“Yeah.”
Jitrine shook her head. “I do not understand.”
“They’ve got to track their bets,” John said. “Otherwise the Wraith can’t follow the game. I’ll bet there are cameras all over this maze.”
Teyla nodded. “And of course most of the contestants have no idea what they are.”
“Before we do anything too weird we’re going to have to take out the cameras,” John said. “And make it look like an accident for as long as we can.”
“You know those men in the first groups are going to ambush us,” Jitrine said. “I heard them talking. They will wait in some appropriate place and then ambush the other groups coming through.”
“That will not be as easy as they think,” Teyla said, reaching up for one of the torches. She brought it down and ground the flame out on the stone, leaving only the smoking bundle of wood. Despite the smoke, she got a second one and did the same. “Sticks,” she said, holding up the wood.
John nodded. He’d seen how lethal Teyla could be with sticks. But now she only had one good arm. “I’ll take one.”
Instead of saying ‘Get your own’ as he’d half expected her to, she handed one over with a smile. “Let us see what you have learned,” she said.
Jitrine looked at the three identical corridors, all of them leading off into darkness. “Which way?”
John thought for a second. “Teyla, which hand is a Wraith’s feeding hand? Usually, I mean.”
Her brow furrowed. “Right, I think. Why is that important?”
“Then we go left,” John said. “Look, the game master always wants you to turn right, so that’s where they’ve fleshed out the dungeon the most and that’s where the most dangerous traps are. Straight is second, and then left is the fastest way through.”
Her frown deepened. “I still have no idea what you are talking about, but left looks as good as any other way.”
“Then we go left,” John said. “And poke the ground ahead of you for traps.” He thought better of it. “Here, let me go first. You take six. I’ll do the poking.”
Teyla stepped back and let him pass her, and he jauntily started poking the floor ahead of them with the butt of the torch. Pit traps would be about par for the course.
“What about ambushes?” Jitrine said behind him.
“Where another corridor crosses or there’s a turn,” John said. “Right here there’s nowhere to hide.” About every thirty feet there was another torch in a bracket, but even the dimness between them wasn’t enough to conceal a man. Poking ahead, he casually looked up at the walls. And where there was a torch, on the opposite side there was a camera. In fact, he wasn’t certain that there weren’t small recessed lights in the ceiling itself, turned off now.
Glancing back, he saw Teyla looking as well. “It’s like a set,” John said. “It’s pretty scary looking, but it’s nothing but a set for their games. A maze for lab rats.”
“Or rabbits?” Teyla asked, and he was glad to see her smile. She didn’t seem unnerved by the deliberate spookiness.
“Or rabbits,” he said.
Jitrine looked at him keenly. “You are not afraid because you have seen something like this before?”
John shrugged.
Jitrine squared her shoulders. “Then we may yet live.”
“I told you we would live, doctor,” Teyla said gently. “I have been in far worse places with Colonel Sheppard and come out alive.”
Ahead, the corridor opened out into another chamber. It was dark, suggesting that someone had had reason to remove the torches. I pretty unsubtle ambush,âhe murmured to Teyla. These guys ahead of us aren't great brains.
Stay back in the corridor, Teyla said to Jitrine quietly. We will handle this.
John eased up toward the entrance. He could see how to play this, but it would involve Teyla doing the heavy lifting. He counted off on his fingers, one, two, three. On three he plunged through the entrance at a run, far out into the dark chamber beyond and then spun around.
Taken by surprise, the two men who had been waiting on either side of the door ran after him, one of them catching him around the knees in a flying tackle. The other one, a step behind, got Teyla's stick across the back of the head, sending him staggering to his knees.
John rolled, laying about with the stick in his own hand. It contacted quite satisfactorily with the guy's arm, a stinging blow that probably didn't break bones but sure hurt. That was good enough to get his feet free, and a swift kick got the guy to let go.
Meanwhile, the third man circled Teyla warily, all too aware of his friend unconscious on the floor. She played him, the stick rising and falling in whirling patterns, silhouetted against the light of the corridor beyond. John saw her movement coming an instant before it happened, the result of practicing with her a lot. A feint, a spin, and the stick hit twice, hard on the top of his right shoulder, just on the muscle, and then the return to the groin. Her opponent collapsed to the floor moaning as the guy John had kicked gathered himself up. Wisely, he turned and ran away, skittering away into the darkness, in loud retreat.
John picked himself up, stick still held at the ready. Teyla's opponent was rolling around on the floor groaning.
The other one, the one she hit over the head, was unconscious. Jitrine bent over him.
Come on, Teyla said. We cannot stay here. Another group will be coming along behind.
John gestured to the guy groaning on the floor. What about him? Armed as they were, with only sticks, they couldn't take prisoners. But leaving this guy in their rear didn't seem much of a plan.
Teyla looked down at him. We must leave him. What else is there?
John shrugged. You mess with us again, we not so nice, ok? He glanced at Teyla. You're lucky she likes you.
He glanced up. There were two doors out, one opposite the entrance they've come in, and the other in the same wall but off to the left of the door.
Empty room, twenty by twenty. Two doors. Just what the game master ordered. Look around and see if you see anything useful, John said. There were no furnishings or even the trunks he half expected.
Up there, Teyla said. At ceiling level on opposite sides were two cameras.
Right, John said. I wonder how our betting odds just changed.
I have no idea what you're talking about, Jitrine said.
Those things in the wall are cameras, doctor, Teyla said. They allow the Wraith High King and his soldiers see what happens here.
Losing optical lenses and electricity, John said, trying to think of the things her society might at least have words for. Trust me, it's complicated. I couldn't even tell you exactly how a video camera works. But it's so they can watch the games.
Jitrine frowned. It's a machine?â
Yes, Teyla said.
And these games are not a sacred rite, but merely entertainment for them? For these you call Wraith?
Yes, Teyla said grimly. And when we have entertained them, they will kill us. We do not intend to allow that to happen.
Jitrine stood up. What do you intend to do?
Teyla looked at John.
We are going to shut this place down, he said. I don't know how yet, but we will. No more death games.
You are one man, Jitrine observed. How do you think you can do such a thing?
Frankly, he had no idea. But Jitrine and Teyla were both waiting for an answer. John shrugged. Theseus was only one guy too, but he killed the Minotaur.
Teyla's mouth twitched, and he wondered if he were really putting anything over on her. That is a story of your people I do not know,she said.
Yeah, I'll have to tell you sometime, John said. I've got another book you could borrow, called The King Must Die. But first, let's get out of here.
Teyla looked around. Which way?
Door in the same wall, John said, looking at the less obvious one. When the game master thinks they are being clever.