The Omega Cage Read online

"It's a surprise," Maro said. His already dry mouth grew yet drier. "But go ahead and check, he should be in his office by now."

  The guard began to punch in the warden's personal code. It didn't matter where Stark was; if that sequence was completed, it would reach the warden. And if the guard got through to Stark, the escape was dead.

  Maro sucked in a quick breath. He didn't want to do it, he wasn't even sure it would work, but he had no choice. He pointed the DM at the guard's belly and pushed the red button.

  The guard screamed as his abdomen literally burst into flame, spewing entrails. He was probably dead from massive shock before he collapsed over the desk. His last living act was to trigger the hand wand, but by the time he fired the weapon, it was pointed straight up. The flash vibrated paint flakes from the ceiling, but otherwise did no harm.

  Maro stared at the dead man. He had seen bodies exposed to hard vacuum through ruptured suits, and corpses bloating in the hot sunshine of a battlefield, but nothing quite so gruesome as this. The stench was almost enough to make him faint—that, coupled with the sickening realization that he had killed this man. Bile rose, and he turned away from the guard and vomited. It took him a minute to regain his composure; then he punched in the open code, and the door to B block slid back. Another touch, and all the isolation cells' doors swung open.

  Juete was waiting for him. When he stepped inside, she looked at him for all of two seconds before rushing forward and embracing him. Maro felt himself respond to her, even under the circumstances.

  "Come on," he said. "We've got to go."

  "Thank you for coming for me."

  "We'll talk about it later."

  "Are you okay?"

  He hesitated, then told her. "I had to kill the guard."

  "That means there's no turning back."

  "Yeah." He took her hand. "Come on." He pointed the DM at the Zonn wall to the rear of her cell. "Stay close. It's very strange, where we're going."

  "Don't worry. You'll have a white shadow." Maro had to grin. He liked this woman.

  His luck was not bad this time, but neither was it good. It took three tries before they reached a place where Maro felt they could risk going the rest of the way in the real world. The first time had put them outside the shop; the second in a cell in D block—an empty one, fortunately. The third time they found themselves in the cafeteria. At least it was in the same wing as the infirmary. With luck, nobody would be in the corridors. They'd have to pass the morgue, the zombie ward and the rec room, but there were no posted guards until the infirmary.

  Maro stroked the patch on his throat. "Scanner," he said quietly.

  "Yes. Where the hell are you? It's past two."

  "I'll be there in exactly two minutes. Tell Sandoz."

  "Copy."

  To Juete he said, "Sandoz is going to distract the guard. You stay by the corner of the rec room, out of sight, until I take the guard out, okay?"

  "Anything you say."

  Two minutes later, in the infirmary, Maro was able to sneak up behind the guard, who was telling Sandoz to shut the fuck up, and clout him into unconsciousness. He took the single-shot wand, turned and called to Juete, then opened the locked door.

  Sandoz saw the woman first. "What the hell is she doing here?"

  "She's going with us."

  "Bloody hell she is! She's the warden's!"

  "She's nobody's—and she goes with us."

  The two men glared at each other. Scanner broke the tension. "We don't want to stand here like a college debate team. We have to move!"

  Sandoz nodded. "Yeah. We'll talk about this later, Maro."

  Some of the other prisoners in the ward wondered aloud what was going on, but Sandoz turned his anger upon them. "Shut up! Some of us are leaving. The rest of you are going to take a nap, so you don't accidentally tell anybody. Chameleon!"

  The polymorph moved quickly among the six other prisoners, using skin poppers on them. They were still too sick to put up more than a token resistance. Within a couple of minutes, everyone save those involved in the escape were drugged into a deep sleep.

  "Okay," Maro said. "Stay close." He walked to the Zonn wall on the north end of the infirmary. The morgue was behind that wall in one world. Only the gods knew what lay behind it in another.

  "Better charge the DM again," Scanner said. "We might need the power."

  "Right." Maro reached down and touched the yellow button. The power diode lit and began to climb. Then, abruptly, it stopped, and the lights in the infirmary flickered momentarily. When they steadied again, they were dimmer.

  Scanner cursed. "I think we blew a station on the broadcast grid. The Cage's backup generator just kicked in. How much power do we have?"

