It's My Party

"Three point five seconds," whispered Jessica with a trembling voice. "Really close to three and a half seconds. My God…"

"It's not that bad," Ricardo insisted. "Hernando is carrying a hundred meters of rope. We'll just lower it and crawl down slowly." But his mind screamed at him as he said this. There was absolutely no place to tie down their rope at the top of the tower. The sea-green walls were as frictionless as the slide, and the beveled tops of the walls looked razor sharp. The last person to leave would have to slide freefall.

Damn! Could he trust that last person to follow him? Or did Ricardo have to ride the slide himself, just to be sure the group stayed together? He hated both ideas, hated the thought of risking personal injury and hated the thought of trusting someone. His mind returned to the possibility of walking back home through the foam. This would probably be their last chance. Ricardo didn't give a fuck about saving Diego's life. His only concern was the risk of travelling off the walkway and through the foam. Was it safe?

It was time to bark some new orders. "Hernando! Face the foam and kneel down on all fours. Get your nose right up against it."

Hernando cringed at the command, but Ricardo could kill him with his cane if he disobeyed and probably would. So with a whimper he semi complied, kneeling on all fours but keeping his head about half a meter from the foam. Ricardo shook his head in disgust and genuine fury. Originally he was just going to order Hernando to stick his nose in and take a sniff. But this half hearted attempt to follow orders called for some swift discipline. Ricardo swung his legs over Hernando and positioned himself above and to the rear of the kneeling man's butt.

In one smooth motion, Ricardo dropped his body, slamming his knees into Hernando's ass and driving the man's head forward and into the foam. Meanwhile Ricardo's hands had come up under Hernando's diaphragm and he jerked his thumbs up hard into Hernando's soft midsection, driving the air from the man's chest in an explosive burst. Hernando's reaction was automatic. His head invisible past his neck, Hernando breathed in a great lungful of the foam as he tried to catch his breath.

Knowing that Hernando had taken in a full breath, Ricardo released him and screamed, "Never disobey me again! Never! Do you hear me?! Now stand up!" The man did, panting and turning to Ricardo with a wounded look on his face. Ricardo calmed himself and asked, "Did it taste like anything?"

Hernando shook his head, still panting heavily. "I didn't taste anything. Fucking hell Ricardo! That hurt!"

Ricardo shrugged. "You deserved it Hernando. Complain again and you'll deserve some more. Now what about vision? Could you see through the foam?"

"No!" Hernando was still gasping for breath. "Pale green light everywhere, I couldn't see shit!" He took in several more full breaths and then with a frightened look on his face cried out, "I'm not getting any air!"

Ricardo shrugged. "You'll get over it. I'm thinking we won't go down the slide. We're going to walk back to the pink tower through the foam. We'll lay kilometers of rope if we have to, bring it up from the mall. I don't want to…" He paused and stared at Hernando. The man was drawing in one great lungful of air after another, yet his skin was turning a dusky bluish color.

"Hey compadre," Jenaro said nervously. "You okay?"

"I can't breath!" Hernando screamed.

Jenaro blinked in puzzlement. "What?"

Hernando's eyes glazed over with panic and rage, and he turned his fury on Ricardo. "I've got this fucking shit in my lungs! You fucking moron! You've killed me!"

Ricardo reacted without hesitation or mercy. As Hernando threw a roundhouse punch at Ricardo's head, Ricardo grabbed the wrist and twisted and broke it, spinning the arm up. The pain in this wrist and shoulder drove Hernando off his feet, and Ricardo threw the man headfirst into the foam. The result was totally unexpected. Hernando's body disappeared completely, and the group heard a fading scream as if Hernando had fallen off a cliff. The three remaining people stood on the narrow path in shocked silence.

After a moment Ricardo picked up his cane and tentatively probed the area where Hernando had fallen. He was shocked to find his cane could detect no floor under the foam. The path they were standing on ended at the exact contour of the mounds of foam.

The implication hit Ricardo like a sledgehammer. They had no idea of the true depth of the foam, and from the fade of Hernando's scream, the depth might be enormous, a hundred meters, maybe more. All these hours, they were walking on a thin ridgeline only two and a half meters wide. The gentle rolls of foam had provided the appearance that the foam was only a meter deep and that the floor was everywhere, but it was all just an illusion.

