As it got close to midnight the Free Runner began to get nervous. He kept eating chocolate bars and his head jerked around whenever he heard a noise.
“Do they know I’m coming?”
“No,” Hollis said.
“Why not?”
“There’s no reason to be frightened. Just tell them what you told me.”
“I’m not frightened.” Jugger stood up straight and sucked in his stomach. “I just don’t like that Irishwoman. She’d kill you if you coughed on her.”
The dead-bolt lock clicked softly, then Linden and Mother Blessing were in the shop. Neither Harlequin seemed pleased to see Jugger. Instinctively, Mother Blessing crossed the room and guarded the entrance to the hidden apartment where Gabriel’s body lay in the darkness.
“It appears that you have a new friend in London, Mr. Wilson. But I don’t recall making the introduction,” Mother Blessing said.
“Maya saved Jugger and his friends when she came back to London. She told me where they were hiding. As you know, Gabriel gave a speech to the Free Runners. He asked them to find out what the Tabula were planning.”
“And that’s why those men tried to kill us,” Jugger said. “I guess people talked too much on their mobiles or sent some gossip through the Internet. But we got some crucial information before they burned down the house.”
Mother Blessing looked skeptical. “I doubt that someone like you knows anything crucial.”
“The Tabula have a public face called the Evergreen Foundation,” Jugger said. “They do genetic research and bring foreign policemen here to England so they can learn how to track people on the Internet.”
“We know all about the Young World Leaders Program,” Mother Blessing said. “It’s been going on for several years.”
Jugger stepped between a zebra-skin drum and a wooden statue of a rain god. “Our friends in Berlin say that the Evergreen Foundation has been testing a beta version of a computer program called Shadow. They use data from RFID chips and surveillance cameras to track every person in the city. If it works in Berlin, they’re going to roll it out to all of Germany and then the rest of Europe.”
Linden glanced at Mother Blessing. “Berlin is a good location for them. That’s where they currently have their computer center.”
“And we know where the center is,” Jugger said. “A Free Runner named Tristan found the building. It’s in an area that used to be the dead zone for the Berlin Wall.”
“That’s all we need to know at this point. Thanks for coming tonight, Jugger.” Hollis opened the entrance door to the shop. “I’ll be in touch with you.”
“You know where to find me.” Jugger sauntered over to the doorway. “There’s just one thing I want to know-is Gabriel all right?”
“No need to worry,” Linden said. “He’s being protected.”
“I don’t doubt that. Just be aware that the Free Runners are still talking about him. He made us feel that there was a little bit of hope.”
Jugger left the shop and the three of them were alone together. Mother Blessing shifted her sword case and crossed the room. “He might tell his friends about this place. That means we have to move the Traveler.”
“Is that all you’re going to say?” Hollis asked. “Aren’t we going to do anything about his information?”
“What happens in Berlin is not our concern.”
“If the Shadow Program works, every government in the world is going to end up using it.”
“The technology is inevitable,” Mother Blessing said.
Hollis concentrated on the silver locket hanging from his neck and an ice-cold anger changed the tone of his voice. “You can think whatever you want-run around the world with your goddamn sword-but I’m not going to let the Tabula win.”
“I want obedience from you, Mr. Wilson. Not initiative. Blind obedience and mindless bravery.”
“Is that why you brought me to see Vicki’s body?” Hollis asked. “You wanted to turn me into a perfect little soldier?”
Mother Blessing smiled coldly. “I guess it didn’t work.”
“I want to destroy the people who killed Vicki. But I’ve got my own way of doing things.”
“You don’t know the history of the Tabula and the Harlequins. This conflict has been going on for thousands of years.”
“And look what’s happened. You Harlequins are so wrapped up in the past-all your little traditions-that you’ve lost the war.”
Linden sat down on a bench. “I don’t think we’re entirely defeated. But we are at a turning point. It’s time we did something.”
Mother Blessing spun around and faced the other Harlequin. Although her face was a rigid mask, her dark green eyes were intense and focused. “So now you’re on Mr. Wilson’s side?”
“I’m not on anyone’s side, but it’s time to face the enemy. The Tabula don’t fear us anymore, madam. We’ve been hiding for a long time.”
Mother Blessing touched her sword case as she moved around the cluttered room. Hollis felt as if she wanted to kill someone just to prove that she was alive. “Do you have a proposal?” she asked Hollis.
“I want to travel to Berlin, contact the Free Runners there, and destroy the Shadow Program.”
“And you’re going to do this alone?”
“Looks that way.”
“You’ll fail completely-unless a Harlequin is with you. Any successful plan will require my participation.”
“And what if I don’t want you to come along?” Hollis asked.
“You don’t have a choice, Mr. Wilson. What you’re telling us is that you want to be an ally, not a mercenary. All right, I’ll accept that change of status. But even allies require supervision.”
Hollis let a few seconds pass, and then he nodded his head. Mother Blessing relaxed slightly and smiled at Linden. “I can’t imagine why Mr. Wilson wouldn’t want to go to Berlin with me. I’m just a pleasant middle-aged Irishwoman…”
“Oui, madame. Une femme Irlandaise… with a very sharp sword.”
37
At random intervals, the man with the blond braids and the black man wearing the white lab coat would remove Gabriel from his cell and drag him downstairs to the school gymnasium. The long, narrow room still had bleachers on one side and a wooden floor with red stripes painted on the edge. Instead of basketball and badminton, the room was used for the torture of prisoners.
There were no new forms of torture in hell. All of the techniques used to inflict pain, fear, and humiliation had already been used in Gabriel’s world. At some earlier time, the wolves had learned about the four barriers that separated their own realm from the others; their particular system of torture corresponded to the barriers of air, fire, water, and earth.
For the interrogation inspired by air, Gabriel’s wrists were tied to a rope and his arms twisted behind his back. The rope was attached to a basketball hoop; then he was pulled upward so that he was dangling a few inches off the ground. “Are you flying?” the men asked. “Why don’t you fly a little more.” Then someone would push him, and Gabriel would swing back and forth while his arms were almost pulled from their sockets.
For fire, metal rods were heated up in a gas flare and then pressed against his skin. For water, his head was pushed deep into a tub of water and released only when he had sucked water into his lungs.
The “earth” interrogation was particularly frightening. One day, he was blindfolded and dragged out of his cell to a patch of dirt behind the school. Someone had placed a straight-backed chair at the bottom of a deep pit in the ground. Gabriel was strapped to the chair and then-slowly-his interrogators began to bury him alive.
The cold dirt surrounded his feet first, and then moved up past his legs, waist, and chest. Occasionally, the two wolves stopped and asked the same questions: Where is the passageway? How do we find it? Who knows a way out of this place? Finally the dirt reached Gabriel’s face. He was completely covered, each breath drawing dirt into his nostrils, before the two men dug him out.