Nothing happened.

  The brick didn't slot inward. It didn't budge at all. He pushed again and again. He leaned all his weight on it and strained every muscle.

  The brick remained fixed in one place. Had it malfunctioned or something? What would his friends think when they got out into the tunnels and realized he couldn't get out of his cell? Could they open his cell from the tunnel side? They wouldn't be able to, because none of them knew which cell he was in.

  Richmond had no choice but to go back to his bed, sit down, and stare at the brick while he thought this whole thing through. He couldn't get out of this cell. He was trapped inside the Necrodrome--again.

  He'd still be sitting here tomorrow night when the Lilri came back for him. They'd send him back to the arena. Yagni didn't know about the tunnels, either. He and Yagni would be the only two prisoners left.

  Richmond flatly refused to sacrifice anyone. He'd rather face the Lilri fighter craft again.

  He sat on the edge of the bed for hours and turned the whole puzzle over in his mind. Did the Vasyke find out about the marked bricks leading into the tunnels? They might have known about the tunnel system all along. No one had to spell it out for them. Necrodrome prisoners had been disappearing from their cells for decades, or maybe even centuries.

  Why did the Vasyke let it go on for so long? Why not stop it? Why would they run the risk of Richmond and his allies finding out about the tunnels?

  The Vasyke must have realized after the allies' last escape that they had figured it out. Now, because of Richmond, the Vasyke had finally taken steps to make sure no one else ever escaped that way again.

  Richmond stretched out on his bed, but he couldn't sleep. He stayed awake, staring into the darkness. Now he was back in the Necrodrome for real. He couldn't pretend he was free.

  He had to come up with some other way of escape.

  CHAPTER 3

  Richmond's heart sank when he stepped into the holding cell. All his friends stood there waiting for him.

  They crowded in a corner opposite the hangar wall. The friends talked in low whispers even though they were the only people here.

  "The Vasyke are onto us now," Zuna murmured. "That's the end of the tunnel system."

  "It was too good to last anyway," Niur grumbled. "We should have known they wouldn't let us get away with that a second time."

  "Prisoners have been escaping through the tunnels for years," Zuna pointed out. "Now that opportunity is gone. Innocent people will die because of us. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

  "The only thing that matters to me is getting out of here with my life," Niur fired back. "I'm not responsible for anyone else who may or may not come through this shithole after me."

  "What are you talking about?" Yagni asked. "What tunnels?"

  "Never mind," Richmond told him. "It doesn't matter because we can't escape that way. Our only chance is the emitters."

  "We can't pull the same trick again that we pulled last time," Zuna pointed out. "The Vasyke must have reinforced the emitters more than before--and the rotary guns up there are going to be an even bigger problem. They'll target anyone who goes into the stands."

  "We'll just have to try it," Richmond pointed out.

  "I meant what I said yesterday, Captain," Yagni added. "If it comes to the Vasyke launching fighter craft, I'll sacrifice myself[?]--"

  The whole group erupted in protests. Richmond didn't have to say a word; the rest of his allies said it for him. They made it clear to Yagni that him or anyone else sacrificing themselves was never going to happen.

  "Just tell me one thing," Richmond finished. "When this is all over, do you want to leave the planet or stay behind?"

  Yagni blinked at him. "What?"

  "We're leaving the planet. I'm taking my men here back to the Chronon Vanguard. The rest of the allies want to come with me. You're more than welcome to come, too, but I need to know what you want to do."

  Yagni frowned. "I never thought about it. I'm not sure[?]--"

  The wall interrupted him by slamming up into the ceiling. "You'd better make up your mind pretty quickly," Richmond told him. "If you stay behind..."

  He broke off and didn't finish when the old announcer entered the hangar. Temobos didn't come this time.

  Richmond and the others gathered around to not listen to the briefing they had all heard a million times before.

  He realized too late that he probably shouldn't tell Yagni what would happen if he stayed behind. He could think of a lot of ways someone staying behind could benefit their escape attempt.

  One person could go up into the stands and blow the emitters while everyone else took off for orbit. The friends wouldn't have to go down and collect the person before they launched the way Richmond had had to go back for Zuna.

  He decided not to tell Yagni that. Yagni already had this ridiculous notion about sacrificing himself for the group. He might decide to stay behind for that instead of really wanting to stay on Narillia.

  Richmond only paid attention to the briefing so he would know when it ended. His mind turned on all the different ways he might be able to get out of here. The screens, the emitters, and the energy field all presented an insurmountable obstacle.

  There was one other option the friends still hadn't explored--the Lilri fighter chute.

  The announcer left and the guard screen evaporated. The friends separated to their ships.

  Richmond flew out onto the course and immediately tried to use his communications system to contact the Thalek compound. He didn't know if the former Thalek wounded were still there and monitoring him. He could blow up the Necrodrome whenever he wanted, if he could just make contact with someone at the compound.

  He couldn't contact the compound. He couldn't contact anyone outside the Necrodrome. So that possibility went out the window, too.

  He swooped around the arena, pretending to trade shots with his allies. They didn't put up a very good performance. No one in their right mind could think the friends were actually fighting each other.

