Lost Gates (26 page)

But the physician had a task of her own to finish before she was ready to go. Unarmed in the midst of the chaos, she had taken cover, and had been able to observe what was going on in a way that none of the others could. J.B. and Krysty had wiped out most of the sec men, and were laying down a covering fire that was keeping the remainder outside the control room. Inside, there was no opposition left other than the baron, who was so dazed that even though he waved his blaster around, it was aimless and posed little danger. Ryan was about to join Jak and Doc in the mat-trans.

So she had to make sure that none of the remaining sec men, or the Baron, could follow. Once they were inside the unit, a random jump would occur. Her task was to make sure that this destination couldn’t be followed. She dropped to her knees and crawled to where one of the fallen sec men had dropped his blaster. She took it and turned, tapping a volley that took out the computers in a shower of sparks. The baron was caught by some of them, turning and letting fly a shot that flew high and wide before he fell backward.

She didn’t wait to see where he landed. Before Crabbe had even hit the floor, she was already in the mat-trans with Jak, Doc and Ryan.

“Come on, dammit,” she yelled at Krysty and J.B., aware that the gas was starting to permeate every part of the control room.

The Armorer gestured to Krysty to fall back as he kept up the cover fire. The Titian-haired beauty dived into the mat-trans unit.

“Last destination,” she gasped. “Safe—chilled them all.”

There was no time to ask for further explanations. They knew they could trust that they would be going to an empty haven, no matter what desolation they may face.

J.B. backed into the mat-trans with a slowness that was almost infuriating, but the Armorer was thorough. That was how he had kept himself alive for so long. There was no way he would let any of the remaining sec men get into the control room and have the remotest chance of offing any of them with a stray shot.

“Let’s go,” he barked when he was in, only the barrel of the mini-Uzi protruding into the anteroom beyond. He whipped it back in, and Krysty slammed shut the door with a pained sigh of sheer relief.

As the mat-trans door closed, Ryan could see the baron. Crabbe was floundering around the room, crazed with the loss of his dream.

Ryan closed his eye, but the image of the baron as a defeated man, flailing aimlessly in a broken world, was seared into his retina. He opened his eye again, and
took in his own people as they slumped on the floor of the mat-trans unit, battered but unbroken.

Another fight for survival had been fought and won. Through grit and determination the companions had again missed the last train west. But when all was said and done, Ryan knew that death was merely a heartbeat away for all of them. Like it had been for Althea, Dean’s woman.

Life was a fragile thing in the Deathlands, snuffed out in the blink of an eye by friend or foe. Now that the friends were free to move on, free to relax as much as they could in this blighted land, Ryan’s thoughts would turn to his son, now a strapping young buck with a chip on his shoulder, and a deep anger focused unerringly at his father….

The mist began to rise around them as they left the world of Baron Crabbe and his dreams of empire behind them, moving on to who knew what, other than another chance to stay alive.

And free.