The Valley Beneath the World: The Fugitive Future - Book One

by Brian Lowe

  "Where did that come from?" Trocas demanded.

  "I don't know and I don't think we're going to like the answer," I replied, more calmly than I felt. "Can you get her to let go?"

  "Robot, do me a favor and let Timash go. Command override level one." Aerios didn't budge. "Robot," he said again. "Release the gorilla. Emergency command override level one-A-one."

  That time something flickered in Aerios' eyes, but she did not let go. Now that I had had a few moments to reflect, I realized that this was probably not the same Aerios that had guarded my door; being a robot, there could be a hundred that looked the same. This was probably one they'd assigned to Amal; if I could subvert mine, why couldn't he?

  -Timash, there is another ship approaching. Four life forms on board. I can't tell if there are any more robots. I'm sorry.

  "We're about to have company," I said. "Find some cover." Tierse vanished almost instantly, and Trocas, after a few moments' survey, inched past me to climb up to the ledge where I'd stashed the cannon in the first place. The robot didn't even spare him a glance.

  I heard Amal's ship come down, and soon there were several sets of footsteps getting closer. Four silhouettes appeared against the cave mouth, one held tightly against the shape next to it: Avanya, no doubt, restrained at gunpoint.

  "That's far enough!" I called, and they halted for a moment. "Just stay there until we work this out."

  Amal chuckled. "I know your friends are in here, and I'm sure they have guns on us, but I would remind you that we have your other friend right here. And the robot, by the way, will tear your arm off if I give it the word. Charming device, actually. We've never used them, but I can see the appeal. Easy to reprogram; the technology is three hundred years old."

  "It can't hurt me if I shoot you first." With any luck, he couldn't see that I was in no position to shoot anyone.

  "You could," Amal said, "but it's programmed to act on its own if it detects a weapons discharge, so you probably shouldn't."

  He might be lying, too, but I couldn't take the chance. I just hoped Tierse and Trocas agreed with me.

  "I could've programmed it to kill you when it found you," he continued, "but I wouldn't want to miss that. You see, my man Chor recognized you from our last meeting. We have some matters to discuss. You need to learn respect."

  Just when you think things can't get any worse… "Listen. My friends didn't have anything to do with that. They're from here. Why don't you let them go?"

  "Hmm. I think not. They're only Thorans after all, and… well, what other reason do I need? But now that you mention them, we're going to step inside. It's too hard to see you with the light behind us."

  I watched helplessly as the four figures moved closer, than edged off to the side where a spill of rocks gave them some shelter.

  "How did you know the cannon was even here?"

  "As I said, your friends are only Thorans. This one's mental shields are pathetic. I knew she was lying from the start, and Chor is very good at interrogating people. We stopped here, made sure the cannon was where you left it, and waited for you to come back."

  "That seems like a lot of trouble."

  "Not for you. You're worth it. By the way, that hideous little hut where you attacked me? It doesn't exist any more. I could've killed you while you were unconscious in that jail cell, but I thought I'd go back and do that later, after I took care of more important matters. But now you're here, so I can take care of everything at once. Which I want to get on with, so set the cannon down on the ground or I will tell the robot to take it off you."

  His tone didn't leave much doubt that he didn't care if any parts of me came off as well, but even if I cooperated, I was only delaying the inevitable. The only chance I had was if he was lying about the robot's being programmed to act in the event of weapons fire, but Tierse and Trocas were waiting on my signal, and there was no way to call out to them without Amal hearing.

  But there was someone I could talk to that he wouldn't hear…

  Rose, I need you to do something for me. I described what I wanted, and I heard her starting her lifting jets even as she acknowledged me.

  -Sweetheart, are you sure? I won't be able to help you if I do that.

  Trust me. It's all the help I need.

  "Why is your ship getting ready to leave?" Amal called sharply.

  "That's my co-pilot. Whatever happens, I want her to be able to get out of here safely."

  There was a muted buzz of mental interrogation from their end of the cave, Amal doubtless demanding to know why his subordinates hadn't detected someone else on my ship. The buzzing ended with no more pronouncements, so whatever they had decided, they weren't interested in sharing.

