Leviathan (36 page)

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.”

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 t
he 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.

N
o 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 ...

* * *