Chapter Six
The address Inspector Kovacks gave us was nearly two kilometers away but we decided to walk. Aside from having a chance to stretch our legs and enjoy some fresh air, I wanted to take a closer look at the city. Toula had never needed guns to protect its airspace before and that new development bothered me. Ever since it was first colonized close to a hundred years ago, Toula had been regarded by everyone as neutral territory. It was an independent settlement outside the jurisdiction of any of the star nations. The sun it orbited was far from the regular shipping lanes, while the planet itself was geologically uninteresting. There was absolutely nothing here that anyone would want, which is what made the guns so out of place.
Unless there was something going on that we didn’t know about.
As we ambled through the city streets however there was nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. Tourists swarmed the sidewalks wandering from one entertainment venue to the next. The shops we passed were all open for business, their windows displaying a dazzling assortment of exorbitantly priced clothing, jewelry and other items. Prostitutes in the bordello welcome windows were provocatively dressed but appeared clean and healthy as they smiled and tried to catch the eyes of the men, or women, who were passing by. Everyone appeared happy and relaxed. If the city was under threat of attack no one seemed to be aware of it. The activity on the streets seemed completely normal. With one exception.
“A man’s been following us ever since we left the police station,” Morgana said to me quietly as we waited for a crossing signal to change.
“Kind of hard to miss him,” I answered. “He’s got to be as big as Ian.”
The signal changed and we started across the street with the rest of the crowd. As we crossed, I turned my head as I pretended to look along the wide boulevard and was able to catch another glimpse of the man following us.
“Interesting outfit,” I commented. Morgana gave me a brief nod. She’d noticed as well. In spite of the wide variety of attire people were wearing, it seemed a bit warm for the knee length coat our stalker had on. He was walking with his hands stuffed into its pockets so he could keep the coat close to his body. It didn’t take much of an imagination to realize that he was undoubtedly armed. On any other world, security scanners would have detected the weapons and officers would arrive on the scene in minutes. But Toula was one place where public monitoring was outlawed. People came to Toula to be free from government surveillance so they could conduct whatever activity they wanted to in complete anonymity. Unless our mystery man actually started shooting at us, it was unlikely that anyone would give him a second look.
Since help from the authorities would not be forthcoming, we needed to deal with the situation on our own. I glanced around quickly and began forming a plan. We were on the edge of the gaming district and the pedestrian traffic was fairly heavy. As we crossed to the far sidewalk we stepped into the sunny side of the street. As soon as we stepped over the gutter I turned west, putting the sun’s glare in our pursuer’s eyes. Taking Morgana’s hand I increased our pace and started weaving through the crowd. Up ahead I could see the stone columns that marked the entrance to the Emperor’s Club. The casino’s façade had been built to bear a passing resemblance to the Roman Colosseum. Its outer walls were covered with intricate reliefs depicting scenes of epic battles as well as epic debauchery. Although it stood six stories tall and was wider than the length of a football field, the Emperor’s Club was one of the city’s smaller casinos. But with a gaming room that boasted greater than one hundred thousand square meters of floor space, we should be able to lose ourselves among the tables and gambling machines to slip out through a side entrance.
We were within a few meters of the casino’s driveway when two men stepped out from a doorway in front of us. I had been so intent on our objective that I never noticed them. I tried to dodge around them but they sidestepped at the same time and managed to stay in our way. I was about to shoulder my way past them when I felt a hard object press into my side. I looked down and saw that the man in front of me had the barrel of a blaster pistol jammed into my ribs. The second man was threatening Morgana in the same way.
We froze, then slowly looked up into our assailants faces. Incredibly, they both gave us broad smiles and reached out to clasp each of us in a light hug. Whoever they were they were good. To anyone passing by it would look like we were being greeted by some old friends when in actuality they were giving us a quick pat down. Just as they finished searching us I felt a presence come up behind me. I looked back to see the man who had been following us standing right over my shoulder. As I looked up at him I revised my earlier opinion—he was even larger than Ian. And unlike the men holding guns on us, he wasn’t smiling.
While his two accomplices kept their weapons pressed into our middles, the giant reached for his ear. That was when I noticed the phone he was wearing. He must have been in touch with his two companions the whole time he was following us, relaying our movements to his men so that they could circle around in front of us and set up this ambush.
“Bring the car,” the giant said in a deep, gravely voice.
With the barrels of their guns placed firmly against our livers there was nothing we could do. Instead, I tried to make myself relax. If an opportunity to escape presented itself, being tense would only hinder my reflexes. Moments later a black hoverlimo pulled up to the curb, dark tinted windows concealing its interior. The giant moved to the car as the gullwing door hummed open and his companions directed us to get in. We climbed inside and took the back seat while the gunmen sat in the rear facing seat across from us. Their guns never wavered. At this range, if we even twitched the wrong way they could blow gaping holes through us. We were careful to sit very still. Once the door swung down into place and locked, the giant climbed into the front. At his direction the driver nosed into traffic and we set off.
