Part 31 (2/2)

Furthermore, Doherty confined, it looks as if this has happened before, in other galaxies. It actually clears up some anomalies here and there.

Getting back to Earth, Burley said, or at least to this solar system. How big a job would it be to stop the Jupiter Project? The largest experiment ever set up?

Nothing to it, in terms of science. Just one radio signal from JPL. Getting people to send a signal that will end their careers in science, that would normally be hard. But everybody's career ends September fourteenth, if they don't.

It's still irresponsible nonsense, Macro said. Bad science, sensationalism.

You have about ten days to prove that, Mac. A long line is forming behind that b.u.t.ton.

Close-up on Burley, shaking his head. They can't turn it off too soon for me. The console went dead.

We laughed and hugged and split a ginger ale in celebration. But then the screen chimed and turned itself on without my hitting the answer b.u.t.ton.

It was the face of Eileen Zakim, my new platoon leader. Julian, we have a real situation. Are you armed?

No-well, yes. There's a pistol here. But it had been left behind, like the ginger ale; I hadn't checked to see if it was loaded. What's up?

That crazy b.i.t.c.h Gavrila is here. Maybe inside. She killed a little girl out front in order to distract the shoe guard at the gate.

Good grief! We don't have a soldierboy out front?

We do, but she patrols. Gavrila waited until the soldierboy was on the opposite side of the compound. The way we've reconstructed it, she slashed up the child and threw her, dying, up against the sentry box door. When the shoe opened the door, she cut his throat and then dragged him across the box and used his handprint to open the inner door.

I had the pistol out and threw the dead bolt on the door. Reconstructed? You don't know for sure?

No way to tell; the inner door isn't monitored. But she did drag him back into the box, and if she's military, she knows how the handprint locks work.

I checked the pistol's magazine. Eight packs of tumblers. Each pack held 144 razor-sharp tumblers-each actually a folded, scored piece of metal that shatters into 144 pieces when you pull the trigger. They come out in a hail of fury that can chew off an arm or a leg.

Now that she's in the compound- We don't know that for sure.

If she is, though, are there any more handprint locks? Any monitored entrances?''

The main entrance is monitored. No handprints; just mechanical locks. My people are checking every door.

I winced a little at my people. Okay. We're secure here. Keep us posted.

Will do. The console went dark.

We both looked at the door. Maybe she doesn't have anything that can get through that, Amelia said. She used a knife on the child and guard.

I shook my head. I think she did that for her own amus.e.m.e.nt.

GAVRILA HUDDLED IN A cabinet under a laundry sink, waiting, the M-31 cradled, ready to fire, and the guard's a.s.sault rifle digging into her ribs. She had come in through a service door that was open to the night air, and locked it behind her.

While she watched through a crack, her patience and foresight were rewarded. A soldierboy slipped silently up to the door, checked the lock, and moved on.

After one minute, she got out and stretched. She had to either find out where the woman was staying or find some way to destroy the whole building. But fast. She was ridiculously outnumbered, and in gaining the advantage of terror she had sacrificed the possibility of surprise.

There was a beat-up keyboard and console, gray plastic turning white with some kind of soap film, built into the wall. She went over to it and pushed a random letter, and it turned itself on. She typed in directory and was rewarded with a list of personnel. Blaze Harding wasn't there, but Julian Cla.s.s was, at 8-1841. That looked like a phone number, rather than a room number.

Guessing, she rolled a pointer over to his name and clicked on it. That gave her 241, more useful. It was a two-story building.

A sudden loud rattling startled her. She spun around, pointing both weapons, but it was just an unattended was.h.i.+ng machine that had been dormant while she was hidden.

She ignored the freight elevator and shouldered though a heavy FIRE EXIT door that opened on a dusty staircase. There didn't seem to be any security cameras. She climbed quickly and quietly up to the second floor.

She thought for a moment and left one of the weapons by the door on the landing. She only needed one for the kill. Besides, she'd be retreating fast, and might want an element of surprise. They would know she had the guard's a.s.sault rifle, but probably didn't know about the M-31 yet.

Opening the door a crack, she could see that the odd-numbered rooms were across from her, numbers increasing to the right. She closed her eyes for a deep breath and a silent prayer, and then burst through the door in a dead run, a.s.suming there were cameras and soldier-boys in her near future.

There were neither. She stopped at 241, took a fraction of a second to note the cla.s.s nameplate, leveled the a.s.sault rifle, and fired a silenced burst at the lock.

The door didn't open. She aimed six inches higher and this time blew out the dead bolt. The door opened a couple of inches and she kicked it the rest of the way.

Julian was standing there, in the shadow, holding the pistol straight out with both hands. She spun away instinctively as he fired, and the burst of razors that would have beheaded her instead just tore out a piece of her left shoulder. She fired two random blasts into the darkness-trusting G.o.d to guide them not to him, but to the white scientist she was there to punish-and leaped back out of the way of his second shot. Then she sprinted back to the stairwell and just got through the door as his third shot redecorated the hall.

There was a soldierboy waiting there, hulking huge at the top of the stairs. She knew from picking Jefferson's mind that the mechanic controlling it probably had been brainwashed so it couldn't kill her. She emptied the rest of the magazine into the thing's eyes.

The black man was shouting for her to throw out her weapon and come out with her hands up. All right. He was probably the only thing between her and the scientist.

She toed the door open, ignoring the soldierboy groping blindly behind her, and threw out the useless a.s.sault rifle. Now come out slowly, the man said.

She took one moment to visualize her move while she eased back the arming lever of the M-31. Shoulder-roll across the corridor and then a continuous sweeping burst in his direction. She leaped.

It was all wrong. He got her before she hit the ground,. an unG.o.dly pain in her belly. She saw her own death happening, a thick spray of blood and entrails as her shoulder hit the floor and she tried to complete the roll but just slid. She managed to get up on her knees and elbows, and something slimy fell out of her body. She fell over facing him, and through a darkening haze raised the weapon toward him. He said something and the world ended.

I SHOUTED DROP IT but she ignored me, and the second shot disintegrated her head and shoulders. I fired again, reflexively, blowing apart the M-31 and the hand that was aiming it, and turning her chest into a bright red cavity. Behind me, Amelia made a choking sound and ran to the bathroom to vomit.

I had to stare. She didn't even look human, from the waist up; just a messy montage of butchered meat and rags. The rest of her was unaffected. For some reason I held up my hand to block out the gore and was a little horrified to see that her lower body was in a relaxed, casually seductive pose.

A soldierboy slowly pushed the door open. The sensory apparatuses were a chewed-up mess. Julian? it said in Candi's voice. I can't see. Are you all right?

I'm okay, Candi. I think it's over. Backup coming?

Claude. He's downstairs.

I'll be in the room. I walked back through the door on automatic pilot. I'd almost meant it when I said I was okay. I just turned a human being into a pile of steaming meat, hey, all in a day's work.

Amelia had left the water running after was.h.i.+ng her face. She hadn't quite made it to the toilet, and was trying to clean up the mess with a towel. I set down the pistol and helped her to her feet. You lie down, honey. I'll take care of this.

She was weeping. She nodded into my shoulder and let me guide her to the bed.

After I cleaned it up and threw the towels into the recycler, I sat on the end of the bed and tried to think. But I couldn't get past the horrible sight of the woman bursting open three times, each time I pulled the trigger.

When she silently threw the rifle out, for some reason I knew she would come through the door shooting. I had a sight picture and the trigger halfway pulled when she leaped out into the corridor.

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