Страница 69 из 79
"So you brought them here and just turned them loose?" Braune asked.
"That's what they wanted."
"You could have come down with them," Braune shot back. "Shown them the way, pointed out some of the traps."
"It doesn't look like they needed me, does it?" Bernhard retorted, waving a hand around him. "They got as far without me along as they would have with me here to hold their hands."
"And stage three?" Alamzad asked.
There was a long silence. Caine looked off into the darkness, wondering what they'd find down there. Bodies, most likely. An involuntary shiver ran up his back, and he turned to find Lathe's eyes on him. "We can quit now if you'd like," the comsquare said quietly.
Caine bit his lip. All this way... through the frustrations with Karen Lindsay and the Dupres... the humiliation of being plucked bodily from a Security trap... the loss of his command, willingly or not, to Lathe, and the price that had exacted from his ego... all of it for nothing? "Let's go on," he told the other. "See if they found a way through. If they didn't..."
Lathe nodded understanding. "We'll find out soon enough."
Within half a kilometer they'd come to the two other bulkheads Bernhard had mentioned, both of them cut through as the first had been. The tu
But the tu
"Probably so you won't see the lasers until you're right on top of them," Lathe said grimly. "Back to single-file order. Bernhard and I'll go first."
"Until we reach the pile of corpses, anyway," Bernhard amended. "After that you're on your own."
"Move," Lathe nudged him.
They disappeared cautiously around the curve... and as the next in line, Hawking, started to follow there was a sudden exclamation from ahead.
"Lathe?" Hawking snapped.
"It's okay," Lathe's voice came, his tone a combination of relief, awe, and amusement. "Come ahead, everyone, and see how Torch beat the stage-three defenses."
A walking tank suit? was Caine's first thought—surely nothing larger could have been brought down the narrow entrance tu
"A secondary intake?" He frowned, leaning in to peer down it. It headed out at right angles from the ventilation tu
"It is indeed," Lathe said. "But not one the original designers had in mind."
"Torch?" Alamzad asked.
"Who else would have had the patience to dig a tu
Bernhard said. But even he seemed a little awed. "Damn crazy fanatics, all of them."
A sudden revelation hit Caine. "So that's what we've been walking on—they just spread the rock chips from their digging on the tu
Jensen cleared his throat. "Yeah. Fanatics. You realize, Lathe, that this means they're almost certainly still in there. And they may not like being interrupted."
"That's the main reason I wanted Bernhard along," Lathe said. "Let's hope they still remember you fondly, Bernhard." The comsquare glanced around the group. "Caine, you and I'll go with him; the rest of you stay here for now. No sense risking everyone until we've got some idea of what's ahead—that tu
The tu
"Four or five meters of reinforced concrete," Bernhard said, "with probably a few centimeters each of lead and soft iron for pulse protection. After cutting through the stage-two bulkheads and all this rock, I doubt it would have slowed them down significantly."
The three men continued on in silence. A few minutes later Bernhard's prediction was borne out, as they passed through an archway of torch-blackened concrete and half-melted metal at the tu
They were in Aegis Mountain.
Chapter 35
For a long minute the three men just stood there, the faint glow of armband lights showing only the vaguest hint of their surroundings. We made it, Caine thought. We made it. We're really here. Inside Aegis Mountain. The biggest single obstacle to his quest... and yet, to his surprise, he found himself unable to generate any of the satisfaction he should rightfully be feeling at such a triumph.
But then, this was hardly his own personal victory. Beneath the foggy sense of unreality was the knowledge that without Lathe this would never have happened. Lathe, his blackcollar team, and the comsquare's other allies. With a lurch, Jensen's private scheme came to mind, and Caine grimaced behind his gas filter at the part he had yet to play in that plan.
But that was still in the future. For now, there was the Backlash formula to be found. Unfastening his light from its armband, he flipped it to higher power and played it around. A short distance away to both sides were stacks of plastic crates, extending away from their wall for at least fifty meters.
"Supply storage?" he hazarded.
"Right," Bernhard said. "Level nine. Above us are three levels of officers' and enlisteds' quarters, the rec/med level, training level, command, munitions, and the fighter hangar. Some of those levels are considerably higher than this one, with actual freestanding buildings and landscaped rec areas—well, you'll see."
"Where's power generation handled?" Lathe asked.
"Beneath us," Bernhard said. "Twin fusion reactors, with gas turbine and multiple battery and fuelcell backup. All of them probably long dead or tripped."
Lathe looked at Caine. "Presumably Torch has something ru
"Just as long as they've got power to the computer records," Caine muttered.
"Records?" Bernhard frowned. "That's all you wanted here? I thought you were looking for unused weapons or electronics."
"Don't worry—if it works out it'll be well worth the trouble," Caine assured him. On his wrist his tingler came on: Lathe signaling the others to join them. "Where would the best place be to get onto the computer?"
"Command level. Assuming Torch got enough power to the access control system to get the doors there open."
"If not, they probably just blasted them down."
"If they did, you can say goodbye to the computer," Bernhard growled. "That whole level is doomsdayed up to its roof."
"There's no point in speculation," Lathe said. Behind them, the faint scrape of boots on stone signaled the arrival of the others through Torch's bypass tu
—
There were no lights in operation on the supply level—no lights, no doorways, and no elevators.
Fortunately, all the relevant doors had already been forced and jammed open and the backup stairways weren't hard to find. Using them was something else again; with their open spiral design and slightly uneven footing, they'd clearly been designed for easy defense, and with every level they ascended the prickling sensation between Caine's shoulder blades grew more and more uncomfortable. The fact that Torch hadn't attempted communication implied to him that the fanatics had decided on a no-warning ambush... and they'd have no better spot than along the staircase.