We were on the city’s main boulevard, commonly known as ‘The Strip’. All of the major gaming and entertainment establishments were located on this street. Towering complexes appeared around us as we drove deeper into the center of the city. Each of the resorts we passed was grander than the next, and each had a theme. Once we were past the Emperor’s Club, Brigand’s Cove came into view. The front of this resort had been made to look like an ancient seacoast town and even boasted an artificial lagoon with a half sunken galleon in the wide plaza before its main entrance. Across from that was Pharaoh’s, built in the shape of three immense, interconnected pyramids with a half scale replica of the sphinx in its front plaza. Further along was the Frontier Club whose façade resembled an old American west town complete with wooden porches and swinging doors. After that was Camelot. This one was built to resemble a medieval castle. With soaring towers and battlements, and brilliant pennants fluttering in the wind, it was one of the most elaborate entertainment complexes in the city. Along with several floors of gaming rooms, inside the resort there was also an arena where actors dressed as knights rode live horses in jousting competitions for cheering audiences as part of an extravagant show.
The only resort that was more elaborate than the Camelot was the one we seemed to be heading toward. It loomed fifty stories above us. The front of the building curved inward and sloped down toward the main entrance. From the highest point in the center, both wings of the building also curved down in broad arcs until they reached the ground. Glass panels covered the entire face of the building and reflected the brilliant midday sky. Randomly spaced, semi-circular balconies were scattered across its face casting dark shadows which resembled craters. From the ground, the effect was that of looking at a brilliant half moon.
The Moon Palace was the focal point of the city. The Strip ran directly toward the towering resort. Then the road took a downward dip to pass under the resort complex and continue from the other side. For those who were heading to the hotel, service roads branched off The Strip and le
d directly to the casino’s sweeping driveway. In the middle of the front plaza was an immense fountain whose jets of water shot several stories into the air. In keeping with the resort’s theme, the fountain centerpiece was a massive chunk of translucent crystal that was artfully illuminated from within to resemble a glowing meteorite.
As our car slowed and pulled onto the hotel’s access ramp, I was momentarily confused. My original thought was that we were being taken to some out of the way place at the edge of the city where we would either be worked over for information or just plain killed outright. Taking us to such a prominent, public place seemed unreasonable. Then I remembered that the rooms in the Moon Palace were soundproofed to allow patrons to indulge in raucous parties without disturbing their neighbors. Our captors could do anything they wanted with us and no one would hear a thing.
While I still wasn’t sure why we were being kidnapped in the first place, in the back of my mind I couldn’t help thinking about the last time we were in Toula, when someone had slipped a bomb aboard our ship. At the time I figured that they weren’t after us as much as they were the Fleet crew we had rescued. The only thing that made sense was that the sub which had attacked their scout ship had been hiding nearby when we came along and rescued Captain Saha and his crew. I assumed that the bomb planted on our ship, along with the subsequent torpedo attacks, were their attempts to prevent us from returning the captain to Fleet Command. I had hoped that the reputation we’d established over the years as an independent trade ship would have convinced them that we were not Fleet agents. Apparently I had underestimated their enmity toward us. Whoever it was must still be holding a grudge.
Moments later the car glided to a halt. The door raised and one of the men facing us climbed out to keep us covered while we stepped out after him. Once we were standing beside the limo the second man climbed out and each of them put an arm around one of us so that they could keep their guns pressed into our sides without drawing attention to themselves. Their actions showed that they were they were experienced professionals who weren’t taking any chances that we might decide to make a break for it.
“Interesting architecture,” Morgana commented as she stared up at the sloping face of the building.
I looked up, following her gaze, and a moment later it hit me what she was talking about. We exchanged quick glances and I knew that I was right about what she had in mind. I only hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
Just then the giant stepped in front of us. He looked each of us in the eye. That single look was enough to convey the message that if we tried anything his men would cut us down. Then he turned and led the way toward the main entrance. We followed quietly, with our two new best friends holding us tightly and smiling.
A live doorman opened one of the doors for us as we approached the entrance. He seemed to recognize the giant and greeted him with a smile and nod as we entered the building. The hotel lobby was an immense open space. The floor and walls were covered in solid marble that was polished to a high shine. Above us, railed balconies reached all the way to the top most floors of the hotel. The balconies were arranged like the inverted layers of an impossibly huge cake, each one projecting further into the lobby above the one below. Far overhead, a broad skylight stretched across the entire ceiling, admitting the midday sun. A number of banners, each of which was several stories tall, hung at regular intervals around the space, advertising the various entertainers who were currently appearing at the resort. A second fountain, a smaller copy of the one outside, sat in the middle of the lobby, with its own geysers of water that shot high into the air. Above the fountain, actors costumed in old fashioned space suits floated in the grip of antigrav fields below mock ups of antique spacecraft and ‘UFOs’. Across from the entrance was the main desk where a small platoon of staff members was assisting a number of guests. And beyond the desk on both sides were the gaping entrances to the ground level casinos. Each doorway was at least a dozen meters wide, giving an unobstructed view into the cavernous gaming halls. Muting fields kept the sound from the halls reduced even though hundreds of people could be seen in each of the rooms.
