James Axler – Rat King

started and that his people were continuing.

“…and this is where we softened you up for interrogation. There are eight obs

rooms in all, each one equipped similarly. Which was quite convenient, when you

think of it, as there are seven of you…” He allowed himself a laugh. “As you

know only too well, the techniques developed here are far ahead of anything you

outsider scum may have.”

He stopped them as he reached this point in the lecture. They were in the obs

room where Dr. Tricks was collecting data spilling from a chattering printer.

She looked around at them and raised an elegant eyebrow. Krysty looked her up

and down with a perusing eye. She wouldn’t have expected to see such physical

perfection in an environment where even the muscle-bound sec men and their

seemingly healthy chief showed some signs of mutation or inbreeding. Was she a

mutie in some way that she didn’t understand?

Trick had caught the end of the lecture. “There is one thing,” she purred at

Wallace. “For so-called outsider scum, they’ve proved rather adept at traveling.

I’d love to know how they’ve learned to use the mat-trans, especially as our

people have never quite worked it out.”

Wallace glared at her. “You know why,” he snapped. “They have Dr. Tanner, and

you know what is to be done with him.”

Tricks smiled. Krysty felt a shiver ran down her spine, and her hair snapped

tight to her head, coiling protectively around her. She suddenly felt very

afraid for Doc, and wondered at what cost he had bought their temporary

reprieve.

Wallace led them through the redoubt. They moved down another level to the R&D

labs, where the advanced armory was maintained. Here he showed them the

remote-control trank tank that had taken them out in the corridor, and other

mobile and remote-controlled weapons. J.B. was interested despite himself at

gren fixers and large-caliber blasters mounted on tracks. There were

flamethrowers and laser weapons that looked as though they might, at one time,

have been deadly, but were now just highly polished junk.

Ryan and Jak exchanged a look. It was easy to see how the weapons had been

allowed to descend to this degree of tidy disrepair by taking one look at the

maintenance techs, many of whom were slack-jawed and drooling, or showing signs

of too much inbreeding. The mutie genes were less obvious among these personnel

—certainly nothing like the chilled maintenance man with the stickie

heritage—but there was a large degree of insularity that had led to a mechanical

repetition of tasks rather than understanding what they really meant.

Ryan found that interesting. If they were used to a mechanical routine, then

anything that threw them off might cause confusion rather than spur them into

the same military and drilled action that he knew the sec men would be capable

of. That was a good sign.

On the eighth level they passed a laboratory that was sealed off by

double-glazed and reinforced fire doors with a comp coded sec lock similar to

those used on the electronic sec doors in the corridors.

Strangely Wallace became reticent when they reached this point. All of a sudden

he clammed up on them.

“This level is where the mechanism is maintained. It was the great work for

which we were trained and for which we all live. This is the work in which Dr.

Tanner can help us.”

“Aren’t you going to tell us what this is?” Doc queried.

Wallace shot a venomous glance at him, and Murphy stepped forward to prod him in

the ribs with the H&K.

“Shut up, you old fuck. You’ll find out soon enough.”

“Strange that you’re so quiet now, though, isn’t it?” Mildred asked Wallace.

“There are things about the mechanism that must be kept secret for now,” he said

sharply. “We’ll move on.”

It didn’t escape anyone’s notice that the garrulous fat man had something nasty

to hide. What it was, no one could guess. One thing was for sure, it was a worry

as to what was in store for Doc.

Where Wallace led them next put all such thoughts out of their minds. They went