For a moment the enormity of the task in front of her made her feel sick to her stomach.
Focus, Aja! she thought. It’s just math! You know how to do this.
She waited until the grinding began. The walls began moving, the entire maze reconfiguring again. The grinding stopped. She kept count in her head of the seconds as they passed. Then she just sat down on the floor and waited, letting three more cycles pass.
Yes! It was regular as clockwork! The walls moved for exactly thirty seconds. And they moved on one-minute intervals. Not every single minute. But each move began anywhere from one to five minutes after the previous one. Exact to the second.
She began scribbling on the floor with her finger, making patterns in the grime that coated the rock. The symbols on the walls were suddenly as clear in her head as—
And then she had it! The pattern. The walls changed at regular intervals. And the symbols on the walls corresponded to…well, she wasn’t sure what. Not quite yet. It had something to do with the pattern of the passages. The maze was made of rock. Even if that rock was just a pattern in the Lifelight computer, still, it was modeled on real rock. It had to act like real rock. It couldn’t melt and reform. It couldn’t pass through other rock. So there had to be a limited number of configurations to the maze.
And one of those configurations had to lead out of the maze. If it didn’t, then Nak’s game was unwinnable.
Whatever you might say about Nak, she was pretty sure he wasn’t a cheater. Not by his own definition anyway. He wanted to prove he was smarter than she was. Which meant he’d want to beat her fair and square. There had to be a pattern and there had to be a way out.
The grinding began again. Again she had to flee to avoid getting squashed.
When the grinding finally stopped, it hit her. There were five symbols, five configurations of the maze. They were running in a sequence. But the sequence was changing. It was a complex numerical puzzle. She just had to figure out the sequence.
As soon as the walls stopped moving, she began scrawling on the grimy floor again.
There! She had it! The sequence ran backward. Eventually it would hit a stopping point.
What then? Zero. The final configuration was zero: no symbols.
The grinding began again. “Help! Aja, help!”
Again she had come to the end of the short passage leading to Omni’s cell. There was something different about the cell this time though, she realized.
“It’s getting smaller!” Omni shouted. “You have to do something!”
“Wait, Omni!” she called. “I’m gonna get you out. But I have to figure out how to—”
The huge door slammed shut.
Wait. She stared. On the door was a sixth symbol. That couldn’t be right. The sequence only had five symbols.
Then she realized she’d been wrong this whole time. There weren’t five possible configurations. There were six. When the sequence of numbers ended, the sixth configuration would happen. And that would end it all. Something terrible would happen to Omni. Probably the walls of his cell would move together and…
And that would be the end of Nak’s game.
She scribbled furiously on the floor. To her horror she realized that the sequence had almost run its course. There were five more reconfigurations. Then the game was over. Five moves to go.
From above her head, she heard laughter. She looked up and saw a tiny hole in the ceiling. An eye looked down at her.
She heard Nak’s mocking voice. “Took you long enough,” he said, laughing some more.
“The final configuration,” she called back. “It squashes the place where Omni’s chained up. But it also opens the maze, doesn’t it?”
“You still have time to get out,” Nak called. “I don’t think you can get Omni out too, though. Save yourself or save him. I don’t think you can save both him and yourself in five moves.”
She continued scribbling. Then she saw it. Yes! There was a solution. Nak was wrong. She could do it in five moves. Three moves to get to Omni, two moves to get out.
Nak continued to taunt her as she scribbled the symbols on her arm. Then she leaned over and erased her calculations from the floor with her hand. She had to follow the sequence of symbols each time. If she did it right, the symbols would lead her to Omni again.
The grinding began. Move five. She scanned the walls for symbols. There! She ran down the passage, looking for the next symbol in the sequence. There! She turned. One more and—
The grinding began again. Wait! She spotted the final symbol in the sequence just in time to make her way into the next chamber before the door slid shut. She waited breathlessly.
As soon as the next reconfiguration began, she was off and running. This time it was easier. She knew exactly what she was looking for. Again she found herself standing at the door covering the passage that led to Omni.
Two minutes later the grinding began again. Move three. She waited until she saw Omni.
“Come out!” she shouted.
“I can’t,” Omni screamed. He pointed to the door. “It’ll drop on me.”
“No!” she shouted back. “There’s a way. Come out all the way. The door will drop on the chain and break it. Then we’ll run.”
Omni shook his head. “I thought of that already. The chain’s too short.”
“Maybe it was. But it’s not now. See?” She pointed at the back wall where the steel chain was attached. “The wall moved.”
“But—”
Without another thought, she charged into the room and dragged the boy out. He struggled furiously. “No!” she shouted. “You have to come out all the—”
Wham!
The giant stone door dropped.
Omni screamed. In horror, Aja looked to see if she’d been wrong. Had the door dropped on his leg?
No. He’d gotten out completely. But the steel chain was so close that it had just torqued his ankle a little. More important, though, the chain had been broken by the weight of the falling door.
“Let’s go!” she shouted. The walls of the short passage were grinding shut.
“I can’t,” Omni whispered. “My ankle. I think it’s broken.”
