With a shock, I realized what must have happened. Livi had cracked the enemy code to the THOR projectiles. At least, I hoped she had. Did those three target us? Or were they targeting the planes?

  Slipping on the special glasses, I looked through the windshield.

  There was hasty activity over there. Some soldiers ran to what looked like missile defense systems. Others ran up and boarded a plane. One C-130 started to maneuver for the giant runway.

  “Good luck with that,” Livi said, manipulating more. “Oh no, you don’t.”

  On her screen, in a corner, the rest of bundles blew apart. I’m not saying that the iron crowbars blew apart. I’m saying the Styrofoam-coated projectiles blasted apart and drifted away from each other.

  Had the Krekelens planned to use those to attack us? If so, Livi had just forestalled that.

  The three I assumed were under Livi’s control headed down. They were coming, I surmised, for the planes, bulldozers and soldiers.

  I rubbed my face. “This is actually happening, right?” I asked. “This isn’t an Antarctic delirium?”

  Livi grinned savagely at me. “Jake, we’d better get outside and lie on the ground. I don’t know what’s going to happen when the crowbars hit.”

  She didn’t need to tell me twice. I threw open the door and made sure Livi came with me. We ran from our parked vehicle until we found a crevasse and lay in it. It was cold, darn cold.

  Then we waited.

  “How long now?” I asked.

  She looked at her slate. “Less than a minute.”

  I imagined those guys in their airplane trying to taxi away. I heard a distant roar, a whoosh. Were those anti-rockets firing? Then what sounded like massive anti-air guns were going off: boom, boom, boom, boom.

  I raised my head and saw puffs in the sky. Then I saw fiery bolts coming down. This wasn’t twin THOR projectiles, but triplets. They roared through the atmosphere.

  Missiles rose to meet them, exploding, no doubt attempting to put shrapnel in their path.

  Did the enemy knock down a THOR projectile?

  I had no idea.

  What I did know was that I pressed my face against the ice and put an arm over Livi. Detonation sounded as rumbles shook the ice around us.

  I knew then a THOR projectile had struck.

  Was it time to raise my head? No. I clung to the ice and waited.

  Another tremor struck, meaning a second THOR projectile must have hit.

  I waited for the third to obliterate whatever remained of the enemy. It never did. I think their countermeasure had stopped one.

  Livi and I dared to raise our heads a second time. In the distance where the planes had been was raging fire. There was no big cargo plane in the sky. I had to assume it hadn’t made it, but it had been obliterated in the destruction by the THOR projectiles.

  “Live by the sword and die by the sword,” I said.

  Livi stared at me.

  I laughed. “So these bastards, these Krekelen know-it-alls, they thought they were going to use THOR projectiles against us? Livi, you’re the greatest.”

  I kissed her on the lips. Those were sweet if cold lips.

  We climbed up out of our crevice and trudged toward our 206. It was still intact. The orange glow on the horizon…it was time to see if the enemy had any survivors.

  -7-

  There were no survivors.

  By the time we reached the area, the fires had burned down and there were twisted, crisped corpses in the snow. Some were burned down to the skeleton. There were skeletons of airplanes, bulldozers and Antarctic huts. The THOR projectiles had flattened everything.

  “Man,” I said, “I don’t know if we’re going to be able to find the entrance into the subterranean realm.”

  “I think we will,” Livi said, “and I think we’d better.”

  “Oh yeah? Why’s that?”

  She showed me her slate. There were more cargo planes headed our way. Hercules, it looked like, the big C-130s. They would probably have Krekelen-trained troops aboard. At this point, it didn’t matter who they had. They were coming for us.

  “All right,” I said, “let’s find the entrance.”

  For the next hour, we searched…fruitlessly.

  “How much closer are the planes?”

  “A half hour to us,” Livi said.

  “Are there any jetpack ski teams?”

  “I haven’t seen any sign of them.”

  I nodded. It was cold. I was hungry. We’d destroyed— “Wait a minute. That thing over there.”