  " Seventy-two percent."

  "It'll have to do. We need to go, quickly! A power failure is going to alert somebody."

  "All right," Maro said to the other seven prisoners surrounding him. "Stay close to each other and to me. The Zonn world isn't like this one, and I don't want anybody wandering off. When one of us goes through, we all go through, fast—otherwise we might wind up in different places. Ready?"

  He looked at the others: Juete, Sandoz, Scanner, Raze, Chameleon, Fish and Berque. Only the latter two looked markedly frightened. Once again, Maro wished they weren't going along. "Okay. Let's do it."

  Whatever luck he'd had with his travels in the Zonn realm before left him this time. Maro led the escapees through four times, and four times they had to retreat back into the wall from such places as the kitchen, the library, the Zonn Chamber and F block. Fortunately, they were not seen. But that was the extent of their luck—the power levels were down to fifteen percent. Barely enough for one more try. Scanner figured.

  Once more in the eerie world constructed by the Zonn, Maro said, "Okay, this is it. Wherever we come out this time, we go it on foot from there. If you have gods, pray to them that we don't come out outside the wall."

  Maro triggered the DM for the last time, and the eight of them hustled through, and into—

  "Ah, shit," Chameleon said. "I've worked in here before. It's the guard's quarters. The goddamned showers in the guard's quarters. How are we gonna get out of here?"

  It was Raze who offered an answer. "There's a window," she said, pointing. "Up there."

  "It's barred, Raze," Fish said. "You blind?"

  Raze glared down at him. "Boost me up," she told Sandoz and Maro. The two men lifted her. The window was wide enough for Raze to sit on the sill and prop her boots against one of the bars while she gripped the one next to it with both hands.

  Maro looked away from Raze to see Berque stroking Juete's back with one sweaty hand. The woman slapped his hand away sharply, but Berque only grinned. He kept his distance, though, especially after locking gazes with Maro.

  In the window, Raze flexed and began to work the bars. She shoved and pulled; muscles bulged and sweat beaded on her bare arms. Very quickly, the metal began to move. It took maybe ten seconds before there was a gap wide enough to allow passage. Raze grinned down at the others. "Everybody up."

  One by one they made their way between the stretched bars and out of the shower room. Maro was the last, aided up by Sandoz.

  Outside, the early morning air was still and warm. Insects swarmed around the big HT lights, shadows dancing across the pooled beams in the yard. The transportation shack was behind an electric fence a hundred meters to the southeast of the guards' quarters. It was almost 0300, and they were behind schedule.

  There were three guards patrolling the fence, and no way to cross that patch of well-lit ground between the guards' quarters and the fence without being seen by the west side guard.

  "It's up to you," Maro told Chameleon.

  "Don't I know it," the mue said.

  "Can you do it? Are you sure?"

  "I'm the best there is at this. If I can't, nobody can."

  Chameleon began to change. His face shifted, his hair changed texture and color, and, after three minutes, he was
a passable clone of Warden Stark, at least in the dark. He slipped into the coverall that Sandoz shoved at him, and Juete gasped.

  "Looks pretty good, doesn't it?" Chameleon said.

  "As long as you keep your mouth shut," Sandoz replied.

  Maro pulled the hand wand he'd taken from the guard and offered it to Chameleon. "You want to take this?"

  "No, thanks. If I use it, the others will see the flash. I'll do it the hard way."

  "Good luck."

  "Right."

  They watched as the altered Chameleon strolled across the lighted compound. The guard spotted him and spun around, pointing his shotgun. Chameleon kept walking. Maro rubbed his palms against his pants. The guard straightened slightly. He lowered the shotgun and said something, but Maro couldn't make it out. Chameleon kept walking.

  When the two men were only a few meters apart, Chameleon suddenly pointed at a spot behind the guard and spoke. Again, the escapees could not make out the words. The guard turned away, raising the shotgun. Chameleon pulled a cosh that Sandoz had given him from his pocket and clouted the guard with it. The man went down.

  "Okay, move!" Maro hissed.

