Leviathan(117)
Immediately the platform was aglow. Lines and single-command control pads, optical controls overlaid by a thin poly-alloy waterproof cover, lit from within with a soft green light. And at least twenty large-screen control monitors blinked on. Beth watched in dull amazement as the entire room came alive, green and glowing, pulsing. Even the long cylindrical tube located in the center of the platform seemed to glow a shade brighter.
Face glistening with sweat, Frank pointed at the glowing white tube. The cylinder was as thick through the middle as a man and seemed to be suspended by dull gray threads.
“The Logic Core of GEO is electromagnetically suspended in that cylinder,” Frank began, moving quickly to the other side of the platform to initiate further commands. “The Logic Core is the brain chip. The chip uses formulas conveyed through light as something like thought waves. Fiber-optic paths carry the light from the Logic Core and into the computer itself where the waves are electromagnetically transferred into amalgams which are delivered to chip control systems.” He paused, concentrating briefly to initiate a more complex command. “The fiber-optic relays and niobium-titanium chips allow GEO to operate at something close to the speed of light, which for all practical purposes is probably the speed of thought.”
Beth was watching his every move. “But how are you going to defuse the bomb?” she asked.
“I've got a plan. It's something Thor said.”
“But won't Rachel stop you?”
“Only if she can hit me before I put the Logic Core in a self-diagnostic mode. Then she won't be able to do anything to me because her logic will be off-line.”
“How much time will you have to defeat her?” Beth asked.
“A tenth of a second.”
“And if you’re a tenth of a second slow?”
“She'll kill me.”
* * *
Chapter 27
Connor hung from one hand on the high side of the titanium fire wall that leaned into the Containment Cavern itself. He glanced down to see that the floor was still fifteen feet below him.
Swinging, hand slicing against the metal edge, he held Jordan with desperate strength in his other arm. For a long moment he swung in the dark air, the rifle's weight on his back dragging him down, pulling him painfully from the rim. His fingers were slicing, slipping.
Another heat-blast blazed down the tunnel.
Too-close-you're-out-of-time!
Connor dropped, hoping that the distance was an optical illusion.
It wasn't.
He hit the ground hard, his leg caving in.
Stunned at the pain, he rolled on the floor with a shout, breathless, almost passing out at the agony that overcame his mind, his will, his strength. His knee and then his leg and then his entire chest went numb, a shocked breath exploding from his chest. He strained for air, couldn't pull breath. And for terrifying seconds he strained again and again, heard short groans escaping him. Jordan was crying in his arms but Connor didn't have any strength left to soothe the child's fears.
No time, no time for anything ...
Get it together!
With a grimace Connor slammed a fist against his thigh, using pain that penetrated the codeine to shatter the numbness. Dimly, he felt it. So he raised his fist again and brought it down with bruising force.
Sensation, sensation was there.
Use the pain!
With a roar Connor violently struck his leg again, straightening it, forcing it back to life. Behind and above them, the Observation Room was suddenly set aflame by a thunderous blast of liquid fire.
Connor shouted in rage, staggering to his feet. He picked up Jordan and limped unsteadily over the remnants of a large tank. His soul was withering in agony, and only his will carried him across the cavern. But as Connor moved he began to sense a slow, gathering strength, somehow realizing that the numbness in his leg was fading with each step.
Close behind he heard Leviathan savaging the Observation Room, tearing a larger hole through the concrete-steel frame. It was pursuing, always pursuing. But in a moment Connor had reached a vault. He frantically worked the hydraulic latch, raising the portal two feet above the floor. Then Jordan screamed and Connor knew what was happening just as he felt the floor shake beneath a distant, thunderous descent.
Don't look back!
Without looking, Connor slid quickly beneath the fire door, instantly lifting the four-year-old in his arms, running. Fluorescent lights streamed in this part of the deep cavern, somehow unaffected by the power surges that had severed lines through the rest of the facility. But it gave Connor little comfort. In another moment he heard a violent impact against the vault behind him, knew the portal would quickly fall.
The beast was committed to a suicide run.
Connor knew it could have made for the power plant at any moment to escape without conflict into the lake, quickly finding the ocean to feed and feed and feed. But it was hatefully focused on this fight with something far beyond a beast, and it wouldn't stop, wouldn't stop until they were all dead.