  I went there, taking a power shovel I’d found with me. Using it, I soon uncovered an entrance. It went down far, was icy blue and then dark. The angle was much steeper than I cared for.

  I threw away the power shovel. “What do you say, Livi? Do we go down?”

  She turned and pointed into the air.

  I looked. Far, far away were dots. I put on the special glasses. Three cargo planes were coming. They had the markings of the Chilean Air Force. Who knew what that meant? It could be Chilean National Soldiers. It could be Krekelens. It could be our own Terrans who would be angry with us. Maybe Qiang had gotten to them. I didn’t know. All I knew was…Earth had become even more dangerous for me than the last time I left.

  McPherson, McPherson, I thought to myself. You were a nut before and now you’re really a nut.

  I turned to Livi. “I’m going down.”

  “I’ll join you.”

  I nodded and slid in feet first. I must have slid a hundred feet before I came to a hard jolting stop against ice. I twisted around and saw Livi sliding down. She was coming fast. I judged her descent and caught her, helping her to her feet. Then we started through the tunnels.

  We’d reached it. We were back in the subterranean realm, not in the old part because these weren’t granite walls. These were ice walls bored out long ago. In places were big cracks and in others were icy chunks in the way. We turned on our flashlights and continued to head through the gloomy, cold area.

  “There’s no turning back now,” I said.

  “There never was. Let’s hurry.”

  We clasped gloved hands, surging through the tunnel.

  There were junctions. I took what I thought was the right way. In time, I realized I was lost and had no idea how to reach the granite tunnels.

  Soon, I heard echoes. So did Livi. I looked at her.

  “Speech,” she said. “We’re hearing people or Krekelens talking in the tunnels.”

  Perhaps ten minutes later were loud thuds.

  “Are those grenades?” I asked. “Are they fighting among themselves?

  “We’ve got to get out of here, Jake.”

  “What does your slate tell you?”

  “Nothing,” Livi said. “They’re jamming it. We have to get to the obelisk and leave Earth as fast as we can.”

  We started to run, found another junction, took a way and soon starting going down at a slant.

  Livi’s flashlight quit.

  Only mine gave us light.

  We began to pant and then left the ice tunnel as we entered a granite one. That meant we’d reached the ancient subterranean site.

  My mind churned as it always did reaching here. When had the complex been built? Had those of ancient Mu made this? Had someone else? I had no idea.

  We’d been walking for a time but started running again, as we heard pursuit behind us. They were hot on our trail.

  I heard something new. It wasn’t barking dogs. It was some other savage beast, maybe a cross between a great feline and a wolf, a dire wolf from ancient times.

  “What is that?” I panted.

  “An experimental animal, I think,” Livi said. “Or something from another world.”

  “You mean the Krekelens are bringing reinforcements from elsewhere?”

  “I don’t know what’s going on. Let’s keep going.”

  Livi was tired. I was tired. We crammed sandwiches into our faces as we ran. We drank water and took stimulants. That revived us as we continued down into the labyrinth.

  Inspiration struck. I turned off my flashlight.

  “What are you doing, Jake?”

  “Trust me,” I said.

  We kept our hands clasped as I felt with my other hand ahead of me into the darkness.

  I heard the rumble of an opening stone door. Then it closed behind us.

  I had to do this blindly. That way, the ancient AI entity that ran the obelisk guided me. It didn’t want us to know the exact way to it. Maybe it was protecting us from pursuers. Maybe it had its own ancient programming.

  I wondered for a moment if it had fiddled or interfered with what was going on. Perhaps that was why the greater caravan hadn’t made it here. It didn’t want us to clear out the subterranean realm. Perhaps it was trying to hide things, or there were more devious…problems about which I had no idea.

  We staggered and stumbled. We heard distant, strange cries.

  A premonition struck me. I turned on the flashlight and saw the strange cave paintings I’d seen originally. They showed flying saucers, spear-armed warriors riding great woolly mammoths. There were others firing lasers at them.

  Awe swept over me.