In spite of the generous dimensions of the lobby, the space was filled with people crisscrossing the area on their way to their next choice of entertainment. The mere appearance of the giant however caused people to divert around him, creating a gap that allowed us to follow along in his wake. He led us toward a bank of free standing, glass encased lifts between the main entrance and the front desk. Walking to the center one he looked at the retinal scanner which recognized him and opened the lift doors. It was a private car that led directly to the penthouse. Once all of us had stepped into the car the doors closed quietly behind us. A moment later the lift began ascending so smoothly that I would never have known we were moving if it were not for the glass all around us. As the lobby dropped away beneath our feet, I looked over at the man holding a gun in my side.
“You know, if we’re going to be getting all touchy-feely with each other we really should introduce ourselves,” I said.
“Shut up, Pell,” the giant rumbled without turning around. “I was told to bring you to see the boss. He didn’t say anything about what condition you had to be in.”
My mind raced. That brief exchange told me several things. The most important was that they still thought I was Cordass Pell. But whoever our captors worked for remained a mystery. One thing I did know was that the men holding us were dangerous. We needed to find a way to get away from them as quickly as possible. As the lift continued its ascent toward the highest levels of the hotel however, the chances of our escaping seemed to be rapidly diminishing.
Moments later the car slowed to a stop and the doors opened. We had reached the top floor. The giant stepped out into the richly appointed hallway and our captors followed behind him, pulling us with them. The curved hallway ran for dozens of meters in each direction. To our left the hallway opened into a small lounge area furnished with a number of thickly cushioned chairs arranged around a low table. Three men were sitting around the table playing some kind of dice game. Each of them openly wore shoulder holsters with mean looking blaster pistols strapped under their arms. They glanced up as we exited the lift, then went back to their game when they saw who it was. In the other direction the hall dead ended at a door that appeared to lead to an emergency stairwell. Two more armed men were posted there as well. Behind us a chest high wall separated the hall from the spacious atrium and the fifty story plunge to the lobby below. Directly in front of us was a pair of wide double doors which led to the only guest room on this floor—the penthouse suite. Whoever had sent the giant to find us had considerable resources at his disposal.
The giant stepped up to the double doors. The retinal scanner flashed his eyes and the door unlocked with a soft snick. Stepping aside, the giant pushed the doors open and motioned us in. His accomplices released their hold on us at that point, pushing us ahead of them. I glanced into the suite and got the impression of a spacious common area with deep pile carpeting and expensive furnishings. In the center of the far wall was a pair of wide glass doors which led to a broad balcony. The balcony doors had been opened to admit fresh air and a gentle breeze billowed the curtains.
Something about the way the room was arranged struck me as odd. Then I realized that all of the furniture had been pushed back against the walls except for two heavy chairs that were positioned in the center of the room. As I looked more closely I felt a chill go up my spine. A number of thick straps were piled on the seats of each chair and the floor beneath them was covered with a large, plastic tarp. Apparently they didn’t want to stain the carpeting.
I shot Morgana a look. She met my gaze and held my eyes wordlessly. I flicked a glance into the room then back at her. Morgana nodded her head almost imperceptibly. We had only been standing there for a moment, but when we didn’t move immediately the gunmen shoved us from behind a second time, st
arting us forward. I reached out and took Morgana’a hand. The giant eyed us suspiciously as we stepped toward the doorway. I ignored him and started giving her hand brief squeezes as we walked, counting off the seconds until we would make our move. One, two, three—
Without a backward glance we charged full tilt into the suite. Time seemed to slow to a crawl and I felt the muscles in my back tense as I waited for a blaster bolt to sear into me from behind. Our actions must have either caught our captors by surprise or else they figured we had nowhere to go. Either way, no shots were fired at us for those first critical moments as we sprinted across the room. Our feet slapped sharply against the thick plastic sheet in the center of the room as we raced around the chairs toward the open balcony doors. And still our kidnappers held their fire. The room appeared unoccupied, although I thought I might have caught movement in one of the adjoining rooms from the corner of my eye. I wasn’t about to stop and check.
We had nearly made our way to the balcony when the first shots came streaking after us. Dodging and weaving the last few meters, we sprinted onto the balcony as glass fragments sprayed us from a shot that shattered the door right next to my head. As soon as we hit the balcony we split up. I charged to the left while Morgana headed right. The instant I reached the railing I vaulted over it, praying that another balcony was not too far below.
I slammed against the sloped glass front of the hotel and started sliding down. Looking between my knees I watched the ground rushing toward me from a dizzying height as I quickly began to pick up speed. From this perspective it felt like I was inside an immense bowl, and the slope I was on was not nearly as gentle as it had appeared from the ground. I instinctively slapped out with my hands and feet, bracing myself as I tried to slow my rapid descent. I felt the skin on my palms being frictioned away as I pressed against the glass with all of my strength. In spite of my efforts I continued to find myself accelerating. Then I realized that the nearest balcony was not only several stories below but off to one side. I began desperately flailing against the slick surface beneath me as I tried to steer my course toward it. Miraculously, I actually felt myself beginning to angle toward my target. Moments later I shot off the face of the building.
