“Add those to what we’ve already got and we’ve damn near got enough for every one of us,” Margia enthused. “I say we hand them out when we set up inside.”
J.B. and Mildred exchanged worried glances. Gloria caught sight of it, and without having to ask knew why they were worried.
“Let’s just get ourselves sorted first, Marg,” the queen stated simply. “We can worry about their blasters later. Shit, we haven’t done too badly with what we’ve already got.” And she turned to supervise the disposal of the dead Gate warriors, leaving Margia to fume to herself.
Jak and Tammy scouted through the front of the building, reporting that the lower level was now empty although the ways into the redoubt were obvious. The only conclusion could be that the Illuminated Ones would defend their base from the lower level, trying to lure the Gate into a rash attack that would entrap them. There was also a large lobby in the center of the floor from which a series of corridors ran. While that provided many avenues of possible attack, by its very openness it also gave them a chance to secure their base from all angles.
The companions stood guard with some of the Gate warriors while the others conducted a simplified version of the cremation ceremony, something that had obviously evolved over the years for a situation such as this. Dousing the chilled corpses in gasoline and oil, they were fired with flares that Margia told Petor to fetch from the armory wag. The magnesium flares were obviously rarely used for their original purpose, and had been stored especially for such an unorthodox use.
When the ceremony was concluded, Gloria turned to the rest of the tribe.
“Let’s get ourselves settled into the building. Secure camp in the middle of if and then we’ll start to plan our next move. Right, friend Ryan?”
The one-eyed warrior nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Set up and take up defensive positions. We wait here and plan. Needs must, sweeties…”
Gloria’s voice rang out over the general hubbub as the Gate caravan entered the double doors, easing the wags through the large gap in the front of the building. Once they got inside the empty stone circle that formed the centerpiece of the lobby, their voices, footsteps and the ringing of the mules’ hooves on the marble floor echoed up into the high cavern of the ceiling.
“Look for any cameras that you can see,” Ryan said to his people, who were clustered around him in order to be able to communicate easily with one another. “Take out anything that could be an old tech surveillance device with a handblaster. And spread that among the Gate so that we don’t cause panic when we shoot.”
“That’s if they can hear us above this damn noise,” Mildred added wryly.
“Or the blasters,” J.B. finished, almost to himself.
The companions spread out among the Gate, telling those warriors they passed what they were doing. Jak was the one to tell Gloria, as he passed her. She smiled and agreed with Ryan’s decision before devoting herself to the task of organizing her people.
As he went about his task, Doc mused on the size of the building as a whole. The area in which they were making a temporary base was approximately a hundred yards square, with an elevation of something like 150 feet. Once upon a time, in the days before skydark when it had been a working military—or, at least, paramilitary—base, the hall in which they were now encamping would have contained functional office furniture and be used as a reception and meeting room, coming as it did at the junction of many corridors. Doc suspected that this would be the largest part of the web of offices, rooms and corridors that ran the length and breadth of the building.
If his suspicions were correct, then this would be the largest single room in the building. Instead of a large central point from which the spokes of corridors and smaller offices and rooms ran off like the interweaving strands of a spiderweb, this would be like the fixed point from which the corridors radiated out and along and up, like the fine lines on the petal of a flower would radiate from a point near the stamen. This was the stamen. Why not? Anyone attacking from outside—particularly if it was an aerial attack— would assume that the largest point, and point of control, would be central. Thus deceived, it would put their attack off kilter and enable those inside the building to defend from a stronger position.