Leviathan (35 page)

“
I've been listening to Frank and I've realized that I don't know a thing about computers,” Chesterton said. His aspect was fatally fatigued. “I think I'll stay here and help them to—”

On the far side of the Housing Cavern the titanium door shook, struck hard. The bestial roar that followed was like blood-wet fear in the air, guttural and threatening.

Instantly Thor was moving forward, shoving Connor. “Go, my friend! Go! Go! Hurry before it breaks down the door. We will hold it here as long as possible. Disarm the bomb.”

With Beth beside him, Connor was moving. He heard the wall behind them shattering, caught a freshness in the reptilian scream that told him a section of the vault's frame had surrendered to the colossal, raging force. And then they had stooped under the narrowly-lifted door to enter another passageway, moving quickly.

Beth was behind him with Frank leading as they ran deeply down the tunnel. In the distance behind them they heard the now familiar sounds of savage conflict, the roar of the beast followed by defiant human cries and the thunderous explosions of rifles and grenades.

But there was no time to think of it, not with what loomed before them. Connor sensed it before he saw it. Light. Heat. Heavy smoke moving toward the ve
ntilation system. And Connor instinctively looked up at the tunnel, slowing in cold fear as he understood.

It was on fire.

* * *

Chapter 24

Flame before them with flames behind and Frank spun, shouting,
“We've got to get out of this tunnel! The only other way to reach Brubaker is through Omega!”

Connor whirled to look at the entrance of Omega. He knew the tunnel led through the cavern for a mile before it intersected with Brubaker, which would take them to the Computer Cavern. And then he remembered how Leviathan had wrecked the tunnel earlier.
“But Omega was wrecked when that thing destroyed the nitrogen tanks,” he gasped. “We can't...”

“
We've got to try!” Frank was screaming. “We're dead if we try to reach Brubaker through this tunnel! It's too hot!”

Connor grimaced, trying to decide.

“Make a decision, Connor! If we don't use Omega we'll have to retrace our steps back through the Housing Cavern!” The scientist choked on the smoke billowing up the passageway. “Come on! We're running out of time!”

Connor glared at the flames before them, weighing the options. But it was clear to him. There was no way. There was no way they could get through the tunnel before them. And there was no way they could retreat back through the Housing Cavern. Not with that kill-or-be-killed firefight in full force. He knew that much, for certain. Just as he knew that Thor and Barley and Chesterton would be dead themselves if they stayed in there much longer.

“We'll take Omega!” he shouted, angling instantly toward the entrance. “We'll have to take our chances that the nitrogen hasn't poisoned the air!”

“
The nitrogen should have dissipated by now!” Frank re-plied, moving quickly ahead of him. “But we can't be sure of the wiring! GEO told me that Leviathan used flame down here, and it could have melted the steel plating. We could have lines down!”

Jordan stirred in Connor's arms, crying.
“Shhhh,” said Connor, hugging him closer. “It's okay, boy. We're going to get out of here. Just a little longer and we'll get you out of here. Daddy's going to get you out of here ...”

Grimacing against the flame, Connor hugged his son close.

* * *

Collapsing to one knee, Barley shouted and centered an LAW rocket at the chest of Leviathan.

The beast was surreal and titanic in the cavern, fully enraged. Its tail swept right and left, shattering everything within reach. Nothing could resist it—wood, steel, and wiring surrendered like smoke to the monstrous might of
the beast, scattering and disintegrating wildly at its touch. Emerging fully into the cavern, Leviathan screamed hideously, shaking, dropping on all four legs to charge.

Grim and cold, Barley depressed the trigger of the LAW and the flame-bolt struck Leviathan hard in the chest, staggering it solidly. It reared back, aflame and firing flame from its mouth that shot uncontrollably to the roof of the cavern, exploding in a hellish, mushrooming white cloud that set the entire complex ablaze.

Heat, heat ...

Heat
!

Fire rained from the roof.

Thor fired the M-79e.

The grenade struck Leviathan in the chest
, exploding violently against the armor plating. But the beast took the shock almost in stride, leaping forward and lashing out. A long foreleg missed Thor by a hair, cleanly severing the main support beam of the Housing Complex.

