“You got a gun, Benny?” Quaid asked.
“Under the seat, man.”
Quaid fished under the front passenger seat and found a gun mounted in a concealed sheath. He pulled it out and checked it. It was a pro special, loaded. This cabbie knew how to protect himself when he had to!
He looked back. Richter was leaning out of his car. There was a muzzle flash. Benny’s rearview mirror was blown off. Richter was getting better!
Quaid leaned out a window and fired back, carefully. The shot went true; Richter’s windshield shattered.
The car swerved, but did not go out of control. That meant he hadn’t hit the driver. Too bad. He saw a hand with a gun scraping the glass beads away. Then the fire resumed, from inside the car.
All he had accomplished was to make it easier for Richter to shoot at them! Indeed, it looked as if the man was bringing out heavier artillery. What did he have?
Richter fired. A fender was blasted off the cab. He fired again. Another window went. That was a heavy-duty piece, all right!
Quaid fired back, but his gun now seemed inadequate. Both men in the pursuing car were hunkered down, so he couldn’t get a clear shot, and unless he scored on one of them, he wouldn’t accomplish much. There seemed to be metallic shields guarding the front tires, so the car wasn’t vulnerable to much more damage by his gun. That cannon of Richter’s, however—
Richter fired again. This time the roof was blasted off the cab.
“Fuck!” Benny exclaimed. “The cab ain’t even paid for!”
There was worse coming. Benny’s tire was blasted as they went through a curve. The cab went out of control and flipped over, sliding to a stop in the Venusville Plaza.
Quaid was hardly aware of what he did; probably his Hauser-aspect had taken over again, as it did in utter crisis. He found himself holding Melina, wrapped around her as much as possible, protecting her from the crash.
Before the motion stopped, he acted. “Out!” he snapped. They scrambled under the hanging seats and out through the broken windshield. “Move! Move!” he urged, lurching to his feet and hauling Benny and Melina out.
“Aw, Christ,” Benny groaned. “Now they’re after me!”
The three of them started off at a run, barely in time. Richter’s car zoomed out of the blind curve and screeched to a halt. He and Helm emerged, saturating the wreck with gunfire.
CHAPTER 20
Kuato
The sound of gunfire must have alerted the bartender at the Last Resort. He held the door open as Melina, Quaid, and Benny dashed up, and he slammed it shut behind them as they spilled inside. Quaid pulled up short, momentarily confused at the scene that greeted him.
Tony and the other miners had lifted their table and, with it, a piece of the floor. A hole gaped beneath. Was this an escape route of some kind?
Melina knew exactly what it was. She climbed into the hole and disappeared into the darkness. Benny followed, throwing terrified glances over his shoulder. Quaid snapped out of his stasis and quickly lowered himself into the hole.
The miners replaced the table and resumed their game of poker just as Richter, Helm, and six soldiers charged into the bar, loaded for bear.
The card players looked at the armed men with mild curiosity. The scene was as quiet and peaceful as a bridge club on a slow Thursday afternoon, but Richter was not to be fooled. He knew that these subhuman creatures were protecting the man who had killed Lori and, by that action, they had forfeited their right to live. He didn’t care how many of them he had to kill in order to get the information he needed.
He grabbed Mary and held his gun to her head. It was the same gun that had taken the roof off of Benny’s cab. “Where’d they go?” he demanded.
“Who? I don’t know wha—” Mary’s head was blown from her shoulders. Richter threw her body aside and grabbed Thumbelina.
“Maybe you know,” he suggested, his voice cold with menace.
Before she could respond, Tony leaped in a flying tackle and knocked Richter to the floor. As Helm ran forward to take aim at Tony, Thumbelina reached up, gutting him from crotch to sternum with a bowie knife.
It was like setting a match to a keg of powder. The rest of the miners exploded into action, attacking the soldiers with fists, knives, guns, bottles, and beer mugs. By the time Richter struggled free of Tony’s grip, he saw that half of his men had been wiped out.
