Escape! by Ben Bova Read Free Book Online Page B

headed
back toward his room.
    “Tonight,” he told himself.
    It was nearly midnight when he tried it.
    “SPECS, you awake?”
    The TV screen at the foot of his bed instantly glowed
to life, “I DO NOT SLEEP, MR. ROMANO.”
    Danny laughed nervously. “Yeah, I know. I was only
kidding.”
    “I AM NOT PROGRAMED TO RECOGNIZE HUMOR, ALTHOUGH I
UNDERSTAND THE BASIC THEORY INVOLVED IN IT. THERE ARE SEVERAL BOOKS
IN MY MEMORY BANKS ON THE SUBJECT.”
    “Groovy. Look... Dr. Tenny wants to talk to you. Can
you see him here in the room with me?”
    “THERE IS NO TV CAMERA IN YOUR ROOM, SO I CANNOT SEE
WHO IS THERE.”
    “Well, you know Dr. Tenny’s in here, don’t you?”
    “MY SENSORS CANNOT TELL ME IF DR. TENNY IS WITH YOU
OR IF YOU ARE ALONE.”
    “Okay, take my word for it. He’s here and he wants to
tell you something.” Danny flicked the button of his pocket
recorder.
    Dr. Tenny’s voice said, “SPECS, I want you to turn
off all the alarm systems right now.”
    Danny found that he was holding his breath.
    “ALL THE ALARM SYSTEMS ARE SHUT DOWN.”
    Without another word, Danny dropped the recorder onto
his bed and rushed out of his room.
    He made his way swiftly toward the fence. It was a
warm night, and he knew every inch of the way, now that he had put
in so many weeks on the clean-up crew. It was dark, cloudy, but
Danny hurried through the trees and got to the fence in less than
twenty minutes. He had taken an asthma pill just before calling
SPECS, and had the bottle in his pants pocket.
    He got to the fence and without waiting a moment he
jumped up onto it and started climbing.
    A strong hand grabbed at his belt and yanked him down
to the ground.
    Danny felt as if a shock of electricity had ripped
through him. He landed hard on his feet and spun around. Joe Tenny
was standing there.
    “How... how’d you...?”
    Joe’s broad face was serious-looking. “You had me
fooled. I thought you were really starting to work. But you still
haven’t got it straight, have you?”
    “How’d you know? All the alarms are off!”
    Shaking his head, Joe answered, “Didn’t you ever stop
to think that we’d have back-up alarms? When the main alarms go
off, the back-ups come on. And SPECS automatically calls a
half-dozen places, including my office. I happened to be working
late tonight, otherwise the guards would’ve come out after
you.”
    “Back-up alarms,” Danny muttered.
    “Come on,” said Joe, “let’s get back to your room. Or
are you going to try to jump me again?”
    Shoulders sagging, chin on his chest, Danny went with
Dr. Tenny. When they got back to his room, Danny trudged wearily to
his bed and sat on it.
    “So what’s my punishment going to be?”
    “Punishment?” Joe made a sour face. “You still don’t
understand how this place works.”
    Danny looked up at him.
    “You’re punishing yourself,” Joe explained. “You’ve
been here about a month and you’ve gone no place. You’ve just
wasted your time. As far as I’m concerned, tomorrow’s just like
your first day here. You haven’t learned a thing yet. All you’ve
done is added several weeks to the time you’ll be staying
here.”
    “I’m never getting out,” Danny muttered.
    “Not at this rate.”
    “You’ll never let me out. We’re all in here to
stay.”
    “Wrong! Ask Alan Peterson. He’s leaving next week.
And he was a lot tougher than you when he first came in here.
Nearly knifed me his first week.”
    Danny said nothing.
    “Okay,” said Joe. “Think it over.... And you’d better
give me the tape recorder.”
    It was still on the bed, where Danny had left it. He
picked it up and tossed it to Joe.
     

Chapter Fifteen
     
    Danny sat slumped on the bed for a long time after
Joe left, staring at the black-and-white tiled floor.
    A month wasted.
    He looked up at the TV screen. “SPECS,” he
called.
    The screen began to glow, “YES, MR. ROMANO.”
    “You didn’t tell me about the back-up alarms,” Danny
said, with