'You're not Bill,' she said again.
'No Lori?' he said. He held out an arm and bent his elbow, then his wrist, inspecting his limbs. 'You must be wrong. Of course I'm your friend. Who else could I be? I have his body, his mind and memories. Just look at me, Lori. Don't you remember me?'
'Yes,' she said. The voice was definitely familiar, she thought, even though it was not her commander's. It was the voice of someone she'd known a long long time ago. 'I remember you,' she whispered.
'No!' Gary called. He had positioned himself to her right, Bill's left, standing at the apex of their shifting triangle. 'Don't listen to him.'
Her guard went back up. 'I won't be tricked,' she said.
'Why should I lie to you?' Bill asked.
'Where is Jessie?' Lauren demanded. 'What have you done to her?'
'She is not far.'
'You murdered Jim!'
Bill made a sweeping gesture. 'I have come to understand this chamber to be a place of decision. I didn't harm Jim. You're wrong to threaten me.'
The autopsy had said he had died of a heart attack. Lauren was curious in spite of herself. 'What decision did Jim make?'
'There is only one.'
'What are the choices?' she asked.
'To live or to die. You could live forever, Lori.'
She put pressure on the laser's trigger. 'Not your way.'
Bill went to yank the warhead's fuse.
'Stop!' she cried.
Bill's smile widened. 'What is your decision, Lori?'
Lauren glanced out the corner of her eye. Gary was edging closer to Bill. Was he going to try to push Bill in the lava? Bill paid Gary absolutely no heed.
'You didn't answer me, Lori,' Bill said.
'Detonate the bomb and you will die, too,' she said.
'Does that matter?' Bill asked. 'You think I'm dead already. You're mistaken there, I might add.'
'You're worse than dead,' Lauren said.
'What could be worse?' Bill asked. Again he reached for the bomb's timer.
'No!' she shouted.
Bill nodded. 'You want to discuss the situation further before you decide. I understand. One shouldn't be in a hurry to choose oblivion.'
'There could be a third choice,' Lauren said. 'I can still live and not become like you.'
Bill shook his head. 'Not once you've come here.'
'You're a coward,' she said bitterly. 'You made a cowardly decision. Jim could have been like you, but he didn't want to harm us.'
'But he's dead.'
'He wasn't afraid of you,' Lauren said.
'Not like you,' Bill agreed.
'You're a liar. Humans were here before.' She pointed to the wall. 'How do you explain how this ring got here?'
'The ring is of no consequence,' Bill said.
'Then why did your kind uncover it? You were looking for it. But none of you took it out of the wall. I think you're afraid of it.'
'Your thoughts are of no consequence,' Bill said.
'Jim told us about a ring like this,' Lauren said.
The smile dropped from Bill's face. 'What did he tell you?'
Lauren took a step back. 'A human skeleton holds this ring. It belongs to us, not to you.'
'What did Jim tell you?' Bill insisted, angry now.
Lauren rook another step backward, finding it difficult to resist his demand. 'Nothing,' she whispered.
'Tell me!' Bill said.
His wrath hit her like a cold blast. His eyes, completely blank moments ago, were now windows into a place where the penalty of disobedience could be clearly seen. Lauren shuddered as she bumped into the wall at her back. She had to stop arguing with him. It was like arguing with the devil, and she knew no one ever won an argument with the devil. They had little time, anyway. She'd have to chance detonating the bomb. Aiming the laser at his head, she said, 'I think you're full of shit.'
She started to pull the trigger.
At that exact instant, Gary leapt toward Bill.
In a moment too short to properly grasp, Bill sprang
from behind the warhead and intercepted Gary. He wrenched Gary's arms behind Gary's back and thrust Gary before him, using Gary as a shield. Lauren quickly placed herself between them and the bomb. The timer ticked at her back. Gary struggled unsuccessfully to free himself. He was like a wooden puppet thrashing at the end of steel strings.
'What should I do?' she pleaded.
'Shoot,' Gary gasped. 'He'll get both of us.'
'A brave warrior,' Bill observed.
