Jacob's ladder
Chapter 16: The cavern

Flanked by his captors and preceded byBlatsov, Luis went in the cave, which was not as dark as he had assumed. A narrowand straight passage, lighted by torches in the walls, opened at the other sideof the entrance. It was about thirty paces long, clearly artificial, and its endwas closed by a big oak door. Blatsov knocked with the jet black pommel of hissword, whispered an unintelligible password and moved aside for his men and theprisoner.

The chamber which became visible whenthe door opened blinded and confused Luis. It was so huge that he could not seethe other end: perfectly rectangular, about twenty paces wide, lighted by manysources which threw a white, cold light, similar to the daylight, verydifferent from the fitful flames he was used to. At right and left, in unendingrows, there were tables covered by strange mechanisms and glimmering screens.At the tables were seated many human beings whose appearance made Luis strangelyuneasy. He could not explain it until he noticed with horror that they were allidentical, not just in their attire, but also in their bodies and faces. Theyeven moved exactly in the same rhythm. That army of copies of a singleindividual produced in him such loathing and nausea, that anything in hisstomach would have been thrown out immediately. But he was completely empty.

Blatsov led the way along the chamberand looked at the screens without stopping at any. After about a hundred paces,they came at two doors, one in front of the other, the right one guarded by twosoldiers. Blatsov opened the left one, dismissed his men, made a sign for Luisto get in and followed him. After his experience with Napoleon, he recognized inthe room the headquarters of an army. The left wall was covered by a map of theworld, with several places marked by colored tacks. The right wall was black,covered by a material that Luis did not recognize. The opposite wall was whiteand showed several moving images, projected from a cabin placed above the door.Luis recognized in one of the images the flat space before the cavern at theend of the gorge, where the man in black had captured him.

Blatsov went across the room to atable covered by different instruments and sat with his back to the map of theworld, looking at the black wall. He took an object from the table andcompletely covered his head. It looked similar to one of the helms used bymedieval knights, but it was not made of metal. The section covering the facewas dark, perhaps opaque, without holes for the use of the eyes. For an instant,Luis considered the possibility of a surprise attack, but the fact that Blatsovhad got rid of his men indicated that he did not fear that Luis would be ableto harm him. Then he remembered that Pierre could not hurt him with a rifleshot, and came to the conclusion that Blatsov was invulnerable: attacking himwould be useless.

After a long time, Blatsov took thehelm off and looked at Luis, who was still standing at the opposite side of thetable, half dead of hunger and weariness, but decided not to ask anything fromhis enemy. The man in black, however, read his thoughts, pointed at a chair andclapped his hands twice. The door opened and a man came in, with a tray ladenwith victuals, which he left on the table. Again Blatsov covered his face withthe helm and did not look at Luis for one hour. Then he took off the helm,stared at Luis and spoke for the first time since his capture:

“You have been a nuisance, but I’ve finallygot you.”

“What do you want with me?” asked theboy with a quaking voice: it was difficult to dominate his panic at Blatsov’s merepresence.

“Nothing. You are just a tool thatwill get me what I want. I’m not personally interested in you.”

Luis did not know whether to feelrelief or worry.

“Long ago I discovered that you, notPhilippe, were the key character,” continued Blatsov. “I claimed you when Gérardjoined forces with me to capture you both, but he was stupid enough to let youescape. Since then I have followed you, until you have finally come by yourselfto my headquarters. Late is better than never.”

At that point, Luis remembered thatJacob’s ladder was still in his power, but dared not mention it, fearing thatBlatsov would want it. Through his clothes, he felt a slight pressure on hisbreast and something like a small galvanic current passing through his flesh.The amulet seemed charged with energy since he had got in the cavern. Hewondered if Blatsov could detect it, but the man in black had not seemedinterested in searching him and acted as though he was not there, using thehelm frequently and appearing to be waiting for something which could happen atany moment.

Three hours after they had come in theroom, Blatsov went suddenly rigid and looked attentively at the point in theopposite wall which displayed the image of the flat space before the cavern.Something had changed. A person clad in white had just come from the gorge andstopped before the cavern. Luis had to make an effort not to cry aloud: it was Lydia.If that image was real, then his protector angel was coming to save him fromthe demon’s lair.

While Blatsov whispered commandsbefore the instruments which covered the table, always staring at theprojection, Lydia walked through the entrance of the cavern and went in thecorridor. Luis could see her movements, for as soon as she stepped out of thefield of vision of one image, another projector showed her shape. When shearrived at the oak door, it opened by itself and let her enter the hugechamber, a part of which now appeared on the wall. Lydia stopped and looked atthe men sitting before the desks. Luis seemed to detect a slight shudder andunderstood her feelings, which he shared. Then the woman walked on, while thecamera followed her up to the door of the room inside which they were. One ofthe men at the opposite side pointed at it. There was a slight noise. Luis andBlatsov turned simultaneously toward the door. It had opened and framed thereal Lydia.

“At last!” exclaimed Blatsov intriumph, getting up and walking to her, but she looked at Luis and said:

“I’ve come to take him with me.”

“He is not important,” said Blatsov.

“Then why have you pursued him withsuch fury?”

“To make you come. I win.”

Lydia looked at him for the firsttime.

“So you are the hacker?”

“Nikomakos is the hacker. I’m only hisavatar.”

“I am Lydia’s avatar, but I also am Lydia.”

“That means that you have risked morecoming here. If I perish, Nikomakos runs no risks, but you do: if you die here,you’ll probably die there too.”

