'I don't know what the hell's been going on here,' Barnside said (sympathy, some kindness in his voice; she could recognize the presence of these things in the world). 'But he's gone. I'm telling you now. And we got work to do. It looks good in the farmhouse there. We need you.'
Kneeling on the desert floor, a dead man's blood drying on her face, full of pain, her vision a blur, Helen Wagner held up her right arm, rigid, fixed, the muscles taut like steel wire, and said, 'Help me up. I can't see yet.'
'Yeah,' he said.
She took his hand, then pulled herself to her feet, clinging briefly to his big frame. 'Wolfit's dead?'
'Oh yes.'
'Damn,' Helen Wagner said, and lumbered down the track.
CHAPTER 55
The Nevada Dome
'You can send your dome people in soon,' Collins said. 'We're pretty sure it's clear up there.'
'No.' Her eyes still hurt, but her vision was just about back to normal. 'I want you to check the exterior again. We were warned against these people. If they were smart enough to turn someone inside the Agency at Wolfit's level, they're smart enough to play other tricks too.'
'That's true,' Barnside said, and she couldn't escape the look in his eyes.
'Thanks, Dave. I forgot to say that.'
Barnside looked flattered. 'You don't need to thank me. It's my job. But I still don't get it. I just whacked one of your most senior guys in order to stop him whacking you. What was someone like Wolfit doing hooked up with these people? Didn't you guys have a clue what was going on there? Someone at a level like that?'
'I said thanks. Can we start moving now, please?'
'Agreed,' Collins intervened. Then barked into the radio.
'And I want to be there when they open the door. Tell them that.'
'Sure. I looked at the PCs. They all seem to be working. We could have done this for you. There's a generator out back, chock-full of gas, could run for another day or so.'
'Really.' She walked over to one of the computers, pushed the mouse, watched the screen come to life. 'And there's no one here?'
'No,' Collins replied. 'We've picked up some people on the road out. They look promising.'
'Charley?'
Collins shook his head.
'So where the hell is she?' Barnside grunted.
'Search me. She seems long gone. And the Katayama guy too.'
She pushed this to the back of her head. There was so much fighting for attention just then: Wolfit and the Children, Charley Pascal and Sundog. You couldn't fit it all in. You had to work on some priorities. She flipped open the videophone and placed it on the desk. The little LCD screen sparked, the speaker buzzed. Irwin Schulz looked back at her from the control room in La Finca, Lieberman by his side. Schulz seemed happy, confident. 'How you people doing?'
'We've got the base. We'll check the dome in a moment. It all looks good. Everything seems to be intact, not that I've got a link through to the dome yet. But there's nothing wrong with the network here. I can get you on-line to that soon enough.'
'That's great!' Schulz beamed.
'How's Charley?' Lieberman asked nervously.
'Gone.'
'Oh. In that case — '
'Not now, Michael. Let's take this one step at a time.'
She double-clicked the Net access icon on the screen. 'These people have got a fixed IP address, believe it or not. Can you come in on top of that?'
'You bet'
The screen cleared to show the home page of Gaia. She reeled off a string of numbers. 'Got it,' Schulz said.
After about ten seconds the image of the Gaia page disappeared from the monitor and was replaced by Schulz's face in a video window.
'You can see me?' he asked.
'Yes. Is that all you need?'
'Absolutely.' He turned to look at someone off screen. 'Mo? Can you take this over now? Helen?'
'Yes?'
'This will, to all intents and purposes, be our network in a minute or so. If you can re-establish the link with the dome, we can run it from here, straight through your connection.'
'You can't see the dome on the network either? I hoped it was just me.'
'No. But I can see the command application. Charley must have just ripped off ours down to the last byte. Which is interesting, since we didn't complete that until she was long gone from the project.'
'I may be able to fill you in on that later,' she said. 'But let me get this straight. All you need now is the physical link re-established to the dome?'
'Correct. From the aerial pictures we've seen, it must be through microwave dishes. If it's been deactivated, the likelihood is that you need to switch it back on physically, inside the dome itself.'
'Right?' She looked at John Collins. 'Your people up there are okay on this?'
He nodded. 'We can't find any reason not to go in. It all looks clean.'
She looked at her watch. 'Seventy minutes to zenith, Irwin. That give you time?'
'Oh yes. We're working on the program already. All we need is for you to throw the switch.'
She looked at Barnside. 'I'm going to the dome now. Contact Fogerty at Nellis. Tell him where we are. Tell him we were compromised in some way by Wolfit. He needs to assess that.'
'Done,' Barnside replied, and started to hit the numbers. She got up from the desk. Her leg hurt. She'd managed to wash some of the gore off her face but she still felt dirty, wounded, and soiled.
'We ought to check you over,' Collins said.
'Later.'
'Eglin. Hargrave,' Collins barked. Two of the HRT team nodded. 'You come with me and Miss Wagner up the ridge to the dome. We've had one scare tonight. I don't want any more. The Cobras are out looking for the Children. We don't have the lighting quite how I'd prefer it.'
'I don't think that's necessary,' she said.
'Well, I do. And security here is my job.'
She tried to smile. The man was like a rock. He walked to the door, held it open, and she was glad to be out of the place, out in the cold desert air, underneath the grey curtain, the stars winking. And somewhere out in space the planets queuing up for this celestial dance, standing in line with the high point of the sun.
'Damn,' Barnside said as she tripped over a rock, grazed her knee. He helped her to her feet, for the second time that night. 'I spoke to Fogerty. He's looking into it. You know, this would be a sight faster if these guys carried you. Or does your dignity preclude that?'
'To hell with dignity, mister,' she answered, and heard Belinda Churton's voice behind the words. Eglin and Hargrave came up on either side, strong arms reaching down, lifting her in a cradle movement. Collins shone a big bright flashlight beam up the path, and then the group began to trot up toward the great round spectre of the dome that stood against the night sky. The path levelled out at the top. The S&T team was outside the dome on a large, flat plateau, talking to the Bureau team. Her two carriers put her lightly down on the ground.
'Ouch,' she said softly. The leg was hurting more now. Collins was right. It needed looking at.
'Boss? You okay?' Jim Sellers, one of the S&T people, peered at her, concerned. 'Where's Larry?'
'Later,' she said. 'I'll be fine. The computer network is ours. We're all on course to get this thing done, Jim. We just need this end fixed. So let's get on with it, shall we?'
'We handle the entrance,' Collins said. 'No chances.'
She walked up to the dome with him. It was bigger than she expected. The Children had thrown a fifteen-foot-high skin around it so that, from the road, a passer-by might think it was some kind of water tower. But now that they were level with it the real shape was apparent. The geodesic rose above the fake panelling. It looked natural in the desert somehow, like a pattern on rock, or the skin of a lizard.