Authors: James Byron Huggins
“
No,” Frank replied. “It's stronger than that. It won't try for the lake until it's dying.”
“You're sure?”
“
I’m sure, Chesterton.”
“
All right, Frank, how much longer before it attacks us? A couple of days, maybe?”
“
An hour or two.”
Chesterton passed a hand over his face. He seemed to have expected it.
“All right, Frank, let me explain this one for you, just to give you some relief. You've molecularly altered this thing so that it heals up real, real fast, right? Heals almost instantly from any kind of wound?”
Frank nodded.
Tolvanos was enraptured.
“
Incredible,” he muttered.
“
All right.” Chesterton nodded. “Can you tell me where Leviathan is right now? Is GEO still tracking it?”
Raising the headset Frank spoke.
“GEO, this is Dr. Frank. Give me the location of Leviathan.”
“
Leviathan is at the junction of Alpha and Beta corridors.”
“
How long has Leviathan been stationary?”
“
Leviathan has been stationary for one hour and six minutes.”
“
And what is the internal status of Leviathan?”
“
Leviathan's heart rate is twelve beats per minute. Internal resting temperature has increased to 400 degrees and EEG activity has dropped to twelve.”
“
Does Leviathan appear to be feeding?”
“
Leviathan is not feeding. Leviathan has ceased feeding and has rerouted mitosis in bio feed loop.”
“
How long before mitosis is complete?”
“
Insufficient data exists to determine how—”
“
Terminate answer. GEO, this is a standing command: Alert me over the intercom system if Leviathan begins moving again. And alert me if Leviathan makes any attempt to move through the power plant to approach Crystal Lake. Do you understand?”
“
Yes, Dr. Frank.”
Frank looked at Chesterton.
“It's been feeding on the—”
“
I know what's it's been feeding on, Doctor.” Chesterton's eyes went dead at the words. “I know exactly what it's been feeding on.” He sniffed, rolling his neck before focusing on Connor. “What do you suggest we do, Connor? You know this place as well as anyone.”
“
It's pretty clear, Chesterton,” Connor responded. “If that thing is still coming after us, we've got to get out of this cavern. We've got twelve hours left. So I say we make for the elevator shaft. Then we rewire the elevator and load everyone up. We can stop halfway to set charges to blow the shaft when we reach the surface. But we've got to get moving. We've rested up enough already.”
Chesterton nodded.
“If that thing is closing on us again can you rig up something like you rigged earlier in the Matrix?”
“
I should be able to.”
“
How much electricity did you use the first time?”
“
About 100,000 volts.”
“
And is this place full of 100,000-volt lines?”
“
There's enough of them.”
“
And why is that? That seems like a lot.”
Connor took a deep breath.
“The current is sent from a Norwegian nuclear plant. They have to send it out to the island at about a billion volts because of the distance it has to travel. After the current gets to where it's going, it has to be broken down at substations for various applications. But I've sort of bypassed some breakers in the power plant and we've got lines running as high as they'll go. Some of them are carrying 300,000 volts.” He paused. “It's an unsafe situation.”
Chesterton laughed harshly.
“Tell me about it.” He rose, holding his M-16. “All right, boys, let's get moving. I don't intend to die in this place.”
Connor met secretly with Beth as she crept casually from the computer. She held Jordan in her arms. The boy shouted in joy and reached out for Connor as soon as he saw him.
Taking the half-awake boy in his arms, Connor spoke. “Those goons wouldn't give Chesterton the code. So Chesterton says we're moving out of the Housing Cavern right now. How does it look?”
Beth's face was pale.
“I've broken everything but the last encryption. It's something that's not a number or anything else that I can identify. It's . . . it's vaguely like some kind of bizarre hieratic-geometrical hybrid swirl. More like a signature than any code I've ever seen. And it's three pages long. At least that's how I glimpse it.” She blinked tiredly. “So I've just set up the terminals to do a constant light matrix screen-search against the megabyte blasts of the encryption that came through the relay. It's slow going.” She shook her head. “I'm sorry, Connor. I had no idea how difficult this was going to be.”
“
You're a genius, Beth. Nobody could do better.”
She leaned back.
“But I still don't know how long it will take. I've never dealt with anything like this before.”
“
Are you certain that Frank can't help?”
“
No. Frank is brilliant but communications isn't his field. He knows GEO and that's in his mind.”
“
All right. It probably doesn't matter, anyway. Chesterton says we're moving for the front of the cavern. If we can reach the surface we can load up on the Hueys.”
“
We're moving for the elevator? All of us?”
“
Yeah.”
Beth cast a suspicious glance over the rest of the crowd, then she lightly caressed Jordan's head. Without another word she spun and walked quickly into the computer room, toward the terminal.
“Beth,” Connor whispered, “what are you doing?”
She turned, burning a vicious glance over everyone in the cavern.
“I'm going to make sure the terminals continue working on that last encryption,” she answered. “I'm going to set it in a loop to unlock that last code.”
“
Why? We're probably not going to need it.” He stared at her. “What are you thinking, Beth?”
“
I'm thinking that we've got a long way to go, Connor,” she replied, grim. “And I'm thinking that a lot of Adler's people, especially Tolvanos, care a lot more for that creature and this facility than for any of us.”
