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I am like you,
Nellie found herself thinking.
An experiment. Everything that I am was made by pain and shock. Nothing is me, except my fear. My fear is mine. But I want to be more than fear. I want to know there is more than fear and pain in this world. Can you help me find a way out?

No words came back to her but she felt a place begin to hollow itself out before her, a kind of tunnel that sent itself into the blur as if the air was reshaping itself for her benefit.

Go on,
Nell said urgently.
They understood you. They’re showing you a way out.

Hesitantly Nellie stepped into the tunnel. As she did, the screaming stopped and a new sense of space and direction took over, turning her to the left. Wherever the tunnel was leading, she realized excitedly, it wasn’t obeying Detta’s endless walls and corridors. Gripping the hand of the small girl beside her, she broke into an eager trot. Beyond the tunnel, she could sense white-walled corridors, ringing alarms and a multitude of scurrying lab-coated men.

They’re never going to find us
, Nellie thought gleefully.
Not with K Block’s energy field on our side.

Without warning, the tunnel began to fade. With it went the sense of countless presences upholding and moving her along.
No
, thought Nellie, wanting to hold onto them.
I need you. I NEED you.

But they were gone. Bewildered, Nellie stood, gripping the hand of the small girl and staring as tall gloomy walls took shape around her. Stars blinked on and off in the darkness and an image of the Red Planet glowed overhead. To her left she could see a three-way fork and her mind went automatically into scanning mode, playing itself out over the surrounding area and picking out blind curves and small chambers, trapdoors in the floor and ceiling.

A nearby door opened quietly. Nellie stiffened, her heart thundering as she heard another door open, and another.

Drones.

They were in the maze.

Twenty-One

F
ROM DOWN THE
corridor came the sound of running feet, and the maze walls lit up with whirling spaceships and laser-gun toting aliens. As Nell and the others stepped back in alarm, gaping at the holograph of intergalactic warfare that was taking form before them, Nellie pivoted to face the oncoming footsteps, her mind already in over-drive and scanning for any weapons the maze runners might be carrying. Seconds later, when two figures veered around a blind curve twenty feet away, she’d gained a general sense of them — a girl and a boy, both Black Core cadets, and carrying the usual stun guns and knives.

Then Nellie caught sight of the girl’s face and froze, riveted with shock.
Tana.
A second wave of shock hit her as she saw Phillip on her roommate’s heels
. Team run,
she thought quickly. And they had obviously just started — neither was wounded, and they still looked fresh.

As she caught sight of Nellie, Tana skidded to a halt and went into a crouch, her gun raised. Behind her, Phillip echoed the gesture.

“No,” cried Nellie. “Don’t shoot. It’s me, Nellie.”

“Nellie,” hissed Tana. “Who the hell is Nellie? I’ve never seen you before.”

“But I’m your roommate.” Nellie’s voice skyrocketed in dismay, but she realized protests were probably useless. As far as the two cadets before her were concerned, Nellie Joanne Kinnan had never existed. The Mind Cleanser had been used on them, or an
MK
file, and they no longer remembered her at all.

“My roommate’s name is Mynn,” snapped Tana. “You’re nothing but a fucking drone.”

“Phillip,” said Nellie, locking eyes with him. “The Lierin virus. Do you remember?”

A startled look crossed Phillip’s face, as if he was on the verge of remembering, and then it was gone. “No,” he said gruffly.

Behind him a door in the wall began to open. “Watch out,” shouted Nellie, pointing to a drone that was just emerging.

Phillip whirled, but Tana had already taken it down, as well as two others that were on its heels. “Okay, your turn,” she said, turning back to Nellie. “Then it’s all your little buddy drones.”

“Wait,” Phillip said hoarsely. “She helped us.”

“Yeah,” sneered Tana. “Good disguise. Especially the little kids.”

“They haven’t got any weapons,” protested Phillip. “Maybe they’re real.”

“Well, they shouldn’t be,” said Tana, training her gun on Nellie. “Why would real kids be running the maze without weapons?”

Her trigger finger tightened and Nellie flinched, waiting for the shot. But when it sounded, she found herself still standing and staring openmouthed as her former roommate collapsed to the floor.

“Take her gun,” said Phillip, grabbing it from Tana’s limp hand and tossing it to Nellie. “There’ll be more drones, there always are.”

