Watcher At The Well - Echoes Of The Well Of Souls Part 6

Below, near the point at which the dirt road met the main paved highway, was a large glowing object.

There was a lot of steam and a hot, acrid smell as if the area had suddenly gone volcanic and melted rock and road. It was impossible to see much detail without going down quite a ways and it wasn't terribly clear how much of the dirt road remained intact, but he didn't dare leave his two companions to go down to check.

He started back toward them, reaching into his pocket and taking out a large cigar, which he stopped to light. He had refrained from smoking near Anne Marie, but this was the kind of situation that called for a good cigar. The hilltop was dark again, and all the debris made it a tricky walk, but he made it back to them without falling or twisting an an-kle.

"We've got a real problem," he told them straight out. "Our friend that just pa.s.sed over left us a present right at the base of the hill, and it's none too clear if we're going to be able to get down very easily."

"Oh, dear!" Anne Marie exclaimed. "What will we do, Captain?"

"There's a good-sized meteor chunk that came in and hit right down there. That was the earthquake we felt. It's still glowing hot-probably will be for days-and I'm not sure how much of that road is still there or whether there are any rock slides or other obstacles. The only thing we can do is try very carefully to make it down in the car. If it's impossible, then we'll have to go as far as we can, get out, and manage on our own. I'm pretty sure that if we can get down to the main road one way or another, people will be along fairly soon who might help. But the plain fact is, we have to get down there, since n.o.body knows we're up here and neither of you is exactly in condition to climb down the side of this hill even if we had ropes and such to do it with."

"I don't like it," Tony told him. "The whole road might be undermined, and there might well be rather narrow pas-sages. Not only would that cause me obvious problems, but Anne Marie's chair would never make it."

"Couldn't we build a signal fire or something from all this junk?" Anne Marie asked. "I mean, there are sure to be all sorts of folks out here sooner or later, right? If it's big enough, possibly helicopters. Youdid say that this was once a helicopter landing pad, didn't you?"

Solomon nodded. "The trouble is, I think this is only one of alot of fragment strikes, and it's pretty far out. I would expect people along the main road any time now, particu-larly others who came out here like us to get a better look, but in terms of the authorities and helicopters and the like-possibly sometime. The glow toward Rio has in-creased, I think, and I suspect that there are a number of fires and possibly worse."

"Check the radio," Tony suggested. "At least we'll know where we stand."

The captain nodded, went over to the minivan, and, after discovering he had to start the engine to power the radio, flicked it on.

There was mostly static.

"I think Jesus may have lost his power," the captain said a bit sarcastically. The great statue that sat on the mountain that directly overlooked Rio was the symbol of the city, but that same mountain and two others nearby were where the transmitting towers for radio, television, and other telecom-munications were located. If power was out up there, it wouldn't matter what was going on below.

He slowly turned the dial, finally getting a low-powered broadcast heavy with static.

".. . out in two-thirds of the city, and there are numerous fires from sparks and cinders all over. Because we have managed to keep our power and remain on the air, we will keep broadcasting information as we know it. Civil author-ities have asked that no one attempt to use telephones and that they remain in their homes and remain calm. Fire bri-gades are out all over the city, and police are trying to free people trapped in buildings and cope with dozens of acci-dents as most of the traffic signals are out. A declaration of martial law is expected and may be in force now; we have no way of knowing from here . .

Solomon got out but left the radio on. "Sounds pretty bad. Martial law, fires, power outages, you name it. They didn't expect this. Not knowing anybody in particular is up here, I seriously doubt if anyone's going to be out this way for some time-maybe a day or two. Even if they knew we were here, I think we'd be a pretty d.a.m.ned low priority. We've got the remains of the little picnic I packed, but that's it, and there doesn't appear to be any water or other facilities up here. If you're too nervous to make the attempt down, my next inclination would be to go myself and see if I could find help-but, again, that might take a very long time, and I really wouldn't like leaving you two up here for an extended period."

"Ordinarily I would agree on getting down, but I am afraid that Anne Marie might get stuck halfway and then what do we do?" Tony asked.

"This is one of those 'there's no good solution' prob-lems," the captain replied. "Anne Marie, you said you had medicine you had to take religiously, and you've been fairly weak as it is. How much of an extra supply of that medi-cation did you bring?"

"Oh, my! Yes, I see what you mean," she said thought-fully. "I'm afraid, dear, that he's right-we have no real choice in this."

Tony sighed. "I don't like it, but all right. Let us get packed up."

The captain helped, then, as they got settled in the van, he tried the radio again. One of the big stations at least had gotten back on the air, albeit with lower power than usual, and the details of what had happened in the city and be-yond were soon clear.