I landed hard and fought to stay on my feet. Unfortunately, my momentum was so great that I took several running steps toward the edge of the balcony, tripped and tumbled over the railing. I twisted madly as I went over the bar, somehow managing to snag the banister with one hand. My arm felt like it was being ripped out of its socket but I held on as I slammed against the iron latticework. I hung there twisting slowly in mid air for a moment until I was able to grab the top bar with my other hand. In spite of the fire in my shoulder I managed to chin myself up and over the railing to tumble to the deck.
Ignoring my injured shoulder, I rolled to my knees and pushed myself shakily to my feet. I looked across the face of the building and saw Morgana watching me from the balcony she had landed on which was a couple of stories higher than where I had wound up. As soon as she saw that I was safe she sprinted through the open balcony doors and disappeared inside. For the moment she was safe. I turned back to the face of the building and stumbled toward the balcony doors there. Grabbing the handles I tugged on the doors only to find that they wouldn’t move. I was locked out!
For a moment I just stood there in shock. Most spacers relished the idea of breathing fresh air. After being cooped up within the confines of a spaceship for days, weeks or even months at a time, most people gratefully threw open every window and door they could reach to indulge themselves in the luxury of a breathable atmosphere. It was just my bad luck to happen upon the hotel room of an agoraphobe.
I was standing there trying to decide what to do when I saw something move inside the room. I cupped my hands around my eyes and squinted through the glass. As I peered into the room I saw motion again. Unlike the balcony I had leapt from, this one opened directly into the suite’s bedroom. Someone was on the bed.
I started pounding against the glass to get the person’s attention but whoever it was ignored me. I renewed my efforts, hammering with both fists this time, but again was ignored. Then I recognized the rhythmic motions that I was seeing. I stood there for a moment with both hands pressed against the door as I tried to come up with a way to get their attention. That was when I noticed the vibration of the glass. At first I thought I was just feeling my own heartbeat throbbing through the abraded skin of my palms, until I realized it was actually being caused by loud music coming from inside the suite. Between the room’s soundproofing and the blaring music they were playing it was no wonder they couldn’t hear me.
I thought about trying to break the glass but knew that it was stronger than my bare hands. I looked around desperately but saw nothing I could use to break into the room. I was about to turn away at that point when something odd grabbed my attention. I cupped my hands to my eyes again and took a closer look. It took me a few seconds to realize that the shapes I saw outlined beneath the sheets belonged to more than two people, possibly even more than three. Whoever was in there was far too involved in what they were doing to notice me.
At that instant a blaster bolt slammed into the terrace next to my foot. Time to go!
Like before, I didn’t have the chance to think about what I was doing. I simply raced to the far end of the balcony as blaster fire rained down around me and dove over the side. I tried not to think about the pain in my raw palms as I pressed my hands against the glass in an attempt to control my sliding descent. Providence was with me and the nearest balcony was only a few levels down and directly beneath me. This time when I shot onto the terrace I didn’t try to stay on my feet. Instead, I tucked and rolled. I tumbled briefly and slammed into the railing but suffered nothing worse than having the wind knocked out of me.
I immediately pushed myself into a crouch and glanced up. Luck stayed with me. The balcony I was on was positioned in such a way that the one I had just leapt from was between me and the men shooting at me. I surged to my feet and dashed toward the balcony door. This one was wide open and I raced inside. The room was vacant and I sprinted across to the door and rushed into the hallway beyond. I glanced around quickly, noting by the room numbers that I was on the thirty-fifth floor. To my left the hallway connected with a railed walkway that projected out to a platform in the main atrium and the bank of lifts that serviced the upper floors. From the small group of people waiting there I knew that no cars were on this floor. I also knew that I couldn’t afford to wait for one to come. The giant and his accomplices had access to an express lift directly to the lobby. They would get there well ahead of me and would be waiting for me to step off into their arms. I needed another way down and I needed it quickly.
Across from me the hallway opened into the spacious central atrium. I hurried over to the half wall and looked down. Several stories below the floor I was on I could see the costumed actors floating in the air like astronauts on a space walk. An idea suddenly sprang into my mind.
I didn’t let myself think about what I was about to do. Before I could change my mind I climbed onto the half wall and dangled my legs over the side as I studied the scene below. Scooting my hips half a meter to the left I lined myself up, took a deep breath, and jumped.
For the first several floors I was in free fall. As I left my stomach behind, a corner of my brain was screaming that this wasn’t going to work. Then I felt myself enter the upper layer suspensor field. As I had hoped, the field grabbed me and started to slow my plummet toward the lobby. As I passed deeper into the field I felt myself being tugged to the right. Then, as I descended further, I felt myself transition into the next layer where I was pulled back to the left. By some stroke of luck I managed to avoid colliding with the various mock up spacecraft and UFOs as I passed through the suspensor fields. As I descended through the different layers I felt my downward motion slowing even more until I entered the
bottom layer which completely halted my downward motion as it swept me off to the right.