  The seven of them sprinted across the well-lit grass. Raze was in front, Maro and Sandoz just behind her, with the others strung out behind them. Chameleon bent and retrieved the fallen guard's shotgun, then began moving along the fence as if patrolling.

  Raze reached the unconscious guard and picked him up, carrying him close to the electric fence. The other guards couldn't see them, but anybody to the north or west could if they looked. They had to hurry.

  Sandoz bent over the guard. "A spetsdod!" Quickly he peeled up the plastic flesh that attached the dart gun to the back of the guard's hand. In another five seconds he had mounted the weapon on his own hand.

  "The light!" Maro said.

  Sandoz looked up. "He's loading shocktox. The darts might not break the glass."

  "Try!"

  Sandoz raised the spetsdod and touched the barrel with his finger. There came a series of hard coughs; the hail of darts rattled against the HT lamp's glass. The cover chipped, starred, then cracked. The spetsdod's cough stopped.

  "Damn!" Sandoz ejected the empty magazine and rummaged around in the guard's belt pouch. He found a spare magazine and fitted it, then began firing again. After three seconds, the glass shattered and the bulb blew out. Darkness fell on them like a curtain.

  "Okay, Scanner."

  Scanner took a fist-sized plastic block from his pocket. He touched a control on the device, which gave off a quick sparkle of LEDs. Then he moved to the three-meter-tall diamond mesh fence and gingerly touched the thing to the thick wire. A spark jumped.

  Scanner took a quick breath, then reached out and grabbed the fence next to the mechanism. Nothing happened. He grinned. "It's working. We should have a ten-meter-wide patch recircuited."

  "Go," Maro said. "Hurry!"

  They began to climb the fence.

  In his cube, Stark was restless. Another goddamned power failure had just been reported. He paced back and forth in front of the south window, noticing that one of the lamps on the transportation area fence was out as well. Goddamned place was falling apart. Who the hell was on guard detail down there? Lepto was running the unit tonight, wasn't he? He must be on the opposite side. Lepto would never let a light go out on him for more than the time it took to roust a tech out of bed to fix it.

  Stark turned away from the window to his desk and stroked a heat-sensitive strip. "Get me tower two," he said.

  "There, next to that bus!" Scanner pointed. Their target was Stark's personal flitter. It was an aircar that would comfortably seat six, and uncomfortably eight.

  Comfort was not a problem; they would fly standing on their heads if that was what it took.

  "I hope this works," Chameleon said.

  "It'll work," Scanner replied, pulling another electronic device from his pocket. "I've had this for two years, just in case I ever got a chance to use it. I know the control systems of this cart better than my mother's face. It'll work."

  They reached the flitter. Scanner tapped in a code on his device, the doors on the flitter gulled up and open. "See?"

  "Brag later," Sandoz said. "Let's get the fuck out of here."

  "Everybody freeze!"

  Maro spun tightly, pointing the hand wand. To his left, he saw Sandoz drop flat to the ground, spetsdod extended. Chameleon moved slower, bringing the shotgun around.

  A laser dot danced across Fish's chest, and the little man erupted in a fountain of bloody flesh. Fish screamed and bounced from the side of the flitter, falling.

  The shotgun's flash came from the edge of a second transport bus. Maro pointed the hand wand at the afterimage and triggered it. The strobe-like flash spread out, too wide and dispersed to do much damage at that range. He tossed the one-shot weapon away as he heard the rattle of spetsdod darts against the bus's plastic body. Chameleon got his shotgun working, and three quick booms deafened Maro. "Into the flitter!" he yelled into the sudden silence. Berque scrambled inside, followed by Juete. Maro looked up to see Raze running to the right, sprinting. Where the hell was she going? Wait, she was circling the bus—

  The dot of the targeting laser whipped over Maro, and he dove for the ground. The hail of 9mm pellets sleeted against the flitter. Sandoz fired the spetsdod again, then cursed as the weapon ran dry. He jerked it from his hand, jumped up and into a dive, and rolled toward the flitter.

  Chameleon beat Sandoz to the door.

  "The shotgun!" Maro yelled. Chameleon turned and tossed the weapon at Maro. Maro caught it and rolled, then came up.

  By the bus, somebody grunted.