  Richmond climbed higher, spiraled above the maze, and eventually left the course far below him.

  He circled to the fighter chute and scanned it. The energy field covered that too, but what if...?

  He dropped lower toward the mouth of the chute. Lilri fighter craft entered the arena through this opening. The fighters either had a way to pass through the energy field from one direction and not the other, or...

  He steered his ship a little lower. His heart stopped when he spotted Lilri fighter craft plunging up the chute and coming straight toward him.

  He didn't even have time to warn anyone or get out of the way before the fighters unloaded on him. Their white-hot electric gunfire blasted out of the chute, pounded his ship in the nose, slapped it sideways, and then punched through the outer hull.

  The ship cartwheeled away from the chute opening as dozens of Lilri fighters rocketed into the arena. They spread across the Necrodrome to hunt down the allies one after the other.

  Richmond didn't see a thing, especially not when five fighters surrounded him and hammered him backward toward the stands. He did his best to return fire, but the fighters' endless shots shorted out his controls. He could still fly, and he could see everything on his scanners, but his weapons didn't respond the way they should have.

  He glanced around for help--and his blood ran cold when he saw his friends all falling under hellish Lilri bombardment.

  Niur plunged into the maze and ran rings around the Lilri to keep away from them.

  Zuna's enormous engines outpaced the Lilri, but she always ran into other fighters in other parts of the course, no matter where she went.

  Hayes and Leatherwood pulled Niur's trick, but they did it in the open course. The two men dodged, wove, and streaked past obstacles, around buildings, and through bottlenecks to get away from the Lilri. The men had to spiral around more fighters just as much as they dodged the rest of the barriers in their path.

  The Necrodrome's rotary guns joined in with the fighter shots to create a deathtrap of blind corners, shooting galleries, and near-impossible mazes of different objects, enemies, and explosions. Hayes and Leatherwood kept racing away at top speed, left clusters of Lilri behind, blasted through others, flew into Lilri gunfire, and skated away without getting caught.

  Richmond didn't see Fadek and Yagni. His blood ran cold when he spotted Aemon.

  Twenty Lilri had caught him by himself near the gate. Richmond had been paying attention to the chute and didn't see what Aemon was doing over there. He tried again and again to punch through the wall of Lilri gunfire, but they always hammered him back.

  Richmond yanked his helm hard to the side and banked into a dive to go help Aemon. He didn't get there in time before another shot came from inside the hangar.

  It hit Aemon's ship from behind at the same instant as Lilri fighters hit it from the front. The ship detonated.

  "No!" Richmond roared, but it was all over in an instant.

  He slumped over the controls, still yelling himself hoarse. "No!"

  He barely noticed when the bout ended. No way did that bout last an hour, but he didn't care. He crumpled in his seat and let his head fall on his arms. He didn't even care about the soldiers coming out onto the course to take the prisoners inside.

  Not Aemon. Why did it have to be him? Richmond couldn't even count the number of times Aemon had saved his life. It was one of the very first things Aemon had done when he joined the alliance.

  He had become such a pillar of this alliance. Richmond had trusted Aemon to his core. Richmond had never doubted Aemon--not since the very first day they met. The same solid feeling of certainty rested on Aemon that Richmond had experienced with Niur when Dovo accused Niur of trying to kill his friends.

  Richmond had never questioned Niur, and he had never questioned Aemon. He'd proved himself too many times.

  A loud, metallic bang brought Richmond back to the harsh reality.

  "Come on out of there!" the soldiers ordered. "The bout is over! It's time to come out."

  Richmond activated the bridge controls to send himself outside. He really didn't want to go back to the holding cell--not if he wasn't going to see Aemon there. But had to go back in there. He had to see that Aemon was not there.

  What would the allies do without Aemon? What would he do without Aemon?

  Richmond cringed when he thought about any of his people dying. Could he really stand to see Zuna die--or Hayes, or Leatherwood? He didn't want to see Niur or Fadek die, either. He was betting everything on these people.

  Aemon. The guy had been as solid as anyone Richmond had ever served with.

  So many names and faces came back to him--good people who'd died to give Richmond a chance. They were all gone now.

  He staggered back to the holding cell. He couldn't look at his friends. He turned his face to the wall and rested his forehead against it. He couldn't do this anymore. He couldn't face it.

  He actually considered in that moment if he should accept Temobos' offer. Turning to the dark side would be better than losing anyone else.

  He should have accepted that offer the first time Temobos had made it. Aemon would be alive right now if Richmond had only accepted it.

  None of his friends tried to talk to him. They didn't try to pull him back into conversation. No one said anything.

  Aemon--gone. Richmond swallowed a lump in his throat.

  He had been thinking from the beginning that he could only repay these people for their help by taking them off the planet. He owed Aemon his life dozens of times over. Richmond would never be able to repay that debt now. He'd failed.

  He barely paid attention to his friends at all when the Lilri took him back to his cell. He only stayed upright long enough to carry his food tray to his bed. Richmond set the tray on the floor, stretched out, and shut his eyes. He didn't even bother to eat or do his workout.

