King's County (14 page)

A dark figure flashed behind one of the
lamps. I pulled Geake up to his feet. More shadows moved. We formed
a defensive circle facing outward.

"Hey, sir, that thing there..." Geake
was pointing back the way we had come.

It was brown and moving, low set and
rounded on top. As it came to within a hundred meters, its head
rose up with antennae swiveling. A beetle, dark burnished gold, its
prominent jaw opened and snapped shut twice in rapid
succession.

Roped together, we ran as well as we
could. Single file then in a ragged group. The beetle gained
quickly moving on six clockwork legs. I didn’t look back again. The
jaws snapped together sounding close.

Off to the side was a stairway leading
underground. Walter pulled the three of us together and dove head
first, arms out in front, down the stairs, dragging us with
him.

I remember hitting a thin wooden floor
and it collapsing under our weight. We fell further down a dark
shaft, at least another floor level it felt, to land sprawled on
the cool floor of a small chamber.

Of course we weren't injured. Looking
back up the shaft, all I saw was the distant blue-black sky. I
untied my two ropes and stretched out on the floor to rub my
foot.

Tyndall tucked his end of the rope into
a pocket and wandered off, ducking his head under a low horizontal
shaft. There was a soft flickering light around the corner along
with a murmuring of voices.

Geake’s voice was hoarse, "Sir, do you
think Penny could be through there?"

Walter answered, "I doubt it, son." His
face illuminated with faint red light as he drew on a plastic
pipe.

"Not to be rude, sir, but how can you
be so sure?"

"My father once said a man who can't do
math is not much more than an orangutan," Walter said and let out a
sigh. He put his pipe away, "I don't want you calling me sir,
understand? You can call me Dr. Fick if you can't bring yourself to
call me by my first name."

With that he untied his rope and threw
the end at Geake,

"Let’s take a walk, kid."

Walter left followed reluctantly by
Geake and then me.

There was only one room around the
corner of the shaft. It was softly lit with smaller versions of the
brass lamps we saw above ground. The room was wide and low
ceilinged, adorned with settees upholstered in zebra skin. Women
lounged on them.

I watched Geake take in the scene. He
was desperate. He looked back at me pleading for my
help.

Walter flopped onto a settee and was
met immediately by two thin strangely costumed lively women who
straddled his tired but willing body.

Scanning the room for a sign of Penny
was almost impossible. Staring at any one particular spot made us
dizzy, forcing us to look away. The holographic trick was pushed to
the limit in making this room so big in this small space.
Everything past the range of a few meters in the dim, yellow lit
room was blurred. The distant walls seemed too distant. They
shimmered as if through a haze of heat.

A figure approached striding between
settees. It wore a full set of gold and leather armor that creaked
as it moved.

It stopped in front of us and took a
step toward Geake, intruding into his space. It was tall, taller
than Geake, and breathed audibly through the grill of its
helmet.

Bending forward, a boot came off
followed by the other, bringing the top of its head down to below
Geake’s eye level. It had small feet swaddled in brown leather
stockings.

The helmet lifted off and dropped to
clatter on the floor. She shook out her hair and dropped a glove to
wipe her forehead with a delicate hand.

"El Tee, what's going on here?" Geake
said. The girl stared plainly back at him with a faint
smile.

"Hi, brother. I missed you. Did you
miss me?"

"Jeanie - you shouldn't be
here."

"Well, I’m glad you remember me. Do you
remember these?" She unbuckled and shed the heavy armored cuirass.
Her white breasts were flushed red from rubbing the coarse leather
padding.

Geake covered his forehead and closed
his eyes,

"Is she real, sir?"

She slinked closer and started rubbing
his chest, giving him a curious, hopeful look. He remained stoic.
He wouldn't look at her.

"I seriously doubt it,
Geake."

That was enough for him. With one hand
he pushed her away while with the other he deftly snatched the
crook-ended bronze sword from her belt. Her voice was sweet and
pleading.

"Please don't,"

*

On pure instinct we ran, with Walter
behind us. For a second I thought he might be trying to stop
us.

I don't know who she was. She couldn't
have been Geake’s sister. He didn't think so either, that's what he
said. Why he killed her I don't really know and I never asked
him.

We crashed through the narrow hallway,
probably more scared of what we'd done than to escape any
retribution. Walter followed. Tyndall we left behind.

Back at the first room, the vertical
shaft to the surface looked impossible to scale, maybe 10m high and
made of smoothly finished stone blocks.

Geake with his weapon guarded the door
while we tried to figure out a way up. Walter showed me a trick. By
closing one eye the perceived distance would shorten to near its
real dimension. Doing this also reduced the dizzying sensation from
resisting the illusion.

I asked Geake to give me a boost. He
put his hands together and I stepped and threw myself up, closing
both eyes and reaching my arms out for a handhold.

It was easy. I was at the stairs near
the surface looking down the shaft at Geake. A quick look confirmed
the beetle thing was nowhere around.

A bundle of the ropes hit me in the
face. They were tied together to make one long one. Walter’s voice
called out hollow and distant like he really was as far away as he
seemed.

"Put one end around your waist and
throw the other end down here!"

First Geake then Walter, I pulled them
up the short distance to the surface.

The sun was out now, harsh and hot. A
strong wind, utterly dry, raced through the grounds stinging us
with sand. We turned our backs to it. The gigantic dog/man statue
loomed ahead.

Walter pointed to a dark smudge at the
base of the cliff.

"There’s the door! Let’s go, quickly,
it’s gonna get worse!"

