“Gianelli.”
“You wide awake?”
“Depend on it. Got my IR goggles on—they’re so damned heavy they’re giving me a headache. I couldn’t fall asleep if I wanted to.”
“Good.”
“Glad to hear you’re worrying about me, chief.”
Alec grinned to himself. “You just keep a sharp eye out, especially to our rear. I’m watching up front.”
“Right. I’ve been doing that. Nothing moving except a few more deer.”
“You’re sure they’re deer?”
Gianelli laughed softly. “Unless men bounce across the road on all fours.”
“All right.”
Alec was still driving when they topped a rise and the heat-radiating buildings of the Oak Ridge complex came into view on his scope. Almost automatically he slowed the truck to a gradual, gentle stop. Then he glanced at his wristwatch. The Sun will be up in another hour and a half.
For a moment he debated waking the sleeping men. Instead, he fished in the pouch at his belt for a stimulant capsule and swallowed it dry, with a hard gulp. Then he swung the overhead cockpit hatch open.
Climbing out into the breeze-murmuring night, he stood on the top deck of the truck and stretched his cramped arms and legs. Sleeping bodies sprawled everywhere, barely visible in the darkness. Another weird hooting sound floated out from the woods, sending a shiver along Alec’s spine.
Stepping over one of the dozing men, he reached the laser gun mount. “Gianelli?” he whispered.
“Yeah.”
“Take a nap. I’ll stand watch.”
Gianelli did not argue. Alec climbed into the gunner’s jumpseat and silently took the infrared goggles from his hand. The laser was humming softly, set on wide-beam scan, acting as a searchlight instead of a weapon.
The goggles were heavy. Alec had to make a conscious effort to keep his head erect as he slowly swung the gun mount around in a complete circle. The faint whine of the drive motors sounded almost comforting against the strange night noises from beyond the truck.
The trees appeared ghostly white in the goggles, the concrete buildings of the complex down in the valley below were a hotter shade of orange. The buildings were set out in an open area, with the closest trees many meters away. The land around the buildings looked dark, lifeless. Maybe some grass, but not much else.
As Alec swung the laser around slowly, scanning in a complete circle around the truck, he began to get the uncanny feeling that someone was watching him. At first it was nothing more than a vague uneasiness. But gradually the feeling grew, became a prickling along his spine, a cold fear pressing into the back of his neck.
Maybe I should wake a few of the men, he thought. Then he answered himself, No! You’re just nervous. Scared to be out here alone.
Clenching his teeth, he continued to turn the gun mount slowly, feeling colder every minute. Straight ahead was the road and down on the valley floor, the buildings. Turn and the trees came up, closer, closer, mysterious white branches reaching out toward you, grasping, lifting themselves up into the sky. Keep turning, the road again, the trail back to the airport, the shuttles, safety. Then the trees again, and finally the buildings.
What if he’s out there? Does he have IR detectors? Goggles? If he does, then we’re sitting here like a beacon, a big fat bright target.
Abruptly, Alec kicked on the foot pedals to reverse the mount’s rotation. The electric motors shrilled for an instant, the mount jerked, then swung in the opposite direction.
There! In the trees!
It was gone before he could be sure of what it was. Hot spots, several of them in among the trees. They vanished from his field of view just as the laser beam exposed them.
Animals, he told himself. But are animals sensitive to infrared illumination?
He glanced at his wristwatch. Still an hour before sunrise, but already the sky beyond the Oak Ridge buildings was beginning to pale. Could our sunrise times be wrong? Then, remembering the lingering beauty of the previous night’s sunset, and the briefings he had received from Dr. Lord on terrestrial atmospheric effects, Alec realized that the daylight actually started before the Sun itself appeared above the horizon.
For a tense fifteen minutes he continued to scan around the truck, moving the beam back and forth randomly, trying to avoid a predictable pattern. He saw nothing. Then it was light enough to snap off the laser and remove the heavy goggles.
A couple of men stirred as the light grew brighter. Alec didn’t know which made him feel better, the fact that he was no longer alone, or the end of the dark, threatening night.
They made their way toward the buildings in good order, Alec walking up front on the right point, Kobol taking the three-man rear guard position, the truck in the middle of the spread-out formation of armed, wary men.
The ground around the buildings was barren. Scrub grass straggled here and there in thin patches. Large stretches of ground immediately outside the buildings were bare, broken cement and blacktop. There were some areas of gravel, as well, Alec saw.
As they approached the buildings, Alec began to understand why Kobol had volunteered for the rear guard. He was the only man who had been here before, the only one who knew the area. Alec wanted to ask Kobol if the buildings looked the same, but to do that he would have to bring Kobol up to the point position with him. In front of the men, he would have to show that Kobol was the man who knew what’s what.
Screw that! Alec paced steadily toward the lifeless, gaping buildings, gripping his machine pistol in his right hand, feeling the welcome pressure of its strap riding firmly on his shoulder.
It was a longer walk than he had anticipated.
The morning was deathly quiet. No breeze. No bird songs reached them from the distant trees. The Sun was barely over the crest of the hills, yet already it was much hotter than the previous day had been. Does the heat come from the buildings? Alec wondered. Fears about radioactivity sifted through his thoughts. But he kept marching steadily, glancing back at his men and the trundling laser truck only occasionally.
When they reached the edge of the cement walkways that surrounded the buildings he called a halt. Faint dark streaks and strains mottled the walls.
“Stop the truck here, where it can cover the whole area. Form up in front of the truck.”
Kobol limped up to him, thin chest and underarms of his coveralls dark with sweat. He looked slightly foolish with the heavy helmet clamped bulbously over his head.
