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of
Doug's head, but it didn't exit from the front. The blaster bucked, the
unexpected blowback nearly snatching it from his fingers. The force of the
shot slammed the man's upper body forward, face hitting the floor between his
knees. Metal gleamed in the mixture of clotted brain matter, synthetic flesh
and blood.
Letting out his breath, Ryan knelt with difficulty, quickly examining the
body. Though partially deflected by the metal plate in his skull, the bullet
had still done enough damage to chill him. As it was, he doubted that anything
less than a point-blank shot would have accomplished the job. He found his
sheathed panga on Doug's belt, and after pulling it free, he took the man's ID
badge from his lapel and unsteadily climbed to his feet.
After attaching the badge to his coat, Ryan drew the headset from his inner
pocket and put it on. When he seated the earpiece Mildred's voice said.
" won't you respond?"
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"That's what I'm doing, Mildred."
"Ryan?" Her voice was filled with elation, but there was a throbbing roar in
the background, and it sounded as if she were shouting.
"Yeah, it's me. Are you all right?"
"You have to speak up."
Raising his voice, Ryan asked again, "Are you all right?"
"More or less. You?"
"The same."
"What?"
Impatiently Ryan asked loudly, "Where the hell are you?"
"I don't know exactly, but I've found the primary cooling and circulation
nexus. Where are you?"
"On the level where we split up. I've got Doug's ID badge and you can find me
by the locater lozenge."
Voice troubled, Mildred replied, "I don't think there's a computer tie-in down
here. I'll have to go up, get my hands on a badge so I can access it. Listen,
I can take out a generator down here, probably start a thaw. At the very least
it'll be a diversion."
"Do it," Ryan said. "On the level directly above me is some sort of a control
room, with a mat-trans gateway. That'll be our escape route. I'll wait for you
up there."
"What about J.B. and the others?"
"I don't know. There's a vid circuit upstairs connected to the cave, but when
I checked it out a little while ago, there was no sign of them."
Mildred's response was so long in coming that Ryan almost called her name.
Then her
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unsteady.
"If they're not there, what are we going to do?"
"We'll think about that later. First we have to get out of here. Blow the
generators."
"When?"
"As soon as you can. I won't make my move until you've made yours. I'm sure
all sorts of alarms, bells and whistles will go off, and that'll be my signal.
Acknowledged?"
"Acknowledged. You know something?"
"What?"
"We need to put more thought into planning our field trips."
"Understood. Standby."
He waited until he was sure she'd signed off before allowing himself the
luxury of a groan. Ryan sat back to wait, trying to massage the soreness from
his wrists and knee.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Turning toward Uni, Mildred shouted, "You have to go back. It's not safe in
here."
Uni narrowed its big eyes. "Why not? I've been here plenty of times."
Waving toward the row of generators below, she answered, "I'm going to blow
those up.
There's no telling what will happen."
Staring first at the generators and then at Mildred, Uni asked, "I don't
understand."
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"You don't have to. Just get back below. I think you'll be okay. I'll give you
a minute to get started."
The red disk shaped eyes moved from her face to the generators, then back to
her face.
"What about my new brain?"
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