Walter hiked off but I stopped
him,

"Take the rope. Everybody tie together
again."

Walter and Geake alongside, I led the
way to the door. The sand blew steadily now, accelerating, tiny,
jagged pieces tore into my exposed neck and head.

"Listen up! Everybody close your eyes -
we’re jogging. Now!"

I counted 15 steps before hitting the
far wall with my head. My eyes opened automatically to a horrible,
disorienting blur. I felt someone grab my arm and pull me to the
side. We clattered to the ground together, through the door, into
the next car.

&

The floor was loose wooden slats and it
was damp. Dark water sloshed underneath. I smelled animals and
cigarettes. Raucous noises came from behind a moldy bamboo
door.

We went in.

"Jesus Christ, I thought he was
joking," Walter said. "I can't believe he actually went through
with this."

It was a strange, excited crowd of
different kinds of people speaking different languages. Everyone’s
attention was focused on something in the middle of the
room.

"Ha, ha ha, what’s with the ropes? -
you guys must be together or something, right?"

He was just a kid, looked about 10, but
he had the demeanor of a man. No telling how old he really
was.

"Shut up, you little shit," Geake said
pointing his finger.

"Hey, relax, buddy!" The kid said over
his shoulder but quickly escaped into the confusion of the main
room.

Geake untied the rope from his belt and
stormed ahead. I saw he still had the sword tucked into his
belt.

Walter untied and handed me his
end,

"You guys are too much trouble for
me."

Geake pushed his way into the crowd. He
was a head taller than most of them.

A bell rang. The general commotion
going on in the center of the room intensified. A voice came over a
loud speaker in a language I didn't understand.

It was a circular pit sunk into the
ground, well lit, with a clean sandy bottom. There were three
roosters, huge things with red and blue feathers, stalking along
the edge. They worked together, covering each other's blind spots
against a dozen or so menacing shiny black snakes.

They were cobras. A bolder one rose and
flared his neck.

The roosters moved together. The center
one, the point of their counter attack, lashed out with a silver
razor spur molded to his orange leg cutting the snake nearly in
half.

Half the room cheered. Everyone yelled
into the pit. Geake searched the crowd, pushing aside anyone in his
way.

From across the pit I saw Richelieu
glued to the action below. He didn't see me. Walter pulled my
shoulder around to talk to him,

"Your friend is going to get adios-ed
if he keeps doing that," he said. Geake was calling out for Penny
by name now and grabbing people at random to interrogate
them.

"I need a drink. I'll get you one, too.
Preference?"

"No," I said. "No drinks. I feel like
shit."

It was true. The vitamins and drugs I
had taken earlier had gotten me this far. But after all the
drinking the day before, the antics in Miami, and then this
adventure with Geake, my body was seriously weakened. I needed the
chip. I wondered how much longer I'd last in this insanely over
stimulating environment. On top of everything, the pain in my heel
was now constant.

I tried to ignore the pain. I leaned on
the rail and watched the fight. The roosters won in short time,
though not without losing one of the flankers. After all the snakes
were disemboweled and dismembered, the surviving two birds returned
to their fallen comrade. They bowed their heads all the way to the
ground in tribute then lay beside him, guarding him. One retrieved
his spur, pulling it off with his curved black beak.

"Here, take it. Trust me." Walter
shoved a cold cup of beer in my face. I shook my head.

"I know, but you should drink it. It's
got what you need," he said.

I ignored him and turned around to
check the pit. The roosters and snakes were gone.

"Suit yourself." Walter said behind me.
I could feel him lingering but when I turned around to tell him off
he was gone.

"Everybody, Everybody, Everybody! Now -
for the moment - you, sir. You...throw him in! Throw him in! You
will fight next!"

Geake was mobbed but they didn't have
it easy. He swung his arms while trying to back away. A few were
hit hard.

Eventually they got him. There were too
many for him to fight off. Geake lost his balance and tumbled over
the wall into the pit.

The crowd to my left stirred and gave
way for something. I couldn't see what. Cheers rose up over
chattering noises of approval. Spectators pulled out a part of the
wall revealing steps that entered the pit.

It was a shock seeing him: A baboon, a
meter and a half tall, walking fully upright. He walked under me
and I saw up close his dry, grey velvety snout and red eyes and
nostrils. He was perfectly calm and well behaved, wearing a leather
belt with leather suspenders holding up his green canvas pants and
no shirt or shoes.

Geake remembered his sword and drew it.
The baboon didn't seem concerned, looking right past Geake to
acknowledge his fans in the first row with a crude wave.

The noise around the pit multiplied;
they loved his confidence. Geake saw an opening and swung the
strange looking bronze sword.

Geake missed. He recovered and tried an
awkward jab. The baboon batted it away baring his fangs. Geake
swung again, over and over, to no effect until he was frustrated
and bleeding. The baboon - "Marcellus" the crowd called him - was
too fast. Every lunging swing Marcellus easily dodged then followed
with a quick slapping scratch to Geake’s face or arm.

Geake caught his breath while his enemy
played to the crowd at the other side. Marcellus did a flip and
leapt up to high-five the fans. They rained small candies on him
which he scooped up and happily ate.

"Sergeant, get your shit together!
Remember to close one eye. Try both eyes!"

I didn’t know if Geake had heard me
until he made his move. Marcellus saw him coming and was ready but
Geake closed much quicker than anyone expected.

The fight was soon over. The first
charge yielded a solid hit to the baboon’s neck. Geake stood back
to watch him die, stumbling around, squirting gouts of garnet blood
on the white sand.