111 Warehouses (2/2)

Just a single look inside one of those doors made him understand why this was so.

'It's a warehouse. The entire damn thing is a warehouse! Why didn't I think of that before?'

Crates and crates of objects filled every inch of each room. There were only one or two guards in the entire place, so every time that they weren't looking, Daneel went into as many of the large doors as possible. Most of them were filled with those unmarked wooden boxes, but some had huge objects whose purpose he couldn't figure out. Some of the objects looked like pointed excavators that might have been used for drilling tunnels back on earth, and some were uncomfortable to gaze at, looking like large blocks of stone with stone arms jutting out of them, ready to start moving and conjure a scene fit for a horror movie.

He found stairs, too, that led to levels above, but the way to reach his destination was clear. There was a small teleportation matrix at the very center of the corridor, and even though no one had said anything about it, he was reasonably sure that it led to the king.

He had already crossed it once while checking all the doors in the bottom level. There was just one door left before he would have no choice but to go back to the matrix…and as soon as he went into it, his breath stopped.

Until now, the corridor he had walked in had been fit for a king. Tiled with marble that was somehow the color of the forest, its walls had been decorated with arching patterns and paintings of scenes of battle that he had no idea about. The ceiling had been decked out with chandeliers made of spun glass that cost a fortune in this place, apparently, and the entire area had been illuminated by unseen light sources, hidden within the walls.

All of the warehouses had been starkly different from the corridor, but the one he stepped into now had been constructed in the same grand manner. Walking on the green tiles, Daneel reach for the object that was the reason behind his racing mind, and as he touched it, the system said:

[Long range transmission device found. Scanning. Item can be reprogrammed and reconstructed to transmit energy. Time required: one day.]

It was a large, six-pointed star made of a crimson, glasslike substance. When he knocked on it, no sound came, though, and it was hard as a diamond. It lay on the floor, in a stack of six, each as big as a full-grown man.

He was so tempted that he imagined himself hoisting one on his shoulders and running out. He knew that it was an absurd idea even before he considered it, but he just couldn't stop himself.

'Damn! Well, maybe not today, but soon! Soon, I'll have one of these, and then…no one will be able to stop me!'

Lips downturned, he went out the door he had come in through, still shooting glances at the device as if it was his own child that he did not wish to part with.

Taking firm, angry strides, he reached the teleportation matrix. It was all the beggar king's fault; if the man hadn't turned out to be such a rogue, he could even have managed to buy those objects safely. Everything had been ruined because of him, so finally… Daneel stepped forward and disappeared, ready to confront the man revered by so many, but rotten inside to his eyes, and at the moment, to his alone.