James Axler Outlander 16 Tigers of Heaven

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32, and then by a passenger elevator to level ten. Once there, you'll take
some stairs up to section Z-9." He extended two fingers. "There are two sets
of stairways. Either one will get you to the elevator...eventually."
Kane shook his head in frustration. "I hope there are signs posted."
"Sorry," Maddock said with a half grin. "But me and Brodeur will meet you
there and try to run interference to the cargo elevator."
"And the elevator is nonstop to the surface?"
Fuller shook his head. "No. It makes automatic stops on levels eight, seven
and six. There's nothing we can do about it."
"I think I'd rather take the stairs all the way," Domi said softly.
Quaice retorted stiffly, "That method would require a minimum of six hours and
forty-five minutes to reach the hangar area. And that's assuming all the
stairwell doors are unlocked."
Maddock ignored the hybrid's observation and tapped the square symbolizing the
hangar. "The attack wifl center on that."
"How can you be so sure?" Kane wanted to know.
"Simple," Maddock replied. He gestured to the hybrid. ' 'Quaice will be up
there by dawn with a flare gun. He'll draw the assault force's attention."
' 'What kind of outer defenses does the base have?"
Fuller shrugged. "We've heard rumors of a minefield in the lakebed, but since
we're not upper-echelon members of the garrison, we don't know for sure. I
haven't been topside since I was transferred here from Dulce."
Kane murmured wordlessly in irritation. "Is there anything about this damn
place you do know for sure?"
Quaice said waspishly,' 'There is a fleet of wheeled vehicles in the hangar
outfitted with automatic weapons."
"How many?"
Quaice gestured diffidently. Kane had seen Balam perform the same motion as
the equivalent of a shrug.
"I have only seen six, but that doesn't preclude more in storage."
Crooking an eyebrow, Kane glanced toward Mad-dock. "There's nothing like a
hover-tank in storage, is there?"
A fleeting smile crossed Maddock's face. "I doubt it."
Kane referred to the armored, fan-powered patrol vehicle he had hijacked
during the penetration of the
_ Archuleta Mesa site. Maddock had been a member of 9 its crew.
' 'From what I was told,'' the young man continued, "the tank is still out
there in the desert where you left it." J
Tavares spoke up. "According to the last coded message we received, the force
reached Las Vegas about eight hours ago. They intend to wait until 2200 hours
before making the push to Dreamland. If everything goes according to plan,
they should reach the Groom Lake perimeter a little before daybreak."
"How are you receiving and sending these messages undetected?" Kane asked.
Tavares, a dark-haired man of about Kane's age, tapped his chest. "I'm the
comm man here. No one else knows shit about the equipment. I realigned it to
receive and send digitally compressed messages on a hopping frequency
sequence."
"Nobody here can decipher mem?" Kane's tone was studiedly skeptical. "Nobody
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notices when the signals come in?"
Tavares grinned proudly. "Hey, if I say the signals are caused by sunspots,
nobody knows enough to know they don't know enough. They take my word for it."
"Remember," said Maddock, "Baron Cobalt only reactivated this place about
three months ago. The staff here are all survivors from the Dulce garrison,
and most of them are grunts, not techs."
"After the mesa was blown, why weren't you recalled back to your respective
villes?"
Fuller shrugged. "At first our orders were to stay at Dulce to salvage what we
could and dispose of the dead. We were just a glorified cleanup detail. When
Baron Cobalt's orders came through to relocate our-
selves and everything we could to here, do you think anybody wanted to
question him?"
Fuller's explanation made sense, at least to sufficiently quell Kane's
suspicions, if not completely lay them to rest.
Maddock announced, "We have to get back to our posts. You and Domi can stay
here and try to get some sleep." He unpocketed a trans-comm unit and held it
up. "At 0500 hours, I'll signal you on this.
When you leave here, take the first right and go to monorail station 20. At
0530, you'll call sec central so they'll power it up. Identify yourself as
Phillipson. The code words are "
" Jimmy six January," Kane interposed smoothly. "Who's Phillipson?"
"The guy you killed. He's assigned to this section of the base and you have
his comm, so you should be able to pull it off."
"He won't be missed between now and then?"
"The base is already on a second-degree alert," Brodeur said gloomily.
"They're probably looking for you, but we've already hidden the bodies of the
men you and Domi chilled. So sec central won't know you're armed."
"But they're assuming I'm loose and trying to reach the surface?" Kane
inquired.
"Wouldn't you?" Maddock responded. "But they'll figure you've gone to ground
somewhere. Besides, if
I know Gifford he'll want to hunt you down personally."
A humorless smile creased Kane's face. "That's nice to know. I'd hate to leave
without saying goodbye."
Human and hybrid alike filed out of the commissary, leaving Kane and Domi
alone in the dim room. He was far too keyed up to sleep, so he examined all of
his equipment. He strapped the motion detector around his left wrist. It was a
small device made of molded black plastic and stamped metal. A liquid crystal
display window exuded a faint glow. He turned it off and on, sweeping it back
and forth experimentally.
The silence between him and Domi became awkward. She seemed disinclined to
talk, to do much of anything except sit at the dining table with her head
propped up by her hands.
After several minutes, Kane asked, "Are you sure you're all right?"
"Yeah." Her voice was dull and listless. "Just fine. You?"
"Grand,"
Another period of silence settled over the room. "When we move out," he said,
"we should probably split up and head for the hangar by different directions.
That'll minimize the chances of both of us being recaptured."
"Or chilled," she interjected.
"Or chilled," he agreed. "Do you want to look at the layout, choose an
alternate route?"
Domi pulled the blueprints toward her and scanned them slowly, without
apparent interest. Kane waited for her to say more, but she didn't. Usually,
Domi was forthright, forthcoming and very verbal. He had been on a number of
missions with her, and she'd earned his trust and respect. However, her
behavior had changed prior to and during the op to penetrate
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Area 51. She was taciturn, even insulting, particularly toward Grant. The
short fuse of her temper seemed to have shrunk to little more than a wick. It
took only a tiny spark to trigger an explosion of
homicidal anger.
Right before he and Domi had jumped from Cerberus, Grant confided in him that
he was the reason for
Domi's confrontational attitude. For more than a year she'd claimed she loved
Grant, but he was always reluctant to return that emotion for reasons even he
couldn't articulate.
Kane guessed Domi represented a kind of innocence to Grant, and he didn't want
to taint it with sex despite the fact she was no stranger to it before being
smuggled into Cobaltville to serve as Guana
Teague's sex slave. He also figured Grant didn't want to do anything that
might diminish the memory of
Olivia, the only woman who'd ever truly claimed his heart.
So Grant always drew the line at physical intimacy with Domi, sometimes citing
the age difference between them as the reason, even though not even Domi knew
how old she was. Kane never thought that argument defensible. Waiflike in
appearance she might be, but Domi had proved time and again she was anything
but a child.
She hadn't reacted like a child when she came across Grant and Shizuka, the
female samurai, locked in a sweaty embrace. That Grant had even informed him
of the incident was a matter of some surprise to Kane. Although they were [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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