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.Its tipwas incandescent."A knife and an iron." remarked the announcer."This should beinteresting.Which will he use first, I wonder? The knife, I imagine."Grimes moved to the centre of the stage.He was not quite directly beneaththe overhead light, now (except for the ruddily glowing brazier) the onlysource of illumination in the theatre.And he was, he prayed to all the OddGods of the Galaxy, correctly sited for his next move.Suddenly he threw the heavy iron upwards as hard as he could, transferringthe knife to his right hand as soon as he had done so and running towardsShirl.The whirling, white-hot bar hit the glaring lamp, fortuitously theincandescent end first.Perhaps the plastic globe would not have brokenhad this not been so-but break it did.There was darkness-complete insofar as Grimes and the members of theaudience and the guards were concerned.Grimes had misjudged slightly,made heavy contact with Shirl's naked body a fraction of a second before heanticipated it.He heard the ough as the air was driven from her lungs.Bothhis hands went up to her left wrist, found the strap securing it to the armof the cross.He slashed, felt the soft leather or plastic or whatever it wasfall away.(That knife was sharp.) Then her right wrist.(At least onestungun was in operation now, to judge from the vicious buzzing, but theshooting was wild.) Then her right ankle.(She emitted a little scream as heinadvertently nicked her skin.) Then her left.Freed from the cross she fell against him, then pushed away, saying, "Lookafter Darleen."He stumbled towards the other crucifix.He almost missed it, found it onlyby tripping over Darleen's right foot.Even though he fell he did not lose hishold on the knife.He scrambled to his feet, went to work on the girl'sbonds.Meanwhile Shirl, to whom the glow from the brazier affordedadequate illumination, must have made her way to the table with theknives.There was no more buzzing of misaimed stunguns.There wereshouts, screams.Somebody was yelling, "Lights! Lights!"Darleen was released.Without a word she ran to join Shirl.Perhaps therewere now no knives left to throw but there were still the hot irons and, inthe arena she had preferred a club to throwing weapons.But where was the rack? Where was Fenella Pruin? It was still too dark foranybody with normal eyesight to find his way around in the theatre and hehad now lost all sense of direction. "Fenella!" he shouted."Here!" Then, "Get a bloody move on!" she cried.He stumbled in the direction from which her voice had come.He found therack the hard way, crashing into it, falling full length on to her nude body.She snapped irritably, "I want you to cut me loose, not make love to me!"This time he had dropped the knife.He slid off her, down to the floor.Hescrabbled around under the rack, to both sides of it.Then there was a briefflare of actinic light as one of Shirl's missiles hit some piece of electricalequipment, shorting it out.He saw the gleam of metal close by his gropinghand.Just in time he was able to stop himself from picking it up by theblade.As he cut through Fenella's bonds he realised that the theatre was nowvery quiet.All of the audience must either have escaped or been killed.(Hedid not think that they could have put up much of a fight.) Fenella pulledherself to her feet by holding on to his shoulders.She asked, "What now?"It was a good question, too good.He said, after hesitation, "I kill you.Then the other two girls.Then myself.""What!""Do you think that they will give us an easy death after all this?""So you want to die? I don't."And neither did he, thought Grimes.But what chance of survival was there?Yet the theatre should have been swarming with armed guards by now.Itwas not.Surely the show in which he, Fenella, Shirl and Darleen were thestars must have been monitored.Perhaps the monitoring was only arecording, with nobody watching it live.Perhaps the survivors of themassacre were still trying to find their way through the maze of tunnels andhad not yet met anybody to whom to report that the actor and actresseshad strayed from the script."Shirl! Darleen!" he called.They came to him, their bodies palely luminous in the near-darkness."Some escaped," said Shirl."We didn't get them all.""We have to escape ourselves.Find women about your build among thecorpses.Strip them.Completely.Get dressed.And you, Fenella."He found the body of a man.A thrown knife had penetrated his brainthrough his left eye, so there was not much blood.Grimes, hating the feelof the dead flesh, removed the shirt, the kilt, the underwear.At this latterhe wrinkled his nose in disgust.He dressed in the shirt and kilt, found thatthe dead man's shoes fitted his feet. Not far from him Fenella Pruin had taken the long dress off a tall, slimwoman who no longer needed it, had put it on.She looked at him and said,"Let's go.""Underwear," Grimes told her."But I can't wear that.She.""People usually do when they die.Take those panties off her and hide themunder a seat.When the guards get here they'll find, among the otherbodies, four completely naked ones.They'll think-for a short while-thatthey're us.I hope.Ready, all of you?""Ready!" said Shirl and Darleen."All right.Let's get out of here."He led the way along an aisle.All the EXIT lights were out, of course, butsurely an egress would not be hard to find.They passed through anopaquely panelled revolving door into a corridor that was, by comparisonwith the darkness of the theatre, brightly lit.At the far end of this was a large group of men, running towards them.Twenty-oneSo the guards were on the way at last.How much did they know? Would itbe possible, Grimes wondered, to bluff his way past them?"Leave this to me." whispered Fenella Pruin.She ran towards the advancing party of armed men, staggering a little.