"What's the story with One?" Psycho asked me on private.
"Three, what's Snow Leopard doing?" Priestess was also on private to me, one arm over her seatback, staring fixedly at Snow Leopard.
"Don't know, guys," I responded.
"Ask him," Priestess urged me. She knew I was closer to Snow Leopard than anyone else. He was still standing there, helmetless, motionless, facing away from us. It was not like him. I slipped out of my seat and jumped out of the aircar to the deck. One did not stir. I walked over to him.
"Snow Leopard," I whispered on private. "What's up?" He snapped his head around to face me. He was pale as death and his eyes were wet. Cold sweat beaded his forehead. He was breathing hard. He gasped something that I did not catch.
"What?"
"We're not going," he hissed.
"We're not going?" I echoed in disbelief.
He snapped his head away from me, looking wildly around the hanger again. "We're not going," he repeated. "Warhound is out there. I know he is. We're not going." He was gripping his E tightly.
"Warhound? Warhound is out there? How do you know?"
"Warhound is out there. I know it. I know it! We're not going! We're going to find Warhound. Everybody out of the car!" He whipped around, facing the aircar. "Everybody out! We're not going! No! No! Redhawk, you stay with the aircar. Priestess, you stay with Redhawk. Psycho, secure the prisoner, then join us. Priestess, kill the Systie if necessary. The three of you in the aircar—Redhawk, Priestess, Systie—wait for us. Psycho, Thinker, come with me. We're going to find Warhound! We're not coming back without him! Priestess, you're in command here. If you're discovered, launch the aircar and escape. Otherwise, wait for our return."
Psycho jumped off the aircar, his Manlink ready for action. "Creep secured, sir!" He sounded perfectly content.
Snow Leopard took his helmet off his U-belt and slipped it over his head and locked it on.
"Beta," he said, "On me." He grasped his E and moved toward the door where we had bagged the Systie. I turned to look back at the aircar. Priestess raised a hand in farewell. I raised my fist.
"Goodbye, Priestess," I said on private. "Wait for me."
"I'll wait," she promised. "You hurry back, Thinker." I hastened to catch up to Snow Leopard and Psycho. Snow Leopard had the door open already. We were off—three fools, back on Atom's Road. It doesn't matter, I told myself. It doesn't matter. A million years from now nobody will care what we did, or what we didn't do. But for us there was really no choice, no choice at all. Warhound was out there, One said, and we were going to find him. That was all that mattered to us.
###
"Energy," Sweety whispered to me. Icy futures, in my veins. The whole world was mine, mine to shoot. I could feel it on my skin, inside the A-suit. I was magman—cruising, cold and free. We were in the O starport, ready to die. It was dark, and we waded through water up to our chests, hot steaming water covered with a luminous scum. The rad count was off the scale—we swam in Death's hot breath. It was ob the installation had been crushed by our antimats and by the lava lake. So far we had not had to deal with the lava. We were crawling through megatons of tangled wreckage, Psycho and I following Snow Leopard as he cut a way through the mess, silent and grim, explaining nothing, just slashing his way through twisted alien metal with his torch, a man with a mission known only to him and maybe God.
Energy. Deadman! Something stirred up ahead in the flickering green of our darksight. Something to swat us, and maybe laugh. I almost laughed myself, I was so charged. I could taste the adrenalin in my mouth. We had crawled down into this mess. There was no way of telling what it had been. Whatever function it had served, the place we were wading through had been very large—a tremendous hall of some sort, full of massive black cylindrical columns that glittered like charcoal. Now the great, coiled roof was flattened down onto the columns, crushing them, and a flood of boiling radioactive water had rushed in from somewhere; bubbling, slimy water full of unidentifiable floating debris. The radioactivity was the least of our worries—if we survived, the Body Shop would fix us up. If we didn't survive, it wouldn't matter. We kept stumbling against large, angular objects under the water. Snow Leopard was highlighted on my faceplate right up ahead. I turned to the rear. Psycho was right there, almost neck-deep, his Manlink at his shoulder. I could see his face. He was smiling.
"Mommy's with us, kiddies. Don't be scared!" Psycho was having the time of his life. But if it got any deeper the little runt was going to be underwater.
"Prepare to fire, gang," Snow Leopard ordered calmly. "Laser or xmax. Psycho, up to you. It's coming, and we can't hide any more." Snow Leopard stopped moving and shouldered his E. I did the same, and set it to auto xmax. I was right next to a huge black cenite column. A twisted coil of ceiling was right overhead. The water was up to my armpits. Whatever it was would come in fast and low. Psycho sloshed forward to get in position to cover us both. My heart was pounding. I wanted nothing better than to let loose with a long burst of xmax. It was all a ghastly green glow, all around us.
"Energy point approaching," Sweety called out, "as marked." A white-hot dot on my faceplate. Another. Another! "Multiple targets," Sweety corrected, "approaching. Four, six targets—fire xmax auto!" I squeezed the trigger and held it down.
We ripped open the world. Shrieking, awful catastrophe, auto xmax shattering our ears, dazzling our eyes, exploding wildly, flashing off the columns and the roof, filling the air with supersonic slivers of glowing shrapnel, white phospo starbursts, the flowers of the Legion. My blood froze in awe. Psycho's Manlink spoke once, Tacstar Goddess, and reality parted briefly with a terrible ripping crack as a micronuke sun erupted before us, crackling and spitting, our own sun, right on my darkened faceplate, melting the ceiling, evaporating tons of water. My flesh crawled. Psycho whimpered in ecstasy. Something large and dark flashed past me. I whipped around to fire after it. An explosion of water. Psycho fired laser with his Manlink, right into the water. A black delta-shaped wing popped up steaming from underwater. I hit laser and joined Psycho in zapping it. The laser shrieked and popped and the device shuddered and burst open, spitting sparks.
"More of them!" Snow Leopard fired his E on auto xmax. "Keep firing!" I caught a fleeting glimpse of a dart-shaped probe flashing past the columns, circling around for another go at us, a ghostly track flickering on my faceplate. I fired auto xmax, filling the air with death. Sweety was shrieking at me—another! The world exploded in my face, red phospho starburst, the shock hammering me underwater. I rose with my head ringing, tracks all over my faceplate, my vision all blurry. Snow Leopard was chest-deep in the water, his back against a column, firing auto xmax nonstop. The probes flashed past us like birds and the water erupted in their wake, hissing and steaming. The columns rang with hits, white-hot holes, suddenly there. The laser flickered like lightning all around us. One of the probes exploded in the air, rolling along the ceiling in a fiery trail of destruction, showering us with wreckage. I spotted another one and nailed it with a laser burst. It kept on going, then exploded with a brilliant flash against one of the columns. Psycho let loose with a long burst of xmax. Sweety was filling my ears with data, but it was not getting through to my brain. I crouched almost neck-deep in the water, my head whirling.
"Enemy probes eliminated," Sweety remarked calmly. There was no more movement on the tacmap. A cold darkness enveloped us again. I slowly straightened up out of my crouch, my E at the ready.
"Everybody all right?"
"Tenners."
"Ten." I could hardly believe I was still in one piece.
"Nasty little critters, huh?" Psycho commented.
"Those weren't Systie probes—they were from the Omnis," Snow Leopard informed us. "Firing laser."