His father nodded. “Makes sense, which means we’re probably safe inside the redoubt.”
“Starving, but safe,” Krysty retorted. “Although it’s something of a comfort to know a horde of blues isn’t coming our way.”
“Good thing you killed him when you did,” Doc rumbled, twisting the handle of his stick and drawing a few inches of steel into view only to slam it closed again. “Or else he would have marched an army of blues in here and slaughtered us like sheep!”
Ryan had no response for the comment. You killed an enemy on sight. That was just common sense. He never could understand the sec men and barons who played games and gave chances to their prisoners. Raw stupidity. Chill and live, it was as simple as that.
“So, what now?” the big man stated, taking a seat. “Should we leave, or stay?”
“Kill blues,” Jak stated angrily. “What mean, leave?”
“There’s no food here,” Ryan said, scratching his belly. “In a few days we’ll start to sicken and couldn’t fight fish in a barrel. But mebbe we can find food in another redoubt. Blasters, wags. Everything we need.”
“We could also end on the other side of the continent,” Krysty pointed out. “By the time we get back here, this Sheffield will finish that wall and be surrounded by hundreds of sec men. Never stop him then.”
“I strongly recommend against a jump,” Mildred said. “We need some time to get back on our feet. It always makes us sick, and after three days without food, it might kill some of us.”
“Food,” Jak said wistfully, his stomach rumbling.
Good. That was exactly the response Ryan had wanted. The message from Silas had taken some of the fuel from their engines, but now they were standing tall once more.
“Then we’re agreed,” Ryan said. “Okay, we search this whole place again, and I mean search from the periscope to the reactor, break open every closet, every desk and footlocker. See if there’s anything to eat in this place, and I mean anythingused chewing gum, herbal soap, cigars, carpenters glue, anything at all. There has got to be some food here, and we’re going to find it!”
His belly rumbling, Ryan headed for the elevator. “Come on,” he said grimly. “Let’s rip this bastard place apart!”
HANDS HELD behind his back, Sheffield paced the throne room in deep thought. “Ash storms, mutie attacks, I can’t be bothered with this trivia!” he barked petulantly. “I’m so close to victory! I know how to operate the mat-trans unit, I know where the rest of the food and ammo are hidden. I just can’t get to them!”
“Because he never gave you the entry code,” Collette said. Sitting on the edge of a table, she had one boot on the floor, the other dangling in the air. “The code to the redoubt, that is. I assume it isn’t the same code that opens the door to the Quonset hut?”
“Rads, no. The entry code is the last piece of information,” he growled. “The whitecoat dangled it in front of me like a worm on a hook.”
“Can’t we blast a way in? Or dig?” Standing still, Sheffield looked at the woman. It was time to tell her the truth. “They’re nukeproof,” he stated simply. She gawked. “What?”
“The redoubts are nukeproof. Predark bunkers full of military stores and supplies.”
“Shitfire,” she whispered in shock. Then the sec chief stood. “We must gain entry.”
The baron waved that away. “Impossible! The keypad has ten numbers and twenty-six letters. I worked the calculator program on the computer in the lab he was teaching me for a while until I started to learn too muchand discovered that there are over a million combinations for the code.”
Collette rubbed her nose, fingering the broken ridge of bone. “Millions, and it would take years to tap in every one,” she mused, then tilted her head. “Do you still have the list?”
Dropping into his chair, Sheffield regarded the woman. “An interesting idea,” he said, way ahead of her. “Send somebody to the redoubt and have him tap in codes off the list. Probably won’t work, but it’s only one man and worth the risk.”