Possibly hundreds of pieces from the meteor had come down, ranging from fingernail-size to a few as large as soc-cer b.a.l.l.s. A number of homes and buildings had been hit; there was a crater in the center of the financial district about ten meters wide that had, among other things, severed the main electrical and phone cables to and from the city center; and many other fragments had been large enough and hot enough to touch off fires. A few, in poorer and run-down areas, had quickly become conflagrations.

Although only two people were known to be dead and perhaps a dozen others had injuries serious enough to need hospitali-zation, the ma.s.sive fires in the densely populated poor areas gave an unspoken but implicit promise of a much higher toll.

The swath cut by the shedding meteor was twenty to twenty-five kilometers wide, and reports of isolated rock-falls in other areas were still coming in. A large segment, larger than any that had struck the city, was seen to have fallen somewhere in the mountains beyond the city, but at the moment it wasn't known where it had fallen or if it had caused any major damage.

The main body had landed, perhaps only seconds later, in the remote upper Amazon basin, still within the country and inside of one of the new native reserve areas designed to protect the rain forest and the habitat of primitive tribes who lived there. Early reports said that there was ma.s.sive damage at the main site, with the forest knocked down and ablaze, like the aftermath of an atomic bomb. The Arch-bishop of Rio had announced a special ma.s.s of thanks and salvation for tomorrow, noting that if the impact had come sooner, along the coast, there would have been ma.s.sive loss of life.

The announcer then paused to gather more information, and the station began playing Jobim'sQuiet Night and Quiet Stars . . .

The captain switched off the radio and drove slowly over to the road.

"Well, that big one in the mountain must have been the one that hit below," Tony noted.

The captain frowned. "Maybe. But I can't understand-if it was that big, and much smaller pieces caused so much damage, why we didn't have a minibomb effect here as well."

"That was quite a jolt when it hit," Anne Marie pointed out.

"Exactly. The jolt, yes, but something that hot, hitting with that kind of force, should have done far more if it's anywhere close, and I think it is. I'm beginning to have a very bad feeling about this."

"What do you expect? Martian invaders?" Tony joked.

"No. Nothing like that." He took a deep breath. "Well, here we go."

Solomon was surprised at how far they managed to get before fallen rocks and other debris stopped them. They were actually at the lower turnout of the last switchback be-fore the main road and could see down the steep kilometer or more to the paved road below even though they couldn't reach it.

Anne Marie gasped at the sight on that main road. "What is it?" Tony pressed her.

"The meteor! Or at least the big piece of it! It'shuge ! It's stuck half in the road and half in the opposite hillside. It looks mostly buried in the hill and there's a lot of bubbling and hissing around the edges, but you can see a big part of it! It'sglowing -a dull, almost golden yellow, and it looks like some huge gemstone, kind of like stained gla.s.s. Good heavens! I'd almost swear itwas something artifi-cial!"

The captain stared at it. Just my imagination? he won-dered. Or is that huge flat area facing outward the shape I'm afraid it is?

He got out and surveyed the path, dully illuminated by the glow of the strange object. Surveying the scene, he went back to them and said, "I think I can angle the car so it'll give us light from the headlights the first part of the way down, after which, if that thing keeps glowing, we won't need any more light. It might be a tight fit, but I think we can get the wheelchair down, though we might have to lift it over at one or two places. Are you willing?"

"I think better down than back up at this point," Anne Marie replied.

It was not an easy task, but it was manageable. At one point dirt and rock had covered much of the road, making it difficult to get the wheelchair around without going off the side, but the captain managed, then, bracing her on the other side, got Tony around as well. Several times the blind man stumbled, but he was game all the way, and in about thirty minutes they made it down to the road.

The meteor had taken out much of the paved area, and between its own extrusion and the landslides the impact had caused, it would clearly be some time before any vehi-cle could get past. Still, there was more than enough room for them to manage, if no more slides occurred, and once on the other side, they would at least be well positioned when the first cars driven by the curious or investigators made it to the scene.

"I'm surprised there aren't a lot of people on both sides already here," Anne Marie said. "I know we were hardly the only ones to come up this route."

"We don't know how bad some of the slides are else-where, and perhaps other pieces fell as well, doing dam-age," Tony pointed out. "It might well be a while, but at least I believe we have more of a chance down here than up there. What do you think, Captain? What should we do now?"

Solomon was staring at the meteor. "Huh? Oh, sorry, I wasn't paying attention." He paused a moment, then said, "You two stay right here. I've got to get something off my mind one way or the other. I won't be but a moment."

