02. The Shadow Dancers (13 page)

I rolled over and looked at Lavinia. "You dumb nigger bitch!" I swore. I'd'a killed her with my own hands then if I could. She looked so damned smug and proud of herself.

"Don't blame her," Vogel said, not givin' me enough of an openin' to do anything. He got shirt, pants, and boots on real slow and careful. "She doesn't know who or what you are except that you were my enemy. You see, even though we've just met, I'm the only one she's got."

I was mad both at her and at myself. Lavinia was bein' promoted from field to house in the only life she knew. She'd said she could get used to perfume and lipstick and comfortable beds, and she had no idea that there was any alternative-nor had I time to explain to somebody like that the reality of things. Even if she could understand it, she wouldn't believe it. Vogel kicked the trapdoor shut and then moved to the main door, opening it. He pointed the gun at me.

"I wish I had time to find out all the details, or even put you through the hypnoscan now, but I don't. I gather your friends are causing all this ruckus to divert attention from you, and that they've captured the station."

"Give it up, man!" I told him. "Dey gon' blow dis joint if'n I show or not. Dey wan' you live, but dey git you dead if'n dey hav'ta."

"I thought so. The fact is, I don't know if you're what you say you are, and I don't know if I'm being set up or not, but until I can sort this out I'm not going to surrender to anyone, particularly not to some nigger bitch or on her say-so.
Get up!"

I made it to my feet, though I felt achy. Gettin' hit by a chair ain't the small thing you see on TV.

He turned to the two others. "You two remain here until someone comes. I won't forget this, Lavinia, I promise. Make yourselves at home in the bedroom. Use and enjoy anything you find."

Yeah, for a few minutes, until the joint blows, I thought sourly, but nobody was gonna listen to me.

"Now you listen to me," he said to be with a real cold tone that could freeze blood. "I saw your moves, I know what you can do, but you don't try
anything.
Once we're outside here, you'll be observed by security and guards. Even if you somehow overpower me, and I'm ready for you now, you will only get cut down by others. You cannot reach your friends and they cannot reach you. If you want to live, you'll do just what I say.

He had a point, and if he was leavin' the place I sure wanted out, too. Once we was out of the buildin', it would be up to Sam and the rest to get me out. I was ready to do my part, but suicide wasn't it. We was now on Plan B. Not so good and a lot riskier, but the object was to get him out of his safe and guarded place where he could get took.

We went into the hall, and some of the sentries had their eyebrows raised by seein' me marched out at gunpoint, but they snapped to. "Ready the drome!" he called to one, then said to the other, "You have the key for these things. Give it here and watch her. She's a bitch!"

The sentry produced a small key, and Vogel took the time to unlock the hand manacles on one side and then hook 'em back around so that my hands were now chained behind my back. Then he pushed me forward, gun at the ready, to some stairs and then, to my surprise, up not one but two flights. A dome shape was goin' back with a lot of noise above us, and I could see we was in open air, on the roof, and there was a small, funny-lookin' helicopter there.
That
wasn't in no briefin' books!

He opened a door, pushed me into one seat, then got in on the other and started the thing. It started with a quiet whine, then a big roar as the blades got to speed. It was some kind of jet helicopter but different than any I'd seen. All the instruments was in German.

We went up a little, then he pushed somethin' and pulled back and we went straight up so fast I felt like the breath was bein' knocked out of me. When he cut it and hovered, we was so far up that you could see the whole compound down there. There was still some fightin' on two sides, and all sorts of runnin' around, and it was all lit up like a Christmas tree.

Vogel started the chopper forward, slow at first, like he was waitin' for somethin'. What it was was a tremendous set of explosions that made the whole place down there look like World War III. Buildings, includin' the big manor house, just blew apart like they was toys. The station blew, too, in one hell of a blast that also seemed to trigger a whole bunch of funny blue-white lights, like a solid Labyrinth cube. The station shimmered, then just-winked out. Just like that. There was nothin' left of it but one monster hole in the ground.

Sam was supposed to be on the B team, the Just In Case team, so I could only hope and pray he still was and hadn't decided at the last minute to meet me in the station.