Ricardo took a moment to think. Why hadn't he probed the floor under the foam before? He could have easily when they first entered the maze at the pink tower. It seemed so obvious now, and it would have been such a simple test to make, but it just never occurred to him.

Fucking hell! It was too late to worry about that now! And besides, it was time to get back to exploring. He told his two remaining subordinates of his decision. A frightened Jenaro nodded and started taking the rope out of Hernando's backpack.

Time: Friday, April 1, 2019 11:17 AM

Fifty minutes before system reset, Holly came into the Hilton conference room with a worried look on her face. Absolutely everyone else on the surface in their society was here except Toshi. Holly and Toshi had taken the monitoring night shift earlier, and normally would be turning in soon. But the excitement of the pending reset made sleep impossible, and they volunteered to join everybody at the Hilton and also join the rotation of checking the census counter on the nearby elevator. Toshi had checked five minutes ago and everything was fine. Holly did not have the same experience.

"The census counter dropped by one man," she announced. "The current reading is 008:077."

Mark got up immediately. "I'll check it out." Holly and Toshi decided to tagged along. After a brisk walk to the elevator and a few seconds to type in the code, they arrived at the Red Mall library. Mark quickly headed for a console. He typed for a moment and then opened a channel back to the Hilton. "Citizen Tag ID 49 is no longer in the system. It was one of Ricardo's men, or maybe Ricardo himself."

There was an audible sigh of relief over the network. Charles had been on Pelican Island with a small team earlier this morning. They had reported that their group was all set for the upcoming system reset. The team had signed off more than an hour ago, more than enough time for them to be safely back on the central island, but it was still a great relief to hear Mark's confirmation that they did not lose a member of their society.

Tom spoke up over the bridge from the entrance rooms of Wobanakik. "ID Tag 49? Then it has to be either Ricardo or Hernando. Jessica, Alfonso, and Jenaro were in the first of the two full elevator trips to Black Mall, so their ID Tags must be between 19 and 36."

Mark nodded at his console. "I'm showing ID Tags 24, 26, and 27 are still active. That's them. The two remaining ID Tags for Ricardo's group are 50 and 53."

"Right. I'm ID Tag 54. Charles is #51. We were both on the second trip to Black Mall. Diego was directly in front of me as we entered the elevator. He's ID Tag 53. Charles remembers Hernando and Ricardo being directly in front of him as we entered the elevator. Tags 49 and 50, that's Ricardo and Hernando for sure. But they were walking side by side. We don't know which is which."

Amber spoke up. "It would change everything if Ricardo is dead. But I'm betting he's still alive. Only one person has died, and it's Ricardo who is the natural born killer. He is also extremely careful about his own personal safety. It's much more likely that he ordered Hernando to do something that got Hernando killed." She paused for a moment and then added, "Fatima, this adds to my case that we should probe the barrier at Black Mall. It's been three days since they built it. I'm guessing Ricardo is exploring the surface right now, and Hernando is with him and has just died. The Black Mall barrier must be very lightly defended, I'm guessing by one man."

Fatima nodded. "We'll discuss this at the one o'clock meeting, try to come to a decision."

"But I'm almost certain Ricardo is out exploring the surface now. If we delay, we might be giving him the time to get back to his home complex."

Fatima shook her head. "Absolutely not. I'm not going to risk engaging with Ricardo's forces just when we're doing a system reset on our communications network." She turned to Akiko. "You warned us we might lose everything, right? All the Leophones, the library consoles, the network links at the elevators, everything, right?"

Akiko nodded slightly. "Lynn and I have talked about this quite a bit. The risk is there. Lynn will do her best, but the risk is there."

Fatima turned back to a disappointed Amber and asked gently, "If it is one person guarding their barrier, any guess who?"

Amber shrugged. "Well, maybe a hunch."

"Amber, you seem to know how Ricardo's mind works better than anyone else. What's your hunch?"

Amber sighed. "My hunch is Alfonso. I wish it were Diego but my hunch is Alfonso. My second guess would be Diego. I'd be very surprised if it were Jessica or Jenaro. Hernando has died and the servos are not tearing down the barrier. We know one thing for certain. Hernando was not a lone guard at the barrier."