Looking around I saw the actors staring at me in disbelief. I smiled at them and waited for the field to bring me all the way across to the far side of the room where a vertical bar projected down from the nearest overhanging gallery. When the suspensor field carried them across to this side of the room, the actors would grab the bar and swing around it to continue back across the room as they traveled along the invisible conveyor belt. When I reached it, however, I used the bar to launch myself toward a large banner advertising a famous comedian who was currently appearing in one of the resort’s theaters. Just as I was reaching for the banner I felt myself slip out of the edge of the suspensor field. I grabbed onto the banner as I began to fall again, wrapped my legs around the shimmering material and started down.
My abused hands protested as I let myself slide toward the lobby, but I forced myself to hold on. Looking below me I saw that the bottom of the banner ended several meters above the floor. I squeezed tighter with my legs and hands, slowing my descent until I had almost reached the end. Shinnying carefully down the last few meters of fabric I lowered myself until I was hanging from the very bottom edge of the banner and then let go. I landed in the midst of a group of very surprised tourists. Straightening up I placed one arm across my middle, took a bow and sped off for the nearest gaming hall.
“Morgana!” I called as I jammed my phone into my ear.
I looked back over my shoulder as I ran. It only took me a moment to identify the penthouse lift. Looking up I saw the car inside the glass column as it slid down toward the lobby. Although I couldn’t make out any details inside the car, I didn’t doubt that the giant and his men had been able to follow my progress down to the lobby. They were seconds away from reaching the ground floor themselves.
“Morgana!” I called again.
“I’m here,” her voice finally answered. “Where are you?”
“North casino,” I said taking a look around. As I stepped through the doorway I passed through the dampening field and was immediately assaulted by the sounds of the busy gambling hall. Flashing lights, buzzers and ringing bells competed with the rhythmic notes of the bass dominated music playing in the background. Hundreds of people filled the space around me, either engrossed in whatever game they were playing or wandering around as they looked for something new to try their luck at. No one paid me the slightest attention.
“That was … pretty fast,” she said.
“I caught a ride,” I said. Then I realized that she was breathing heavily. “Where are you?” I asked as I wove my way deeper into the crowd and away from the entrance.
“Stairwell,” she said. “Twenty eighth floor. … Meet you there … in a minute.”
“No! They’re right behind me. Let me know when you reach the lobby and I’ll get to you.”
“… Right...”
From her daily jogs I knew that Morgana could make the rest of the way down to the ground floor with no problem, but it would take time. I needed to find a way to lose my pursuers so that I could slip away and join her when she got to the lobby.
Looking around quickly I darted behind a row of holographic slot machines. More than a hundred of them were arranged in rows near the casino entrance. Although I had never understood the appeal of the machines myself, virtually every single one of them was occupied. I hurried toward the far end of the aisle as players tapped credit wands against payment sensors and pulled down on oversized handles. The brilliance of flashing lights and the profusion of mirrored surfaces in this area of the casino was distracting and I hoped to be able to lose myself amid its gaudy colorfulness. I kept low as I continued to the end of the aisle and darted around the last machine to make my way back another several rows. I stopped at one of the few unoccupied machines in the back row and cautiously peered over the top edge at the casino entrance.
I had only been watching the entryway for a few moments when I saw the giant enter the hall and pause. He swept his eyes quickly around the room but didn’t see me. I watched as he glanced down and gestured to the men standing on either side of him. From my position I could only see the tops of their heads, but I knew that they were spreading out through the hall looking for me. While his men began to search, he stood squarely in the middle of the doorway to prevent me from slipping out. At that moment my plan to lose them in the crowded gaming hall didn’t seem like such a good idea after all.
I ducked low and backed away from the machine to give myself a second to think. Behind me the room took several steps down to a different area where the table games were located. Serious credits were being wagered at those tables. The crowds gathered around them made that section far more congested than where I was. I had just decided that I should head in that direction when I caught sight of a security guard coming toward me. I had been so focused on evading my pursuers that I hadn’t been aware of the attention I was attracting.
“Can I help you, sir?” the guard asked as he stepped up to me. His hand was hovering close to the stun baton hanging from his belt. As he approached me he ran his eye up and down my clothes. The combination of my shabby attire along with the suspicious way I was acting had naturally made me stand out to him.
This was absolutely the last thing I needed to deal with now.
“I dropped my credit wand,” I said, putting on what I hoped was a casual smile. “It was right around here, I think.” I looked down and started scanning the area. I forced myself not to look at him as I continued searching the floor for my nonexistent wand. “Maybe you’ve seen it. It’s blue and gold with a red tip. … I could have sworn I lost it right around here.” In the periphery of my vision I saw him step up beside me.
