“Mebbe,” the sec man replied cautiously. “What you boys wantin’?”
“You, dude. You gotta get back, man, ’cause all hell’s broken loose. Harv and that bitch have got some sort of takeover goin’ down, and we need all the help we can get.”
Ryan and Blake exchanged glances once more.
“Trust them?” the one-eyed warrior asked.
“With my life. Crazy fuckers, but too crazy to lie if they even wanted to,” he replied.
“Good enough for me,” Ryan said.
“We’re coming out, boys,” he called to the twins.
Ryan and Blake stepped out simultaneously into the junction between the corridors, blasters ready as a precaution.
“Whoa, dude, easy!” Ant exclaimed as he and his twin held their shotguns away from their bodies. “I know what one of those fuckers can do, so ‘scuse me being nervous,” he added, gesturing with his free hand at J.B.’s M-4000, which Ryan had borrowed.
The one-eyed warrior allowed himself a small grin as he lowered the M-4000. “Okay, so fill us in,” he said as the rest of his party, including the baron, stepped out into the junction.
The twins explained the situation, keeping it as concise as they could without contradicting each other too often. When they had finished, Ryan turned to the baron.
“Seems to me that most of your sec force want to take their chances with Harvey.”
Alien shook his head sadly. “Whatever happens, I can’t go on now.”
“Worry later. Get Harvey chilled first,” Jak snapped pithily, not allowing Alien to slip into self-pity.
“What’s the state of play with the armory?” J.B. asked. “Right now, only sec and us have blasters. But if everyone on Harvey’s side gets them…” He trailed off, feeling it unnecessary to go on.
Ant shook his head. “I guess he’s headed straight for it, but the problem the dude’s got is that our side is between the armory and his side, ya know?”
“Then he’ll need another tool to bargain with,” Ryan stated flatly.
“By the Three Kennedys,” Doc whispered, “he wouldn’t.”
Mildred caught Doc’s inference. “He might not, but I bet she would.”
Alien looked at them blankly. He was a broken man, and unable to focus on events.
Ryan, on the other hand, had clicked into combat mode, and his mind was racing.
He turned to Blake. “You take Downey and Alien and head for the center. Take Jak and Dean with you. They’re good fighters, and you may need them.”
The sec man nodded, glad that he would have Jak by his side. “And you?” he asked.
“We’re going after Harvey and Jenna. Reckon they’ve gone for the nuke. You with us, boys?” he asked the twins.
“Bet your ass,” Ant replied.
“Yeah, and whip that sorry mother Harv’s ass,” his twin added.
With a brief farewell, the two forces parted company, both headed for what they knew to be the final showdown.
Chapter Eighteen
The area where the nuke was being stored was deserted. Alien had felt it unnecessary to mount a guard while he had the ville meeting, and Harvey had been only too pleased to go along with that, wanting all his people concentrated.
One thing he hadn’t foreseen was the willingness with which Jenna would turn to the nuke as a bargaining tool.
There was an almost eerie quiet about this part of the ville. Away from the pitched battle, and on the other side of the tunnel and passage complex to where her lab was located, Jenna was certain that they would be left in peace until she had worked out how to arm the bomb.
“Are you sure about this?” Harvey asked her as she opened a panel on the garishly painted side of the nuke, near the nose cone.
“In what way?” she replied calmly, partly as a result of her preoccupation and partly because she felt the power within her grasp, and the self-confidence that engendered. “What’s the problem, sweetie? Until I’ve actually examined this, I don’t know for sure if it’s even armed.”
“But what if it is?”
She looked at him with an expression of complete calm that froze his blood. “Then if it is, I set it going.”
“Another nukecaust?” Harvey queried, unable to keep the quaver from his voice.