Doomsday Game, page 20
He saw Merritt’s experimental rifle with its weird coils and gizmos wrapped around the barrel leaning against a wall. He hadn’t really expected to find it, considering it was damning evidence of direct interference in the stage-building program.
Thank God for the incompetence of the wicked, thought Randall. Ignoring the two hazmat-suited men, Randall picked the rifle up like it was the most natural thing in the world to do.
‘Hey,’ said the man holding a clipboard as Randall turned back towards the door. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’
‘We’re still rescuing people from different alternates,’ Randall told him. ‘We can’t go unarmed.’
‘You can’t take anything until it’s all been checked against the inventory,’ said the man in an officious tone.
‘So file a complaint,’ said Randall, again turning towards the door.
‘I said you can’t—!’
‘You got a problem,’ said Randall, looking back over his shoulder, ‘take it up with Major Howes if you don’t mind walking around with his boot stuck up your ass all week.’
Once he was back outside, he slipped around the side of the building and out of sight of anyone passing by. He studied the rifle’s underside and found a magazine flush with the stock. He pulled it loose, seeing it still had the two antimatter-laced cartridges inside it. He slid the magazine back home, making sure as he did so that the safety was on.
He took a moment to study it closely. It sure was an ugly looking thing: at heart it was a bolt-action rifle, or had been until some scientist frankensteined it all to hell. The choice of a bolt-action rifle, however, made sense. They were slow to load and re-sight, but incredibly accurate in the right hands. His, for instance.
He still couldn’t make any sense out of the tangle of conduits and coolant pipes and other whatever-the-hell-they-were doohickeys wrapped around the barrel, although it was immediately obvious they made the barrel heavier than it should be, ruining the weapon’s balance. But he could compensate for that, assuming he ever got a chance to use it.
And with just two cartridges in its magazine, he’d better make them count.
His next stop was a supplies shed. He stole some cord and a piece of tarpaulin, wrapping the tarpaulin around the rifle and tying it all up, partly to disguise it and partly so he could make a loop out of the cord and sling it over one shoulder. None of the people hurrying by while all this was going on so much as batted an eyelid.
Randall’s next destination was parked around front of the transfer hangar—the same open-top truck in which Selwyn and Winifred had recently returned from a rescue expedition. He’d noticed the truck’s rear bed had an overhead steel frame, with a waterproofed canvas tonneau sheet that could be rolled down over the frame to protect any cargo from the wind and weather. By the looks of it, he figured it was probably just about large enough to take Betty as well as several Pathfinders.
He took a look around to make sure nobody was paying him any particular attention, then climbed into the truck’s cabin and started the engine before guiding it slowly out through the compound gates. The bracelet told him Betty was still prowling the empty grasslands just north of town.
C’mon girl, he thought, and felt the brush of the creature’s mind. Come to Pappy.
Barely a minute or two passed before he pulled over, seeing the immense beast bounding across the grass towards him. He got out and dropped the tailgate at the rear of the truck so the Chimera could climb aboard. Then he climbed up next to her and got to work rolling down the canvas sheets to keep her out of sight.
The truck swayed and its suspension creaked and groaned as Betty settled on the floor of the truck. Diamond-faceted eyes watched him as he worked, and Randall discovered that whatever residual fear he’d still felt towards the creature had entirely vanished: being scared of Betty made about as much sense as being scared of his own right hand.
He grinned to himself and jumped back down, pushing the tailgate shut before climbing back into the cabin. He got the truck rolling again, although with Betty riding along the chassis practically scraped against the tarmac.
* * *
Randall drove back into town, parking the truck outside the clinic. Inside, he found the downstairs office deserted, although he couldn’t help but notice some bloodstains on the carpet that looked like they were of very recent vintage.
When he made his way upstairs to the main ward he found Yuichi sitting on the edge of a bed with his shirt off. His upper torso was skinny-lean, with grey hair speckling his upper chest. Bandages had been wrapped around one of his ankles. A medic in a hazmat suit stood by his side, taking his blood pressure with a plastic cuff. Nadia and Chloe sat huddled together side by side across the clinic, drinking what smelled like instant coffee.
