“And probably have the explosives to do just that,” Wayne said. “Get back over there and keep us posted.”
Mickey glared at Wayne, but jogged back, bouncing as he went.
“What’s happening here?” Scotty said.
Even under the circumstances, Wayne’s smile was blissful. “Man’s oldest dream.”
Ali lay down in the frame again, and Scotty tied a vine rope to his left ankle. Ali worked the pedals and then his hand controls a few times. Squeak, squeak… When he wiggled, they did as well.
“Well,” Scotty said, kneeling down beside him. “Some game, huh?”
Ali tried to smile. “I’m afraid you did not know what you were signing up for.”
“I never do. Did any of us?” Scotty squeezed his shoulder. “You want to be a hero, kid? This is your chance. Probably the best you’ll ever have.”
Ali nodded. At that moment, the boy looked so young and vulnerable Scotty’s heart ached.
“This is your moment, then. Take it.” They shook hands. “See you on the other side,” Scotty said.
The women hoisted the contraption onto their shoulders, and braced. Angelique counted to three, and they sprinted down the slope, Sharmela’s short legs taking three steps to every two of Angelique’s, carrying Ali high… and then the winged craft was aloft.
Kendra spoke without turning from the screen. “Horses?”
“Horses. They’re in there, too,” Xavier said, and silently dared her to speak.
She didn’t.
“Terrance Ivanovich Ladd,” Xavier said. “Every book a bestseller.”
“Sorry, I was watching the gamers,” Kendra said. “Ali is about to fly. What about Ladd? I read his books, of course.”
“Of course. Twenty years ago, he was the most celebrated English-language writer in the world. He wanted into my world. He wanted to write the Moon Maze Game with me. I’d have given up my smaller testicle, which is the right one. He was in love with an artist, January Prince. I couldn’t contact this January Prince. Reclusive. Nobody’s ever seen him, or her. I based my Moon folk on his sketches just to get Ladd.”
“Prince, hmm?”
“I am such a fucking idiot,” Xavier said. “I’d heard about Ladd’s money problems, but never thought someone might be able to buy him. I just didn’t think.”
“He’s launched!” Wu Lin called. “The Prince has launched!”
Ali was flying. On the Moon. For a moment, all thoughts of threat and risk were simply… gone. He soared and swooped between the stalactites, lips stretched in an endless grin, eyes bright with joy.
Below him, the lava boiled. A stench of sulfur clogged his nose. One chance to do this. Get it right. As he left the edge the flying machine hit a thermal, jumped up a hair, and he had to correct, skewing sideways. Ali pumped his feet madly, working his arms to stabilize again.
A moment of panic, and then he flexed his arms hard to regain control.
Flying. By all his ancestors, he was flying! He stretched his arms out, extending the wings, and embraced the wind. Then…
No! He had misjudged the distance. His left wing tip brushed a stalactite. The stalactite sprayed fragments, more like cork than rock. The flying machine skewed sideways, stabilizing just too late to make a safe landing. He crashed onto the edge of the far cliff, and teetered, beginning to slide back into the abyss. Ali clawed his way free, clinging as he slid down. The line tied to his left ankle flagged behind.
He didn’t know what was real, and what was not. Whether the lava below him was mere effect, or actual boiling rock. Whether the stench of sulfur in his nose was genuine or fantastic. Nor did he think of cameras that might be streaming his struggle to Earth and beyond. All he knew was that he would not fall, would not tumble down into the glowing crevasse.
Would not.
A foot at a time, he clawed his way up. Gasping and panting, he found hand holds, pulled himself to safety even as the flying machine tumbled down and out of sight. And when he was secure, Ali rolled onto his back, face split by an absurdly silly grin. He had never imagined that air could smell so sweet. On the other side of the canyon, the gamers howled in joy.
Ali forced himself up and began to search, finally finding an anchor point for the rope vine. It wasn’t hard. One of the stalagmites was tinged slightly silver, just enough to catch his attention. It was concrete, and anchored into rock. Strong enough. He fastened it, chanting his mnemonic to himself. “ Right over left, left over right, makes a reef knot both tidy and tight. ” His hands were shaking so hard that he tucked them into his armpits to calm them.
Tested the line again, and was satisfied. He walked back to the edge of the chasm, and waved.
“Well, all right!” Scotty said.
Wayne rigged a safety line around his waist, attached the loop to the rope, and grinned at Darla. “Give us a kiss, love.”
She did so, pressing her hips against him as she did. Then Wayne winked at Angelique, jumped up and began to climb hand-over-hand across the divide.
Angelique smiled wanly, and the shorter, rounder woman winked at her.
Mickey came running up, wide-eyed. “Scotty. I heard something from the other side. I think the pirates are rattling the door.”
“Not surprising,” Scotty said. “They wouldn’t flounder around forever. This rope is graded for a thousand kilograms. It’ll hold us all at the same time. Get your asses up there.”
Darla jumped up and began to shimmy across. Scotty, Mickey and Maud were last. “All right, beautiful. It’s you and me now,” Scotty said.
Maud shrank away. “I can’t. I just can’t.”
“I’ll go with you. We can do this. I swear.”
“Maud,” Mickey said. “You have to. I won’t leave you here.”
She could not be consoled. “I can’t! I thought I could, but… it’s just too much. There’s just nothing left. I’m tired,” she protested. “Let me stay here. They won’t hurt me.” She paused. “I’m just an old woman.”
“Scotty,” Mickey said. “Thank you for your offer. I think this is something I have to do myself.”
“Are you absolutely sure?” Scotty asked.
“I’m absolutely sure.”
“All right.” Scotty left them to their devices, and stomped on the second machine’s wings. The fabric would not tear, the glue did not give way, but finally the struts themselves bent until the device was useless. “Just in case,” he said.
Scotty jumped up on the line, and began to haul himself across, hand-over-hand, a safety line on the rope. In lunar gravity, it was relatively easy. A moment of panic as his feet slipped on the far edge, and then he was across.
He looked back. Mickey and Maud were fastening themselves onto the line. “I can’t look down!” Maud screamed.
“Then don’t,” Mickey said. Mickey roped himself together with Maud, and a safety line over the top. “Up we go, moppet.”
Maud managed a smile. “Moppet,” she whispered. “You haven’t called me that in years.”
“We’re not done yet, love,” he said, and kissed her. Maud threw her arms around his neck, and he began to hoist them both across. One pull at a time, grunting and groaning with every heroic effort.
Behind them: A sudden chuffing sound, followed by a dull thung as the barricaded door flew open and slammed back into the rock wall.
Maud screamed and lost her grip. Suddenly she dangled from Mickey supported only by her safety rope. He strained to cross as three men and a tall, broad blond woman burst through the door-the pirates arrived.
“Kill them!” Celeste’s severe face distorted with rage.
Lying on his stomach, Scotty aimed back through gusts of lava stench, firing a bolt back across at the pirates. Some ineffective firing back and forth followed as Mickey and Maud struggled to cross the remaining distance.
Screaming, Maud climbed up the rope, holding on to Mickey’s pants, which slid down so that he had to crook his knees to keep her from falling off.