Quest for the Well of Souls - Jack L. Chalker [103]
Yulin's bull's head nodded and he looked around in satisfaction, tail swishing back and forth in anticipation. This was his element—the metallic walls and artificial lighting, the bowels of a great machine. He had helped design the place and supervised its construction. It seemed a part of him.
They walked along the hall, ready for anything. After a bit, it opened to reveal a broad platform and an overlook from which stretched a great wide bridge across a huge, impossibly deep pit.
"No bodies again," Yulin noted, surprised. "Then Belden has been here."
"Look!" Renard called. "Out there—across the bridge! Isn't that a body?"
They all strained. The Yaxa had the best vision, and her death's head nodded. "Yes. A man. Outlandishly dressed, too. Very dead, I think—maybe for an awfully long time. A good deal of decomposition is evident."
Yulin considered it. "Looks like he tried for the computer. In the defense mode he'd just about get across before the lethal charges hit him. Even at this end, it's got fifty volts as a discouragement, so he was nuts, driven, or determined. Probably all three."
"Think it's Belden?" Vistaru voiced the other's thoughts.
"Probably," Wooley replied. "The man has a horse's tail, he's big, and he's dressed in flowing robes, a wreath on his head. Looks like the new Emperor of New Pompeii finally got bored Topside and decided he was able to defy the computer. That explains everything, I think."
Renard was thoughtful. "Well, if it's just an electrical defense, I can walk right through it," he noted confidently.
"It's about ten thousand volts where Belden got," Yulin pointed out. "It's not on until needed, of course. The system senses a life form, then zaps it, then there's no life form any more and it shuts off."
"Ten thousand wouldn't bother me," the Agitar replied. "The excess would simply discharge."
"But only Obie can open that door," the Dasheen told him. "And it will defend as it has to. There are guns here, too, as a fail-safe. Lots of nasty stuff. No, it's got to be by proper code, everything done in the proper sequence, or no go," he said earnestly.
"Want to get it over with?" Mavra asked him. "What do you have to do?"
He was thoughtful. "All right, first I walk out on that bridge in a certain manner—that will cancel the voltage to a particular point. Then I say the password and advance in the same manner. The door will open as I approach it. Then I must go to the panel and cancel the defense mode or it will be reinstated."
"One of us will go with you," Wooley said suspiciously.
He shook his head. "No, it's got to be one, only. Don't worry. Even if I don't cancel the mode you'll know how to break into it, right? Hell, haven't I played square with you all up to now?"
He had, but he'd played square with Trelig for years, too.
"Perhaps the Ghiskind," Mavra suggested.
"No!" Yulin was adamant. "Nobody! Sure, it might be ignored, but then again it might not, and it sure as hell can't say the password—and the Bozog can't make the gestures. Neither could you. It's me alone." He threw up his hands. "Come on! What the hell are we arguing for? In five minutes we could all be inside and that would be that."
They were uncertain, and there were whispered conferences, but the conclusion was inescapable, as Yulin knew it had to be. Wooley voiced it.
"We haven't come this far to turn back now," she pointed out. "All right, Yulin. Go ahead."
He nodded to her, satisfaction and confidence mirrored in his manner. He turned and walked to the foot of the bridge, then raised his arms and turned palms out. He hesitated a moment, as if expecting a jolt, then stepped onto the bridge and