Eric screamed in pain. He was dimly aware of a stunner humming and the dinosaur screeching in disorientation as it turned tail to run. He needed water! He pulled the cap off his canteen, let the fresh, clean water spill into his burning right eye. The pain only began to subside when Temerin assisted him with a numbing spray.
“What was that thing?” he stood back up, still rubbing his eye. It would get inflamed, already he had trouble seeing out it. Great, just great, for this to happen right when they lost contact with Agent Vela and their ride off this rock.
“Dilophosaurus crichtonis.” Rachel consulted her scanpad. “A chimera, not an authentic neogenetic dinosaur. This place is probably crawling with them; I think we can scratch it off the list of potential outpost locations.”
“Still, we ought to take a look around,” Selva said. “We get lucky; we might find some system with access to the replicator ships in orbit. Maybe even a way to shut them down.”
Temerin replied, “Sounds like a plan. Anyone seen Two-Tooth.”
“He may’ve gone back to the shore,” Kadelius offered.
Sir Wotoc looked to his squires. “Search for him.”
“Cobb, go with them,” Temerin added, and tossed three pairs of goggles from his backpack. “You may want these. Now what?”
“We should search the complex. This place is a ruin; I doubt we’d find much still active in here. The power source would be a good start, if we can find it.”
They headed back outside, down the cracked steps. Eric looked around, worried another Dilophosaurus might jump out. Sure enough, another peeked from behind a freight container.
“Seen one of those before?” Temerin asked Wotoc.
“No, never even heard of such a beast,” the man-of-honor replied.
“They must be confined to this island, then.” Rachel kept her scanpad out, trying to detect more. “Maybe this was where the Keepers grew their first dinosaurs. It’d make sense, those paddocks seem big enough for a T. rex or a sauropod.”
“My suspicion as well, satellite images showed a large barge wreck off the coast,” added Selva, then she pointed out a thin black pole with silver bands around the very top. “That’s an infrasound emitter. The Dilophosauruses must not set it off, or at least aren’t bothered by it.”
Eric resisted the temptation to draw his laser pistol and blast the infernal thing.
“Over here!” Wotoc called. “You said the Keepers may have built things underground, yes?”
“That’s right,” Temerin said as they approached a flight of stairs beside a weathered metal wall, descending down into the ground.
“Behold!” a door at the bottom sat partway open.
“We may be able to follow the power cables, find the source.” Selva began to descend.
“Please, my lady.” Wotoc put a hand to her shoulder, stepped down ahead. “I insist.”
“Very well.” She passed him a flashlight, he took it and drew his sword.
Inside were tunnels, fading into darkness as they left the door behind. It was hard for Eric to see anything with Wotoc’s humongous frame in the way, but overhead were flat-panel light fixtures, all dead or off, with conduits for electrical and optical cables. Drops fell in places but there was no standing water, Eric guessed these tunnels were built firmly above the island’s water table.
“We must be heading under a hill,” he said, as they reached a rise. They came to a four-way junction, one branch of which terminated in a metal door with gaskets around it. Stenciled across it were the Americ words Master Junction.
“This looks promising.” Selva examined a dead access panel, then found a handle and pulled. With a hiss, the door swung open and white light poured out.
Eric was first in. The room inside was a geodesic dome some fifty feet across and tall, lighting patches embedded in its triangular panels glowing pure white. The floor and fixtures, also clinical white, were immaculate.
“Incredible.” Selva switched off her flashlight and looked around. “Perfectly preserved.”
Parts of the dome-walls were taken up by screens, some off and black while others still displayed windows and data. One showed a schematic of the island with outlines for various areas flashing red. Dinosaur paddocks, with their electric fences down? Arranged in a circle at center were black-topped computer consoles, with tilted surfaces. Selva went over to one and touched it. Switching on, it lit up and displayed a collection of windows and menus.
“A looking glass!” Kadelius exclaimed. “Like in the old tales! I saw one once, like those you carry, only it didn’t work.”
“Yes, this was the dinosaur-engineering site.” Selva’s fingers tapped the screen. “Or one of them, at least, there are records of shipments off the island by barge, vacuum airship, and volor.”
“What about the replicator ships?” Temerin asked. “Any way to hack into those?”
“If there is, it won’t be that simple. This facility is connected to a network, apparently spanning all of the Keepers’ significant sites on Meridian’s surface.”
“And that’s been there all this time, still operational?” Eric asked. “Wouldn’t the Patrol have detected it?”
“Maybe the Keepers used robots to lay cables.” She frowned, checked another window, then tapped a refresh symbol. “I’ve...found something.”
Temerin asked, “What is it?”
“I think it’ll be easier to show you.”
She tapped again, and two holographic screens, tall and rectangular, appeared floating above the consoles. Kadelius yelped and jumped back. Loading indicators on each spun, then videos of people appeared.
The one at left, Eric instantly realized, was the Red-Masked Man who’d led the Savage Hunters of the Outlands against them, then held a sword to his throat. At right, apparently conversing with him, was a bulky man in white robes, a wreath on his head.
“That’s him!” Wotoc shouted. “The tyrant Caesar himself!” His hand went for his sword.
“It’s just a hologram!” Selva seized his wrist.
The two men kept talking in strange words, apparently unaware of any intrusion. Dulane was tall, almost as tall as Sir Wotoc, and had short black hair.
“Can they see us?” Eric asked.
“No, the permissions on this computer gave me access to open the feed,” replied Selva. “It is live, occurring between two remote sites.”
“What are they saying?” Temerin asked. It wasn’t a language the expedition had learned, Eric supposed it might be a minority one from the Arztillan Empire, or the Savage Hunters’ native speech.
“Unknown.” Selva took out her scanpad, paused a moment. “But I believe they are talking about us—Dulane used a word similar to the Arztillan one for ‘starmen’.”
The Red-Masked Man had his plague-doctor mask off, revealing a dirty round face with tattoos. His background looked like another geodesic dome, much dirtier and with most of the lights out. The Savage Hunters’ Outlands base, in a Keeper ruin? Dulane’s surroundings seemed harder to discern, all Eric saw was a limestone-brick wall.
Selva continued, “He’s saying the ‘sky shield’ will protect them while they complete their ‘plan’.”
“What plan?” Temerin asked.
“We’ll have to see if he explains.” She stepped away to check another screen.
Kadelius stepped up to the console, contemplated it, then apparently on reflex, reached out at a blue button with a plus sign on it.
“No, don’t!” Eric raised a hand. Kadelius pushed it, and the console chimed.
The two holograms slid apart and a third appeared between, loading indicator spinning. Its feed started, showing the expedition standing surprised in their geodesic dome. Caesar Dulane and the Red-Masked Man paused, eyebrows lifted.
