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Leviathan(69)



Better, yes, to trust the rock itself, trying for solid holds.

Reaching out to grasp a narrow sliver of stone, bracing the toes of his boots against the wall, Thor studied with exacting concentration for a secure second handhold. He saw several. Then he moved the flashlight around to his gut, letting the beam hit the wall.

Rebounding off the wall in the darkness of the shaft, the light beam was transformed into a wild white haze that illuminated all four walls and a space of the shaft above and below. Using it, Thor guessed that he might pick his way down the remaining hundred feet.

Gathering himself, teeth clenching, Thor released his other hand from the wire and lashed out wildly, slamming against the wall, digging desperately, his fingers finding a narrow hold.

***

“Can you work the vault doors now with GEO?” Connor asked.

“No,” Frank responded. “GEO isn't going to do anything that it thinks would place us in danger. And GEO is convinced that shutting all the doors is necessary to protect us.”

“Well how did you ever plan to get out of this cavern, Frank? How did you plan to escape this place if Leviathan ever got loose?”

“We never anticipated that we would ever have to escape the cavern, Connor! The vaults were just to trap Leviathan so the security personnel could corner it and kill it.”

“And the nuclear fail-safe? What was that for?”

Frank hesitated. “The nuclear fail-safe was a contingency plan in case of some kind of emergency. I never really expected to create something like this. I never... I never thought it would be needed.”

“Well think again, Frank.” Connor knelt to study the vault door. After a moment he looked up. “You're certain that GEO won't open any of the doors?”

“GEO will only do what it's programmed to do.”

Connor stared silently at the vault.

“We can raise the door manually,” Barley said, stepping forward. “There's an emergency pump built into the side of the vault. It works on hydraulics. Takes less than fifteen seconds.”

Frank tensed. “But listen, Connor, if you manually raise that door, GEO is going to interpret it as a broken circuit and it's going to initiate nitrogen pheromones stored above the door. None of us will survive the atmosphere.”

“We'll use gas masks,” Barley countered.

“Nitrogen is stored at minus 150 degrees Celsius,” Frank said, turning to him. “This room will be frozen, Barley. We'll be dead from hypothermia in less than ten seconds.”

Connor bent forward, placing both hands against the titanium vault. “GEO is just a machine, Frank.” His voice was distant. “It's like you said, a machine just does what it's told. Or what it thinks it's told, which means we have to trick it.”

Standing, Connor moved to the vault's control panel. He took out his utility tool and removed the screws that held the cover plate. In a few more seconds he had reworked the circuit, leaving two small wires twisted together and dangling.

“That should be the circuit that tells GEO that the door is closed,” he muttered. “As long as that circuit isn't broken, GEO shouldn't know that we've opened the door. So go ahead, Barley. Time to dance.”

The big lieutenant bent without expression and began working the short handle of the hydraulic pump. Instantly the vault opened a foot, two feet, moving steadily upward. Connor saw an inch-thick steel cable quivering at the inside corner of the door, holding the tremendous hydraulic pressure that kept the vault upraised.

Sweating from the effort, Barley stepped back. “Let's hope we don't have to do that in a hurry,” he said, unslinging his rifle. He bent, peering under the doorway. “It's clear. Let's move out. This tunnel should lead back to the Command Center.”

* * *



Thor dug bloody fingers into stone.

Trying to hold a grip on the rock, his hands were numb and bleeding. His four hundred fifty pounds pressed against the wall, dragging him down. His breaths exploded against the rock in hard blasts, mixing with grave-dust. Sweat streaked his face, soaked his hair, falling from his bearded chin.

How much farther^

The darkness beneath him seemed depthless, but Thor knew he had climbed down at least sixty feet from the end of the wire. So there couldn't be more than thirty, or even forty feet, remaining.

Depthless darkness ...

Straining and trembling, Thor glared for a more secure handhold, but he had reached a section as smooth as glass, the sides of the wall perfectly cylindrical. He glanced up, frantic, forearms dead with fatigue and pain, and in frenzied fear he couldn't even find the handholds he had used to lower himself to this precarious position.

The battle-ax dragged him back from the wall, and his boots slipped again from their narrow purchase. Groaning, Thor jammed bloody fingers painfully into the rock.