“J.B., how long have you been awake?”
“Didn’t check the chron.”
Ryan ran his fingers through his hair again, finding more ice crystals. He glanced around the metal disks of the mat-trans unit’s floor. Little patches of ice gleamed against the vanadium. “Give me a guess.”
“Ten, fifteen minutes mebbe.”
“You notice how cold it is in here?” Ryan asked.
“Sure. Hard to miss.”
Fear put a surge of adrenaline through the one-eyed man, giving him the strength to haul himself to his feet. “You think it’s getting any colder?”
J.B. glanced at him, then noticed the frost on his glasses. “Mebbe, now that you mention it. Just figured it was my blood feeling thin after the jump. Don’t always know how bad you really feel until after you start moving around. Kind of wanted to put that off for a bit.”
Swaying slightly, his sense of balance still affected by the jump, Ryan put his hand against the armaglass. Burning cold pressed against his palm, cold enough to make his teeth ache in sympathy. He breathed out deliberately, watching as a plume of fog spilled out against the armaglass in front of him. “That’s not white paint,” he told the Armorer. “That’s ice caked on the armaglass outside. We’re frozen in.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Ryan crossed to the door, slipping once on an ice patch in the center of the mat-trans floor. He wasn’t worried about being trapped because there was always the LD button that could whisk them back to the redoubt near Hazard. Going back might entail a few days of running from Kirkland or Handsome Wyatt if the jacker leader had stayed in the area, but it beat being stuck underground in a block of ice.
“Is it just me,” J.B. asked, “or does it seem to you that the lights in here aren’t as bright as they usually are after a jump?”
Ryan glanced at the glowing disks on the floor and ceiling. Usually they carried a residual glow after usage, and emergency lights flared on until the unit was cleared. Now they were dim, rendering only a twilight inside the gateway.
“Power’s not what it should be,” Ryan agreed.
“Could be failing as we stand here talking,” the Armorer warned.
“Then let’s see what’s what.” Ryan lifted the lever that was supposed to open the door.
Nothing happened.
“Fireblast!” Ryan snarled. “Bastard door’s stuck.”
“Try this.” J.B. handed over a camp ax from his gear.
Ryan slammed the blunt end of the head against the lever. Reluctantly, the door opened to about two-and-one-half feet before its progress was impeded.
Only ice appeared to be on the other side of the door.
“What is it, lover?” Krysty asked, sitting up and holding her head.
“Looks like we’ve jumped into a block of ice,” Ryan said. He put his hand against the ice and tried to push. It didn’t budge. “Bastard thick.”
“We stuck in here, Dad?” Dean asked.
Ryan looked at his son, sitting up now and wrapping his arms around his legs. Like all of them, Dean wasn’t really dressed for the sudden winter weather. And Ryan could tell the interior temperature of the mat-trans unit was continuing to plunge.
None of them would last long if they remained inside the gateway.
“Only stuck as long as we want to be,” Ryan replied. “Over, under or around. There’s always a way. Just need to find it.”
“Best way might be to go back,” Mildred said. “If this jump is going to start out this bad, give us this kind of crap to deal with from the git-go, I’m ready to take a hint. If you know what I mean.”
“Another jump?” Doc groaned. “So soon? By the Three Kennedys, I fear it would be the death of us all.”
“Another jump won’t kill us,” J.B. said. “We’ll just wish it did.”
“Beats slow death,” Jak added. “Freezing not good way die.”
“None of them are. That’s why we’re not going to do that.” Ryan shut the door. “Everybody get set.”
“Damn,” Albert moaned. “Don’t know that I can do that again.”
“Find out in a minute, little man.” Ryan pushed the LD button.
The metal disks tried to glow more brightly, but they were slow about it. Ryan sat beside Krysty, feeling the cold eating into him more now. He counted down, waiting for the mist to fill the chamber.