Forry had been upset by their careless use of this light, butHindarf assured him that it was a form, of black light. Forry could see itsimplybecause his goggles had a specially prepared glass. Hindarf doubtedthat the Ogshad anything which could detect this form of illumination.
When they got to the top of the steps, they could see the blackbulk of the house about fifty yards away. It was dark except for a slit of light. They wenton and then were at the end of a long swimming pool. This wasbrimming over, flooding the cement walks, the patio, the yard, and running down thesteps upwhich they had just climbed.
Hindarf gave Forry his instructions again and then went down intothe poolvia the, steel ladder. The man assigned to watch Forry led him intothe pool. For a moment, everything was black, and he had no idea which was upor down, north or south. Then a light flooded the area around him, and hecould see his guide just ahead of him, holding the lamp. Hindarf's flippers werevisible justahead of the globe of illumination.
They swam the 100-feet-long pool underwater as near the floor asthey couldget. Forry caught glimpses of strange figures painted on the cementfloor. Griffins, werewolves metamorphosing from men to beasts, a leglessdragon, apenis-beaked flipper-winged rooster, a devilfish with a shaven cuntfor a mouth, a malignant-faced crab being ridden by a nude woman with fish headsfor breasts, and something huge and shadowy and all the more sinister for being soamorphous.
Then they were at the deep end of the pool, and Hindarf and hisguide were removing a plate from the wall. It looked like any other section ofthe wall, but it was thin and wide and its removal exposed a large dark hole. Hindarf swam into it, the guide followed, and Forry, after a moment's hesitation, and knowingthat the honor of Earth depended upon him, swam through the hole. Thetunnel had been dug out of the earth, of course, but it was walled up with manysmall plates screwed together. He wondered how long the Tocs had beenworking on this. It must have taken them years, because their time would be limited tothe earlyhours of morning before the sun came up.
It was possible, however, that this tunnel had been built by theOgs as anescape route. The Tocs, having discovered it, were taking advantageof it.
He did not know how long they swam through the tunnel. It seemedlike a longtime. It led downward, or at least he got that impression. Then theywere popping up in a chamber illuminated by a bright arc light hangingfrom a chain set into the cement ceiling. A ladder gave access to a platform atthe end of which hung row on row of suits. Shelves held many goggles and airtanks.
His second speculation was correct. This had been made by the Ogsfor escape. But then, wouldn't they have set up guards or alarms?
Hindarf explained that they could go no farther in thatdirection. The door in the end of the chamber was locked and triggered to alarms. So, they would gothrough another tunnel, which they had dug and walled themselves.
They dived again and Forry plunged to the bottom of the tunnel. He saw Hindarf go through a hole which was so narrow, that, the air tank onhis back scraped against the plates. The tunnel curved rapidly and took themat a course that he estimated would bring them about even with the ending of theOg tunnelbut about forty feet westward.
He came up in another chamber, much smaller than the first. Therewas a raft made of wood and inflatable pontoons. It was near the wall, whichheld a ladder that ran to the ceiling, twelve feet up.
Hindarf pulled Forry onto the raft. A man handed Hindarf a paperin a sealed package. He opened it and took out the paper and spread it out. Underthe lightsthey had brought, with the only sound the slight splashing of the menand heavybreathing, they studied the plates which constituted the ceiling ofthis chamber. The plates were being removed by two men standing on theladder.
There was a great boom from above them. The shock was sudden and savage. The platform rose into the airabove the water and the men on it went with it. Dirt fell in on all sides, striking themen and sending up gouts of water and chunking into the raft, whichwas tiltingto one side and then to the other.
But the walls did not fall in, though the plates were bellied outor buckled and broken here and there. The booming noise had come and gone, likean overhead explosion. All was quiet except for the loud slap-slap of theseesawing wateragainst the sides of the pit and the groaning of the platform movingup anddown.
Hindarf was the first to break the silence. He said, "That waseither an earthquake or the house is starting to slide. In either case, we goahead as planned. We'll be out of this place and into the house in a fewseconds."
The two men on the ladder had clung to it as it had threatened totoppleover. Now they went to work and removed plates to make a wide openingabove them.
Forry wondered why they worked so slowly. He felt like clawingthe platesout and anything else that stood between him and the open air. But hemanaged tosubdue the panic. After all, as he had already told himself, he wasupholdingthe honor of Earth.
Hindarf climbed the ladder and began to chip away at the dirtwith a small pick. Forry moved to one side to avoid the falling matter, which camedown in big chunks. His guide, pointing at the diagram, said, "We aredirectly below thefloor of the room where Childe should be held."
"How did you get hold of the diagram?" Forry said.
"From the city archives. The Ogs thought that they had removedall of the plans of the house, which was built long ago. But there was one planwhich had been misfiled. We paid for a very expensive research, but it wasworth it."
"Why do you think Childe is in the room above?"
"The Ogs have field important prisoners there before, both Tocand Earthling. We could be wrong, but even so we'll be inside the house."
Hindarf quit scraping away the dirt and was listening through adevice, oneend of which was placed against the stone. Then he put the device ina pocket ofhis suit and began to work on the stone with a drill. Forry listenedcarefullybut could hear no sound from it. His guide told him that it usedsupersonicwaves.
The removal of several blocks of stone took some time. Hindarf and another man stood side by side on the narrow ladder and eased the block downbetween them, and this was passed slowly between men standing together on the ladder. Then Hindarf listened again. He looked puzzled as he put the
device away. "There's a strange swishing and splashing noise," he whispered. He took the large square of metal which a man handed him and
screwed it to the underside of the floor. A wire led from one side of the metal square to asmall black metal box held by a man on the raft.
Everybody except Hindarf got off the ladder and stood to oneside. Hindarf nodded to the man holding the box, who pressed a button on its top.
The metal square and the section of floor within it fell downpast Hindarf.
A solid column of water roared through the opening. It knockedHindarf off the ladder, struck the small platform, sprayed out over the raft, andsweptthose standing on the platform into the well or onto the raft.
Forry Ackerman was one of those swept off.
CHAPTER 41
Pao said, "Your wife died three months ago."
"You killed her!" Childe raged. "You killed her! Did you tortureher before you killed her?"
"No," Pao said. "We did not want to hurt her, because we meant tobring herto you when you were ready for us. But she died."
"How?"
"It was an accident. Vivienne and Plugger and your wife wereforming atriangle. Plugger was stimulating Vivienne with his tongue in hermouth, yourwife was being stimulated with Plugger's cock in her mouth, andVivienne and your wife had their cunts almost touching each other, face to face asit were. Gilles was up your wife's cunt or alternating between her cunt andher asshole, I believe."