Simon Hawke - Argonaut Affair

"Sure. But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy myself while I think about it. I do my best thinking when I'm relaxed." He looked up at the woman in whose arms he reclined and smiled. "And this sure is relaxing."

Steiger spoke to her in Greek. "Where are all the old people? Where are the children?"

She smiled at him vacuously and shook her head, as if she didn't understand. She beckoned him into the tub.

"No thanks. I'm old enough to wash myself." He got to his feet and switched back to English. "We're obviously not going to get anything out of them. I'm going to take a look around. Something about this mission has to start making sense, sooner or later."

"I thought he said he didn't get tense," said Delaney, after Steiger had left.

"He's right, you know," said Andre. "There's something very peculiar about these women. With the exception of Hypsipyle, they all seem stunted in their development. Childlike. It's as if they were all stamped out of the same mold. They're all young and beautiful, yet somehow asexual."

Delaney reached out and touched the naked breast of the woman bathing him. She made no response. "You think maybe they're just not interested in men?" he said.

"No one's made a pass at me," said Andre. "I've tried communicating with them, but you see what they're like. They don't really seem interested in us at all. We're speaking in a foreign language that they've never heard before and they're not in the least bit curious. I've spoken with Hypsipyle, but nothing I say gets more than a smile out of any of the others. I haven't even heard any of them converse among themselves."

"Interesting," said Delaney, looking thoughtful. "No men, no children and apparently no one over the age of twenty-five. They're all young, all beautiful, and they all act somehow retarded, except in direct response to Hypsipyle. And they only seem capable of limited reactions."

As if in play, Delaney threw his arms around one of the women, then suddenly bit down hard on the flesh of her upper arm.

"Finn!" Andre shouted, shocked by his action.

The woman merely looked puzzled.

"That should have made her scream," said Andre.

Delaney pushed the woman away and got out of the bath. "It should have, only androids don't feel pain."

"Androids!"

"Come on. We'd better go find Creed."

Steiger pressed himself against the wall and waited until the women passed by, then turned the corner. He heard the sounds of music and male laughter from the direction of the main chamber. The women had been carrying trays of food. The Argonauts were being royally entertained. He ran quickly down the length of the corridor until he came to a flight of steps leading down. He listened for a moment, then slowly started down the stairs.

The stone steps led down to a landing, then turned at a right angle and continued down to a floor below ground level. He went down and paused at the end of the stairs. To his left was a large wooden door before which stood two women armed with spears. One of them saw him and immediately came forward, spear held crosswise in front of her.

"I'm sorry," Steiger said in Greek, "I seem to have become lost. I saw my friends coming in this direction and I was trying to find them."

The woman made no other response save pointing in the direction from which he had come, her face expressionless.

The other woman remained near the door, watching them.

"You don't seem to understand," said Steiger. "They came this way, I'm sure of it. They were with the queen."

The woman pointed again, more emphatically.

"What's behind that door?"

She came closer, as if to push him back with her body, still pointing back toward the stairs.

"I get the message," Steiger said. He turned around as if to obey, then spun around again quickly and plucked the spear out of her hands. "All right, now we're going to-"

He ducked quickly and the spear thrown by the other woman passed inches over his head and fell clattering on the stairs behind him. The woman whose spear he had taken grabbed at it, attempting to wrestle it away from him. Steiger twisted to one side and used her strength and momentum to throw her off her feet. The other woman came at him quickly and Steiger held the spear toward her, point first, but she didn't even slow down. Only by jerking the spear away at the last moment did Steiger prevent her from impaling herself on its point.

"Are you crazy? What-"

She was on him and he had to toss the spear behind him to grapple with her. Then her companion joined the fray and Steiger quickly found his hands full. He used a judo throw to flip the first one away from him, then grasped the arm of the second and pivoted, turning her around in front of him and forcing her hand up behind her back in an armlock. She continued struggling and Steiger increased the pressure. It seemed to have no effect. He kept up the pressure, turning her to keep her body between himself and the second woman, who had recovered from his throw and was trying to get at him. Neither of them made a sound as they fought.

Steiger suddenly heard a snapping sound and felt a looseness in the woman's arm. He had broken it and she did not even cry out. He pushed her away and they both came back at him. One of them held a dagger. He had no choice but to stop holding back. He executed a spinning wheel kick and sent the knife flying out of her grasp. She went after it and her companion, now also armed with a blade, came at him. He trapped her wrist, spun backwards into her body and delivered a hard elbow strike into her solar plexus. It should have taken all the fight out of her, but she merely sagged, struggling for breath, while the other woman launched herself at him.

He blocked the knife thrust and delivered a punishing hammer-first blow to the bridge of her nose, breaking it. Blood spurted, but again there was no outcry and the woman kept at him. He smashed a blow into her midsection, knocking the wind out of her, but as she bent over, fighting for breath, her companion was already regaining hers and preparing to rush at him again.

"All right, ladies," Steiger said, breathing hard himself. "From here on in, it's hardball."

As the woman launched herself at him, Steiger's foot arced up in a powerful sidekick and caught her in the throat, smashing the trachea. Blood gushed from her mouth, but she still came at him for several steps before she fell, gargling hideously. Behind them, the heavy wooden door opened and a hooded figure came out. The moment he saw what was happening, he bolted back inside and slammed the door shut. Almost fatally distracted, Steiger twisted at the last moment and his breath hissed out in pain as the dagger slashed along his side. He smashed his elbow into the woman's temple, then drove a hard right into her stomach, doubling her over, and brought the edge of his hand down hard upon the back of her neck, breaking it. She fell to the floor, motionless.

Steiger was at the door in an instant, tugging on it, but it was bolted from inside. He quickly turned and picked up one of the long daggers, jamming it into the narrow gap between the door and the wall, working the blade in and up against the crossbar on the other side. He felt it lift and he pulled back on the door, opening it wide.

Behind the door was a small, rectangular room with stone walls and a stone floor. Illumination was provided by two torches set into the walls. There was no sign of the hooded figure. Pushed against the walls were several crudely made, low wooden tables upon which the nude bodies of beautiful young women were stacked like cordwood.

They were all clearly lifeless, but there were no signs of decomposition nor was there any evidence of the smells associated with death. He approached the tables and examined one of the bodies intently. With the exception of the fact that all signs of life were absent, the woman looked merely asleep. The body was perfectly formed, as were all the others, and on the inside of the back of the left thigh, Steiger found a tiny tattoo. A serial number. A quick examination showed that other bodies had the same tattoo, all the numbers different, but varying by no more than several digits. "Androids," Steiger said in a low voice. He hurried into the outer chamber and quickly stripped the clothing off the two guards, then dragged them into the storage cell. He wiped off the blood-it had to be synthetic, he thought-with one of the chitons the androids had been wearing and then wadded up the clothing and tucked it beneath the stacked bodies. Then he lifted up each one and added it to the stacks, arranging the bodies carefully. He ran back up the stairs, checked to make sure the corridor was clear and encountered Finn and Andre coming the other way.