Mildred and Jak were both only five feet four inches tall, and the dark water rose halfway up their chests.
“Can’t go too much farther without starting swimming,” Mildred complained, holding her ZKR 551 revolver over her head to keep it dry.
The others carried their blasters as high as they could.
“Levels off here,” Ryan said, finally reaching the doors. The green control lever was out of sight in the murky water. Only one overhead strip light still functioned, casting its insipid glow over the six friends.
“Want me to open her up?” J.B. offered, his spectacles glinting in the pallid light.
“No, I’ll do it. Take your point, Doc. Do it gently. Until the level stabilizes inside and out. Then all the way and we go straight for the chamber to jump. Don’t waste any more time. Everyone ready? Here we go.”
IT TOOK about ten minutes.
The water started to drop, bubbling under the heavy sec door, through the six-inch gap that Ryan had left for it, dropping until it wasn’t much above the knees.
“Open her the rest of the way, Ryan,” Doc said. “I fear that it will not get more shallow. Only deeper.”
“Right.” He threw the lever all the way up, moving back as the massive weight of the sec steel lifted ponderously to the ceiling, letting them into the main control area.
The water level was close to the tops of the monitor desks, lapping at the walls. At first glance Ryan saw that about half of the comp panels were down, the screens dull and lifeless.
He waded toward the anteroom, careful not to make too great a turbulence, followed by Krysty, then Doc and Jak. Mildred and J.B. brought up the rear.
At his heels he heard a gasp, followed by a splashing and thrashing. He looked back to see that Jak had caught his feet on an overturned stool, hidden below the surface, and had fallen, sending a wave right around the chamber that broke against the tops of some of the nearer desks.
“Sorry,” he spluttered, his snow-white hair pasted to his shoulders like a bridal veil.
Ryan didn’t say anything. No point in warning them all to be careful. He reached the door to the small anteroom, seeing the six-sided armaglass chamber just in front of him, its pale pink walls gleaming. There was a crackling sound from behind, and half the remaining lights cut out, leaving them in almost total darkness.
“Time to go,” Ryan said, easing open the door. As the water gushed in, he noticed the small smear on the floor that had once been Melmoth Cornelius.
“Have to stand,” Krysty said, bracing herself against the back wall.
“Yeah. Quick.” Ryan waited until everyone was inside the chamber, huddled together, all pale-faced and nervous. He reached for the door, ready to trigger the jump mechanism.
As he touched the metal edge of the door he got a sharp electric shock that made him jump, and a bright blue spark leaped across the gap.
“Fireblast!”
“You all right, lover?”
“I am. Just hope that the rad-blasted jump mechanism is all right.”
“Water still rising slowly,” Jak warned.
Ryan didn’t answer. He pulled the armaglass door firmly shut, walking across and standing next to Krysty, putting his arm around her.
“So long to Harmony,” she said.
They waited for the disks in floor and ceiling to start glowing, the latter just visible under the water, for the mist to gather above their heads and for the brain-sucking darkness to swoop down over them.
“Has anyone considered that if we fall unconscious, we might drown during the jump?” Doc asked.
But the jump didn’t start.
Ryan opened and closed the door again. All that happened was a flash of silver light from the control room and all the lights went out. In the silent dark, the water was still rising.