“Bobby?” she said. “If you get the chance, tell Nevva that I hope we can speak again someday. I want her to understand why I did the things I did.”
“I will,” I assured her. “Good-bye, Elli.”
I had to pull myself away from the door. It killed me to leave her behind, even though I knew she’d be okay. She could always return to Solara. My heart ached for her. I put her through torture by bringing her to see Nevva. All it did was cause her pain. There are a lot of things I would have done differently if I’d had another chance. Add that one to the list.
But I couldn’t look back. Not just then, anyway. By using the spirit of Solara to get out of that cell, I’d given myself the chance to do something positive. I didn’t want to waste it. It was time to get moving. It was time to find Mark. I started to run and nearly tripped over the dead dado. Seeing the inanimate thing gave me an idea. I dragged the broken device down the corridor until I found another empty room that was much like the one where Elli and I had been kept prisoner. I pulled the dado inside, and took off its clothes.
I was going to become a dado. Or at least try to look like one. Since I had no idea where I would have to go to find Mark, I figured that blending in would be a good thing. I had been wearing my Second Earth clothes for a while now.
Not only were they pretty gamey, I was afraid that I looked more like one of the roughed-up rebels who lived outside the conclave than a clean and tidy Ravinian. Hopefully, I thought, by wearing the red uniform of a Ravinian guard, I might not draw curious looks. It was risky, but I hoped it might give me a slight advantage.
The dado was more or less my size, though a little smaller around the chest and shoulders, which made his uniform fit pretty snug. I felt like I could easily bust out of it, Incredible Hulk-style. I’d have to be careful. I kept my own boxers on. Socks too. The one’s I’d been wearing belonged to Courtney’s dad. There were some things I wasn’t willing to part with. Best of all, the boots fit almost perfectly. From the neck down I figured I looked the part. The problem was from the neck up. My hair was well over my ears and my beard stubble was dark-definitely undado like. All I could do was push my hair behind my ears and pull the red Ravinian guard cap down low. It would have to do. I didn’t bother putting my own clothes on the dead dado. It wasn’t like he was going to get a chill. I pulled the machine behind the open door and tossed my clothes on top of it. If anybody glanced in from the corridor, they wouldn’t see it. If they stepped inside, well, alarms would go off. Nothing I could do about that. The last thing I did was pick up the long silver weapon.
I was ready. I stepped out into the corridor, not knowing which way to go. It stretched out to both sides, with many doors along the way. If I’d had a coin, I’d have tossed it. I chose to go right and jogged down the long, tile-covered hallway. I had absolutely no plan. How could I? I didn’t know where I was or where they might have taken Mark. The best I could do was walk around, pretending to be on guard patrol. Or whatever it was the dados did. I decided that the best place to begin my search would be the Taj Mahal. That’s where Saint Dane and Nevva hung out. Chances were good that was where they would take Mark.
At the end of the corridor were stairs leading up. I took two at a time, winding around, climbing higher to the next floor. The stairs brought me to a wide-open area that I recognized. I suppose the tile work down below should have given it away, but I hadn’t made the connection. I wasn’t going to have to go far to get to the Taj Mahal. I was already in it. We had been in Saint Dane’s basement all along. I glanced around, wondering where I should begin my search, when I registered an odd sound. I thought I’d heard it earlier, but it was so faint that it hadn’t registered. Now that I had climbed out of the dungeon, it was louder. I guess you could call it a “tone.” Three tones actually. Like notes. They played over and over again. The same three notes. I couldn’t tell where they were coming from, but it definitely wasn’t from inside the Taj Mahal. It was like nothing I’d heard during the time I’d spent inside the conclave, so I figured it was worth investigating.
I worked my way through the tall pillars, looking for a way out of the building. The closer I got to the doorway, the louder the tones became. There was definitely something happening outside. I found a set of double wooden doors and pushed my way out into the bright sun. Instantly the three tones grew loud. Really loud. They weren’t annoying, but you couldn’t miss them. They didn’t sound urgent, like a fire warning or anything. It reminded me of the tones they used to play at Stony Brook Junior High to announce that it was time for classes to pass. There was no question these tones had a purpose, and I wanted to know what it was.
I made my way across the wide, marble expanse that led to the edge of the giant pedestal-like base that the Taj Mahal sat on. Now that I was outside, I saw that other people were around. If I didn’t want to draw attention, I was going to have to act like a dado. I’d seen thousands of them, but never really studied how they behaved… other than when they were trying to beat my head in, that is. They didn’t walk like robots or anything, but their movements were precise. And they had good posture. Why not? They were robots. You don’t program a slouch into a robot. So I stood up tall, lifted my chin, and tried to walk perfectly. It was actually easier than I thought. Just being self-conscious about walking makes you a little stiff. My biggest challenge was to not forget that I had to be walking that way.
I gripped the long weapon. There was a small red button in the handle that I figured was the on-off switch. I took a chance, hit it, and felt the wand hum. I hit the button again and it stopped. I decided to leave it off. I didn’t want to accidentally brush it against my leg and vaporize myself like an idiot. I thought back to when I had seen the dados walking around and remembered that they held the weapons down at their sides. That’s what I did. In all, I thought I was going to pull it off. So long as nobody noticed my hair or beard, I’d be cool.
The tones continued. As I marched closer to the edge of the foundation, I sensed something else. Another unique sound. I reached the perimeter and looked down onto the gardens that surrounded the Taj Mahal to see that the sound was coming from a large crowd of people who were slowly moving toward the front of the building. There had to be hundreds of them. They weren’t in a hurry, but I sensed excitement. Little kids sprinted through the crowd, as if they couldn’t wait to get where they were going. These weren’t dados. They were the Ravinians who lived in this conclave. I saw all types. All ages. All races. These were the chosen of Third Earth. The tones now made sense. It was a signal. Or a notice of some kind. When the tones sounded, people came. I wondered if this was a normal thing, or something special.
I made my way forward in the direction the crowd was moving. As I walked, I joined more people who were on the same level with me, all moving in the same direction as those below. There were dados mixed into the crowd who looked to be scanning for trouble. I didn’t want to be spotted, so I did the same, though I guarantee we were looking for different kinds of trouble. I did my best to stay away from them. I didn’t want to be recognized. Or not recognized. Invisible was good. As I walked closer to the front of the Taj Mahal, it became easier to blend in because the crowd grew dense.
When I reached the front of the building, I realized that this was everyone’s destination. Thousands of people crowded around the long reflecting pool that stretched out in front of the Taj Mahal. It was a staggering sight. Behind me loomed the massive onion-shaped dome. In front of me were thousands of people looking toward the building. I no longer felt in danger of being discovered. I was one in thousands. I meant nothing. This was a spectacle. Nobody was going to notice one dado who needed a shave.