A moment later the air was filled by a noise like a giant hammer blow. Dirt and splinters rained down on Kendrick's head. He lay exhausted, trembling from the adrenalin still pumping through his veins.
But the turret was dead.
Over the next several minutes, similar blasts were audible from further along the side of the building as Sabak's men managed to take out the remaining gun turrets. As Kendrick lifted himself up and peered towards the one he'd managed to destroy he half-expected it to spring back to life.
He climbed up on unsteady feet and went to retrieve the knapsack. The helmet, he found, was ruined. If he wanted to escape from the station he'd have to find another.
Buddy looked haggard and pale, and Kendrick assumed that he himself probably looked just as bad. He glanced around at the grass and trees, shimmering here and there with familiar pale silver threads.
Buddy followed the direction of his gaze. 'Same as the Maze,' he muttered.
'Not quite, no.' The flesh of Kendrick's hand was still torn and bleeding. The pain felt even greater now that he was less preoccupied with just staying alive.
Kendrick looked back to the building, where the survivors were only just beginning to emerge from hiding. Its walls sparkled here and there with silvery light, but the longer he watched the more the silver took on a distinctly golden hue. He visualized the same change spreading through the entire station, through the soil under his feet, through all those circuits and corridors.
All around them a war was taking place – in absolute silence.
Fourteen people were dead. They were laid out in rows in the centre of the gallery. All around Kendrick the tiles were red with blood where the victims had been caught in a massacre.
Kendrick spotted Sabak and approached him. 'Look, time's running out. I'm going after Draeger now and I need your help. I know I can't manage this alone.'
Sabak shook his head firmly. 'Nobody's going anywhere. None of us are taking any more chances than we have to. So we stay right here. Not one more life is going to be wasted before the wormhole opens.'
Kendrick stared at him, his expression revealing his sudden anger. 'And Draeger? You're going to let him get away with this?'
Sabak chuckled long and low, glaring back at Kendrick with something like hatred. 'You don't get it, do you? You're not in charge of this operation. I know you think we're all crazy. Well then, fuck you. Fuck you and Draeger both.'
Kendrick stepped away, appalled. 'I can't believe I'm hearing this. You're a Labrat, and you-'
'I'm a human being, Mr Gallmon. I want to be able to choose my own destiny – and this is what I choose. I'm not here to be a hero or to save the human race.' Sabak jabbed a finger into his own chest. 'The human race can take care of itself just fine.'
Kendrick licked his lips. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it. He looked around and saw that other people had been listening. But none of them would meet his gaze.
'This isn't right,' he said, for the benefit of all of them. 'There are people down there who-Ah, the hell with it.'
He turned from Sabak without another word and stepped back outside the building.
Kendrick wasn't sure how long he'd been out there in the open when he realized that Buddy was standing near him. No more than a couple of minutes, probably.
'I saw the way you were looking at these threads. I can see they're changing colour. You're going to tell me what's happening here, aren't you?'
'I don't know,' Kendrick lied. How could he explain? He was far from sure that he could go out there and find Draeger on his own. He needed Buddy's support – even Sabak's.
Buddy shook his head slowly. 'There's something you're not telling me. First that trip to the Maze, now this. It's not right to keep me in the dark.'
Kendrick sighed and looked away. 'I need to find Draeger. Are you going to help me?'
Buddy glanced back into the building where they could see Sabak in heated conference with several of the Labrat survivors. Things were not going nearly as well as most of them had hoped.
'I'm not sure,' Buddy admitted. 'We need to take care of things here. Sabak-'
'You heard what he said! This is as far as the rest of them are going. But this isn't the time to discuss or negotiate. We go now, and we find him. I need whatever help I can get.'
Buddy rubbed at his face with both hands, gazing off into the middle distance. Meanwhile Kendrick studied his suit's read-out. Nearly an hour and a half had passed since they had disembarked from the shuttle, so his time was running out if he was to have any hope of escaping from the Archimedes.
But did you ever really believe you were going to be coming back home from this?
'See things from my point of view,' Buddy pleaded. 'There are injured people back there. I'm needed.'
Kendrick shook his head in disgust and began to walk further away from the building and from Buddy. 'You know why I'm here,' he called over his shoulder. 'You know what's at stake.'
'Ken-'
Kendrick stopped and turned. 'Doesn't what we went through matter to you any more? Or do you really want to stand by while Draeger gets away with everything?'
A few moments passed but Buddy still didn't answer. Kendrick turned and resumed walking.
'Wait!' Kendrick slowed his pace and Buddy fell into step beside him. 'Okay. Look, we've come this far together, so fine. I'll come with you. Everyone's badly shaken, is all. Nobody was expecting to have to deal with any of this.'
Kendrick merely nodded and glanced back over his shoulder. He could see the building behind them rising above their heads now as they moved further up the curve of the cylindrical chamber. He quickened his pace to a trot, and Buddy moved to keep up with him.
There were other buildings hanging above their heads now, open-air offices among gardens that had grown wild. None of it looked as though it had been really designed for people to live in. These vast chambers, with their artificial forests and machine-controlled environments, were really little more than a showcase not just for Draeger's technological achievements but for the sheer amount of money President Wilber had been happy to pump into constructing them.
Kendrick dug out his wand and studied the station map. It would have been a lot easier if they'd been able to use whatever the station's erstwhile occupants had used to move themselves around its interior. According to the map there was a transport system buried in the hull, but its nearest entrance was next to the place they were heading for anyway.
'Here.' He jabbed his finger at the map display and turned to Buddy. 'This is the research facility that's in the next chamber. It's where Draeger's heading because he can access the central AI memory core from there. We keep moving this way, we should reach an airlock leading to a connecting corridor pretty soon. You got any more of those grenade things?'
'Just a couple,' Buddy replied.
Kendrick had the illusion that, even as he walked, he was in fact staying rooted to the spot while the ground rotated under him. The building where Sabak and the others were still sheltering now hung way down behind them. He looked back and saw small figures milling around outside it, perhaps looking for them. All they needed to do was look up.
They found their first corpse by the airlock complex that led into the second chamber. The male victim appeared to have been flayed alive. The stink reached them long before they even set eyes on the ghastly remains. There were enough scraps of clothing left to identify him as one of Los Muertos.