He dived through a window, guns firing after him. A large number of soldiers had assembled at the sound of gunfire and they covered his retreat with a hail of bullets.
Scuttling behind a barricade of cars wrecks and overflowing dumpsters, Richter made it to where a military vehicle had pulled up to disgorge more soldiers. Bullets whizzed by his ears as he dodged, feinted, and rolled his way toward the truck. It had a rocket launcher. Richter’s eyes gleamed. That would do the trick.
“You! Over here!” he commanded. He directed the launcher setup and was about to give the order to fire, when a soldier handed him a field videophone.
“Cohaagen,” the soldier said.
Richter gnashed his teeth as he took the call. “Sir . . .” he began, but Cohaagen interrupted him.
“Stop fighting and pull out.”
No, no, no, this couldn’t be happening. “They’re protecting Quaid!” Richter protested, his voice cracking with anger and astonishment.
“Perfect!” said Cohaagen. “Get out of Sector G. Now.” Before Richter could respond, Cohaagen added: “Don’t think. Do it.”
Richter saw the look in Cohaagen’s eye and choked back a retort. Cohaagen had something up his sleeve. Richter didn’t know what it was, but he knew it would be worse than anything the rocket launcher could propel. He followed orders.
Quaid dropped from the shaft into a tunnel and followed Melina and Benny. The tunnel appeared to be one artery of the vast mining complex that spread beneath the city in all directions. His suspicion was confirmed as he ran past miners chipping away at the rock walls with drill hammers. The miners ignored him. They seemed to be used to such sights.
The tunnel branched off into several others at an intersection on the far side of Venusville. Melina paused there for a brief moment to catch her breath, and almost stopped breathing altogether when a mechanical shudder shook the ground beneath their feet.
“My God,” she said, aghast. “The emergency pressure doors! They’re sealing us off from the rest of the city!”
No sooner had she spoken than—SQURRCHANG! A featureless metal door descended from the ceiling, closing the entrance to one of the tunnels in front of them. They rushed to the next one—too late!
Only one tunnel remained open. With the speed of desperation, they crouched, rolled, and dived under the last door just before it slammed into place. They’d made it!
The rebel survivors of the battle of The Last Resort peered cautiously though the jagged shards of glass that protruded from the bar’s shattered window frames. The soldiers had ceased firing a short time ago and now they appeared to be packing up and beating an orderly retreat. The rebels didn’t know what to make of it.
As the soldiers disappeared from view, the people of Venusville began emerging from whatever hole they’d hidden in during the battle. They spoke softly. Some looked dazed. Others looked suspicious. They were startled when the pressure doors clanged into place and no one knew what to expect next. A crowd gathered in the plaza, but it was strangely hushed. Then it got even quieter.
The giant fans which circulated air through the sector slowed and came to a stop. The silence was absolute. Every face filled with dread. Then . . .
The fans started turning again! Someone laughed with relief, but the laughter twisted into a strangled cry of despair as the papers that littered the square started flying upward, toward the great blades.
The fans were turning backwards! They were sucking the air out of Venusville!
Quaid stumbled as the tunnel opened out into a larger space. Melina took a flashlight from a shelf near the t
unnel opening and shone it around an excavated chamber, illuminating the walls, which were honeycombed with niches.
“The first settlers are buried here,” she said.
Quaid noticed human corpses in the niches, naturally mummified without wrappings. He had heard of similar examples in some of the drier areas on Earth. Mummification depended on the climate, not the wrappings.
Melina led the way through a labyrinth of narrow corridors lined with open tombs. She remembered the first time she had come here, as a little girl clinging in fright to her mother’s hand. Her mother had calmed her fears by telling her stories about each desiccated form, until they had become recognizable individuals, almost alive.
Her mother’s stories had started Melina on the path which led to her joining the rebel forces. The first settlers had been a hardy breed, determined to create a colony that would be the envy of all the other planets. They had built a firm foundation, but the discovery of turbinium had undermined it. The Northern Bloc focused on the mines to the exclusion of almost everything else and living conditions deteriorated accordingly.
