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up as the water started to get up to our mouths.
"Hurry up!" I blubbered.
A face looked down at us from above. It disappeared a moment, then returned. "Hold on, we're having
to raise the elevator by hand."
The water was too high for us.
We started coughing as it overtook us, rising up over our noses. Then the elevator jerked up. The water
dropped and we struggled for air, only to have the water suddenly bubble up over our heads again.
I pushed the short woman struggling beside me up. Even if I can't breath, I thought, at least I can buy
her a few more minutes . As soon as I had pushed her up, her weight was lifted from me and I felt her
thrashing feet graze my scalp. I floated over to Nikki and boosted her up also.
Again, she was suddenly gone.
My lungs felt as if they were bursting. I exhaled under water then bobbed up and grabbed a breath of air
then searched about for the other woman but couldn't find her. I opened my eyes under the water and
looked about. Then I squinted downward and saw her below me. Somehow, she had fallen through the
hole in the top of the elevator and trapped under it, with her eyes closed tightly so she couldn't see to find
her way through the hole I'd broken in it. She had panicked--as anyone probably would--and was now
clawing at the surface directly below me, unable to locate the opening next to her.
I floundered about trying to dive down and finally succeeded in reaching the hole with my fingers.
Grasping its edge, I pulled myself down; my ears popping as water filled them.
I reached through the hole and got a good handful of the woman's hair and pulled her toward the
opening. She was thrashing about as I lifted her up through the hole and managed to hit me in the nose.
Then she relaxed, passed out from lack of oxygen.
I grabbed her limp body around the waist, my lungs feeling as if they'd ruptured as I kicked off the top of
the elevator toward the sparkling surface of the water.
We broke the surface and I passed out.
Chapter 23
By the time Nikki had emptied the brine from my lungs and managed to pump in enough air to revive
me, we were halfway to the rocket port in the fleet of taxis our little driver had rounded up for us.
Unfortunately, his good work was rewarded with only a "thank you." Our driver was on the war path
when we couldn't pay him; I thought maybe he would chew off my knee cap before we got him settled
down.
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When I told him who I was and wrote him an I.O.U.
He finally looked me right in the face and said, "Hey. Wait a minute. You really are that Hunter guy. I
saw the newscast while you were at the prison. It's a shame it interrupted the game--but it was interesting
all the same."
"Yeah. Well, what we'd like to--"
"I think I like your hair better the way it was in the broadcast about your new anti-gravity invention."
"Yeah. Well... I'll make good on what we owe you if you give me your address and--"
"No need," he said tearing up the I.O.U. "Just give me a ride in the first spaceship you build with your
rods. I've always wanted to get into space but been too short."
"That probably won't be right away because--"
"And buddy," he continued, not listening to a word I had said, "if I were you, I'd quit wearing that dress
in public. You've got to think of the image you're projecting."
I stood speechless as he drove off. Then the ribbing from the lab team and Nikki began about my soggy
dress. I felt like I might have been better off leaving them all in the prison.
We finally located a vending machine at the port and Nikki and I both dialed up some plastic unisex
coveralls. The prisoners did likewise and in a few moments, we were outfitted in regular attire and our
prison uniforms and dresses were discarded down a garbage shut. By the time we'd purchased new
outfits for everyone, Nikki and I had run through all the credits in the pockets of our bag lady outfits. I
need to write a note to Dobrynin to pay his bag ladies better so there's more money to spend next
time we roll one.
At any rate, we now looked like paupers rather than prisoners or wayward bag ladies and I was no
longer self-conscious about my outfit.
"Phil," Tom Berrel, one of my old lab group, said as he gripped my arm in his muscled hand, "we gave
you quite a ribbing... But I'd like to say thanks for getting us out of there. There were ready to--"
"No thanks is necessary guys," I said. " I know that you'd have done the same for me. And Nikki did
most of the work anyway. And if I hadn't dragged you all into this in the first place... Tell you what, just
quit talking about that crazy outfit and we'll call it even."
Everyone laughed. The looks of gratitude on the faces of those Nikki and I had rescued was all the
thanks we needed.
With the problems at the stadium, no one in charge seemed to be too concerned about the escape of
sixteen political prisoners even if they knew that everyone hadn't remained in their cells when the prison
flooded. The Warden--whom we'd left sleeping soundly on the floor of one of the cabs--probably
wouldn't be saying anything for another two or three hours, either.
Nevertheless, things were tense since we had several major problems.
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The worst was what we were going to do for transportation.
There were sixteen people we'd released from the prison and Nikki and myself. Even when Jake
arrived, we would only have rides for three people. Though we could stack everyone into the van like a
load of bots, the gravity rods would put too much stress on them if we flew the van and if we didn't,
getting from Miami to Jake's place in Texas would take forever.
Since none of us had money or cards, there was no way to purchase a ride on a rocket. And we
wouldn't dare to try to commandeer a ride; it was too easy for the ground control to change the
destination or even blow up a rocket. Hijacking rides was a thing they did only back in the good old days
of the early 21stCentury. Even though Jake usually carried some money, it was doubtful that'd he'd have
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