He gave it a yank; he heard it start to unclasp. He gave it another pull, and that's when he heard it rip. He jumped over the head of the beast and, still clutching the top of the opened zipper, dove for the floor, taking the creature's hairy overgarment with him.
A louder gasp went up from the royal court. Even Zoloff let out a cry. The hairy overcoat was just that — a prop to make the creature look more menacing and to hide its secret. With this outer garment torn away, what lay beneath was revealed for all to see. This was not some space being or something from one of the really low-rent dimensions. Instead, it was two short royal guards, one with his feet on the other's shoulders, each with a different hand control to operate.
They were still arguing as their two-man contraption fell to the hard floor. The confusion was hilarious.
Hunter just shook his head as the two men scurried away, still arguing with one another. Then he turned back toward those in the court and performed a dramatic bow.
That's when the trapdoor beneath his feet opened up…
It seemed like he fell for ages.
He was in a tube, sliding, round and round, pitch black, the sound of running water filling his ears. Just when he thought he couldn't get any more dizzy, the tube ended, and he was deposited into huge tank of inky black water.
He went all the way to the bottom but was able to quickly push himself back up to the top. No sooner had he surfaced when Dr. Zoloff came flying out of the tube, landing right on Hunter's head and carrying him back to the bottom again.
There was a moment of disentangling themselves and then they both made their way back up for air. Hunter swam over to a point under the tube, hoping against hope that maybe Ping's men would throw Annie—beautiful Annie — down as well. Even at this uncertain moment, Hunter found his thoughts flash to an image of her in that see-through gown, soaking wet. He shook off a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature of the water. He hoped Zoloff couldn't read minds.
"They will not send her down here with us," the doctor told Hunter, who nearly snapped his fingers in disappointment. "They will bring her instead to see her true love — before he is executed. That was Ping's dastardly plan all along!"
Hunter had to take his word for it. "That will just make it easier for us to rescue them both!" he yelled back to Zoloff boldly. "We've just got to get out of here first…"
At that moment they heard a huge splash on the other side of the thirty-foot tank. Then came another, and another.
What the hell could this be? Hunter wondered. He got his answer a moment later, delivered with a painful punch to his jaw. It was the second such shot he'd taken in the past few minutes.
The haymaker came out of nowhere and knocked him below the surface again. That's when he first saw the guy with the fins on his back.
Even underwater, this guy's uniform looked, well… unmanly. Tight, green, with fake gills and ridiculous fins, obviously its owner was the cause of one of the splashes they'd just heard. This meant at least three of these aqua-men were in here with them.
Hunter stayed down this time, diving deeper and looking for a swirl of legs above. Sure enough, he could see three dark figures heading toward a fourth; the strangely dressed swimmers were converging on Zoloff.
Hunter pushed himself off the bottom of the pool again and, moving swiftly, fists put together, he torpedoed one of the fin men just as he was about to hammer the good doctor. He hit the guy square on the back of the head, and his victim let out a yelp so shrill, Hunter actually heard it underwater. He surfaced an instant later, coming over the top with one fist cocked. One of the swimmers had Zoloff by the throat. Hunter clocked this guy on the way down. He, too, let out a yelp that would have seemed more appropriate for a young girl and not a big bad fin man.
With his two colleagues quickly out of action, the third swimmer splashed around for a few moments, assessed the situation, then turned tail and started swimming away. Zoloff was furious and began pursuing the man, but Hunter caught him at the last moment.
Hunter said to the doctor, "If we let him go, then he will lead us to the way out."
Zoloff thought a moment and then smiled, a rarity.
"You are more brilliant than my son-in-law-to-be!" he declared.
Then they both dove back below the surface and began swimming after the fleeing fin man.
There was one light in the vast tank. It was located next to a metal door, which Hunter could only surmise led to an air hatch.
He and Zoloff held up a moment and watched the swimmer desperately turn the wheel on this door. It took some effort to open it against the water pressure, but finally it did spring free with a great whoosh of air bubbles.
The swimmer tried his best to delicately swim into the hatchway, but Hunter and Zoloff had other ideas. They hit the man with both barrels just as he was closing the door. The fin man was more stunned than hurt. Hunter pushed him out of the way, finished closing the hatch, and then activated the oxygen valve. The water quickly drained from the chamber, and finally he and Zoloff could breathe again.
It was cramped quarters, and awkward now with Hunter, Zoloff, and the fin man fighting for elbow room. Hunter hauled back and was about to fire a punch at the swimmer, but there was no need. The man fainted dead away even before Hunter threw the punch.
"Bravo!" Zoloff yelled. He studied the man soaking and crumpled in the corner. "Should one of us take his costume off, then put it on, in hopes of fooling any guards we meet along the way?"
Hunter looked at Zoloff, then at the unconscious fin man, then back at Zoloff.
"That won't be necessary," he said.
They stole out into the adjacent corridor. It was lit by torches that smelled of wax and oil. The floor was flat in both directions, giving no indication which way was up or down. So they just stopped and listened. To their right, they heard music. Distant, discordant. And with a lot of bass. This told Hunter it was coming from somewhere above them. To their left, they could hear mechanical noises and groaning. The dungeon had to be that way.
They began running. And running. And running… Finally, the hallway started to curve downward. The sound of machinery got louder, the air, cooler.
They came to an intersection of hallways; Hunter skidded to a stop just before the two tunnels met. They both peeked around one corner and saw two prison cells, with six guards out in front of each. Maybe we should have taken the fin man's costume, Hunter thought.
He needed a moment to dream up a plan here. How were he and the feisty but elderly doctor going to take on a dozen of the walking trash cans?
Zoloff had no such inclination to wait, though. He stepped out from behind the corner, let out a great scream, and started running headlong down the hallway.
"Damn," Hunter said, springing to his feet and quickly finding himself on the doctor's heels. So much for getting a strategy together.
The soldiers saw them coming now; they had about fifty feet separating them. They aligned themselves at twelve abreast, spears up and ready. The doctor never hesitated. He left his feet ten paces in front of them, and with remarkable agility, laid out half the guards with a perfect running block. They went down again like dominos.
Those not hit by the initial blow were thrown off then-feet by those who were. In seconds, the doctor was wrestling with all twelve of them, at the same time yelling to Hunter, "Don't worry about me… I've got them covered. Save the others!"
It sounded crazy, but Zoloff was right. He'd bowled over all of the guards, and they were now engaged in a massive slow-motion wrestling match with him. Hunter body-slammed a couple of the soldiers on the periphery of the action and then turned his attention to the first prison cell.