“If you can’t find it, sir, maybe it would be easier to have it replaced. I’d be happy to accompany you to guest relations so they can issue you a new one. Compliments of the hotel, of course.” I could tell from the tone of his voice that his suspicions were not fading.
“That’s okay, I’m going to keep looking for a while. It was my lucky wand. I’ve already won nearly …”
As I glanced up in his direction I saw a figure step around the end of the row and look this way. I immediately recognized him as one of the men I had seen up in the lounge area on the top floor. Our eyes met and his hand darted inside the jacket he was now wearing.
I acted on instinct. Grabbing the guard in a bear hug, I pinned his arms to his side and threw myself backward to the floor, twisting as I fell so that we both landed on our sides. At virtually the same instant a single blaster shot tore through the air where we had been standing and slammed into the wall, shattering several of the mirrored tiles.
“What the hell—”
“Stay down!” I said as I snatched the stun baton from his belt.
With all of the buzzers and bells and flashing lights no one else seemed to have noticed the blaster shot. I got to my hands and knees, scrambled the rest of the way around the end of the row and crouched down by the last machine. Just as I got into position I heard the pounding of footsteps heading my way. Although it was difficult to hear clearly over the background noise, I listened as the running steps closed in on my hiding place. The moment I saw his foot appear around the edge of the machine I lunged toward him with the baton. The tip crackled with electricity as it contacted his shin and he went into immediate convulsions. I had dialed the baton to maximum intensity and the blue lightning danced around his leg. His finger squeezed the trigger of his pistol as soon as I touched him. He must have had the gun set for full auto because he fired off dozens of shots in the next few seconds. As he spasmed in the grip of the baton’s current, his arms flew up sending blaster fire raking up the wall and along the ceiling.
That got people’s attention.
A woman screamed. Moments later chairs were being knocked over all around me as people abandoned the one armed bandits and began stampedin
g toward the exit while dust and ceiling tiles showered the area. I deactivated the baton and my pursuer collapsed like a pile of wet laundry. As he fell he dropped his blaster pistol. I made a quick lunge for the weapon but before I could reach it someone’s foot kicked it out of sight.
Cursing to myself I got up and moved with the crowd toward the door. In spite of their panic, people were diverting around the giant as if he were a boulder in the center of a raging river. I tried to keep low but he spotted me when I was still several meters away. As soon as he saw me he started wading in my direction. I locked eyes with him as we moved toward each other, waiting for my chance. I had kept a grip on the stun baton and was holding it down to my side at the ready. He must have been very sure of himself because he never reached for his gun.
We were a little more than a meter apart and I was just preparing to jab at him with the baton when a strange look crossed his face. His mouth dropped open into a silent “O” and he slowly sank to his knees. As he slipped below the heads of the crowd I saw Morgana standing directly behind him, a small fire extinguisher held above her head with both hands.
“Thought you could use … a little help,” she puffed when I reached her.
“There’s six more of them,” I yelled over the noise of the crowd as I took her hand.
We started for the main doors when something grabbed my leg. I looked down and saw that the giant was on his hands and knees beside us, one hand clutching my ankle. I was just swinging the stunner up when Morgana smashed the fire extinguisher down onto the back of his head. There was a dull thunk and he collapsed onto his belly. As soon as I was free we allowed the crowd to sweep us toward the exit.
The lobby was a mad house. Most of the crowd was pushing toward the front door, but because of the volume of people there was a bottleneck. We moved with the crowd and eventually spilled out into the plaza in front of the hotel. I looked around quickly. In front of the entrance was a line of cabs that had been dropping off guests before the pandemonium had broken out. The lead cab had its doors open and the driver was standing at the back of his car where he had been unloading his passengers’ bags. As he stood gaping at the scene around him, Morgana and I dashed toward his car. She jumped into the front passenger seat as I slid across the hood of the car and dove behind the controls.
In seconds we were rising on the car’s antigrav field and pulling away. In my rear view monitor I watched the driver turn and begin chasing after us. A moment later I saw the giant emerge from the hotel entrance flanked by five of his men. He was holding one hand to the back of his head and did not look at all pleased as he followed our cab with his eyes. I wanted to put as much distance between us and them as possible but with all of the people running through the plaza I couldn’t simply punch it. As I wove the car carefully through the crowd the cabbie managed to catch up to us just as we reached the hotel fountain. He ran alongside of my door, pounding on the window as he cursed me and demanded that we get out of his cab. As we drew abreast of the fountain I jerked the steering column and nudged him with the side of the car. He caught his foot on the edge of the fountain, tripped and fell headlong into the basin with a great splash.
Just before we pulled around the edge of the fountain and lost sight of the entrance, I took another look in the rear view monitor. I saw the giant turn and make his way toward a small line of private cars waiting at the valet stand. He was tossing people aside like they were toys as he made his way quickly toward the lead car in line. An attendant had just climbed into the sleek sports car when the giant reached him. He grabbed the man by the scruff of his jacket with one hand, lifted him out of the car and dropped him to the ground like so much discarded trash. Then he crammed his bulk behind the controls. One of his men scrambled into the small, two-seater with him, leaving the rest of his men standing impotently at the curb.
