James Axler – Watersleep

“What test?”

“Right now I have a single Tomahawk missile without a true nuclear warhead. I intend to test it far­ther up the coast on that miserable settlement of mu­tants and half-wits that Shauna called home. I’ll miss their weekly tributes from the sea, but I’ll soon be able to afford whatever cuisine I desire.”

“You’d chill them all as a bastard test?” Ryan asked, knowing that even without the nuclear payload the missile would still decimate the small commune.

“Well, it wouldn’t be much of a test otherwise, now would it?”

“What if you don’t find any nukes in here?” Ryan said, his mind working fast. The odds were slim mis­siles for a submarine were down here, but then again, this was the first time he’d found a redoubt at a mili­tary base. Any kind of stockpiles might be within.

“No nukes, no test,” Poseidon replied. “I hardly intend to use my lone missile until I have more of them. Now, stop stalling and open the door before I have Jonesy start to break your fingers as an induce­ment.”

Ryan had no choice. He reached out and used his index finger to press the proper sequence of keys to open the door to the redoubt.

“Three-five-two,” Poseidon whispered aloud, watching closely. “That’s it?”

“That’s it,” Ryan said, and there was a rumbling noise from within the wall of the subbasement as the gears within meshed and bit. The door began to rise upward in a swift, steady motion.

“So simple,” Poseidon mused. “Three-five-two, and the door opens. I had come down here before at night and wondered what the right combination might be. I tried an infinite number, each one randomly gen­erated on a pocket comp so I wouldn’t repeat my­self.”

The door was now completely open. All eyes but Ryan’s were on the mysteries housed within.

“Now I learn my conjectures were always one number too many. The sec doors above ground throughout the base require a code of four numerals to all high-security sectors. Even if I had indeed stum­bled onto the right pattern unknowingly, I would have always transmitted one number too many.”

“Life’s a bitch, ain’t it?” Ryan said, then he fell forward, flat on his face as if he had tripped over a hidden wire or string. At the same time, he kicked out hard, smashing a boot heel into Spec’s kneecap. A cry of pain and surprise burst out of the injured man’s mouth at the same time as his leg went numb beneath him. The weapon he carried was forgotten and dropped to the floor as his hands clutched instinc­tively at his broken knee.

Ryan rolled to the left, managing to snag the car­rying strap of the fallen AK-47 with his feet.

The clock was ticking; Ryan had been keeping an eye on his chron. Soon it would be midnight, then he would know if J.B, Mildred and Carter had been more successful in their mission than he and Shauna had been.

But first things first. The other sec man in front of Ryan, Jonesy, had spun the instant the commotion began, only to find Ryan was no longer standing be­hind him.

“Go ahead, kill the bastard,” Poseidon bellowed. “We’re in!”

The Admiral leaped into the doorway and got out of the way as Jonesy pulled the trigger of his auto­matic weapon and the lead began to fly, digging div­ots in the basement floor as Ryan rolled and dodged, trying to get his hands on the dropped weapon snared by his feet.

“No! Shit! Wait!” Specs cried before a series of red holes flew up his groin and stomach. Jonesy was keeping his trigger mashed down and aiming by in­stinct, trying to get a bead on the twisting Ryan.

When he took out the second sec man, Jonesy didn’t even hesitate over the accidental killing—but he did when Ryan did a most unexpected thing.

Still unable to get his hands on the AK-47 tangled in his feet by the strap, Ryan instead hurled the rifle at Jonesy’s face with all of the force his lower legs could muster. A desperate act, but an effective one. The heavy rifle flew into Jonesy’s unprotected face butt first, knocking out three teeth and causing him to stumble backward falling flat on his backside directly with the door of the redoubt over his body. Momentarily stunned by the blow, the big sec man was dazed.