  "There is no reason for me to wait on you any longer," Amal announced. "I have places I want to be. This is your last opportunity. You can either give me the neutron cannon or I will have the robot tear off your arm and take it. Then it will do the same to your friends."

  "What happens if I give it up?"

  "Then we will all leave here together. Trust me, you will have an easier time of it."

  I doubted that. "All right! You can have the cannon. But the robot has to let me go so I can take it off. I don't want to drop it." A second later, the pressure on my wrist was released. "Let me turn around so she can lift it off me." I did so, placing the robot directly in Amal's line of fire. Get ready, Rose! I felt the cannon being lifted off. Now!

  There was a roaring of engines outside, and an enormous grinding noise as Rose drove the ship straight into the mouth of the cave, blocking it completely!

  The ground shook, debris started falling all over us, and everything went black.

  XXXXI

  There were shouts of alarm from all corners, and then Amal crying out: "Don't shoot, you idiot! You might hit the neutron cannon!"

  I could've have hugged him right then, because I was the only person not behind some kind of cover. I was already sidling away from the robot, but I was still out in the open.

  A flash appeared from Amal's position, and almost instantly a beam of red slashed the air toward it, followed by a cry and the sound of a body falling. One of Amal's men had tried to use his light and paid the cost. They wouldn't try that again.

  "Robot! Kill the gorilla!"

  I froze, then started scrambling away, not worrying if I made any noise. I was a lot less worried about being shot than I was of metal arms reaching out to crush me in the dark.

  I stopped to listen for the sound of the robot coming after me. There was enough grit on the cave floor that I should hear it. There! There was a scraping sound off to my right, a few feet above the ground, then it halted. It was replaced by a high whining noise, then a grinding, like…drilling?

  All of a sudden it came to me what I was hearing. The robot had been facing the ledge where Trocas was hiding. It must have been able to see him in the dark. But Amal didn't know there were two of us in the cave, and when he ordered it to "kill the gorilla," it tried to carry out its orders on the first gorilla it saw. Being a mining robot, it had pulled out a portable drill to make handholds so it could climb up to the ledge.

  When it succeeded, it was going to tear Trocas apart, because thanks to me, it was pitch black in the cave, and he had no idea it was coming for him.

  I didn't dare warn Trocas because if Amal knew I'd moved, he might decide to risk shooting at me, and I was completely exposed. But I had told Rose to block the entrance for a reason. I had a plan; I just had to execute it faster than I'd thought.

  To the Thorans and the Nuum, the lack of light was crippling. For me--I smiled and took a deep breath through my nose.

  And I had to hold my nose to keep from sneezing! Rose's maneuver had shaken the cliff, raising dust everywhere. I'd thought I could find my way to Amal by smell, but it was all mixed up. I'd tracked his scent before, but now I could barely breathe, let alone follow a trail. I blew the dust out of my nostrils and tried again, and there was a scent I knew, a scent I had sp
ent days and nights getting to know…

  I crept forward while the humans waited in the dark for something to happen.

  I had to move carefully because of the scrabble and debris on the floor. The closer I got, the stronger that familiar scent grew. I might not know Amal, and I might not know Chor, but I could pick out Avanya from a hundred others. Behind me I could still hear the robot at its work. The telepathic buzz from the Nuum had ceased. But when I got close enough, I could smell human sweat even through the dust.

  I was behind Chor before he knew I was there. He must have sensed me at the last second because he tensed up, probing the darkness, but it was too late. I put one hand over his mouth and slammed his head with my fist a couple of times until he went limp.

  What was that?

  I was close enough that I could hear what had been intended to be a private mental message to Chor. I sidled in beside Amal.

  "Lord Amal…"

  "Yes?"

  "Good night." And I punched him right where I thought his face should be. It was closer than that. My hand hurt for a week.

  Behind me a sudden flash of red light splashed off the walls and I heard the crash of a metal body falling to the ground from a height.