She grabbed the boy in her arms and ran. The walls were closing in and in and in and…
Then they were into the next chamber.
The grinding stopped. Three moves down, two to go.
“Why can’t I get out of the game?” Omni said. Tears were running down his face now. “I don’t understand! Nak said it would be fun!”
“It’s gonna be okay,” Aja said softly, stroking the boy’s hair. “I’m gonna get you out of here.”
She sat, cradling the crying boy and saving up her strength. She hadn’t calculated on having to carry the kid. She just hoped she had the strength to make the next two moves in time. She stared at the symbols on her arm, memorizing the sequence. The key would be spotting them quickly and then—
The grinding started.
She leaped to her feet, threw Omni over her shoulder like a bag of laundry, and then sprinted down the next hallway. Then left. Then right. Omni moaned softly as she staggered through the maze.
And then she reached the final chamber. “One more move,” she whispered, setting Omni on the floor. Her breath was heaving and her lungs were burning. By herself the maze wouldn’t have been too hard to get through. But carrying the boy? It was brutal.
Before she could catch her breath, the grinding began.
Final move! She picked Omni up and began to run, moving through the final sequence. Left. Down a shaft. Up a flight of stairs. One final symbol. Where was it? Where was it?
There!
She dashed down the final passage. She’d only made it about halfway before the grinding began again. This time it was the ceiling coming down. She wasn’t sure she’d make it. Her arms were sore from carrying Omni, and her lungs felt as if they were full of burning needles.
Just a little farther! The ceiling was so low now th
at she had to run in a crouch. Just a little farther. She could see the final chamber now. Light—natural light!—was flooding through it. Faster! Faster!
But she still had a little farther to go. And her head was scraping the ceiling. She dropped to her knees, yanking Omni behind her.
Omni howled. “It’s gonna squash us! It’s gonna—”
And then they were free!
Cold air flooded the room. In front of them was a huge open gate. Beyond that was the great frozen lake that lay on the eastern side of Qoom. Free! They were free!
She set Omni down and raised her fists.
“We did it!”
Omni blinked. “We’re free? We’re out? The game’s over?”
Aja grinned. “The game’s over,” she gasped. “All we have to do is walk out.”
Omni whooped. They began walking slowly toward the gate.
And then, with a massive, horrible thud, a great wall of rock thundered down and slammed into the floor, cutting off the gate and plunging them into darkness.
Aja’s heart went into her throat. What had just happened? She’d solved the puzzle! And now Nak had somehow snatched it away. But how? She’d beaten the game!
For the first time in hours she became aware of her physical surroundings again. She had forgotten how frigid it was in the maze, the oozing rock walls making the maze cold as a refrigerator.
“What are we gonna do?” came Omni Cader’s high, thin voice.
“I don’t know, Omni,” she said. “I really don’t know.”
NINE
Shivering. Aja’s first sensation as she resurfaced from the jump was cold. Everything was cold. She lay in the jump tube for a long time, hugging herself and shivering uncontrollably. Her arms and legs were sore, as if she’d been punched repeatedly.
But that wasn’t the worst thing.
Failure. Total failure. A cloud of misery hung over her. She had failed to beat Nak’s game.
“Is she out?” a voice said. “Is she out now?”
“I think so,” another voice said. “But she’s in bad shape. I’ve never seen anything quite like this before.”
A jolt of panic ran through Aja. Oh, no! Somebody had found her. Before she had a chance to move—or even think—two strong arms slid her out of the jump tube. Around her was a half circle of faces. Headmistress Nilssin. The man from Lifelight Services who’d come to her room this morning. Dal Whitbred. A senior vedder, working furiously at the controls of the health unit. And a tall thin man with long black hair and pale blue eyes. What was it the man in the maze had said his name was? Allik? Yes, Allik Worthintin.
Headmistress Nilssin was shaking her head. “I can’t believe it,” she said. “I can’t even tell you how disappointed I am in you.”
Aja was still shivering so hard she could barely sit up.
“Stand up,” Allik Worthintin said.
“I still need time with her,” the senior vedder said. “She’s still not stable.”
“I don’t care,” Allik Worthintin said. “Stand up, young woman.”
Aja stood unsteadily.
“Do you have any concept of the problems your little stunt is causing?” Allik Worthintin said. “Your program has taken over eleven percent of the core.”
“Twelve,” said Dal Whitbred.
“Whatever,” the Lifelight director said.
“Sir, I have to protest,” the vedder said, still hunched over his health unit. “Her vital signs are—”
Allik Worthintin ignored him. “You’re coming with me, Aja,” he said. “You’re going to sit down in my office, and you’re going to tell us exactly and precisely how to shut down your little program.”
“It’s not mine!” Aja said. “How many times do I have to tell you. It’s…”
And then something terrible occurred to her. She’d seen Allik Worthintin with Nak. Why would somebody as important as a Lifelight director be hanging around with a sixteen-year-old kid? It didn’t make sense. Unless…
Unless Allik Worthintin knew exactly what Nak was up to already. The man in the maze, Press—he had said that Allik Worthintin was really Saint Whatever-his-name-was.
Aja’s teeth started chattering.
