Universe Twister - Keith Laumer [205]
"The stretcher!" Daphne cried suddenly. "Use the stretcher!"
Lafayette ducked a wild swing, sprang aboard the slab hovering a foot above the carpet, jabbed the red button marked LIFT. The cot shot ceiling-ward, slammed him hard against the flowered wallpaper. He groped, pushed a stud at random. The stretcher shot backward, raking Lafayette across a rank of fluorescent lights. He fumbled again, dropped the cot to head height and shot forward in time to clip an oncoming security man full in the mouth, sending him bounding back against his partner. Full tilt, the cot rushed along the passage; Lafayette closed his eyes and hung on as it hurtled toward the intersection; at the last possible instant it banked, whipped around the turn, and shot at high speed through a pair of double doors—fortunately open.
The runaway steed made three swift circuits of the large green-walled room before Lafayette found a control that brought it to a shuddering halt, sending him tumbling to the rug. He rolled to hands and knees, saw that he was in the room where he had first arrived. The green-haired woman behind the desk was stabbing hysterically at her console, yelping for help.
"Here, I'll help you," Lafayette said. He scrambled up, jumped on the desk, and pushed two palmfuls of buttons, jabbed half a dozen of the keys, flipped an entire rank of switches. A siren sounded; the lights brightened and dimmed. From wall apertures, a pale-pink gas began hissing into the room. The receptionist screeched.
"Don't worry, I'm not violent," Lafayette yelled. "All I want is out! Which way?"
"Don't come near me, you maniac!"
Lafayette dashed to the section of wall through which he had entered, began feeling over it frantically as alarm horns hooted behind him. Abruptly, a panel rotated open on a dimly glowing chamber. Lafayette stepped through; the panel slammed behind him. A green light glowed on the opposite wall. There was a momentary sensation as if his brain had come loose from its moorings and was whirling at high speed inside his skull. Then darkness exploded around him.
2
He drifted among luminous flotsam and jetsam, straining every sense . . .
. . . tinky-tinky-tinky . . .
. . . you think you're the only bird in town with a pair o' them—
. . . where are you? Come in, dear boy, if you hear me. Come in, come in . . .
A vast, softly glowing construction of puce and magenta noodles swept grandly past, rotating slowly; a swarm of luminous blue-green BB shot veered close, passed him by; something vast and insubstantial as glowing smoke swelled before him, swirled around him with a crackle of static, was gone. A jittering assemblage of red-hot wires came tumbling from dark distances, swerved to intercept him. He back-pedaled, making frantic swimming motions, but it closed on him, was all about him, clinging, penetrating.
It was as though a hundred and seventy pounds of warm wax were being injected into his skin, painlessly squeezing him out through the pores.
Aha! Got you, you bodynapper! a silent voice yelled in both ears at once.
"Hey—wait!" O'Leary shouted. "Can't we discuss this?"
Wait, nothing! Out! Out!
For a moment O'Leary saw a vengeful face—the same face he had seen in the glass in Belarius' office—glaring at him. Then he was sliding away into emptiness.
"Wait! Help! I have to get word to Nicodaeus!"
"Leave me drifting in Limbo, will you . . ." the voice came back faintly.
"Raunchini! Don't leave me here! I've got to get back . . ."
"How . . ." the voice came faintly, receding, "do you know my name—" The voice was gone. Lafayette shouted—or not shouted, he realized; transmitted, in some way he would figure out later, after he was safe back home. But there was no answer; only faint, ghostly voices all around:
. . . told him no, but you know how men are . . .
. . . oopy-toopy-foopy-foom . . .
Nine . . . eight . . . seven . .