Oath of Fealty Read online

  "Why did you and Delores ... "

  She felt him tense against her. Tension slurred his subvocalized response. "I never knew. She just dropped me. Meant it, too."

  "Skip it. What else do you daydream, love?"

  "Orgies? Never been to one-"

  "Too damn complicated."

  "Oh?"

  "It actually went like this ... no, I only did it once. Fun while it was happening, but they weren't very bright people, and afterward two of the men kept bugging me. I'm sorry I did it. I was curious."

  "With real telepathy you could show me."

  "I'll show you." She ran her fingers up his thigh, and he responded. "Just pretend I'm six different women."

  "I think you probably are."

  The table in the next room opened and sprouted a tray. Art went for the drinks. He handed a Pink Lady across the bed and said, "Now it's really official. The bartender knows."

  They touched glasses. Art wondered, "You've never been married, have you? Why not?"

  "Too ... hmm. What kind of a man should I have married?"

  "How would I know that?"

  She spoke aloud. "I try to describe him and I get contradictions. A househusband? How would I respect him? An ambitious type, like me? But who runs our life? Who takes care of the kids and buys the groceries?"

  "A houseful of servants. Or the service department of Todos Santos. No kid could be lonely or in danger in Todos Santos."

  She nodded to herself, then suddenly looked him in the eye. "Shall we?"

  He thought about it. Kids love it in Todos Santos ... the way Cheryl Drinkwater talked about the day-care center ... either of us could raise a kid, here, if we split up or one of us died ... get him a link to MILLIE at eight or ten? "Yeah. One?"

  "The only child usually has problems ... nope, you're right. Here it's one big family. She'd be okay. I'm not so sure about the computer link. Age fifteen, maybe?"

  "She? ... We could choose the sex."

  "We could, but let's not. Let's gamble. And I'll get my birth control implant taken out tomorrow."

  "Hah. Then we're just wasting our time right now."

  She rubbed up against him. "All I get is complaints."

  "I've been wasting time, all right. Jesus, what I've been missing! No, don't stop. Do you like this?" Fingernails scratching lightly in a circular motion just above her buttocks.

  "Like it."

  Against their mastoid bones, a shrill buzzing.

  And they were rolling in opposite directions. "Invaders," Art panted, running for the chair where he'd flung his clothes. "I knew it! Those kids were just a test run, and they didn't even know it."

  "We'll have to speak to them about their timing."

  "Harshly." He stopped with his pants in his fist. "Not too harshly. Damn, I don't want to kill anyone." MILLIE, phone link with Security. And tell Sandra I'll be at the worry desk in four minutes.

  XVII. SAVE THE MINOTAUR!

  The more technological sophistication we have attained, the more destructive we have become ... Humans are destructive in proportion to their supposition of abundance; if they are faced with an infinite abundance, then they become infinitely destructive.

  -Wendell Berry, author of "A Continuous Harmony"

  "Let me in, dammit," Tony Rand shouted. "Who's the duty officer here?" This time. This time. It ticked through his head like the sound of a clock. He couldn't think what to do with his hands, and he stamped in impatience. This time. What was keeping them? This time nobody would die.

  "This is Captain Vito Hamilton. My apologies, but you'll have to wait a moment - Ah. Positive identification. I'll open the door now, Mr. Rand."

  The door opened. He dashed into the Security control room. The quiet calm of uniformed men at work calmed him too, a little although there were signs that the guards took this seriously. Captain Hamilton was standing, not sprawled in an easy chair; and many of the peripheral screens had doubled crews.

  One screen showed a map of the underground service areas of Todos Santos, with moving red blips in one of the tunnels. Below it was a screen entirely dark. Rand went over to it, glancing at the name of the guard lieutenant sitting there. He pointed to the screen. "What's this, Blake?"

  Blake didn't turn around. "Paint. They spray-painted the camera before we even knew they were in the complex."

  "How'd they get in?"

  "Near as we can tell, they blew a hole through a wall separating the sewer lines from maintenance access Tunnel 4-B."

  Rand pursed his lips silently. They should have been detected in that sewer, detected long before they got near 4-B. "I need a vacant console."

  "Use this one," a guard said. He stood to give his chair to Tony.

  Rand punched in file names. FILE NOT FOUND, the screen said. FILE NOT FOUND. FILE NOT FOUND. "Okay, that's one of the problems," Tony muttered. "Detection information never got filed. How many bandits?"

  "Five, we think," the captain said from behind Rand. "MILLIE deduced that from the audio. Five, one definitely female, two carrying a heavy object."

  "Sounds like they're serious. I take it you haven't seen them."

  "Only one. They're screwing up most of our electronics again. And they seem to know exactly where the TV eyes are. Ah. There we go. Watch."

  A screen showed an opening fire door. A shadowy figure came through. Bulky, rounded, snouted ... Aliens aboard my starship! The figure came directly toward them, raised arm hiding snouted face, and aimed something at the camera. The screen went dark.

  "Knew right where to go again," Hamilton said.