Luis, who had stood up when Lydiacame in, was watching them without understanding. They seemed to be speaking inan unknown tongue, even though he knew most of their words. Looking at themfrom some distance, he saw that they were of the same height, but a curiouseffect made the one he was looking at seem taller and stronger than the other.The contrast between the white clothes of the woman and those black of the manwas so marked as their faces, which seemed to him the incarnation of right andwrong in human shape.

“Why did you want me to come?” askedLydia.

“So that you won’t disconnect theexperiment. If I keep you here, Nikomakos, I in his name, will rule this world.”

“So much work, just to become the rulerof a secondary simulated world! I don’t understand you.”

“You can’t get so much power upthere,” explained Blatsov with a grimace. “Lots of frustrated Napoleons must playsecondary roles. But the advance of science makes it possible to enjoy power insecondary worlds such as this. I intend to keep it.”

“At the cost of the death andunhappiness of many?”

“What are you talking about? Theseare only the characters in a game. Their life and happiness don’t count.”

“They do for me, so I came.”

“Don’t make me laugh! Your altruismhas made you fall in the trap.”

“I can resist, fight you.”

“You won’t do that, for I’d destroythe boy and he’s important for you.”

“Let him go.”

“No. I’d lose my control on you.”

“What if I promise you not to leave,if you let him go free?”

Blatsov watched her with a sardonicsmile.

“I believe I can trust you. Peoplelike you have a sense of duty and usually fulfill their promises; therefore youare at the mercy of people like me, who don’t have those scruples.”

“Is there nothing sacred for you?”

“Just myself.”

“I’m ready to promise. Let him go.”

Although Luis did not understand mostof the conversation, he saw that Lydia was offering her freedom in exchange forhis and tried to protest, but Blatsov didn’t let him speak.

“Just a moment,” he said. “Before youtake a final decision, I want to show you what I have here, so that you’ll knowexactly how things are.”

He walked around the table, took Lydia’sarm with a familiar gesture and led her out of the room. Luis followed, for he didnot want to be left alone. Blatsov walked toward the door in front, but Lydiastopped in the big chamber and stared at the silent identical workers. Blatsovnoticed and turned to her.

“Who are these people?” asked Lydia.

“They are my creation, I mean,Nikomakos’s,” answered Blatsov proudly. “They are similar to your characters, butmuch simpler. We don’t waste effort trying to give them personalities and all thatfoolishness. We make them all equal, thus they are more manageable, that is,more useful.”

“Then these are the zombies of whicheverybody was speaking!”

“Zombies? Ah, I see what you mean!No, they aren’t zombies, they never were alive. They are simple automata, thus ourarmies cannot be overpowered.”

“But they are not all equal,” saidLydia pointing at the guardians at the other door. “Those, for instance, havedifferent faces.”

“I must acknowledge that yourcharacters have some advantages over mine,” replied Blatsov. “They are better forspecial purposes. I have recruited a few and put them in trusty positions.Come, I want to show you a few things that I’ve assembled here.”

He opened the door and went in,followed by the other two. The new chamber was almost as large as the one theyhad just left, but it was not a workplace, rather a store or an arsenal, fullof weapons of every type, many of which Luis could not recognize.

“Cannon,” pointed Blatsov, “machineguns, armored cars, rifles with bayonets. I have hundreds. With these weaponsand these soldiers, what can your Wellingtons, your Napoleons and your Prussianemperors do? What can you do? And you haven’t seen the best. Look!” headded, pointing at a roughly spherical artifact, half a meter in diameter, withits top bored by a groove. “This is my chef d’oeuvre. A uranium atom bomb,a little primitive, but it works. At present I have just this one, but I’llsoon have them in large numbers.”

Lydia seemed to be looking around atthe store and its contents, but Luis noticed that most of her attention wasaddressed at the bomb just mentioned by Blatsov. When the man in black turnedaround and went to the door, with his back to them, she made a sign with hereyes, turned as though to follow Blatsov and extended her hand back with herpalm upwards. Luis understood what she was asking, put his hand among hisclothes, took Jacob’s ladder, broke the thread with a jerk and put the object onLydia’s hand, which closed immediately. Then she got out of the room withoutlooking at him or making any comment on what had happened.

Once again in his headquarters,Blatsov sat at his table and gazed at Lydia with a disagreeable smile.

“How do you like my arsenal?”

“It’s impressive!”

“Will you surrender?”

“With a condition: you must let Luisgo away.”

“I’ll do that if you promise toremain here without offering resistance.”

“I promise that I won’t try to escapenor raise my hand against you.”

“It’s enough! Boy, you may go.”

Luis did not move. He was baffled bythe speed with which the situation was changing, not sure that he should let Lydiasacrifice herself in such a way. Knowing what was on his mind, the woman moved nearhim, put her hand on his shoulder and said:

“Listen carefully: you must obey meblindly. Get out as fast as possible and walk to the end of the gorge outsidethe cavern. Charles and Pierre are waiting for you there. You must leave atonce. Go to the Spanish border by the shortest way, then to Salamanca. Whateverhappens, you must not come back. Understood?”

Luis nodded. Willy-nilly, he knew thathe had to do what Lydia was asking. She made him turn toward the door andpushed him slightly. Without a word, because his voice would have broken, heleft the headquarters, sent a farewell look at Lydia, whom he saw blurredthrough his tears, and walked quickly toward the exit. Nobody opposed his goingout. The oak door opened by itself when he arrived. Two minutes later, he wasoutside the cavern.