Jorgensen nodded sadly and left the room. To think that it had come to this made him want to give up now. But at least he could insure that the contents of the redoubt, and those people his so-called leadership hadn’t chilled, could evac to another location.
Down in the main comp room, he relayed his orders and keyed in the code that would alert the receiving mat-trans. When the last figure had been entered, he heaved a sigh of relief. No turning back now.
The evacuation began.
Procedures were centered around the area that was the object of the attack—the gateway of which the ancient tribal documents spoke. This lay at the lowest level of the redoubt and consisted of three large mat-trans chambers, large enough to accommodate two six-wheel wags full of people and objects.
The idea of the evacuation was to clear the redoubt of anything that might provide some information to the opposition, and also to preserve the treasures that were part of the reason for the Illuminated Ones’ existence. To this end, the first wags to go through the mat-trans and be transported to their new location were full of old books, videos, recordings and floppy disks of information and culture from before the final war. This material had educated those born into the Illuminated Ones’ society, and reminded them of their reason for existence. It was the raw material from which they would build the new world when they emerged from beneath the ground.
Also in the wags was as much of the tech as could be dismantled and packed away quickly. This included weaponry and everyday objects and electronics. The quorum had always felt it important to keep as much of their tech as possible out of outside hands. Whoever gained it might not be able to understand it, but even the slightest glimmering of understanding could be dangerous to the great plan. That which couldn’t be dismantled was to be smashed.
It was a race against time for Jorgensen, and one that he was aware he was losing. Even more so when Simon Rack joined him on the mat-trans level.
“Al, I hate to tell you this, but they’re only two levels away.”
“Shit!” Jorgensen’s jaw was set in a grim line. “We may just about do it. Fuck. I hope we get the chance to cross them again, when we’ve learned what we can from this. I feel like our whole lives have been fucked over by them.”
“Maybe, Al, but we can worry about that later. Unless we can defend this area, we won’t even have lives to be fucked over.”
Al nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry, Simon. I shouldn’t be so self-pitying. Let’s nail these fuckers to a tree while we get ourselves straightened out.”
Chapter Eighteen
The combined forces of the Gate made progress more rapidly than either Ryan or Gloria would have thought possible, and that wasn’t just because the Illuminated Ones had, for all their supposedly superior tech, been found grievously wanting in terms of battle experience. It was also because Jorgensen had taken the step of withdrawing all but a few of his people to the central chamber located at the very bottom level of the redoubt. Only a skeletal force remained active, to delay rather than stop the progress of the attackers.
Down in the central chamber, the sec men of the redoubt were racing against time to try to get the evac completed before the intruders reached the bottom level. People raced around the cavernous room, loading and restocking supplies and tech into wags that were then driven into the mat-trans chambers to be transported to their new location.
Jorgensen oversaw it from a point a hundred yards from the first of the chambers, where the control comps for the mat-trans units stood in banks, attended by people who didn’t dare look up for one second, such was their intense concentration.
“Think we’ll do it?” Jorgensen asked one of them. Strangely all the fear and sweat of his earlier defeats had gone from him. He was calm in accepting defeat and retreat, and his mind had clicked into a more relaxed state, concentrating only on those matters that seemed to be the most pressing.