robert Charrette - Arthur 02 - A King Beneath the Mountain (37 page)

Bennett nodded. "To help you escape this place, yes."

"Why?" John wanted to know.

"Who
cares
why, Jack?" Sue asked. "He's our ticket outta here. Let's go with him."

"/ care why."

Innocently, Bennett asked, "Isn't being your father reason enough to want to help you?"

"For you? I don't think so."

"You wound me," Bennett said, actually managing to sound hurt.

John wasn't impressed. "I doubt it."

"So callous. You have been brought up badly," Bennett said.

John snapped back, "What do you know about how I was brought up?"

"Shit, John! Keep yer voice down," Sue cautioned.

John knew that she was right; the dwarves were out there searching for them. Shouting could draw their attention; it wouldn't improve the situation.

"We have limited time here, Jack," Bennett said. "The dwarves are drawing closer. If we are to go, we must be about it."

"I said that I'm not going without Bear. I'm also not going anywhere with you until I know the real reason you came. What is it you want?"

"Well, there is a matter on the horizon in which I thought you would have some interest."

"So you
do
have another reason. You want my help in one of your plots."

"You phrase it so coldly."

"But correctly, apparently. Well, if you want my help, you'll have to give me the kind of help I want."

Bennett raised an eyebrow. "You wish to strike a bargain?"

"I want to get Bear out of here."

"And me," Sue prompted. "Don't forget about me."

"And Sue. All of us. Out of here."

"And if Artos doesn't want my help?" Bennett asked.

All too likely. "You get him out anyway."

"He won't like that."

"He'll survive."

Bennett smiled. "An excellent attitude."

John didn't care for the elf's approval. "Is it a deal?"

"Are you willing to pay my price?"

"I haven't got any money."

"Not all prices are paid in money."

"I'll pay your damned price," John said—adding quickly, "as long as it doesn't involve killing someone."

"You have my promise that I will not set your hand to killing anyone in this matter. Now, there are witnesses here, Jack. Do you say, in front of them, that you will pay my asking price for this aid?"

"You can get all of us out of here?"

"Of course," Bennett said. "A foregone conclusion."

"Safely?"

"Do you doubt me?"

"You didn't say you'd get us all out safely."

"Yes, safely," Bennett said in a clipped fashion. "Answer. Will you pay the price?"

"Get us out and I will."

Bennett's snippy attitude vanished. He smiled warmly. "Then the deal is done."

Turning, he whispered something to his creature. The lizard-ape's alien features scrunched up into an expression that John couldn't read, then it nodded. Bennett was all business when he turned back to John.

"Gorshin will remain here to continue distracting the dwarves. Ms. Sue will stay with him while you and I go to fetch Artos."

"Jack?" Sue clutched his arm in a vise grip. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the creature Bennett had called Gorshin.

"Sue stays with me," John said.

"Thanks, Jack," she whispered.

"She will be safer in Gorshin's care," Bennett suggested. "She is an added complication if she goes with us."

"I said she stays with me."

Bennett bowed concession. "Lead us to Artos, then, and let us gather him into our stealthy band."

Finding his way back to the edge of the woods was harder than John expected; he'd taken some turns without noticing while he had been running from the dwarves. From time to lime, they stopped and hid to the side of the trail while a party of dwarves clomped by. Sometimes they'd hear dwarves, and hide, but then not see anyone.

During one of those halts, Sue whispered to him, "Is Bennett really your father, Jack?"

"I don't want to talk about it," John whispered back.

"Ya don't look much alike."

"I
said
I
don't
want to
talk
about it."

Sue wouldn't let go. "Hey, Jack, ya ain't the only one here, ya know. I wanna know, can he be trusted?"

"No. But I don't see much other choice."

That was clearly not the answer she wanted. She fretted for a bit. Her next question showed that she was catching on to ihc fact that Bennett's word couldn't be trusted in anything. "I low do we know he can get us outta here?"

"He got in, didn't he?"

"That's all we got ta go with?" She sounded upset by the concept.

"That's all."

"All clear," Bennett said in a voice only slightly louder
than
the whispers John and Sue had been exchanging.

They moved on.

There was a guard at the door connecting the forest chamber to the rest of the dwarven complex. Bennett said, "I'll take care of that," and made a gesture. Almost immediately there was a ruckus among the bushes off to their right. The dwarf ran to investigate. John, Sue, and Bennett ran across the perimeter path and entered the spare halls of the dwarves' domain.

The corridors were deserted. Where were all the dwarves? could they all be searching the woods? John had heard a lot

of them crashing through the brush and tramping down the paths, and John had never seen many of the little people.

He decided to hope that they were all out looking.

They reached the medlab without running into anyone. John opened the door and led the others in. Bear was alone in the room, lying in the bed. Nothing had changed except the level in the intravenous drip bottle.

"That's the guy in Wilson's vid?" Sue sounded surprised. "He looks like shit. What's with the diver suit?"

"It's not a diver's suit," John told her. "It's a progressive resistance sheath. It keeps him from hurting himself when they run the sims."

"He is not conscious, Jack," Bennett observed. "Are you planning on carrying him?"

"If necessary," John replied, but he didn't think that it would be bright just to unhook Bear from the machines and drag him away.

John hadn't thought this out. What to do? Run the reawakening sim again and hope it worked this time?

