Beth was watching his every move. “But how are you going to defuse the bomb?” she asked.
“I’ve got a plan. It’s something Thor said.”
“But won’t Rachel stop you?”
“Only if she can hit me before I put the Logic Core in a self-diagnostic mode. Then she won’t be able to do anything to me because her logic will be off-line.”
“How much time will you have to defeat her?” Beth asked.
“A tenth of a second.”
“And if you’re a tenth of a second slow?”
“She’ll kill me.”
Chapter 27
Connor hung from one hand on the high side of the titanium fire wall that leaned into the Containment Cavern itself. He glanced down to see that the floor was still fifteen feet below him.
Swinging, hand slicing against the metal edge, he held Jordan with desperate strength in his other arm. For a long moment he swung in the dark air, the rifle’s weight on his back dragging him down, pulling him painfully from the rim. His fingers were slicing, slipping.
Another heat-blast blazed down the tunnel.
Too-close-you’re-out-of-time!
Connor dropped, hoping that the distance was an optical illusion.
It wasn’t.
He hit the ground hard, his leg caving in.
Stunned at the pain, he rolled on the floor with a shout, breathless, almost passing out at the agony that overcame his mind, his will, his strength. His knee and then his leg and then his entire chest went numb, a shocked breath exploding from his chest. He strained for air, couldn’t pull breath. And for terrifying seconds he strained again and again, heard short groans escaping him. Jordan was crying in his arms but Connor didn’t have any strength left to soothe the child’s fears.
No time, no time for anything ...
Get it together!
With a grimace Connor slammed a fist against his thigh, using pain that penetrated the codeine to shatter the numbness. Dimly, he felt it. So he raised his fist again and brought it down with bruising force.
Sensation, sensation was there.
Use the pain!
With a roar Connor violently struck his leg again, straightening it, forcing it back to life. Behind and above them, the Observation Room was suddenly set aflame by a thunderous blast of liquid fire.
Connor shouted in rage, staggering to his feet. He picked up Jordan and limped unsteadily over the remnants of a large tank. His soul was withering in agony, and only his will carried him across the cavern. But as Connor moved he began to sense a slow, gathering strength, somehow realizing that the numbness in his leg was fading with each step.
Close behind he heard Leviathan savaging the Observation Room, tearing a larger hole through the concrete-steel frame. It was pursuing, always pursuing. But in a moment Connor had reached a vault. He frantically worked the hydraulic latch, raising the portal two feet above the floor. Then Jordan screamed and Connor knew what was happening just as he felt the floor shake beneath a distant, thunderous descent.
Don’t look back!
Without looking, Connor slid quickly beneath the fire door, instantly lifting the four-year-old in his arms, running. Fluorescent lights streamed in this part of the deep cavern, somehow unaffected by the power surges that had severed lines through the rest of the facility. But it gave Connor little comfort. In another moment he heard a violent impact against the vault behind him, knew the portal would quickly fall.
The beast was committed to a suicide run.
Connor knew it could have made for the power plant at any moment to escape without conflict into the lake, quickly finding the ocean to feed and feed and feed. But it was hatefully focused on this fight with something far beyond a beast, and it wouldn’t stop, wouldn’t stop until they were all dead.
Face twisted in pain and exhaustion, Connor moved quickly forward, able to keep at least one door between himself and Leviathan as he moved through the deep cave. He wanted to lay a trap for the beast, something to hurt it, to disorient it. But in the speed required by the chase he was unable to tear an electrical line from the wall or even find a corridor narrow enough to prevent pursuit. And with each colossal, roaring attack on the vault behind him, Connor felt himself groaning mindlessly, staggering even more in fatigue ...
So weary ...
***
“This way!” Thor shouted.
With the frantic shout the wild-haired Norseman was running down the hallway, all caution forgotten, moving recklessly through the vaporous white fumes. His eyes blazed in rage, the battle-ax raised high in his hand. He did not wait for Barley and didn’t turn to see if he was followed even though Barley was running behind him, breathless and ragged.
“How do you know that it went this way?” the lieutenant shouted urgently, glaring at the darkness.
“I can hear it! It has found them!”
Barley said nothing as Thor leaped over a fallen support beam, landing lightly on the other side. And then he was running again, shouting vividly into the darkness, the flame and the smoke.
“To me, beast!” he roared. “Bring the battle to me!”
***
Connor slid through another door, desperately lifting Jordan into his arms. But because of severe blood loss his strength was fading fast, almost gone. He knew that this couldn’t go on much longer. The roars were closer now – much, much closer. And Connor whirled, searched for some avenue of escape that would frustrate Leviathan, something so small that it would stall the chase. But he saw only the ventilation shaft.
No good.
Connor knew that if he couldn’t get them far enough inside the shaft before the Dragon reached them, the creature would simply send another heat blast down the pipe that would kill him and Jordan instantly. But he knew that there had to be a way ...
