There was absolute silence in the room except for the muttering of the generator. Even in the strobe light, Karen could see that Jack was stunned.
Give me that gun. He’s mine, and I don’t. want you doing anything to screw that up. Give it here. That’s a boy. Good.
Now ask him where she is, Jack. Ask him what really happened to your mother.
Sherman nodded slowlyhis gaunt face a study in defeat.
He told Jack where his mother was, and in what condition.
Jack just stared at him, openmouthed. Karen began to feel sick to her stomach. Train put his hands on her shoulders, and she flinched when she saw Galantz looking.
You two getting all this, are you? Because that’s why you’re here. When we’re done here, you’re going to be the only ones who know the whole story, once all those people outside do what they came to do. It’s going to be interesting, living with this knowledge. Life’s all about choices, isn’t it?
Well, I’m going to leave you two with some interesting choices. But we’re not done here yet. Not quite done yet.
Jack, step over there, against the wall, would you?
Jack looked up over the strobe light, a puzzled look on his face, and then straightened up when he saw the Colt pointed into his face. Sherman started to move forward, but he froze when the .45 swung his way.
You know what’scoming next, don’t you, Mr. High-and Mighty Admiral? I killed your woman, and I killed your best friend in the whole world. And I made your only son an accomplice, not that he resisted. Now you’ve surelyfigured out how this thing is going to end right?
“Don’t,” Sherman began.
“Hey, man,” Jack said, his voice uncertain. “What are we doing here? Do him! You said you would. You even said I could watch. You don’t want to do him, then I sure as hell do!”
Galantz laughed. Karen shuddered at the horrible sound coming through the electronic voice box.
Sherman had his hands up. “Don’t do this. Shoot me instead. But let him go.”
Ah. Choices again. What do you think of that, Jack? Him for you?
“You’re gonna shoot me?” Jack asked in a plaintive voice. “I thought-“
“Jack, listen to me,” Sherman said, the words tumbling out of his mouth.
“I know you think I’ve despised you all these years. That I despised your mother, too. That’s not true. I know I didn’t do this right. I was wrong. All those years, I was wrong. My career was all I thought about.
That was wrong.”
Jack just looked at him, his mouth working soundlessly.
Karen saw tears in Sherman’s eyes. Galantz was strangely silent, as if he was enjoying all this.
“That’s why I couldn’t marry Elizabeth Walsh, Jack. I’ve been going to see your mother every weekend in that hospice for many, many years.
Elizabeth never knew. I told her I had to work those weekends. She had no idea. The Navy never knew. Galen Schmidt didn’t even know. I’ve paid a price, too, son. Not like she has,’but I’ve paid.”
“Jack,” Karen spoke up. “Don’t you see it? This bastard never was your friend. He’s used you. He stumbled across you in recon school, and he realized he had the way to get back at your father. That’s been the plan all along, Jack: to use you and then kill you, too, to complete his revenge.”
But Jack wasn’t listening. He was staring at his father, his expression unreadable in the pulsing red light. Sherman was pleading with him.
“I don’t hate you, Jack. I … I love you, son. I forgive you for helping this … this thing to kill those people. I’m asking you to forgive me for the way I treated you and your mother. Please.”
Galantz stood up behind the light. So, Jackie boy. what’s it going to be?
Jack looked from Galantz to his father and then back again.
“You were gonna shoot me?”
That’s right, Jack. But now your father’s made a more interesting offer.
All along, I’ve wanted him to live with the knowledge that Id taken everything of value to him. But maybe I ought to let you decide, Jack You said you were ready to do him Are you, Jackie boy?
Karen, holding Train’s arm with her left hand, gripped it twice, trying to alert him that she was going to do something. Train was staring at Jack, but then he was looking sideways at her, trying not to attract Galantz’s attention. She felt with her thumb over the smooth plastic surface of the disrupter, searching for the big round button. She found it and pushed it once. She felt a tiny vibration, which stopped after two seconds. Then she moved her thumb over to the sharp, smaller button and began to extract the disrupter from her pocket.
C’mon, Jack We have an offer on the table. His life for yours. This is even better. You choose him he dies knowing you did it. Or you could choose yourseii,’Jack. Make him live with it. What do you think Jack?
Life been that good for you?
Karen tried very hard to move her arm without showing movement, but it took supreme concentration, and that damned pulsing light was driving her nuts. Jack kept looking at his father, then at Galantz. His hands moved.
Hey, Jackie, not thinking about making a move here, Jack? Did you forget something? I’ve got your gun, Jack.
Galantz held up both hands, Karen’s Colt in his right and Jack’s bulky automatic in the other hand. The red light glinted off the goggled mask he was wearing.
Karen had the disrupter just about out of her pocket as Galantz pointed the .45 over at Jack. Then she screamed and pulled hard on Train’s arm, spinning him around, away from the disrupter, which she raised and pointed right at Galantz’s face and his light-intensifying nightvision goggles.
NO-0-0-O! the voice box squalled, the guns starting to swing around, and then there was that terrible ripping blast of light. Karen closed her eyes at the last possible instant, and then Train was pulling Karen and himself flat onto the concrete as there came a barrage of gunfire, the blasts from Galantz’s two guns hammering against their brains in the confined space, the whine and howl of bullets smacking stone and . wood and concrete, and even the furnace. Karen tried to melt into the concrete floor with each blast, every shot punctuated by a high keening noise from the steps.
Then came a sudden silence, followed by the sound of the trapdoor opening and banging shut. She realized that the strobe light had stopped and that the room was in total darkness. She couldn’t hear anything after the intense hammering of the gunfire in the enclosed space.
Train rolled off her and they clutched each other on the concrete, coughing in all the smoke. They heard a moan from the direction of where Jack had been standing, and an ominous gurgling noise coming from where Sherman had been. As the strobe light died, Karen realized the generator had been hit, its smooth puttering sound replaced by a distinct knocking sound. She wanted to call out, but she was afraid to. Her ears hurt from all the gunfire.
Train was signaling her with his hands to move with him, away from where they had been when the strobe light had last been on. The smoke was very strong, but she realized it wasn’t gunsmoke. It was -something else.
Then they both found out precisely what: There was a bright orange glare accompanied by a whoomping noise from behind them as the generator burst into flames. But at least now they could see.
Sherman was down on the floor, both his hands to his head, and there was a shiny black pool of blood around his hands and head. Jack was slumped against the wall, his eyes open. He was holding his stomach and breathing through his moutfi’ There was a pool of blood expanding beneath his legs. Karen crawled first to Sherman, then turned to check Jack. Train ran for the steps and tested the trapdoor, but it was either blocked or locked.’He had to jump down off the steps because of the bank of dense oily smoke that was accumulating along the ceiling of the basement. The diesel-oil fire in the furnace was gathering strength.
“Karen, we’ve got to bust out of here somehow,” Train shouted. “See if you can shut the furnace door, stop the smoke, while I look for something to break through the trapdoor!
Karen, bending low to stay out of the choking band of smoke swirling across the ceiling, got as close as she could to the furnace door, but the fuel fire inside was getting very hot. The generator’s carry handle blocked the furnace door, and the fire was making a roaring noise now as it sucked the oxygen out of the basement.
“I can’t get near it,” she called. “The door’s blocked.”