“I know,” said Nellie, catching it, and for the next few minutes they were a team completely in sync as they whirled and pivoted, taking out the drones that were dropping from the ceiling and
crawling through trapdoors in the floor. Finally the holograph faded and the walls returned to their original gloomy state, displaying only the Red Planet and the odd star.

“Hey,” said Phillip approvingly, wiping the sweat from mouth. “You’re not bad. What’d you say your name was?”

“Nellie,” said Nellie, then hesitated, staring at Tana’s sprawled figure. “Is she—?”

“No,” Phillip said quickly. “I set the beam on low. She’s just out for a bit.”

“Then we’d better get moving before she wakes up,” said Nellie. Without hesitating, she headed for a trapdoor in the floor and pulled it open. “Hurry,” she called to Nell and the others, who were huddled a ways down the corridor, watching her, openmouthed. “They’ll figure out something’s wrong in a minute and send in the maintenance drones.”

“What about the dogs?” asked Nell, leading the children toward her.

“We’ve got two guns,” said Nellie, sliding her foot into the gap and feeling for the top of a ladder. “That is, if Phillip’s coming with us.”

Fear flashed across his face, followed by grim determination. He gave a quick nod and she realized he’d made the decision to accompany them even though he hadn’t yet remembered her. The guy was going on sheer guts.

“I’ve always hated this place,” he said, holding the trapdoor open for her.

“Me too,” said Nellie, and lowered herself through the opening. Immediately she was hit by an overwhelming stench. Clinging to the ladder, she buried her face in one arm and heaved as she realized what waited at the bottom of the ladder. Then she grunted in pain as a foot kicked her in the head.

“Sorry,” said Nell. “I thought you were further down.”

“The smell,” said Nellie, feeling for the next rung with her foot. “Warn the others.” One arm over her face, she continued slowly
downward. In the pitch darkness, there was no way to tell when she’d reached the bottom rung. Down and down she climbed, the stench growing ever stronger, and then without warning her foot landed on something that gave way with a soft ooze.

“I’ve reached it,” she called up. “The bottom. It’ll make you want to puke.” Forcing herself to take several steps away from the ladder, she waited as Nell climbed down, then helped her guide the retching children over the worst of the bodies. Huddled against a wall they waited, listening as the trapdoor closed above them and the others climbed down the ladder.

“Over here,” Nellie called to them. “It gets better if you keep going.”

“Thank the fucking Goddess for that,” Phillip muttered as he stumbled toward them. Then he was beside her in the dark, reaching out to feel for a shoulder or a face. “Where the hell did you guys come from?” he asked, his voice incredulous. “You’re not from Detta, are you?”

“K Block,” said Nellie. “But I used to be in Advanced with you. How is Tana going to fend off the drones when she comes to?”

“I gave her a good shake to wake her up and left her my gun,” said Phillip. “She’ll be all right. Tana’s always all right.”

“Maybe,” Nellie muttered dubiously, then sent her mind into the darkness and began scanning the tunnel in both directions. Left seemed to be the same as right so she turned toward it, cringing as her foot knocked against the narrow arc of what was obviously a bone. “Careful,” she said. “There’s another body here.” Cautiously she felt her way along the tunnel wall and gradually the stench receded behind them. Several of the smaller children were still retching, but the worst of their nausea seemed to have passed.

Someone bumped against her arm, then leaned in close. “Nellie,” her twin whispered quietly. “D’you think the drones will come after us?”

“No,” Nellie said confidently. “That’s not their program. They patrol the maze.”

“Oh,” said Nell and her voice trailed off. “Well,” she added in a rush. “D’you think maybe Deller’s body was back there?”

A gasp came from Fen, and Nellie shrugged off the spurt of creepy-crawlies that shot up her back. “Dunno,” she said gruffly. “There are trapdoors all over the maze.”

“I should go back,” Nell muttered. “Just to see. I might be able to read the vibra —”

“If it’s the dead you’re looking for,” her double said evenly from behind them, “this place is packed with them.”

“Thanks for the news flash,” said Nellie, trying to ignore another spurt of creepy-crawlies.

“Not bodies,” said the girl in the gold dress. “Spirits.” She hummed a single note, a low gray sound. “Watch,” she said, and hummed again. An odd quiver ran through Nellie’s brain, slowing her thoughts, and then forty or fifty silently staring children faded into view around her, their transparent shapes giving off a dim glow.