Vogel gave a satisfied laugh, then pushed us forward at maximum speed into the night sky.

"What now?" I asked Vogel as we sped into the night sky.

"I am the stationmaster for this world," he replied. "No one knows the setup here, the weak points, the Labyrinth accesses and modifications like I do. I have enough knowledge of the security system and its goals to get through safely if I pick the right access track and don't go through a switch. We don't have far to go once inside. There I can take stock of things, with enough equipment to discover what I must know and perhaps make contact with others."

"You 'spect me to just sit 'round all dat time?"

He chuckled. "My dear, are you that naive? You are on a mission into an alternate world and you have failed in your objective and you have failed to elude capture. Surely you
realize that they cannot allow this. You know top much, and you might be of value to someone against their interests. Everyone can be broken.
Everyone.
Were I, however, to try to break you or subject you to physical, mental, or artificially induced interrogation, it would be automatic. You would be blocked out, the process reversed, and you would again be only poor, sweet Beth, my willing, eager, and appallingly dumb slave. I couldn't even bring you back with hypnoscan and the best equipment."

It wasn't no bed of roses in that little chopper naked and in chains, but I got a real sick feelin' when he said that so confident and smug, 'cause I knew deep down in my gut he was tellin' the truth.

"Don't let that worry you," he said smoothly. "In fact, if I had to flee, they gave me a perfect tool and assistant. You will be a great help to me. It will be amusing to watch it happen more slowly. Beth, all of her, is still inside you, whole and complete. Your willpower keeps her down now, but the more tired you get and the more you sleep the more she will merge with you. Those are powerful programs, and very complete, since they have to fool even the devices that create them. It's still for their protection-at your expense." He laughed, but suddenly got real cold and crazy. "You listen to me, bitch! You are my property! I
own
you! What sanity you have depends on me. If I put this down and let you go right now, you would become Beth instantly in
this
world, a world where power is everything and your skin alone marks you as having none."

I figured he was tryin' to scare me, and he was doin' a pretty good job. He was sure right that I wouldn't last long in these parts alone. He was also right in that all of Beth was still in my head, and I almost had to fight her to keep from actin' like her. The only chance I had now was Sam and Bill and that crowd. I knew they was coverin' the most likely substations, and they also said that somehow they could track me-but that was no sure thing, if we got away clean before they knew it. That was some takeoff and nobody figured on this chopper. What if they thought we was both dead? That scared me the most, 'cause that left me as Vogel's slave forever.

I dozed off after a while; I couldn't help it. I was dead
tired and there wasn't much more to say. Trouble was, I dreamed, and I didn't dream Brandy's dreams. I started to, but they were all made up of my fears and I ran from 'em-into Beth. Those were simple, pleasant, secure dreams, of lots of sex and no worries or cares or responsibilities.

The helicopter landed, wakin' me up, but I just lay there, half asleep, not really awake. It was daylight now and the sun was shinin' and it looked like a pretty day. My arms hurt and I couldn't remember why. Chained in back ... I must be bein' punished for somethin', but what?

Vogel came back and got in and looked at me carefully. "Beth?" he asked.

"Yessuh?"

"Now, listen close. You got a demon inside you, a real bad one that wants to hurt you and me and everybody. You can feel it in your head. I bet it's trying to get in right now."

And it was. I felt it, comin' in like a mass of mud.

"You can fight it, Beth. Don't let it in! You must fight it with everything you have! You
will
fight it. You will not let it in!"

But Beth couldn't really fight it, the knowledge and understanding, and I was more or less back in control, but shaken. Vogel saw this, but didn't seem terribly upset. "You ought not to fight it," he said. "It is inevitable. Here-I will prove it."

He got me out of the helicopter and then undid my arm bracelets and chains. The relief was enormous, almost orgasmic, both the ultimate pleasure and pain at the same time.

We was in a grassy meadow and there was cows in the distance, but the sun was fairly warm and the air humid and it felt okay after that gray chill.