With that, he walked down toward the still-glowing ob-ject. As he approached, the thing seemed to change some-how; the gla.s.sy surface took on a duller sheen, and then other forms seemed to appear just underneath.

Anne Marie gasped. "It looks like-somethingalive !" she said. "Like a network of arteries and veins or fluids go-ing through pulsing tubes. I've seen this sort of thing under microscopes!"

"Your imagination is getting the best of you," her hus-band responded. "You've been through a lot tonight."

"No, no! I'm serious! I swear it! And it seems to be get-ting more and more detailed as the captain goes nearer to it. Captain!" she called out worriedly. "Don't go any closer! Watch out!"

The captain gestured confidently with his right hand. He walked around to the left, where the shoulder of the road still allowed pa.s.sage, and as he did, a single gemlike "face" in the center seemed to darken on its own, becoming in a moment jet black, while the rest of the object remained un-changed.

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h! Iknew it!" the captain grumbled. "A d.a.m.nedhexagon !"He stood there staring at it and said, louder, "You coulda been a little moresubtle, d.a.m.n it!"

The object didn't respond. He knew it wouldn't. Al-though so advanced that it would be incomprehensible to Earth science, it was just a machine.

"I don't want to go through it all again!" he told it, knowing he was talking only to himself. "I didn't even want to do it thelast time, and you forced me. What do you want me to do? Wipe out everything again?

Just when they've gotten to the start of the fun part? Before I've even completely forgotten who and what I am? Screw up thou-sands of civilizations because one d.a.m.ned thing went re-freshingly wrong in history? Well, I won't do it! Gether to do it!She knows how! I encoded her and linked her to the Well!"

He stopped for a moment, trying to calm down. Maybe ithad gone for her as well. It would be ironic if she, too, were in Brazil, although what she'd be doing in the Ama-zon basin was beyond him. Still, he knew the machine wouldn't let him stay here while somebody else did the re-set. He hadn't taken himself out of the core matrix. If somehow it allowed him to get around the embedded frag-ment without taking him in, swallowing him up, it wouldn't matter. It would send more of these, and more, until he would feel under constant bombardment. Either that or it would figure some other way. When one had the power to manipulate probability, one could be staved off for a while, but eventually one would get one's way.

Besides, suppose he walked away and this gate stayed open? An invasion of people at this stage would not exactly be in anybody's best interest.

He sighed. Perhaps this time he could minimize the dam-age. Perhaps this time he could opt himself out.

Still, it was pretty clear that he had no choice at this point, not until he was there, inside, at the controls.

There simply weren't any options left open to him.

He had to go to the Well one more time.

But he also had certain other, more immediate responsi-bilities. He turned and walked back to the waiting couple.

"Don't ask me questions," he said to them, "but I know what this is. You remember that game we played up top? What would you like to become if you could?"

"Yes," Anne Marie responded nervously, suddenly not certain of the captain's sanity.

"Tony?"

"Yes, but what's the point of this?"

"That thing's a door. Now, you'vegot to trust me on this, and no, I'm not losing my mind. I once spent a lot of time and effort trying to avoid going through such a door before and failed. I'm not going to make that mistake again. The result is, I'm going to go through it. When I do, I think it will close behind me. If the two of you go with me, I can promise you that Anne Marie will walk again and that you, Tony, will see again. It's no heaven where that door leads. Remember, even Oz had wicked witches and the land of Jason was filled with dangerous people and more dangerous creatures. But it's not a bad place. It will heal you."

"You're raving mad," Tony responded, shaking his head.

"Look, I'm offering you a single chance. If there's no door there, then we go on by and we wait for help. If thereis a door, you walk through it with me. Understand?"

"This is ridiculous!" Tony fumed. "I won't stand for any more of this! We'll wait right here!"

But Anne Marie, while more in tune with Tony's view-point than the captain's strange comments, nonetheless felt that something within the man was not lunacy but sincerity. "Just wh.o.a.re you that someone would send such a thing for you?" she asked him.

"I'm not going to tell you that, for your own protection and mine," he replied. "And if you decide to come with me, not a word that I knew anything about it to begin with. Not one word. We were just three people who went to see a meteor and found this curiosity and walked through. Un-derstand?"

"I'm not going to listen to any more of this rot," Tony fumed.

The captain stared at him. "I understand how you feel and what it sounds like. But when I leave, you'll be stuck here alone, the two of you. I'm not certainwhen help will arrive. And the best way to reach the most likely source of help is around that thing over there. The door is that black-ness that opened when I approached. You saw it, didn't you, Anne Marie? I can see that you did. It'll open again. What do you have to lose?"

