Page 41

Stryger moved quickly.

There was very little to see, and his ears weren't as good as Gilliam's... yet there HAD been warning before each container had come sailing out of the shadows. Even he had heard the soldier... the nannite approximation of a soldier... pick up each one before it had thrown it. The fact that each one was heavier than any three non-augmented humans could lift was apparently not part of the approximation, but that weight made moving one a noisy affair. 'Noisy' relative to the total silence with which Stryger moved.

Not that he expected anything else just yet. There were two targets; one was trapped and the second was moving away from the first. Stryger knew which target HE would go for. Now it was just a matter of timing.

He darted quietly across the open doorway to the hanger. An infinity of red nothingness yawned to his right. To his left, the slightly darker interior of the hangar held a maze of red shadows where anything could be hiding. He watched both with equal focus. Just because Gilliam was the most likely target didn't mean he was safe.

When he passed the far corner of the doorway, he kept going until he reached the wall opposite the airlock. He found the corner and worked his way further inside.... slowly.

A dark shape loomed to his left.

The single stack of containers became a row of identical stacks as he continued inward.

Another two steps... and the wall to his right abruptly ended. There was a 90-degree turn that hid the entrance to the loader control alcove. There was no door. He paused, then started up the short set of stairs. Each movement was carefully precise, and equally silent. He reached the top and stared out the window which should have provided him with a view of the hangar. All he saw as red.

He activated the machinery, wincing at the loud CLUNK of the switch. At least the audible buzz of the ancient electronics was covered by the low hum that vibrated down from the hangar's ceiling. There was a row of buttons by his left hand. He touched the first, and the 'window' in front of him glowed blue. A blueprint layout of the hangar superimposed itself onto the void. Walls, door, airlocks, and machinery were clearly indicated... but everything else remained empty red space.

He hit the next button. The tone of the hum from above changed, and shapes began to appear in the window display. Each cargo container was fitted with a location transmitter, and when Stryger turned them on, a bright blue light appeared on the side of each of the barrel-shapes in the room outside. Stryger couldn't see them, but each barrel showed on his screen as a cylindrical blue outline. The next three buttons activated the magnetic, vibration, and infrared sensors. Each collected its own data and added it to the display. The dust interfered with the magnetic, but they still managed to add something to the picture... which was now a detailed image of the hangar's interior.

Gilliam was identified as a heat source. The barrel pinning him to the floor was clearly visible. Stryger was looking at its representation on the screen, but he may as well have been looking across the room and seeing it with his own eyes. Likewise, the sensors had enough resolution to resolve the heatless vibration source moving toward Gilliam as a humanoid shape walking across the hangar floor.

Stryger moved both hands onto the loader controls and was about to use them...

...but then he had an idea.

He removed his hands from the controls and waited.