(Herrequisitioned sandals, Grimes learned later, were a size too small [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Its tipwas incandescent."A knife and an iron." remarked the announcer."This should beinteresting.Which will he use first, I wonder? The knife, I imagine."Grimes moved to the centre of the stage.He was not quite directly beneaththe overhead light, now (except for the ruddily glowing brazier) the onlysource of illumination in the theatre.And he was, he prayed to all the OddGods of the Galaxy, correctly sited for his next move.Suddenly he threw the heavy iron upwards as hard as he could, transferringthe knife to his right hand as soon as he had done so and running towardsShirl.The whirling, white-hot bar hit the glaring lamp, fortuitously theincandescent end first.Perhaps the plastic globe would not have brokenhad this not been so-but break it did.There was darkness-complete insofar as Grimes and the members of theaudience and the guards were concerned.Grimes had misjudged slightly,made heavy contact with Shirl's naked body a fraction of a second before heanticipated it.He heard the ough as the air was driven from her lungs.Bothhis hands went up to her left wrist, found the strap securing it to the armof the cross.He slashed, felt the soft leather or plastic or whatever it wasfall away.(That knife was sharp.) Then her right wrist.(At least onestungun was in operation now, to judge from the vicious buzzing, but theshooting was wild.) Then her right ankle.(She emitted a little scream as heinadvertently nicked her skin.) Then her left.Freed from the cross she fell against him, then pushed away, saying, "Lookafter Darleen."He stumbled towards the other crucifix.He almost missed it, found it onlyby tripping over Darleen's right foot.Even though he fell he did not lose hishold on the knife.He scrambled to his feet, went to work on the girl'sbonds.Meanwhile Shirl, to whom the glow from the brazier affordedadequate illumination, must have made her way to the table with theknives.There was no more buzzing of misaimed stunguns.There wereshouts, screams.Somebody was yelling, "Lights! Lights!"Darleen was released.Without a word she ran to join Shirl.Perhaps therewere now no knives left to throw but there were still the hot irons and, inthe arena she had preferred a club to throwing weapons.But where was the rack? Where was Fenella Pruin? It was still too dark foranybody with normal eyesight to find his way around in the theatre and hehad now lost all sense of direction. "Fenella!" he shouted."Here!" Then, "Get a bloody move on!" she cried.He stumbled in the direction from which her voice had come.He found therack the hard way, crashing into it, falling full length on to her nude body.She snapped irritably, "I want you to cut me loose, not make love to me!"This time he had dropped the knife.He slid off her, down to the floor.Hescrabbled around under the rack, to both sides of it.Then there was a briefflare of actinic light as one of Shirl's missiles hit some piece of electricalequipment, shorting it out.He saw the gleam of metal close by his gropinghand.Just in time he was able to stop himself from picking it up by theblade.As he cut through Fenella's bonds he realised that the theatre was nowvery quiet.All of the audience must either have escaped or been killed.(Hedid not think that they could have put up much of a fight.) Fenella pulledherself to her feet by holding on to his shoulders.She asked, "What now?"It was a good question, too good.He said, after hesitation, "I kill you.Then the other two girls.Then myself.""What!""Do you think that they will give us an easy death after all this?""So you want to die? I don't."And neither did he, thought Grimes.But what chance of survival was there?Yet the theatre should have been swarming with armed guards by now.Itwas not.Surely the show in which he, Fenella, Shirl and Darleen were thestars must have been monitored.Perhaps the monitoring was only arecording, with nobody watching it live.Perhaps the survivors of themassacre were still trying to find their way through the maze of tunnels andhad not yet met anybody to whom to report that the actor and actresseshad strayed from the script."Shirl! Darleen!" he called.They came to him, their bodies palely luminous in the near-darkness."Some escaped," said Shirl."We didn't get them all.""We have to escape ourselves.Find women about your build among thecorpses.Strip them.Completely.Get dressed.And you, Fenella."He found the body of a man.A thrown knife had penetrated his brainthrough his left eye, so there was not much blood.Grimes, hating the feelof the dead flesh, removed the shirt, the kilt, the underwear.At this latterhe wrinkled his nose in disgust.He dressed in the shirt and kilt, found thatthe dead man's shoes fitted his feet. Not far from him Fenella Pruin had taken the long dress off a tall, slimwoman who no longer needed it, had put it on.She looked at him and said,"Let's go.""Underwear," Grimes told her."But I can't wear that.She.""People usually do when they die.Take those panties off her and hide themunder a seat.When the guards get here they'll find, among the otherbodies, four completely naked ones.They'll think-for a short while-thatthey're us.I hope.Ready, all of you?""Ready!" said Shirl and Darleen."All right.Let's get out of here."He led the way along an aisle.All the EXIT lights were out, of course, butsurely an egress would not be hard to find.They passed through anopaquely panelled revolving door into a corridor that was, by comparisonwith the darkness of the theatre, brightly lit.At the far end of this was a large group of men, running towards them.Twenty-oneSo the guards were on the way at last.How much did they know? Would itbe possible, Grimes wondered, to bluff his way past them?"Leave this to me." whispered Fenella Pruin.She ran towards the advancing party of armed men, staggering a little.(Herrequisitioned sandals, Grimes learned later, were a size too small [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]