She almost believed him. Shewanted to believe him. "If-just granting your point for argument's sake-if what you say is true, would Tony and I still be together?"

He shrugged. "I can't promise that. I can only promise that he will see and you will walk and be strong again." He looked at Tony. "I remember our conversation. Is it worth it to take a chance, considering the alternative? We don't have much time. Sooner or later there will be hundreds, maybe thousands of people up here. Sightseers, rescuers, newspeople, scientists, road crews-you name it. I can't have them accidentally going through. I'm going now. You can go with me and what I have said will come to pa.s.s, or you can go on past and wait and hope that rescue comes quickly for Anne Marie's sake and enjoy your few weeks or months or whatever."

It was Tony's turn to sigh. "Captain, I will allow you to lead us past that thing. Beyond that I will not go."

"We love each other, Captain," Anne Marie said sim-ply. "I'm not at all certain I would wish to live without Tony, healthy or not."

The captain gave them a humorless smile. "However, that option's not open to you, is it, Tony?"

"Haven't you understood, Captain?" the Brazilian asked him. "That is not the option you believe. We shall not wait for the inevitable, or survive each other."

The comment stunned Solomon. "Now there are two ways I envy you," he told him. "The kind of love you show is rare, and the ability to end your lives by your own deci-sion is something I have always wished to be able to do."

"What? Do you believe you are a vampire or some such, too?" Tony asked derisively.

"No. But I told you all along that I am a lot older than I look. The same thing that sentthat and knew just where and when to drop it insulates and protects me."And con-trols me, he thought to himself.Walk this way in the early morning. Meet these two. Go up into the hills to a remote area . . .

He sighed. "Well," the captain added, "we might as well get on with it. You have a great choice at this moment that I wish I had but do not. You can choose life or death for the both of you. Anne Marie in particular hasn't had that choice before, so it was an easy decision. Now your choice has a complication.

Do you bothwant to die? Or are you merely reconciled to it? I'm giving you another choice." He paused a moment. "Let's go and get this over with."

He walked slowly forward, and Tony began pushing the wheelchair as Anne Marie gave short instructions that kept them going in the right direction. Still, beneath the automatic commands she was giving, she was also thinking, wondering if this strange little man was telling the truth and, in the impossible event that perhaps he was, whether the price was worth it.

She saw the activity just beneath the surface of the frag-ment speed up as they approached, and as they moved to the right, she saw the big facet, more than two meters high even though slightly buried in the ground at its bottom edge, open to an impossible, impenetrable darkness.

The captain stopped dead center of the opening. "Well, here is where we possibly part company," he told them. "I have enjoyed meeting you, and I am happy that at least some of the good that is within this race of humankind shines so brightly in you. It knows you're here. It won't close until you go on past. In any event, spending this eve-ning with you has made it somehow easier for me." And with that, he walked straight into the blackness and van-ished.

Anne Marie's heart leapt at the sight. The captain hadn't gone into the darkness or been enveloped by it, he had sim-ply touched it and vanished.

"Captain?" Tony asked, frowning. "He's gone, dear, just like he said," Anne Marie told him. "He went into it, and that was that. Strange. I think we've just had a close encounter, as they call it."

"Gone? What do you mean, 'gone'? Is there an opening in the thing? Did he crawl inside? What?"

"No, dear. He just walked into it and vanished.Poof! One moment he was there, the next he wasn't."

"An illusion of some kind. Or he was burned up or this thing has some sort of radiation. What he said justcan't be true! It's notpossible !"

"Perhaps. But it looked awfully quick and painless, you know, and there's no trace of him. I am feeling very, very exhausted, my darling, and I am in a great deal of pain. I am not at all certain I can stand it at this alt.i.tude until someone comes."

He swallowed hard, his emotions in turmoil. He wasn'tready for this! Not yet! It wasn't anything like what they'd planned! "What do you want me to do?" he asked in an-guish. "Go into that thing? Now?"

"You don't have to if you don't want to. You know that."

"I go where you go!" he snapped. "But-"

"But what? It's quick, painless, no bodies, no traces, no one to grieve over and no mess left for others to deal with. They'll find the car, the porter will remember us, and we'll be listed as victims of the meteor.

Iknow it's not what we wanted, but it is here, and there will not be a better time. Iknow Ishall not survive to get even to hospital, and I do not want to die in hospital or be kept alive on machines. Do it for me.

You may make your own decision afterward."

He neither moved nor spoke to her. The blackness on the face of the object remained unchanged.