Fatima nodded and sighed. After a moment she asked, "Mark, Toshi, Holly, are you three going to stay at the library?"

After a moment Toshi answered, "No. We'd like to rejoin you, coming back now." A minute later the three reentered the conference room.

Time: Friday, April 1, 2019 11:45 AM

The transfer down the slide was going smoothly. Jessica was the first to skinny down the rope, and she acted with childlike delight in being able to do something important for her master. Ricardo was so impressed with her devotion that he decided to forgive Jessica for her earlier mistake of speaking out of turn. Just a simple verbal reminder later, that's all she needed.

Their four backpacks went next, two at a time. Lowering them was very easy, and Jessica would simply untie the knots at the bottom and then Jenaro would haul the rope back up for the next trip. But once their gear was down, Ricardo had a decision to make. Who would go next? The answer was obvious. The last person risked serious injury riding the slide without a supporting rope, so that person definitely had to be Jenaro. But how could Ricardo be sure Jenaro would follow him?

Did Jenaro have another option? Would he set off for home? Only Ricardo had the key to unlock Diego from the dead man's switch. Ricardo suspected Diego would insist Jenaro return with Ricardo, or at least with the key. And Jenaro would have to get lucky with the foam maze, very lucky in fact. Ricardo suspected the maze just would not work in the return direction.

But what else could Jenaro do? He could just refuse to come down. Perhaps he would decide to wait it out at the top of the slide for a day or two and hope that Ricardo would abandon him. Then Jenaro could slide down by himself and explore by himself. Ricardo would have Jessica and all their gear, but Jenaro would still be a loose cannon, and that was unacceptable. Hell, fucking Jenaro might even let go of the rope the instant Ricardo was committed to his descent, hoping Ricardo would break his neck in the tumble. Then Jenaro would come down, and if he survived, he could play Adam and Eve with child Jessica. Fucking hell! Jenaro would just love that!

All the guns were down in the backpacks now, but Ricardo still had his cane, and he was supremely confident he could take Jenaro barehanded anyway. Ricardo tapped his cane on the floor and said in a commanding voice, "Jenaro! Take your clothes off, all of them. Get down to buck naked."

"What?! Hey, I don't mean any disrespect man, but it's fucking freezing out here!"

Ricardo shook his head. "No it's not. It feels about 5C now, but it doesn't matter anyway. Strip Jenaro, buck naked. Send everything down the slide. You can pick it up after your slide."

Jenaro cringed but after a final glance at the cane started to comply. He sat down and started to untie his boots. "Hell Ricardo, how about I keep my boots? I'll be better able to support your weight on the rope if I keep my boots."

"I'm not going to argue with you Jenaro. One more word about this and I'm going to flip you into the foam."

The scariest part of what Ricardo said was his tone of voice. It was completely conversational, almost bored, the same tone of voice a man might use to announce he was going to eat bran flakes for breakfast. Jenaro realized that Ricardo was deadly serious and a moment away from killing him, and he always would be. Jenaro's boots and articles of clothes started to go down the slide.

The boots shot off the slide as if launched by catapults, but the clothes were quite gentle by comparison, slowed not by ramp friction but air resistance. As Jessica ran to collect his shoes, a naked Jenaro braced himself with the rope, and before he could think about his options for mutiny, Ricardo went over the lip of the tower.

Ricardo had a very athletic body which weighted about 70 kg, and with the angle at the top of the slide, Jenaro needed to support half of his weight. Ricardo shimmied down the rope rapidly in order to minimize the window in time that Jenaro could put Ricardo at risk. In just a few seconds Ricardo was several meters down the slide and he started to relax. He was out of the danger zone.

Ricardo let go of the rope a few meters from the end of the slide, and Jenaro let go of the rope a second later. He then hung himself off the edge of the top platform, trying to stretch his body and lower his center of gravity as much as possible before letting go with his fingers. Fortunately the ramp seemed to be made of "other stuff", the strange class of alien material that was both unbreakable and seemed to possess a zero heat transfer coefficient. The ramp felt comfortably warm against the front of his body, especially when compared to the very cool breeze that was blowing against his back and butt. Jenaro paused for one last moment before committing himself to the slide.

