"This one belonged to Jenner. Now, into the tunnels, Ms. McIntyre. I want to make sure you go so far in that you cannot possibly find your way out."
"Don't worry, I'll go into the tunnels without a fuss." She retreated toward the glowing entrance. "But I'm warning you, Fontana will find me."
"No one escapes the catacombs without tuned amber, Ms. McIntyre. You won't be able to find your way out without it, and Fontana won't be able to locate you, because you don't carry amber. You have no use for it."
She edged through the hole in the quartz. Relief, a sensation she had never expected to experience inside the catacombs, made her feel wired and jittery. Either Harlan had not seen the photo that Phil had taken on her wedding day, or else the little creep had failed to notice one very significant detail in the picture.
Feeling much more confident now, she watched him come through the opening. The ultraviolet energy beam came first. She retreated a few steps, keeping as much distance as possible between herself and the dangerous psi ray.
"Start walking, Ms. McIntyre," Harlan said.
She took a step back and then another, trying not to look too eager. After all, as far as Harlan was concerned, he was sending her to a certain death. She did not want to exhibit any actual enthusiasm.
"Go on, go on, move, you stupid woman." Harlan did something to the generator. The beam got stronger and larger. "Think of it as walking the plank."
She retreated more quickly. There was a vaulted tunnel entrance to her right. Spinning on her heel, she turned and dove for it.
"Wait, Where's your ring?" Harlan yelled. "Where's the damn ring you were wearing in that picture on the cover of the Curtain?"
She heard his footsteps pounding down the adjoining corridor.
"Come back here," Harlan screamed.
"Oh, sure, like that's going to happen," she whispered.
She ran harder, clutching her purse with the ring inside like the life preserver it was. The seal ring thai Fontana had given her on their wedding day was set with a large chunk of amber that simply had to be tuned. No self-respecting Guild man would carry the untuned variety. More to the point, no Guild boss would give his wife untuned amber. True, she didn't know how to use it to find her way out of the tunnels, but as long as she held on to it, Fontana would be able to find her.
A dizzying maze of vaulted corridors stretched out before her. She chose one at random and ran flat-out.
She did not want to think about the dangers of illusion traps and stray ghosts. She just kept going. Fleeing into the maze was her only chance.
But when she risked a glance back over her shoulder, she saw the bobbing beam of ultraviolet energy rounding the corner. Harlan was somehow managing to keep track of her. Panic threatened her breathing. It wasn't supposed to work like that down here. Once you lost visual contact, you were lost, period. How was he keeping up with her?
Unwittingly, Harlan answered her question.
"You can't escape me," he shouted, coming toward her with the energy ray. "Jenner made sure that every Guild man was issued one of the new locaters, even those of us who work in the accounting department."
So much for her brilliant plan to lose him. Her only hope now was to keep running. He was older than she was. Maybe he would tire sooner.
Unfortunately, Harlan appeared to be in excellent physical condition. She turned several more corners but always, always, the ultraviolet beam followed a short time later.
She almost missed the faint shadow in the doorway. It was barely perceptible. But it rezzed an alarm somewhere in her brain. What was it Fontana had said? The ambient psi light in the tunnels creates no natural shadows.
She stopped, gasping for air and stared at the doorway. The slight shift in the light could easily have been a trick of her imagination, but her intuition told her otherwise. She was looking at an illusion trap.
There was only one way to lure Harlan into the snare. She hurled her purse, the ring inside, through the entrance into the chamber beyond. She was now without amber. If she lost sight of the purse, she was doomed.
Never taking her eyes off the leather shoulder bag, she stepped back into the opening of a room directly behind her.
She heard Harlan's hard breathing and the soft thud of his shoes. Then the beam of ultraviolet appeared.
"You bitch," Harlan gasped. "You crazy, interfering, stupid bitch of a woman."
He came into view. He had the generator in one hand and a locater in the other. His attention was fixed on the locater's screen. If he looked up and to his right, he would see her standing in the doorway. But if he followed the locater, he would look to the left and see her purse on the floor just inside the chamber.
Harlan looked to the left.
She did not know what he was thinking at that moment, but it was obvious that he was winded and desperate. He was not paying attention to small details like faint shadows where there should not be any. Whatever the case, he was unable to resist the bait.
He went through the chamber doorway, triggering the trap. Sierra did not see anything; the energy released by the illusion snare was invisible to the naked eye. But Harlan stiffened violently as though he had stumbled into a ghost.
She knew that the sound of his horrified scream would follow her into her nightmares for a long time to come. She clamped her hands over her ears and continued to stare hard at her purse.
A few seconds later the high, keening wail of anguish ended abruptly. Harlan fell, unconscious, to the floor.
She waited a few tense seconds and then stepped over him to collect the handbag. She reached inside, took out the black and amber ring, and clutched it tightly in her fingers.
Then she started to shake.
Chapter 44
A SHORT TIME LATER SHE WAS STILL ON HER FEET, WALKING tensely back and forth in front of the chamber, hugging herself and concentrating on her breathing, when Elvis appeared.
He scuttled toward her down the glowing corridor, white cape flying. She heard the faint, familiar whine of a sled engine behind him. The vehicle rounded the corner a few seconds later. Fontana was at the wheel. Ray was in the passenger seat.
"Elvis." She swept him up into her arms and buried her face in his tatty fur. "I thought you guys would never get here."
Fontana brought the sled to a stop, vaulted out, and came toward her with long, swift strides.
"Are you all right?" he demanded.
The harshness of his voice made her smile a little. She understood. This was the way it had been when they had fled into the rain forest, and he had forced himself to remain on his feet until he got her to safety. A successful Guild boss had to know how to clamp a mag-steel lid on his emotions so that he could prioritize.
"Yes." She blinked back the tears of relief that filled her eyes. "I'm fine now that you're here."
"You scared the living ghost light out of me," he said. "Promise me you won't ever do anything like that again."
"Wasn't planning to make a habit of it."
He caught her in his arms and pulled her hard against him. Elvis, squashed between the two of them, squeaked in protest, wriggled free, and scurried up to sit on Sierra's shoulder. Satisfied that all was well, he preened his ruffled fur.
"I was so damned afraid," Fontana said into her hair.
"How did you find Elvis?"
"He found us down here in the tunnels. We were all headed in the same direction. He must have some kind of psychic link with you."
Ray prodded Harlan's body. "What happened to Ostendorf?"
She turned in the circle of Fontana's arm and looked down at Harlan. "I was running from him. He was using a locater to track me. I saw a shadow in a doorway and remembered what Fontana had told me about illusion traps. I had the ring in my purse."