Connor searched, saw a clear path of escape to the right, far from the middle section of the walkway. He saw that the rest of the platoon was working feverishly at the far door, attempting to rewire it as Connor had taught them. They hadn't yet begun to raise the portal, but Connor knew he couldn't wait for that. He was certain that Frank couldn't hold the beast much longer.
Breathing deeply, Connor leaned his head cautiously around the corner to see with alarm that the creature had taken another step forward. And yet somehow, perhaps still shaken by Frank's ultimately defiant stand, it remained uncertain whether to attack. It lowered its head close to the floor, searching, studying even as it never took its eyes off Frank, who still stood in the center of the passage.
“Frank!” Connor hissed. “Come on!”
“It's going to charge when I move!” the scientist yelled.
“All right,” Connor said quietly. “When you come through this door, make a sharp right. Run as fast as you can and do not touch the steel walkway! Do you understand?”
Frank shifted his weight. “Yes.”
Connor looked at Chesterton. “You ready?”
“I've been ready.”
“All right, Frank!” Connor yelled. “Run!”
Almost immediately Frank rounded the portal but darkness was following fast with a terrifying roar and thunderous strides. Connor didn't even look back as Frank passed him and then he threw the cable out, the copper hitting the walkway with a spark to glow a split second before melding solidly to the metal. Then Connor was also running, three steps behind the scientist and he felt rather than saw the monstrosity that paused in the doorway, casually watching their frantic retreat.
Connor cast a wild glance back to see Leviathan's jaws three feet behind him, the dragon-head curiously stretched around the corner on a long, green-black neck no more than six feet above the cavern floor. And fear gave way to something else as Connor saw it eye to eye.
Leviathan stared into him—a scaly black visage with dark eyes glaring hatefully. Its snakelike head was led by a sharp black horn that rose from its nose like a rhinoceros. Its face was hideously wedged, a serpent's head, a demon's head with white-fanged jaws reaching back behind glowing eyes to unhinge deeply and more deeply.
Gaping.
Smoldering.
Laughing.
* * *
Chapter 19
Connor heard someone screaming.
Realized it was him.
He didn't take time to think about it.
Running full-out Connor rounded the far end of the steel paneling, so amazed that he wasn’t dead that he didn’t even feel the amazement. As he cleared the edge of the walkway he spun back to face the beast, staring at the gigantic bulk of the Dragon as it poised cautiously in the doorway of the cavern.
Amazingly, Leviathan had not moved, was watching their retreat with casual unconcern. It simply stared at them, not even bothering to charge. But Connor knew that, with its phenomenal speed, Leviathan was confident that it could close the gap between them in the blink of an eye.
They were easy prey.
The creature half-raised its head, staring at the soldiers on the other side of the chamber working with frantic shouts at the vault. They labored over the hydraulic pump to raise the door a few feet. Leviathan seemed to be contemplating which group to kill first.
Fairly flying across the chamber, Connor weaved a path between white stalagmites with a pattern that would have won him a first string place at halfback on any NFL team in America.
“Frank!” he shouted as he pulled alongside scientist. “What's it doing!”
“I-don’t-know-I’m-running!”
Connor cast a glance to the exit vault. It was raised two feet above the floor. It was enough. But the three of them were still over fifty yards from the portal, and maybe a hundred yards from Leviathan.
As they had almost reached the vault Connor and Frank spun together, staring back without any breath left within them. Then, somehow, Connor whispered, “What's that thing going to do if we try for the door?”
Without hesitation Frank replied. “It'll come after us really fast!” He took some quick breaths. “But it won't use flame because it's decided that there's not a trap! It's going to conserve the gel for an actual threat like another tank or something like that.”
Connor took another step back, eyes locked on the beast. Leviathan instantly shifted, head swinging monstrously toward him. The tail swept around, curling to the side, flicking. Then it growled and took a single, cautious step into the cavern.
Glancing down nervously, Connor saw that one of the Dragon's clawed hind feet was placed close beside the steel. “Get ready,” he whispered, taking a hard breath. “I don't know what's going to happen when it hits that thing. This might kill all of us.”