If he didn't slide down, was there any chance at all of surviving? The best he could possibly hope for would be for the maze to let him through and to get back to Diego in two hours, and Diego would have every incentive in the universe not to let Jenaro in. Hell, what was he thinking? Naked in 5C, he could die of hypothermia. There really was no choice. Ricardo had him neatly bagged. With a soft whimper, Jenaro uncurled his fingers.

He turned on the ramp as he began to slide, sitting up and spreading his arms to maximize his air resistance. His terminal speed was still frighteningly high, and Jenaro curled his arms around his head just as he shot off the ramp. He seemed to bounce forever, but the ground was soft and spongy despite the coldness of the day. He came to rest with nothing worse than the wind knocked out of him. Lying flat on his back and breathing heavily, he opened his eyes and saw Jessica standing above him. She had carried his clothes and boots to him, and seemed to be staring in curiosity at his nakedness.

Their brief moment felt very strange to Jenaro. He had known Jessica for about half a year now, and in their former life, he had a very low opinion of her, a cute face and body maybe, but an incredibly stuck-up conceited bitch. But over the last month she had transformed into an entirely new person. It was almost with childlike innocence that Jessica finally took her eyes off his limp penis and held out his clothes for him to take. Jenaro took them with a nod and dressed quickly, eager to shield Jessica from his nakedness. He paused for a moment as he dressed. Had the death of his friend Hernando changed him? Why should he care if Jessica saw him naked?

Time: April 1, 2019 noontime

It was noontime on the clocks everywhere and also solar noon on the surface at the Great Hexagon, the sun at its maximum altitude for the day and its azimuth at due south. Down at Wobanakik it was still twenty-seven minutes before linear solar noon when the long artificial sun would be at the top of the arch of the cylindrical sky.

Carla was with Tajana and Suvarna in her spacious front bedroom with front-row seats overlooking Wobanakik. Their plan was to be inside when the system reset occurred. Carla glanced at her watch just as Tom joined them in the room. "12:01," she announced. "Reset in twelve minutes. You made popcorn?!"

Tom smiled and nodded and offered Carla the large steel bowl. "It's a secret technique I learned from Madison. When the going gets tough, make popcorn!"

Carla reached out and munched a few kernels. "Does it work?"

"Maddy swears by it, and she has a perfect track record so far."

Carla nodded thoughtfully as she ate the snack. Meanwhile Tom sat down between Suvarna and Tajana, and the two women gave him very friendly smiles. Tom turned to Carla and gave her a shy grin. Their eyes locked for an instant. "Ah, it's great to be loved," Tom thought as the two women cuddled close.

But Carla brushed off his attempt at banter. "You know Tom, I'm still thinking about Madison and her perfect track record. The Society has led a charmed life. You and I have both been in groups that have suffered fatalities, lots of fatalities, but the Society has led a charmed life. I've learned their history. Everyone who has ever joined this group is still alive."

"Yes, it's quite an achievement."

"That's not my point. Fatima, Mark, Jada, all the formal and informal leaders of our society, they never had to face the loss of people under their command. For all its opulence, we're living in an extremely dangerous environment. Close to half of all the people who came here are now dead. And yet we have this group of thirty-six people that seem to be leading a charmed life."

Tom thought back to her in genuine curiosity, "And you're point is?"

"My point is that charms don't work in real life." Carla paused for a moment and then added, "And isn't Suvarna getting a little too friendly with her hand on your thigh? She's almost groping your crotch."

Tom thought back. "Agreed." He broke his link with Carla and returned to normal time, patting the back of Suvarna's hand while briefly linking with her. Suvarva took his request gracefully and removed her hand. Carla sighed.

Carla remembered her first few days with Tom here at the entrance rooms. They were alone together and Tom was very interested with having a romantic relationship with her. But this went against the core of Carla's military training. They were on a mission. Developing friendship was fine and appropriate. Becoming romantically attached was not. The principle had been drilled into Carla's thought processes. She did not become a marine to find a husband. Missions were most definitely not extended dates.

Tom thought about her feelings and asked if her training might be obsolete given their unique circumstances. They wound up discussing the issue for an entire evening, spending many subjective hours in each other's minds and then finally coming to a compromise. Their ability to link made the work easy. There was no place to hide their true feelings within the linked thoughts, and Carla openly confirmed her emotional and sexual interest in Tom.