Part 39 (1/2)
Susan did not move.
”Are you worried about David?”
There was a slight quiver in her upper lip.
Strathmore stepped closer. He was going to reach for her, but hehesitated. The sound of David's name had apparently crackedthe dam of grief. Slowly at first-a quiver, a tremble. Andthen a thundering wave of misery seemed to course through herveins.
Barely able to control her shuddering lips, Susan opened hermouth to speak. Nothing came.
Without ever breaking the icy gaze she'd locked onStrathmore, she took her hand from the pocket of his blazer. In herhand was an object. She held it out, shaking.
Strathmore half expected to look down and see the Berettaleveled at his gut. But the gun was still on the floor, proppedsafely in Hale's hand. The object Susan was holding wa.s.smaller. Strathmore stared down at it, and an instant later, heunderstood.
As Strathmore stared, reality warped, and time slowed to acrawl. He could hear the sound of his own heart. The man who hadtriumphed over giants for so many years had been outdone in aninstant. Slain by love-by his own foolishness. In a simple actof chivalry, he had given Susan his jacket. And with it, hisSkyPager.
Now it was Strathmore who went rigid. Susan's hand wa.s.shaking. The pager fell at Hale's feet. With a look ofastonishment and betrayal that Strathmore would never forget, SusanFletcher raced past him out of Node 3.
The commander let her go. In slow motion, he bent and retrievedthe pager. There were no new messages-Susan had read them all.Strathmore scrolled desperately through the list.
SUBJECT: ENSEI TANKADO-TERMINATED SUBJECT: PIERRE CLOUCHARDE-TERMINATED SUBJECT: HANS HUBER-TERMINATED SUBJECT: ROCiO EVA GRANADA-TERMINATED .. .
The list went on. Strathmore felt a wave of horror. I canexplain! She will understand!
Honor! Country! But therewas one message he had not yet seen-one message he could neverexplain. Trembling, he scrolled to the final transmission.
SUBJECT: DAVID BECKER-TERMINATED Strathmore hung his head. His dream was over.
CHAPTER 104
Susan staggered out of Node 3.
SUBJECT: DAVID BECKER-TERMINATED As if in a dream, she moved toward Crypto's main exit. GregHale's voice echoed in her mind: Susan, Strathmore'sgoing to kill me! Susan, the commander's in love withyou!
Susan reached the enormous circular portal and began stabbingdesperately at the keypad. The door did not move. She tried again,but the enormous slab refused to rotate. Susan let out a mutedscream-apparently the power outage had deleted the exit codes.She was still trapped. Without warning, two arms closed around her from behind,grasping her half-numb body. The touch was familiar yet repulsive.It lacked the brute strength of Greg Hale, but there was adesperate roughness to it, an inner determination like steel.
Susan turned. The man restraining her was desolate, frightened.It was a face she had never seen.
”Susan,” Strathmore begged, holding her. ”I canexplain.”
She tried to pull away.
The commander held fast.
Susan tried to scream, but she had no voice. She tried to run,but strong hands restrained her, pulling her backward.
”I love you,” the voice was whispering.”I've loved you forever.”
Susan's stomach turned over and over.
”Stay with me.”
Susan's mind whirled with grisly images-David'sbright-green eyes, slowly closing for the last time; GregHale's corpse seeping blood onto the carpet; PhilChartrukian's burned and broken on the generators.
”The pain will pa.s.s,” the voice said.”You'll love again.”
Susan heard nothing.
”Stay with me,” the voice pleaded. ”I'llheal your wounds.”
She struggled, helpless.
”I did it for us. We're made for each other. Susan, Ilove you.” The words flowed as if he had waited a decade tospeak them. ”I love you! I love you!”
In that instant, thirty yards away, as if reb.u.t.tingStrathmore's vile confession, TRANSLTR let out a savage,pitiless hiss. The sound was an entirely new one-a distant,ominous sizzling that seemed to grow like a serpent in the depthsof the silo.
The freon, it appeared, had not reached its mark intime.
The commander let go of Susan and turned toward the $2 billioncomputer. His eyes went wide with dread. ”No!” He grabbedhis head. ”No!”
The six-story rocket began to tremble. Strathmore staggered afaltering step toward the thundering hull. Then he fell to hisknees, a sinner before an angry G.o.d. It was no use.
At the base ofthe silo, TRANSLTR's t.i.tanium-strontium processors had justignited.
CHAPTER 105
A fireball racing upward through three million silicon chipsmakes a unique sound.
The crackling of a forest fire, the howlingof a tornado, the steaming gush of a geyser .
. . all trappedwithin a reverberant hull. It was the devil's breath, pouringthrough a sealed cavern, looking for escape. Strathmore knelttransfixed by the horrific noise rising toward them. Theworld's most expensive computer was about to become aneight-story inferno.
In slow motion, Strathmore turned back toward Susan. She stoodparalyzed beside the Crypto door. Strathmore stared at hertear-streaked face. She seemed to s.h.i.+mmer in the fluorescent light.She's an angel, he thought. He searched her eyes forheaven, but all he could see was death. It was the death of trust.Love and honor were gone. The fantasy that had kept him going allthese years was dead. He would never have Susan Fletcher. Never.The sudden emptiness that gripped him was overwhelming.
Susan gazed vaguely toward TRANSLTR. She knew that trappedwithin the ceramic sh.e.l.l, a fireball was racing toward them. Shesensed it rising faster and faster, feeding on the oxygen releasedby the burning chips. In moments the Crypto dome would be a blazinginferno.