  That moment brought him the closest he'd ever come to giving up. He couldn't do this. He couldn't face losing any more of his people. He'd thought he could, but they had all come to mean too much to him.

  He never should have put them in danger like this. He shouldn't have put the Gria in danger, either. What in the world was he thinking?

  He shouldn't use the communications system to contact the Thalek compound to blow the Necrodrome--assuming he ever got his hands on any communications equipment he could actually use.

  He should use any communications equipment to contact the Chronon Vanguard. He should have done that first when he took control of the Thelak faction. He should have done it the minute Madoc had offered to help Richmond steal a Lilri fighter craft.

  He never should have engaged in any kind of armed conflict with anyone. He never should have put his people in danger by doing any of this.

  He rolled over and turned his face to the wall. He couldn't eat. This wretched misery chewed away at his insides.

  Nothing was worth this--not rebellion, not escape--not even his own freedom was worth these people's lives. When was he ever going to learn that?

  CHAPTER 4

  Richmond snapped wide awake in the dark. He had been dreaming about the desert. He was back with the Gria.

  He relived the moment when Datun drew the diagram of the marked brick on the cave floor. That image seared into Richmond's brain.

  He couldn't stop seeing it even after he woke up and opened his eyes. He couldn't remember anything else about the dream except that.

  His mind raced while he sat up and swung his feet off the bed. That diagram, it meant something--something more than a brick in the cell wall.

  He accidentally put his foot down on top of his food tray. He stepped on and squashed the tangle of fibers, but he didn't care about that. He picked up the tray and studied it closely in the dark. The tray was made of flimsy metal barely thick enough to hold its shape.

  Richmond's brain turned a few more somersaults. He touched dozens of pieces of metal every day--weapons, ship controls--he couldn't count them all. He could have taken something else from the Necrodrome, but why bother when he had this tray right in front of him?

  He scooped off the tangle of fibers and threw it on the floor. He never liked those things anyway. He only ate them because he thought he had to.

  He stuffed a few of the fruit balls into his mouth, put the packaged cake on his bed, and turned the tray over and over in his hand while he studied it from every angle. He could do this. It had to work.

  Richmond put the tray on the floor and stared at it for a while before he decided how to proceed. He didn't know for certain if it would work, but he had to try right now--tonight--before he went back to the Necrodrome. He couldn't take the chance that someone else in his party would die on his watch.

  Richmond got to his feet and stepped on the tray. He positioned his foot to match some of the ridges separating the tray's indented sections. The tray bent along the ridge between the sections.

  He stepped on the tray again and again to flatten all the other sections. The metal crushed easily under his weight. He left that one line of metal intact at the far righthand edge of the tray. The metal even tore in spots when his foot pressed it out of shape. The tray tore along that line.

  He bent over, put all his weight on his foot, grabbed the tray, and ripped it up with all his strength. He had to sweat and strain, but he succeeded in tearing it along that line until he'd ripped off a one-inch strip of flexible metal.

  He took the strip to the wall, knelt down in front of the marked brick, and went to work. He bent, twisted, and tugged the strip from one side to the other, pinched the corners to shape them at right angles, and eventually worked the strip into the same shape as the mark on the wall.

  The Lilri had created this system. They'd built the tunnels. They'd built the cell walls with the latch mechanisms and moving wall sections so prisoners could escape.

  Did he dare to hope they'd taken it one step further? Why would they go to all that trouble without giving themselves a fallback plan?

  They wouldn't. Zuna thought the Lilri had built the tunnels for themselves. They'd done it because they expected the Vasyke to imprison them here. The Lilri had thought they were the ones who would be confined here.

  They'd risked a lot to build this tunnel system and all its moving parts. They would have covered every possible contingency--including that the tunnels would become inaccessible someday.

  The Lilri would have given themselves another way out. They must have.

  Richmond pushed the bent strip against the marked brick. The strip matched the diagram exactly.

  He got to his feet...and turned around. Lilri soldiers moved around in the corridor outside, but their movements barely disturbed the catacombs at this time of night.

  He tiptoed to the door. Would this flimsy piece of metal be strong enough to turn a lock?

  He sank down on his knees in front of the door, shut his eyes, and puffed out his cheeks in a shaky breath. He had to try it.

  He groped his fingertips to the lock, slipped the strip into the hole, and very carefully angled it deeper into position. He couldn't put much pressure on the strip without bending it out of shape. He tilted it every time he encountered even the smallest resistance.

  The shape followed the lock exactly. He turned it this way and that. The right angles allowed him to feed the strip all the way in.

  He had to stop and catch his breath again. It touched the very deepest point. The pattern didn't have any more angles to insert.

  He wiped his sweaty palms on his pants, took a deep breath, and turned. The strip did bend, but not before the lock clicked.

  Richmond froze at that sound. Would the Lilri hear it and come to investigate?

  He waited longer than he should have before he dared to ease the door open. It creaked slightly. He had to ease it open an inch at a time. He paused each time to strain his ears for the slightest sound outside.

 

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