  I was back in some primordial place. What did this all mean to the reality of human civilization? Did we indeed invent these things ourselves? It seemed not. It seemed that this was…we were part of a grand alliance. How many other worlds had humans? Were those on Vega Homo sapiens like us?

  Then, in the distance around rock, I saw a red glow. I knew that was the pyramidion, what topped the obelisk. The glow led the way.

  “I’m sorry, Bayard. I’ve been thinking hard. This is for the best.”

  “What?” I turned toward Livi.

  A Vegan hypo touched my neck. I heard a hiss and felt coolness against my neck.

  Livi let go of my hand and ran.

  “What’s going on?” Unaccountably, I became sluggish. Then I slumped to the stony ground. She’d drugged me.

  “Livi, why did you do this?”

  She didn’t answer. She was gone.

  I panted on the stony floor and found anger surging through me. She wasn’t going to get away with this. I muttered, coughed and shouted. Slowly, I struggled up to my feet, swaying back and forth.

  I heard weeping ahead. Was Livi crying? Why had she done this then?

  “Come back,” I shouted. “I want to go to Vega with you.”

  She’d grabbed my flashlight and had switched it on. The light sped toward the red glow. In a moment, the light disappeared around a corner.

  It was so hard to think coherently. Had Livi been behind all this? No, that didn’t make sense. Besides, if she drugged me, she could have given me enough to knock me out totally. Instead, I had some coherence.

  Therefore, a step at a time, like a drunken fool, I lurched toward the obelisk and the pyramidion that topped it.

  There was a flash from ahead.

  I knew that Livi had left. Had she Traveled to Vega? Or had she gone elsewhere? Why had she abandoned me? It made no sense whatsoever. We were lovers. We—

  “Livi!” I called out.

  Only the echo of my shout answered me.

  I kept stumbling ahead even as I heard faint booms from behind.

  Had the Krekelens, or whoever, broken through to this part of the subterranean complex?

  I rounded the stony bend and spied the subterranean obelisk in all its glory ahead.

  The red top glowed. The rest looked like the obelisk in Washington D.C.

  I staggered nearer.

  “Obelisk,” I said, “What happened?”

  There was silence. I didn’t hear any words in my mind.

  “Send me to Vega,” I said.

  You wish to Travel?” I heard in my mind.

  “Yes, yes, to Vega, to Vega. Send me to Vega.”

  You wish to Travel? It asked a second time.

  “What’s wrong with you? Did Livi put a computer virus into you?”

  You are Jake Bayard the Traveler?

  “Yeah, you know me. We’re allies. We’re partners. Send me away.”

  A red beam flashed from the pyramidion. It struck me. Immediately, I felt myself beginning to elongate.

  I faded as I stretched up from the subterranean realm, up through the atmosphere and beyond Earth. I stretched farther.

  “Am I going to Vega?”

  The pyramidion answered in my mind. No, that way is barred. I cannot send you there now. Livi has deactivated her path, sending you elsewhere.

  “Where am I going?”

  To icy Garm.

  After that, I stretched impossibly far and remembered no more.

  -8-

  I felt myself returning to consciousness as a red hue filled my vision. Something was wrong, though.

  I—oh, I remembered. I’d seen a flash of a winter wonderland: snow, ice, mountains. Was that a recollection of Antarctica that I’d just left? Or was this what the pyramidion had told me? I’d seen icy Garm, as I teleported in? Did the inhabitants here call the planet Garm or something else?

  I’d heard the word Garm before, but couldn’t place it at the moment. So, I didn’t dwell on it.

  Red filled my vision. I believed I was reforming, finding myself on a cold block of stone. Yes, yes, above, red mist dissipated as it had the other times I’d Traveled like this.

  Soon, the red mist was gone and I lay in darkness upon a stone shelf. I felt around me, touching more cold stone, granite, perhaps.

  Carefully, slowly, so I wouldn’t bump against anything too hard, particularly my head, I rolled off the shelf. Gingerly, I stood, lightly bumping my head against a low ceiling. Reaching out, I found the cell was larger than the stone shelf, but only by a little.

