Dream Park

Henderson still seemed woozy. He jumped up and down a few times to get his circulation going, and surveyed his Gaming party. "What a mess. If Lopez spiked those pizzas-" He shook his head. "That's too crazy."

He reached down to shake Mary-em's shoulder. Griffin took his cue and woke up Eames, checking the big man's face for damage. There didn't seem to be much more than a badly split lip. Earnes winced the first time he tried to move; then got up, moving like an old man, and went over to Mary-em. They sat down together and spoke in low voices.

By now most of the Garners were awake and moving. Neutral scent didn't leave a hangover... not a physical hangover, any­way. Gina came wobbling in out of the woods, and Griffin cocked a curious ear when Chester went to meet her. The Lore Master reached a hand out to her, stroking her red hair, and she huddled at his chest. "Axe you all right, Gina?" She nodded wordlessly.

"I really don't remember much. After you got into logic puzzles with 5.J.

(delete this)

the power of their ancestors' tindalos. They swore to defend their Cargo until all of the European thieves are dead, or all the Fore. They... they bragged about what they'd do to you. One of them offered to give me your... private parts," she said with evident distaste. "That was for my benefit. Partly."

"But they were going to fight."

"They meant it. They were egging themselves on."

"Then where are they?"

Lady Janet shrugged.

She'll be one hell of an actress, Alex thought. She'll be too good for Gaming. Will she give it up?

The Garners bunched up around them. Acacia dropped with her back against Alex's knees; but her head was up, alert for the next attack. The enemy had last been seen hiding among the trees at the volcano's base. Where were they now?

Chester stood up. "Everybody got his breath back?"

They charged up the last fifty meters to the rim, each screaming his own war cry. At the lip of the crater they paused, feet skidding in the loose rock.

A few wisps of steam floated within the bowl, obscuring part of the view, but the crater seemed as deserted as the slope. Nothing human showed at all. Chester ordered, "Ollie, Gina, stay here with Lady Janet. The rest of us are going in."

Crevices in the rock vented more steam as Alex slid down into the mists. The rock was loose enough to make him cautious, but the incline wasn't as severe as he had feared. Digging in with his heels stabilized his balance.

The body of water at the bottom was not much bigger than a pond. It steamed gently. He caught Chester's eye. "Still no de­fenders."

"I don't like it either."

"Here!" Owen called, and Alex turned to see the older man scrambling towards something dark and egg-shaped. Alex checked sideways and up towards the lip for visitors again, and followed Braddon.

As the shape became clearer, Griffin felt a chill. The fins at­tached to the blunt end said "bomb" so clearly he could almost hear it tick. The others had caught the same message; their head­long rush slowed to a cautious advance. At last they stood in an uncertain semicircle about the bomb.

It was darkly corroded metal, a pointed cylinder. The flat rock

it lay on had been positioned like an altar and draped with white cloth: a parachute. A glass jar held fresh flowers.

Even S.J. looked a little disconcerted. "What in the world do we do with this, Chester?" He edged closer to it, to within five feet, but still couldn't bring himself to touch it. "Can we carry it out? This baby has to weigh two or three hundred kilograms. Margie?"

"I wouldn't know how to move it, Chester. Across flat ground, maybe..." Her eyes lit up. "Wait just a minute. How did the Black Hats get it in here in the first place?"

"Good thinking. It had to be magic." Chester walked around the bomb in a decreasing spiral, fascinated. "I don't know if we have enough power, though."

Tony was giving the bomb plenty of room. "Maybe we don't want to fool with it at all. Maybe Lopez just wants an excuse to blow us all up."

But S.J. had moved in closer, and now he was actually touching the smooth surface, eyes closed as if trying to sense its internal workings. "Chester..." he murmured. Then louder. "Chester! Why can't we just extract the plutonium and take that with us? It's got to be almost as valuable as the whole damn bomb. And lots lighter."

"Jesus, Waters. You want to fry us all? Or did you bring a ton of lead shielding?"

"I thought maybe the black fire?"

Chester hesitated, then, "No. Radiation isn't fire."

"He's got the right idea," Tony insisted. "We don't have to steal it. Wreck it. Make it useless for the Enemy."

Chester shook his head. "Good common sense, but our mission is theft."

"But look at it! We'll never move it!"

"Magic," the Lore Master said. "I'm not sure I like it, but it's the only way out that I can see. It'll take everything that we have, and by the time we've got it out we'll be down to the dregs of our magic."

Gina carefully walked closer to the bomb, nose twitching. "The heat and steam, Chester. That thing could be pretty unstable."

"Maybe leaking radiation, too." Acacia seemed almost reluc­tant to say it. Instantly the Garners shied back a few feet.

"Abight, then. We need a continual Danger scan on this while

we try to move it. Margie, you and S.J. work out a way to lower it once we get to the lip."

"Damn," Margie cursed sedately. "I broke another fingernail."

"Try keeping your fingers out of the knots," Waters laughed, cinching the line tight. They had rigged guide ropes around the bomb that ran up to the crater rim. With luck, they would turn the moving job from an impossibility to a mere back-breaking task.

Chester had sent Acacia up to the top to substitute for Gina, who had entered into deep meditation with Chester in preparation for the attempt. When they rose they both seemed hollow-eyed and deadly serious.

Tony was making them all nervous, the way he kept watching the rim. "With luck we could get it almost to the rim before the Enemy jumps us."

"We'll get warning," Ollie told him.

"We'd still be afraid to let go of the bomb, won't we? While they're killing our three scouts!"

"Lopez doesn't make it easy," Ollie granted him. "Wish you'd stayed home?" Tony didn't answer.

Chester called, "Are the lines tight?" He moved into position beneath the bomb without waiting for an answer. "The rest of you, get on the lines. As soon as the Reveal Danger spell is in force, start pulling, gently but evenly. Gina and I will do what we can. We're well ahead of schedule, troops. If the Gods-" and he lowered his voice to growl through his teeth, "-and Lopez-" Gina nudged him, and a faint smile finally cracked through his mask of fatigue, "-are willing, then we will taste victory today."

Griffin got into position on line, directly behind Owen. "Do we get a prayer from the Padre?"

Owen tested the line, grunting. "Good Lord, help us move this mother. Amen."

"Good enough."

A weak green glow surrounded the shape of the bomb, growing slowly more distinct. Chester and Gina stood erect, faces shining with sweat-from exertion, or the heat?-and down the middle of the emerald wave they projected came a darker thread of green. It pulsed and sparkled within the lighter hue like a vein of green blood, and when it touched the bomb the casing trembled.

"Now!" S.J. put his back into it even as he called the stroke,

and Alex bent to the task, feeling good to have an understandable physical task in the midst of the make-believe.

The rock beneath the bomb crackled and flakes of it fell away, sliding down the slope towards Chester and Gina. Henderson had closed his eyes, and his hands were outstretched. The green dark­ened and more rock slid away. McWhirter snarled and heaved; his long gymnasium muscles stood out like an anatomy diagram. The bomb shifted and rose several centimeters, and the Garners loosed a cautious cheer.