'I can't,' she cried.
'Do it!' Gary ordered.
Lauren shook her head.
'It's a stalemate,' Bill said. 'I wouldn't be surprised if we're still here when the third expedition arrives. What a welcome we could give them - much more thorough than the one Ivan gave us.' Bill smiled once more. 'I'm glad you two decided to visit me here today. I was hoping you would. Human curiosity and compassion are such remarkable characteristics. What next, Lori? Should I twist Gary's arm until he...'
Suddenly Bill let out the scream of a man who had been dashed with boiling water. He retreated like an injured insect, Gary still caught in his claws. 'No closer!' he swore. 'Stop! I'll snap his neck.'
Lauren looked down in amazement at her crucifix. She had remembered it only a moment ago, and had held it out toward Bill. It seemed such a little thing to get all excited about - not that she was complaining. Unfortunately, Bill wasn't going to stay put for Christian magic. He began to twist Gary's head back, way back.
'Stop it!' she shouted. She lowered the crucifix.
Bill nodded. 'That's better, much better. What now, Lori? Do you wish to negotiate? I will bargain with you.'
'Bargain, then,' Lauren said. They stood at the edge of the pool of boiling mud. A three-foot layer of thick red fog clung to the ground. It would be very easy, Lauren realized, to take a wrong step, and end up in the pool.
'My offer is simple,' Bill said. 'Tell me what Jim told you about the rings, and I will let Gary go.'
'Fine/ Lauren said. 'Release him and I'll tell you.'
'First you will put down the laser and the cross,' Bill said.
'Sure,' Lauren said. 'Then you'll get us both.'
'I promise I won't.'
'You expect me to believe you?' Lauren asked.
'You have no choice.' Bill twisted Gary's head. Gary shrieked.
'Enough!' Lauren said.
Bill paused. 'Do you find my terms agreeable?'
'This laser works. Kill him and I won't hesitate to shoot.'
'Then you'll go home, right?' Bill asked. 'Fool! When did you learn to fly the Hawk? Come, I'm a sportsman. We'll complete our parts of the bargain simultaneously. Is that reasonable?'
Lauren took several steps backward, wanting to increase her distance from Bill. His speed was obviously great, but she figured she should still have the time to retrieve the laser and cross once he freed Gary and before he could get to her. She eased the laser's strap over her helmet.
'It's reasonable,' she said.
'You agree to my terms?' Bill asked.
'Don't!' Gary called.
'I agree,' Lauren said. She finished with the strap and stood ready to drop the gun and cross at her feet. 'Now?'
'As promised,' Bill said. The conditions of the bargain were met. Lauren set down the laser and crucifix at the same moment Bill tossed Gary aside. Bill was a bit rough with him. Gary hit the wall with a groan and fell to the floor.
He sat up immediately but appeared dazed. Because Bill stood between them, Gary would have to circle the entire chamber to come to her aid. She was alone with the monster.
'Now, Lori,' Bill said. 'You will tell me about the ring. How did Jim recognize it?'
Lauren had expected him to charge. It had been her plan to immediately reach for the laser and crucifix. He made no threatening move, however. He simply stared at her, and once more she felt herself drawn to his eyes. It seemed the evils that had been committed were somehow re
moved and separate from those eyes.
'Jim died before he could tell me the full story of the other ring,' Bill continued. 'But you can tell me now, Lori.'
His eyes seemed to swell. When she tried to look away, she saw them still. They seemed to fill the chamber. They were like dark wells, from which she could drink if she was thirsty. And she was so thirsty. 'He found it,' she whispered.
'Where?'
'Under a mountain. In the Himalayas.'
'What did he do with it, Lori?'
His pronunciation of her nickname made her quiver with a rush of raw sensuality. The skin at the top of her thighs tingled. It made no sense, nothing did, but she suddenly had a terrible itch in her crotch that she just had to scratch -that someone had to scratch.
'Who did he give the ring to?' he asked.
His words were like a caress, rough but direct, straight to the point. It was embarrassing what was happening to her, she thought. Yet she didn't think enough. She continued to watch Bill, not moving.