The dwarves' program hadn't succeeded in bringing Bear's mind back to the present. While they had gotten the main parts of Bear's awakening right, including the magical battle between Nym and Bennett, Bear had reacted as predicted. Instead of going with the sim in its attempt to reinforce his memories, he'd freaked. He hadn't done much better with the MaxMix Manor sequence.

What could John do that would improve on what the dwar-ven docs and psychs had done?

There had to be something, something different.

John's goal was different from that of the dwarves; maybe their chance lay in the differences. Getting Bear up and moving was more important than bringing him up to speed with the twenty-first century. Bear had done all right by himself before. John had faith that Bear could do it again; if the guy was anything at all, he was a survivor. But how to give him a jump-start? What could John try that was different?

Bear had freaked when the bad stuff had started happening in the sims. Maybe feeding Bear's brain a reawakening that didn't have all the trauma of the real one would help him to handle it.

"Well, Jack?" Bennett asked. "We can't stay here all night."

What to do? John couldn't think of anything else to try. "(live me a couple of minutes."

John sat at the control console and called up the main sim in editing mode. He jiggered the program a little, most significantly by editing out Bennett, a curiously enjoyable action. He concocted a new plot, making the awakening go as he thought it might have gone if Bennett hadn't shown up. He made up some loopy parting lines for Nym and added some real clothes for Bear instead of the ragged costume robe that he'd actually worn while escaping the museum. Would the changes be enough? He hoped so. He switched the program from editing to interaction mode.

John slipped on the helmet and started the sim, cutting in just as he discovered Nym. The false history played, and Bear, upon awakening, played into it. Nym gave her speech. John led Bear through the museum. The break-in by the fake teds started and John had a few tense minutes as Bear's personality fluttered, but Bear finally went with the flow. The night was still cold when he and Bear ran out into the streets. Bear made it through the sim to the safe getaway John had preset. The interface went into its preset fade down to sleep for Bear.

The sim melted into the medlab for John.

Had it worked?

"Jack?"

Bear's voice was weak, creaky, but he'd called John's name. Tearing off the helmet, John went to the bed. Bear's eyes were open, and he seemed to be at home behind them for the first time since John had been here.

"I'm here, Bear."

"Jack, what's going on? I can't move my arms."

"Take it easy. You've been sick."

Bear nodded, accepting. "I'm glad to see you, Jack."

Glad, eh? John would think about
that
later. "We'll talk later. Right now, we've got to get you out of here."

"But I can't move."

"Don't struggle. You're okay. It's just the suit. We're going to help you get out of it." God, he
hoped
it was just the resistance suit. Bear had been laid up for a long time. How weak would he be? Peeling Bear out of the thing wasn't a one-man job.

"Give me a hand here," he said to the others.

Sue pitched in at once, and with her help John got Bear out of the PRS. Bennett never lifted a finger, standing aloof in the corner and watching.

Bear's eyes narrowed when he saw the elf; clearly he hadn't realized Bennett was there. How much did Bear remember about Bennett from after the reawakening? John felt him tense. He also felt the tremor in Bear's muscles—Bear was in no shape to take on the elf. Clearly, Bear knew it too; he relaxed. A little.

"What are
you
doing here?" he growled at Bennett.

"I'm here to help, too." He held up a hand from which dangled clothes that he must have conjured; there hadn't been any in the room before. "Can't wander about naked. Not in front of the lady."

Bear hadn't shown any concern about his nakedness. "I don't want any gifts from you."

"Then don't accept them." Bennett opened his hand and the clothes dropped to the floor. "If I were you, Jack,
i d
convince him to put them on. He'll be very conspicuous without them."

As if they weren't already conspicuous; Sue, the shortest among them, was head and shoulders taller than any of the dwarves. Still, once they got out—
if
they got out—Bear would need clothes. It was still fall out there.

"Bear," John started.

"I do not wish to owe anything to an elf," Bear said firmly.

"For this you owe nothing to me," Bennett said. "I am here at Jack's request. He is the one who is buying your freedom."

Bear turned his stare to John. "Is that true, Jack?"

"I said we'll talk later. First we get out of here, and that means getting dressed."

Bear was too wobbly to manage by himself; he let John and Sue help him into the clothes Bennett had provided. The fit was perfect. John turned to Bennett.

"Where do we go from here?"

"We go back to green," Bennett said.

"The forest? Is that the way out?" Sue asked.

"It will be our way out."

They retraced their path back to the great chamber and its forest. As before, their journey was miraculously devoid of encounters with dwarves. Were they that lucky, or were the dwarves letting them think so? Or did it have something to do with Bennett's magic? John was more interested in getting out than in getting answers.

They got into the woods without incident and returned to the spot where they'd left Gorshin. The lizard-ape wasn't there waiting, but it soon appeared, moving nearly silently through the brush. Bear stiffened when he saw the thing, but to John's relief he neither tried to fight it nor relapsed into catatonia.

"Dwaarves steel serr'chh," Gorshin announced.

"Any nearby?" Bennett asked.

"Naht neeer."

"We've been more fortunate than we deserve, Jack," Bennett said.

"A trap?" Bear and Sue both asked simultaneously.

The question had come to John's mind as well.

"I think not," Bennett said. "But there will be trouble enough if we dally."