Even as he spoke, he realized that he had unconsciously slipped into the same form of address as the person behind the screens.
'The Keeper has never seen the like,' came the reply, crackling and wheezing. Either the sound reproduction was poor or a decrepit old man was talking. Or both.
'Then let us see this Keeper. Let us talk to him. We are few. This redoubt must hold hundreds of armed men.'
A burst of laughter spluttered from the loudspeaker, followed by silence.
J.B. moved closer to Ryan, and whispered, 'Could use the plasex and run for that gateway.'
'Yeah. Get the fuck out of this fireblasted place. Let's...'
He was interrupted by the door ahead of them beginning to slide slowly upward, revealing the legs, then bodies, then heads of three people standing facing them.
'I'll eat my bastard blaster,' whispered Okie, shaking her black hair in disbelief.
Two women and a man were spread across the corridor, two paces apart, each holding a gun. Ryan sized them up, trying to hide his bewilderment. He'd expected to see the cream of the redoubt's guards: a squad of uniformed sec men, helmeted and masked, each with a gleaming laser rifle or sonic stunner.
The man at the center of the trio stood a scant five feet tall, Ryan guessed. He was dressed in a bizarre assortment of rags and tawdry finery: a jacket that bore sparkling sequins, leather breeches that were hacked off raggedly above the scrawny knees, and a woman's high-heeled boot on the right foot and a stained shoe of blue canvas on the left. Numerous medals on scraps of iridescent ribbons, jingled from his left breast. A bandolier that crossed his chest contained an extraordinary range of ammunition. Even at a snatched glance Ryan could make out six or seven different calibers.
It was tough to estimate his age. He was so stooped and bent that he might have been ninety. His long white beard was stained amber, seemingly with nicotine, and strands of orange and green ribbons were plaited through it. His hair was streaked silver and gray, and straggled to his shoulders. His face was in shadow, but it was possible to make out a narrow mouth, a hooked nose and deeply set eyes beneath beetling brows.
On the right was a woman of a similar age and garb. Her jacket and leather breeches were so dirty that their original color was indeterminable. She wore a cap, pulled to one side and decorated with cheap glass brooches. She was grinning, showing a picket fence of broken and chipped teeth.
Ryan finally rested his eyes on the other woman. Close to six feet tall, she had natural poise and elegance. Her hair was a tumbling mane of bright gold over a red satin blouse. Her belt had an ornate silver buckle. Her skirt was pale maroon suede — it ended well above the knee — and her legs were encased in high boots of polished crimson leather, the high heels ornamented with tiny silver spurs that tinkled softly as she moved. A pearl-handled pistol hung at her right hip.
Her eyes were a deep summer blue, gazing frankly at Ryan and each of the others in turn. The touch of her eyes was like a caress across Ryan's cheek, and he was astonished at the girl's power. She couldn't have been more than sixteen.
All three of the strangers carried the same weapon and held them with the casual ease of professionals. Yet there was something about them that gave Ryan pause. Their ease was studied, almost as if they'd mastered it from a picture in a book. Real killers had a constant tension to them; they never relaxed.
'Heckler & Koch silenced sub-MG,' whispered J.B., at Ryan's elbow.
But Ryan had already recognized the guns. He'd seen odd examples in uncovered stockpiles. The model was the MP-5 SD-2. Loaded, they weighed nearly seven pounds. Not that accurate over any distance, but twenty paces away, as they were now, the trio of guns would rip them apart.
'Greetings from the Keeper of this redoubt, strangers,' croaked the old man. 'Never have there been such outsiders here.'
Ryan was utterly confused. Where were the sentinels? The platoons of armed sec men? Who was this dotard with the two ill-matched women?
'Thank you. Are we welcome here?'
'We think so. The Keeper thinks you are. What are your names?'
'I'm Ryan Cawdor. This is J.B. Dix.' The Armorer took off his crumpled fedora and nodded. 'Hennings and Finnegan. Lady with the green hair is called Hunaker, and the lady with the red hair's Krysty Wroth. Tall one's Okie.'
'What of him?' The barrel of the machine gun swung toward Doc, who was lurking at the rear of the group.
'Name's Doc Tanner. Dr. Theophilus Tanner. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, sir,' he said, bowing deeply, swinging his tall hat behind him. 'And you, ladies.'
Ryan was thunderstruck. 'Tanner? Theophilus Tanner! You said you didn't know your fuckin' name, Doc! How in the?..'
The old man shuffled his feet in embarrassment, like a boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He grinned expansively and shrugged. 'Guess a door sprang open that I'd thought had closed forever. Just came, like that.'
'Theophilus,' said Krysty. 'What kind of a name is that, Doc?'
'My name, madam. A poor thing, perchance, but mine own.' He backed away, mumbling to himself. 'How could I have forgotten it? How could I?'
'Day of surprises,' said J.B.
If Doc's memory had really returned, then there were many questions that Ryan wanted to ask him. But that would have to wait until later.
'You had best come. That is the invite of the Keeper. There is food.'
'Our blasters?' asked Okie.
'Later, my pretty little chick. All things later. First come and eat. There is enough.'
For the first time, the old woman spoke, laughing in a bubbling snigger like air rising through molasses. 'Oh, but there's plenty for us all for eternity.' She seemed likely to choke on her own merriment. 'Eternity, or even fuckin' longer!'
The stunted old man made sure his 'guests' went ahead of him. The two women stayed behind them on either side, and he stayed right at the back, calling out instructions.
'This place is bigger'n most villes,' said Ryan, walking beside Krysty. They walked another nine or ten minutes, moving into a part of the redoubt with side rooms, all with closed doors. Twice they reached junctions, taking first the left fork, and later the right.
'Any ideas, Doc Tanner?' Ryan asked, glancing back over his shoulder.
'Just Doc does fine. No. Biggest I've ever seen. I figure there's maybe a stockpile linked. I confess that I have never heard of such a monstrous Gormenghastian pile.'
'Got to be hundreds running it,' suggested Krysty, but Doc shook his head.
'I beg to differ, Miss Wroth. They were designed to last millenia with no supervision. A child could manage one of these once everything was set and functioning. I recall the malfunction rate was markedly below one percent of one percent of one percent.'
Ahead there was yet another barrier.
'Halt. The Keeper commands obedience. Beyond that portal is food and rest for the weary traveler. Not that we've ever had a traveler before, weary or not.'
'We can take 'em,' whispered Finnegan. 'We all got knives. Krysty's got the three throwers. Take 'em all easy as fartin'.'
'They'll take half of us. Not good enough,' said J.B.
Ryan watched the doddering old man aim a small black remote control device at the top of the closed door. It was obviously a simple sonic switch that activated the opening lock.
'Move forward and enter the demesne of the Keeper of the redoubt.'
They stepped through, beneath another raised barrier, and found themselves in a great mall of another century. The floor was a patterned mosaic of soft tiles. At the center of the mall, which was two hundred paces long by a hundred wide, was a glittering fountain shaped from curves of polished metal, with water burbling and chirruping from level to level. And on every side were stores. But stores of a kind that none of them had ever seen even in their wildest dreams.
