maybe they've screwed up normal radio transmission.""I need Stark! I'm alone in here!""I'm alone, too. In solitary."There was a long pause. "Are you afraid?"

He no longer was, but he still heard the fear in her voice. "Yes. I'm afraid. Maybe we can help each other fight the fear."

"Oh, yes. Thank you. Thank you."

The ceiling.door swung open, and Stark and a guard leaned into the room, staring down at Maro, who still sat in the center of the cell. "Maro!" Stark called.

Maro looked up at the warden. "I'm here."

"Are you ready to tell us what we want to know?"

"No."

"Fine. Then stay down there with the monsters!" The door slammed shut, and Maro grinned. The warden didn't know that his chamber of horrors no longer worked. Good. Maybe the next man stuck in here would have sense enough to keep his mouth shut, too. It might go on a long time before Stark figured it out. Maro hoped so.

"Juete?"

"Here."

"Tell me about yourself. I need to hear your voice."

In her cell, Juete took a deep breath and allowed it to escape slowly. She could feel Maro almost as if he were here in the room with her; a warm presence on the other end of the link, somebody who cared about her. Somebody who was isolated and trapped, as she was. She felt a sense of solidarity, of common purpose. Maro hadn't put her here. Maro was a p.a.w.n, just as she was, and so she could talk to him as she had not talked to anyone since she had left the Dark world, so many years before.

"I had two brothers," she said. "Both died before they were twenty, killed in fights. My mother was murdered, and I never knew my father. And now I'm here, for killing the son of a powerful man. He used me, and when I could, I killed him. I used a pruning laser on him, cut him in half. I would do it again."

"It's all right," Maro said. "I understand.

"Do you? Do you really?"

"Yes."

And she believed him, that was the surprise of it for her. There was something in the tone of his words, something in his voice that convinced her. Some kind of... calmness permeated his speech. He had nothing to gain from her, he couldn't touch her, and yet he was willing to talk to her. And so she believed him. And she could help him as well; he was alone, just as she was. That was important, to be needed, as well as wanted. n.o.body had ever needed her before, not since her family had died. Everybody had wanted her, many had had her, but n.o.body needed her.

That was important. It warmed her in a way no man's or woman's touch had ever wanned her. She had never loved a man, and she knew she didn't love this Dain Maro-not yet, at least-but there was a potential here she had never felt before.

"Tell me about you," she said. "Please."

Chapter Eleven.

Maro lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling. It was the only place in the cell he could look at for long periods of time without discomfort-staring at the featureless pellucid surfaces of the Zonn walls and floor made him feel as if he were falling into them.

"Dain?"

The voice belonged to Scanner, and it came from the compatch receiver stuck behind his ear. He subvocalized his reply. "Yeah."

"Listen, we're collecting the stuff you wanted. Some of it won't be easy, though.

We got Parker, the fat guard on shop detail, helping us."

"How?"

He could hear the chuckle in Scanner's voice as the circuit-rider answered. "He

thinks he's giving me parts to build a 3-D p.o.r.noproj." Maro chuckled as well.

"So, how are you holding up?"

"Fine. I think their camera is broken; somebody keeps coming in to check on me every hour or so."

"What about the hallucinations? They're supposed to be pretty bad."

"I think whatever caused that is broken, too. It's no worse than ordinary solitary."

Silence for a moment. "You did something." It was not a question.

Maro thought about it for a couple of seconds before he answered. It wouldn't

hurt at this point if the prisoners thought he held some kind of ace. He needed their help, and they would help more if they really believed that he could pull this whole plan off. "Yeah. I took care of it. n.o.body will ever have problems in here again."

"Amazing. How?"

"Trade secret. Never mind. Do you understand what I want you to do with the gear?"

"I understand the theory. I don't know if I can hardwire the system."

"You can. Did you ask your link for the plans for a single-pa.s.senger Bender

unit?"

"I got them."

"Good. See if you can get a phase generator circuit chip, and a Peen stasis unit."

"I see what you're getting at, but I checked on something last time I was online.

It's been tried, Maro. It doesn't work."

"Not on regular walls, you're right. But we're dealing with something that only looks like a wall here, Scanner. It's an energy field, and I think it will Bend."

"I hope you know what you're talking about."

Maro stared at the ceiling. The trapdoor opened and a guard stuck his head inside. Maro closed his eyes against the bright light. I hope I do, too, he thought.

Stark's nervousness translated into movement. He tapped his fingers on his desk, shifted in his chair, and finally stood and paced around the office. When he couldn't stand it any more, he went outside into the heat, his cooler humming into life and rolling after him.

