“Sorry to chat and run, but I really must make this important date,” Jamaisvous said in a breathy voice, and followed up the statement with a peal of hysterical laughter. “For, ‘I’m late! I’m late! For a very important date!’ So late! Too late!”
Nearly unconscious, Doc still managed to drag himself up to watch as Jamaisvous entered the mat-trans chamber and pulled closed the armaglass door. Now, even as the cycle began, and the burst of light erupted within the room and the peals of fog came slithering out from the shimmering metal disks that broke down the molecules of whatever, whoever was inside, Tanner made it up to his side, using one arm to prop himself in a secure position while his other hand splayed awkwardly on the desktop next to him.
His fingers felt, searching until they came across the plastic surface of the keyboard. Doc pulled it toward himself, twisting his hand in the mire of cables behind the monitor linking the comp, pulled it hard, using what was left of his fading strength along with his body weight.
Then, with a final Herculean effort, Doc yanked down, bringing the central processing unit and monitor onto the hard floor, where they both erupted on impact into a mass of sparks, impacting at precisely the same moment that the long figure standing inside the mat-trans unit ceased to exist…at least, at this particular location at this particular time.
Chapter Nineteen
“Shit.”
“What?” Krysty asked. The Armorer was almost always a study of grace under pressure. For him to allow himself the luxury of a curse meant he’d hit an unexpected block.
“Shit, shit, shit. This will take a moment,” J.B. replied, fishing through his jacket pockets for the needed implement as he continued to speak. “This is a mag lock. Not the hardest kind to navigate past, but they can be triple-damn annoying minus the proper tool. I need an electric wand to reverse the polarity. Once that’s taken care of, we’ll be on him in no time.”
“You got one of those wands?” Dean asked.
“Please,” J.B. said, sounding offended.
“Sorry.”
“No time, indeed. No time is what I fear the most, John,” Mildred murmured, lost in her own inner thoughts. “I never should have allowed Doc to participate in Jamaisvous’s mad experiments.”
“I imagine you didn’t have much of a choice. Doc’s his own man. Always has been,” Ryan said. “He’d be willing to try anything to get back to his wife and kids.”
J.B. twisted the end of the cylinder-shaped handle of the wand he was manipulating and pushed at the locked door. “Wrong frequency,” he said to himself and took out a second device, working with it and trying to keep focused.
“How much longer?” Mildred asked.
“Ease up, man’s workin’ on it,” Ryan said.
“What, now you’re preaching patience to me, Ryan?” Mildred retorted.
Ryan grinned. “Guess so.”
“Got it,” J.B. announced. The Armorer had brought forth the necessary tool on the third try and had inserted it into the join between latch and door. Using both hands he twisted it back and forth, and was now rewarded with a loud ka-thak, indicating the sliding sec door was loose in the frame.
Ryan gestured with his chin and Jak stepped up to cover him as he slid the heavy door into the recessed area in the stone wall. “Anything?” he asked the albino, who was positioned better to look inside. Jak shook his head no.
The one-eyed man held up a hand and counted silently with his fingers. One…two…three, and he stepped inside, Jak and Krysty both backing him up.
Inside, the control room appeared immaculate at first glance, same as before until one looked closer and saw the disarray of a dropped file of sheets of paper, along with a splattering of blood on a comp keyboard and farther down on the floor itself, a prone Doc Tanner, who was still bleeding from the nose.
“Gaia, Doc. Are you okay?” Krysty asked as she and Dean both knelt next to the elder man.
“How do I look?” he asked weakly.
“Like hell,” Dean said.
“Perfect. Exactly how I feel, my boy,” Doc replied. “Is Jamaisvous…?”