第3节

r faced up to Deke, his eyes studying the flyer on the adjacent

screen. 'Looks like he's heading right for us."

'Has been since I first picked him up,' replied Deke.

'You reckon he's from some renegade outfit?"

'Don't know where else he could be from. What I can't figure out is

why he would be calling on us."

'Maybe he's lost his way." The duty officer gave a harsh laugh.

'Never mind. Once he's down he'll find it's only a short walk to the

wall. Do you have an ETA?"

'Yeah. If he keeps coming he'll be overhead in about eight to ten

minutes."

Harmer turned away and spoke rapidly to someone off-screen. 'Jake?!

We've got a single hostile intercept.

Unidentified - but could be a cee-bee - coming in from the

north-west.

By air. Don't ask how, just listen! I want Units Three and Four

suited up and on the ramp in five minutes. Stand by to take Three out

on the South Side.

I'll take the North Side with Four. Okay, go for it."

Harmer pivoted on his heel, threw his right hand towards a control

panel adjacent to the visicomm screen and hit the button triggering a

Level Four alert - the next-to-lowest state of readiness.

In the watch-tower, a klaxon mounted on the wall facing Deke emitted a

series of long bleeps. Since, as the Duty VidComm Tech, he was already

seated at his post no further response on his part was required, but

elsewhere, as the alarm sounded throughout the way-station, specific

groups of Trackers stopped whatever they were doing and ran along

subterranean passageways to man the gun positions around the perimeter

of the way-station and other key points within it.

Harmer faced up to Deke Haywood's screen image.

'Anything else to tell me?"

'Only that maybe you should try and bring him down in one piece,'

suggested Deke. 'Grand Central will want to know whether he's a

one-off loonie or whether those bad hats have gotten themselves an air

force. Hard data like that could put the station in line for a

commendation."

'My thoughts exactly,' said Harmer. 'Gimme a voice hook-up on Channel

Five and put Mary-Ann in the picture. I'll get back to you when I've

loosened a few teeth. Meanwhile, don't lose him."

'Wilco,' replied Deke.

To 'loosen a few teeth' was Trail-Blazer jargon for an overground

sortie; a macabre reference to one of the nastier phases of radiation

sickness in which the gums became swollen and ulcerous and bled

continuously.

Mary-Ann was the unit's nickname for Colonel Marie Anderssen, the

thirty-five-year-old way-station, commander.

Built overlooking the Arkansas River near the pre-Holocaust site of

Pueblo, the way-station under Anderssen's control was the most

northerly of the Federation's overground bases; the subterranean home

of a one thousand-strong pioneer battalion made up of men and women in

almost equal numbers, aged twelve and upwards. In its overall physical

shape, it resembled a concrete iceberg: one-tenth of it was visible

above ground, the other nine-tenths was buried safely within the

earthshield. The exposed section consisted of a stepped, eight-sided

bunker with each of the three layers overhanging the one beneath like

an inverted ziggurat.

Weapon ports set in short but massive reinforcing spurs at each corner

allowed all exits and entrances to be covered with enfilading fire.

Dotted around the bunker at a distance of one hundred yards was a ring

of turrets set at ground level like a mini-Maginot line - with one

important difference: the guns in this defensive line had a three

hundred and sixty degree field of fire. Now that Harmer had sounded

the alert, these turrets - which looked a bit like those of

20th-century tanks buried hull-down - were occupied by four-man gun

crews.

.. Rising from the roof of the bunker was the circular watch-tower.

Eighty feet high and thirty feet in diameter, it looked like an