“Look at her, sir!” the vedder said. “Her lips are blue!”
“Look,” Aja said. “I’m trying to stop the program. It’s a game.”
“Young lady,” Headmistress Nilssin said, “if you think this is a game—”
“No! Not that kind of game. The program that’s attacking the core—it’s a game. It’s a tandem jump. And Omni Cader is still inside the jump. We have to get him out!”
Headmistress Nilssin looked at Dal Whitbred.
“Come on!” Aja said. “Follow me. I’ll show you. If you managed to get me out of the game, you can get him out too. He’ll verify everything I’m saying.”
“Secure her,” Allik Worthintin said to the burly man from Lifelight Services.
But before he could move, Headmistress Nilssin stepped in front of him. “That boy has been missing for two days,” she said. “If there’s even a chance Omni’s here, we need to know now.” Then she turned to Aja. “Show us.”
“He’s just down the hall,” Aja said. She stepped past the burly man as quickly as her wobbly legs would allow. She was feeling terrible, shivering as if she had a fever. And her entire body felt bruised from her encounter with the Beast. She walked down the hall to the tube where she’d seen the green shoes.
Empty.
The tube was empty.
“But—”
“Is this it?” Headmistress Nilssin said.
“Yes,” Aja whispered. The tubes were numbered. And Aja never forgot a number. This was the right one. Only…Omni Cader wasn’t in it anymore.
Aja put her face in her hands. Somehow Nak must have known they were coming. He must have moved Omni to another tube. For a moment she felt like just lying down on the floor and bawling.
Dal Whitbred was whispering into his communicator. After a moment he put it back on his belt. “Director Worthintin,” he said, “it’s up to thirteen percent. The program seems to be accelerating.”
“Get her upstairs,” Allik Worthintin said. “Five minutes alone with her and I’ll get to the bottom of this!”
Suddenly Aja’s mind flashed back to the maze. That man inside the maze, Press, had told her that she was special. He had said she was a Traveler, that it was her destiny to fight for Veelox. His calm voice came back to her. Sometimes the solution is that there is no solution. What did he mean by that?
She turned to Dal Whitbred, grabbed his arm. “Dal, please!” she said. “I think I can stop it. Just give me one more chance!”
Allik Worthintin snapped his fingers at the burly Lifelight Services man. “Now. Take her.”
“Please, Dal!” She tightened her grip on his arm. “I swear I was only trying to stop this thing. I have to jump if I’m going to stop the program.”
Dal Whitbred studied her face. It was obvious he wanted to believe her.
“It’s me, Dal! Have I ever given you any indication that I would try to mess up Lifelight? Headmistress Nilssin? Come on! That’s not me.”
Dal and Headmistress Nilssin looked at each other.
“Nothing else is working,” Dal said.
Headmistress Nilssin gave him a slight nod.
“Absolutely not,” Allik Worthintin said. “I’m going to question her personally. And I’m going to do it now.” He pointed his finger at Dal Whitbred. “That’s an order!”
Dal Whitbred swallowed. “Do you have the full authority of all the directors, sir?” he said. “Because unless you have the full vote of the directors on this matter, I have operational authority to do what I think is right. And I think we’re out of options here.”
Allik Worthintin’s blue eyes bored into Dal’s face. “Are you willing to stake your job on it?”
“Yes, sir, I am.” Dal’s voice was firm and calm.
Allik Worthintin said nothing.
/> As the two men locked eyes, the senior vedder hustled up behind them. He was a roly-poly man with a nervous face. “Something has gone wrong with the neural buffering,” he said. “I can’t guarantee her safety.”
“I don’t care,” Aja said. “I’ll take the chance.”
Finally Director Worthintin threw up his hands, his lips curling in anger. “All right. Fine. I wash my hands of this.” He turned and stalked away.
“Get me back in,” Aja said.
TEN
Cheater!” Aja shouted into the darkness. “You’re a cheater! You’re not smarter than I am! You’re not better than I am! You’re just a worthless little cheater!”
For a moment there was no sound. Just an empty, cold, featureless darkness. Omni Cader sniffled once.
Then, above them, a small square of light appeared. An eye looked down. “Oh, you’re so predictable.” Nak’s voice came out of the little hole.
“Predictable?”
Aja felt a horrible sick sensation in her stomach. What if she had been wrong about Nak? What if Nak was never going to let her out of here? There would be more Beasts. More sequences. More tricks. More gimmicks.
“I’m not a cheater,” Nak said. “I’m just smarter.”
“No offense, Nak,” she said, “but I’ve been better in math than you from day one.”
“Exactly!” Nak said. There was a note of triumph in his voice.
The tiny door through which Nak was looking slid shut. The room went dark again.
And then it hit her. She hadn’t looked deeply enough into the problem. There was a sequence to the rooms, yes. But there was also a sequence to the timing, too. The gaps between reconfigurations ranged from one to five minutes. There was probably some kind of sequence there too. And if there was a relationship between the time and the symbols…well, it would get into some seriously complicated math.
After a while the grinding noise began again. A new sequence, she thought. A new sequence would be beginning.
But how did it start? Was it random?
“What do we do now?” Omni said.