Part 10: PB James and the Man at the Top

Part 10
His lungs sputter dry and reach for air but there is only blackness inside the chamber. He pushes and kicks at the hatch but it doesn't budge and his strength fades with the oxygen. He scratches and punches and begins to lose consciousness when a bright purple light flashes through the chamber, pulsing once over the length of his body.
PB is confused and blinded when the top of the chamber pops open and he is able to crawl out. He chokes as he fills his lungs with stale air. Once he's recovered he slowly opens the room door and scans the empty hallway outside. He makes his way back to the stair well and it is quiet and undisturbed.
He limps up one floor and then another. He struggles to listen for anyone approaching and peers down halls that are vacant and identical. He presses his luck until he no longer encounters a floor, just a door. He pushes through the door and it is all sunlight and fresh air.
He stands on a porch built sturdily into the rock of the dome top and looks over the entire valley. All the land he has inhabited over the last few days looks miniature, like a model, everything vivid and made of plastic. He scans the far off mountains and contemplates his next move when he spots another wooden porch built into the granite a good fifty feet down the side of the dome below him. There's a flower bed and comfortable deck chair sitting on the lower porch and PB marvels at what sort of sinister secret fortress also has high end condos built into it.
As he peers down a woman emerges from somewhere out of sight and walks on to the porch. PB ducks down but continues to watch and when she turns around to go back inside he see it's Sam. He leaps up and is going to call out but she disappears off of the porch again.
There is a metal hand rail around the outer rim of his porch and he climbs over it. He holds on to the rail and sits down with his legs hanging over the ledge. The granite slopes down very steeply but he thinks if he takes it slow he can slide all the way to the lower porch. He begins to scoot down legs first but the granite immediately becomes as smooth as glass and almost vertical and for the second time that day PB is sliding down the face of a mountain in a virtual free fall.
He lands on the flower bed of the lower porch and there is dirt, petals, and smashed clay everywhere.
"You're still alive?"
Sam is looking down at him in the dirt with a face shocked pale and PB appreciates it. He tries to get up but he's broken two of his ribs and it hurts too much.
"Are you alright?" he asks through a groan.
"God, I'm fine PB. How the hell did you get here? I thought they had killed you."
"They tried a couple times. That Bear, the one that hates humans, he came out and broke up one attempt. Then they chased me in a helicopter and then on foot. Who are these people?"
Sam helps him up and sits him down in one of the deck chairs.
"I haven't figured it out yet," she tells him. "They've kept me in this room the last few days. Brought me food and fresh clothes. They brought me out once so I could see my brother, not long after they took you away the first day."
"And how was he?"
"Not good. They hadn't let him sleep or eat and have been drugging him in some way. When they brought me out it broke him. He wrote out his last formula right there and gave it to them."
"For what?"
"I'm not sure. They took me back here right away. I think they are part of some sort of European mob. They all have accents and guns and-"
Sam stops talking and throws her arms around PB, holding him close with the tears in her eyes wetting the side of his head.
"I thought you were dead," she says in a cracked voice and even though her embrace is causing tremendous pain from his ribs PB doesn't protest.
"I thought you were dead," she says again and steps back to look him in the eye.
"I got lucky," he explains, grimacing from the pain. "A couple of hikers from Australia weren't."
Sam wipes her eyes and goes through a sliding glass door to the apartment. PB limps after her and is astonished to find a large furnished apartment with a beautiful fire place and thick carpet and a full spread of bread, cheese, and fruit on the counter. He goes right for the food and begins to stuff his face with it until there's a knock at the door.
"It's them," Sam whispers.
"This is our chance," PB replies but Sam can't understand him because his mouth is too full of food.
He dumps the bread and goes over to the wall to the right of the door with the plate in his hand. He nods at Sam and she tells the person on the other side of the door to come in. PB stays still and watches a skinny Russian walk in with a stack of towels in his arms.
The Russian opens his mouth to say something but before a sound comes out PB has smashed the plate over his head. The man is down on his knees with his eyes rolling back but he's not quite out so PB picks up the cheese plate and smashes that over the Russian's head as well.
"Let's find Abe and get out of here," Sam says and she leads the way out into the hall and to a spiraling staircase. PB limps along, trying to keep up. Just breathing hurts him.
"When they took me to visit him I memorized the way. We have to go down one more level and then left. Hurry up."
Sam explains it all in a frightened whisper and PB tries not to let the pain in his body distract him from being alert in case a gang of thugs should appear around a corner.
Sam takes the left ahead of PB and then pulls back and puts her finger up to her mouth. PB steps passed her and looks slyly around the corner himself where he sees a man in an expensive suit leading a pale skinny man with a stubble and thinning hair who PB assumes is Abe Siegel. The two men enter an elevator and as soon as the doors have closed Sam runs up and looks at the numbers clicking off above the elevator doors. They go up to fifteen and then disappear. Sam hits the button next to the door and when they open and they both get on she hits the button above 15 which has a B on it.
The elevator begins to go up and PB tries to prepare himself for what will be at the top. The Ranger? Ten gigantic foreigners with machetes and chainsaws? What the hell were they going to do?
"Maybe we should have thought this through," Sam mutters but it's too late, the elevator doors are opening.
It is a room with an astonishingly high ceiling, huge and empty, with a gigantic glass window built into the rock. There is nothing in the room except a desk and a couple of chairs. Abe is sitting in a chair in front of the desk and he looks back at them with two sad blue eyes, wide and blood shot. Another man is sitting at the desk as well with his back turned. The chair swivels around and the man grins at them strangely. PB recognizes him immediately.
"Aren't you Bill Gates?" he asks.
"Yes, yes I am," says Bill Gates.

To be concluded in Part 11 on December 16th 2011.