She sighed. 'He gave it away.'
Bill pulled his generous lips over his white teeth, which
were much bigger than she remembered, much sharper. A helpless shudder went through her entire body and she welcomed it.
Love me, Lori.
'Tell me who he gave it to,' he asked.
She hesitated. 'Why?'
'Because it pleases me to know.' He licked his lips with his fat tongue, and she could imagine him - very vividly -doing other things with that tongue. 'Please me, Lori. Tell me who he gave it to.'
She coughed. 'I don't remember.' She wasn't lying. Her mind had gone blank, and she wanted it that way. She wanted to be one big organ, throbbing with sensation.
'Did he give the ring to her?' Bill asked.
'To who?'
He took a step closer. 'To her?'
Her voice slurred. 'Who's her?'
He spoke with demanding force. 'Did he give it to your sister?'
'Jenny?' The name startled her, and it caused Bill to blink, to move his eyes, in such a way that she could see beyond them. His spell broke, and she was suddenly furious with herself. She was staring into his eyes again!
Lauren realized her danger. But she let the realization show in her face. Bill pounced even as she reached for the crucifix. But she seized it before he could get to her.
'Stop!' she commanded, holding up the cross in front of her. Bill halted ten feet away, and with her free hand she felt on the ground for the laser. It was difficult to find in the fog. 'In the name of God you stay where you are!' she said.
Now I've got him.
Then Bill smiled.
'Come on, Lori,' he said. 'You're getting a bit melodramatic, aren't you? I suppose now you're going to try to
cast out the demon in me in the holy name of Jesus Christ.' His smile disappeared and his tone hardened. 'It doesn't work that way. You were tricked, bitch, even as you thought you were tricking me. This has all been a ritual, not a test of reflexes.' He pointed at the wall where the bony hand clasped the silver ring. 'You're like your shadow, like the one who came before you. You make bargains that you have no intention of keeping. In this place, that's always a mistake. You always lose!'
With his last words, he pounced.
Lauren found the laser and grabbed hold of its barrel. Before she could pick it up and take aim, however, an inhuman blow struck her left side and splintered her ribs. Yet this time the low Martian gravity favored her, in exactly the same way it had betrayed her when she had fought Ivan. Rather than simply knocking her over, Bill's blow sent her somersaulting through a complete full roll. By blind chance, she came to rest upright on her knees, with the laser still in her hands.
Bill bore down on her once more. Lauren's head was spinning. Taking uncoordinated aim, she fired her weapon.
She missed. The bolt of energy exploded against the near wall, sending rocks hurtling through the red fog. One large rock hit her in the right side and knocked her over. The laser bounced on the ground beside her and she rolled over in a sheet of fog. She didn't have a chance to get off another shot before Bill was on top of her once more. But he was not standing on steady ground. To avoid her first shot, he'd had to jump to the side, and place himself precariously close to the pool of lava. But even as she watched, he regained his balance and stood gloating down at her.
'For a moment, Princess,' he said. 'But your moment has passed.'
He moved to fall on her.
Lauren reacted instinctively. She planted both her hands on the floor and thrust her lower body into the air. Both her feet landed in the center of Bill's chest just as he stooped to grab her. His momentum, however, was incredible and her legs buckled at the knees under the pressure. Yet this served to bring the full power of her hamstrings into use. With the last bit of her strength, she shoved him toward the boiling mud. For the second time he balanced on the edge of the pit. But the fates were kind, or else slippery, and he toppled backward into the lava. The fires immediately began their cruel work.
'No!' His scream rattled the chamber, and cursed her soul. Lauren watched in mute terror as he thrashed in a torture nothing could deserve. The lava fizzled through his pressure suit and melted through his flesh. Then there was a loud explosion, as his oxygen tanks ruptured and tore a chunk out of his back. A film of blood sprayed over the mud and quickly vaporized, and vanished in the red fog. Sinking deeper and deeper into the lava, he cried for help.
'Lori!'
Die. Die!
