The path a child would take – a path of light!
Immediately he raised his arm. “There! That’s where he’d go! He’d go where he saw light!”
Then Frank was beside them. His eyes flared as he saw Connor’s arm. “Connor! Hold up, hold up, you’re hurt!” Without expression Connor glared down, felt his hand coated in blood, blood dripping heavily, like a river, from hand and arm.
“You can fix it later, Frank.”
“Connor, wait, wait.” Frank grabbed him and Connor spun back with a dangerous glare. “Listen, man,” the scientist said, raising his hands, “you’ve got to listen to me for a second! You’re not in pain right now because of the adrenaline in your system. But the pain’s going to come and it’s going to come hard if we can’t stop that bleeding! Then you’re not going to be worth anything to anyone! Not even Jordan!”
Taking a deep breath, Connor nodded. “All right, then, Frank, fix it!” He turned his face to scan the smoke. “But fix it quick!”
Frank instantly tore a strip of cloth from his shirt and pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket. He pressed the folded bandage over the wound and then wrapped strips of cloth tightly, tying the ends to apply constant pressure to both sides of the wound without cutting off blood supply to the arm. Instantly the bandage was blood-red, wet.
“That’ll stop the bleeding unless it hit an artery,” Frank gasped, breathless. “But I don’t think it did. The blood wasn’t bright enough. Still, though, you’re going to have pain.”
Connor frowned, shook his head.
“Pain isn’t part of this anymore.”
Then Connor was running forward. Fast. He didn’t look back to see if anyone was following. He was on the walkway almost instantly, moving with a speed that amazed him to go down one corridor and then another, keeping low to see more clearly with arms outstretched, searching by feel. And he moved quickly, knowing more and more as he moved that Jordan could have already reached another passageway and angled even deeper into the cavern, creating a deadly guessing game.
They went far down the corridor, moving randomly up a bisecting corridor to decide it was fruitless only to quickly retrace their steps. Connor lost track of time, though he knew it was long, long, too long. Finally he felt someone grabbing him. With a snarl he spun back.
It was Frank.
“Connor!” he screamed. “Listen to me! We’ve only got an hour to defuse the bomb! We’ve got to get to the Computer Cavern! I can find the way by myself, but Beth has to come with me or I won’t be able to reach the Logic Core!”
Connor shouted, livid with rage. “Go and defuse the thing! I’m going to find Jordan!”
“Connor ...” Beth protested.
“Go on!” Connor said sternly, holding her passionate gaze. “Go with him, Beth! I’ll find Jordan! I promise!”
Staggering, she hesitated, and Connor saw a mother’s frantic love in her eyes. He paused, concentrating. Then he grabbed her face and kissed her close, hard, releasing her quickly. His scream slashed through the flame.
“Go, Beth! I promise you! I’ll find him!”
She swayed, crying.
“We’ve got to hurry!” Frank screamed, grabbing Beth’s arm, pulling.
Connor grimaced in pain. “Go, Beth! Go! He’s going to need you to beat the fail-safe! If we can’t beat that thing we’re all dead anyway!”
Without waiting for her agreement Connor turned and was gone, heading straight into the dark smoke, knowing that for every moment he waited he allowed Jordan to get farther away. He passed a shattered vault, the remnants of melted steel and slashed titanium littering the corridor walkway. He went deeper and deeper, passing thick smoke, choosing corridors at random, not knowing a better means of deciding.
“Jordan!” he cried again and again. “I’m right here! I’m right here!”
A hate-filled reptilian roar thundered over him and Connor whirled, glaring, teeth clenched in wild hate. The scream was so close that it could have come from the wall itself. And though Connor couldn’t see it, he knew that the beast was close beside him, that he was trapped.
He was alone in the lair of Leviathan.
***
“Beth! Come on! We’re out of time!”
