The control room opened on one side onto a balcony that ran around a vast circular chamber, more than two hundred feet across and a hundred feet high. In the center of the chamber, a gleaming steel column fifty feet in diameter rose to vanish in the ceiling. Inside that column lay the working parts of various field generators, stacked one on another in a pile more than five hundred feet high. Around the base of the column was a glittering array of consoles, conduits, displays, switchboards, and piping. There were the essential monitors and power relays for the generators.
If they were destroyed, it would take five years to rebuild them. Until they were rebuilt, the field generators could no longer be powered or controlled safely. The three force fields would no longer protect Mak'loh. Its people would have to look to their own protection, however much this cost them in Physical activity. In five years it was possible that the city would be firmly set on a new course, freer of android servants and the pleasures of the Inward Eye.
It was no more than just possible, but it was the best chance Blade could give this city.
He went to the control board and carefully closed the master switches for all three fields. Every light on the board flashed from green to red, then died entirely. Wrecking the controls with the fields still active could do even more permanent damage, but it might also set off an explosion like an atomic bomb. Blade did not want to wake up Mak'loh by laying half of it in ruins.
Blade walked out on to the balcony, the loaded grenade thrower in his hands. He stood by the railing, sighted on the nearest console, and fired. He dropped to the floor as the grenade exploded, ripping the console to bits and spraying pieces of metal and circuitry in all directions.
Blade worked his way around the balcony as methodically as a farmer planting seed. Explosion after explosion ripped through the equipment below. The lights went out, and emergency lighting came on with dim glows like fireflies. A few more explosions, and the emergency lights also went out.
Blade pulled a flashlight out of his pack and went on shooting by its light.
Explosions blazed orange and circuits flared up blue-white in the darkness. Metal fragments rained down around Blade, skittered off the balcony, clanged and cracked into the walls. Smoke swirled around Blade like fog, carrying a stench of high explosive, burned insulation, and melted metal.
Blade ran out of targets long before he ran out of grenades. Then he climbed down a ladder from the balcony to the floor of the chamber. He'd done a very adequate job with the time and the equipment he'd had.
There was only one more thing to do. Blade flashed his light at the main control board high above. Then he aimed the thrower and fired. The first grenade blew the board off its mountings. The second blew it in half and threw two of the chairs off the balcony. Blade was reloading again when a voice called out of the darkness. He stopped, the grenade in one hand.
He wasn't surprised to hear voices. What the voice was saying did surprise him.
Sharp and demanding, the voice in the darkness called out, «Blade, stop firing! We're on your side!»
Chapter 17
Blade's first thought was that either his hearing or his brain had been damaged by the grenade explosions. By sheer reflex he dropped the third grenade into the thrower. In the silence after the explosion, the click echoed all around the chamber.
The man above heard it. «Get back, you fools!» he shouted. «He may fire again!» Blade heard the sound of several sets of retreating feet. «Damn you, Blade,» came the voice again. «I told you we're friends. We're from the Authority.»
Blade took cover behind a metal cabinet standing on end. «That's not enough,» he shouted back. «I've already had to defend myself tonight against four people in Authority clothing. How do I know that I can trust you?»
«We know about the fight,» the man said. «We've got the people you put in the elevator. I swear it; you've nothing to fear from us.»
By now Blade recognized the voice. It was Geetro, a member of the Authority Council and the man in charge at the main power station. He was one of the more alert minds, even among the power-plant tenders.
Yet that didn't mean he could be trusted. Something was going on in Mak'loh that seemed to have produced open warfare among factions of the Authority. Which faction was Geetro's?
«Turn on a light,» Blade shouted. «Then leave it on and come down here. We'll talk privately.»
«You want us to give you a target?» shouted another voice from behind Geetro. «You're a damned fool if-«
«Oh, be quiet, the whole lot of you,» said a woman's voice. The voice was Sela's.
«Sela!»-Blade shouted.
«Blade! It is all right. I swear it. Geetro is the leader of-«
«Enough, Sela! We'll talk of that in private, if you don't mind. Blade, will you come up now?»
Blade still had no idea what Geetro might be planning, but if Sela were willing to trust him that would have to be enough. Blade stepped out from behind the cabinet, walked to the ladder, and climbed up to the balcony.
As he reached the top, somebody turned on a powerful light, revealing the whole chamber. He saw a cluster of armed men and women in Authority black standing in the control room. As they saw the shambles Blade had left behind him, some shouted furiously, while others turned toward Blade with dark looks on their faces.
Geetro and Sela restored order and came toward Blade. Geetro held out a hand, and Blade noticed that the hand was sweaty and trembled slightly. The man was not quite as much in charge of the situation as he pretended to be. They shook hands, and Geetro looked down at the wrecked control equipment with a sour smile. «Well, Blade, I could wish we'd been able to get by without you doing this, but-«
«Geetro, you know how little hope there was of that,» said Sela briskly. «So stop trying to prove how mild you are. We've gone too far for that to make any difference, and it certainly won't impress Blade. Not after he's done this.» Her hand made a sweeping gesture that took in the whole chamber.
«I suppose you are right,» said Geetro. «Will you come with us, Blade? We will not force you. But I think you will want to find out what is going on, and I know you will be safer with us and our androids guarding you.»
«Very well,» said Blade. «I came here in a flyer though. It's up on the roof, with my-«
«Blade,» said Geetro, an edge in his voice. «Forget your flyer. This building will be guarded from the ground and from the roof as soon as the androids of the Power Guard arrive. Besides, it is no longer a target that Paron-that the other people will be attacking. You've done your work so well that it's no longer worth anything.» A couple of the men growled in irritable agreement, then fell silent at a glare from Sela. «Blade, come.»
Blade fell in behind Geetro and headed down the ramp.
They led Blade to a truck and followed a zigzag course through back streets and alleys to the power plant. The plant was guarded by androids standing almost shoulder to shoulder. Some of them wore the badge of the Power Guard on their coveralls, and these seemed to be giving orders to the others. All the androids had the usual shock rifles and truncheons, and some of the Power Guard were carrying grenade throwers.
«That is against the old laws,» said Geetro. «But we are now in a time of new laws for Mak'loh. It is a time we hoped might come sooner or later. You have brought it many years sooner than we expected.» He said nothing more to explain those cryptic words until they were all safely inside the main control room of the power plant. Then they sat down, took off their weapons and gear, and ate a light meal. While they ate, Geetro and Sela talked. By the time they'd finished the meal, Blade had a fairly good idea of what was happening in Mak'loh.