Close behind them a vault shattered, falling to the floor. Connor spun, staring, enraged, not even hearing Jordan’s cries. He glared savagely left and right and centered on yet another door, more than a quarter mile ahead, that he somehow knew led into a chamber. But which chamber?
A roar erupted, even closer.
No time to figure it out.
Connor ran forward, holding Jordan tight against his chest, ignoring his own blast-furnace breath and the sweat that streamed from his face. He couldn’t feel his arms. They were weak and numb, no longer a part of his body. But he moved as fast as his strength could carry him, feeling his heavy strides slowing with fatigue. He collapsed halfway down the tunnel, catching his breath before he recognized a soft cry, Jordan speaking. He looked down sharply to see his son’s upturned face.
“Daddy,” Jordan cried. “Where is it?”
Connor shook his head hard. “It ain’t gonna get us, boy. You and me are getting out of here.” He nodded. “You and me and Mommy are going home.”
Hope brightened in Jordan’s eyes. “Are you gonna kill it?”
Connor stared down, and somehow, in the heat and passion of the moment, Connor knew that he was committing himself to something that he would never back down from. Even if it meant his life.
“Yeah, boy,” he whispered. “I’m gonna kill it.”
Jordan touched his face.
Connor smiled.
Then the child screamed as a thunderous pursuit sounded close behind them, the roar of the beast. And Connor was instantly running, gasping in pain and fatigue and tightly holding his son, his son, his son ...
Chapter 28
Fifteen minutes until detonation ...”
Beth stared, concentrating. “Is any part of Rachel alive in there, Frank? Can any part of the computer respond to an emotional appeal?”
Hands flying over the controls, Frank fixed on her. “No,” he said evenly. “Rachel’s dead. Whatever is inside the machine is just an electromagnetic copy of her synapse system. It’s like a web of con
nections on a niobium-titanium chip that make up the Logic Core. It allows for more humanlike thinking.”
Almost mesmerized, Beth continued to stare at the tube. “Well what does Rachel’s icon look like?’’
“I programmed the icon to look like Rachel,” Frank said as he leaped off the platform and ran for what appeared to be the Cyberspace Module. Two separate Cyberspace suits were available for use, each hanging in large, glistening spheres.
Beth blinked, stunned. She had never expected that. It was almost horrific; this scientist going into Cyberspace to confront the image of his dead wife to convince her to spare his life.
Speaking quickly, Frank came back onto the control dais. He picked up a thin black visor and handed it to her. “Place this over your eyes and you’ll be able to see everything that I’m doing,” he said. “At least you’ll be able to see everything that I’m doing until I reach the Logic Core. After that I’ll be off the screen. I’ll be in the neural network.”
“And then?”
“It’ll just be me and Rachel.”
Beth shook her head. “All right, Frank, all right. Just tell me, how am I supposed to protect you from viral attacks as you go through the light tube?”
He handed her two synthetic gloves and turned on a laser that began passing over a small mattress on the floor. “You’ll have to stand on this pad wearing the visor and gloves. As you see the viruses attacking me just point your hand at the virus and make a fist. When your hand closes you’ll complete a connection in the palm of the glove and something like a laser will go from you. It’s an ability you’ll have and I won’t have because I’ll be in Cyberspace. I won’t be able to tamper with the defenses of the computer. Only someone outside the computer will be able to do that.” He paused. “But you’ve got to hit the viruses before they hit me.”
Beth placed the gloves on her hands. “So I won’t be in Cyberspace with you?”
“No,” Frank shouted as he leaped onto the Cyberspace Module, his face glistening with sweat. “You’ll be in something like Virtual Reality-IO or Virtual-X. There’s no real difference. And the computer won’t be able to harm you because you won’t be neurally linked. You can get out at any time just by taking off the visor.”
“Will I be able to see you?”
Frank began zipping himself into the Cyberspace Suit. “Yes! You’ll have a visual on everything. It will be like you’re sitting on my shoulder, flying down with me. But you won’t have an icon. And you’ll stay with me until I reach the Logic Core. The rest is between me and Rachel.”
Beth nodded and stepped on the knee-high pad, holding the visor in her hand. The pad was bouncy, like a trampoline. The laser screen passed slowly up and down, over her. “What will the viral attacks look like?” she asked. Sweat dripped from her chin.
“The attacks might look like anything,” Frank replied, moving frantically. “Lasers, blobs, walls of fire, whatever. There’s no way to tell. I’ve never done this before.”
Beth almost leaped forward. “What! You’ve never done this before!”
“Ten minutes until detonation ...”
“No!” Frank spun, glaring. “Of course I haven’t! Do you think I’d ever go into GEO without GEO’s approval? It’s suicide! I wouldn’t be doing it now if this fail-safe wasn’t going to kill us all!”
“Then how do you know – ” Beth staggered, “ – that this will work?”
Frank shook his head, eyes wider. “This is how it’s supposed to work, Beth! But nobody’s ever done this before!”
