He found N’Gana mostly by the moans and gasps, perhaps seventy meters down, sitting on the platform and holding on to the ladder.
“Colonel! Can you make it? Come on! I’ll help you!”
“No,” N’Gana gasped. “I will make it on my own. You can’t carry me up there, you can’t pull me up, and if you follow and I fall, I’ll take you with me.” He fumbled for something, then handed a small box to Harker. “Take them and go back on up! I’ll follow you if and when I can! Go! Without those, it’s all meaningless!”
Gene Harker understood, and grasping the box firmly, he went back up the ladder toward the light above.
The three others waited anxiously at the top, and Kat’s eyebrows went up when she saw that he was alone.
“He’ll make it on willpower,” he assured her. “I can tell you, a man like that’s not going to check out by falling down an elevator shaft.”
They looked at the box. It was a plain box of artificial wood, and it had a golden Greek cross on the top and a pure gold clasp. Harker slipped the tiny gold pin over and down, and opened the box. Inside, resting in a soft feltlike lining, each wrapped with a protective bubble seal, were the code modules.
“Oh, my God!” Kat Socolov breathed. For the first time she realized that they had not only gotten what was needed, but that it was almost certain to be used.
About fifteen minutes later, an ashen N’Gana crawled out of the shaft and tumbled down the pile of debris. They rushed to him; he was in awful shape. He was covered with perspiration, and not just his face but his whole body seemed a dull, almost dark gray. Still, after a while, he managed to sit up and look around. When he spied the box, he looked extremely satisfied.
“We did it,” he sighed.
“We did nothing until we can blow the hell out of that satanic fairyland out there,” Harker replied. “We have to feed these in to the mentat and get out of here.”
“Go feed ’em in,” N’Gana gasped. “Then we’ll talk.”
The women tried to make him as comfortable as they could, but it was pretty clear to them and to the others as well that Colonel N’Gana would not be going anywhere anytime soon.
The mentat directed Harker to an old, dust-covered terminal far on the other side of the great factory floor. It didn’t look operational, but carefully he unwrapped each module and, one by one, he inserted them into the slot.
“I have the data. I have no idea what it means, but my counterpart on Hector certainly does. These mathematical algorithms will combine with what is already up there to give precise switching and firing instructions to any and all of the active genhole gates.”
“How soon can you transmit?” Harker asked it.
“I can transmit now. I will not, however. Not without giving you a chance.”
Harker walked back over to them and put the box back on the floor. “Too bad that’s all made of high-tech state-of-the-art synthetics,” he sighed. “Otherwise we could take the extras with us.”
Kat sighed. “Yeah. Where’s Father Chicanis’s communion set when we really need it?”
“I will get the message out,” the computer assured them. “I am not anxious to create the act nor am I looking forward to my own cessation of existence, but you must go, and quickly. Every moment now risks some sort of discovery. I want you well away from here.”
N’Gana shook his head. “I think I’ll just stay and keep you company,” he told the mentat. “It’s important that a commanding officer ensure that the mission is completed.”
“It is not necessary,” the mentat responded, unable to catch subtlety or monitor the physical condition of the colonel.
“Yes, it is. I’m dying anyway. Everybody knows that, even me. If I’m going to go, then I’m damned well going to go in action. The rest of you, get out of here! Now! I have an idea I want to discuss with our new friend here. One that’ll let us do this in style.”
“You’re sure?” Kat asked him.
“Doc, I’ve never been more certain of anything. And I want it quick, since I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to animate this corpse and I’m hungry and thirsty and there’s nothing here for even a lousy last meal, understand?”
“Colonel—” She felt tears welling up inside her.
“Get the hell out of here, Doc. And the rest of you! Few men in my profession get to plot their own glorious demise! Besides,” he added a bit more softly, “I would go absolutely insane stuck here for the next ten years or so. This is one of the dullest worlds I’ve ever known!”
Harker brought himself to attention and saluted. The colonel, reflexively, returned it.
“I, too, am going to remain, with Colonel’s permission,” Hamille croaked, still breathing hard. “I am too tired to go on, and there is nothing for me in this world. I, too, am fighter. My family, my young, are already in the next universe thanks to Titans. I would like to join them.” N’Gana looked over at the Quadulan. “I’ll be glad for the company, but you might just get picked up.”
“To go where? Not like human people. Very few worlds are Quadulan.”
Harker leaned over and half whispered to Kat, “Let’s get out of here before we all go down in a suicide pact.” She nodded. There wasn’t much more to say, and she realized that the strange alien who’d done the job the humans could not had never intended a different fate.
The mentat had no comment on the other two, but did step in now. “Mister Harker, you and the two women should leave at once. The boy must stay.”
They all froze. “What?” Kat asked in an acid tone. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
“At heart, all minds, all brains, whether artificial or naturally grown, are calculating machines,” the mentat noted. “I can do some calculations better than any human. I can tell you the exact odds that the one boy who discovered Jastrow’s body far away and who ran from my transmission should be the one who shows up here at this point in time. Unfortunately, you do not have time for all the zeros. You are here by choice. This boy was sent. There is no other explanation. And if you let him leave here, they will know that we have a weapon and where it is and they will move swiftly against us before we can move. The boy stays.”