Frank’s cry almost didn’t register in Beth’s mind. She was overloaded, wild and frantic with pain and love. She followed his steps in a daze, obeying with some superior reasoning ability that overruled her instinct to find her child. On and on they went, and she heard the bestial roar that thundered in the darkness behind them. It was vengeful and hate-filled, the cry of a hunter determined to kill the prey that had wounded it. Stunned, she turned, back-stepping, lost in it until she felt Frank’s hand gripping her arm.
“Come on, Beth!” he shouted. “Concentrate! We’ve got to reach the computer cavern before we run out of time! If we don’t defuse the bomb none of us are going to survive!”
Beth turned to him and began running, following him with a force that flowed from her love into duty. And she became more determined and frantic as she moved, turning her terrible pain into action, strength. All at once Frank couldn’t move fast enough for her. She heard herself screaming.
“Come on! Go! Let’s get it over with!”
Connor snarled as he unslung the M-203, checking to see if a grenade was locked in the launcher. It was. He frowned grimly as he moved forward, hoping that he could at least take the beast with him if it came suddenly out of the smoke-filled chaos. He was aware that he had entered some kind of cavern, but he didn’t know which one it was. He only knew that it was burning and that he had not yet heard or seen Jordan.
Despite the fear that his shouts would draw the attention of the beast, Connor shouted again. His voice reached into the hissing smoke around him, searching. From a distance to the front, from somewhere in the infinite gray space, he heard an answering cry.
“Jordan!” he cried, moving quick. “Son! I’m right here! Daddy’s right here! Call out to me! Please!”
Then an utterly terrified child-cry came from the distance, but closer, and Connor ran forward, striking something hard that he didn’t see. He rose and screamed, knowing somehow that his leg was severely injured. He ignored the crippling pain that caused his knee to convulse, giving beneath his weight.
Falling to the floor again, he hesitated, grimacing in pain, fists clenching. A scream came from inside him, a howl of pain and rage and determination that overcame everything but itself and the pain within him faded, lost beneath the spiraling violence of his soul. He smashed a fist hard against the floor, clutching the rifle, rising.
Leviathan roared.
Close ...
Too close.
Connor screamed and whirled, firing the grenade launcher into the darkness. The explosion was closer than he expected and for a staggering moment the entire cavern before him was alive with light, flame, roaring before an empty, cathedral-echoing boom descended over him.
Connor didn’t care. He shouted wildly, breaking open the grenade launcher to shove in another APG. He slammed the chute shut hard to send a vengeful and murderous message. The impact echoed dimly in the smoke, and, sensing death on top of him, Connor turned and shouted again.
“Jordan! Son! Son! Where are you?”
Jordan’s answering cry was only twenty feet away and Connor was instantly moving forward, more carefully this time. He knew that, despite his determination, he couldn’t afford to collide with another piece of machinery. Even as it was, his leg felt broken.
In a moment he found Jordan huddled beneath a computer panel. Connor immediately recognized the broken paneling, realized that they had somehow found a way into the Observation Room. He lifted Jordan into his arms, holding him tight.
After a moment Connor released him, searching him for signs of injury. But it was needless. He was all right, all right. Connor picked him up and
held him tight as they headed to the door.
A roar shook the hallway.
Jordan screamed.
“Shhhhh,” Connor whispered, holding his son closer, turning to find another means of escape. “It’s going to be all right ...”
Connor saw the section of titanium that had been shattered by Leviathan’s entry into the Observation Room. The bullet-ravaged titanium wall was leaning outward at a forty-five-degree angle.
It was climbable, even in his condition, so he moved to it, stepping with difficulty onto the matrix control. Frantically he slung the rifle across his back to free one hand and instantly began scrambling toward the top of the titanium fire wall, holding Jordan tight in the other arm. The wall rose up and out at a not-so-difficult angle and Connor managed to make it to the top before he heard another roar and whirled to see a fantastic, brief burst of flame that reached down the hall.
Flame, flame again.
Testing for a trap.
