Never Love A Stranger Part 28

"I think that's it," she said.

James glanced at her. "What do you mean, Annie'"

Annie frowned. "Like I said, James, if you hadn't saved that baby, Kay might have tried. And she would

have died doing it."

"So you believe the fact that I saved that baby somehow changed history'"

"It's the only time you really did anything that could have changed history," Annie said, thinking about it.

"I mean, otherwise you spent most of your time with me. It makes sense, James."

James looked puzzled. "I am not convinced that it would have made a great deal of difference who

brought up Clark, Annie. I know you well enough to be certain that you would make an excellent mother."

"Clark would be better off with his real mother."

"Perhaps. But there is no reason to a.s.sume you would not be a perfectly adequate subst.i.tute. I do not

see how being brought up by you, rather than a woman he could not possibly remember, would make a significant difference in Clark's life."

"What about the baby'" Gar said suddenly.

James frowned. "We were discussing the baby, Gar."

"No, James. The other baby. The one you saved from the fire." Gar frowned at the screen. "What was her name'"

"Madison Stella."

"Let's look her up," Gar suggested, and his fingers moved over the keyboard again.

Annie leaned over James' shoulder as images flashed across the screen. "Stop," James said suddenly, as

a video of a beautiful, blonde-haired woman and a gorgeous, light brown-skinned man wearing formal clothes and beaming flashed onto the screen.

"That is Clark Sterling," he said. Annie stared at the screen. It was a very weird sensation to see someone she knew as a small, helpless baby, transformed into a powerful-looking, handsome adult. And yet she had no difficulty believing that was Clark. His eyes, his smile, were oddly reminiscent of Kay's.

"I thought you were doing a search on the baby girl. Madison."

"We were," Gar said. "This came up in her records."

Annie squinted at the screen more closely. "Is that a wedding gown'"

"Apparently so," Gar said. He pushed a few more keys, and words began to scroll across the screen. He

read them out loud for James' benefit. "Clark Nicholas Sterling married Madison Stella on June 6, 2029.".

James stared at the screen, rapt. "According to the records I remember, Clark Sterling never married."

"He was destined to marry Madison," Annie said. "But in the time you remember, she died in the fire."

James turned his head and regarded her with a serious expression. "Do you believe in destiny, Annie'

You think everyone is destined to only love one person'"

She swallowed. "I believe in destiny, although sometimes I think maybe a person is destined to love ' more than once. But obviously what you did changed Clark's life, James. Since they lived in the same condo building, maybe they grew up together. And eventually they fell in love and got married."

"I suppose that might have had an effect on his political beliefs," James said thoughtfully. "It may have mellowed him to a certain degree. Perhaps he proposed a less extreme version of the Robot Law." "If he did, it obviously didn't change anything," Annie said gently. "Your people are gone in this reality too, James."

"Nevertheless, I wish to research this further. Gar, can you'"

A bell chimed, and James looked up alertly. "We have company."

"Can we hide'" Annie asked.

"They will find us," James said.

"There must be a back door."

Gar shook his head. "There is only one way out of every compartment. Mother'."

His mother stared at him for a long moment, then shrugged. "I will try to hold them as long as possible,

Gar. But there is nowhere you can go."

She strode from the room. Annie stared at the two men, feeling her heart pounding in dread. She didn't want to see James tortured to death. She didn't want to wind up as a puddle on the floor, either. The slight movement of air gave her an idea. "Ventilation," she said. "There has to be a ventilation system, right' It brings in air from the surface. Can't we get out that way, through the ducts'" James shook his head. "The air moves very fast in the main air intake shaft. We would be blown off the access ladder and fall to our deaths." "Okay," Annie admitted. "Not the greatest idea I ever had." She frowned. "Gar's mother said something about high-speed elevators."

"The elevator shafts," James said. He exchanged a look with Gar, and both men nodded.

"Might work," Gar said.

"It's worth a try," James agreed.

It's better than winding up a puddle on the floor, Annie thought.

They crawled out the ventilation duct until they reached a junction which James thought led to an elevator shaft. Before long they came to a tunnel which stretched straight up into bleak darkness. James leaned out into the emptiness, stretched his hands out, and groped. "There is a ladder to the left here," he said. "If we go up, we should eventually get to the surface. But it will be a long and difficult climb."

"How long'" Annie asked.

"I am not certain. We are a long distance underground. It may take hours to reach the surface." "What if we fall'" Annie said nervously.

James glanced back over his shoulder and spoke with perfect seriousness. "Don't."

