“Do what you have to do, Mildred,” Ryan said wearily. “When you think the system is safe, we’ll try another jump.”
“Any danger of our boy Silas popping back here?” Krysty asked. She was standing next to the open door of the gateway.
Mildred shook her head. “There’s always a possibility, but I doubt he’d return here so soon. Besides, we keep the door open and he can’t reuse this gateway anyway.”
“If does, take care of him,” Jak said, grinning. “Take care of him good.”
A DAY PASSED before Mildred gave the word they could use the mat-trans chamber and be on their way. She’d changed back into her usual clothing, leaving the gaily colored dress and the shiny baubles behind. Her target pistol had been recovered from the control room undamaged. There would be little or no use for finery where she was going, and after Jamaisvous’s treatment of Doc and betrayal of the others, including the poor locals who called Puerto Rico home, Mildred had no interest in hanging on to memories or souvenirs.
Save one.
Dean watched with interest as Mildred touched a small button on the front plate of a desktop comp. A drawer slid out of a recessed area when summoned.
In the drawer tray rested a single compact disc. The disc was silver and clean, with no identifying marks or words. The woman carefully removed the disc from the drawer between thumb and forefinger, taking care not to touch the shining surface, and placed it snugly within a waiting nondescript jewel box cover.
“What’s on the disc, Mildred?” Dean inquired. The boy had seen both computer disks and CDs with recorded music during his education at the Brody School in Colorado, and knew they were used for information storage and retrieval.
“Got pretty good with comps at Brody’s,” the boy said casually, peering over Mildred’s shoulder.
“So you’ve told me before,” the woman replied.
“I liked the games-some of them were on discs like the one you’ve got. Smoking fun. In one, you beamed in a mat-trans and got to go round blasting hell out of muties in old redoubts and space stations on other planets. My fave weapon was the B.F.G.”
Mildred bit. “Bee Eff Gee?”
“Big fucking gun,” Dean said. “Totally bitching boss blaster.”
“That’s one thing that never has changed with computers,” Mildred sighed, remembering her own weekend addictions to the role-playing fantasy worlds a good game could provide. She’d never been too fond of the violent ones, but instead liked the ones that featured puzzle-solving to advance.
“So, is that a game?” Dean asked.
“No, I’m afraid not. This disc contains Jamais- vous’s listing of all the mat-trans units, both in and out of Deathlands,” she replied. “A greatest-hits catalog of the world’s gateways. In his haste to make a retreat, he must have forgotten to take it with him. He’s encrypted the list, and I don’t have his password to access the codes, but in the future, with Doc’s help, maybe I can circumvent his security tech and we’ll have our personal guide to Deathlands and beyond.”
“Waste of time,” Ryan said, stepping next to the duo. “That just adds weight to your load.”
“You think?” Mildred replied. “You honestly think so?”
“Yeah,” the one-eyed man replied without hesitation. “Wouldn’t have said so otherwise.”
Mildred held the disc high in one hand and pondered for a moment, before tucking it inside the lining of her denim jacket. “No offense, Ryan, but I hope to make you eat those words someday.”
“Suit yourself,” he said, and walked back over to where Krysty and Doc were standing together. The older man was trying to show her something on the comp, but between his own shaky memory and the redhead’s lack of interest, neither seemed to be enjoying the demonstration.
“I knew the code, once upon a time,” Doc said bitterly as he stared at the blue armaglass of the mat-trans unit. “I knew it like my own address, knew it like the date of the births of my children. No longer.”
“What code is that?” Krysty replied, having no- ticed Doc’s intense frown as he glared at the gateway.
“The gateway code. The numbers that would enable me to return to my sweet Emily.”