Leviathan(123)
With a renewed effort Frank rocketed into the heart of the cylinder, watching with painful anticipation as the Logic Core drew nearer, nearer, maddeningly near. He was forced to twist desperately, angling downward to avoid a vicious tentacle that exploded from the side.
It missed.
And for a moment, spiraling out of control through space, Frank was genuinely amazed that he was still alive. He turned in the infinite whiteness and realigned his direction, spearing himself through the furnace.
A dark red-black space rose before him, the Logic Core coming up like a planet, and he sped toward it, raising his arms and lowering his head to plummet through the exterior surface of the Core to enter the Synapse System.
Instantly his arm lashed out and connected to a thread, his thought moving from mind to hand to computer at the speed of light and he had already disoriented the logic-math, sending GEO into a self-diagnostic check. Frank sensed Rachel's immediate presence and almost instantly realized that she had been thrown into the self-diagnostic mode as well.
Yes!
He beat her!
Frank kept contact as he spiraled toward the center of the Logic Core. A small center of electric threads loomed beneath him and he slowed, slowing even more to land lightly, no longer concerned about the viral defense system. He was past that now, he knew. With Beth's help he had overcome the frontline defenses.
Deep inside the Core, Frank felt Rachel close to him.
He closed his eyes, concentrating as the synapses shot through the Core, shifting and progressing through algebraic symbols of logic. The thoughts were blindingly fast, quad-dual processed with almost incomprehensible speed, and Frank began changing them, rewriting the formulas. And quickly, far, far too quickly, he knew he was approaching a dangerous void where he was altering the essence of the machine.
Too fast ...
It's moving too fast …
* * *
“Get Jordan out of here!” Connor shouted, slinging the M-79 over his shoulder. He was still exhausted and in shock but Thor's dramatic move had galvanized him into a death-instinct strength.
Staggering in fatigue, Barley lifted the four-year-old.
“What are you going to do?” he gasped.
Connor began climbing wire and piping toward the ventilation shaft. He heard a fiendish roar on the other side of the wall and he froze, his skin crawling with terror. He couldn't even imagine what Thor was facing, couldn't even believe this was happening. Then he sensed that Barley was hesitating and he turned, shouting angrily.
“Barley! Get Jordan to the Computer Cavern as fast as you can! Take him to Beth! I'll meet you there!”
“But what are you—”
“Just do it!” Connor roared, turning to rip the ventilation shaft cover from the wall. He lifted a leg inside as Barley began shouting, backing up and motioning frantically.
“Hey, Connor, wait, wait...”
Connor leaned into the shaft.
“Connor!”
Enraged, Connor brought his head out of the shaft.
“What!”
The big man tossed up a grenade belt with three grenades. Connor caught it without thought, immediately looping it over his shoulder.
“Those are phosphorous!” Barley shouted hoarsely. “They're liquid fire! And you'll have to have at least a hundred feet when you shoot one! Everything inside that is going to be on fire!”
Connor stared down, frozen in place. Something had struck him with Barley's words, but he didn't have time to figure it out. With a quick nod he turned, crawling forward as fast as he could, holding the grenade launcher like a cannon.
* * *
Chapter 31
Sweating hand locked like iron on the battle-ax, Thor slowly turned, staring at the Dragon. His face was grim and dark.
“Come, beast,” he growled. “Come! Embrace me! Let this battle end with the two of us.”
Thor stood before it, those he loved at his back.
And Leviathan stood before him, growling, its eyes glowing like coals, its breath smoldering. Thor felt the atmosphere growing hotter by the moment. The air itself seemed to boil at the thin vapors rising from the beast's armor.
Clenching his teeth, Thor laughed.
“Let God decide this battle!” he roared, crouching and raising the battle-ax. “Yes! The God you fear!”
A strange twist of its dragon-head and Leviathan loosed a hideous roar, a grating, snarling, threatening sound that came from deep beneath it, from the rock and stone, not the creature.
Thor laughed, moving to the side.
His smile was savage.
“Will you wait all day!” he roared. “Come to me!”
And Leviathan came – came so quickly that Thor felt the black claws before he saw them and he twisted before a collision he didn't understand, whirling the battle-ax, the steel sweeping with unbelievable power through the red gloom as he came around and the dragon-head was there with fangs gaping and Thor roared to turn violently through the blow.