“What d’ya mean, sent?” Littlefeet snapped. “You can’t guess how hard it was just to stay alive to get this far! You don’t know what we went through!”
“I’ve heard your stories while you’ve been here. I believe I do,” the computer responded. “I am not saying that you are a conscious agent, only that you are a tool. You have all been speculating about how the Titans think, how different they are, how they could never be understood. Don’t you think that, in their own way, the Titans are thinking the same about you? They can experiment with you, they can genetically alter you, they can mess with your minds, but they can only make you more like them or like their models. They don’t understand you as you are. They got an ugly surprise at that transmission of Jas-trow’s. It wasn’t supposed to be possible, nor was there supposed to be anyone left who could work it even if one or another device were accidentally left operational. I think they started a hunt to find mentally receptive humans they could use as monitors just in case another Jastrow came along. They couldn’t recognize him—it would take a native human to do that. I think they’ve had some natives they could directly influence all along. Perhaps even the tribal leaders. The priests and nuns and the like. You were finally adopted into their network of control when you climbed the mountain. Why did you climb that mountain, Littlefeet?”
“Huh? I—I dunno. Oh—yeah. Some members of a Family got struck dead. Father Alex sent me. He wanted me to do a complete survey. To go as high as I could stand it.”
“Yes. I doubt if he knew he was being influenced, either, but they ordered him to send one of his flock into the stream and he sent you. Later, they cut off your family, then attacked and scattered it when you were not there. But your one real love somehow gets away and gets right to you. She ‘heard’ you, she said. And you move sout
h, even though you know that rivers get wider as they near the sea. You certainly know that. You thought you might be able to cross at some point but that defied your knowledge, experience, and logic. They wanted you to find the newcomers, and they even used a Hunter attack to delay them so that you could reach them. Not because they understand what’s going on here, but because they do not. But if you go back out there, you will tell them. You will not even know that you’ll tell them, but your mind is linked to theirs, they can read it out. They won’t understand it, but they will get the record and know that technologically sophisticated humans have landed and risked all for some reason. It does not take a lot to understand that this would be a threat. They will know about me, and this place. You will tell them and you will not know that you tell them. You will tell them in your dreams and visions. That is why you cannot go, Littlefeet. That is why you must remain until the codes are broadcast.”
Littlefeet shook his head in disbelief. “No, it is a lie! A dirty lie from some—ghost! The demons do not own my soul! I pray only to Jesus!”
“It is not your faith I am interested in,” the mentat said, perhaps a bit sadly—if that were possible. “I do not have a lot of records, but I can guess that good men have been used unwittingly by evil since the dawn of humanity. You are full of coincidences, my young friend. Far too many coincidences. Deep down, you know it, I think, now that it’s been laid out. You cannot go. Like the guards of a Family’s night kraals, one must be ready to die for the many. All of this has come too far to be allowed to fail now. I have accepted that my existence must terminate for that reason.”
“No!” Spotty screamed at him. “You can’t have him! I won’t let you!”
“I can manage a sufficient charge through the plates and catwalks that you will need to navigate, and I will not hesitate to use it. If Littlefeet does not remain, I will use a kind of lightning bolt and strike him dead as he tries to leave.”
They all had their mouths open, but there was nothing any of them could say. Finally, Spotty said, “Well, then, if he stays, so do I. I do not want to keep going without him.”
Littlefeet seemed to snap out of it. “No! That’s wrong! And the ghost or whatever is right. Maybe I’m being used by them, maybe I’m not, but he can’t take the chance. That’s what he’s saying. But you—there’s a different duty for women and you know it. You didn’t bleed this time so you probably have my kid in you! I won’t let you kill it! Go with them! Be a part of this new family! It’s your duty. Just like my duty, and the others’ here, is to kill the demons.” He grabbed her and held her and kissed her like he’d never kissed anybody before, and then he let her go and stepped away. “Now, go! And tell my son that his father died heroically!”
“Let’s get out of here before we all get killed,” Harker muttered anxiously.
Spotty stared at Littlefeet, and there were tears in her eyes, but she said nothing. There was nothing to say and no way to argue it further. Particularly if she carried his child, it was her duty, to him and to God, not to die. She turned, wiping away the tears, and gestured to Gene Harker and Kat Socolov to go. They started, and she followed, not looking back, although she knew that Littlefeet stood there fighting back his own tears and looking at her until she was out of sight in the far reaches of the catwalks above.
N’Gana shifted, uncomfortable that he would not be the only one to die, but resigned to the business at hand.
“You two! Come over here!” he managed, gesturing. “Mentat? You still there?”
“Yes. I just wish I was not. On the other hand, I have just seen the most logical justification for my imminent destructive actions that I could possible imagine. We must free these people.”
“I don’t just want to free these people,” N’Gana told it and the others. “I want to go out with a bang. Most of all, I want to know if the damned thing works. Don’t you?” Littlefeet nodded. “Something that will kill demons? Yes!”
N’Gana looked up at the great machinery, frozen for nearly a century, and pointed.