Vilos Cohaagen had made matters intolerable. The man was an insensitive monster. He made no effort whatsoever to listen to the people of his colony. He responded to petitions with arrests, and declared that any criticism directed at him would be punishable by death. Melina could not bear to see the dreams of the first settlers dissolve into dust, so she had joined the Mars Liberation Front. She intended to see the first settler’s vision become reality. Benny’s voice intruded on her thoughts.
“I heard about this place,” Benny whispered.
“They came to build a better life,” Melina said. “But it didn’t work out that way. Cohaagen skimped on the domes and turned us into freaks. He works us like slaves on our own planet, and he won’t let us leave. He even makes us pay for the air we breathe.”
Something fell into place in Quaid’s mind. Air . . .
“We’re like his goddamn pet goldfish,” Benny grumbled bitterly.
“We could have had a livable planet by now,” Melina continued. “But the Northern Bloc decided that creating an atmosphere wasn’t ‘economically feasible.’ Not if it meant taking money and manpower away from the turbinium mines.” She was deeply disgusted.
Air. Quaid struggled to grasp the thought he had almost had, but it eluded him. He focused instead on the plight of the miners. He had known that mining turbinium was dangerous; in fact, there was more than a suspicion that the mutation rate on Mars was as much the fault of radiation in the mines as of the unshielded sunlight in the domes. Without the huge bonuses, no one would voluntarily emigrate to work in the mines.
And it wasn’t until they got to Mars that they realized they’d have to spend most of those bonuses on air, Quaid thought grimly. Since the mines were the only game in town, the common folk had to work in them, just to keep on breathing. Even if they did suspect what it cost them—what choice did they have? Slow mutation was better than fast death.
He began to remember why Hauser had changed sides. If the folks of Mars had any alternative to mining turbinium, there would be a revolution. There was one already, but not enough of one, because Cohaagen controlled the air supply.
“And nobody down there on Earth gives a damn,” Melina continued. “As long as the turbinium keeps flowing, as long as the Northern Bloc can maintain military superiority on Earth, nobody’s going to upset Cohaagen’s comfortable little apple cart.” She stopped and turned to Quaid with hope in her eyes. “But maybe you can change all that.”
He looked away, embarrassed. If only he could unbury those memories, whatever it was that he was supposed to know that would change everything! But the chains on his mind remained firm. “I’ll do what I can,” he said gruffly.
They walked on through the catacombs, Quaid beside Melina, Benny lagging behind.
“It’s something you know,” Melina said. “Kuato’s going to make you remember a few things.”
“Like what?”
“All sorts of things.” She hesitated and when she continued, her voice was husky with emotion. “Maybe you’ll even remember that you love me.” Quaid couldn’t bear to hear the sorrow in her voice. He grabbed her arm and turned her to face him. He had to convince her that what was in his heart was real; that the false memories in his head didn’t matter.
“Melina, listen to me!” he said. “I don’t need Kuato for that! I dreamed about you every night back on Earth. They blotted out everything else, but they couldn’t destroy my feelings for you. When I slept, I saw you, and I wanted you, every night. The memory of our life together may be gone, but the feeling remains. It just wouldn’t let go, till I couldn’t go on with my life.”
Melina gazed into his eyes, and he saw belief forming. “Then you really—”
“Forever!” He leaned closer, but before their lips could meet, Benny let out a yelp of alarm.
The corpses around them were moving! A whole section of the catacomb wall slid away like a door. Behind it stood seven armed men.
Quaid tensed, but Melina put a hand on his arm, calming him. “It’s okay,” she said, “they’re with us.”
One of the rebels stepped forward and gestured toward Benny with the barrel of his gun. “Who’s that?” he asked.
“He helped us escape,” replied Melina.
“Hey, don’t worry about me, man,” said Benny. “I’m on your side.” Benny put his left hand on his right hand and pulled. There was a click; then the right hand came off, as if it were the appendage of a marionette. It was artificial. Underneath was a deformed nub with a few vestigial fingers. Quaid felt slightly sickened by the sight, but the others looked on with mute sympathy.