  When Rose eased her way out of the cave mouth, I cringed to hear the sounds it made and blanched when I saw the damage she had done to herself, but considering the alternative, I decided I could live with it. With the return of light, I helped Avanya past the bodies, and Tierse and Trocas emerged from their hiding places, amazement written on their features as they surveyed the carnage.

  The robot was lying on the ground, blackened metal buckled and shredded where Trocas had blasted it into uselessness.

  "How did you know it was there?" I asked.

  "I could hear it coming a mile away," he said. "I stood as far back as I could, and as soon as it made the ledge, I shot it."

  "We're lucky it wasn't carrying the cannon," Tierse pointed out.

  Trocas looked at the neutron cannon, sitting placidly where the robot had set it down.

  "You're right. I didn't think of that."

  There was a sudden silence. "Why don't you two go into the ship and find something to tie them up with?" I suggested to Tierse and Trocas as I retrieved my boots. Neither of them asked why they both had to go; they didn't trust each other any more than I did. When they returned with some spare electrical cord, we secured Amal and Chor. The third man was dead.

  I slapped Amal awake. I won't deny it was a pleasure. He gave the four of us a look that could ignite firewood.

  "You'll all die for this. Attacking a Nuum is a capital offense."

  "I wouldn't take that attitude if I were you, my lord," I said with an appropriate lack of reverence. "After all, you're going to be seeing a lot more of them."

  He frowned harder at me. "What are you talking about?"

  "You don't think they're going to let you go home, do you? As you said, attacking a Nuum is a capital offense. Not to mention all the nice technology they've got down here." I turned to Trocas and the Tanarians. "You folks are going to have to come up with kind of joint system for holding onto him, because if you don't both watch him, he's going to bribe the other one to get out of here."

  His face was bright red and he struggled against the cords to no avail. "Listen, both of you," he said to Tierse and Trocas. "Whichever one of you gets the cannon, I can promise you a reward. My father is rich!"

  "See what I mean?" Then I frowned and turned to Avanya. "Wait… didn't you tell him?"

  She put a finger to her lips. "Oh! I forgot!"

  Amal wasn't used to being teased. "Forgot to tell me what?"

  "The cannon doesn't work," I said. "It was sabotaged before we left Tanar."

  "What?" Amal and Trocas roared together.

  "That's right," I said. I shifted my attention to Avanya and Tierse. "And I think you two can guess who did it."

  "Vollan," Tierse volunteered quietly. "He's the only one who could have."

  Amal and Trocas gave each of us in turn incredulous stares that begged us to tell them we were lying, that they hadn't gone through all of this for nothing. And each of them in turn eventually gave in to the realization that we were telling the truth.

  "Here's what's going to happen," I informed Amal. "Your man over there, he's dead. And the smell of his blood is going to attract every predator between here and the lake. If I had my preference, we'd leave the two of you here to greet them. It's what you would do in my place. But I'm not you, so we're going to put you in our ship and the two of you will be my prisoners until we decide what to do with you. You understand?" I said to the others. "My prisoners," Neither Trocas nor Tierse looked happy, but they nodded agreement.

  They were both lying, of course. Even without the neutron cannon, between the Nuum and his ship, they were staring at a king's ransom. And either one of them would happily kill the other to get it.

  Amal was a pain, but he was right about one thing. Now that I was trying to read them, I realized that Trocas and Tierse's shields were garbage.

  XXXXII

  Everyone took a seat in one of the acceleration chairs while trying very hard to look like he or she was ignoring the neutron cannon lying on the deck aft of the crew cabin. Maybe I should have stored it somewhere more secure, but I was running out of room, and I'd had been busy watching both our prisoners and my companions, so I have to forgive myself on that one. Tierse had herded Amal and Chor into the rearmost seats and I had ordered Rose to secure them with emergency restraints.

  Trocas had taken advantage of Tierse's preoccupation to claim the co-pilot's seat, and was now giving her sidelong glances out of one side of his face and me out of the other. Tierse was keeping her gaze on Trocas while seeming not to look at anything. Avanya, feeling her lack of a firearm very acutely, was watching everyone and making no secret of it. I was trying to pretend that nothing strange was going on at all, but I doubt anyone believed me.

