'Small matter.'
I went back to check on Sam.
'Strangest thing,' John said. 'The wound is healing. See?' He ran his hand very lightly along Sam's wound, brushing away crumbs of fried, charred flesh. Underneath was whitish scar tissue. 'Remarkable. He's still out, though. Pulse good, and-'
Sam's eyes fluttered.
'Sam!' I said, kneeling beside him.
He opened his eyes and looked at me. 'Yeah?'
'You okay?'
'Feel okay.' He began to scratch his chest, but John stopped him. 'Itches like hell,' he complained.
'I think you're.going to be fine,' I said.
'Would you believe I tripped over some junk and let him grab the gun? If you'd clean up this damn place once in a while-'
'Sam, shut up.'
'You talk to your father like that?'
'Rest up and you can chew me out later. Moore got away. I'm going after him.'
'Don't be a fool.'
'I do believe he's left the plant by now,' Arthur said. 'Their vehicles were parked in a loading dock not far from here.'
'What about the Reticulan?'
'The security systems are reporting that two 'life-units' have `exited facility,'' Arthur said, apparently hearing a report on the electromagnetic wind.
Sam got to his feet, John helping. 'There's something I have to do, Jake. No, I'm okay.'
He crawled through the access tube. I followed. When I got to the aft-cabin, Sam was standing at the bulkhead, undoing the plate over the CPU housing.
'Hello, Jake,' said Bruce's voice. 'Sam here seems to think that we need a complete reformatting of auxiliary storage. I was trying to explain to him that that action would necessitate-'
'Forget it, Wilkes,' I said. 'We're not falling for it.'
'Jake, I don't think you understand. The mole program you call Corey Wilkes has relinquished control to me. There is no need-'
'SHUT UP!' I said, then took a deep breath. 'It's over, Corey.'
A pause, then. 'Sam, please.' It was Wilkes' voice.
'No, Corey,' Sam said, lifting the protective lid over the RESET switch. 'Time to call it a day.'
'I see,' Wilkes' voice said quietly.
Sam stood, poised with his finger over the red switch. 'I should hate you, Corey. But I don't. I've always felt sorry for you. I don't think you've ever enjoyed one minute of your life.'
After a long silence: 'Push it, Sam.' There was a sound not unlike a sigh. 'I'm… I'm really very, very tired.'
Sam pushed the switch. A few red lights appeared on the CPU.
And another human life ended. Somehow, it's always sad, no matter what.
24
Within an hour, Sam's wound had reduced itself to a long, thin white crease. A little later, you could barely see it.
'Damned efficient body you got there,' I said.
'Isn't it, though?' Sam concurred.
It took some time to get the computer back into shape. We had to load all the software back in, using the master pipettes, then run checks and so forth. We called up the real Wang A. I. and set it to work. It takes a fully sapient and very versatile computer to monitor and control a vehicle such as the one we drove. I didn't give the A.I. a name this time. Didn't much feel like it. 'Computer' was good enough:
Arthur told us that the spacetime ship still wasn't functioning. 'Oh, it's repairing itself, but the job is going very slowly,' he said. 'It really got messed up. Don't worry. You can take the train to within three-hundred kilometers of the master portal.'
'Mat's not close enough,' I said. 'We have at least three enemies left on this planet-Moore, the Reticulan, and the Goddess, if she's still bent on our destruction. Pretty formidable alliance, there. I think I'd like to wait for the spacetime ship to get itself squared away.'
'Perhaps you're right. Okay, we'll wait.'
'Anything the factory can do?'
Arthur shook his head. 'I doubt it. This is a manufacturing facility, not a fix-it shop.'
Even though we'd completely erased all data in auxiliary storage, we hadn't lost the Roadmap. I still had the pipette the Goddess had given me. I hadn't even bothered to put it in the safe; it had been in a storage box all the time. It was a job loading it back in, but we did have some time to kill.
A day passed. Then we got a report that a 'life unit' had entered the plant.
'Does Security have any idea who?' I asked Arthur.
'They say that this life unit is one of the same sort that left yesterday-beyond that they don't say. I don't think they're really equipped to tell the difference between life forms. The plant is very light on security. After all, it's a showcase operation, not a top-secret project sort of thing.'
'It's probably Moore,' I said, feeling my stomach tighten. 'I'm going after him.'
'No, you won't,' Sam declared, 'even if I have to hog-tie you.'
'There's no other way,' I said. 'He has an all-powerful ally, along with an armored van and who knows what else. He'll harass us all the way to the portal. I've got to deal with him now.'
'Why do you have to deal with him? I'll go.' He put up a hand. 'Okay, okay, we'll both go.'
'Are you insane? No way I'll leave the truck with only John to defend it.'
'Then stay here,' Sam suggested.
'No. I have to go and settle this once and for all.'
John said mildly. 'There's no dilemma if I were to go with you, is there? That way the lorry will be in good hands and you'll have at least some backup.'
I winced. 'Sorry, John. I didn't mean it the way it sounded.'
John smiled, his light-brown face looking tired and drawn. 'I understand. You're quite right, too. Sam can handle it. And you're doubly right on our going out to meet him. I don't relish sitting and waiting for the next lightning bolt to strike. No telling what Moore's doing, skulking about the place. We must take the offensive.'
'Then it's settled,' I said.
Sam nodded, shrugging. 'I'll have to admit, John has a point or two.' He crossed his beefy arms and sighed. 'Oh God. Right, go ahead. And for my sake, at least, be careful. I'm an old man. This constant excitement is bad for my constitution.'
'What, is your atomic-powered heart beating too fast?' I scoffed. 'Look at him. He's twenty-five if he's a day. Has more hair than I do.'
We devised a foolproof plan. Arthur would keep a line open to Security and relay the intruder's position to Sam, with whom I'd stay in radio contact. I took the last of our supply of button transponders along; a few of those placed strategically at various points along our planned route of attack would satisfy our signal-bouncing needs.
John and harmed ourselves and set out into the plant. We had the intruder pinpointed. He had entered the building housing the Monomagnetic Mirror Array and had stayed there. John and I planned to surprise him, chase him into a blind alley, and get him in a cross fire. When we got as far as the Submicron Fractionating Assembly, we split up.
The place was quiet once again. It had buzzed and howled for us, but now there was no one to work for, no
