As soon as it had reached four or five inches, Ryan gave a hand signal to his son. Dean immediately steadied the lever in the central position, checking the ascent.
Ryan hugged the floor, squinting through his good eye, seeing more or less what he’d expectedan expanse of bare corridor stretching out both ways, lighted by long fluorescent tubes in the arched ceiling, and more of the ubiquitous security cameras in the angle between ceiling and wall.
No sign of life.
“Up another six inches.”
Again, there was nothing to see. Ryan sniffed, tasting clean fresh air. Normally the air in closed redoubts was stuffy, flat and stale, having been recirculated around and around for nearly a hundred years.
“Another foot.”
Once again the sec door rumbled higher, until Dean checked it with the control lever. Ryan was able to see some distance in both directions, but the curvature of the passage limited his view to about fifty paces to the left and right.
“All the way,” he ordered, getting off the floor and moving slightly to one side.
“Hey, that air smells great,” Krysty said.
“Sure.” Ryan glanced back at her. “But it has to mean that parts of the redoubt have been broken into. So we step extra careful.”
THEY TRIED LEFT first of all.
Most of the redoubts that they’d visited had been built to a similar pattern. Generally the matter-transfer section of the military complex was situated in the deepest part, as far away from the main entrance as possible.
It was no surprise to find that the passage, having wound to the left for about ninety yards, came to an abrupt halt in a wall of solid reinforced concrete. There had been no doors, elevators or cross corridors in that short length of the passage, and not a sign of anything living having penetrated that far.
“Back that way,” Ryan directed, leading his friends along to the right.
THERE WERE TWO TURNOFFS, both blocked by sealed sec doors, each with coded panels to one side, with the full range of letters and numbers.
“Can’t we have a go?” Dean asked eagerly. “Could easy hit the right combination.”
Doc patted him benevolently on the shoulder. “I fear not, young fellow. Even if it’s only a six-digit or -letter code, we could spend our entire lives here trying one combination every ten seconds and still not stumble upon the right mix.”
“You sure about that, Doc?”
“Of course. Did I not spend some good time mastering Boolean algebra?”
“Numerical progressions and coding has nothing to do with Boolean algebra,” Mildred said.
“Has it not? Ah, me, has it not?” Ryan noticed that Doc’s pale blue eyes were twinkling, as they often did when he was teasing Mildred.
They continued along the passage, the watching lenses of the cameras following their steady progress.
“There doesn’t seem to be any current of air,” the Armorer commented.
“Doesn’t need to be. If some part of the redoubt’s been opened up, mebbe way above our heads on a higher floor, then that air would be utilized by the nuke-conditioning plant and pushed around to all parts.” Ryan looked behind and ahead. “This is one of the best redoubts we’ve ever been in. Nearly all of the lights are working, as well as the cameras. Looks like it wasn’t damaged at all during skydark.”
“No cracks in walls,” Jak observed. “Or ceiling.”
That was also unusual. Most of the top-secret redoubts had suffered some sort of damage during the brief World Combat. Much of it was secondary, caused by the quakes and eruptions that the United States endured as the land was pounded by unimaginable nuclear forces.
“No sign of animals getting in.” Mildred looked carefully at the high arched ceiling. “Not even a spider or a fly down in this part.”
“Glad there’s no vermin,” Ryan said. “Don’t mind most creatures, but I can’t say I take to rats. Seen some real mutie bastard rats over the years.”
“Remember that place in the Carolinas?” J.B. asked. “Where that fat baron with a residual third eye slopping around in the middle of his forehead caught us?”
Ryan nodded grimly. “Won’t ever forget him. Baron Kagan. Tricked us to try and get at Trader. Holed us up in a cage set between the tidewater marks. Chained our hands to the walls. Cages got flooded every single tide turn. Water came right on up to our chins.”