‘Hey,’ said Randall, raising a hand in greeting. ‘How are you guys all doing? What happened to those soldiers they had in here?’
‘Shipped back home,’ said Yuichi, his expression flinty. ‘And as to how I’m doing, nothing a beer couldn’t fix.’
The medic unwrapped the inflatable cuff from Yuichi’s arm and packed it away. ‘Everything’s fine for all three of you, far as I can tell,’ he said. ‘We still need to do some blood-work, but as long as the serum does its job I don’t have any serious concerns right now.’
‘But we’re still under quarantine?’ asked Yuichi, a hopeful edge to his voice.
‘Until you hear otherwise, yes,’ said the medic, picking up his bag and heading for the door.
‘Yeah,’ said Nadia, ‘but how long is that going to be exactly?’
The medic just shrugged his shoulders and headed down the stairs.
‘Got some news for you,’ said Randall, once the medic was out of earshot. He told them about Merritt and the prisoners, as well as his conversation with the others.
‘This is kind of a lot to take on board,’ Chloe grumbled. ‘You’re talking about making a decision that changes all of our lives forever, and you’re asking us to make it now?’
‘I think Randall’s point is we can’t wait on this one,’ said Nadia, her gaze fixed on Randall. ‘Not to mention I can’t ever picture any of us taking orders from Preston Merritt.’
‘Every second counts,’ said Randall. ‘And believe me, I know it’s a lot to take in. But the fact is, Greenbrooke and the other hostiles have managed to stay a step ahead of us ever since they turned up. If we don’t act, then it’s the same as washing our hands of Katya and Kip—and maybe even Jerry, if he’s with them.’
‘So say we go along with all this,’ asked Yuichi. ‘Where do we go after it’s over?’
‘Nova Terra is the only really viable choice,’ said Randall.
‘Yeah.’ Yuichi looked down at his hands, his expression glum. ‘That’s what I figured.’
‘It’s still chaos out there in the compound,’ said Randall, nodding with his chin at the door behind him. ‘But it won’t be for much longer. A lot of the personnel that transferred over earlier today are already getting shipped back home to the Authority. We need to take advantage of the confusion while we still can—and while we’re still allowed near the transfer stages.’
Randall waited. After a moment Yuichi let out a loud sigh and clapped his hands on his knees. ‘I…guess there’s really no alternatives. If the rest of you are in, I’m in.’
‘I’m definitely in,’ said Nadia.
‘Me too,’ said Chloe. She pointed at the tarpaulin-wrapped rifle slung over Randall’s shoulder with her chin. ‘Is that what I think it is? Preston Merritt’s nuke-gun?’
‘Damn right it is,’ said Randall.
Chloe nodded with evident satisfaction. ‘We’re going to need weapons for the rest of us,’ she said, standing.
‘Maybe you ought to take it easy,’ said Nadia, watching her with concern.
Chloe shrugged her off. ‘I’ll be fine,’ she muttered, clearly annoyed.
‘What’s up with Chloe?’ Randall asked Yuichi as the two women headed down the stairs.
‘She’s pregnant,’ said Yuichi, pulling his shirt back on.
Randall gaped at the door of the ward as it swung shut.
Randall
Alternate Alpha Zero, island military compound
‘No way,’ said Chloe once she realised what was lurking in the back of Randall’s truck. Her voice trembled as she spoke. ‘For Christ’s sake, Randall,’ she spat. ‘Jerry was nearly killed by one of those damn things, and you want me to, to…’
The truck rocked slightly as the Chimera within shifted. ‘We need Betty with us,’ Randall insisted. ‘She’s like a tank with legs. I can’t just walk her up onto a transfer stage and hope nobody notices—so she’s got to ride in the back of the truck. And so do some of you, if we’re going to pull this off.’
‘I think,’ said Nadia, picking her words with care, ‘that you should be a little more aware of the history some of us have with that creature.’
‘You never had a problem with the Chimeras when Oskar was in control of them,’ Randall insisted stubbornly.
