Kane ran a hand through his hair. “I know. If there was only some way to get an edge, even a small one, I’d be all for making a break.”
Grant forced a grin. “Since David is the cook, I don’t think we’d be able to talk him into drugging their food.”
“Good idea, though,” Kane said gloomily. He stared unfocusedly at the water stain marring the smooth wall beneath the air vent.
Grant followed his gaze, started to look away, then caught the sudden narrowing of Kane’s eyes. The idea popped full-blown into both their heads at the same time, and they exchanged swift, derisive smiles.
“It’s ridiculous,” Grant said.
“Yeah,” Kane agreed, stepping quickly over to the wall, examining the slit-baffled vent. The metal frame rattled very faintly.
Grant inspected it with a critical eye. “Too damn small for me.”
“Yeah,” said Kane again, his gloved fingers exploring the area between the frame and the wall. “Damn tight squeeze for me, too.”
“Think you can fit?”
“Let’s find out.”
Grant visually compared the breadth of Kane’s shoulders to the width of the vent. “You’ll have to keep your arms together in front of you, like you’re diving.”
Nodding distractedly, Kane dragged a chair over from the small dinette set, grabbing a plastic knife from the table. He stood on the chair, fitting the blade of the knife between the vent’s frame and the wall and carefully pried at it.
“Do you really think this has a chance in hell of working?” Grant asked.
Trying not to exert too much pressure on the flimsy plastic blade, Kane answered, “The air is blowing from some kind of circulation station. Stands to reason that if I follow it, I’ll come to the main pumping station, where there’s an oxygen supply. If I can increase the mixture”
The frame popped out, nearly causing Kane to topple backward from the chair. He caught the frame and handed it down to Grant. “If I can increase the mixture,” he repeated, “it ought to make the trolls so high they won’t be much in the way of opposition.”
“Will we be affected?”
Kane stood on his tiptoes, chinning himself up to peer down the square, narrow shaft of dark metal. “I can’t say. If we are, not as much as them. Maybe a little light-headedness. Give me a boost.”
Grant formed a stirrup with his hands, interlocking the fingers and placing them under the soles of Kane’s boots. He heaved at the same time Kane kicked himself upward.
Kane managed to squirm his head and shoulders into the duct before he became lodged. Grant stood up on the chair and lifted his partner’s legs, putting a shoulder against his feet and shoving hard. Kane cursed and wriggled, the zippers of his suit scraping loudly against the metal sheathing.
“Think you can make it?” Grant asked anxiously.
“Hell, I don’t know.” Kane’s tense voice held a hollow echo. “This is like being inside a bodybag.” He wormed forward a few feet.
“How will I know if you’ve made it?”
“You’re going to have to take your best guess. Monitor the vent. You ought to be able to tell by the airflow and the smell if I’ve increased the oxygen content.”
Grant started to replace the frame over the opening, then asked, “What do you figure the odds?”
“The usual,” came the muffled, offhand response. “One percent.”
Grant tapped Kane’s boot sole with an index finger and slipped the frame back into place. The scratching, thumping sounds of Kane’s belly-crawling progress along the duct slowly faded.
Stepping down from the chair, Grant plucked a book at random from the shelves and sat down beneath the vent to wait.
Chapter 26
Brigid wasn’t really surprised when Sindri escorted her into a laboratory. He gestured for the transadapts to stay behind in the tunnel and sealed the hatch.
Brigid glanced swiftly around the maze of equipment glittering beneath the sterile light tubes on the high ceiling. She saw a pair of long, Wack-topped tables holding a glass blood-purification system and petri dishes.
A big electron microscope dominated one table. An oscilloscope, a fluoroscope and a stainless-steel liquid-nitrogen tank were arrayed against the walls. Past a glass partition, she saw a cylindrical hyperbaric chamber.