“Well, if that thing up there in those giant mechanical pincers is what I think it is, and if there’s a charge left in it, then I think we might have a shot. Mentat, what was the procedure when you made a gate? You couldn’t do more than trickle-charge testing down here, but was it encoded into the Priam’s Lens weapons system before it was shipped or after it was installed?”
“Why, it was encoded right here, since the security system was on the lower level,” the computer replied. “The targets are addressed by code numbers.”
“So, if I’m not mistaken, that’s a finished plate up there, stuck where it was when the power failed. Am I right?”
“Yes.”
“And it’s already encoded by number in the keys, so if its number were called, then theoretically it would, if charged, be an end point for the energy strings?”
“Why, yes, I believe so.”
“Can you determine the number? And can you bring it to a full charge?”
“Yes to both, I suppose. At the point of broadcast, I could shift whatever remaining power I had to the plate. It should charge it for a short period. But why?”
“Then let’s send those codes with a command to target this one first,” he suggested. “Let’s shoot the bastards from right here if we can!”
TWENTY-ONE
The Ghost of Hector Rises
It was no easier getting out than it had been getting in, but at least in daylight the activity of the Titan base was far less and there weren’t those energy tendrils to deal with.
Harker, Kat, and Spotty said almost nothing while making their getaway. There wasn’t anything else to say. It was good to be able to stop at a depression filled with water and at least fill that need.
There was still traffic in and out of the base; the ships didn’t stop coming and going day or night, and in place of the strings they could see what appeared to be large numbers of humans or humanlike creatures wandering, apparently aimlessly, across the expanse of the old city, never straying too far from the front of the crystalline base.
“Hunters?” Kat wondered when they reached some cover.
“Doubtful. Not that passive or that many together. Other kinds of experiments, probably. The people they use to determine what to do with the rest of us, or what they can do. Even so, I wouldn’t like to meet up with any. At the very least, what they see, the Titans see, too.”
The jungle area didn’t provide a lot of food, but Spotty was able to round up some squashlike growths and an acidic but spongy leaf that she insisted was edible.
“Nightfall, after the storm, we should try and make the hills,” Kat told them. “I don’t think the mentat’s going to give us a whole lot of grace time, and if anybody or anything, even by accident, wanders down that culvert, it won’t wait.”
Harker frowned and nodded slowly. “If I know Krill, she’s had them drilled and checked and double-checked again and again up there and somebody sitting in the command chair on shifts at all times. Yes, the moment those codes come in, whoever is in that chair is going to take a few seconds to react, a few more to realize what they’ve got is a live system, maybe another minute or two to notify the others, and then it’s shoot time. The targets will be at least one base on each continent just to collapse the grid, then the rest—before the Titans can regroup and move. If it’s done right, then there could be just enough shock and confusion as those nets go down to allow for a whole series of positioning shoots before the Titans even realize where they’ve been hit from. By that time there could be enough impulse energy bouncing around, along with God knows what other bizarre effects from both the Lens energies and the collapse of the Titan nets, that they may be unable to get a fix on Hector. Remember, the commands to shoot will be short numerical commands sent in nanoseconds through the orbiting genholes’ out-systems. Titan ships will go after those gates first, and probably be even more confused when they see only gates. Krill knows she needs a fast clean sweep. I expect her
to do her job.”
Spotty stared at the two of them. “They will do this—thing as soon as they can?” She didn’t understand anything about the weapon, but the idea of throwing lightninglike spears into the hearts of demons was good enough.
“Yes, they will, dear,” Kat replied.
“Then we cannot wait for nightfall. We must go now or we will not be able to make it to the top. The demons are most active at night, and they must expect something. No matter how we feel, we must go now or remain right here until it finishes.”
She was right and they knew it. All those survivor’s instincts and upbringing in a world of constant threat made her the expert. Both offworlders suddenly realized that they had been treating the girl like some poor native guide in a bad play. They were in her world now, and she was the expert, the natural leader, among the three of them.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Harker said, and they rose to go.
They had to move as much as possible through the overgrown sections, and they had to keep down in what appeared to be slowly increasing activity at the Titan base, so it was nearing sunset when they reached the point where the Grand Highway rose gently to reach the low pass between the hills.
Even before darkness fell, there were loud noises coming from the Titan base, and lights and energy tendrils were everywhere. Harker was nervous about climbing up in the face of it, but he saw no choice. “If that thing explodes or whatever, it’s going to at least take most of this coastal plain with it. We have to be over the summit!”
“I don’t understand why a race that sophisticated didn’t pick us up when we came in,” Kat commented. It had been bothering her from the first. “We can set up defenses even a cockroach can’t get through.”
“Not true,” Harker told her. “Otherwise there would be no more cockroaches. They would have gone extinct when Earth became uninhabitable. We can set up a general roach barrier that works most of the time, but not if we’re targeting individual roaches. In this case, we’re the roaches, and I don’t think they can comprehend total individualized behavior. No, they’ve been waiting for us to reappear all right, but what tips them off is the roach with the electronic implant. It’s the only reason Jastrow got in and out, the only reason we got in and out.”
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