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in Domi's eyes guttered out. In a remarkably gentle, almost affectionate tone,
he said, "You couldn't hurt a hair on my head," and he lightly pushed the
barrel of the pistol away with a forefinger.
Placing both big hands on her shoulders, he told her quietly, "I have my
reasons for asking you to go back to Cerberus. Please accept them."
Domi titled her head back, unshed tears glimmering in her eyes. "Can take care
of myself. Always have."
Under stress she reverted to her abbreviated mode of outlander speech.
"I know that," Grant replied. "My reasons have nothing to do with whether you
can or can't take care of yourself. Please do this one thing for me without an
argument."
Domi's shoulder's sagged and she bowed her head in resignation. Her whispered
"Okay" was barely audible.
Grant turned away from her. Both Kane and DeFore released their pent-up
breaths in noisy exhalations of relief. They and Domi followed him through the
doorway to where the gateway chamber stood.
The mat-trans unit, like most of the others they had seen, was a six-sided
chamber whose floor and ceiling consisted of an interlocking pattern of raised
metal disks. Although all of them were superficially familiar with the
fundamental working principles behind the matter transmitters, they sometimes
still seemed like magic.
Kane understood, in theory, that the mat-trans units required a dizzying
number of maddeningly intricate electronic procedures, all occurring within
milliseconds of one another, to minimize the margins for error.
The actual conversion process was automated for this reason, sequenced by an
array of computers and microprocessors. Sometimes he wondered if Lakesh,
despite his former position as Project Cerberus overseer, knew as much as he
claimed about the devices.
As one of the major components of the Totality Concept's Overproject Whisper,
the quantum inter-
phase mat-trans inducers opened a rift in the hyper-dimensional quantum
stream, a wormhole between a relativistic here and there. That much of the
theory and concept Kane understood, even though it seemed fiendishly
complicated. He knew the pathways always had to lead to an active destination
gateway, whether it was across the country or on the other side of the world.
If a destination lock was
not achieved, or a transit line not opened, then jumpers could conceivably
materialize at completely random points in linear space or worse, endlessly
speed through Cerberus's global mat-trans network, going for eternity
absolutely nowhere, with no chance of reconstitution.
Although he accepted at face value that the machines worked, he had never
grown accustomed to the concept that minds that created such stupendously
complicated devices could not have found a way to prevent the nukecaust.
Kane pointed to the electronic keypad at the side of the jump chamber's door.
The LCD glowed with a string of numerals. In a low voice, he asked DeFore,
"You remember the two-digit encrypted ID you'll have to enter after you
program the Cerberus destination code, right? If not, you won't be going
anywhere."
The extra pair of numbers was a security precaution concocted by Lakesh and
his apprentice, Bry, to make doubly certain no one could jump unannounced into
the Cerberus redoubt.
DeFore did her best to hide her nervousness when she nodded. "I remember."
Kane stepped into the chamber and waited for Grant to join him. With a wry
smile, Domi lifted her right index finger to her nose and snapped it away in
the sharp "one percent" salute. It was a gesture Kane and Grant had developed
during their Mag days, symbolizing undertakings with very small ratios of
success. Domi had seen the two men exchange the salute often enough to imitate
it perfectly.
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Grant returned the salute gravely. He started to step into the chamber, but
Domi latched on to his arm and threw her arms around him. She stood on her
tiptoes, pulled his head down and kissed him with a fierce possessiveness. She
released him and stepped back.
By the metal handle affixed to the armaglass, Grant sealed the door. The lock
clicked, circuitry engaged and the automatic transit process began. He leaned
against the wall, pushing his Sin Eater back into its holster. Kane followed
suit. Inasmuch as the Sin Eaters were not equipped with safety switches, a
reflexive jerk of the finger while reviving from the transit process could
result in fatal consequences for the rest of the jump team.
As the hexagonal disks above and below them exuded a silvery glow, Kane
wondered briefly if Domi had any idea why Grant was so violently opposed to
her accompanying them on the jump. He decided it really didn't matter.
Plasma wave forms resembling white, early-morning mist began wafting from the
emitter array above and below. Kane closed his eyes, waiting to be swept up in
the nanosecond of nonexistence.
Chapter 12
Kane came to wakefulness with a faint electronic hum in his ears. He blinked,
and the world swam mistily back into reality. He swayed on unsteady legs, a
bit surprised to see he had ended the mat-trans jump in the same standing
posture in which he had begun it.
Usually, no matter how jumpers arranged themselves before a transit, they
arrived at their destinations flat on their backs. This time he remained
upright, but he faced away from the door, staring at the
smoke-gray armaglass. He felt remarkably clearheaded, a small bonus for which
he breathed a sigh of relief. Sometimes, even the cleanest of jumps had
debilitating effects.
Grant, however, lay on the hexagonal floor plates, his prone body wreathed by
fading wisps of vapor, a byproduct of what Lakesh referred to as the '
'quincunx effect."
With a snorting exhalation of breath, Grant pushed himself into a sitting
position, staring around anxiously. He climbed to his feet, stumbling slightly
from a brief surge of vertigo. "Not too bad," he commented. "How do you feel?"
"No jump sickness, if that's what you mean."
"I could see that," Grant said impatiently. "For one thing, we're not puking
our guts out. For another, I
knew we weren't jumping to a Russian unit."
Kane repressed a smile. Grant always held up their jump to Russia as the
standard for bad transits. The
Cerberus gateway link had been unable to establish a link with the Russian
unit's autosequence initiators.
The matter-stream carrier-wave modulations couldn't be synchronized, which
resulted in a severe bout of jump sickness, symptoms of which included
vomiting, excruciating head pain, weakness and hallucinations.
Grant grasped the door handle. His Sin Eater popped into his waiting palm.
Kane unleathered his own side arm. "You ready?" Grant asked.
Kane only nodded, dropping into a crouch.
Heaving up on the handle, Grant shouldered the door open. The heavy armaglass [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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