James Axler – Rat King

It was there. “Got it!”

Mac frowned and looked around. “Think I must be double or triple stupe, but I

can’t see what you’re getting excited about,” he said quizzically.

“Up there…” Ryan gestured with his H&K toward a maintenance hatch on the

ceiling.

“What good does that do us?” Abner sniffed.

“The maintenance ducts follow the line of the corridors. We can come out onto

the elevator shaft, get down into one of the cars, then surprise these

fireblasted stupes when we get to the right level.”

Abner grinned. “I like it, even though it sounds like it’s going to be hard

work.”

“No one said it was going to be easy,” Ryan replied.

Jak was the first to climb into the duct. Ryan cupped his hands to give the

albino teen a foothold, and then he sprung up to the hatch with grace and ease,

using the end of one of his knives to loosen the screws that held the hatch in

place. Once it was open, he pulled himself inside and wriggled around, reaching

down to give Dean a helping hand as the boy was next up.

Inside the ducts there was enough room for them to kneel without being cramped,

and they had soon assisted the ville dwellers into the space, having a little

trouble with Abner as the old baron wasn’t as fit as he would have liked to

think. But, like Mac, he was still surprisingly agile for a man of his age and

weight.

Ryan was the last man up, having elected to go last in order to help J.B., who

was still having niggling doubts about how his ankle would hold up. Before he

jumped and caught hold of Jak and J.B.’s hands, he passed up the hatch cover.

When the two friends had helped Ryan into the duct, he placed the hatch cover

over the hole, so at least it would look undisturbed at a cursory glance.

It was dingy and dusty inside the duct. The air was thick, and difficult to

breathe. It was obvious that the duct had been neglected by the techs for some

time.

Ryan let Jak take the lead, the albino having a sure idea of the direction of

the duct. They crawled in silence, unwilling to speak in the dust and heat that

clawed at their throats. It seemed to take forever, but couldn’t have been more

than a few minutes before a cold blast of air swept across them.

“Elevator shaft,” Jak croaked. “Ahead.”

There was a blackness in front of them, where the lighting ceased, and a grille

hatch covered the exit of the duct into the elevator shaft.

Now they came to the one part of the plan that relied on chance—if either of the

elevator cars was below the level of the grille, then they could climb down and

through the emergency hatch on top of the car. If both cars were above them,

then they had a real problem.

Fortune favored them, and the far car was just at the level below them. It did

mean, however, that they had to scale across the cables before dropping down to

its roof. Jak went first, dropping catlike onto the car, and lifting the

emergency hatch with one hand, the other grasping the .357 Magnum Colt Python,

poised to blow away any opposition below.

The car was empty, the doors shut.

Jak beckoned to the others, and they made their way across to the car, dropping

down into the well-lit interior.

Without a word, Ryan pressed the button that would take them down to armory and

the comp room that controlled the redoubt.

“What about Doc?” Mildred asked as the elevator started its descent.

“We look for him later. Best to try and secure first,” Ryan said tersely. He

didn’t want to forget Doc, but first things first.

The elevator arrived at the right level, and everyone checked their blasters as

the doors began to whirr open.

“This is it,” Ryan said.

WALLACE SAT behind his desk, tapping his finger on its surface as he fixed the

young private opposite him with a stony stare.

“Sir, don’t do that,” said the private, unable to keep the tremor from his