***
Thor waited a long time, crouching.
He heard Barley rise behind him, tensing to run. But Thor didn’t turn, didn’t give a command. Even in the fierceness of the moment he knew somehow that the beast was no longer behind them. He rose to his feet, staring angrily at the entrance of the narrow corridor. The anger that was borne from the center of all that he was spread and dissipated into a frantic concern for something ... else.
He spun toward Barley.
“Where does this corridor connect?” he shouted.
Barley was shaken. He didn’t seem to know how to reply.
Thor roared, “Where does this corridor connect!”
“It connects with everything!” Barley answered, swaying, slamming his hand against a wall for balance. “It connects with everything, Thor! It connects with everything!”
Thor lifted the battle-ax. His fist was tight on the haft.
“Then we become the hunters.”
Chapter 26
Thor was the first up the passageway, moving close and quiet with his back to the wall. Flame flickering through the encircling smoke was the only thing visible, ghostly tendrils of orange heat. Only cold sweat cloaked his titanic frame.
Barley was behind him, face glistening in perspiration, moving carefully. He was holding the rifle close against his chest, his teeth clenched in rigid control. They had divided the last ten grenades and Thor had hastily loaded his M-79. He also held his battle-ax in his other hand, prepared for anything.
He cautiously paused at a wide junction of tunnels, glancing around a corner—it was a smoke-filled passageway descending toward a flowing white, a volcano’s soul, a demon’s heart. For a cryptic moment Thor listened closely, hearing nothing. He leaned back, whispering. “Why has the beast retreated from battle?”
Barley shook his head tiredly, eyes closed. Thor frowned, suspicious, taking another minute. “It could have killed us by now,” he rumbled. “Why did it not pursue us into this corridor?”
“Maybe it got tired of the chase,” Barley answered, blowing out a deep breath. “It’s got to be getting tired!”
Thor shook his head angrily, sweat scattering. “No, the beast does not tire so easily. It took Chesterton, but that was not enough to restore its strength. It needs more food and needs it badly, as Connor said it would.” He paused. “It should have come for us by now.”
“Maybe it’s gone to lick its wounds like it did before.”
“No. We did not hurt it so badly. In another moment it would have caught us.”
Exhausted, Barley shook his head. “I don’t know, Thor.” He fought to control a violent trembling. “There just ain’t no way of knowing. That thing does whatever it wants. It does whatever it wants...”
“But it kills. And yet it did not kill us.” Thor paused, concentrating. “But why? Why did it not kill us? It had almost caught us. And in another moment it would have killed us like it killed Chesterton.”
Barley was cautiously scanning the smoke-filled passageway. And with a grimace Thor turned. “Which way did Connor go with Jordan and Beth?”
“They’ve probably gone for Brubaker Passage. That’s the only way to get to the Computer Chamber.”
“And how do we reach this passage?”
Barley motioned. “Down that tunnel.”
Sharply breaking open the M-79, Thor checked to see if a grenade was locked in the launcher. He angrily snapped it shut. “Then that is where the beast has gone! I can feel it! It needs more energy and it has somehow sensed their presence! Like it did before!” He began to move around the corner when Barley grabbed his arm, strongly pulling him back.
Thor glared.
“I’ve got to tell you something,” the lieutenant muttered. “You need to understand something about those grenades. They’re not regular issue. They’re phosphorous. Like liquid. It burns anything it touches. So if you shoot it you’re going to need at least a hundred feet of clearance. Everything within a hundred feet of detonation will be covered with a fire cloud.” His eyes opened slightly, for emphasis. “It’s pure fire, Thor. And once it starts, nothing can put it out.”
A moment and Thor asked, “Are all these phosphorous grenades?”
Barley nodded curtly. “That’s all we got left.”
“Good. I will remember.”
Thor led around the corner as they entered the swirling whiteness of the tunnel. And Barley glanced down at the battle-ax, still held tight in Thor’s massive hand. “Are you really going to hit it with that ax?” he asked.
