Arena (24 page)
“Some longer than that,” Ian volunteered.
“How much longer?” John asked.
Tucker’s eyes consulted Ian again. “Morgan’s been here, what? Four months? And Evvi longer than that. Then, of course there are those who’ve already tried to cross the Inner Realm and failed. Some of them have been here a long time. Working up their nerve to try it again, I think.” Tucker nodded at the woman. “Alicia here is one of those. She went out with the Leyton party a couple years ago. They were ambushed and she was about the only survivor, the way I hear it. She won’t talk about it, though.”
Alicia continued staring into space. Everyone shifted uncomfortably. No one seemed to know what to say. Finally Tucker exhaled. “Well, let’s get you settled in the dorms—”
“Wait a minute,” Callie said as he turned away. “Why can’t we just follow the white roads?”
“Because there aren’t any.”
He left her staring after him, perplexed but not as upset as she thought she ought to be. True, they were facing yet another perilous journey without even the roads to lead them, but after unlocking the secret of the first gate and finding it so embarrassingly simple, she was confident the rest of the trip would continue in kind. So long as they followed the instructions, anyway.
Rowena was not so confident. “No roads?” she murmured as the others moved on. Her blue eyes glittered with rising tears as she turned to Pierce. “How could they do this? After all we’ve been through!”
“A lot of what we’ve been through was our fault,” he pointed out mildly.
“But surely we’ve paid our dues by now.”
“This isn’t about paying dues, Row.”
“Then what
is
it about?”
He eyed the building beside them. “Following instructions, maybe?”
“Pierce, we’ve been here almost five years!” Her voice broke. Tears spilled down her cheeks. “We finally make it through the Gate, just to find out we have to start
over?
” “We’ve been here five years because we didn’t do what we were told, Row. We didn’t have to struggle. We only had to ask.”
She pushed away from him. “How can you defend them?”
“The manual told us what to do from the very beginning.”
“If they wanted us to ask, they should’ve put up a sign.” She dashed her tears away and gathered her composure. “They’re sadistic, is what they are. Garth’s right. The only way we’ll get out of here is by our own efforts.”
She strode after the others, disappearing around the cypress.
“Did we all go through the same gate?” Callie asked after a moment.
“We must’ve.”
“Then how can she—”
He shook his head and shrugged. “Everyone’s different, I guess.”
They caught up with the others on a narrow stairway at the back of the building, crossed a small green, and entered the lobby of one of the complex’s three two-story dormitories. Beside the elevators Tucker showed them a layout of hand-sized panels duplicating the building’s floor plan. He explained that pressing one’s palm against an unlit panel would program the corresponding room door to open at a touch.
“After you’re settled, come on over to the rec hall and meet the others. The dispensaries are always open for snacks.”
“I want to know more about this guide, first,” John said. “You say you don’t know if he’s human or alien?”
“He’ll be human,” Alicia said softly.
Tucker frowned at her. Ian’s dark brows arched. Again that uneasy pall settled over them. Then Pierce asked, “Do you have any manuals?”
The others stared at him.
Tucker waved a hand. “There’s one in every room, and a whole shelf of them in the library. But most of what we can read applies to life in the Outer Realm. The rest is still gibberish.”
“You mean the encrypted stuff in the second part?”
Tucker nodded. “We’ve tried to decode it. Some of us have made some headway, but it is a slow, difficult process.”
“And we will never fully understand it,” Ian said. “Not until the Guide shows up.”
Tucker flashed him a dubious look.
“I don’t care what Morg says,” Ian protested. “If we could do it on our own, they wouldn’t have told us to wait for the Guide.”
“Who’s Morg?” Rowena asked.
“Our unofficial leader,” Tucker told her. “He’s the one who got the Holographic Transmission Station running.” He paused. “Maybe you all should come to the rec hall now and meet some of the others. They serve a great hot fudge brownie sundae, too.”
That sold John, and in the end, everyone followed Tucker downhill from the dormitories to the glass-walled Recreation Hall. An indoor swimming pool and weight room occupied the ground floor, a high-ceilinged game room the one above it. Amidst the fragrance of popcorn and old grease, the complex’s inhabitants had gathered around Ping-Pong tables, pool tables, and blinking arcade games.
