“If anyone’s interested,” Nora said to no one in particular. “I now hate robots.”

She was, of course, speaking to me. Now that the robots had been taken care of, and neither Sy nor August were in any condition to be roped into small talk, there was just the two of us.

I moved around the control room, checking for other doors that we might have missed. Not just because we needed to get out of this crazy place, but also I didn’t want any more of those robots sneaking up on us. But unless a secret hatch was well camouflaged, the only way in was that curved stairway.

Nora had her own agenda. She systematically worked her way around the room, looking at every console station, each covered with buttons, dials, and video screens.

I agreed with her opinion. I wasn’t too fond of those robots, either. What bothered me the most when we hauled them from the room and tossed them over the railing all the way down into that pool of water, was the behavior of the one who had shot Helen and Darlene. He kept saying the same thing over and over.

“We must process the arrivals. You don’t understand.”

He was right. We didn’t. We didn’t understand anything.

I think it would have been better if he—and really, I should be calling him an it—had begged for his life. I might have been less cavalier in helping Nora dispose of the robots in such an admittedly vengeful manner. And then there was the other one, who Nora had conked on the head. It was pretty much out of commission, although its right hand twitched about madly as if it were operating a ten-key adding machine.

Before heaving them over the railing, we’d stripped the robots of their uniforms so we could wrap up Sy and August for, I guess, protection. Their lumpy, glistening, tentacled bodies seemed so vulnerable. Next, we brought up one of those wheelbarrows and placed them in it.

I also wanted them bundled up so they wouldn’t keep staring at me with those huge, moist eyes. Unblinking and analytical. I couldn’t be sure that they were still able to think, but if they could, I have no doubt Sy would be imploring me to help him, while August would be plotting and scheming. Though, still, I could see their tentacles moving around under the robots’ outfits.

And then something caught my eye.

I had completely forgotten about that device the robot had used to shoot Sy and August. I bent down to pick it up. Maybe it had a reverse setting. But, no. There was just one button. I aimed it at a blank wall, away from those two things in the wheelbarrow. I pushed the button.

Nothing.

“Hey, careful with that thing,” Nora said, looking over.

I tried again, but it didn’t do anything. Maybe it only worked when held by robots. Or was it out of power?

“Busted?” Nora asked. “So, what is it anyway? Squid ray? Because that’s just stupid.”

“It affects something called a tau field.”

Then Nora paused, furrowing her brows.

“Tau? Like the Greek letter?”

“I have no idea how it’s spelled,” I said. “All I know is that was what the robots called it.”

Nora crossed over to a console panel she had already examined.

“Because that’s what it says here,” she said, tapping her finger beside a dial. “Tau Field Dampener. T-A-U.”

I walked around and peered over her shoulder.

The dial went from zero to 10. It was currently set on 4.

“Turn it all the way down to zero,” I suggested.

“That’s an affirmative.”

When she dialed it to zero, I noticed a deep drone, almost inaudible, soften and then die.

“Tau Field Dampener off,” she said. “How are the squids doing?”

I partially uncovered them, not wanting to see those eyes looking back at me.

Nora leaned across the console to see better. We watched and waited.

“Sy told me all about his accident,” she said, suddenly breaking the silence.

“His what?”

“You know, his…. Maybe he didn’t tell you? He died.”

I turned around to stare at her.

“What are you talking about?”

“Sy had an episode,” she said, looking away from me. I guess I had quite the expression. “On the elevator ride up here. It looked exactly like that time when I saw August back in La Vida Tower when he tried to escape. Parts of him losing, you know, human form.”

“But Sy left the building all the time.” This was getting crazy.

“Always with Saligia. Right? She and her mind powers. And now, he needs you.”

“Well, I’m right here.” I looked down at the wheelbarrow. Maybe if I poked him. “By your logic, the both of them should be benefiting from my proximity.”

“Hey, don’t yell at me,” Nora grumbled. “I don’t claim to know everything.”

Could that be true? I mean, Nora was right in that Sy never left La Vida Tower without Saligia.

I wish I knew the rules about all this nonsense.

Nora walked over to join me.

“It was a few years ago,” she told me. “A meteor. I mean, that’s how he died. Hit by a meteor.”

“Ah,” was all I could think to say. The thing was, Sy getting struck by a meteor seemed the least unlikely thing I’d heard today.

I squatted down, getting closer to the two swaddled figures in the wheelbarrow. Nothing seemed different about them.

“I wish we could tell them apart,” I said. “Then we could separate them. I’d hate to have them transform back only to have August take us by surprise.”

Nora got down on her knees and peeked under one of the white jumpsuits at a squid.

“Aren’t you supposed to be able to read minds?”

I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that.

I took a deep breath, made my mind clear and receptive. I closed my eyes.

But I just felt silly. Without Saligia, I never felt confident that the thoughts and impressions that came to me were external, and not just my imagination.

I wish she were here to help me.

Wait.

There was something. Something so slight. Two impressions. That cold, sharp darkness I associated with August. And a single phrase, zapped by a robot, which could only be Sy. Maybe if we placed them on different sides of the room, I’d be able to identify which was which.

“Can you communicate with them?” Nora asked. “Ask Sy if he knows how to bring him back. You know, with your mind powers.”

