Under more promising circumstances, I would’ve almost certainly insisted on taking her request the wrong way. As it was, I just kept my mouth shut, undid the watchband, and handed it over. Eva took the watch hungrily. While she examined it, I finished with the security guard and began to undress. Instinctively, I thought of how long it had been since I’d worked out. Damn this boubon belly of mine. Luckily, yet somewhat disappointingly, Eva wasn’t paying any attention.
As I dressed, I glanced around the room. Mounted high on the wall was a surveillance camera. I hadn’t noticed it before. A flashing red light showed that it was activated. It made me nervous. Eva must have seen me looking at it. “That thing’s patched straight into Percival’s private security station. No one sees it but him, he hasn’t had time to get there yet. We have at least a few minutes.”
With no choice but to be relieved, I finished dressing. The guard was a couple of inches shorter than me, though about the same build. The shirt, red and black with a strange rune-like symbol over the left breast, was a short-sleeve pullover, so it wasn’t a problem.
Neither were the stretchy black pants. The boots, however, were about half a size too small. I could get them on, but I wasn’t going to run any marathons in them.
I looked sadly at the pile of clothes I’d taken off. I’d worn my best and only overcoat.
The other items were expendable, except the fedora. It was like breaking up with my first love. After a moment of silence, I turned my attention back to Eva, who seemed to be intent on destroying the watch. A moment later, she twisted the rim around the face, and it popped open. A grim smile played across her lips. “Thank God.”
I moved next to her and took a peek into the watch compartment. Inside was a small piece of black plastic, about the size of a Chiclet. It resembled an old-fashioned RAM insert. Eva glanced at me. “You know what this is?”
“I think I do.”
Eva closed the watch face and nodded. “Good.” She dropped the watch into one of her boots. “We’re running out of time, but at least now there’s a chance. I hadn’t planned on meeting my contact under these circumstances. We’re going to have to wing it from here on out.”
Eva leaned over the Chameleon’s body and searched through his pockets. She pulled out a plastic card, then grabbed his legs and looked up at me. “Get his arms.”
I did as she told me, and we carried the corpse across the room, away from the door.
Reaching the far wall, Eva pressed one section of it, causing a small panel to spring open. Inside were several switches. She flipped one, and a bin-like contraption, with an opening about four feet square, separated from the surface of the wall. Following Eva’s lead, I carried my half of the dead body to the bin. We dumped the corpse into the opening, and then did the same with the dead security guard. Eva flipped another switch, closing the bin. Seconds later, I heard a faint hydraulic rush. Eva shut the panel and turned toward me. “Just two more pieces of galactic debris. With any luck, no one will notice they’re missing until we’re done.”
I felt a strong urge to ask what exactly it was we were going to do, but decided against it. We seemed to be hitting it off fairly well, and it didn’t seem like a good time to rock the boat.
Eva walked to the door, and I followed her out. Now that she’d killed the security guard, the corridor outside was blessedly empty. Apparently, Percival hadn’t thought it necessary to post more than one guard. It wasn’t the first time he’d underestimated me.
Eva glanced in both directions, then went left. We walked briskly until we reached an elevator, seeing no one along the way. A minute later, the doors opened, and we stepped into the vacant lift.
The menu of buttons in this elevator was different from the ones in the elevators I’d been in previously; this time, we could access levels twenty-four through thirty-six. Eva pressed the button for level twenty-eight, and we began to descend. We both stared up at the level display, not saying a word. I had no idea what was on level twenty-eight, but I was suddenly eager to get there. When the elevator started to slow down, and then stopped at level thirty-one, an urge to bolt out the doors and run wildly came over me.
Since there was nowhere to go, however, I clenched my teeth and glanced at Eva. She appeared unruffled. Looking straight ahead, she whispered fiercely. “Put your hands behind your back.”
I had the uniform, but still no bracelet. If anyone noticed, I’d be a marked man. The door slid open just as I put my hands behind me and leaned against the wall. A computer voice piped up: “Level thirty-one. Section A. St. Andrews. Augusta National. Sawgrass.
Pebble Beach. Fenway Park. Camden Yards. Wrigley Field. Candlestick Park. For information on tee times or holo-sim sporting events, go to the checkin area.” Two young men stepped inside, and we exchanged the customary greetings. Not wanting to invite conversation, I focused on the level display. I probably didn’t have anything to worry about. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the men ogling Eva.
Fortunately, their ogling was cut short. The elevator stopped at level twenty-nine, and the men exited to the accompaniment of the computer voice: “Level twenty-nine.
Section A. Zoological Gardens and Yellowstone National Park. For information on camping and hiking, go to the checkin area.”
Seconds later, we reached level twenty-eight, section A. The computer informed me that this was the “Aquatic Level,” featuring representative microcosms of the Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean, as well as various bodies of fresh water. Eva and I stepped out of the elevator into a neat, sterile foyer. Directly across from us was a doorway leading to a checkin area. On the right were men’s and women’s restrooms. To the left was a door marked Authorized Personnel Only.
Eva walked to the door and pulled out the card she’d taken from the Chameleon.
Inserting the card into a slot just under the door handle, she grasped the handle and turned it. She held the door open and motioned for me to enter. Beyond was a stairwell, with plain walls and metal handrails. Stairs led both up and down. Eva closed the door behind us and took the flight up.
At the top of the stairs, Eva opened the first door we reached. At this point, I had no choice but to follow her, but she did seem to know where she was going. Of course, she could have been utilizing the old confidence smoke screen. It was a ploy I’d used many times, making people think you know what you’re doing when you’re actually baffled and completely at a loss. My motto has always been “What they don’t know won’t hurt ‘em.” Now, however, I was the one in the dark, and I didn’t much like it.
Regardless, I followed Eva out the door and into a long, featureless hallway that looked like an extension of the stairwell. We moved quickly, and every so often, we’d pass a door with a number or letter code stenciled on it. Eva increased the pace until we reached a door marked 28-A-41. She opened it, and I found myself stepping back into paradise.
Again, my sense of smell overloaded with the fragrances of grass and trees. Only this time, I smelled water — not the stinking, contaminated water of New San Fracisco Bay, which now had more pop cans, syringes, and rotten corpses than fish — but the clear, pristine liquid mirror of an alpine lake.
I wished I’d had more time to breathe it in. Eva darted down a small path into the trees. I was close behind, and within minutes we reached the shore of a large lake. In the distance, I could make out the tops of trees. Eva ducked off the path, and we slowly made our way through the underbrush, moving parallel to the shore. Eventually, we reached a clearing and walked to the edge of the water. Hidden in a thicket of bushes was a boat.
We climbed aboard, and Eva started the engine. She guided the boat out of the shallow water, turned it, and we sped off across the lake. I’d never been in a speedboat before, and it was a rush. Bouncing over the surface, with mist coating my face, I felt like we were finally making our escape. With the blue sky above us, it was easy to forget where we were. I moved close to Eva and spoke up over the noise of the engine and chopping water. “Where are we going?”