Connor cast a wild glance back to see Leviathan’s jaws three feet behind him, the dragon-head curiously stretched around the corner on a long, green-black neck no more than six feet above the cavern floor. And fear gave way to something else as Connor saw it eye to eye.
Leviathan stared into him—a scaly black visage with dark eyes glaring hatefully. Its snakelike head was led by a sharp black horn that rose from its nose like a rhinoceros. Its face was hideously wedged, a serpent’s head, a demon’s head with white-fanged jaws reaching back behind glowing eyes to unhinge deeply and more deeply.
Gaping.
Smoldering.
Laughing.
Chapter 19
Connor heard someone screaming.
Realized it was him.
He didn’t take time to think about it.
Running full-out Connor rounded the far end of the steel paneling, so amazed that he wasn’t dead that he didn’t even feel the amazement. As he cleared the edge of the walkway he spun back to face the beast, staring at the gigantic bulk of the Dragon as it poised cautiously in the doorway of the cavern.
Amazingly, Leviathan had not moved, was watching their retreat with casual unconcern. It simply stared at them, not even bothering to charge. But Connor knew that, with its phenomenal speed, Leviathan was confident that it could close the gap between them in the blink of an eye.
They were easy prey.
The creature half-raised its head, staring at the soldiers on the other side of the chamber working with frantic shouts at the vault. They labored over the hydraulic pump to raise the door a few feet. Leviathan seemed to be contemplating which group to kill first.
Fairly flying across the chamber, Connor weaved a path between white stalagmites with a pattern that would have won him a first string place at halfback on any NFL team in America.
“Frank!” he shouted as he pulled alongside the scientist. “What’s it doing!”
“I-don’t-know-I’m-running!”
Connor cast a glance to the exit vault. It was raised two feet above the floor. It was enough. But the three of them were still over fifty yards from the portal, and maybe a hundred yards from Leviathan.
As they had almost reached the vault Connor and Frank spun together, staring back without any breath left within them. Then, somehow, Connor whispered, “What’s that thing going to do if we try for the door?”
Without hesitation Frank replied. “It’ll come after us really fast!” He took some quick breaths. “But it won’t use flame because it’s decided that there’s not a trap! It’s going to conserve the gel for an actual threat like another tank or something like that.”
Connor took another step back, eyes locked on the beast. Leviathan instantly shifted, head swinging monstrously toward him. The tail swept around, curling to the side, flicking. Then it growled and took a single, cautious step into the cavern.
Glancing down nervously, Connor saw that one of the Dragon’s clawed hind feet was placed close beside the steel. “Get ready,” he whispered, taking a hard breath. “I don’t know what’s going to happen when it hits that thing. This might kill all of us.”
Obviously tired of the game, Chesterton raised his .45.
“Maybe it needs a little incentive.”
Instantly Leviathan reacted, roaring wildly as Chesterton fired, and then the platoon had followed his lead, five rifles blazing at the exit. Connor heard roaring and saw Leviathan’s huge hind foot rising, settling toward the steel and he raised his forearm across his face as –
WHITE!
A volcanic white bolt of deafening light struck like lightning spiraling upward through the beast from one leg and down the other to ground into the floor with an eruption that blasted steel plating, rock, and equipment across the entire expanse of the cavern.
Connor didn’t know he’d been knocked against the wall until he felt himself on the ground, a heat wave roaring over him. The shock that hit him felt like a superheated wind.
Air shattered with a sonic boom.
Fire, fire ...
Blinded and stunned, Connor rolled, covering his head as dust and rock ricocheted off the wall at his back. He was pelted by cave pearls as if he’d been shot. Somehow it registered to him that a narrow section of steel plating had spun over his head, wickedly slicing a chunk of limestone from the wall.
Dirt cascaded over him.
For a moment Connor felt as if he’d been thrown into an uncovered grave with a night sky thundering over him, electric with wrath, sealing his doom. He didn’t know what had happened to Leviathan, could hear nothing but his own painful moaning, electric air surging.
The static atmosphere vibrated with the power that had been unleashed, and instantly the entire chamber was forty degrees hotter than it had been. It was something that had happened so quickly there was never a palpable change; it was simply there, white-hot air in the white light. Red emergency lights filled the cavern.
Unable to comprehend anything but mind-numbing pain, Connor concentrated angrily. He glimpsed Chesterton lying beside him on the ground, jerking and twitching. Then he realized that Frank was lying almost on top of him. Weakly, Connor pushed the half-conscious scientist off to get a better look at the cavern, searching, to hear a vengeful...
Roaring ...
Connor focused and saw ...
Leviathan was thrashing wildly, bellowing in rage and slashing at the air, at everything. It rolled uncontrollably in a dark, distant section of the cavern and Connor squinted, peering through the misty red haze. With effort his vision seemed to center and he understood that the power cable had blasted the six-ton Dragon almost 300-feet across the cavern, slamming it into a titanic limestone slope.
Wounded, Leviathan howled in agony, fighting the current as if it were still being attacking by the electrical blast. And Connor stared, mesmerized, as it screamed and slashed spasmodically, unable to control itself. Fiendishly, again and again, it struck at everything that touched it – the steel, the wall, even the cavern floor itself, enraged and lost in rage, striking, striking ...
