The Universe - or Nothing Part 13

Drummer felt certain that Scarf would return soon with reinforcements. He had to get out, fast, and he needed an escort to safety. Beyond that, he wanted to know why the squat powerhouse, now sitting calmly at the table, had intervened. He must have realized that his interference had been made at great personal risk.

Drummer righted the stool and stared intently at Hodak as he sat. Hodak, sensing Drummer's scrutiny, glanced sideways at him, winked straight-faced, and returned to observe the crowd.

Drummer finally turned to Brad, convinced he was the leader of this pack.

"We'd better get out of here, now," he said, his tone urgent. "Scarf'll be back as soon as he collects a few of his goons."

"What was it about?" Brad asked.

"No time for talk," Drummer replied, gesturing his impatience. "We've got to get away from here, and I mean right now."

"Sure, but who is that guy?"

"Major Scarf, Chief of Internal Security for President Narval. He has his own troops, and I don't doubt that he's lining them up right now."

Drummer's fingertips tapped the table in nervous staccato. "Let's get out of here. Now."

Brad stood, and the others rose with him. "Lead the way," he motioned Drummer toward the doorway. "We're not familiar with the territory."

"Leave that to me," said Drummer.

Brad hefted Scarf's weapon, slipped it into 'safe'

and, pa.s.sing the bar, handed it to the bartender with a nod that was returned with a respectful wave.

Chapter TWELVE

Mixing with the street people, Drummer in sight up ahead, they moved swiftly. Adari trailed Drummer; Brad next followed by Myra and k.u.miko. Zolan and Hodak brought up the rear. Drummer successfully resisted the temptation to look back.

Zolan tensed, activating the mind-mike in his armpit. Brad acknowledged by stepping up his pace.

He pa.s.sed Adari and drew alongside Drummer.

"Your buddy, Scarf, must have had a friend in the bar," he said. "We're being tailed."

"Another hundred meters. Cut into the alley on the left."

Drummer responded. "It'll take us through a maze that still confounds the street people. We'll have a better chance in there to lose whoever is following."

A corner loomed. They squeezed into a narrow, rubble-strewn pa.s.sageway between high, rough walls. Stumbling along the barely lighted shaft they entered an alley, equally shabby, crowded with street people, refuse, and abandoned machinery.

They sped along the alley, noting its darkened, fuser-formed doorways, some empty, others clogged with trash. Inside, they saw the shadowy outlines of men, huddled women and children.

Drummer twisted from one alley into the next, and then another.

He ducked through a gap in one wall, squeezed along a narrow hallway and exited into an open s.p.a.ce. They packed up close, running and stumbling.

Drummer slowed next to a wall of composite blocks.

Several were missing, leaving a s.p.a.ce through which they squirmed. It was tighter than they had experienced. In near darkness, they had reached a dead end.

Ahead was loose rubble forming a heap about two meters high. Drummer clawed his way around the side. He motioned the others forward and slipped out of sight.

Following one behind the other, they saw an opening in the surface. Responding to Drummer's beckoning, they dropped into its darkness. The fall was less than a couple of meters. A light glowed from a wall to just enough to illuminate Drummer.

They were in a small, roughly rounded chamber.

The walls were fused rubble, irregular and jagged.

The floor was a mixture of Plutonian detritus.

Drummer knelt beside a rock that protruded from the wall. He twisted the rock, pulled, and pushed it sideways. Reaching into the vacated s.p.a.ce, he placed his palm on a flat, smooth disk.

A low hum from the wall. A fissure formed where the wall met the trash-laden floor. The breach lengthened and curved, its ends meeting the wall.

The section dropped away into darkness.

"Move, move," Drummer snarled his impatience.

"Scarf has this entire sector blocked out by now.

He'll throw his gangs into the alleys and cover every square meter. These subsurface crawl s.p.a.ces and links are our only way. Feel for the ladder."

He lowered himself through the opening and vanished.

Brad was committed. His glance ordered the others to follow Drummer. Hodak pa.s.sed his light to Brad and dropped through first, then Zolan followed Myra, Adari and k.u.miko. Brad dropped through and pushed the cover up until it snapped. Closed.

He felt vibrations above him, then, after several seconds, silence.

"Must be spreading the dust of our tracks and the outline of the cover," Zolan murmured, looking up from immediately below.

The ladder was rickety, and the shaft narrow and long. When Brad reached bottom, he was in a low gallery, about two meters square, hacked out of the rock. They were in the hub of a dozen pa.s.sageways that led off in as many directions from low entries.

Drummer bent and disappeared through one of the entries. One after the other, they followed.

The entry led into a utility service tunnel, the walls lined with scores of braided cables and banks of wall switches and junctions. Neutro-lighted sconces glowed at intervals, providing dim direction to their flight.

Scuttling in single file and dodging cables slung between supporting columns, they covered distance swiftly. Brad moved up behind Drummer, replacing Hodak who dropped back to rear guard immediately behind Zolan.

"Scarf knows about these utility pa.s.sages, and that we would head for them," Drummer gasped over his shoulder. "What he doesn't know is which access and branches we took and where we'll surface. A slight advantage, if we act quickly."

They scampered and slithered for more than half an hour. "Looks like we're the only ones down here,"

said Brad.

Drummer halted to recover breath. The line closed up.

"Normal," Drummer gasped. "These pa.s.sages were abandoned years ago, after we switched to local transmission from control modules suspended beneath the dome. Too much trouble to collapse the subsurface tunnels, I suppose. Also, we had to consider the surface effects of a collapse.

Couldn't afford the chance. As you see, the network is still useful."

He shot a quick glance at Brad, then ahead along their route.

"Don't get the impression I've got to run from Scarf," Drummer said, heaving another deep breath, "or even to avoid him under ordinary circ.u.mstances.

Obviously, he was drunk. My presence in the bar-room gave him an opportunity to enhance his image.