"There's a farm just two kilometers that way," he told me, "and a town another two beyond that. You want to get away, just go ahead. I won't stop you or shoot you. Go to the farm and see what reception you get. Go to the town and see what happens. Or, perhaps, go wild in the fields here and try and live on what garbage you can steal until you're caught. Go ahead."

I looked around. "You made yo' point," I told him, and
actually for the first time I could at least understand the poor, late Lavinia. Even slaves in the old south had a place they might run to, if they had the guts and the energy, up north. Not here. Not anywhere. Latin America, maybe, but I didn't know enough about the rest of this world to know for sure or how far down. And them old runaways, they didn't have to fight no Beth every time they got tired or slept. Even if all the shackles were off, there was just no place to run. Hell, I didn't even have any idea where in hell we was!

He unpacked a basket that had sandwiches and a jug of what proved to be cider and gave me some. There was enough Beth in me to find the meat in the sandwiches unappetizing and the cider pretty bad tastin', but I managed. After, he told me to pick up all the stuff and repack the basket and put it in the chopper and I did. There wasn't anything else to do but play along. It was all out of my hands now and I knew it. I'd just have to be good.

But I sure would like to get Vogel someday in a world where the black people were on top. There were some-I asked once.

Vogel surprised me by also removin' my leg chains. Not bad treatment for somebody who'd kicked him in the balls and cost him his empire.

"A final demonstration," he said, enjoyin' it. "I need some sleep, and the men with the gasoline can't be here for a few hours. Since I still can't be certain you won't try to grab my pistol and overpower me, I will lock myself in the cabin. Unfortunately, that means you remain outside. Go where you will, but not out of sight, please. Almost anyone who found you around here would be far less kind than I, and you would lose any hope that your friends could find us." And, with that, he climbed into the cabin and locked both doors and settled in.

This, I decided, was the nuttiest situation I could imagine. I was stark naked in some cow pasture, and I was free and my kidnapper had locked himself in to protect himself from me.

As a demonstration, though, it beat all the lectures in the world.

There was no way I was gonna live in no cow pasture, and
trees and hills of any size was few and far between here. Last thing I wanted to be was a slave to a bunch of farmhands, and the town would have the usual Nazi everything. I sure wasn't about to kill myself so long as there was any hope of bein' rescued, but I thought I might do it if it was this for life or death. So I just moved out a little into the warm sun and sat down in the grass and waited.

The gas truck came a couple of hours later, driven by two typical cracker types. I pounded on the door and woke up Vogel and he got up and came out. The two drivers just stared at me and I thought at first it was because I was naked, but then I realized they probably never saw a black person before in their lives.

Vogel noticed it, too, and enjoyed every minute of it. "You want to feel her up a little? Go ahead. She likes it." He took a manacle with chain and held it sorta like a whip. "She won't do nothin', will you, Beth?"

I hated his guts but the only protest I could manage in this situation was to not reply. It was a horrible situation, almost but not quite a rape, but just as degrading and humiliating, and I flipped out. Brandy shut off and Beth took over, as Vogel figured would happen. The only thing Beth had was her body; her skin limited anything she might want to do or anyplace she might want to go, and any mind was a liability. She wound up givin' both of 'em blow jobs and enjoyin' every minute of it. That's how Vogel paid most of the gas bill.

We was in the air when I managed to creep back into control, and now I knew what havin' a split personality was like. I was so completely disgusted and humiliated that I was on the edge of just givin' up and lettin' Beth take over. The only thing that stopped me was that I knew I was this man's and this
world's
prisoner, but I was damn well not his property or slave. It was the only part of me I could still control, and I had too much pride and too much hate for him to let him have that, too.

It was clear Vogel felt he wasn't bein' chased-they'd have caught up to us by now-and he was in no real hurry. If he'd made a run for the stations closest to his Pennsylvania retreat, they'd have nabbed him, but if two, three, or more days went by with no sign, and even in this tight dictatorship no records comin' back to their contacts, they'd slack off. They had to. The way both the headquarters people' and Vogel talked, it would take hundreds of folks to stake out all the possibilities. They could spare that many for a day or two, but not for real long.