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Fortune loved me this time; slow as the door was, the nightmare was just
that much slower. The door shut, and the frustrated pig-thing beat on the
heavy metal and howled its rage and hunger.
 And still I hadn't seen even one of the things in the light.
Knees weak, I followed a trail of three marks and three arrows to the
next door--which wanted the yellow card, surprisingly enough. This door led
to a lift that wasn't working, naturally; but the open shaft had guide
cables along the sides, and that was good enough for the human Fly. I slid
down almost fifty meters before finding another open lift door.
I swung through the hatch and saw the level-schematic on the wall;
Welcome to Phobos Laboratories.
Five minutes in the Phobos lab convinced me that Command Control hadn't
been all that bad. It didn't escape me that every time I went to a new
center, it was a level farther down than the previous one. Living condi-
tions were not improving, not by a long shot. However, none of that really
mattered. If Arlene had come this way, then so would I. I had to find her; I
had to find any other human survivors.
All of this made a lot of sense to me intellectually. Emotionally, I
was willing to jettison honor, duty, and loyalty and run like a thief as I
contemplated my first real swim in the toxic goo. Semper fi, Mac.
I'd talked myself into wading through the toxin way up above, and the
protective boots that were part of the armor sizzled like bacon on the
griddle. But the material was plenty thick, and the corrosive liquid hadn't
reached my tender flesh yet. And like last time, there was no way around the
horrible stuff.
Got to be some way to avoid full body immersion, I thought. But without
a heavy-duty flashlight that I didn't have and wouldn't dare show if I did,
damned if I could find it.
Arlene's arrow pointed across the pool. Grudgingly, I had to admit
there was no way to proceed without a little swim.
I was damned glad for the edge that blue face-sphere had given me when
it exploded all over me, making me feel healthier than I have in years. If
ever I needed that edge, it was now.
I took a deep breath. Then I took a few more. Man, I did not want to do
this! But it was the only way to get past a wall that blocked me from going
any farther along the trail Arlene blazed; I had to go under the damned
thing. Thinking of how much I hated monsters from beyond the stars, I
splashed down.
Only one advantage over before: this time, I was prepared for the
freezing pain, so it wasn't quite as unexpectedly horrible. Just a throbbing
ache that sapped my strength, leaving me enervated and gasping for breath.
One way or the other, the swim wasn't going to last very long. The toxin
glowed with an eerie, green phosphorescence, and the light helped a little.
It showed me a metallic object that I would have missed otherwise.
I snagged it in passing, a small, hand-sized television thing, showing
a ghostly schematic.
If I struggled, I could pretend the liquid was nothing but an
algae-infested swimming hole I'd haunted as a kid. Yes, I wanted to think
about water instead of the thick, toxic crap I was in right now.
The wall did not extend all the way to the bottom of the pool. I
pinched my nose, squeezed my eyelids tight, and ducked underneath. I was
starting to tremble in the icy liquid; I felt sick, like a monster flu.
Then I surfaced as fast as the law of buoyancy allows, grabbing the
opposite catwalk, and the swim was over. Air never tasted better, even the
stinking stuff in this place. Two or three breaths later, I put the
breathing filter back in place. Too bad I hadn't had a full environment suit
with its own oxygen supply, but I'd already regretted that absence before
and nothing came of it. A Marine couldn't have everything.
For example, I couldn't keep the blue glow forever. I had taken it for
granted until I realized what this swim could mean. Now I felt sapped and
drained. I was all set to curse my lousy luck until I realized something
very important: without that earlier boost to my system, this dunk in the
sludge would have killed me.
So what about Arlene? Could she have come this way? Could I have passed
her body in the green murk? Had to think this through--there was no arrow
immediately beyond the toxin; maybe she found a better route. She might have
a decent flashlight or light-amp goggles so she could see. Or she might have
had a full environment suit.
Or what the hell, maybe she had a touch of the blue medicine show.
There were all kinds of ways she could have survived.
But maybe she didn't. I refused to think about it.
It was time to move on.
12
I was back to trusting the old Fly instincts again. There were plenty
of more unreliable things, such as any decision by Lieutenant Weems. Hadn't
thought of Weems for a while. My lip curled; Weems was probably the first
zombie; reworking him would take the least amount of effort.
I felt something in my hand. I stared--the thing I'd fished out of the
sludge! I held it up close, staring in confusion. Then it clicked--it was a
map, a video schematic of the labs. Jesus and Mary ... I guess even the
greenest cloud can have a silver-screen lining.
I decided to follow the same road map I'd been on for several levels
now: down, down, down ... no reason to stop. I might as well see what was at
the very bottom level--which, according to the map I'd seen in the nuclear
plant, was the main computer station, two floors down. But in the absence of
Arlene marks, I'd have to plan the route myself. . . just as soon as I could
make tops and bottoms out of my new toy.
I suddenly felt a wave of weakness and fever; I hoped I hadn't already
given myself a death sentence from the toxin.
Phobos Lab was dark. Phobos Lab stank like an open sewer. But if there
was anything left of the original installation here, then medical supplies [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]