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forward, and he looked back to her. Under her plaits, which hung limply around
her face, he could see that her dark skin was darker in patches, where the
disease was erupting through her pores. The whites of her eyes were bloodshot.
She looked ill, and her labored breathing was alarming to him.
"Listen," she began, "I don't know if I can make it back to the bottom and
then find the lab. I have a suggestion. Doc and I go for the med lab, try to
find the cure, while you free the Gate and chill these fuckers."
"You be okay, just the two of you?"
Mildred smiled. "How the hell do I know, Ryan? But Doc and
I are worst hit, so we need the antidote first, and we can move better as two
than as three or four. Besides, you need all the firepower you can get if
you're going to get the Gate free."
Ryan pondered that. In truth, it took less than a second for him to see the
sense of what she was saying. Under any other circumstances, he would have
been more cautious until the Gate were free. But time was of the essence.
"Okay," he agreed, "you two go for it. Know where you're going?"
Mildred nodded. "I've got a good idea. And we've got these to
keep us safe and warm on the way, right, Doc?" she added, slapping the laser
blaster she was carrying.
"It should suffice, madam," Doc told her.
So, with the briefest of farewells, Mildred and Doc left the rest of the
companions at the junction of two corridors, heading toward the level where
the woman believed the med lab was situated while the rest of the party headed
downward, hoping to encounter as little resistance as possible.
"DO YOU HAVE anything other than a rough idea of where the lab should be?" Doc
panted as he and Mildred moved rapidly along an empty corridor. "I ask not
from any lack of faith, but purely because I fear I may soon run out of
steam."
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"You know something, Doc? I feel pretty much the same myself," Mildred
commented, "but I figure the lab should be on this level. Most redoubts
they're pretty high up, and I'm counting on the late and unlamented fat man
Taschen wanting to keep a pretty close eye on things."
"Ah, yes, the man who invented himself," Doc mused, "That would make perfect
sense."
So far they had been fortunate. There had been little activity on this level,
and with luck they would not have to pass any of the comp rooms or admin rooms
where they had seen
Illuminated Ones at work on their initial journey through the redoubt. Which
left the possibility of stumbling across moving sec. They kept to the sides of
the corridors, using the buttresses as cover, but were completely unable to
prevent what happened when they reached the level of the lab.
As they approached an open door, Mildred suddenly became aware of the sounds
of movement from within.
He held up a hand to stay Doc, who was moving close behind her, but they were
already past the last line of cover. And then she heard the voices.
"You got everything you need now?" spoke the first.
"Uh-huh. Be glad to get off this level. The lab always give me the creeps,"
returned a second, this one female.
"Don't let the boss man hear you say that," returned the first.
"Like I'd be that dumb," the second countered.
Both voices had grown nearer as the pair approached the open doorway. Mildred
swore softly to herself, knowing that there was no way to get into cover.
She had forgotten that she was still wearing the Illuminated uniform with
which she had first entered the redoubt, and as she readied to blast, she was
momentarily taken aback by the friendly way in which she was greeted by the
duo of Illuminated
Ones as they exited the room.
"Hey, what're you doing here?" the woman asked, puzzled. "I
thought we were the only ones who "
Mildred recovered first. Their initial lack of hostility had thrown her for a
fraction of a second, but despite the pox her reactions were still quicker
than those of the Illuminated Ones, soft from lack of combat.
She raised the laser blaster as Doc stepped from behind her, also raising his
weapon. Two short, sharp blasts from the rifles pulsed in the air before the
Illuminated Ones had a chance to even bring around their weapons to aim. Both
shots had been for the head, a feasible target given the close range. Both
skulls were hit by the high powered lasers, the bone crumbling and the flesh
searing under the deadly ray. With no actual force of impact, the chilled
Illuminated Ones merely crumpled to the ground, a sickening black charred mess
occupying the space where their heads had once sat. The head shot had
eliminated the risk of either Illuminated One crying out, be it in pain, fear
or alarm, at the moment of buying the farm.
"That was a trifle too close to be comfortable," Doc commented mildly as he
stared down at the corpses.
"Yeah, and we're too close to let it slip now," Mildred added.
Doc moved around in front of her and began to drag one of the chilled corpses
back into the room. "Then I suggest we hide these, just in case they should be
spotted before our task is accomplished."
"Good call," Mildred agreed, taking the other corpse and following the old man
into the room.
It was a fortunate act of chance that took them there. As they stashed the
chilled Illuminated Ones out of view from the corridor or a casual glance into
the room, Mildred caught sight of what was contained within.
"Look at this, Doc," she murmured, leaving the hidden corpses and walking
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across the room to a comp display that was linked to graph machines spilling
reams of computer paper silently into a collection basket.
"I believe I've seen something like this before," Doc whispered, joining
Mildred. "It is, is it not, some kind of medical monitoring device?"
"On the button, Doc," Mildred muttered, scanning the comp displays and taking
out a sheaf of the papers to study them.
"Complete vital function, brain and organ scan. But who are they monitoring
this closely?"
"Time enough for that in a while," Doc said quietly. "If this is medical [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]