Silence for a long split second. And then Beth heard herself whispering, “Frank ... this is insane. This is really insane. We’re never going to make it. Can’t you come up with another way to defuse the—”
“There’s not another way,” he stated with conviction. “Just get me to the Logic Core where I can confront Rachel’s icon.” He paused, smiling faintly. “Just get me there, Beth. I can do the rest.”
A moment, and Beth’s face was grim. She tensed her fist, feeling the contact built into her palm that would ignite the fiber-optic laser. Then she looked up at Frank, feeling herself hyperventilating. She swallowed, closing her eyes, trying to remain calm. When she looked again the scientist had fully enclosed himself in the suit.
“What happens if I miss?” she asked.
“Eight minutes until detonation.”
Frank executed a command and his body was electromagnetically lifted, suspended in the Cyberspace Module. He replied as he completed commands for full immersion in the computer,
“If a virus hits me it could kill me instantly or I might survive the impact. This is uncharted territory. But I’ll never be able to survive more than two or three hits.” He paused, staring, fear in his eyes. “Are you ready?”
Beth’s mouth came together in a tight line. There was no time to think of her fear, her husband, or her son. It had all come down to this – to this frantic and frightening moment. With a cold movement she slung her long dark hair back from her brow, quickly wiping sweat from her eyes. She lifted the visor and settled it solidly over her head.
Concentrating, she nodded.
“I’m ready.”
She opened her eyes to
Cyberspace.
***
Connor desperately raised another vault as Leviathan pounded a path into the passage. Then he rolled beneath the portal with Jordan held tightly in his arms as the beast saw him and unleashed a hellish blast of flame down the dark-red tunnel.
It impacted the vault like a hurricane.
With a roar the beast had charged down the tunnel to instantly strike the portal, but Connor gained his feet on the far side. And as he stood he sensed something... something different in the ravaging attack.
The assault against the titanium fire wall was somehow weaker, slower, than it had been before. And Connor understood suddenly that the beast was finally tiring. Destroying vault after vault and sustaining the wounds inflicted on it had clearly claimed a measure of the Dragon’s strength. Now it needed more food – needed it badly. But it had already consumed all that could be consumed in the cavern.
Everything but the last of them …
Connor frowned, staggering back.
“Come on,” he whispered. “Wear yourself out ...”
Turning, Connor ran into the middle of a cavern, still holding Jordan solidly in his arms. He didn’t know which cavern it was and realized instantly how the encircling walls ascended, red and solidly sloping into a towering dark. He searched left and right, seeking an exit. But he found none. A heightened adrenaline-fear quickened his heartbeat even more. Connor stopped in place, turning, spinning in every direction, searching for an exit door.
Walls, walls ...
“Oh, no,” he whispered, not looking again at the vault. “There’s got to be a way out of here. There’s got to be ...”
Leviathan smashed again and again against the last portal but the savage victory was taking three times as long; an indication of its starvation, its weakness. Then Connor noticed from the absence of a thundering heat-blast that it was no longer using flame. Only strength, strength that Connor knew would be exhausted even faster in its singular intent to defeat the titanium wall.
Connor realized that if he could only put two or maybe three more vaults between them, he would be safe. But there was no exit, he realized, as he glared in every direction. He had reached a dead end.
Breathless, clutching Jordan to his chest, Connor turned toward the vault, watching and backing up as Leviathan maniacally attacked the portal, roaring and slamming forelegs and its injured form against the wall again and again. But it finally, slowly, overcame the fire door, slamming the portal down and collapsing on top of it in exhaustion. But fueled by the molten core of its heart, the Dragon rose again, glaring and hating.
Connor gently lowered Jordan to the ground, qui
ckly un-slung the M-203. He backed up a step, centering the grenade launcher on the beast as it took a slow step toward him.
Eyes gleaming, Leviathan growled.
Jordan was screamed hysterically, clinging to his leg. Connor felt his sweat-soaked skin freeze at the thunderous cave-growl. His blood congealed, cold with fear as he stiffly backed up slow step by slow step, unable to catch his breath.
With great, distended fangs, the Dragon came forward.
“God help us,” Connor whispered.
His hand tightened on the rifle.
Chapter 29
“Seven minutes until detonation...”
A dazed black moment of spiraling light and Beth almost fell off the platform before she realized she was flying, flying with blinding speed through a verging of machine and white strobe light and she looked down instinctively to see a vaguely human form.
Frank.
Immersed in Cyberspace, the scientist had already begun flying forward, racing through the computer toward the wide, gaping hallway of light that loomed before them. Utterly, utterly amazed, Beth stared.
This was unreal.
Frank was larger than life, his solid black body glistening in sharply angled sections that held an uncanny resemblance to his human form. But his hands were larger, his shoulders and chest also accented. His head was a polished black mask, a narrow-slitted mouth with no hair or ears. But his rounded eyes were a cosmic bright-blue, glowing like beams and fixed dead ahead as he flew through the computer.
Almost against her will, Beth shouted to him.
Frank didn’t turn. His face was fixed before him, staring, and then Beth saw an expression of angry concentration on his glistening countenance and glanced up to see the wide white wall approaching with breathtaking speed as ...
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