“Right, pay heed, and pay it well,” the warrior queen began. “There are passages marked out on here that have nothing to do with the elevator shafts and emergency stairwells that the guardians will expect us to find. They’re, well, what did you say they were, Doc?” she asked, turning to the old man.
With a gentle inclination of his head to acknowledge her request, Doc indicated the faded blue ink that marked some passages on the aged map.
Tracing with his index finger, Doc began, “Every redoubt, which is what they called these places in the days before the nukecaust, was equipped with its own air conditioning and purifying plant with which to take in contaminated air and clean it up for the consumption of those living beneath the surface. Although the plant itself should obscure the way into the redoubt, this is not actually the case as the supposedly airtight seals dividing some sections of the shafts are not exactly that airtight. It is strange,” he continued, looking into the distance with a wry smile, “how the greed that could cause skydark could also cause those who created it to overlook the simplest of safety precautions. One backdraft and the air purification system would be shot to shit, as they used to say. Ah, the vagaries of the human condition never cease—”
“Big words, Doc. Stick point,” Jak cut in pithily.
Doc’s smile grew, and he shook his head. “Of course, dear boy, of course. My apologies, my friends. The point being, of course, that it is possible to break through the partitions and gain access through from here—” he indicated one shaft on the map “—to here.” His finger sharply pushed along the faded and cracked paper to a parallel shaft. “And by entering this shaft we find ourselves in the interesting position of being among the maze of service shafts and tunnels that run between the levels of the redoubts and behind walls. These will allow the selected groups to move freely along and around the forces below ground, using the service grilles as points of observation and exit, and leaving plenty of scope for surprise attack on the enemy.”
“That’s why I’ve selected those of you who are the most petite,” Gloria added. “The shafts and the access to them will be pretty difficult, and no one’s pretending that it’s the best way to enter combat. But as you all know, there’s no easy way to fight, and your size will enable you to access areas that others can’t. The gods alone know that I’d join you, sweeties, if not for the fact that my position as queen makes it incumbent on me to join my fellow warrior Ryan Cawdor at the head of the firelight.”
“I appreciate that,” the one-eyed warrior said, “and if it’s okay with you, I’ll outline the rest of the plan.”
“Go ahead, sweets,” the warrior queen said with a smile. “It’s your and Doc’s plan more than mine. You guys know these places, and we don’t.”
Ryan nodded briefly and turned his attention to the assembled warriors, fixing them with his steely gaze.
“These are the access points,” he said briefly, pointing out the shafts and stairwells. “The stairwells have heavy sec doors, and the elevators are large with sec locks. They move fairly rapidly, but the one thing we have to do is check for sec forces hiding on the roof, ready to fire on us through the access and service hatch. Hey, we know about this because we’ve done it to other sec forces,” he added, looking across the crowd to J.B. for confirmation. The Armorer gave a brief smile in agreement.
“Number one rule—if there’s a sec hatch, then check the fucker before getting into the line of fire,” he said.
“Right,” the one-eyed warrior agreed, his single word drawing the attention of the assembled Amazons and his own people back to the map in front of him. “The stairs will probably be guarded at the blind spots in their curves, and the elevators open onto corridors that will have perfect cover points for the defending force. So we have to be careful. These will demonstrate,” he continued, taking two pieces of paper from Doc, on which the old man had made brief maps of one stairwell and one elevator opening. “These are general, but the design of these places is such that they hardly ever differ from level to level, redoubt to redoubt. Don’t take this as the absolute truth, but heed the general lesson.”