When the three men disappeared at the top of the stairs, all was still again.
"Why don't we turn on the lights?" Laura asked, her low voice sounding like a shout in the silent foyer. Hoblenz didn't bother to answer her question. "No, really," she persisted. "They can see us with those thermal things. We're the only ones who can't see in the dark."
Several moments passed, then Hoblenz shouted, "Hopkins! Hit the goddamn lights!"
When the lights came on, they revealed an absurd scene. The burly soldiers all lay on the marble floor of Gray's magnificent foyer.
Laura, on the other hand, leaned casually against a thick column just inside the front door. Hoblenz was the first to rise, and the others quickly followed.
Janet's voice came from the upstairs hallway. She apologized profusely for all the trouble she had caused and was escorted out to the jeeps by a soldier. Hoblenz then led a team of three others to check the rooms on the first floor. They worked quickly and in good military fashion, their backs to the hallway wall before they spun into the rooms with their weapons leveled. When Hoblenz returned, there was a faint sheen of perspiration on his brow. "We've checked everything on this floor but the kitchen. If somebody'll tell me where the hell it is, I'll clear it, too."
"We'll all go," Gray said, leading them to the nearly invisible door set flush with the wall by the dining room.
Instead of the usual squeaking from her running shoes on the polished floor, Laura heard a gritty crunch. "Hey," she said. "You know, there's sand or something on the—" The kitchen door burst open, and Hoblenz and his soldiers scattered. Gray grabbed Laura and pushed her off to the side. Gunshots rang out as a Model Eight waddled out of the kitchen. It stood still for a moment despite the gunfire peppering its chest, then skittered across the marble, almost losing its footing.
The robot walked awkwardly under the hail of bullets, heading into the study with a stiff-legged gait. It was gone before Laura even remembered that she held a rifle.
"Cease fire!" Hoblenz shouted, and there followed a silence that seemed startlingly abrupt after the thunder of the ferocious weapons.
A great crash from the study was followed only by the tinkling of glass and the ringing in Laura's tortured ears. Hoblenz and Gray led the group to the study door. The window and large parts of the frame on the wall behind Gray's desk were gone. The fence that enclosed a small garden outside lay on the ground, and the jungle branches beyond it still shook.
"Lord God Aw-mighty," Hoblenz said. "I think that one got a hold of some PCP."
"Come on," Gray said, and he headed to the kitchen. Weapons were raised and ready to fire, but when Gray turned on the lights, it was clear the kitchen was empty.
It was also a complete mess. Food from the walk-in refrigerator and freezer was all over the floor. Every cabinet was open, its contents in disarray. The walls on which pans usually hung from hooks were empty, the shiny copper cookware strewn about the floor like toys in the robots' tactile rooms.
Gray reached down amid the mess and picked up a black sliver of what looked like rock. He held it in his fingers and twisted it in the air. It crumbled easily. He carefully prodded the debris on the floor with his toe and found several other shards of black rock. The kitchen was filled with loose black dirt that crunched under the soles of Laura's shoes.
"What's that," she asked.
"Lava stone," Gray said as he knelt on one knee, rubbing the black dust between his fingers. He rose, and everyone followed him back to his study.
Hoblenz stuck to his side and said, "Do you mind me askin' what's goin' on?"
"That lava stone has been drilled," Gray replied as he rounded his desk and sat. "The robot we just ran into tracked in the cuttings. Since they've got the run of their own facility, they must be drilling toward something else. The only other facility in the mountain is Krantz's nuclear lab."
"Jesus," was all Hoblenz said.
Gray picked up the telephone and dialed quickly. Cold wind drifted in through the shattered window. "Laura," he said, motioning her over to the terminal on his desk, "You log on and find out what the computer knows about any tunneling. Mr. Hoblenz you get on that one over there," he said, pointing to another computer beside the sofa. "Pull up a schematic. I want to know how close the Model Eight facility is to the nuclear labs at the closest point."
"Phil," Gray said into the receiver, "I'm going to put you on the speaker." He punched the button so all could hear. "Where the hell are the Model Eights right now?"
"They're all over the reactor. They've apparently broken out a portable recharger — one that we had for remote construction sites — and managed to power it up. They can move that charging station around — tie up to electrical substations and not have to go all the way back to the mountain for a recharge."
Laura looked down at the screen and read, <Will somebody please tell me what's happening?>
"This is Laura. There was a Model Eight in Mr. Gray's house."
<The bastards! I told you not to trust them.>
"Laura," Gray said, interrupting Griffith's report, "Ask about the drilling."
She typed, "Do you know anything about what's going on in the Model Eight facility?"
<No, but I know they've gone around the island destroying security cameras and microphones. They're out of control.>
"What about the nuclear lab?"
<I don't know anything about the facilities inside the mountain. I know the entrances to the Model Eight facility are sealed tight with their heavy storm doors. I know there's a portable charger at the reactor. It can charge ten at a time.>
"Mr. Gray wants me to ask you about drilling. Have you detected any drilling?"
<Well, now that you mention it, I detected some low, subsonic vibrations through my motion sensors. With low-frequency sound, it's hard to determine the direction of the source, but the sensors were all in the vicinity of the mountain. It's possible that there is drilling somewhere in there.>
"Could Model Eights drill through to the nuclear facility?"
<Yes! Oh, my God! Do you realize what this could mean? There are several hundred nuclear devices in Dr. Krantz's facility! With the reactor's electricity to sustain them, the bastards could rule the island.>
Laura turned to Gray, who was bent over the computer screen beside Hoblenz.
"There!" Hoblenz said, pointing. "One hundred and eighty meters from that air shaft in the nuclear facility to this room here in the Model Eight facility. What room is that?"
"It's a… a tactile room," Gray said.
Laura's screen lit up again. <The drilling is still going on. I can feel it with motion sensors. There was a boring unit in a maintenance warehouse. At the very limit of the visual acuity of my closest camera I can see that the door to the warehouse is open. I could risk sending a Model Six or Seven, but it would be a suicide mission for them. Besides I'm sure they took the boring unit. That's just what they would do — go for the nuclear devices.>
"The computer says a boring unit might be missing," Laura reported.
"Ask the computer how long it would take that unit to drill a tunnel through one hundred and eighty meters of lava stone."
Laura typed in the question.
<About three hours. The biggest problem wouldn't be with the drilling but with disposal of the cuttings. It would take a major effort to get rid of all the stone they bored out.>
Gray appeared behind Laura to read the response. "Mr. Hoblenz?" he said. His tone caused Laura to look up. Hoblenz paused at his computer and did the same. "Do you have any explosives handy?"
Hoblenz made a face. "Not on me, but there's a little somethin' in the jeep."
"Get it."
Hoblenz sent one of his men for the explosives and told the others to leave them alone. He closed the door behind them, leaving only Gray, Hoblenz, and Laura in the study. "You mind if I ask what you had in mind, sir?"