I race to the engine room.
Coming down the hall, I can see it forming: a distortion of spacetime that wavers like heat around the fold engine housing. The center grows and darkens, absorbing the light. I pause just inside the doorway to stare at it.
Abruptly, the old man steps out from behind a conduit tower, halfway between me and the hole. His face is livid, eyes bulging. "You fool! Did you think I wouldn't find out? Did you think I wouldn't know, as soon as you decided?" He lifts a gun in his skeletal hand.
"Where did you get that?"
His lips curl back from his yellow teeth. "Your clearances are my clearances."
I set my jaw. "Everything that you've told me has been to manipulate me."
"To keep you from destroying yourself!"
"Until I go through the hole, we'll stay stuck in this cycle forever."
"Yes," he says, with fevered eyes, "think of it! Together we can possess eternal life!"
I recoil. "This is no life." Then, edging to the left, "You won't shoot me... you can't."
He scowls. "I've done it many times before."
Suddenly another voice cuts in.
"I've heard enough." It's Mori. She enters a few paces to my right, a gun leveled from her hip. "Put it down old man."
He shifts his eyes to her, face twisting with rage.
"You can see him?" I ask, shocked.
"Go, Captain," she says, "get to the hole."
The old man makes a growling whine, like a trapped animal. There is a flash of light and a loud report. Mori drops to the floor, halfway behind a bank of control panels. I dive in next to her as more shots fly overhead. My hands feel wet. I look down to see a pool of blood forming. Mori lies next to me, choking – a gaping hole in her chest.
"Chiasa!" I lift her up halfway, supporting her head.
She presses her gun into my hand, wincing, and she's gone.
Blasts are pounding into the control panels, raining bits of crylate and metal down on us. My ears are ringing. I hear a shout.
"Nwovock!"
Looking to the adjacent corner of the room I see the boy, weaving toward me behind cover, fear on his face. The shots stop for a moment – the old man has seen him too. I have to act quickly.
I leap up and fire. My second shot is on target. The old man spins and crumples; his gun caroms away.
The boy jogs toward the loophole, gesturing to me anxiously. I drop the gun and follow.
The old man shouts after me. "You fool!" He draws a ragged breath. "You've killed your own conscience! If you go through that hole you'll die forever!"
I pause, swallow, and look back. "I know." Then taking the boy's hand, I step through.
[Jump to part 11: Out of the Loop.]
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