  "Yeah," Rand muttered sourly. Right where to go. But this time ... "Who's in charge of this operation?"

  "I've been acting in command, with Sandra Wyatt sitting in Mr. Bonner's office. Bonner is just getting to his station."

  Tony picked up a phone. "Get Bonner for me-" He waited. "Art? Tony Rand. I'm down in Security. Let me handle this."

  There was a significant pause. "Okay. You don't mind if I watch over your shoulder?"

  "Would it stop you? Never mind. Thanks."

  "Right. I'll tell Hamilton. If you need help, just holler." The phone went dead.

  Rand smiled faintly, then turned back the screen. "Retch gas. Use that in Tunnel 4, all chambers," he said. "And get some people down to-" he thought for a moment, calling up a picture of the tunnel complex-"5-C. Have them go west through 5 and north through 6 manually locking all the fire doors, and report on the phone as they get each one locked. On the phone, not through MILLIE. And I want one of your people to keep track of their progress on a paper map. Got that?"

  "Yes, sir," Hamilton said crisply. "You think MILLIE's compromised?"

  "I know damned well MILLIE's compromised," Tony said. He felt a tight knot in his stomach as he thought about what he'd seen. Camera locations known. The thickness of the wall between the sewer and 4-B had been known. And MILLIE couldn't remember that she was supposed to monitor traffic in that sewer. There weren't many people who could know all that and fiddle with MILLIE's programming. Somebody was a traitor-probably somebody on Tony's own staff.

  He fished in his pants pockets. "Hamilton, I need a file folder. I left it at the guard desk in the Mall, one of the lockers. Here's the key. Send someone who can run."

  Hamilton was doing something about those orders, but Tony ignored it. Nobody knew everything about the new defenses except Rand himself. He called up files, found them logged and working. The bandits hadn't chosen their route in; it had been forced on them by what they knew and what they didn't.

  Back to the tracking programs. How were the bandits doing? Aha, Tony thought. "Let's try this." He began to type orders. The refrain grew in his mind. This time. This time.

  Captain Hamilton was surprised to see that the chief engineer was grinning.

  The five were sweating inside their wet suits. One reached for the zipper down his chest. The man next to him slapped at his hand, glaring behind the snout of his mask. They were all jogging, even the
trailing two who were carrying a box between them. Those two stopped, reeling, panting; then began jogging again. Their breathing was stertorous, and they stumbled frequently.

  "Sounds like Cheyne-Stokes breathing, doesn't it?" Rand was grinning like a wolf. "They'll start to fall over any minute."

  "What did you do to them?" Blake asked.

  "Well, I figured the next bunch of invaders would be in something like wet suits, in case we used VX again."

  "We're not? We really did obey that court order?"

  Rand nodded. This time. This time.

  "But-sir, I got the impression that we still had war gasses."

  Rand nodded happily. "So did a lot of people." And no wonder, since I spread that rumor myself. "So did the bandits. And they're coming in through the tunnels, and carrying gear to foul up our electronic detection systems, and carrying bombs or whatever ... a lot to carry. I never heard of anyone carrying an air conditioning unit to a burglary."

  "Me neither," Blake said. He glanced at Captain Hamilton. "So," Tony said, "I put some quartz radiant heaters along those tunnels to sort of enhance the effect. Now I'll bleed some air from the turbine heat exchangers into the ventilating system for the tunnels ... Damn, I wish the cameras were working. I'd like to see if they open their suits." He grinned widely, plainly enjoying himself. This time! "At least I can talk to them. They're coming to another interesting area. .

  "New construction," the leader said. "Look for new construction here."

  "How the fuck do we do that?" Sherry demanded. She was a big, burly woman, even without her equipment; and she was panting, hard. "It's all new construction. Now what do we do?"

  Then did the court magician's voice boom hollowly through the tunnel. "RETURN TO YOUR FORMER LIVES. NONE BUT THE IMMORTAL CTHULHU MAY PASS HERE."

  The leader shook his head, the snout of his mask moving from side to side like an anteater's trunk. "Fuck off!" he shouted. To the others he said, "We hope this is it. Put some charges here and get back out of the way." He glanced at his watch. "We haven't got much time."

  Rand listened to the aliens and muttered curses. "Just where are they planning to blast?" he demanded.

  "I don't know, but I'm clearing my men out of all the adjacent areas," Hamilton said.

  "Yeah, do that. We plastered new cement all over everything down there. With any luck they'll blow the wrong wall. Several wrong walls."

  The explosion overloaded the microphones, which momentarily went silent. Then two screens lit.

  "Nope. Northeast wall," Rand said. "They got some power lines. MILLIE can compensate for most of that, but we better tell the residents ... "

  "Already done," Bonner's voice said from the speaker. "Now what?"

  "We get to see where they're going," Rand said. He waited, then grinned mirthlessly. "Okay. Hamilton, I need your people to go down Tunnel 4 closing the fire doors. We can cut them off from their way in."

  "Will they care?"