“There he is,” said Fen, and Nellie followed the direction of his voice toward the silhouette of a boy who was standing close by, watching them carefully. Instinctively her eyes honed in on the wound in his throat and she stepped back, raising her gun as if to ward something off.

“Deller?” whispered Nell and the spirit started toward them, the details of his face growing more distinct as he approached. Even as a colorless transparent figure, there was no denying the narrow face, the steady gaze of the eyes, or the protective way the boy spirit stood as he came to a halt between Nell and Fen.

“Oh.” In the dim light emitted by the spirits, Nellie saw her twin’s hand reach hesitantly toward the figure of the boy. “Oh, Deller,” Nell whispered. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for you to get killed, and I’ve been so aching with sorrow since it happened. I
think about you all the time, forever and ever, every day. More than the Goddess even.” Slowly her hand crept toward the wound in the spirit’s throat. “It looks like it just happened. Does it hurt?”

“Not as bad as my finger did.” Muffled and dull, Deller’s voice sounded as if it was coming through some kind of a barrier. A quick grin crossed his face and he reached out as if to touch Nell’s cheek, then hesitated and withdrew his hand. “More than the Goddess?” he asked, and Nellie saw tears start down her twin’s face.

“Yes.” Nell nodded fervently and the two stood for a moment, looking at each other.

“It’s over now, Nellie,” Deller said finally. “It hurt when it happened, just for a sec, and then I was out of my body and there wasn’t any pain. Lucky for me,” he added drily, “she’s a very good shot.”

“This is all my fault,” Fen burst out beside him. “If I hadn’t started traveling the realms, they wouldn’t have gotten me. And you wouldn’t have come looking for me, and ... “

An intense look crossed Deller’s face. “Yeah, Fennie, of course I came looking for you. You would’ve done the same for me. Then this happened, and I ... “ He shrugged. “I lost my body but not myself, see? I’m still me, just not in a body anymore. It’s kind of weird, as if I’m stuck between levels or tuned to the wrong frequency. But it’s no one’s fault it happened. At least” — Deller glanced quickly at Nellie — “ not yours, Fen. So just leave it, okay?”

Fen grunted softly, then said, “What am I going to tell Mom?”

“She already knows,” said Deller. “We talk in dreams. When she sees you walk up to her without me, she’ll know right off it’s true.”

Fen gave another grunt, as if punched, and a silence fell across the three. About them the rest of the spirits stood watching passively, as if the scene was taking place on TV. The small girl standing beside Nellie began to bump her head gently against Nellie’s leg, as if seeking comfort, and Nellie slid an arm awkwardly around her shoulder. Then, from a ways down the tunnel, came the sound of
sniffing. A whine went up and a howl, answered within seconds by howls further down the tunnel. Instinctively the small girl pressed close, so tightly Nellie could feel her shaking.

“The dogs,” said Nell. “Quick. Everyone grab hands.” Turning to her double, she added, “We’ve got to get everyone out of sync.”

But the girl in the gold dress had already begun to hum, and as Nellie’s hand closed around the hand of the small girl beside her, she felt the underground tunnel begin to fade out. Abruptly an odd pressure descended on her brain, as if something was pushing against the stream of vibrations Nell’s double was sending through the line of children, and then the underground tunnel and the distant howling of dogs faded back in.

With a wail, the small girl threw her arms around Nellie’s leg and hung on.

“What’s the matter?” cried Nellie. “Why are we still here?”

“Interference,” said the girl in the gold dress. “Someone in this tunnel has a grievance.”

The far-off howling was growing rapidly nearer. Thirty yards away a single dog could be heard, pacing and whining as it waited for the rest of the pack.

“A grievance,” repeated Nellie, staring at Nell’s double. “Against who?”

“Who do you think?” asked the girl in the gold dress.

For a moment Nellie continued to stare, uncomprehending. Then one of the spirits, a girl of about fourteen, stepped forward.

“I have a grievance,” she said, her eyes on Nellie. “You killed me. And you killed Neer over there, and Drea. And we all know you shot Deller.”

Swiftly Nellie’s eyes skimmed the spirits the girl had pointed out. They looked familiar; it was certainly possible. “I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I must’ve thought you were drones. Things happen so fast in the maze, and you probably had weapons. I can’t remember much of what happened there, the Mind Clean —”