He quickly and silently swung the door open as Book II and Mother slipped inside, an M-16 and a P-90 pressed against their respective shoulders.
No fire was necessary.
Aside from the bodies on the floor — from their previous encounter with the 7th Squadron here — the decompression area was empty.
Juliet and the President went in next, stepping over the bodies. Schofield followed, with Love Machine draped over his shoulder.
A couple of computer terminals sat sunk into the wall on their right, partially hidden behind the telephone- booth-sized test chambers.
'Dr. Franklin, pick a terminal,' Schofield said. 'Brainiac, go with him. Find out what we have to do to get out of this rat maze. Book, take Love Machine. Mother, check the lab next door for a first-aid kit.'
Mother headed for the doorway leading to the other side of the floor.
Book II lowered the grimacing Love Machine to the ground, then made to shut the door behind them.
'What the hell…?' he said as he looked at the door.
Schofield came over. 'What is it?'
'Look at the lock.'
Schofield did so, and his eyes narrowed.
The door's bolt mechanism — the thick rectangular part of the lock that extended out from the door and secured itself inside a matching slot in the doorframe — had been sheared off.
Cleanly.
Perfectly.
Indeed, the cut was so clean that it could only have been done by some sort of laser…
Schofield frowned.
Somebody had been through here since the battle.
'Scarecrow,' someone said.
It was Mother.
She was standing in the doorway leading to the western side of Level 4. Standing with her was Libby Gant, who had appeared from the other side of the floor.
'Scarecrow. You better see this,' Mother said.
Schofield went over to the doorway set into the white wall that divided Level 4.
He checked the lock on the door as he met Gant and Mother. Its bolt had also been sheared off with a laser cutting device.
'What is it?' he said.
He looked up and was surprised to see, standing with Gant, Colonel Hot Rod Hagerty and Nicholas Tate III, the President's slick Domestic Policy Adviser. Gant's new passengers.
Gant jerked her thumb at the area behind her — the high ceilinged hall-like space that housed the great glass cube.
Schofield looked into it… and immediately felt his blood run cold.
The cube looked like a bomb had hit it.
Its clear walls lay at all angles, shattered and broken. Entire sections of glass had fallen in on the bedroom inside it, exposing the room to the outside air. Toys lay on their sides. The colorful furniture had been overturned, hurled roughly aside.
There was no sign of the boy, Kevin.
'Looks like they took a whole bunch of stuff from up in the lab, too,' Gant said. 'The entire area has been ransacked.'
Schofield bit his lip in thought as he looked at the scene before him.
He didn't want to say it. Didn't even want to think it. But there was no denying it now.
'There's someone else in here,' he said.
The language was Afrikaans. The official language of the white regime that had ruled South Africa up until 1994, but which now, for obvious reasons, was no longer the country's official language.
After consulting with the DIA's two African language specialists, Dave Fairfax now had all of his recorded conversations translated and ready for presentation to the Director.
He looked at the transcript again and smiled. It read:
COMM-SAT SECURE WIRE TRACE E/13A-2
DIA-SPACE DIV-PENT-DC
OPERATOR: T16-009
SOURCE: USAF-SA(R)07
29-MAY 22:10–56 VOICE 1:
AFRIKAANS — ENGLISH
Kan bevestig dat in-enting plaasvind.
13-JUN 18:01:38 VOICE 1:
AFRIKAANS — ENGLISH
Toetse op laaste poging word op die vierentwientigste verwag. Wat van die onttrekkings eenheild?
VOICE 2:
Reccondo span is alreeds weggestuur.
15-JUN 14:45:46 VOICE 1:
AFRIKAANS — ENGLISH
Voorbereidings onderweg. Vroeg oggend. Beste tyd vir onttrekking.
16-JUN 19:56:09 VOICE 3:
ENGLISH — ENGLISH
Everything is in place.
Confirm that it’s the third.
21-JUN 07:22:13 VOICE 1:
AFRIKAANS — ENGLISH
Ontrekking kan ‘n probleem wees. Gestel ons gebruik die Hoeb land hier naby. Verstaan hy is ‘n lid van Die Organisasie.
VOICE 2:
Sal die instruksies oordra.
22-JUN 20:51:59
ENGLISH — ENGLISH
VOICE 3:
Mission is a go.
23-JUN 01:18:22
AFRIKAANS — ENGLISH
VOICE 1:
Die Reccondos is gereed. Verwagte aankoms by beplande bestemming binne nege dae.