  I would have been within my rights to ask that Tierse give back her pistol, and maybe I should have, but I knew what would happen if I did: Trocas would point his rifle at me and order me to go back to Kur, which we obviously were not going to do. Then he'd threaten me, and Rose would get mad at him, and I had no idea what she would do. In the end, someone would probably get shot, and it was likely to be me.

  On the other hand, disarming Trocas would mean Tierse demanding to go home to Tanar, and I wasn't ready to grant that wish, either. Which meant that if she kept her weapon, while it solved the problem of Trocas threatening me, it did not solve the question of where we were going.

  Well, as my friend Keryl always said, when in doubt, do the most unexpected thing you can think of. Even if it kills you, at least the results will be interesting.

  I directed Rose to lift us to a low altitude and positioned her opposite the entrance to the cave where I had found the dead scientists. Perhaps I could do something unexpected and useful at the same time.

  "Rose, please target the mouth of that cave. I want to close it." I said it out loud, to reinforce my authority to my passengers. "Fire."

  They all stared as a thin red beam leaped from the ship to the cliff, and a moment later the cave was sealed by a rock fall. I heard Amal choke back a snarl as a couple of small boulders bounced off his ship's hull. I said nothing and simply watched the dust slowly rise, a grey cloud that in this environment would take hours to disperse.

  "What did you do that for?" Tierse asked.

  "I had my reasons," I said, but I made no effort to explain them. The dust cloud had a soothing effect somehow, the way it just drifted, like it hadn't a care in the world.

  I was so tired that for a moment I actually began to drift myself, and that's when I got an idea.

  I turned in my chair to address everyone, careful to keep my hand away from my sidearm.

  "I don't suppose if I suggested that everyone turn over his weapon so I could store them safely, that anybody would listen."

  N
o one gave me the courtesy of a reply. I sighed. "I was hoping… Rose, please secure chairs three and four for emergency landing."

  Rose snapped the automatic acceleration restraints, tightening them to a point where it was nearly impossible to move. Tierse and Avanya were completely enveloped in less than a second.

  "Before you do anything stupid, Tierse, if you try to shoot your way out, Rose will take defensive measures," I told her quickly. "Please trust me; I'm just trying to keep you from getting hurt." She probably knew I was lying, but she didn't know what parts to believe. I got up quickly and retrieved her weapon--not without effort--before it occurred to Trocas to do it.

  But Trocas was so stunned he'd relaxed his grip on his rifle, which had been his lifeline since we took off from Kur. Then he smiled.

  "I knew I could count on you." He slapped the armrest in delight. "We gorillas have to stick together. You don't know how long it took to get rid of all the humans on the council. And now that we have the cannon, we can take it apart and find out how to build more. Then we can march on Tanar and put an end to those murderers."

  I frowned. "Murderers?"

  "I know what they've been telling you," he said, sagging into a more relaxed pose. "Kur started the war; Kur set the monsters loose in the jungle and wiped out the other stations. They're lying. Tanar was the bioresearch station; they created a plague that killed everyone else. We only survived because we'd tunneled into the cliffs and sealed ourselves off." He was projecting sincerity with every ounce of feeling he had.

  "You don't have to convince me," I said. "I already knew." I turned to direct my words to Tierse and Avanya. "Tanar's wall isn't just a defense against the monsters; it's an airlock. I wondered about it the first time I went through--why build an airlock when a gate would serve as well? That cave I sealed? That was the remains of a research station; there were dead men, women, and children everywhere, just dropped in their tracks." The memory made me pause. "My mother is a doctor. She specializes in bacteriological research. I know a bioweapon when I see one. And then the Tizinti confirmed it." I ignored their quizzical looks. "At the time, I didn't know who was responsible, Trocas, because when Tierse told me about you, she said Kur was a bioresearch station. They said you'd created the monsters to control the Southern Valley and cut them off from the other stations, just like you said they would.