The cripple was finally on his feet, wiping sweat from his high forehead with his normal hand. He leaned forward in a curiously reptilian manner, studying the albino boy.
"He is m-m-m-m-most interesting, Dr. T-T-T-Tardy," he stammered.
"Indeed he is, Dr. Avian. I have never seen or heard of such skill and control, lethal wise."
Ryan relaxed. They weren't going to have the kid turned into steaming spray and spilled guts, after all.
"You will go to Control, boy," she lisped to Jak.
"You're going to chill him?" Ryan asked. If the answer turned out to be yes, he would let them take Jak and watch for a chance to go after them and save the kid.
"I don't read you."
"Kill him. Waste him. Send him to buy the farm. Terminate him?"
Jak stood, watching, his chest hardly moving more than normal, despite having put down three armed men, two of them for keeps. The other sec men kept their blasters on full power, covering Ryan and the rest.
The only sound was a bubbling little giggle, like that of a tiny girl seeing her first fireworks, an obscene, crazed noise in that room of death.
"Negative termination. We must examine him carefully and cherish him. A mutie beyond all muties, this one. No. Remainder of you can sleep peacefully. He comes." The voice hardened. "No more resistance, or megacull. You understand, strangers?"
Ryan nodded. "Yeah. We understand, Doctor. Jak, you take care now. We'll be in to see you in the morning."
In their supertech world, it was obvious the scientists had never come across anyone with the raw power and ruthless skill to off armed men with hands and feet only. Ryan's guess was that that should be enough to keep the kid alive for a while.
That was his hope.
The sec men wheeled clumsily around, circling the young boy. Jak brushed back his snowy mane of hair, pale face schooled into stillness. The crippled scientist went haltingly out first, followed by the patrol.
"Hold your fucking head up, Whitey!" Finnegan shouted.
"Sure, Fats. I'll do that," the boy replied.
Dr. Tardy was last out, pausing in the doorway to turn and rake the six of them with her pebbled eyes. "Strange company for a man such as you, Dr. Tanner. We shall examine and test all of this. But it must wait. Central will become impatient if we do not proceed. And we are so nearly ready. So very nearly."
The door hissed shut, and Ryan and his companions were left alone.
Later, on his narrow bed, under the subdued lighting of the dormitory, Ryan found sleep difficult. The room still tasted of death, though the corpses had been removed and the floor cleaned.
There were too many rules he couldn't understand. Too many pieces missing from the puzzle.
"Fireblast!" he whispered to himself. He didn't even know what the game was called.
Chapter Seventeen
The sign above the door said: Information Storage and Retrieval.
To Ryan's surprise they had been encouraged to visit Jak after they'd taken their first meal of the pallid sludge. The boy was safe and well, though in a closed security unit under a heavy guard of visored sec men.
Later, they'd again split up, to explore the Wizard Island Complex, Ryan and Krysty wandering far into an isolated wing, descending in a smaller elevator, finding themselves in a region that seemed totally unused.
There were tiny heaps of dust in the corners of the corridors. All of the doors were locked, and few carried any sort of sign. It seemed as though it was a part of the complex that had drifted into disuse, possibly as the population decreased so rapidly.
J.B. and Finnegan had gone in search of ways of getting through to the main entrance and exit elevators, checking out the levels of security coverage. Lori hadn't been feeling well, but she and Doc were going again toward the closed research areas, in the hope that Doc's name might find them a way through.
"It's what they used to call a library," Krysty said, hands on hips, looking down at where her sneakers had become dirtied.
"I've seen 'em before. Lots of redoubts had them. Books and vids an' mags. Micros and fiches. All old stuff. Most so far gone it's useless."
"Shall we go in?"
"Sure. Probably locked like the... No, it isn't."
The door was stiff, the bronze handle reluctant to move at all. As it opened, they felt the faintest draft of stale air, which made the girl's vivid hair coil and shift.
"Tastes like a well-kept grave," Krysty said.
"Been long years since this was opened up. I know that smell from other places, other times."
Hand in hand, like children, they walked in, their shoes squeaking on the dull floor.
After an hour or more of wandering the endless rows of files, Ryan called out to Krysty, "This is madness, lover. There's all the history of the fucking world here. Everything, right up to January 2001. All from outside. But you scan anything after the bombs fell, and it's from Wizard Island."
"Yeah. Post the nukes, it's all inbred stuff. Like the world outside stopped dead. Which it nearly did. But they didn't record anything after that. Like nobody ever left here."
"That's what that poisonous scientist dwarf said. Nobody ever leaves Wizard Island. Not until us."
Krysty stared around her, shaking her head. "There must be plans in here of how the redoubt was built. If'n we knew that, we could maybe find how to get out. Or how to wreck it."
"Take forever."
"I guess so. But I feel that..." She looked down at her feet.
"What is it?"
Krysty grinned. "You know there's a kind of mutie streak in me, lover. I can feel some vibrations from in here."
"What? Somebody in here? Can't be. We been clear round it, and there's only the one entrance."
"No. Not that. Ryan?"
"Yeah?"
"Stay here, by this microviewer. Keep quiet. Don't move or speak."
Ryan did as she asked. He already knew that Krysty had some strange powers — exceptional sight and hearing, as well as a doomie's sensitivity. He watched her, stepping light as a cat, eyes almost closed, head raised as if she were scenting the dulled air. She vanished behind a row of shelves, and he waited, patient, unmoving.
He heard a wheeled ladder being moved, rusted casters squeaking, cabinets opening, drawers slamming shut. Once he heard her coughing as though dust had gotten into her throat.
"This one."
She held out a flat disk in a laser-scan envelope. There was a seal across it, with a tiny pattern of microcircuits dappled over the top. On the front were the letters: TT/ CJ/Ce.
"Why?"
"That's the one we have to view. I don't know why, lover. Just try it in the player."
He took it and broke the seal, sliding the disk into the machine. The red light on the front remained steady, but the screen was stubbornly blank.
"Malfunctioned?" Krysty asked.
"I don't... Ah, here she comes."
The screen glowed a pallid green, and finally lettering appeared.
Access denied. Refer to subcode CJ, all sees. Go to mainframe on limit/inject. Enter code now for reading. Repeat NOW.
Nothing more happened. The words disappeared off the screen, leaving it blank again. Ryan and Krysty looked at each other.
"Don't like this," Ryan said.
"Me, neither."
Then the screen came to life again. Warning. If access reading code not entered in fifteen seconds from message end then all sec services will be notified. Warning ends. Fifteen-second delay begins now. Fifteen. Fourteen. Thirteen...
"Time to move on out," Krysty said.
"Never get beyond the door," Ryan said. "Looks like this is the time the piss floods the tubes."