She had taken a cellular phone and was hiding in her bedroom closet. The jeeps' headlights lit the narrow gorge through the high walls of vegetation. The jungle pressed so close that Laura could almost touch it. So close that someone — something — could almost reach out and grab her.
When they arrived at the black opening of the tunnel, Hoblenz pulled the jeep onto the sidewalk and stopped. The soldier above Laura ducked as the branches slapped at his helmet. She looked into the dark, dank jungle not six inches from her shoulder. The air was thick with the smell of rotting things.
The second jeep pulled up beside theirs, the two sets of headlights bathing the tunnel in their glow. The soldiers not manning the jeeps' weapons climbed down. The engines were shut off and all was quiet.
Laura leaned forward. "What's going on?" she asked Gray.
Hoblenz led three men toward the tunnel entrance. Two others took up positions just in front of and behind the two jeeps, facing away.
"He's checking out the tunnel," Gray replied.
Hoblenz and his soldiers quickly disappeared into the dark maw. Laura kept glancing at the jungle to her right. She couldn't shake from her head the image of being grabbed, or the physical feeling that image evoked — the feeling of being dragged deeper and deeper into the mud and muck of alien terrain. Of clawing at the ground as she was pulled into a world whose border rose ominously inches away.
"I'm gonna stretch my legs," Laura said, unbuckling her seatbelt to climb out.
"Stay in the jeep," Gray said tersely, his eyes, like those of the two men standing at the jeeps' roll bars, fixed intently on the tunnel opening.
She sighed and rebuckled her belt, leaning away from the edge of civilization. Her nerves were taut, and she drew a deep and calming breath.
The world around her seemed frozen in time. The man at the gun beside her was bent over his weapon. The soldier at the front of their jeep stood motionless with his rifle half raised. Gray's head was still — his eyes focused on the mouth of the tunnel. Laura felt like she was in virtual reality, and the program had been halted with the Pause button. She found herself nervously looking for some sign of life around her. The soldier behind their jeep slowly raised the butt of his rifle to the hollow of his shoulder — the sights rising to his goggles. He was ready, but he had nothing at which to aim.
The tunnel erupted with stunning bursts of gunfire. Laura clapped her hands over her ears, her heart clenching tight and rising into her throat. Then there was silence again. She felt every beat of her heart against her chest. Two, three, four… A giant spider skittered out of the tunnel, its head bowed low and its legs taking short but furious steps.
The soldier who stood beside Laura fired — the night erupting in thudding bursts from the heavy weapon mounted above her on the jeep's roll bar. Bursts of flame erupted from the robot's torso and from the concrete facing of the tunnel mouth just behind. But the robot raced down the road undeterred — straight at the two jeeps blocking its path.
In a flash the Model Seven was upon them. Laura ducked as the leg slammed down onto the jeep's hood. It climbed right on top of the vehicle. The weapon above her fell silent as its crewman collapsed, guttural grunts venting from his chest. The jeep rocked with the pummeling blows. Glass shattered and a man screamed.
With one last press downward on the jeep's suspension, the robot was gone. The soldier beside Laura rose to his feet, turning his weapon around to point down the road.
The night again exploded with a machinegun-like string of booms.
The smoking, empty shell casings spun wildly out of the weapon's ejector. Every muscle in Laura's body was tensed, and her palms were jammed hard onto her ears.
She felt a hand rest lightly on her shoulder. She looked up. "It's gone," Gray said, his words almost lost against the ringing in her ears.
The two soldiers stood at the roll bars with their weapons pointed down the hill after the Model Seven. The windshield of the second jeep was shattered, and the man atop it was bareheaded and bleeding from the stubble of his hair. The soldier guarding the rear climbed up to dress his comrade's wound while the injured man's eyes remained glued to the missile's sights.
Gray got out and helped the soldier in front to his feet. The two men then headed up the road toward the tunnel — their rifles raised to their shoulders and ready.
Laura unbuckled her belt and followed, the branches and leaves scratching at her in the narrow space beside the jeep. Almost forgetting, she went back and got her rifle. She had to run to catch up with Gray at the mouth of the tunnel.
The steely odor of gunfire wafted from the dark shaft ahead.
From out of the faint haze, however, she saw Hoblenz's small group approach — two soldiers lending support to a third, who hopped on one foot in between.
"Is he all right?" Gray asked Hoblenz when they emerged.
"What?" Hoblenz shouted, cocking his ear to Gray.
"Is that man hurt badly?" Gray asked in a raised tone.
"How bad?" Hoblenz replied too loudly, turning to peer into the bright headlights of the battered jeeps.
"No!" Gray shouted, shaking his head. "I was asking about him!" He pointed.
Hoblenz just shook his head, cupping his ear with his fingertips. "I can't hear a thing!" he yelled. He turned to Laura. "Don't ever get in a firefight inside a tunnel!" he advised.
The two men helped the wounded soldier hop by. "He's okay!" Hoblenz yelled. "Just fractured his leg a little!"
"What happened?" Gray practically shouted.
Hoblenz shrugged, working his jaw as if to clear his ears. "Damn thing just freaked out. We musta scared it. Walked right up on it from behind."
"What was it doing in there?" Gray asked.
"Well, it was right at the opening on the other side. It looked like it was keepin' an eye out up toward your house. It was pressed to one side, a coupla legs up over the rail on the sidewalk."
"Wait a minute!" Laura interjected. "If you came up on it from this side, and it got startled, why'd it come running out this way? Why didn't it run out the other end of the tunnel away from you?"
No one replied, but in the glances Hoblenz and Gray exchanged Laura guessed the answer. The Model Seven was more frightened of what lay beyond the tunnel than of the puny weapons of the humans behind it.
"Let's go," Gray ordered, and they mounted the jeeps.
Hoblenz took the lead, pulling slowly off the sidewalk and up to the mouth of the tunnel. He hesitated there, searching through the smoke into the semidarkness ahead. He then let the clutch out and jammed his foot on the accelerator.
The jeep passed into the mountain. Instead of open air all around Laura there was now concrete. The enclosure focused her, channeled her concentration like a funnel. There was no threat from the other side anymore. All her attention was directed now on the road — on the tight beams their headlights cast along the curving wall not thirty feet ahead.
All at once, they burst out into the open. Laura savored the liberating night air. Gray's mansion rose over the low stone wall on the right, visible only as a dark mass blotting out the starry ocean horizon behind it. The tires squealed as they turned through the gates — the two jeeps careening into the courtyard at high speed. With one long screech they both skidded to a stop. Hoblenz and the unwounded men raced toward the front door, and Gray and Laura loped up the front steps behind them. Everyone had their weapons raised.
Once inside the foyer, all was quiet. The soldiers lay prone on the marble floor. In the dim light Laura could see that the [garbled] into the dark corners and doorways all around.
"Which one is Janet's room?" Hoblenz whispered.
"I'll go get her," Gray said, and he dashed for the stairs.
"Miller, Delucia — go!" Hoblenz barked, and the two men ran off after Gray.