“Are you all okay?” Krysty asked as she accepted her handblaster from Ryan.
“Everybody’s fine,” Mildred said. “Funny, but all that stickie dream stuff seems like it happened to someone else. The last jump seems to have cleared my
head.”
“Mine, too,” Krysty said. “I feel like my old self again.” As she looked around the group, the others nodded, as well. “I wonder what happened?”
“DEEP,” Doc muttered.
“What’s that. Doc?” Ryan said.
“I do not know,” he admitted. “It just popped into my head. D.E.E.P is an acronym for Download Error
Elimination Protocol, I think. I seem to recall that it is part of the gateway software package. It could be a replication checker.”
“Dark night, Doc, could you put it a little plainer?” “I seem to recall there was a program that shifted through the gateway’s information on you before you were actually rematerialized by the system. It checked to make sure that no mistakes were made, that everything was in sync with your DNA code. On the other hand, if it is disabled for some reason, then I suspect errors can creep in.”
“So, when we went back through the mat-trans system,” Krysty said, “it automatically removed the stuff we got from the stickies?”
“I do believe that was what happened. Are we still going to nuke this place?” “Nuke it?” Krysty repeated. Ryan nodded. “J.B. busted into the nuke-safe at the other redoubt. We got a live baby-nuke screamer waiting down by the gateway chamber. We know how dangerous it is.” He gave her an intense look. “Do you nave a problem with that?”
Krysty didn’t have to think twice. “No. No problem. It’s something that has to be done. It’s just that with all the rad poison that’s already all over Deathlands, I hate to add more. That madness was supposed to have ended a hundred years ago.”
As soon as they stepped out of the car on the lowest level, the elevator chimed and the doors closed. They
could hear the motor engage and the car start back up to the top.
“He’s here already,” J.B. said. “We’d better get a move on.”
They ran under the low ceiling, across the gray, institutional linoleum to the piles of plastic bags beside the gateway chamber.
“It’s the Apocalypticon,” Krysty said.
“More than that,” Ryan told her. He folded down the top of one of the bags, exposing the armed nuke. “Is this the button here?” he asked J.B.
“Hit it”
Ryan pressed the keypad, and the device started to cheep. It cheeped about a dozen times in rapid succession, then a set of numbers appeared in the LED readout 5:00, 4:59, 4:58. Ryan pulled up the sides of the bag and tied it closed.
“What about all this stuff?” Mildred asked, gesturing at the piles of bags. “Shouldn’t we take some of it with us?”
“No time for that,” Ryan said. “We’ve got to be out of here before Kaa reaches the mat-trans unit”
They scrambled into the chamber and J.B. punched the LD button, which would send them back to the Willie ville redoubt Ryan pulled the door closed. The moment the lock clacked, they heard the rapidly building whine of the system’s electronics. The scent of ozone trickled through the chamber
Ryan watched the elevators through the clear arma-glass window. He saw the doors open and Lord Kaa
rush out. The mutant was naked except for his combat boots, and he carried an M-60 machine gun
That was the image Ryan carried as he fell into unconsciousness.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Lord Kaa sprinted across the redoubt’s lower level, heading straight for the gateway chamber. As he neared the door, the system was still cycling down; he could hear the shrill whine of its electronics. The whine died away as his finger closed around the door handle. He jerked open the door. There was nothing inside. Only a few wisps of mist
remained.
“Angelica!” he cried. “Angelica, why did you do this to me?”
He slumped to the floor of the chamber, dropping Joyeuse by his side. He had read of females who betrayed and teased. The legends were full of them, beautiful women with wiles that mesmerized and vanquished even the most valiant and steadfast of Charlemagne’s heroes. Had Angelica in reality been one of those deceptive, cunning creatures? If so, why hadn’t he sensed it? Up until the moment she had made her escape, he had been certain that she shared his feelings and his dreams.
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