  Rand shrugged. "You weren't supposed to ask that." He watched as another screen came active. A bulky figure advanced, spray can in hand, and the screen went dark, but a moment later the one beside it lit. It showed five shapes in profile: dull black, bulky, sexless, vaguely humanoid.

  "By God," Bonner's voice said. "You have another pickup?"

  "Sure," Tony said. In fact, boss, I have three more in there. Five's a critical area. This time ... God, I wish I could remember which people know about which cameras. If I had an implant- If I had an implant, Tony thought, I'd be getting false data from MILLIE, read directly into my mind. Just this once, I'm glad I don't. So try to remember: was it Alice who knew about camera 2, Tunnel 5?

  The invaders went forward through the tunnels.

  "Alma! Get your ass in gear, get moving!" the leader shouted.

  There was no answer. Alma's face was tomato colored. Her eyelids were almost closed, showing white. Every gasping breath sounded like her last.

  "Christ, she's had it," Sherry said. "Leave her!"

  "You goddam bitch, she's one of us-"

  "Shut up," the leader said. "Sherry's right. We have to keep moving. Get Alma's gear and come on."

  Reese hesitated, then ran the zipper on her wet suit all the way down. Now she might live, if the saints didn't use war gas.

  "They lost one," Hamilton said. "One's down."

  "Right," Tony Rand said, with considerable triumph. "One down and four to go. Get that one and take it up to Mister Bonner. Ah, search it first, and we'll leave the camera on it till your men get there."

  Hamilton said, "I'm not incompetent, Mr. Rand."

  "And I'm not tactful. Can you live with it?"

  No answer. Rand watched the invaders' progress through Tunnel 5. There were enough pickup cameras in the tunnel to track the four as they moved along, one ahead, two following with the heavy box, and one last who shouted orders.

  The Security room door eased open. The entering guard was a woman, looking still in her teens, and lean as a snake. She must have made Olympic time down to the Mall and back, but she was barely panting as she handed a yellow manila envelope to Hamilton, who passed it to Rand. Tony spilled the contents across the desk in one smooth motion, then tried to sort them while watching three screens. It wasn't working; he had to look down.

  He fished out a page and said, "Hah."

  Nobody commented. Tony shuffled through the notes- handwritten, barely legible-found another page and said, "Right. Get me Mr. Bonner." Dropped the papers and went back to watching.

  "You go on," Sherry said. Her meaty face glowed in the orange light, reflections off water, as if she'd just stepped out of a very hot shower. "I can't go any farther."

  "Get your ass up!" the leader shouted. "Put that mask back on!"

  "Go to hell!" Sherry said; but she said it from the floor.

  Gavin and Reese picked up her gear. The box was lighter now.

  "That's two," Rand said with glee. This time! "A hundred eighty degrees in there. We'll get them all before it's over." And we'll get them alive, this time ... He watched as the invaders moved across the screen, through fire doors, onward toward the central core of Todos Santos.

  "You can't let them get much farther along that way," Bonner's voice said.

  "Yeah, I know that," Rand answered. "Hang on." Hell. When will the others drop? He looked up to Hamilton. "Captain, give 'em more knockout gas. Those masks can't be comfortable."

  "Yes, sir." The guard captain continued to stare at the screen.

  "All right," Tony said. "I guess it wouldn't hurt if you put some of your armed people down there in Tunnels 5 and 6, sort of parallel to these yo-yos."

  Hamilton nodded eagerly, then began speaking orders into his headset microphone. "Bravo, go. Delta go."

  Now they took one more turn, stopped, then went unerringly to the TV camera. The screen blanked momentarily, then came on from another angle as Tony activated the alternate pickup.

  Damn, Tony muttered. Not much question about it now. "Art? Our mole is Alice Strahler. What do we do about her?"

  "Don't know yet. You sure?"

  "I mapped it. She knew about camera 2 in Tunnel 5. She didn't know about the radiants, and neither did the bandits, but she was supposed to enter a monitor program, and she didn't. And now they've knocked out a new camera she knew of, and didn't get one I never told her about. I've got another double check coming up, but it's her."

  "Your assistant."

  "Yeah. Art, she may not be guilty of anything but talking to the wrong person. She's a nice-"

  "Okay, I'll deal with Alice," Bonner said quickly. Yeah, Tony thought. But she never blabbed innocently, not in that much detail. Hell.

  Bonner's voice came on again. "Now just what are you going to do about those jokers down there? I hate to remind you, but they're getting close to the turbines and MHD systems."

  "And if they zap one of those, we've had it. Yeah, I got the picture," Rand said, "but is that what they're after? Last time it was start a big fire."


  "Uh-uh. Last time it was fake a big fire. Tony, it's the turbines. They don't really want to kill lots of people. Bad publicity. They want to make Todos Santos too expensive to run. Believe it, they're after the turbines."

  On screen, the bandits were still moving toward the turbines. They were slow, in a turtle's race with heatstroke, and Tony had one more surprise for them before their route was clear, but after that- What now? Wait? Send in Hamilton's SWAT teams? God knows he's got eager enough troops ... Tony looked up, and saw that everyone in the room was staring at him. Waiting for orders. My orders.