em, boss..." he stuttered to a stop when he saw us. "What's dem doing 'ere?"
Doe waved the large super away, "Throw them anywhere. We're leaving momentarily."
With horror, I realized that it wasn't a sack over his shoulder. They were bodies. Three of them. Crush shrugged his shoulder and the three slammed into the sidewall with a crunch of broken bones.