They were about a hundred and fifty yards away from the nearest of the buildings, what was once radar control, he remembered. A sickle moon had risen and was giving enough silvery light to see a little of their surroundings.
Jed’s earlier observation from a distance proved accurate. Most of the deep-set windows had gone, as had the doors, and there were the charcoal smudges of smoke all around the white walls.
“Anyone see any sign of life? Fires? Lamps? Movement?”
He could answer his own question. In the clear desert air, the pillar of flame and the explosion when the Aquila had come down would have been visible for at least fifty miles around. If anyone was waiting for them, they’d had three hours to get their ambush prepared.
The base was still and silent and dark as a raven’s wing.
“Whoever cut that poor devil’s neck wide open might still be around,” said Henderson.
“Thanks.” Jim sighed. “Truth is, we have to get some place to lie down before we all just fall down. I figure we should head for our old quarters. Least we know that part of the base better than any other. Any other ideas?”
“Since I am radio operator, I suggest that we radio for some sleep. Aquila calling Sierra Lima Echo Echo Papa.”
“Sure thing, Steve.” Turning to face the others, Jim said, “I’m going ahead. Pete, you come with me. Rest of you, stay with Mac and keep together. I’ll call if it’s safe.”
“What are you going to do if it’s not safe, Skipper?” asked Carrie.
“I’ll be the blur moving west, heading for the long swim to China.”
It wasn’t much of a joke, but it got a murmur of amusement from some of them.
“JESUS, CAPTAIN…” Pete Turner leaned against a scorched wall, his face a white blur in the semidarkness. “I mean… how could this…?”
“Still don’t know. Guess we’ll find out eventually, but till then…” Jim Hilton’s words also drifted away into the echoing silence around them.
“This is real, isn’t it?”
“What?”
The thirty-six-year-old second pilot hesitated. “When my Janey got butchered by those bastards on the Lower East Side… Seems a lifetime ago. When that happened I nearly went crazy. Came home one night to our apartment, our empty apartment. Went in the kitchen and I trashed everything. Smashed every plate and cup and glass. Wrecked it, then sat in the middle and cried, Jim, cried.”
“I know, Pete. You put all this on your audio file when you enlisted in the program.”
“Sure, but the point is, Jim, I nearly went crazy. Ape-shit wild. I keep thinking this is some sort of drugged dream, that I’m still safe in the pod up on Aquila and we’re all alive and sleeping. Know what I mean?”
Hilton nodded. “Sure, I know. Like a horror vid where the world’s changed all around you. This isn’t a dream, Pete—not unless we all got the same dream. I got Marcey’s blood on me. Your balls hurt. Kyle’s concussed. Bob’s dead. Ryan. Mike’s body was burned up. No, it’s real.”
“Where’d they all go?”
“Later, Pete, later. What matters right this moment is we’re all dead on our feet. Base is deserted. Go call the others up here, and we’ll find some place to rest.”
THERE WAS NO LIGHT, no power or heat, no way of making a fire.
“You’re the survivalist, Jim,” said McGill. “Can’t you rub two dry sticks together, or some kinda shit like that?”
They’d not gone far into the complex and stopped to take stock.
Every man and woman in the crew was highly capable and intelligent. All of them, with the single notable exception of Jeff Thomas, had a clutch of degrees, mainly in the sciences. It would have been hard to have found a more skeptical and unsuperstitious group anywhere in the country.
Yet none of them was prepared to go wandering any deeper into the maze of linked rooms and corridors. Not in the darkness of night, with the feeling of death all around them.
The main entrance had functioned as a large lobby, glass doored, with bright murals of space travel on the walls and an inviting oasis of potted plants and comfortable seats. An information desk and a small, discreet security section had been housed in the lobby, and banks of elevators and passages gave access to other wings and floors.