Damaged by the flame and collision of forces, the entire housing structure began to cave in, falling over Leviathan. It struck back maniacally, vaporizing steel and plywood with a continuous white stream of liquid fire, fangs, and claws. On and on it raged, slashing and striking at everything, at nothing, raging at the air, the cavern. Then Chesterton let loose with an M-16, screaming for Barley and Thor to retreat but they stood their ground.

Thor broke open the M-79 and shoved another grenade in the tube. He quickly snapped it shut as Leviathan's dragon-head again lashed toward him. With a shout he fired into its face. Blinding, the point-blank blast hit at less than forty feet and only the concussion threw Thor out of range as the monstrous jaws snapped shut on smoking air.

Barley was firing, screaming,
“Thor! Crawl out the vault! Crawl out the vault! Get out of there!”

Staggering, Thor tried to obey, to retreat. But as he gained his feet he saw the beast atop him. He took a single, frantic step backward before he tripped over a shattered computer frame, sweeping black claws slashing out to tear the computer into splintered steel shreds and then Chesterton was running forward, screaming vengefully and firing the M-16 in a blinding, suicidal rage. He centered on the head, the eyes of the creature and Leviathan blinked, enraged, turning toward the object of its pain.

“Get out of here you fools!” Chesterton screamed, firing upward.

Barley reached Thor as Leviathan turned its full attention to Chesterton, rising up, snarling, growling. Despite its injury and its weakened condition, the beast seemed to glory in the moment.

“Colonel!” screamed Barley, leaping forward, but Thor snatched him by the shirt as he leaped, hauling him back. Then Leviathan's jaws descended, meeting the gladiatorial hatred of Chesterton who kept firing, firing to the last.

“
Colonel!” Barley screamed again as Thor threw him hard beneath the narrow space of the vault door. Then in a rage Thor spun back to see the beast with its head and neck raised high, almost twenty feet above the ground, swallowing.

Teeth clenched, Thor raised the M-79, holding a steady aim
at the neck, and fired again. When the grenade struck Leviathan staggered, shaken. And Thor quickly reloaded, catching a glimpse of Barley screaming and crawling back beneath the vault to rejoin the fight.

With a calm aim Thor fired his last grenade, hitting the beast in the same location, a section of neck armor that appeared severely damaged by the LAW rocket. The explosion was fire, white, blinding, volcanic.

Leviathan screamed, shaking lividly, whirling toward him.

Thor bent and rolled. He blasted Barley back through the opening of the vault, grabbing the lieutenant as they collided and rolling even faster as he felt a flaming concussion strike the fire door, impacting with the power of a rocket to send a vaporous fire-cloud under the portal.

Thor continued rolling, throwing Barley as if he were a doll until he was well beyond the door. Then Thor rose to a knee and spun back, screaming and enraged, violently whipping the battle-ax from his back.

“
Come, beast!” he roared. “Come and face me!'‘

A hideous scream and colossal impact against the vault was the only reply.

* * *

Smoke and narrow flame surrounded them, and Connor moved as quickly as he could, holding Jordan close. Frank was ahead of them by a dozen steps, searching the passage floor for loose wiring, testing the air for traces of heavy nitrogen.

Beth was at Connor's side, her hand on his arm.

Connor squinted angrily through the smoke, smoke that thickened as they moved deeper and deeper into the tunnel. A moment earlier he had wet a cloth on a ruptured water line and placed it over Jordan's tiny face. He knew that the cloth would protect the child somewhat from the acrid air that spiraled from the deeper part of Omega. An explosion, seeming to come from behind, shook the corridor walls.

Beth staggered, grabbing his arm and Connor whirled to stare back, holding Jordan tight. He almost half-expected to see the hell-born beast on top of them. But there was nothing there, nothing but burning smoke, distant flame.

“
What was that?” Beth whispered, staring. She seemed frightened with a new and vivid fear. “Do you think that Thor is ...”

“
No,” Connor replied, holding her gaze.

He didn't know what else to say, and she knew the comment for what it was. Hope. And she didn't question it because it was her hope as well. They turned again to Frank.

“We're coming into a big chamber where several tunnels converge!” he called back, holding a hand to his face. He was squinting angrily against the smoke. “Everybody stay together or we could get separated!”

“
Don't worry about us!” Connor yelled. “Just get us to the computer so you can disarm the fail-safe!”