Before the pit sealed its prey, Lauren was given a last clear glimpse of his face, a face racked with agony, disintegrating under a flood of liquid fire, but a face that belonged once more to the real Bill. In the end, the possession had left her commander to suffer alone. It was a coward. Lauren turned away in anguish.
I want the risks to be mine alone.'
TWENTY-EIGHT
They were lost somewhere between the island and the canal. A thick haze, of mysterious origin, had arisen over the black waters. A half-dozen flares had served only to turn the night into a brilliant cloud. For all they knew, they were paddling their boat in circles.
Gary had gotten up shortly after Bill died. He had never lost consciousness, but it had taken him several minutes until his head cleared enough for him to function intelligently. Together they had loosened the ring and fled the pit. Unfortunately, her tangle with Bill had left her seriously injured. They managed to reach the boat and set off from the island, but she couldn't paddle. She tried and almost fainted from the pain. She figured that at least three ribs were broken. She worried that one had punctured her lung. Her mouth was full of blood. Plus her dehydration had caused her tongue to swell. Talking was difficult. Still, she counted herself lucky. She was alive, and in the pocket of her pressure suit was the ring. She already had visions of giving it to Jennifer when she returned home.
Jessica was still a question mark. While fleeing the pit, they had finally recognized a major clue as to her possible whereabouts. Hummingbird was not parked on top of the hill's plateau, which should have been Bill's logical landing spot. That meant Jessica had probably split in the craft
before they had arrived. She had probably gone back to the Hawk. But had she fled the pit in fear? Or had she been sent by Bill on an errand of death?
'How much time have we spent?' Lauren asked as they continued to flounder, lost between the island and the canal.
'Too much,' he said.
'How much time do we have?'
Gary consulted his watch. 'One hour and forty-three minutes.'
'Do we have enough time?'
'If we can find the canal in the next few minutes, I would say, yes. Barely. It will still be a mile to the cave.'
'We're not safe here?' Of course, she had no idea where here was.
'No way.'
"The bomb didn't look that big,' she said.
'Size is no indication of power. I didn't recognize the warhead, but it resembled the bombs the Stealth fighter carried. Tho
se mothers were small, but they packed ten megatons. If we're caught here, we're as good as dead.'
'What exactly will happen when it goes off?'
'The entire island might rupture,' Gary said with pleasure. 'The fireball will expand and probably fill the cavern. But the energy will probably have trouble dissipating, unless this place is bigger than I think it is, or there are other canals beside the one we know of. A wave of fire will rush up that canal in either case, and we sure as hell better not be in its way.'
'How will the bomb affect the volcanic fissures?'
'Who can say? It might end up being a fuse for a bigger firecracker.'
'Sounds like quite a show,' she said, still wishing he had left the warhead sealed in the Hawk's basement. 'It's not
fair that you have to do all the paddling. You must be tired.'
'You more than paid your dues, Doc, when you shoved that monster in the cooker.'
She sighed. 'I know Bill was lost before we went down there, but it was hard to see him die that way.'
'He was dead already.'
'I suppose.'
'Do you believe in vampires now?' Gary asked.
She smiled weakly. 'I believe in magic rings.'
A few minutes later the front of the boat hit a smooth stone wall. 'Now where's the tunnel?' Gary asked the rock wall. 'Give me another flare, Lori.'
They shot it off and created another short-lived white cloud that didn't let them see more than ten feet in either direction.
'Well,' Lauren said. 'We can either go right or left. Maybe we should flip a coin.'
Gary glanced back the way they had come. 'When I've paddled on the right side, I've had my right hand lower down, in the stronger position. I've done the opposite on the left side. My left arm's a lot stronger than my right. I've probably pulled us to the left. I say we go to the right, and wish on that magic ring that right is right.'
'Sounds logical,' she said.
Luck was with them. Less than five minutes later they came to the canal. They had to assume it was the same canal as before. Seemingly tireless, Gary plowed the boat forward. Lauren encouraged him as best she could, what with the pain she was having. Her fantasies altered between a tall glass of lemonade and a fat shot of morphine.