Gulliver's Fugitives - Keith Sharee [50]
“What’s going on!?” Daley called urgently to his men. “Did the one-eyes pick up anything else—from anybody?”
“Just snatches of myth they censored out,” said the nearest white-suit, listening into his headphones. “Their interception capabilities are … not so good right now.”
“Hooooeeee!” shouted Coyote from deep in the forest of statues. He laughed as though he were riding a wild horse.
The CS did not try to get to him. They were looking at the vibrating ground and walls, and at the darkness above, from which they heard a growing rumor of hiss and spray.
The waters burst downward into the chamber, cascading off the floor and leaping wildly, knocking Dissenters and CS alike off their feet. Troi braced herself against the wall next to Rhiannon. They locked forearms and held onto one another as the water slammed into them.
The CS man guarding the door braced himself against its sides with his feet and one hand while holding his weapon with the other. Water gushed out around him, through the doorway.
Several Dissenters, with the packs of books still on their backs, swam forward to fight with the other CS men. A melee developed in the forest of statues.
Troi saw two dark shapes carried like a pair of fish into the chamber with the cascading waters. They swam near her, then ducked under the swelling tide. She recognized them as the Nummo, the West African water-being twins. She realized that they must have released the dam she had seen outside Alastor.
The CS man at the door started to kick at something in the water. The Nummo’s heads came up around him, their arms already entangling, eel-like, with his. They loosed his hold and all three were swept out of Alastor.
Something jostled Troi from behind. She turned and saw the huge Russian, Nikitushka Lomov the Barge Hauler, with Odysseus slung unconscious on his shoulder, and an immense pack of books on his back.
Without warning Daley the CS man leapt up and grabbed hold of Lomov’s head from behind, savagely twisting it sideways.
Lomov looked no more than mildly annoyed. In fact he seemed strangely pleased. He set Odysseus face up on the surface of the water, then reached up with one hand, lifted Daley by the collar of his uniform, and held him at arm’s length. The CS man swung at Lomov but hadn’t the reach. Lomov stepped over to a half-submerged statue of Orpheus and wedged Daley’s head and shoulders into the Orphic lyre—just parked him there to flail helplessly—then picked up Odysseus.
“Time to go!” Lomov boomed cheerfully at Troi, through his heavy accent. He inclined his dripping dark-haired head toward the now empty doorway.
Troi and Rhiannon were already letting themselves drift in that direction. As they were carried through the doorway, Troi caught a glimpse back into the chamber of statues. She saw a one-eye looping crazily in the air with Caliban riding it. The little man was laughing and spouting Shakespeare, his grimy hand in front of the one-eye’s Cyclopean lens.
Troi held onto Rhiannon as the newly diverted river plunged them along the great passage outside Alastor, where no light-stones cut the darkness.
The water slowed quickly as it leveled out, allowing Rhiannon and Troi to drift at a leisurely pace. Rhiannon kept to the side of the channel and felt along the banks with her hands. At a certain point she pulled Troi, leading them both through a small natural tunnel deep into the bank, where the water level gave them just enough space overhead to breathe.
They emerged on the other side into the company of several Dissenters, some with light-stones, who were standing around the terminus of the tunnel. The Nummo twins helped Rhiannon and Troi climb out of the cleft and onto dry rock. As Troi caught her breath, she looked around.
The caverns were smaller than the others Troi had followed to Alastor. She knew she was now out of the main passage that would have conducted her to CephCom. She had no idea where these smaller caverns led.
Nikitushka Lomov, still carrying Odysseus, climbed out of the water and set the