He pulled his head back into the ventilation shaft. "Gar, you go first. Then Annie. I will follow you both.

If one of you falls, I may be able to catch you."

Gar nodded, then leaned out. He reached to his left and then swung out into the darkness. James looked at Annie. "You next."

Annie gulped. It was black as pitch in the shaft, and if she slipped ' This is no time to lose your nerve, she told herself sternly. She went to the edge of the ventilation shaft and sat there, feeling endless

nothingness beneath her swinging feet. She reached to the left and found the ladder. Slowly she wrapped the fingers of her left hand around it, then her right hand.

"Now swing out," James commanded.

Annie swallowed, then reached out slowly with her left foot. She found a rung, got her toes safely onto it, and left the safety of the ventilation shaft behind. She began slowly climbing. Below her, she heard James' shoes as they stepped onto the ladder.

"Everyone all right'" James asked.

"Fine," Gar's voice said from the Stygian darkness somewhere above her. "But it's d.a.m.ned dark, James." Abruptly a light flooded the tunnel. Thinking they'd been caught, Annie gave an involuntary yelp and looked down. Beneath her she saw twin lights, s.h.i.+ning brightly enough to light up the tunnel for yards in every direction.

She stared down into the dazzle of the light with puzzlement. It took her a few moments to realize that the lights were James' eyes.

His eyes lit up.

It was easy to think of James as a person when he looked and acted like a human. But the fact that his eyes could double as headlights bothered the h.e.l.l out of her. It was downright creepy--an unpleasant reminder that he was a machine, not a human.

She looked away and continued to climb while thinking about her reaction. She knew he'd been built by a designer. So why wouldn't he have features like that' He'd been built as a nanny, and if a child was caught in the dark for some reason, wouldn't a source of light be a sensible thing for a nanny to provide'

She looked back down at the twin beams of light s.h.i.+ning up at her, and despite her efforts to think practically, she s.h.i.+vered. She thought she'd rather be in the dark.

The ladder creaked ominously as they made their way up through the vast concrete tunnel, and small things scuttled to get out of the light. She supposed no one had used this tunnel in a century.

"Why haven't they followed us'" she said at last, after an hour of climbing. Her arms and legs were starting to hurt, and her palms burned. She knew she would have blisters tomorrow.

"If they figured out where we were going," James said in his most reasonable tone, "there would be no reason for them to endanger themselves by following us. They would merely await us at the surface."

"Thanks for that rea.s.suring thought," Annie muttered.

Above her, Gar chuckled. "Don't worry about it, Annie. Mother will find some way to get them off our trail. She may not be a warm person, but family is important to her. She doesn't want to see her only son put to death. Trust me."

"I hope you're'"

As Annie stepped onto a rung it suddenly gave way. Her feet went flying, and despite her frantic efforts to hold on, the full weight of her body ripped her hands from the rung. She felt herself falling through the air.

And then she stopped with a jerk.

James had reached out with one arm and caught her by her waist, as if she weighed no more than a feather. The ladder groaned loudly at the impact, but held. Shaking violently, aware of the cold sweat that had broken out all over her body, she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. "Thank you," she whispered.

He held her for a moment, pressing his cheek against her hair, then helped her scramble back onto the ladder. They continued up, carefully skipping the broken rung.

"It won't be much further," James said at last, a long time later. Annie glanced at the faint glow of her watch and was surprised to discover they'd only been in this tunnel for two hours. It seemed like an eternity. "I can smell fresh air."

Annie sniffed. She didn't smell anything other than the fetid dankness of the tunnel, but she already knew James' sense of smell was better than hers. They continued to climb, and before long she could smell it too. And then a small patch of light appeared above them.

"Your mother said there are cameras all over the surface," Annie said anxiously. "They'll see us the minute we come out."

"Mother is wrong," Gar said. "That's the impression the Bureau has always given, in order to discourage unauthorized excursions onto the surface, but in fact there are very few cameras out there, and the monitors will likely be unmanned, because they were always watched by humanoids. We are actually quite unlikely to be spotted that way."

"The Bureau seems to have been involved in a whole lot of deceptions," Annie said as she scrambled up the last few rungs.

"No one regrets that more than I do," Gar said softly.

They paused while Gar pushed aside a metal grate. Dazzling white light flooded Annie as she scrambled out of the tunnel and dropped gratefully onto the ground.

"h.e.l.l," Gar said.

"That does appear to be a reasonable a.s.sessment of the situation," James responded grimly.

Annie lifted her head and looked around. "Didn't you know'" she asked.

"No," Gar answered. "I've never been outside before."