“I think I’ve got Mitch here,” Jason said, passing Keene a mike.
“Mitch, can you hear me?”
“Just,” a voice acknowledged distantly through a blur of static.
“This is Lan Keene. That’s not you at the gate?”
“I’m on my way up to the roof with Legermount and Dash. Birden and Reynolds are covering the entrances.”
That accounted for five. Then it could only be Cavan. “Oh Jesus,” Keene groaned. “Head for the front, Mitch,” he shouted into the mike. “Leo’s gone out there to delay them. He’s going to need cover.”
“Got it.”
On the screen, two cars were bumping their way along the outside of the fence toward a place where something had torn a gap. The third car was still outside the gate and had disgorged a figure who began firing at Cavan through the fence. Cavan turned and dropped to one knee, and for a heart-stopping instant Keene thought he had been hit. But it was just to aim, and Cavan dropped his target with a quick but accurate burst. However, more were appearing from the car. With one gun against several, and being out in the open, Cavan would have no chance. He rose and began zigzagging back across the compound. But with the distance still to go, there was no way he was going to make it.
“Perimeter lights!” Keene snapped at Jason. Jason reached for a panel beside the console and began flipping switches. White light enveloped the gate area, throwing the burning truck into relief and highlighting the figures clustered against the fence. One of the soldiers from the building—either Birden or Reynolds from what Mitch had said—ran forward into view and began firing at them. They retreated in confusion into the darkness farther back, and Cavan sprinted for the building, followed by whoever had covered him. Meanwhile, Jason had managed to direct a second camera at the two cars making for the gap, which was now also clearly visible in the fence lights. One of the cars stopped suddenly, figures tumbling out and throwing themselves for cover, evidently from fire coming from somewhere, probably the roof. The other veered off into the shadows and doused its lights.
“Is it you doing that, Mitch?” Keene asked into the mike.
“Right. We’re on the roof at the front. Good move with the lights. How’s Leo?”
“Looking good.”
One of the lights over the gate was shot out. Seconds later, the two nearest the gap through the fence went the same way.
“I’m just about done here,” Joe’s voice called from the screen showing the flight deck in the shuttle. “We need everyone on board.”
The third car was coming out of the darkness, heading for the building. Behind it, several dark forms came through the gap and began spreading out. One of them fell. Muzzle flashes were coming from the others and from the car.
Then Keene realized that there was something odd about the background in the scene. Unless his sense of direction was confused, the view from the roof in that direction should have shown the plain below, lighted up by the fires and the glowing meteorite craters. Instead, it was black and featureless except for flecks and patches of white. He stared, puzzled for several seconds; and then, suddenly, a chilling feeling ran through him as he realized it had turned into ocean. And then, even as he watched, the fires of the village they had just passed through, maybe one or two hundred feet below them in his estimation, dissolved under what he could now make out to be an oncoming front of churning foam.
“Mitch! It’s time to pull out!” he shouted into the mike. “Look down the hill!”
“Christ!” Mitch’s voice exclaimed.
Keene turned to Jason, “I’m going down to wrap up the lox. We need to open the silo doors.”
“I can do it locally from the ramp.” Jason crossed the room at a run and disappeared out the doorway.
Keene flew down the stairs to the lower level, checked the gauges, and shut off the pumps. As he retracted the umbilical, the sound of firing came from inside the building. He climbed a steel stairway to a platform above the pump area and entered a passage as Birden appeared at the far end, stopping to send a burst of fire back from the cover of the corner, then ducking back around as it was returned. In the other direction was a steel door that led through to the access stairs. “Birden!” Keene yelled out. “This way.”