Nadia rolled her eyes, the muscles of her jaw tight. ‘Yes, but that was when they were still on Delta Twenty-Five, Randall. Now one of them’s on the island, it’s different. Don’t you see?’
‘I…’ Randall scratched the back of his neck. ‘Look,’ he said to Chloe, his tone a touch more conciliatory, ‘how about you ride up front with me?’
‘So the rest of us are stuck in the back with that thing?’ asked Yuichi, clearly appalled.
‘I don’t know what else to do,’ said Randall. ‘You got any better ideas?’
‘Fine,’ Yuichi grumbled. ‘Just…just promise me the damn thing won’t so much as twitch.’
‘She’s fully house-trained.’
Yuichi glared at him, then stalked around to the back of the truck.
‘I have an even better idea,’ said Nadia. ‘How about I drive, and you get in the back with that damn beast of yours?’
Randall put his hands up. ‘I got no objections to that.’
He made his way around to the rear of the truck and found Yuichi peering nervously into its darkened interior. Betty peered back out, a pair of glowing slit eyes like something out of a carnival horror show.
‘After you,’ said Yuichi, taking a step back.
Randall shook his head and climbed aboard. In truth, with a beast the size of Betty in there, it made for a tight squeeze. He took a seat on one of two wooden benches set against the sides of the truck’s rear bed and leaned back out. ‘C’mon in,’ he said, holding a canvas flap open.
Yuichi climbed aboard, his movements stiff from his injured ankle and his gaze firmly fixed on the Chimera’s massive bulk. He sat down carefully, his body rigid and his hands clasped on his knees. Up front, Randall could hear Nadia and Chloe talking. Then the engine started and the truck lurched slightly as it pulled away from the clinic.
‘Did you really just say Chloe’s pregnant?’ asked Randall.
Yuichi laughed softly. ‘What can I say? It’s been a day of revelations.’
‘How so?’
Yuichi quickly summarised everything that had happened on Gamma Three, including Nadia’s escape from the pit.
‘You’re shitting me,’ said Randall. ‘She was saved by…by another version of Rozalia?’
‘So she claims.’
‘It’s impossible,’ Randall insisted. ‘She must have been hallucinating.’
‘Maybe,’ said Yuichi. The way he said it made it clear he didn’t think that was it at all.
Randall nodded at Yuichi’s bandaged ankle. ‘So I guess you got that when the building on Gamma Three came apart?’
Yuichi grimaced. ‘Nope. Tripped and fell on my damn ass about five seconds after we’d finally transferred back here.’
Randall laughed. Before he could say anything else, Betty shifted slightly, making the truck again rock on its suspension. Yuichi leaned back, his face increasingly pale, until the creature had settled back down. Without thinking about it, Randall reached out to pat the creature’s armoured hide, then caught the other man staring at him with a kind of horrified fascination.
The truck jerked to a halt. After a couple of seconds a hand pushed aside the rear canvas flap. ‘All good?’ asked Rozalia, peering in at them.
‘I haven’t been eaten,’ said Yuichi, his voice fraying slightly around the edges. ‘Does that count?’
‘Here,’ said Rozalia, lifting a rucksack over the tailgate and dropping it inside. From the look of strain in her face, Randall guessed it was heavy.
‘Weapons,’ Rozalia said in reply to Randall’s unspoken question. ‘Nadia’s going to drive the truck up onto the first stage. The rest of us are going to follow on foot.’
‘It sounds quieter,’ said Randall.
‘There’s fewer people around now,’ Rozalia confirmed. ‘It’s like you said—they’re starting to send people back home.’
‘What about Kip’s staff here on the island?’ asked Yuichi. ‘Are they staying or going?’
‘I’m not sure,’ said Rozalia. ‘Nobody seems much inclined to talk to me or even look at me.’
Randall and Yuichi exchanged a look.
Rozalia let the canvas flap back down. After another moment, the truck once again rolled forward at a crawl, and then they waited.