  Maro ran toward the bus, shotgun pointed ahead. He waited for the deadly red spot to find him, for the impact of the steel shot to slam into him. It didn't come.

  Somebody was fighting behind the bus. Maro skidded to a halt on the rough plastcrete slab and gathered himself to spring. Before he could move, the fighters bounced from behind the bus and almost on top of him, clinched together like wrestlers.

  It was Raze, locked together with Lepto. The guard cursed, while Raze saved her breath for fighting. As he watched, they sprang apart. Then Lepto moved in, and Raze swung a roundhouse punch, bringing it up from behind her, a long, looping and powerful strike. It caught Lepto flush on the side of the jaw. Maro heard the bone go with a wet snap, and Lepto's head jerked to the side from the power of the strike. That punch might have badly injured an ordinary man, but Lepto only stopped long enough to shake his head before he started for Raze again.

  Maro remembered the guard he had killed, and that was enough to make him lower the barrel of the shotgun to point at Lepto's legs. He fired, and the blast hit the guard above the left knee, knocking the leg back enough to pitch Lepto forward in a hard dive. Raze danced to the side as the guard hit the plastcrete. He might bleed to death eventually, but he was alive for now.

  "Come on!" Maro yelled to Raze.

  Raze hesitated, fists doubled, staring at Lepto. Then she turned and ran.

  The two of them piled into the flitter. Sirens wailed, and spotlights came on, but nobody seemed to know where to focus yet.

  Scanner sat in the control seat, holding a small caster in one hand. He thumbed the unit's control and tossed it onto the flitter's dash panel. "There goes the comnet and radio," he said. "They won't be calling for help for a few hours."

  "Get this thing in the air," Sandoz said.

  Scanner nodded and powered up the flitter. In five seconds, the craft started to lift.

  "All right!" Chameleon said.

  The plastic window next to Juete shattered. She screamed as the shards exploded inward. Maro jumped for her, pulling her away from the window. There was a rattle like hail against the flitter's body, and the sounds of gunfire. He caught a glimpse of Lepto, sprawled on the plastcrete, firing at them with his recovered shotgun. He jammed his own weapon through the vacant window, pointed it at Lepto, and pulled the tr
igger back to full auto.

  On the plastcrete, Lepto's form jerked from the impact. The shotgun emptied and clicked, and Maro shoved it outside. The flitter rose as Maro turned to look at Juete. A line of blood, startlingly vivid against her white flesh, ran down one cheek.

  "I'm okay," she said. "Just some plastic hit me, I think."

  The flitter canted, then began to move, picking up speed, heading through the transport area toward the southern wall. Maro looked out through the ruined window as the wall seemed to drop away beneath them.

  "We're out," Raze said quietly.

  They all yelled, then. A cheer.

  They had escaped from the Omega Cage.

  Part Two

  'Freedom don't mean much when the dogs is on your trail."

  —Abraham Scranton Jefferson Jones

  Chapter Sixteen

  "We're losing power," Scanner said.

  A chorus of voices was raised in immediate and shocked question. In reply, Scanner shook his head and pointed to the readouts on the heads-up holodisplay. "One of Lepto's shotgun blasts. This thing's diagnostics show that we're losing fuel—a ruptured line."

  "Can we fix it?" Sandoz asked.

  "Not without landing. Maybe not even then. I've got a confounder blasting their radar and doppler, but I don't think we want to put down within a hundred klicks of the prison. They can still field dins and hounds, and they have other transports. We can't hide our heat shadow."

  "Shit," Chameleon commented. He had shifted back from his Stark impersonation to what Maro assumed was his normal appearance, if indeed he had any.

  "How long can we fly?" Maro asked.

  Scanner shrugged. "If we keep our speed low and stay low, out of turbulence, maybe a couple of hours."

  "How far?" Raze asked.

  "Three, four hundred kilometers."

  "That puts us six hundred short of the mining port," Berque said bitterly. "We're dead."

  "Maybe," Maro said.

  Berque stared at Maro as if he had just sprouted tentacles and green fur. " 'Maybe'? How the hell are we supposed to get through six hundred kilometers of some of the deadliest animal and plant life in the whole fucking galaxy? Walk?"