Crispin grabbed his stun gun and hid behind a display cabinet. A ray gun was no use in a confined space and a stun gun was the only alternative. Peter had explained the principle. You stunned your adversary with the gun and finish him off with a knife. Fortunately, neither was necessary. The footsteps turned out to be human. Tom appeared. To Crispin's amazement he had a crimson cloak draped over his shoulder.
'Where did you get that?'
'From a death troll.'
'How?'
'I killed him. He belonged to the surgeon who did my implant.
'Are you sure?'
'Yes. I can give you his address. Third row in the racks, fourth jar on the right. Cocky sort of fellow. Very pleased with himself. He tried to tell me that getting a new surrogate was no great shakes.'
'No great what, Professor?'
'Shakes ... it's another way of saying not very hard.'
'But it takes years to train a death troll. They start when they are very young. 3R4R will be furious.'
'Who?'
'The surgeon. It's his nickname. They get them from their positions in the racks. He is one of the top guardians.'
'That's interesting,' Tom grinned, 'because he came here to kill you.'
'3R4R came to kill me!'
Crispin paled and his hand shook, sending his baton of command gliding over the control screen. Tom placed a constraining hand on his arm.
'Don't worry. I'll pull the plug on the sod.'
'Do what, Professor?'
'Disconnect his life-support system. We know where he is. All we have to do is nip in there and rip out the tubes that are keeping him alive.'
'It might not be that easy, Professor.'
'We will find a way, Crispin.'
Tom turned his attention to the screen on the wall. It showed the Elm Grove West Correctional Centre. The scene was in black-and-white with the usual colour coding. Crispin had zeroed in on the pod park. His sister, Liala, was there with about twenty girls dressed like her. They had people in prison uniforms with them and were boarding one of the pods.
'You've just coded the pod brown, Crispin.'
'Sorry.' Crispin changed the colour back to blue. 'I must have done it when I got a bit distracted just now. It's a combat pod, heavily armed and capable of carrying fifty trolls. Liala should be able to put a hundred people on it ...'
A shout from Peter caused Crispin to freeze.
'Death trolls!'
He glanced at the security screen.