Ahead of our cab the crowd was starting to thin out. My hand was gripping the throttle lever as I waited for an opening. I was just about to shove the handle forward when something slammed onto the hood of our car, causing the nose to dip as the suspensor pods struggled to adjust to the sudden increase in weight. I was briefly startled but managed to keep the car under control. It took me a moment to realize that what had landed on the car was a man. He flailed his arms and legs as he struggled to find purchase on the sloped hood of the engine compartment. After a moment he managed to work his fingers into the narrow gap between the windshield and the hood and he clung to the car like a human spider. As he raised his face and glared at me through the glass I recognized him as the man who had been holding a gun on me only a short time ago. He bared his teeth at me and released his grip with one hand to reach for his blaster.
Even though he was blocking much of my view, I shoved the throttle all the way to its stops. The cab shot forward and by some miracle I managed not to hit anyone. As we sped away from the hotel I jerked the car left and right while I alternated on the trim pedals in an effort to throw him off. But as soon as he had felt the car surge forward he abandoned reaching for his gun and grabbed on with both hands.
In the rear view monitor I saw the sports car that the giant had hijacked pivot around to follow us. The taxi we were in was large and boxy, built to provide passengers with roomy comfort, while the model they had taken was compact and built for speed. Even loaded down with the giant’s bulk it was more than a match for us. I forgot about shaking our hitchhiker loose for the moment and accelerated onto The Strip.
Traffic was fairly heavy and I slalomed in and out between the cars ahead of us, drawing shocked stares and rude gestures from the other drivers. For an instant I allowed my gaze to shift to the rear view monitor. I saw the giant’s car zip onto the road from the access ramp and quickly begin closing the distance between us. When I returned my attention to the windshield I found myself staring down the emitter barrel of a blaster pistol.
I stomped on both of the trim pedals together, engaging the braking system.
The cab’s nose dove toward the pavement as the suspensor pods whined in protest, but my action had the desired effect. He let go of the gun. It skittered across the hood and spun out of sight. As he tried to regain his grip on the cab I turned right, cutting across three lanes of traffic. I narrowly missed clipping the nose of a car in the far right lane as I slipped across its front end and slewed up onto the sidewalk.
Pedestrians screamed and scattered as I fought to bring the cab under control. I jerked the wheel back to the left and pressed the right trim pedal all the way to the floor to add power to the right side suspensor pods, causing the cab to tip up onto its left side. We barely avoided crashing directly into the front of a building, briefly side swiped the façade instead, and bounced back into the street. As soon as we were off the sidewalk I jammed the throttle forward once again.
I saw a street coming up on our right. I thought about trying to make the turn but calculated that we were going too fast. Just as I came to that conclusion the driver’s side window exploded in a spray of glass fragments as the giant’s man opened fire on us.
I stood on the trim pedals and twisted the wheel hard to the right. Once again the cab’s nose dipped as the suspensor pods whined. The blaster shots being fired at us walked up the hood of the car, barely missing the man who was holding on for dear life. The giant’s car sped past us as we pulled into a tight turn. This time the force was too much for our hitchhiker and he was sent flying from the car. From the corner of my eye I saw him smash through the display window of a curbside café. He wasn’t going to be walking away from that one anytime soon.
The rear end of the cab continued to drift around to the left as I fought to control our turn. We slammed into the building on my side and scraped along the façade for some distance in a brilliant shower of sparks before I was finally able to get us back into the street. In spite of the pounding the car was taking the engine responded immediately when I shoved the throttle forward agai
n. This was one tough machine. Moments later we were zooming down the side street. Behind us I heard the blare of horns and the crash of several cars slamming into each other in what sounded like a fairly major pile up.
I slowed just enough when we came to the next intersection to cut the wheel hard right, zipping us into the traffic pattern. We needed to get off the road before the giant could come after us. I looked around for some place to go. Morgana saw it before I did.
“There!” she said as she pointed to the driveway of a hotel across the street. A line of taxis was queued up in front of the entrance.
I turned the wheel hard to the left, cut across the oncoming traffic and sped into the driveway. I zoomed in front of a cab that was making a slow turn into the driveway and got into line just ahead of him. He blared his horn and gave me the finger but accepted his place at the end of the line.
No sooner had we gotten into line than I saw the giant’s car come flying around the corner and stop. It hovered there on its suspensors for a moment before the driver’s door raised and the giant got out. He ignored the traffic around him as he swiveled his head from side to side and searched for us. A car pulled up behind him and after a moment it’s driver laid on his horn. I watched the giant as he spun on the car with an enraged look, pulled out an automatic rifle that he had managed to conceal under his coat, and pointed it at the driver with one hand. The man let go of his horn and took off around the giant’s car.
Lowering his gun, the giant turned away and started scanning the area again. He swept his eyes briefly across the line of cabs we were in and kept going. It didn’t look like he was going to notice us. Then his head snapped back in our direction. He squinted for a moment, then pointed directly at our car and called back over his shoulder to his man. He must have noticed the scraped up side of our cab.
