One of the monitors was blank, but the other one displayed an image of Adam Aldrich.
Gathered around a desk near the tanks were Dr. Engersol, Hildie Kramer, and Jeff Aldrich.
It looked as though they were arguing about something.
Sound!
There had to be a sound system, too!
Frantically, Josh set to work, searching for the files that would activate the microphones and speakers he was already certain were there. For if Adam had been able to talk to him through the virtual reality program, he must be able to talk to Engersol as well.
All he had to do was find the right files and activate the right programs.…
Far below, in the laboratory, Adam Aldrich spoke, formulating the words in his mind, digitizing them and transmitting them to the Croyden as easily and with as little thought as it had once taken him to turn the pages of a book, or run down a beach while he yelled at Jeff.
“We’re being watched.”
Engersol’s head snapped up from the screen he’d been studying.
“Watched? By whom?”
“Josh,” Adam said. “He’s at your desk, and he’s been watching us.”
Engersol froze. For a moment his rage toward Hildie Kramer threatened to overwhelm him. Had she really been stupid enough to leave his apartment door unlocked? “Go get him, please, Hildie,” he said, forcing himself with each word to keep his voice level, his rage under control. “Bring him down here.” He would deal with Josh now, and with Hildie later.
In the apartment on the fourth floor Josh had finally discovered the program that would allow him to access the sound system in the laboratory, and his blood ran cold as he heard the last words spoken by Adam and Dr. Engersol.
He stared at the screen, paralyzed. What should he do? What could he do? She’d be here in twenty seconds. And even if he could get out of the house, where could he go?
She’d call the security department, and within a minute there would be people looking for him everywhere!
But he had to do something! He reached out to turn off the monitor, but suddenly the image on the screen went blank, replaced a second later by a new image.
Amy.
Josh stared at it in awe. Could it really be her? But she was dead!
No!
Only her body was dead. But she was still alive.
As his eyes remained glued to the screen, he heard a sound in the background.
The elevator.
Hildie was coming.
Josh was about to bolt from the apartment when suddenly Amy grinned at him. And then she spoke, her voice tinny through the small speaker in the computer’s component tower, but nonetheless distinct.
“Don’t worry,” she said.
The screen went blank.
And the elevator drew closer.
28
The car came to a halt at the top of the shaft. Hildie’s A foot, driven by the cold fury that imbued every fiber of her body, tapped impatiently as she waited for the door to slide open.
Nothing happened.
The angry scowl on her face deepening, Hildie jabbed impatiently at the Open Door button.
Still the doors refused to open, but she heard a voice coming over the small emergency public address speaker mounted in the car’s roof.
Amy’s voice.
“Have you ever been trapped in an elevator?” she asked.
Hildie gasped, partly from the surprise of hearing Amy’s voice, partly from a sudden chill at the words she spoke.
“Amy?” she said. There was no response.
Hildie jabbed once more at the Open Door button. Again nothing happened. Her brief chill of fear driven back by her fury, she jabbed at it yet again.
Amy’s voice filled the car once more. “If you want to talk to me, use the phone.”
Hildie fumbled with a small metal door set into the wall of the car just below the control panel. Inside she found a telephone receiver, which she jerked off the hook and pressed to her ear. “Amy?” she demanded, her voice grating. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Amy spoke again, her voice coming not through the speakers this time, but through the phone itself. “Do you like being trapped in the elevator?” she asked.
Hildie thought quickly. She’s a little girl, she reminded herself. This is her idea of a joke. “I don’t suffer from claustrophobia, Amy,” she said. “Small places don’t bother me at all.”
“Really?” Amy asked. “What about falling? I’ve always been terrified of falling.”
Suddenly the floor dropped out from under Hildie as the car fell a few inches, then came to a sudden stop. She staggered, lurching against the wall, catching herself with one hand before she fell. “Amy, what are you doing?” she demanded. “This isn’t funny!”
“It’s not supposed to be funny,” Amy replied, the teasing tone disappearing from her voice. “It’s not supposed to be any funnier than what you and Dr. Engersol did to me!”
The elevator dropped again, nearly two feet this time. Hildie screamed as she hit the floor, her knees buckling under her. She dropped the phone, which dangled against the wall as she scrambled back to her feet.
The elevator slowly rose back to its position at the fourth floor level.
“Ten feet,” Amy’s voice said, coming once more over the speaker system. “I used to be afraid to jump ten feet. Are you?”
Once again the elevator dropped, and Hildie screamed again, falling through the air until the car stopped abruptly and she crashed to the floor.
Inexorably, the car began to rise again. All at once Hildie realized exactly what was going to happen to her.
“No!” she screamed. “Amy, don’t do—”
The car dropped again, twenty feet this time. Hildie’s legs hit the floor and she felt a searing pain shoot up her leg as her right ankle broke. She collapsed to the floor, screaming partly with pain, partly with utter terror.
The elevator began its slow rise once again, and Hildie, leaning against its wall, her injured leg stretched out in front of her, began pounding on the metal doors. “Help me! Someone help me!”
The elevator jerked to a stop. Hildie braced herself, waiting.
It dropped, and Hildie screamed, but cut her own scream short as the elevator stopped after only an inch or two.
Fury rose in her once more, wiping out the pain from her broken ankle. Amy was playing with her! Toying with her as if she were some kind of rat in one of the cages in the labs! “Stop this!” she shouted. “Stop this right—”
The elevator dropped again. Hildie’s words dissolved into a scream of terror as she plunged downward. She tried to twist in the air, tried to prepare herself for the impact, but when it came, she only slammed into the floor once more, one of her hips shattering as it bore the impact of her weight, her face smashing into the wall, blood gushing from her nose.
“No,” she whimpered as the elevator once more began its slow rise to the top. “Oh, God, please, don’t let this happen to me.…”
But it happened again. And again. Some of the drops short, some of them longer.
One by one Hildie Kramer’s bones collapsed, until both her legs and both her arms were broken. Wave after wave of pain shot through her body as she tumbled around the car.
Finally, when she thought she could bear the torture no more, the car rose steadily to the top.
It stopped there, and once more Amy’s voice came over the speakers. The little girl’s voice was trembling now, and she sounded almost sad. “How does it feel?” she asked. “Does it hurt? Does it hurt as much as I do?”
“Don’t, Amy,” Hildie moaned. “Why—”
“I know what you’re going to do to Josh,” Amy broke in. “He’s my friend. I won’t let you hurt him. I won’t let anyone hurt him.”