He held on to her, although she tried to pull free, angry with him. Taking her clumsily in his arms in the bulky protective wear with the oxygen tank and the other equipment on their backs, the shimmering skull's head poking from Stroud's pack, they looked an odd couple.
Wiz and Leonard were examining something on the ceiling, a part of the creature which had terrorized them. 'Stroud, look at this,' Wiz was saying.
Most of the creature had disintegrated with flame as the chemical reaction set it afire, but here was a portion that had been torn away and it was moving, dragging itself along the ceiling, weakened. Stroud grabbed hold of it and lifted it to the light. It was a small, evil gnomelike creature with its own set of little arms and legs, a furry, lice- ridden body, gleaming black eyes and razor-sharp teeth. It snarled at them under the glare, trying to tear open Stroud's glove where it was held.
'The larger creature was made up of hundreds, perhaps thousands of these damned sand crabs,' said Stroud. 'It's the same things that attacked us on our first visit to the ship, gentlemen. The creature covering the entranceway to the ship earlier, too, was made into whole cloth by an interlocking network of these dervishes piled one on another on another.'
'They must interlock their bodies, creating the effect,' said Wiz.
'Bloody little beasts,' said Leonard.
'It will go to a stronger line of defense now,' said Stroud as he squeezed the life out of the hateful beastie in his hand, tossing it up into the hole opened by the network of its brethren as it had relentlessly pursued them to this point in the tunnel system.
'Shine your lights here,' said Stroud, pointing to the opening left by the creatures. 'Damned thing is playing three-dimensional chess with us. No wonder we couldn't find the ship. We've been below it. The floor was on a slight slant the entire way, and we just came in, going deeper and deeper.'
'And using up precious oxygen in the bargain,' Kendra said.
It was a stalemate, unless Stroud's people could find a way into the sealed ship. 'The damned ship is above us.' He stared up at the ceiling and the hole with utter curiosity.
'This thing is playing us for all we're worth,' said Wiz.
'It wants to play, and yet, growing bored with us down here, it's inviting us in,' said Leonard. 'Why?'
'The skull. It wants the skull far more than it wants us,' Stroud replied.
They all turned to him, staring. There was some new resolution in his voice. Kendra spoke their minds. 'Did the skull speak to you again?'
'Weakly ... Seems the energy of the skull is being sapped down here, drawn off by this thing, only adding to its power.'
'Then perhaps it was a mistake to enter with it,' said Kendra.
'No, we've made the right choices,' he told them, 'but now perhaps you should all wait at this juncture. I will go on from here with the skull.'
'We're in this thing together, Stroud,' shouted Wiz.
'We've come this far,' agreed Leonard.
'Bravery becomes you both,' he said to them. Then he turned to Kendra. 'And you?'
'You don't think for a moment I'm going to wait here alone for you, do you?'
'Then let's move on. We've got to get up there.'
'I'll go first,' said Leonard. 'Drop a rope down.'
Stroud nodded and helped Leonard up to his shoulders, where he got a firm hold on the level above. He was soon tossing down a rope which he had tied firmly to a stone outcropping above. Wiz started up after, followed by Kendra and finally Stroud.
As soon as they were on the next level, the light in the crystal skull grew stronger. Everyone noticed the change. Kendra wondered again if perhaps they ought not to fear the skull itself, the way the eyes looked at her.
Aboveground, Commissioner James Nathan and his men watched from the rooftops, the distance too great to be of much use, yet there was a definite change in the zombies since Stroud's arrival. It was uncanny, mysterious and a great deal frightening to think that one man, that Stroud, somehow could control these numbers. At the moment, the army of unseeing, uncaring semi-dead just remained frozen in step, as if waiting for a signal from the pit--or from Stroud.
Nathan no longer knew what to believe. All around the mile-wide perimeter of the zombie army, the U.S. Army was being stationed. More men and more weapons. The war would continue here aboveground soon; if the zombies did not end it, the U.S. Army would.
Nathan had spoken to the commander. He had spoken to the mayor, and Bill Leamy had spoken to Washington, D.C., the President.
At the moment, all was poised to give Abraham H. Stroud his chance. Failing this, they'd move in and wipe out every man, woman and child who stood protecting and feeding the heart of this evil.
Nathan had tried on several occasions to contact Stroud's party, to no avail. Something kept jamming the communication line, and so far Stroud had not contacted him. Nathan was growing jumpier by the minute. But the damnable, murderous zombies were as still and as stiff as cut-out cardboard people, like the things Nathan fired on at the range. More and more, Nathan felt he'd have no trouble using a bomb on them.
But now he had the Stroud party in there, in the core of this unholy reactor, and he didn't know what to do about that.
He tried to hail Stroud again. He got a faint voice, going in and out with the static. It sounded like Stroud.
'How are you progressing?' he pleaded.
'Who is this? Who's on this line?'
'Bastard, identify yourself.'
But it was gone. Nathan shouted for Stroud to come in. Suddenly Stroud's voice came over, saying, 'We've had some difficulty down here.'
'Anyone hurt?'
'All are fine, and we're pushing on.'
'Where are you? Have you penetrated the ship?'
'Not yet.'
'What? You've been in there an hour.'
'We've met with several obstacles thrown up in our way.'
'Are you near your target?'
'Why, is there a problem up there?'
'Army is here, and chomping at the bit, ready to open fire, and I can't blame them.'
Stroud hesitated at his end. 'You've got to give us time, Commissioner. We're closing in, but--'
'You've got till dawn, Stroud.'
'Dawn?'
'Three hours. And then we unleash the heavy artillery.'
'I can't promise we'll be out by then.'
'And I can't promise you that it will make a damned difference, Stroud. Too many people up here have lost too many friends and relatives to this thing. They want action, not a ghost hunt on a ship buried below the city.'
'We're wasting time, then. Stroud out.'
Nathan frowned. He'd hoped that he could convince the fool that he must get his people out of there now. But Stroud was a stubborn son of a bitch. And either brave or stupid. Either way, James Nathan had come to admire the man.
