“Sorry. I wasn’t going to rush in and start trying to open it, Dad.”
Ryan patted the boy on the shoulder, ruffling his thick dark curls. “I’m sure of that. Better to be blown up than be a stupe. If you’re not a stupe, then you won’t get blown up.”
Doc cleared his throat. “Forgive me, gentles all, but are we going to stand here and chop homespun cracker-barrel philosophy with one another, or are we going to get the door open and move on into the redoubt?”
“We’re moving on. J.B., let’s check the door.”
It hadn’t been booby-trapped. At least, as far as they could tell from a careful examination of the lock, the door hadn’t been wired.
“Everyone go back around the corner,” Ryan ordered. “Flat on the floor, eyes closed, hands over your ears and your mouths open. Minimize any blast.”
Krysty stared at him. “You saying that you think there might be a blast, lover?”
“No. I wouldn’t be going to push the locking bar if I really thought that. But there’s always that long-odds chance. Go on, now.”
They all moved away as he’d ordered, leaving him alone by the sec door.
The round push bar was cold to the touch, and he nudged it experimentally, crouching over it and peering at the revealed part of the mechanism when the bar moved. Ryan saw nothing to make him suspicious.
He edged it a little harder. Nothing much seemed to be happening.
Ryan finally gave the bar a steady push, feeling it click as the lock was triggered. He winced at the tiny sound, but no flesh-rending explosion followed. The door was now ready to open, perfectly balanced.
“All right?” J.B.’s voice echoed and bounced in the odd acoustics of the tunnels.
“So far” Ryan inhaled a slow breath, then wiped a trickle of perspiration from his forehead With the sleeve of his fur-trimmed coat.
If there was some kind of device linked to the door, it would be triggered now.
Ryan pushed the door open a couple of inches, seeing clear space all around the three sides. Nothing happened, and he could detect no sign of any problem.
He drew the SIG-Sauer and eased the sec door open a little farther.
“All right!” he shouted. “Come ahead.”
Ryan heard footfalls behind him, but all his concentration was on what lay beyond the sec door.
As it opened, he could see more and more. A number of passages opened off, with what looked like the familiar kind of redoubt map standing at the center. The air was clean, this time with a definite current to it, blowing in his face, tugging at his hair.
Ryan held the door while the others filed through. He looked at the exterior lock.
“There’s a small release button set into the bottom part of the handle,” he said. “But it probably only works if the push bar’s up on the other side of the door.”
“Sure?” Krysty squinted at the impenetrable door. “Suppose you’re wrong, lover?”
“Then we’re stuck the wrong side of the gateway with no chance of getting to it. It’s not the end of the world.” He grinned at her, suddenly looking years younger. “On second thoughts, mebbe it is the end of the world.”
“Check it,” the Armorer said. “I’ll go to the other side and we close the door. Test that button. If you haven’t opened the door in thirty seconds, we know it doesn’t work and I open her up again. And we have to consider our position.”
Ryan nodded. “Sure.”
J.B. vanished and the heavy door was swung shut again, the lock clicking home. Ryan pressed what he thought was the release button, and then J.B. carefully lifted the push bar, making sure it stayed up with the sec door locked.
Everything worked perfectly.
Despite the great weight of counterbalanced vanadium steel, Ryan was able to open it with one hand.
THEY STOOD TOGETHER to look at the map, which was an intricate maze of colors and coded numbers, all linked to a schematic plan below.
“We’re here,” Mildred said, pointing to a discreet green cross.
“And that’s the gateway,” Doc remarked, pointing at a section in pale pink marked Matter Transfer, which also carried the holographic message Entry Absolutely Forbidden To All But B12 Cleared Personnel.