The technician answered without looking up. “If your people can just hold them long enough, we’re onto the last relay of transfers. We just need time to boost power levels and get the coordinates set.”
Jorgensen nodded. He wasn’t too sure what that actually meant in practical terms, but it seemed to imply that he might just have got away with it.
“ALL ROADS LEAD to Rome, as they once said. I believe it to be a universal truism, in one sense or another,” Doc said calmly, letting the barrels of the LeMat droop slightly, and the weariness of battle for one brief moment wash over him before he summoned the next wave of energy.
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, honey,” Margia said to him with a puzzled expression, “but something tells me you’ve got it just about right.”
Their war party had experienced no resistance on its descent to this level. Despite that, they had maintained a triple-red alert, and so were ready when they ran into another war party descending from another route, then another.
The last party to join was that led by Ryan and Gloria. Now, while the Gate warriors rested for what appeared to be the last push, the leaders of the parties met for a last tactical consultation.
“We’ve pushed them right back—that much is obvious,” Ryan mused. “The question is, what do they get from it? They’ve given so much ground that they can’t beat us now. Unless…”
“Unless this is the gateway, and the guardians will take that gateway to another place,” Gloria added, her piercing blue eyes fixed on Ryan Cawdor.
The one-eyed warrior nodded his agreement. “They intend to make a run for it, and are hoping we don’t overrun them before they get a chance to make good a complete escape.”
“I don’t get it,” Tammy said, puzzled. “Where are they going, and how?”
“It’d take too long to explain, my dear, and I doubt that any of us knows for sure, but my supposition is that they will leave the gateway, as you call it, and travel to that place they are guarding, using old tech. And if we don’t get to them before they go, the chances of finding out where exactly this place is and being able to either follow or even journey with them in some way will be greatly reduced,” Doc replied.
“Yeah, right,” Tammy said uncertainly. “Anyone care to make that clearer?”
Mildred laughed and shook her head. “As usual, Doc’s dressed it up in big words. They travel to their destination using old tech. They might put it out of commission before they go. So we need to get to them before they get that opportunity.”
“In which case, why are we standing here?” Margia asked angrily. “Let’s chill some fuckers.”
“Will you shut the fuck up, Marg?” Gloria snapped at her sister. “Shit, it’s easy to see why I was the daughter to be queen, and not you. Keep that hot head of yours under wraps, sweetie, or it’ll get us all chilled. We need to think about this. Like what it means to all be in the same place.”
“Exactly.” J.B. spoke for the first time. He had been standing silently, weighing odds and strategies in his mind. “Doesn’t it seem strange that we all end up here, and that there’s no other route into the last level?”
“It’s not a question of us being channeled here. It’s just that they seem to narrow it down to the one entry level,” Krysty said.
“Must be some service ducts that lead down, though, or an emergency shaft of some kind. Hell, there must be an elevator.”
Ryan shook his head. “There may be maintenance shafts, but we can’t mount an attack through them, not even if we could find them quickly. It’d be too constricting and make us easy meat. Count that out.”
“I would say that the reason there is only one way down, and it is not an elevator, is simple,” Doc said softly. A silence descended as they all looked to the old man to continue, but he was lost in his own thoughts. It was only after a few seconds, when he noticed the silence and looked up in surprise that Doc realized that they were waiting for him to expand. “Why, I would have thought it was obvious.”