  By stooping, I didn’t hit my head against the ceiling. I wouldn’t want to stay in here long, though.

  I went to each granite wall and pushed, seeing if it could move it. Nothing gave. Did that mean I was trapped in here?

  Panic threatened from the idea. By force of will, I subdued the panic.

  It was cold in here. I made sure to keep my mouth shut and use my nostrils’ cavities to warm the air before I let it head for my lungs.

  I listened, holding my breath. I didn’t hear any sonic booms. I didn’t recall hearing any earlier, either. The other times I’d appeared on a different planet using this method of transportation, there had been great and deafening booms.

  Why was it different this time?

  Again, I felt around in the darkness and sat against the shelf of stone. I brought my knees up, wrapping my arms around them. It was time to take stock. My parka and gloves would keep me warm enough for a time. I’d soon die of dehydration if I couldn’t escape the small chamber.

  As had happened at other times, I realized that I felt refreshed, stronger than when I’d let the obelisk teleport me from subterranean Antarctica.

  I frowned in the darkness.

  What had happened there at the end? Livi had turned against me. She’d used a hypo. I didn’t recall her picking one up. Had she planned to betray me the entire time?

  I found that hard to believe. We’d had a great time together. What had changed then? When had she decided to turn traitor?

  I mulled that over until my eyebrows rose. I should have seen it sooner. Krekelens had given chase. Surely, a psi-master or two had been with them. The psi-masters might have reached out with their mental power and manipulated Livi’s thoughts. The psi-masters had gotten her to use the hypo on me. She’d resisted, though. I knew because Livi hadn’t given me the full dose. That had allowed me enough consciousness to reach the obelisk. And that had been critical.

  If I was correct about this, the psi-masters had given the command because the Krekelens desperately wanted to capture me. Perhaps I was Enemy Number One to them. If Livi had given the full dose, the Krekelens would have scooped me up in Antarctica.

  I grinned bitterly. I sure hoped the Krekelens hated me and fumed about my getting away. If I was right about this, the bastards had taken my woman from me. Would I ever see Livi again?

  A terrible pang of loneliness filled me at the idea. I longed to hold Livi, to kiss her, to talk to her. I hadn’t realized how much I loved her until the psi-masters had snatched her from me.

  This, at least, was my working theory. It was much better than believing that Livi had betrayed me of her own free will.

  I swallowed a lump down my throat.

  Maybe it was time to figure out how to break out of this small stone cell. No doubt, I was atop a ziggurat on an alien planet. Dying in here would be a poor bargain.

  What planet was this?

  I recalled what the pyramidion had told me.

  “Garm,” I said aloud.

  The instant I said that, a section of wall began to move back. That was interesting and different from my previous experiences.

  Light flooded the cell, a bright and blinding light because I’d been in pitch darkness. Freezing cold also rushed in.

  I zipped up my coat, put my hood up and pulled the strings tight. Afterward, I rose and staggered out of the stone cell and onto a—

  I looked around.

  This was a snowy ziggurat: the same shape and size like those I’d seen before. The wind howled around me as snow pelted my face.

  I debated retreating into the small stone housing. What if it sealed me within and never opened again? What if the word Garm failed to do the same trick twice?

  I’d die sealed in a stone tomb is what.

  So I remained where I was and looked around. High in the sky was a bright disk, a sun, a star, cloaked by clouds and snow flurries. I squinted, keeping my eyes narrowed against the whipping sleet.

  I didn’t think it was snowing, as it wasn’t coming down. It was just so windy that it stirred the loose snow and icy particles.

  There was a jagged range of mountains that moved away at a right angle from me. I looked at the other side and there was the same thing. I realized this was the top or start of a valley between the two jagged lines of mountains.

  I shaded my face from the sleet. It seemed as if I spied bits of greenery in the valley and possibly a lake. Perhaps the mountains shielded the place from the worst winter weather.