Free The Troll by Brian Darr Page A

in
his hands. He held the key to ending Psi and was moments away from
destroying it. Never in The Troll’s life would he have ever
believed himself to do something so significant.
    He
reached in his inner pocket for the transmitter.
    “ Hey,”
a voice said.
    The
Troll turned, afraid to find one of the bounty hunters there—afraid
The Pilot wasn’t going to follow the rules and would just kill
him instead. Or maybe it was The Poet, ready for revenge. Instead, he
came face to face with a man he’d never seen before—a man
who clearly wasn’t part of Circular Prime.
    “ I’m
The Guide. I assume Surfer told you to find me.”
    “ Yeah…”
The Troll said, letting the transmitter fall back into his pocket. At
the moment, he wouldn’t be able to destroy Rainbow and the
thought made him clam up, displeased to be set back. Especially by
someone that might not be so easy to get rid of.
    “ Good
job coming this far,” The Guide said with a smile. “If
you give me Rainbow, I’ll take it from here.”

Part
2

Chapter 1

    When
The Troll didn’t easily hand over Rainbow, The Guide convinced
him to start walking to put as much distance between them and the
bounty hunters as possible.
    The
first thing the men at Circular Prime were going to do was follow the
paths, and The Guide didn’t want them to be discovered within
moments of their departure. “We need to go in the direction
that seems as if there is no path,” The Guide said, and they
went on their way through what were once fields, far away from the
streets.
    When
they were on their way and The Troll was able to think about his
dilemma and come up with an approach, he finally said, “I don’t
want any help doing this.”
    The
Guide was taken aback and they walked side by side in silence for
half an hour before he finally responded. “I think you will see
is that there is going to be strength in numbers, assuming they don’t
have Psi.”
    “ I
know, but I want to do this alone.”
    “ Why
not give me The Rainbow? We can split up and throw them off. If you
do happen to get caught, I’ll get there.”
    “ That’s
convenient for you,” The Troll said. “I get killed. You
don’t.”
    “ You’re
holding the single most valuable item that the resistance
could possibly have. The fact that you have it outside of Chicago is
a miracle. You know what
The Moderator is banking on?” The Guide asked. “He’s
banking on you failing. I watched the dinner and they don’t
think you have a shot. On the surface, it would seem that way, but
you have help. They wouldn’t have sent you out with the memory
stick if they believed you’d get to Vegas, so you need to be
thinking strategy to defy those odds, because once we shut down Psi,
they can’t touch you. That’s your way out.”
    The
Troll hadn’t truly considered the possibility of success until
that moment. Having The Guide with him gave him a sort of strength he
didn’t expect, but if he wasn’t there, The Troll would
have already transmitted and destroyed Rainbow. Getting the job done
would be as easy as ditching The Guide at some point, maybe in his
sleep, and transmitting when he was alone. But what if he really got
to Vegas?
    He
dismissed the thought. His mind was made up. He wanted to be part of
Circular Prime. He wanted his old life back. He resented that he was
picked for the journey.
    “ I
take it you know Iris?” The Troll asked.
    “ I
don’t know Iris. If I knew Iris, I would have been picked for
this.”
    “ You
actually want to do this?”
    “ Of
course I do,” The Guide said. “Years of trying to find a
way just to get into Chicago have failed us, and this opportunity
just fell in your lap. I would kill to be in your shoes.”
    “ But
if they kill you, what good is it? Especially since they’ll
destroy Rainbow?”
    “ Rainbow
isn’t the only egg in our basket,” The Guide said. “The
Moderator used technology against us, and he won, but if history
proves anything, it’s that