All I could do was shake my head and sigh.

I was in over my head.

Maybe Nora was right. Maybe that was something I could do…if I just knew how. But everything seemed beyond my understanding. I suddenly felt more lost than I had ever been before. I mean, those two robots. What I had done to them…that wasn’t me.

A single tone rang out, sounding like a child’s xylophone.

Nora rushed over to one of the consoles.

“In-coming,” she said, in a sort of clipped speech straight from a war movie.

She was enjoying this entirely too much.

“In-coming?” I crossed the room. “What does that mean?”

“Says it right here on this screen,” Nora said. “In-coming. Tier 18.” She leaned down to better see a line of flashing text. “Chaos Squad. Oh, I guess the contestants from New York are coming through. Exciting!”

I stood beside her as she activated a video monitor for Tier 18. We watched three dozen fit men and women with no-nonsense buzz haircuts as they stepped from their glass tubes with cautious deliberation. They were all dressed in colorful skintight unitards.

“Do you know the show?” Nora asked.

What was that girl talking about.

“That Chaos Squad show,” she added.

I just shook my head.

“I’m guessing it’s competitive,” she said. “Maybe like gladiatorial bouts in ancient Rome. I mean, that robot boss said the show was violent.”

The people got out of the tubes and looked at one another with obvious suspicion.

“I think they’re confused,” Nora said. “Other than the obvious, that us. I think winners and losers are materializing next to one another. Now I know why the robots would want the people coming into this place to be helpless little squids. Do you think they’ll start fighting?”

I suggested that we could go down and talk to them. See how we could all work together and get out of here.

“Let’s think this through,” Nora cautioned me. “Now I’ll be the first to admit I know nothing about the television business, but when I hear Chaos Squad, I’m not thinking allies. We need to assess. Learn the rules.”

She had my attention.

“So, you have a plan?” Why was I even asking? She had no plan.

“Well, I don’t mean to pull rank, but I did come to rescue you. Now, if we can only find a volume knob for this Tier 18 camera.” She moved her head about like a chicken looking for a bug. “Ah ha! Those robots thought of everything.”

She pushed a button and we had sound. I was impressed.

We were now able to hear the murmuring of all those people who had appeared in every one of the 36 glass tubes on the 18th level. These contestants wore either a purple uniform or a yellow uniform. Different teams?

Two men, closest to the camera, in opposing colors, squared off, fists at the ready.

“So, you miserable losers have followed us to Valhalla?” asked the one in purple.

“I guess we’ve been given a second chance to mix it up with you villains,” replied the one in yellow.

I had to say these contestants from New York certainly were more lively than ours. However, their commentary sounded extremely stilted. Especially that bit about Valhalla. All part of the Chaos Squad experience, I suppose.

“Something’s gone wrong,” the purple one said. “This was not what we were promised.”

“That’s because it was lies—all lies!” the yellow one shouted, looking around for someone to punch.

“You’re right,” said another man in yellow, stepping forward. “We all need to join forces. Find our common enemy!”

Did they think they were still on a TV show?

“We will unite!” a woman in purple screamed and raised a fist.

She was answered, unanimously, by the others.

“That doesn’t sound good,” I said to Nora, no longer thinking it wise to head down and reason with them.

“Nope.” Nora was in full agreement. “It sounds awful. I kinda wish we had those robots back.”

“Brothers and sisters!” shouted another Squad member—though shouldn’t the show have been called Chaos Squads, plural? “It’s us against them. Spread out, find the vermin, and eradicate! Take no prisoners!”

With battle cries they took to the stairs and elevators.

“This is all because we turned off the field dampeners,” I said.

Nora nodded and turned the dial all the way up.

“This’ll fix ‘em,” she said.

However, the Chaos Squad were unaffected.

“Or not,” she added.

“Thoughts?” I asked, trying not to let my panic show.

“Hold on,” Nora said. “Hold on.” She walked down a row of control consoles. “I know I saw something, somewhere, that might just…ah. Here.”

She held a finger over a large red button.

“Well?” I asked.

“It says Control Room Lockdown.” She cocked a brow. “What do you think?”

“Do it!” But I did wonder if there was another button, somewhere, that read Control Room Unlock.

When Nora pushed the button, a curved metal section slid out of the wall and rotated around to cover the staircase. It locked shut with a dull clang, followed by a heavy thud, as though some huge bolt had been slid into place.

“Snug as a bug,” Nora said, doing a little dance. “Who needs robots. Right?”

But all I could think of was that now we were trapped. No food. No water. Would the air run out? Trapped somewhere deep underground, the only elevators to the surface have been shut down centuries ago. If that was even possible.

“In-coming,” Nora cried out.

“Would you stop that.” I was trying to think.

“There are more contestants coming through. Some show called I’d Eat That! Sounds like it’d be kind of funny, don’t you think?”

Nora reached out and turned the dampener dial to zero.

“But why?” I asked.

“I don’t know. It just seems like we owe it to those new-comers to have a fighting chance. If they come through as those flabby little creatures, they’re doomed.”

I couldn’t argue.

“Well, at least we have our eyes,” Nora said, patting the video screen. “We can see what’s going on. Just like watching TV.”

She was not wrong. Though, as the hours passed, it was not a pleasant show to watch.