After Lavern's joke about the sex monster I'd created in
cell eleven that morning, I brought it to the groups attention that as far as I
knew, we had no way of actually exiting the City with our Clients, "At
least not that I know about." We all stood and looked at each other for a
while, while the enormity of that knowledge sank in.
"Why can't we just use the storm drain?" Toni
asked.
"Because I doubt if Lisa forgot to tell the Counsel
anything she knew, well in advance of our leaving." Came Debbie's reply.
Cindy said, "She may not have had time, if she was a
double agent. In fact I was the one who told her the finalized route plan for
our escape. I brought it with me when I came to the tower, and even I wasn't
told the location of the drain grate we were to use. Flow was the one who had
that piece of information, not me. Since she didn't know the way out until the
day before our escape, maybe she didn't have time to report it."
"When did you tell her, before, or after, we went to
Tower Two?" I asked.
"Before." was the slow, sheepish reply.
"Don't feel bad." I said, "None of us knew
she was a double until that day when she led Tina and I away from the Rock
Camp, and for gods sake don't stop telling us anything you think of
either!"
We all assumed for the moment that the Counsel had been
told about the route we had used to leave the City, and were silent for a long
while. It was Debbie who finally observed, "The Counsel was out of
character if they knew how, when, and where we were planning to leave the city.
I doubt if they would have let us get passed the end of the storm drain. Their
actions of the past don't indicate that sort of willingness to play an
uncertain game such as the long chase, seven days ride from the city if they
could avoid it. Their purposes would have been well served by simply capturing
us as we left the drain!"
Cindy said dryly, "Maybe, but I'm not so sure."
After another short silence, I asked, "Is that the
only drain exit, or are there others?" Then more to myself than to the
group, "I wish I'd read about this before we left Tower One."
There were only a few moments of silence this time before
Tina asked, "What did you say? Something about reading?"
"Yes." My voice was rather small, and flat.
I slowly lifted my gaze to Tina in the silence that
followed. When I had focused on her face, and was about to shrug, she looked up
at the ceiling saying, "Didn't you tell us all four towers seem to be
identical in every way?"
It took a moment for what she was saying to sink into my
thick skull, but when it finally did, my eyes must have grown to the size of
saucers, and I felt my face smile from ear to ear. Tina was right, of course,
the information I was wanting should be in the library about one hundred fifty
feet over our heads.
I grabbed Tina's hand, and gave a series of orders, as I
drug my whore up the corridor with me.
"Tina and I are going to see if the information is
there. The rest of you stay here and care for our Clients, but don't get their
hopes up yet. Two of you at a time go search for any drain grates in the other
tunnels. If anything happens, Debbie knows the way up, but don't use it unless
the problem is discovery. We'll be back."
Tina and I nearly ran up the Tower to the apartment
library.
*** *** *** *** ***
Even though Debbie, Stella, and I had told Tina and the
rest about the skeletons at the gate to the tower complex, Tina received quite
a shock when we actually arrived at the gate. I didn't really notice her
absolute immobility until I'd unlocked the gate, opened it, and started to go
on up the stairs on the other side of them. Tina didn't move. It was as if she
were riveted to the spot on the floor. She didn't even acknowledge I had spoken
to her when I called to her from part way up the stairs.
I went back to where she stood like a statue, and tried
to get her attention. Tina didn't respond to me at all that I could see. After
several attempts, while standing directly in front of her, she finally began to
try to speak, but her voice didn't work for her. She finally looked directly
into my eyes and when she did the tears came in streams, and she started to
shake. Not just the little soft shake of sorrowful crying, but the violent
shake of tremendous rage. She tried to say something again, but only noise came
from her mouth, then she fell against me and shook for a long time.
When she finally stood on her own feet, and the shaking
had subsided, I tried to get her to come with me, but she simply refused to
move, or even look at the scene on the floor. I finally scooped the shaken women
into my arms and carried her passed the skeletons, and up the stairs. Tina
buried her face in my shoulder until we arrived on the women's floor when she
finally squeaked, "There aren't any more, are there?"
"No, not that I know of. Only those in the elevator
shaft."
"God, I hope not." Tina snuggled to me as I
carried her up to the Tower Four apartment, and into the friendly atmosphere of
the library.
*** *** *** *** ***
I put Tina in one of the great library chairs and asked
her if she wanted a drink.
"Drink?" she asked as if she didn't understand
at first, then firmly, "Yes, a drink, but not water."
I went to the buffet, and found it was still stocked with
the same bottles that had been in it when the tragedy had occurred which took
the lives of so many people. I searched the bottles until I found some rum, and
brought the bottle back to Tina along with two glasses. I poured her a long
drink and a stout one for myself, then asked, "Is it OK if I go look for
the books about the building of this city?"
Tina gave me a faraway look, then said, "I think I
know right were they'll be. Follow me. I just don't want to be left
alone."
She took my hand and led me up into the stacks, and
showed me where the four volumes I'd requested were kept. We picked them up and
returned to the library floor, where we sat close together while I read in the
books and Tina drank her drink, she clung to my arm.
I'd become absorbed in the books and didn't notice how
much Tina drank until I felt her relax against me, and heard her glass fall to
the floor. I had propped the apparently sleeping woman into the corner of our
chair, and had picked up the glass to put it on the table, when I noticed the
contents of the bottle were nearly gone. Tina had drank nearly the whole bottle
of ancient liquor by herself, and had passed out. "She'll be out for
hours." I commented to myself, then thought about the time.
Since I'd lost all track of time, I went to the door and
looked out. The sky was still fully lit, but I knew it must be getting late in the
afternoon, so I went back to Tina and prepared to carry the dead-drunk woman
back down the tower.
I made a sling of my skirt and sash to carry the books,
and another bottle in. When I finally had that done, I leaned down and picked
Tina up over my shoulders, and started for the dungeon. It was slow going with
Tina passed out on my shoulders, and the weight of the books adding to the
shock of the constant descent down the hundreds of stairs. Loaded as I was, I
left the gate on the first floor open and took the key I was still carrying,
with me.
I stopped for a short rest at every landing on the way
down the tower, but I was near the end of my ability to control our descent
when the tower lobby appeared before me on the final flight of stairs. It had
taken what seemed like an eternity, but we were down from the tower, and only
had several hundred feet of nearly level corridor to walk. That part of our
descent seemed to only take a moment in time, and we were back among friends.
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Chapter 81 | Chapter 83
Index | Title Page
| Credits | Preamble | TOC