“If it comes to that.”
Suddenly Barley seemed even more nervous. “That thing is heavily armored, Thor. It’s going to be hard to hurt it with that ax. Even if you get the chance.”
“Perhaps,” Thor answered, moving forward, “but these beasts have been killed by steel before.”
Barley stared. “Before?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“In another age.”
Barley didn’t reply for a long moment. “Maybe,” he said finally. “But I know one thing, Thor. If you go up against that thing with that ax, you’re going to die.”
Thor face’s was grim.
“So be it,” he said. “There are worse things.”
***
Frank entered the smoke-free computer chamber. He wasn’t surprised at the clarity and control of the atmosphere. The chamber had been constructed with industrial-size ventilators and large dehumidifiers to keep it utterly free of dust and moisture. He didn’t even pause as he entered, running toward a large steel platform in the center of the cavern.
Stunned, Beth paused in the cathedral chamber’s wide en-trance, staring at what lay before her. It was awesome.
Over twenty-five feet high, the black semicircular computer mainframe utterly dominated the cavern. No electrical circuits could be seen; they were all enclosed in black tubes that fed into the monolithic half-circle like veins, threading in and out of the polished casing. In contrast to the galactic black sheen, a large, cylindrical light tube glowed white and bright, centered directly before the monolithic semicircle. The tube appeared to be filled with pure light and pulsed with innumerably slender, rhythmic blinks.
Beth saw that the light cylinder’s cover was like transparent aluminum. Some kind of hardened alloy that solidly protected the mysterious light-sentience hovering within. Halfway up the tube she saw a separated and reddish cylinder, almost the size of her hand. It seemed suspended in midair, supported by nothing. Dazed, she stepped slowly forward.
Frank reached the large computer platform which encircled the cylindrical tube and mounted the steps. He looked up at her as she approached, his voice urgent. “Hurry up, Beth! We’ve only got twenty minutes to reach the Logic Core and kill the fail-safe!”
Shaking herself awake, Beth went forward, and in a moment she was on the platform. Not
steel, she realized. It was some kind of nonconductive fiberglass or plastic. Stunned, she gazed at what surrounded her, trying to acclimate. But it had been a long time. Too long. Almost immediately she realized that she had never dealt with a system one-tenth this complex.
She had an intimate understanding of modems and CD-ROMs and a half dozen software programs including earlier models of Virtual Reality. She could even program and run parallel processing. But this system was as beyond her as anything could be.
This was the ultimate verging of science and life, the cutting edge of artificial intelligence. She had no doubts that the computer before her was almost a living thing. Just as she had no doubts that there was probably nothing on the planet strong enough to match its ability to reason, or at least to simulate human reason.
Frank spoke quietly into the headset. “GEO, turn on all matrix controls for command control from the platform.’’
Immediately the platform was aglow. Lines and single-command control pads, optical controls overlaid by a thin poly-alloy waterproof cover, lit from within with a soft green light. And at least twenty large-screen control monitors blinked on. Beth watched in dull amazement as the entire room came alive, green and glowing, pulsing. Even the long cylindrical tube located in the center of the platform seemed to glow a shade brighter.
Face glistening with sweat, Frank pointed at the glowing white tube. The cylinder was as thick through the middle as a man and seemed to be suspended by dull gray threads.
“The Logic Core of GEO is electromagnetically suspended in that cylinder,” Frank began, moving quickly to the other side of the platform to initiate further commands. “The Logic Core is the brain chip. The chip uses formulas conveyed through light as something like thought waves. Fiber-optic paths carry the light from the Logic Core and into the computer itself where the waves are electromagnetically transferred into amalgams which are delivered to chip control systems.” He paused, concentrating briefly to initiate a more complex command. “The fiber-optic relays and niobium-titanium chips allow GEO to operate at something close to the speed of light, which for all practical purposes is probably the speed of thought.”
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