Steel and ventilation ducts were scattered by the rending blows. Chunks of limestone were ripped from the slope by the diamond-hard claws. Calcite columns were shattered by the tail. In moments a cloud of dark red dust rose into the air, shrouding the beast, moving across the cavern like a death-fog.
Gasping for breath, Connor staggered up. Trying angrily to concentrate, he glanced down and saw that Chesterton had ceased moving. Then there was a painful, moaning cry and Connor turned to see Frank rising to his feet. The scientist grimaced, holding his chest.
“It’s hurt!” he gasped, coughing, staring as the beast pounded hatefully against the cavern floor, striking savagely at everything that continued to touch it. “You actually hurt it!”
Connor clenched his teeth in pain, dizzy, and grabbed the scientist by the shoulder, pulling him across his body. It took him a second to find his voice because his throat was tight, constricted. “Go for the door, Frank. We’ve got to get out of here.”
Frank staggered unsteadily past him. Then, feeling a strange numbness in his own body, Connor knelt. He placed a knee between Chesterton’s thighs, barely noticing the razor sharp edges of the gypsum floor. He pulled on one of the colonel’s arms, struggling to lift him into a fireman’s carry. After a groaning moment of mean labor he succeeded, grimacing and rising unsteadily under Chesterton’s surprising weight. But as he stood, Connor turned, blinking sweat from his eyes, to glance at Leviathan.
Fear.
It had ceased twitching.
A tired, labored breath lifted its gigantic chest and a long foreleg snaked across its body, clutching the cavern floor. With a growl it pulled itself over, the long tail whistling around to terrifically strike a stack of ventilation shafts. A low groan like a wounded man coming to angry and painful consciousness rumbled from the apoc
alyptic atmosphere.
No time.
Connor spun, moving as fast as his strength allowed, careful to avoid everything metal. He didn’t know if any current still flowed from the lost power line but he took no chances. When he reached the exit vault, everyone else had already gone through. Afraid, irrationally, that they had panicked and left him behind, Connor shouted, lowering Chesterton to the ground. But instantly a half dozen hands reached back to pull the colonel through the door. Connor heard Barley bellowing at him to hurry.
Hearing a low growl, Connor whirled to see that Leviathan stood on its hind feet, head rising on the long neck. It took an unsteady step forward, staring dead at Connor, and Connor saw that one of the beast’s forelegs was somehow damaged – broken or dislocated.
Leviathan held the shattered appendage low but kept its other foreleg high like a praying mantis poised to strike. Its tail shifted quickly to steady its balance. Hate-filled green eyes narrowed in the gloom, focusing on Connor with an aspect of pure vengeance as if it understood that he was responsible for its pain.
Fangs separated in a shriek.
In a single breath Connor had fallen, rolling under the door so that he surprised even himself with the perfect agility of his move. When he came up on the other side the rest of the platoon was moving. Fast.
Faint and losing strength, Connor staggered after them. He was so soaked with sweat and grime that he no longer noticed it, but his clothes seemed heavier than they had ever been in his life. He didn’t even know if he had been hurt but he didn’t care. He could still move, and that was enough. He felt different, somehow, but he was too numbed by the concussion of the blast to have any real sensation. As he reached the end of the passageway, he saw that Frank had rewired the door. Apparently, Connor recognized dimly, nearly everyone had learned now how to rewire the vault.
The surviving soldiers quickly worked the pump, raising the portal a few feet. But there was no pounding on the vault behind them, no attacks against the door leading from the Matrix. But no one asked any questions, made any sounds of relief.
Taking turns carrying Chesterton until the colonel finally regained an unsteady consciousness, they went on, raising each fire door no more than three feet above the ground to slide wearily beneath, always leaving the titanium portals raised.
In a silent, ghostly line of soldiers they went from one cavern to the next, on and on, leaving a white, grave-like cloud of dust as they put as much distance as they could between themselves and the Dragon.
***
Beth heard a loud hissing, the sound of metal grating against metal, and she glanced up. Her eyes burned so badly that she had trouble focusing, but she saw a dust-covered group of soldiers crawling beneath a narrowly raised door. Then she was on her feet, staring, holding Jordan’s hand.
Sleepy, the four-year-old rubbed an eye with the back of his hand.
A slender figure came under the door, blackened, smeared with white chalk. The sleeve of one arm was charred, the skin reddened as if from a severe sunburn. He stood, moving toward her.
“Connor!” she cried, running forward. Behind her Jordan was screaming, “Daddy! Daaaaaddy!”
Connor smiled as they approached, reaching out. He embraced her, and one second later a small figure collided with their legs. Connor smiled, reaching down to lift Jordan from the ground. And from Jordan’s joyous face, it was clear that now, yes, everything was all right. Whatever had been wrong was no more; it was all right, now, Daddy was here, was here.
Connor kissed him and Beth focused more on his face, feeling an immediate and alarming concern. She saw a frightening fatigue, a bone weariness that made his face skeletal beneath the burned skin. His hair was plastered back with sweat. His eyes were sunken and ringed beneath with dark half-circles.