It occurred to Randall now might be an excellent time to take a closer look at Merritt’s antimatter rifle. He unwrapped the tarpaulin from around it and saw Yuichi looking at it bug-eyed.
‘Is that what I think it is?’ he asked.
‘Sure is,’ said Randall. ‘Saw this same thing being used to blow an almighty hole in a cavern door back on Delta Twenty-Five.’
The truck lurched forward and it suddenly became darker. Randall guessed they were now inside the main transfer hangar. Voices boomed and echoed all around, and the truck turned to the left before ascending a gentle slope.
Yuichi bent down and peeked under the edge of the canvas. ‘We’re on one of the stages,’ he confirmed.
They sat and waited. A minute passed, and then another.
‘We should have transferred by now,’ said Yuichi, his voice taut.
‘I know,’ said Randall. He had a bad feeling swirling in his belly. ‘I’d better see what’s up.’
He lowered the tailgate, stepped out of the back of the truck and took a cautious look around. There were still a lot more people milling around the hangar than he was used to seeing, but significantly less than there had been just an hour before. It was hard to tell who was who what with most of them wearing hazmat suits, but his gut told him Preston Merritt wasn’t in the hangar.
He walked to the front of the truck, where Selwyn and Winifred had come to stand by the open door of the cabin. He saw Chloe still seated inside. ‘What’s going on?’ he asked.
‘Nadia’s talking to someone,’ said Winifred, nodding down at the stage controls. ‘Something’s up.’
Randall’s gaze settled on Nadia, who appeared to be in a heated conversation with one of the hazmat suited figures. Judging by the look on her face, it was growing more heated by the second.
Randall made his way down the ramp and walked towards her. ‘I don’t need authorisation,’ he heard her say to the other person, her voice pitched higher and higher. ‘This is a rescue mission!’ She batted at the clipboard clutched in the hazmat-suited figure’s gloves. ‘You do not know how things run around here, sonny.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said the man, his tone suggesting he was anything but. Now that Randall could clearly see his face through the visor of his hazmat suit, he realised the man wasn’t much more than a kid. ‘I need signed authorisation before I can let you go anywhere.’
‘What about earlier?’ asked Randall, stepping up beside Nadia. ‘We’ve been running missions all day, and nobody had us sign any forms.’
‘Yes, but I wasn’t here earlier,’ said the kid, as if that answered everything.
Randall felt a muscle in his forehead twitch. ‘If there’s a form needing signed,’ he said, ‘we’ll sign it.’
The kid stood his ground, his expression becoming firmer. ‘You don’t have the authority,’ he insisted, then glanced at Nadia. ‘And neither does she.’
Randall’s face grew warm. ‘Who the hell told you to stand around here causing—’
‘What’s going on here?’
Randall turned to find Major Howes approaching from the hangar entrance and felt his blood turn cold. ‘These people are trying to transfer out of here without authorisation, sir,’ the kid informed him.
Howes looked up at the stage to see Chloe sitting in the truck’s passenger seat. Selwyn and Winifred still stood next to the truck with worried expressions. Yuichi had also emerged, having perhaps grown tired of sitting all alone next to an alien killing machine. Howes’ gaze next shifted to the screen of the stage’s control unit, into which Nadia had already punched in the coordinates for the Old Horse Springs transfer stage.
Howes’ gaze moved from the screen and back to Randall and locked eyes with him. ‘Another rescue mission?’ he asked dryly.
‘Yes,’ said Randall, his throat suddenly hot and sticky.
Howes held his gaze for several more seconds, then took the clipboard from the kid. ‘Think you’re going to be gone for long?’ Howes asked Randall.
‘Could be a while,’ Randall mumbled.
Howes signed a sheet on the clipboard then handed it back to the kid. ‘Let them go.’
The kid looked down at the clipboard with uncertainty, then back up at Howes. ‘But the regulations say—’
The Major gave him a look that would have stopped a wild elephant in its tracks. The pencil-pusher clutched his clipboard to his chest and scurried away without another word.
‘Thank you,’ said Nadia, her voice small and still.
‘I guess it’s obvious that…things have changed around here,’ said Howes.