Now they flocked to the newcomers as Tucker made the introductions. Soon afterward, he found a manual and challenged Whit to read a section that had been indecipherable in the Outer Realm. He still couldn’t understand it. Neither could John, nor Gerry, nor Wendell.
Finally Rowena snatched the book away. “Why don’t you give us girls a chance?” She flipped a few pages. “Shoot, I can read this.”
“It’s the portion at the back.” When Tucker showed her, she did no better than the others, and as she peered over Rowena’s shoulder, neither did Callie.
As the crowd dissipated, Tucker led them through the cafeteria, which opened for breakfast at 6:00 A.M., and downstairs to The Fountain, where he and John got their sundaes. Then they crossed the yard to the library, where six blue-screened computers welcomed them in white text and informed them that they’d know the Guide when he unlocked the “hidden places of this installation.”
“What does that mean?” Rowena demanded, pointing at the words. “Hidden places? Could the exit portal be in one of those locked buildings?”
“I doubt it.” Tucker scraped the last of his sundae sauce from his plastic bowl. “The whole thing seems more like a training installation to me. There’s a park in the lower left quadrant with rappelling cliffs, dry stream beds, and steel cables strung between the trees. Looks for all the world like an obstacle course. You’ll see it tomorrow.”
They headed next for the Holographic Transmission Station, or HTS, where residents donned virtual-reality helmets to contact participants in the Outer Realm.
“Most commonly we speak to those who have gotten off the road,” Tucker explained as they exited the library, “trying to get them back on it.”
This is what Meg must’ve done!
“Can you send messages anywhere, then?” Callie asked. “You don’t need a receiver?”
“No. But you have to find the person you’re sending to. Which isn’t easy.”
“I have a friend—Meg. She might—”
But Tucker was shaking his head. “I’m terrible with names, and there’s over fifty people here.”
Before she could launch into Meg’s description, Wendell said, “The holographs we received at the temple told us Mander was the true Benefactor.”
Tucker grimaced. “There’s a whole army of aliens who don’t want anyone to get through these gates. And we don’t have a corner on this equipment.”
“But Mander brought people up here.”
“Just ’cause you’ve gotten up the cliff doesn’t mean you’ve gone through one of the gates.” Tucker led them up a short bank of stairs. “In fact, you can’t even
find
one apart from going up that miraculous stairway in the cliff. And even then, once you’ve gone through, the Gate vanishes.”
“Yes!” Callie said. “I saw that! But I thought it was just to keep me from standing there staring at it for the rest of my life.”
Tuck smiled at her. “You might be right—who knows? Anyway, we just had a couple like that come through a few hours ago, Unchanged and still looking.” He stopped in a small courtyard at the top of the stair and turned back as the others drew around him. “I told them they’d have to go back down and come up through the cliff like the manual says, but they didn’t believe me.”
“So it was all a fraud,” Wendell murmured, his round face pale, his gaze turned inward.
Tucker nodded soberly.
“Hey,” LaTeisha cried. “I’ll bet that couple was Brian and Jacki! Are they still here?”
Tucker shook his head. “We offered ’em a place, but they were determined to find the Gate and moved on. At least they were honest about it. Some try to pretend they’ve already gone through, when it’s obvious they haven’t.”
“You can tell they’re Unchanged just by looking?” Callie asked.
Tucker nodded. “Changed folk like you all have a glow about them. It fades after a few days, of course, but at first it’s obvious.”
He was right. Now that Callie looked for it, she saw it—her companions shone with the same iridescence she’d seen on her hands. Even Rowena had it, for all her bitter complaining.
“
Is
there a way to get back down from here?” Wendell asked as they started walking again.
“Sure. There’s a portal up at the HTS they can use. They never do, though. Least not that I’ve seen. Maybe some of them go down at one of the other complexes—there’s thirteen more, just like this one,” he added with a grin, heading off the inevitable question. “One for each gate. Maybe after they’ve gone to all of them and found nothing, maybe then they believe. More likely, though, they just head inward for the Exit. After all, they’re up here, aren’t they?”
“But didn’t you say,” Callie asked, “that you can’t pass through the Exit unless you’ve been Changed?”
“That’s right. And if you try it, you’re toast, so I’m told. But they never believe it, so you just have to let them go.”