Frank turned without words and walked slowly forward. He was almost instantly lost in the smoke that spiraled from the converging passageways. It was a heavy, blinding haze that flowed and overflowed into the ventilation shafts. Connor found himself choking, heard Jordan crying. He tried to comfort his son as best he could, but things were getting bad fast. The smoke was so thick that the air seemed solid, clinging to them, flowing past them like black water. He looked to the side to see Beth bending, lowering her head. And he repeated the maneuver, also bending low to stagger forward.

Another explosion, too close, blinded them. Connor had no idea what it was, couldn't imagine. It was a powerful electrical line grounding out or maybe a lost incendiary from the platoons. But whatever it was rocked the corridor and sent them staggering again, struggling for balance.

Frank was screaming.
“We've got to find the right tunnel! There's four or maybe five, that lead out of this room! One of them leads to Brubaker where we can go straight into the computer—”

The next explosion
knocked Connor off his feet, slamming him hard against something but he held Jordan until he came off it, losing his son somehow in the air, landing numbly to ...

Sharp pain.

Instantly enraged, Connor tried to lift himself from the ground, found that he couldn't move. He strained again, violently, and felt something pinning him down. Opening his eyes against the acrid smoke, he glared to the side to see what was holding him.

A stake.

A steel stake the size of a railroad spike had been driven cleanly through his upper arm, pinning him to the ground. Instantly Connor's teeth clenched in a snarl and he violently tore his arm from the blood-red steel, leaving shreds of flesh. He didn't even feel the pain as he gained his feet, immediately searching for Jordan.

“
Jordan!” he cried. “Jordan! I'm right here!”

A terrified cry carried through the smoke.

“Jordan!” screamed Connor. “Where are you, son? Stay where you're at! Don't move!”

A wounded, fearful scream that only a child could make reached into Connor's heart, tearing him apart, a cry that seemed somehow close but moved away quickly with terrified, searching steps until it was claimed by darkness.

Connor cried, screaming.

“
Jordan!”

* * *

Chapter 25

Move!” Thor roared, shoving Barley.

The big lieutenant s
taggered, shocked, but he recovered quickly, holding his rifle as he had held it during a thousand training missions, running forward. Thor followed him a dozen steps before he turned back to see the beast wrecking the top level of the vault, ravaging the upper edge as it had learned to do, in order to defeat the portal.

Leviathan slammed the fire door outward, screaming. Thor grabbed Barley and shoved him into a connecting corridor, close behind him.
“Run!” Thor shouted. “This is not the place to make a stand! We must exhaust it first!”

Barley's response was instantaneous as he leaped into a run that stretched out quickly, covering a wide yard of ground with each stride and Thor ran after him, keeping up easily.

Leviathan pounded against the portal behind them, slamming the vault outward. The steel walkway beneath their feet was torn from place at the impact and then Thor felt the stride of the beast, pursuing, vengeful to end the conflict. As they reached another bisecting corridor, Thor sensed the quick strides nearing and he grabbed Barley by the collar, angling him roughly into a connecting hallway. Behind them the corridor exploded in flame.

Thor dove into the entrance of the corridor, escaping the lava that filled the expanse. He landed hard
but recovered quickly, rising with his battle-ax close.

“Yes, beast!” he roared back. “Use your flame! Use your strength!”

Another hate-filled blast vulcanized the tunnel.

Until … silence.

* * *

“
Jordan!” Connor screamed. “Where are you?”

The answering cry was even more distant, vanishing in the smoke-black darkness. And then Frank was beside Connor, clutching. The scientist was confused, not understanding what had happened. Connor grabbed him by the upper arms, crushing.

“We've lost Jordan!” he shouted.

Connor moved into the smoke, shouting, searching wildly. And Beth was at his side, close, staying within sight, shouting as frantically as him. But they heard only the rumbling of flame, the ventilation system straining to remove the choking congestion from this maze of corridors.

Losing control, Connor turned back to Beth. “Where would he go, Beth? Where would he go?”

Her dark eyes blazed, angry.
“I don't know, Connor! I don't know what a child would do!”

Connor realized he was panicking. And with savage cold will he dropped to one knee, taking a deep breath of whatever fresh air remained in the junction. Then he looked up, staring through tear-blinded eyes. From his vantage point, less than four feet off the ground, he could see only one section of light—an oval-shaped opening framed in a smoke-red haze. It was an avenue of bright escape from the smoke that bill
owed in the convergence of hallways.

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.”

* * *