Tuskin could understand that reasoning. "You know where they are being held?"
"Brandvlei. "
Tuskin whistled. "That's the home of their Para Commandos!"
"Yep," Hawkins commented as he rolled the general's body out the ramp door.
"They won't be as easy to take down as these slobs were." Tuskin led the way to the pilot's compartment.
"No, they won't," Hawkins agreed as he leaned over the control panel and worked with the controls.
ANSWERS
"What’s going on?" Fran asked, her eyes mesmerized by the massive image of Ayers Rock in front of her.
Pencak grabbed her arm. "There's not much time. We need to go back down." She pressed the horizontal button and the armor plating resealed around the glass capsule. She punched the down button and they began their descent. The elevator came to a halt at a different level from the one they had gotten on at.
Fran tried to clear her head. "What about Debra?"
"Debra will find out on her own," Pencak replied succinctly, "if she hasn't already."
"And Don?"
"We're going to him now," Pencak impatiently answered. "There's not the time to explain things twice."
She nudged Fran forward and they stepped into the corridor. A door at the end slid open into a brightly lit chamber with white walls. Don Batson was seated on a bench and leapt to his feet as the two appeared. "I wondered when I would see you again," he said as he stepped forward to Fran. He turned his gaze to Pencak. "So what now? Have you let her in on your secret?"
"I saw Ayers Rock, Don," Fran said, the shock evident in her voice. "It's above us. But it's not the same."
Don shook his head. "I know. The only mistake I made was telling the wrong person that I knew," he said, again staring hard at Pencak. "You're one of them, aren't you?"
Pencak nodded impatiently, as if that was not a serious matter. "I apologize for locking you up, but we couldn't allow you to tell the others. We didn't take into account your background when we brought you through."
"Tell the others what?" Whatever patience Fran had had was long gone now.
Don was still staring at Pencak. "It shouldn't surprise you that a geologist would recognize his own planet. When I saw the wall of the cavern below us, I knew exactly where we were-after we'd been cutting through the same sandstone feldspar for the past several days."
Fran blinked. "But I don't understand. How can we be back at the Rock? Where are all the people that we left? And the sky-it was…" She paused and then plaintively asked, "Where are we?"
Pencak sighed. "Not where, my dear. When is the key question." Pencak grabbed her shoulder. "There isn't time right now to answer all your questions. Things are happening and we're losing control-not that we had that much to start with."
The old woman suddenly staggered and Fran and Don watched in amazement as she seemed to fade slightly and then come back into focus. Pencak gripped her cane fiercely and regained her balance. "We have to get you two back to the right time while we still can."
"But I don't-"
"Trust me." Pencak cut off Don's question. "I'll explain all shortly."
A door on the side of the room slid open and three robed figures strode in. As they stepped forward, they pulled their hoods down, revealing faces as disfigured as Pencak's. The first one had no eyes at all; a thin metal plate was wrapped around his forehead with wires leading out of it directly into the back of the skull. The second's head was completely smooth-no ears or nose protruding. The eyes were recessed farther than normal and glinted with a strange color Fran had never seen before. The third held his-her? — head at a cocked angle, a twisted cord of distended muscle bulging out on the right side and disappearing into the robe.
The little glimpse that Fran had of their hands showed deformities such as missing fingers and melted skin. The lead figure's scarred face twisted in a sad smile as he wrapped his arms around Pencak. "Good-bye for the second and final time, Lois."
Fran watched as they hugged the old woman, paying no attention to either Don or herself. Done with their parting words, the three stepped back and another door opened to the side. Inside it gleamed the black Wall of a portal.
"Let's go," Pencak insisted, grabbing Fran by the arm again. As she stepped forward with Don toward the shimmering black, Fran was surprised to see tears flowing out of the old woman's one good eye.
SOUTH AFRICA
"Do you have a plan?" Tuskin asked as the plains of southwest Africa flitted below.
"We land right on top of where the prisoners are being held and grab them."
"Great detail," Tuskin muttered as a walled compound appeared in the distance ahead, rapidly growing closer. "Did you spend a lot of time coming up with that?"
"As much as you did with your plan back at the dacha," Hawkins replied.
The Russian grabbed his plasma projector as the skimmer lifted slightly and cleared the outer wall. Surprised guards in desert camouflage fired a few scattered shots at the strange vehicle as it settled into a small parade field in front of the garrison headquarters.
Hawkins led the way out the door and down the ramp. "The building on the left," he called out to Tuskin. Immediately he felt the slam of bullets into his chest as a South African paratrooper fired his R4 assault rifle at the two strange figures. Hawkins cleared the way to the prison using the projector, sweeping away the opposition with blasts of energy. He felt detached from emotion as the soldiers died under his merciless barrage.
The door melted under Tuskin's fire and they made their way to the basement cells where the intelligence Hawkins had stolen out of Lamb's files indicated that Lona and Nabaktu were being held. The last guard disposed of, Hawkins blew off the lock and entered the cell. The two prisoners were gaunt and barely conscious, lying on bunks against the wall of a small, dingy room.
Hawkins threw the woman over his shoulder while Tuskin gathered in the man. Staggering under their loads, they made their way back up the stairs and onto the parade field. The opposition was still disorganized as they headed toward the skimmer. A machine gun suddenly roared out of a window in the headquarters building and tore a row of puckered dirt toward Tuskin, the rounds rising and hitting the Russian on his left side, knocking him over onto the ground. He rolled to his feet and reached down to pick up Nabaktu and then halted. The African's head was a mass of blood and brain where one of the rounds had torn through it. Tuskin turned and fired in short arcs at the large building, blowing walls in, silencing the machine gun as Hawkins made it into the skimmer. The Russian turned and followed, the ramp sliding in and the door shutting.
The ping of rounds off the side sounded dimly within as Tuskin ran to the cockpit and activated the controls, getting the aircraft out of the compound and a safe distance away. By the time he was done and had rejoined Hawkins in the cargo bay, the American had the young black girl conscious and was examining her wounds.
"How is she?"
Hawkins pointed out the various injuries as he continued to work. "They used electricity on her nipples and vagina. The soles of her feet have been beaten. Three broken fingers on the right hand. I think she has a couple of cracked ribs. I don't think the lung was punctured. Some burn marks."
Tuskin nodded-the usual crude methods used by police states to gain information or simply to punish with the goal of supporting a regime of fear.
"I thought new people were in power," he commented.