Why wasn't Maro climbing the walls in the Zonn Chamber? n.o.body had ever come out of there unchanged, and most had gone totally insane by this time. Yet, as far as he could tell, Maro was unaffected. That didn't fit into his plans at all. Karnaaj would be coming back any time now, and when he did. Stark did not want him around for very long. The SIU man would not like the story that Juete had died. Probably he wouldn't believe it, but there would be no way to disprove it, and once he had accomplished his business with Maro, there would be no further reason for him to stay around. He did not know the prison well enough to find Juete, and once he was gone, life would go back to normal.

A guard waved at him as he pa.s.sed, and the warden nodded mechanically. He was not due to visit the albino girl for several more hours, and, while he would have spent more time with her, he did not want to be caught there if Karnaaj showed up unexpectedly early. It would be exactly like the b.a.s.t.a.r.d to do that. Juete did not like being alone, that was apparent enough, but she would just have to make do. Sometimes she seemed to forget that she only survived here because of his intervention. She had a treasure h.o.a.rd of supplies in that cell with her; she should be grateful instead of whining about being alone.

He stopped walking, finding himself in a half-windowed corridor overlooking the prison infirmary. Prisoners moved around in the atrium below, and he saw a man wrapped in bandages lying in a bed. Somebody caught by a flock of bloodbirds, he remembered.

No, it wasn't fair to blame Juete for his irritation. It was Karnaaj and that G.o.dd.a.m.ned Maro who deserved the anger. Karnaaj for what he was, and Maro for not rolling over and saving him all this trouble.

Abruptly, Stark turned away from the infirmary. The Zonn Chamber was not going to be the answer for Maro-he knew that now. Maybe he could find out more by releasing him back into the general population and prodding him with one of his dips. If Maro let something slip to one of the dozens of spies working for Stark, the warden would know it before the echoes stopped. That might be a way to do it. He hoped he still had time; Karnaaj was not due back for five or six days yet. A few days might be enough. If worse came to worst, there was always a way out: the mindwipe might dredge up enough to satisfy Karnaaj. Maro would not be Maro afterward, but that was too bad. It would be his own fault.

Being alone was not quite so bad, now that she had a link with Dain. The cell did not seem as confining, now that she knew she could talk to him whenever she wished. At first, she had worried that Stark might overhear, but Dain had rea.s.sured her that the channel was private. He had a friend who had taken care of that.

"Juete?"

"Right here."

"It looks as if Stark is going to let me out. The Zonn Chamber didn't produce the

results he wanted."

She felt a sudden needle of fear, but before she could speak, he wiped the pain away. "I'll keep this circuit open."

"What will you do?" she asked. "Karnaaj is coming back."

"I have a couple of ideas." There was a long silence. Then, "How much do you

want to get out of here, Juete?""That's a silly question. How much do you want to leave?"He didn't answer that, but said instead, "Is there a Zonn wall in your cell?""Yes, the back one. Why?"Another silence came, and she felt as if he were making some kind of decision.

Finally, he spoke. "Listen, I think there's a way out. It's a long shot, and even if it works, it'll be dangerous. Some of us are going to try to escape. I think it can be done. I'm betting my life on it. If the plan goes like I hope, there's no reason why you can't come along. If you want to."

She felt her heart beating faster. "No one has ever escaped before," she said.

"I know. But there's always a first time for everything."

Juete thought about the life she had in the Cage. Of spending years inside, with

Stark as her master and keeper. And that was the best scenario she could imagine. There were men like Karnaaj, there would always be people like him, waiting to prey on those without the power to protect themselves. She was alive here, but the quality of her life left no room for growth, for pleasure, for joy. What did she have to lose?

"Yes," she said. "I want to go."

"Good. I'll keep in touch. It won't be long. It'll either work or it won't-we'll know pretty soon."

She heard the electronic locking mechanism whine on the cell door. "It's Stark,"

she whispered. "I have to go."

"Call me when he's gone," he said.

When Stark entered the cell, Juete wore a smile for him. He hugged her, and she

returned the embrace, but the desperate quality was gone. She had to give him credit for some preception; he noticed the lack.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm fine. Glad to see you."

He untabbed the front of his coverall, grinning. "I'm glad to see you, too."

Afterwards, he lay with her on the bed.

"So, how are things out there?"

"Not much different. That b.a.s.t.a.r.d Maro didn't crack in the Zonn Chamber. Some kind of mind control, I think. Kamaaj knew. The rinthsucker is setting me up to fall if he doesn't get what he wants from Maro."

"What can you do about it?"

"Not a lot. He said he'd be in the city for a week, but he could come back at any time. And if I don't have Maro ready to leak information like an unshielded microwave caster, Karnaaj will skewer me, somehow."