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in an upper level, near old admin offices.
He stilled himself as much as possible and listened carefully. There was
nothing. Sniffing the
air, Jak found it was stale. Every instinct told him the redoubt was empty.
But he still refused to take chances. Moving back into the maintenance
tunnels, he found an exit on the same level and cautiously emerged into the
body of the redoubt, his Colt Python ready to hand.
He was more relaxed by the time he had traveled from the service hatch to the
main redoubt door. There were no signs of life and no signs that the redoubt
had been occupied since predark times. He keyed in the sec code to open the
door and greeted the companions with a rare smile.
"All ours."
RYAN OPTED to wait a few days before they made a mat-trans jump. Rather than
keep traveling across open country for who knew how long, he figured that they
could take their chances with the random setting of the mat-trans, and find
out where it took them. But first he wanted them to rest. As the redoubt was
still well stocked and in good working order, it would be an opportunity to
rest and recuperate before taking their chances with fate once more.
Showering, changing and finding the dorms in good order,
they rested, leaving everything to the morrow.
And there was something left that had to be tackled soon. Sharona had been
distancing herself from the rest of the companions while they traveled with
the Pilatans, only really associating with Dean. If she was going to travel
with them, then it was important that this rift be healed. And if not&
But there would be time to deal with that the following day, the one-eyed man
thought as he lay awake, trying to figure out what the shocking return of
Dean's mother meant.
The next day brought no solutions. Ryan awakened to find the others had
already risen.
After showering, he walked to the kitchen where he found Mildred, Krysty, Doc
and Jak.
"Where are the others?" he asked as he prepared his breakfast from an array of
self-heats.
"John's gone to check out the armory," Mildred said with an indulgent
expression crossing her face. "You know what he's like."
Ryan returned the expression. "Yeah, he must've been worn out last night,
because he
didn't go straight to it." Then, after a pause, he added, "What about Dean and
Sharona?"
Krysty grimaced. "I don't know-anyone else?"
she queried, but was met with blank looks from
Mildred, Jak and Doc. "They were up before either of us, but where they are& "
Ryan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I suppose she can't be doing any harm."
Doc was bemused. "My dear boy, why would the woman want to do harm? She
thought she would perish and sent her son away. Then, when she recovered, he
was gone from her. Is it not natural that she should want to spend time with
the boy? And, vice versa, as it were? That is, that he should wish to spend
time with her," he added by way of explanation when he saw that the old
Latin term meant nothing to Krysty, Jak or Ryan.
"That's a fair enough point, but it's not so much the time& " Ryan began,
petering out with a shrug as he found he couldn't exactly explain what he
meant.
Krysty finished for him, "It's more a matter of her attitude about things."
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Mildred looked at Krysty closely. "You sure it's her that's the problem? I
mean, are you certain that you don't just feel a little put out because she's
suddenly appeared?"
Krysty frowned and looked at Mildred. The question could almost be insulting,
if not for the depth of expression in the black woman's brown eyes, eyes that
showed her understanding.
"Yeah, mebbe a little," Krysty admitted. "But
I've thought about that, and there's more."
"Get bad feeling," Jak chipped in, breaking his silence. "Pulling Dean away
from us. His choice, but not good when we fight or stand together."
"Exactly," Ryan agreed. "Before we leave here, we have to sort out what's
going on between us all. We have to pull in the same direction or else-"
"Or else all strength is dissipated," Doc said sadly. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]