Then the cabbie stretched out his arm and clenched his fist. There was something odd about the shape of the arm and Quaid’s stomach lurched as he saw something squirm under the sleeve. The cabbie pushed the sleeve up and a second forearm unhinged from the first, a grotesque limb with long, bony, webbed fingers which slowly curled and uncurled. Even the rebels recoiled at the sight—but it served its purpose. They were convinced that Benny was one of them.
“Follow me,” the rebel said. They followed the armed men through a narrow tunnel to a large excavated chamber where other resistance fighters camped in small groups. Weapons and ammunition were stacked around the room, and a few men were poring over maps on a table at the far end. The rest were eating, playing cards, cleaning weapons, reading, and sleeping, but there was little talk and no laughter. The mood was very dark.
Quaid lost some respect for the rebels. They were an organized force, without a doubt, but he was learning entirely too much about them. A spy could make a fairly accurate report on their numbers and nature, if brought through here this way. The sensible procedure would have been to drug him unconscious, bring him here, then kill him if he turned out to be a spy.
The rebel in the lead turned to Benny. “Wait here,” he ordered. And then, to Melina and Quaid: “Come with me.” He escorted them to the table at the far end of the room. Now Quaid could see that there was a videophone among the maps and charts that littered the table. He could also see that the man seated at the table, the man who was obviously in command, was George, the affable miner from The Last Resort. He spoke urgently into the videophone and there was authority in his tone.
“Then ram down the pressure seals!” he said.
“We can’t,” said a voice and Quaid stiffened when he heard it. It belonged to Tony, the hothead who had been with Melina at the bar. Peering over George’s shoulder, Quaid saw that the miner was in no shape to fight anyone now. He appeared to be breathing with difficulty and Quaid could see others in the background, lying on the floor of the bar or draped over tables, gasping for air.
“Cohaagen depressurized the tunnels,” Tony continued. “And they’re rigged to blow up.”
George glanced over his shoulder at Melina and then looked back to the videoscreen. “Okay, sit tight. Melina just got here with Quaid.”
r /> “I hope it was worth it,” Tony said. George ended the transmission and paused for a moment, looking grim. He turned to face Melina and a faint smile passed over his lips.
“Glad you made it,” he said.
“You don’t look so glad,” Melina replied.
George rose from his chair and the grim look returned. “Cohaagen sealed off Venusville.”
“We know,” said Melina. “We almost got caught ourselves.”
“What you don’t know is that he’s pumping out the air.”
Melina’s hand flew to her mouth. She had known Cohaagen was ruthless, but she hadn’t known how ruthless, until now. George looked at Quaid.
“You must know something pretty damned important, Quaid. He wants you.” Quaid was appalled. “If we don’t hand you over, everybody’ll be dead by morning.” George led them to a fortified door. He punched in a series of numbers. The lock clicked.
“What are you going to do?” asked Melina.
“That’s up to Kuato,” George said. He beckoned to Quaid. “C’mon.”
Would Kuato be able to unblock his memory? Since Quaid himself didn’t know what he was supposed to know, he doubted that anyone else could tell just by looking at him. Maybe they intended to drug him and question him. That was unlikely to work either. He still couldn’t remember the Rekall experience clearly, but believed that they had encountered severe problems with his prior memory conditioning. It would be no different here.
Quaid glanced at Melina before following George. She held up her hand in a small gesture of farewell and for a moment looked precisely as she had in his dream. He wanted to go to her, to hold her to him and never let her go, but he wanted his memory, needed it, even more. Not only for their sake, but also for the sake of those who lay dying in Venusville. He had something trapped out of reach in his head and he had to free it and the people of Mars before he could be free to love Melina. He tore his eyes from her and followed George through the door.
He entered a dark, domed chamber which was as empty as the other had been full. There were no rebels in sight and no sign of Kuato. The man wasn’t going to arrive after them, either, for the door had shut behind them and Quaid could hear the lock click back into place.