The street was now blocked, with no sign of movement remaining as the tracks of the casters, narrow gauged as they were, disappeared in the swirling dust and breeze.
“Right, let’s get to where we’re safe, and let Al’s boys deal with the rest of it,” Lou said.
Frank nodded, and the two men turned and headed for a building on the far corner of the street. Once inside, they took the service door to the basement, where the elevator to the redoubt was hidden in the false front of a boiler that had supposedly, in the distant predark days, supplied the building with central heating.
Once they were in the elevator and headed for the heart of the redoubt to report to the sec council, Frank and Lou removed their helmets. Frank was a thickset man, with reddish-blond hair that was thinning at the crown, and a red-veined complexion. Lou was thinner, with deep-set brown eyes and thick, curly black hair that tumbled onto his shoulders.
Both men looked visibly relieved to be out of the front line. As far as they were concerned, they had achieved their aim without the opposition being aware of their actions.
They hadn’t bargained on Tammy’s powers of observation.
WITH THE LAST of the outriders now returned to the main body of the caravan, Gloria made her intentions known to her people. When Ryan pointed out that they had no idea if the cameras were also joined by hidden microphones, so that an address to the entire caravan could be a problem, the Gate queen agreed and relayed her instructions to Ryan, Jak and Margia, who had joined the front of the caravan to see what was happening. The four then dispersed among the rest of the caravan, quietly relaying the instructions on how to proceed.
Which was, in essence, quite simple. Although they knew they were being manipulated and directed, the Gate would play along, using their advantage to gain the element of surprise when the time came for battle.
When the caravan was ready to move, Ryan gathered together his people.
“Anything we should watch for?” he asked of the collected warriors.
“Margia,” J.B. replied promptly. “She’s too keen on the laser blasters, and I don’t think she realizes how erratic they can be. If she wants to use them when the time comes to fight…” His voice died away, the point being obvious.
“Attack from unexpected places,” Doc added.
“Meaning?” Ryan quizzed.
“Well, my dear boy, I would surmise that if the Illuminated Ones have somehow been arranging these roadblocks, then it would suggest that they have a myriad of entries and exits to their redoubt. Now, as this—” he swept his arm expansively “—is modeled on the very mother of all U.S. military mother lodes, then it would not, I should say, be unreasonable to expect that there would be a veritable warren of hidden passages and elevators leading to the heart of the beast.”
“Very picturesquely put, Doc,” Mildred murmured, “but a good point. I’d add to that the fact that the Gate don’t have the knowledge we do about these people. I know we’ve told Gloria about them, but I don’t know if she’s really taken it all in.”
“Gloria not problem,” Jak put in, “but rest of Gate? Mebbe not believe what she say because it come from us and not from what see.”
“Yeah, that’s what I mean,” Mildred agreed. “The best thing is practical experience, and no amount of telling is going to change that.”
“So we watch their backs, as well as ours,” Krysty said. She huddled into her coat, despite the warmth of the day. “You know, I do get the feeling from them that they think it’s going to be easy. They’re such good warriors that they have trouble believing anything other than total victory.”
“Only way fight,” Jak said. “Doubt and you chilled.”
Krysty smiled wryly. “Mebbe I mean something else, then—caution and not underestimating your enemy.”
“What is there to underestimate?” Dean spoke for the first time. As he stood in front of Ryan, his face grimly set, he could have been the mirror image of his father were it not for the scars and wounds his father bore.