She gave him a compassionate look, and he returned it, shaking his head gently. “No,” he whispered, holding Jordan tight in his arm. “We have to get out of here.”
Staggering, Chesterton was beside them. Beth was almost shocked at the colonel’s ravaged aspect. A severe burn marked one side of his face, the sleeve on his right arm was black and charred and his green fatigues were black with sweat. His usually austere, severe countenance was slack and weak. He placed a red-burned hand limply on Connor’s shoulder, speaking in a soft voice.
“We’ve got to meet,” he said quietly.
Connor turned his head. “I know.”
“I’m going to get some water,” Chesterton continued. “You need to get some, too. Dehydration is going to kill us even if that thing doesn’t.” Without another word he turned, walking without strength toward the Housing Complex. Barley shadowed him, as if he were afraid the battle-beaten colonel wouldn’t make the short journey.
Beth saw Adler, Tolvanos, and Blake standing in the doorway of the complex. They were staring numbly, as if none of them were eager to approach Chesterton.
“Are you all right?” Connor asked, touching her face.
She placed her hand over his. “Yeah, I’m all right. I was just so worried. We didn’t know.”
“I know. We’re just going to rest a moment and then we’ll get out of here. We’re too tired to go any farther right now. We’d never make it to the surface.”
“I know.”
Jordan raised his head, staring at Connor with disturbingly intense seriousness. His eyes were wide. “Is the monster dead?” he asked. Connor shot Beth a glance, but with a short shake of her head she closed her eyes: No, I couldn’t prevent it.
Smiling, Connor gazed at the child’s face. “There’s nothing to be afraid of, buddy,” he said quietly. “We’re going to be all right. And we’re going to leave this place, just like I promised. And we’re never going to come back. Because we don’t like ugly things like monsters, do we?”
“No!” Jordan echoed. “We don’t like monsters!”
Despite herself, Beth smiled, almost laughing. But there were no laughs and almost no smiles left inside her. She spoke quietly, “Can I get you anything? You need to rest.”
“I’ll be all right,” Connor responded. “I just need some water before we get down to business.” He paused for breath, lowering his voice. “Have you managed to break the code?”
“Almost,” she replied, glancing to the side. “But it’s an encryption system. And it’s not one of the old-fashioned ones. It’s the real thing. They spent some money on it. The math is going beyond geometric or algebraic into something like a fluctuating logarithm.” She paused, wearily brushing back hair from her forehead. “It’s a real pain.”
Connor’s face was compassionate. “Harder than you thought?”
“Yes,” she answered. “I thought I could beat it a lot quicker but it’s more complicated than anything I’ve ever seen.”
“Well, there’s something we have to talk about,” he said, “because we don’t have much time left.”
Her dark eyes narrowed. “What?”
Connor shook his head. “I’ll tell you about it later.” He glanced at the scientists scattered across the cavern. “How are you managing to attack the code without anyone getting suspicious?”
Beth cast a hateful glance at Tolvanos and Adler. “Oh, they know what I’m doing, all right. But Barley put them in their place. He threatened them with death if they interrupted me.” She laughed. “I’ve circuited a dozen Crays and I’m running them on the power from about a hundred continuous-current Tripplite surge protectors that I annexed through the high density surge-protection system up top. It was still operational and I managed to access it through a power line. It’s a wild setup but it will work until the Tripplite batteries are exhausted. And I did some quad-programming to speed things up.”
Connor’s admiration for her ingenuity shone in his face. “That was smart, darlin’. Real smart.”
She grinned. “Baby, these people can’t outthink me. You should know tha
t.”
“Yeah, I figured that much, Beth, because I can’t out-think you, either.” He paused. “But I need to know something. How much longer will it take to break the code?”
She shook her head. “It’s hard to tell, Connor. This encryption system, it’s the wave of the future in computer security. And it’s very, very difficult. But it gets simpler as it goes because the ultimate combinations become fewer as the Crays lock down numbers and passwords and encrypted codes on something like a geometric curve.”
“When you break it?” Connor asked.
“Then we’ll have to find a working relay station down here that can connect to a satellite.”
Connor hesitated. “Why?” He stared. “Why can’t we just connect with a satellite through the groundside Communication Center?”
“Because the groundside Communication Center was demolished in the big fight, Connor. But I think there’s a relay in the power plant. Frank will know more about that than I do. We’ll find a way to make it work.”
Nodding without expression, Connor lowered his head. Then he felt her hand on his face, lifting his eyes to meet her gaze. Her voice was focused quietly between them.
“You pushed it, didn’t you?” she asked quietly.
“I did what I had to do, Beth. That’s all I ever do.”
She shook her head. “You’re too much of a man, Connor.” Her face moved closer. “And you know what? You don’t always have to be the one to do the hardest thing.”
Connor almost laughed but he was far too tired. “I’m being careful.”
“Yeah, I know, Connor. But promise me something. I know what kind of man you are. You’re a fighter. That’s all you know.” She paused. “But if there’s any way you can help it, Connor, don’t go so far out on the edge that you can’t make it back. Promise me that.”
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