*
* *
It took over an hour to lift the vault doors, moving through tunnels and passages and picking up a few trapped scientists found along the way. And it was Barley, as heavily armed as any man Connor had ever seen, who led at the front.
The big lieutenant was mortally prepared for a final conflict with the Dragon. He had three LAW rockets slung over his back and two additional bandoliers of grenades. He carried his rifle in his hand and had secured three pistols—one on each thigh and another in a shoulder holster. Ammo clips and explosives and other weapons Connor couldn't even identify were stuffed in every conceivable pocket in the man's dirt-smeared fatigues. But the most ominous, and faintly chilling, preparation was a Velcro body harness stuffed heavily with what Connor thought was C-4.
Before they began the long march Connor had remarked on it.
“What's that, Barley?” He pointed, almost delicately, to the harness. Barley had frowned, reaching up to rip down a palm-sized Velcro cover. Beneath the opened black flap, Connor saw two small red rings, one above the other. Barley's face was grim.
“
Pull this ring and then the other ring and this thing goes boom,” he said, nodding curtly.
Connor was vividly impressed, asking,
“When are you gonna use it?”
“
I'll use it if them big fangs ever come down on top of me,” Barley muttered. “To hell with this thing!”
Connor knew without a doubt that if it came to it, Barley would pull those rings without a second's hesitation. Then it was time to move and they left the Housing Complex,
using the surviving platoon members for a strong rear guard with Thor and Barley at point. Barley held his rifle close and Thor held the battle-ax with a rifle and bandolier of magazines slung across his back.
Connor quickly worked the vault doors, constantly glancing back to make sure Beth and Jordan were always well protected
within Thor's strong reach, as Connor had instructed the giant before the march began. But there was no need; Thor always kept them close. In time they came to Bridgestone, a thick, fifty-yard-wide slab of rough crystalline granite that crossed Lucifer's Gorge.
The bridge of stone was immensely thick, easily strong enough to support the
heaviest machinery. It was topped with a solid steel walkway sturdy enough to bear a tank. It was the only link to the elevator shaft.
In a silent line, as they walked over the gorge, Connor remembered how he had once curiously tossed a rock over the side of the bridge, listening for it to hit the bottom. He had waited for almost
a minute and never heard a thing.
Then a large tunnel was before them: Tungsten Passage. Connor knew that it was almost a mile long, ending at the Climbing Cavern where the elevator shaft exited for the surface.
Chesterton lowered his rifle. “All right, everybody take ten minutes,” he said. “We'll rest here before we push for the elevator. This will be the last break, so be sure to drink plenty of water. You're going to need it.”
Thor sat back against a wall as Frank tiredly walked up to sit beside him. Thor opened his eyes a moment to smile faintly at the scientist, and Frank returned the gesture.
“You really think we have a chance of surviving, Thor?” Frank asked in a hoarse voice.
Thor nodded, his green eyes glinting with encouragement.
“Aye,” he replied, “a good chance.”
“
I never thought we'd make it this far.”
“
You are not alone, I think.”
Frank paused, staring away.
“So why did you come down here, Thor?” he asked after a long silence. “This wasn't your fight.”
Thor laughed.
“My reasons are spiritual, Doctor.”
“
Spiritual?”
Again, Thor nodded.
“How can they be spiritual?”
“
Because I choose to live my life with love and courage and strength,” Thor replied steadily. “Or I will welcome my death.”
Silence.
“There isn't anything spiritual about this, Thor.”
“
Everything in life is spiritual, Doctor.”
Frank stared.
“Look, Thor, spiritual things are spiritual. You know, talking about theology or praying or ... or meditating or something like that. But there's nothing spiritual about fighting this thing.”
Thor's laugh was
a burst of strength. “Has Plato poisoned you, too?” he asked. “I will have words with him over this.”
Frank was quiet a long time.
“What do you mean?”
“
It was Plato, Doctor, who in his epic foolishness drew a line between what is spiritual and what is merely human.” Thor laughed again. “In truth there is no such place.”
“
That's not true,” Frank responded. “Stuff like prayer is spiritual.”
“
Prayer is no more spiritual than peeling potatoes,” Thor rumbled. “It was Plato who created this idea that some part of man was divine and spiritual and another part of man was merely human and nonspiritual. But God makes no such distinctions. God created us as spiritual beings, so if we know God in our lives we are spiritual beings in all that we do. The Spirit of God is with the soul of every man who honors God.”
Frank hesitated a moment.
Then he looked around to see the soldiers checking and cleaning weapons, organizing. “So what are you saying?” he asked. “Are you saying that all this fighting is just as spiritual as prayer or meditation or anything else?”
“
It is a reflection of a man's character. A man's character should be a reflection of God's character.”
“
I'm still not sure that I understand.”
Thor gazed steadily at the scientist.
“A man's spirituality can be measured by how his life reflects God's character, Doctor. So tell me: Do you think God would abandon you in this cavern, leaving you alone against the beast?”
Hesitation.
“No.”
A smile, and Thor's green eyes gleamed.
“And neither will I,” he said. “Whether the battle comes down to flesh or not makes no difference to me. I will live my life by love and courage and strength because these things please God as much as prayer and meditation and the study of the Scriptures.”
Head bowed for a moment, Frank asked,
“What did you mean when you said that Leviathan had chosen to inhabit its own reality?”
“
I meant that Evil is the reality it inhabits.”