The HTS was shut down for the night, so they got no active demonstration of its capabilities. They did get to see the portal that would return one to the Outer Realm in order to pass through the Gate properly. It looked like a simple elevator car, though Tuck said it apparently only worked for the Unchanged.
After touring the HTS they returned to the dorm and there met Morgan Dunway. Tall and broad shouldered, he had small, close-set brown eyes and a large nose. He smelled of aftershave, and his shoulder-length blond hair had been styled and sprayed into position. He was in excellent physical condition—a big man who exuded the same kind of charisma Garth had. Callie disliked him the moment she met him, and his way of sizing them all up and declaring their group to be another “strikeout” did nothing to change her impression.
“Are you the Morgan who’s putting together the trip to the Inner Realm?” Rowena asked.
He grinned. “Tuck’s told you about that, huh?”
“Just that you’re thinking—” “Callie?”
Callie’s head jerked up, her gaze darting across the gathering.
Meg?
Meg pushed around Morgan and fell upon Callie with a shriek.
“No wonder I couldn’t find you today,” Meg cried as she let Callie go. “I was searching that horrid canyon, and you were already back at the Gate. I am
so
glad to see you!” Before Callie could speak, Meg turned to the white-haired man shadowing her. “Look, Mr. C! She’s come through.”
The man smiled warmly. “Welcome to Rimlight, Miss Hayes.”
Callie took to Mr. C—for Chapman—as quickly as she had reacted to Morgan. He had a friendly face—not nearly as age lined as his white hair and beard would indicate—and laughing brown eyes. He was one of those people you instantly like because they seem to instantly like you.
“Mr. C’s been helping me track you,” Meg offered, hooking a black curl behind her ear.
“And Mr. Andrews, as well,” Mr. C added. He glanced around. “I don’t see him, though.”
“Mr. Andrews?” Callie asked. “You mean Pierce?” She glanced around, too.
“He’s gone up to his room,” John said.
“He’s not much of a socializer,” Callie explained.
“He’s a head case is what he is,” said Rowena.
Callie frowned at her. “I wouldn’t call him a head case.”
“What would you call him?”
Awkward silence ensued. Then Meg plunged on. “So what happened, Cal? You were so far from the Gate when I saw you—”
“Didn’t you know?” Rowena persisted, her tone acidic. “She’s an acrophobe. Couldn’t hack the heights and turned back.”
Callie gaped at her. Meg frowned.
“That was Garth’s story,” John said.
“She hasn’t denied it,” Rowena countered. “Nor Whit, for that matter, and he was there.” She looked to the black man for confirmation, but he ignored her. Her gaze returned to Callie and she laughed. “It’s a good thing, though. If not for her, we’d all be dead. Right, honey?”
Callie regarded her in bewilderment. Rowena was smiling now, as if her scorn had never been, and when Callie did not reply, she turned to Morgan. “So. About your plan—?”
He grinned. “I’ve been studying the maps in the manual, and I’ve got some ideas.”
“When do you intend to launch this expedition?” She was coming on to him strongly, and he couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off her. Perhaps with good reason—with the glow of change upon her, Rowena was more attractive than ever.
“Haven’t decided yet,” he said.
“Are newcomers invited?”
“Certainly.”
Rowena took his arm, and as they sat down on one of the side couches, Mr. Chapman started conversing with John and Whit, and Meg drew Callie away.
“Is she always that catty?” Meg asked, settling on a blue sectional behind a screen of potted palms.
“No. I have no idea what her problem is.” It seemed unlikely she was jealous over Garth, since he’d clearly rejected Callie. But what other reason could there be?
“I s’pose you’re pretty mad at me, huh?” Meg asked, worrying a hangnail. Her hair was longer, and she wore the standard jumpsuit, but she was still Meg, and it was vaguely disorienting to find her here.
“I was furious at first,” Callie admitted. “But now . . . well, you couldn’t have suspected the truth. And it’s not like you aren’t in this mess, too.” She shook her head wryly. “Though I must say you’ve done better than me.”
“At least I’ve had an easier time. So far.” Meg’s hands twisted around her interlaced fingers, then fell apart as she heaved another sigh and let the subject go. “So why
did
you turn back? Was it my message?”
