"Scott! Can you hear me? I"m standing right above you. Outside. On the surface. Are you picking me up?"
He waited, holding his gun against his side, the transmitter tightly to his ear. Time pa.s.sed. He strained to hear, but there was only silence. Silence, and faint static.
Then, distantly, metallically--
"This is Scott."
The voice was neutral. Cold. He could not identify it. But the earphone was minute.
"Scott! Listen. I"m standing right above you. I"m on the surface, looking down into the bunker entrance."
"Yes."
"Can you see me?"
"Yes."
"Through the view sight? You have the sight trained on me?"
"Yes."
Hendricks pondered. A circle of claws waited quietly around him, gray-metal bodies on all sides of him. "Is everything all right in the bunker? Nothing unusual has happened?"
"Everything is all right."
"Will you come up to the surface? I want to see you for a moment."
Hendricks took a deep breath. "Come up here with me. I want to talk to you."
"Come down."
"I"m giving you an order."
Silence.
"Are you coming?" Hendricks listened. There was no response. "I order you to come to the surface."
"Come down."
Hendricks set his jaw. "Let me talk to Leone."
There was a long pause. He listened to the static. Then a voice came, hard, thin, metallic. The same as the other. "This is Leone."
"Hendricks. I"m on the surface. At the bunker entrance. I want one of you to come up here."
"Come down."
"Why come down? I"m giving you an order!"
Silence. Hendricks lowered the transmitter. He looked carefully around him. The entrance was just ahead. Almost at his feet. He lowered the antenna and fastened the transmitter to his belt. Carefully, he gripped his gun with both hands. He moved forward, a step at a time.
If they could see him they knew he was starting toward the entrance.
He closed his eyes a moment.
Then he put his foot on the first step that led downward.
Two Davids came up at him, their faces identical and expressionless.
He blasted them into particles. More came rushing silently up, a whole pack of them. All exactly the same.
Hendricks turned and raced back, away from the bunker, back toward the rise.
At the top of the rise Ta.s.so and Klaus were firing down. The small claws were already streaking up toward them, shining metal spheres going fast, racing frantically through the ash. But he had no time to think about that. He knelt down, aiming at the bunker entrance, gun against his cheek. The Davids were coming out in groups, clutching their teddy bears, their thin k.n.o.bby legs pumping as they ran up the steps to the surface. Hendricks fired into the main body of them. They burst apart, wheels and springs flying in all directions. He fired again through the mist of particles.
A giant lumbering figure rose up in the bunker entrance, tall and swaying. Hendricks paused, amazed. A man, a soldier. With one leg, supporting himself with a crutch.
"Major!" Ta.s.so"s voice came. More firing. The huge figure moved forward, Davids swarming around it. Hendricks broke out of his freeze.
The First Variety. The Wounded Soldier.
He aimed and fired. The soldier burst into bits, parts and relays flying. Now many Davids were out on the flat ground, away from the bunker. He fired again and again, moving slowly back, half-crouching and aiming.
From the rise, Klaus fired down. The side of the rise was alive with claws making their way up. Hendricks retreated toward the rise, running and crouching. Ta.s.so had left Klaus and was circling slowly to the right, moving away from the rise.
A David slipped up toward him, its small white face expressionless, brown hair hanging down in its eyes. It bent over suddenly, opening its arms. Its teddy bear hurtled down and leaped across the ground, bounding toward him. Hendricks fired. The bear and the David both dissolved. He grinned, blinking. It was like a dream.
"Up here!" Ta.s.so"s voice. Hendricks made his way toward her. She was over by some columns of concrete, walls of a ruined building. She was firing past him, with the hand pistol Klaus had given her.
"Thanks." He joined her, grasping for breath. She pulled him back, behind the concrete, fumbling at her belt.
"Close your eyes!" She unfastened a globe from her waist. Rapidly, she unscrewed the cap, locking it into place. "Close your eyes and get down."
She threw the bomb. It sailed in an arc, an expert, rolling and bouncing to the entrance of the bunker. Two Wounded Soldiers stood uncertainly by the brick pile. More Davids poured from behind them, out onto the plain. One of the Wounded Soldiers moved toward the bomb, stooping awkwardly down to pick it up.
The bomb went off. The concussion whirled Hendricks around, throwing him on his face. A hot wind rolled over him. Dimly he saw Ta.s.so standing behind the columns, firing slowly and methodically at the Davids coming out of the raging clouds of white fire.
Back along the rise Klaus struggled with a ring of claws circling around him. He retreated, blasting at them and moving back, trying to break through the ring.
Hendricks struggled to his feet. His head ached. He could hardly see.
Everything was licking at him, raging and whirling. His right arm would not move.
Ta.s.so pulled back toward him. "Come on. Let"s go."
"Klaus--He"s still up there."
"Come on!" Ta.s.so dragged Hendricks back, away from the columns.
Hendricks shook his head, trying to clear it. Ta.s.so led him rapidly away, her eyes intense and bright, watching for claws that had escaped the blast.
One David came out of the rolling clouds of flame. Ta.s.so blasted it.