Beth said nothing, turned to Frank. “So what kind of help do you need, Doctor?”
Frank stared at her. “I'll need for you to go into something like Virtual Reality IO or Virtual-X and destroy the Viral Defense Program before GEO can hit me in the Cyberspace Mode.”
“How much time do we have for that?”
“About four hours. But I don't know how much time it'll take me to get to the Logic Core through Cyberspace. Right now we need all the time we can get. Why?”
“Because I've got to let Jordan rest,” Beth responded, without emotion. Emotion had been burned from her. “He's dehydrated. And he's got to have at least two hours of rest. His heart is too weak to take this.”
Chesterton turned to her. “I can watch the boy for you, Beth. The best thing for him is sleep anyway. We don't need to go waking him up. And if you can deactivate this bomb, it might even buy enough time to get some help.”
Beth hesitated a moment, staring. Her face was unrevealing until she spoke. “No,” she said finally. “I'm not going to leave my child. Not for anything. We've got a couple of hours, don't we, Frank?”
Face tight, Frank nodded.
Meeting the morose aspect of the scientist, Beth seemed to have reached her own fatal sadness. She turned her head to gaze at Chesterton. “Do you think they're alive, Colonel?”
Chesterton stepped forward. “Connor's a good man, Beth. He's resourceful and determined.” He paused. “Yeah, I think they're alive. Connor’s already beaten it twice. And he's got Thor and Barley with him. Together they've got a chance.”
His speech didn't appear to move her. Beth blinked, turned to look with steady grimness at Frank. “All right, Doctor. Two hours, and then we'll go. And while we've got the time, you can tell me exactly what kind of machine we're dealing with here.”
* * *
Reverberating roars thundered through the section of tunnels beyond Bridgestone as Connor fell against a wall, sweating profusely. He wiped his face, sweat sliding on sweat. He blinked, eyes burning, and felt his clothes heavy and cold with perspiration.
Thor came to him out of the gloom, gasping. He fell against a wall, lifting a hand to his chest, head bowed. Connor thought that he was about to have a heart attack.
“Are you all right?” he whispered.
Thor nodded his head. “I have left a trail the beast will not easily follow.”
“Where's Barley?”
“I don't know ...”
A panic rose in Connor's soul, but he couldn't think about it. He couldn't think about anything at all. It was all numbness, darkness and cold. “Well, which way did he go?” he managed.
Thor lifted an arm, pointing. “He was running . . . toward the southern tunnels. Leaving a trail. He said that he was going to open up several vaults. Make it expend its strength. And then he was going to destroy the freezer. Destroy the food supply.”
Connor shook his head. “We said that we'd separate for thirty minutes! Then we'd meet back here. But it's been more than that.” A fear struck him. “We'll have to go find him before we can—”
A shadow came out of the gloom, moving silently.
“Hah!” Thor whirled, the M-79 instantly level.
Barley didn't even slow until he reached the wall, shaking. He was glistening with sweat, breathless. Then he moaned and fell to one knee, kneeling. His breath was ragged.
“Where is it?” Connor whispered. “Did you get a visual?”
Barley gazed up. “Are you crazy? I didn't want to get a visual! It's tracking us! That's all I know ! But we've laid a truckload of tracks. It's got plenty to do.”
“Did you blow the freezer?”
“Yeah.” Barley nodded. “I blew it with a phosphorous grenade. The only thing left to eat now is us.”
A vengeful grimace and Connor took another deep breath. “Good. Now we'll see how tough this thing really is.” He took a deep breath, standing. “All right. Let's go. We've got to reach the Housing Complex.”
Barley spoke, gasping, “Is Frank defusing the fail-safe? We're almost out of time.”
“I don't know,” Connor replied, shaking sweat from his brow. “I hope so ...”
* * *
“All right, Doctor, explain GEO to me.”
Beth rested a forearm on a raised knee, staring. She was sitting on the steps of the complex, and Frank was before her, thin and almost unbelievably young for what he had accomplished. She tried to remember that it was his genius that had created Leviathan. She hoped the same genius would be enough to destroy it.
“All right,” Frank began, turning to pace slowly, hands folded before his face as if in prayer. “GEO is a genetically copied neural net microprocessor.”