Michael Hudson - Thieves of Light

But this time, Pike's assurance could offer no comfort. They didn't ask me to do this — I asked. I'm the one who said I was ready, not Li-hon. And now I've got to do it, or I can't face them again. But how? How do you beat these kind of odds? For a long moment, he wavered on the verge of following Li-hon out the exit, laying down his Allison, and going home to safe, tame little Montclair.

It was something else that Pike had said that rescued him, a comment he had made after Bhodi had won his fourth straight live-opponent duel. "You know what I like about you?" Pike had said, clapping his hands on both of Bhodi's shoulders. "You fight dirty."

At first, Bhodi had wondered if he should take offense. But Pike hastened to explain that he meant Bhodi wasn't afraid to expose himself to a hit to gain an edge or achieve an objective.

"I like the guys that come back with phaser tracks all over their armor," Pike had said. "The armor's there to protect you. If you never take advantage of that, you're not getting out on the edge where you ought to be. These types that come out of a firefight without so much as a scorch mark on their fighting suit, you can have 'em. Give me the guys who fight dirty."

That's how you beat the nasties, Bhodi thought. You fight dirty. That's the way you used to play when it was just a game. And win or lose, that's the only way to play it now -

That decision cleared the emotional cobwebs from Bhodi's reasoning, and immediately he found himself following a more productive train of thought. What kind of booby trap would they use? Hydraulic walls to crush you? A dead-end with a five-meg phaser cannon firing straight up at you? Razor-sharp spikes that shoot out of the ceiling?

No matter what the trap, Bhodi realized, an invading force could find out which entrance was the real one simply by being willing to sacrifice two warriors. Unless you designed a booby trap that was so well hidden nothing gave it away until it was too late for the would-be invader to relay his discovery back to his platoon mates. A warrior goes down into one of the holes and is simply never heard from again.

Yes-it would have to be something quiet. No explosions, no odd noises. It would have to be something tidy, to avoid having a clutter of dead bodies to warn the next one in. And it would almost certainly have to be something that was automated, tripped by sensors of some sort. They wouldn't want to isolate part of their fighting force in dead-end false tunnels, not when they could be needed elsewhere.

So what, then? A slippery ramp with a vat of acid at the bottom?

Bhodi wished he had some sort of flying camera to send in first. Even if they fried it, a glimpse of what was past the entrance would be worth the loss. If only I didn't have to go in first and find out the hard way -

Then he realized that, in fact, he didn't have to go in first. He had no partners, no equipment to spare and the landscape was barren, but there were other resources. Specifically, there were grapefruit-sized light globes arrayed all across the "sky"-the ceiling of the arena.

Backing off a few steps, Bhodi pulled on his helmet and raised his Allison above his head. With three pinpoint blasts, he burned away the supports that held three of the globes. They dropped loudly to the surface, dimmed rapidly and went out, but did not shatter. The last of the three rolled to a stop just inches from his booted foot.

"What's he doing tearing up the arena?" Haj demanded, coming up out of his chair in the observer's booth. "My arena. Li-hon, I insist you put a stop to this right now."

"I said he would have a chance," Li-hon said. "Sit and watch."

"I won't tolerate it. No one has ever done anything like that before."

"I agree," Li-hon said. "And I'm interested to see what use he makes of them. Sit down, Haj. This is only the beginning."

His plan vague but complete, Bhodi scooped up the faintly warm globes and started toward the warren. He circled around the back of the nearest of the mounds, cradling the lights in the crook of one arm and holding the Allison at the ready with his other hand.

Then he started up, as though on his way to play king of the hill. Three steps up, he was on his knees. By the time he was at the top, he was lying prone.

When he peeked over the top, he could see slightly inside the entrances of the two other mounds, but nothing of the entry to the one he was on. Holstering his Allison and leaving two of the lights perched precariously on the top of the mound, Bhodi squirmed forward on his belly until he was close enough to the entryway to stick his head out and look down into the tunnel.

There he paused for a moment and bled off some of the incredible tension he felt with a hearty exhalation. Then he touched his helmet controls, activating the image amplifier built into its faceplate, and stole a peek inside.

He had not expected to be shot at, and was not. Why should they scare him off at the door, when patience would bring better opportunities? But he did not see much. His head motion plus the sudden transition from the well-lit arena to the dark catacomb made the amplified image ghost like a badly tuned television.

Tensing himself, he took another, longer look. This time he saw an empty earth-walled corridor an armspan wide and barely fifteen feet long, terminating in a T with a cross corridor.

There are two hiding places, he thought as he withdrew. They get to hide around the corners, and I'm backlit against the sky. So easy they ought to be ashamed.

But that assumed that this was the true entrance, and not one of the sucker traps-an assumption he wasn't going to make without testing. He poked his head out past the edge for a third time, and when the image of the corridor stopped ghosting, hurled the light globe down into the darkened tunnel.

It bounced once against the floor, and a moment later four bluish beams of phaser fire flashed from below and intersected in the air above the globe. Bhodi resisted the impulse to duck back out of sight. He watched as the globe bounced twice more, strangely untouched by the continuing phaser blasts, arced back toward the floor a third time-and then vanished. There a momentary hum, a crackling noise, then silence.

Bhodi blinked, then backed quickly away from the edge. It took him a moment to realize that the globe had dropped right through the floor as though nothing were there. That in fact nothing was there. Part of the floor was missing, its absence hidden by some clever trick of lighting and coloration. The automatic phasers had missed their bouncing target because they were meant to miss. They were there only to drive an intruder along at an appropriately reckless pace.

Climbing down from the first mound, Bhodi circled clockwise to the next. As expected, the second entry way appeared identical to the first. He repeated his test, sacrificing a second globe. This time nothing happened. The globe rolled to the bottom of the ramp, bumped the back wall of the cross corridor, and came to a stop unmolested.

A second-man-through booby trap? Bhodi wondered. Smart systems that won't get fooled the same way twice? Or the real entrance, with hidden snipers that are cool enough to wait for the real thing?

Instinct more than reason persuaded Bhodi that he had in fact found the real entrance. But he felt little joy at the accomplishment. They know I'm up here now. And they'll hear me coming, slipping and sliding on that dirt chute, and fry my butt on the way down.

He retreated to the back of the mound to consider his situation. Just a moment, he thought. Just a moment of surprise is all I need — one trick they're not expecting. Just enough to get me to the bottom in one piece.

Then, in a moment of insight, he realized that he had the trick in hand-had practiced it a hundred times in his own house (and been reprimanded countless times by his Mom for doing so). The steep-sloped entry way was like a stairwell, and he had already perfected the fastest way of going down a flight of stairs Bouncing up, he scooted in a sweeping lefthand circle to the area between the mounds. He lobbed the third light globe down the mouth of the second false entryway, then started running toward the real entryway. When he reached the shadowed threshold he leaped toward the darkness, catching the top of the opening with his hands and used that as a leverage point to swing his feet forward.