At that moment the rear door of our car opened.
“Get on in there, darlin’,” a man’s voice called. Before we could say anything a middle aged couple was climbing into the back of our cab. The man was wearing a cheap suit and smelled like he had bathed in even cheaper cologne. The woman with him had on too much makeup and sported a wild mane of electric blue hair. The low cut dress she was wearing showcased an unnatural abundance of bosom and would have been a better fit twenty pounds ago.
“Oooh, Papabear,” his companion cooed, “Do you think I could have one of those fancy drinks with a little umbrella in it?”
“If that’s what you want, Sugar. You can even—”
“Excuse me,” I said. “But this isn’t a cab.”
“It certainly looks like one to me,” the man said. “Just take us around to the Frontier Club, son, and there’ll be an extra couple of credits in it for you.”
“You don’t understand,” I began. Just then Morgana elbowed me and nodded toward the street. I craned my neck to see the giant folding himself back into his car.
“You don’t understand,” our passenger said. “Unless you want to bring a whole lot of trouble down on your head, you’re going to take us to that casino right now. And be quick about it!”
“I love it when you’re forceful, Papabear,” the woman said to her companion as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her breasts against him.
I didn’t have time to argue. As the giant’s car started to turn in our direction I jammed the throttle forward. The sudden acceleration pressed Morgana and me back into our seats, but we had been prepared. Our passengers however were caught completely by surprise. Papabear and his busty companion were tossed around the back of the car as I pulled us out of line and sped back into the street. Behind us the more nimble sports car spun in place and came after us.
“What the fu—”
Before our passenger could begin his rant the rear window exploded, showering both of them with glass.
“Get down!” I yelled as I pulled us into a hard left and took us into a cross street. The sports car followed us easily. Even with the throttle shoved to its stops I knew there was no way we could outpace the other car. My mind raced as I tried to come up with some way to lose our pursuers. For a while I managed to keep us away from them by using the cars around us as blockers, weaving in and out among them to keep them between us and the giant’s car. For the moment it kept the giant’s man from opening fire on us again but I knew I couldn’t keep this up for long. We were bound to get involved in a major accident unless I could find some way to lose them.
Then, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a lumbering shape moving down a narrow side street. Something about the oversized vehicle struck me as familiar and without consciously thinking about it I cut across the lanes of oncoming traffic and headed after it. A large picture on the back of the vehicle showed a man in medieval armor brandishing a sword while sitting astride a rearing horse. Written in fancy lettering above the picture was the name Camelot.
That’s when I recognized the vehicle as a horse carrier. Built longer and wider than a passenger bus, the carrier almost completely occupied the little side street it was traveling along. Due to the sheer size and mass of a carrier, plus the fact that you wanted to keep the vehicle as level as possible so as not to spook the animals being transported, the suspensor pods on a carrier were different from those on other vehicles. To provide additional stability, the pod vanes wrapped around the bottom edge of the carrier’s body and continued up the sides for half a meter. This configuration allowed the pods to project their antigrav fields down at an angle from the sides of the vehicle as well as directly down from underneath to ensure that the animals rode on as stable a platform as possible. As I focused my attention on those pods an idea came together in my mind.
I pulled us out to the left when we caught up to the carrier and squeezed in beside it. Once we had drawn alongside I slowed the cab to line us up. Behind us the giant’s sports car was rapidly closing the distance. There would only be time for one shot at this.
I took a firm grip on the wheel and brought us directly in line with the driver’s side suspensor pod. I took a deep breath, jerked the wheel hard to the right, and slammed the front corner of the cab into the pod. A brilliant explosion erupted from the mangled pod as the cab’s bumper crushed the projector vanes. A violent shudder rippled through the carrier as smoke began pouring from the pod. A moment later the carrier’s front corner suddenly dropped to the street sending a thick shower of sparks spraying high into the air as its undercarriage dragged along the pavement. From inside the carrier we heard the terrified screams of the frightened horses. The vehicle was traveling slow enough that I doubted any of the animals would be seriously hurt, but I felt bad about what I was doing to them nonetheless. I slammed the throttle forward again and managed to squeeze past the carrier just as it started to turn.
The friction of its front corner dragging on the street caused the lumbering carrier to begin a slow pivot to the left. Scant moments after we had squeezed past the front end of the carrier it slammed into the building on the other side of the street. As its momentum continued to carry it forward, the carrier wedged itself diagonally between the buildings on both sides of the street with a great crash and the scream of protesting metal, completely closing off the road behind us.
Just after the horse carrier shuddered to a stop I thought I heard a second crash. I sped us straight through the next intersection and got ready to make a hard right at the following cross street. As we were beginning that turn I glanced into the rear view monitor and saw traffic at the intersection behind us beginning to snarl as a number of frightened horses bolted from the side street and scattered.
I turned my attention back to the controls and focused on putting as much distance as possible between us and the havoc we had just caused.