'What are you looking for, Sergeant?'
'I dunno, sir. Some sign or portent. A big meteor about to fall on us, a gathering of angels, a rain of fire, something to let us know the end is near.'
'Never let it be said that your commander is a total Luddite,' Howard said. He smiled.
Now, they were on their way. They would split into two groups a couple of miles from here, the perimeter team would hit the gate, and they would go over the fence. Howard took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
'All aboard,' he said.
Peel glanced at his watch. Almost nine. Still raining, but not as hard as it had been, to judge from the sound on the slate roof. Bascomb-Coombs hadn't come out of the study; he was hunched over his computer, wearing a headset and finger bands, deep in some VR scenario. Well, fine. He could die never knowing what had hit him for all Peel cared, and good riddance.
Goswell had tottered off into the dining room for a late supper, and Peel had the sitting room to himself, working on his third scotch, a small one this time. He didn't want to drink too much. There was Ruzhyo to consider.
He'd have to get started soon, but he was stalling. Had to be done, of course, but there was a certain reluctance to get to it. Another page turning in the book of his life, and a big one. Ah, well. That's how it went. Win some, lose some, but the important thing was to live to fight another day.
He took another sip of his scotch.
The monster, which looked like a cross between Godzilla and a giant Spielbergian raptor, stomped out into the clearing that served as his toilet and let loose a bellow that shook fronds off the ferns. It was still pretty far away, a couple of hundred meters. Probably could cover that in maybe four or five seconds once he got moving good. One shot, maybe two.
'There he is,' Jay said redundantly.
Saji looked up. 'No shit.'
Jay swallowed dryly, put the laser sight crosshair onto the monster's chest. The cross bounced around a little, but finally the holographic image blinked red, indicating that he had a lock. He jerked the trigger — and had a moment of panic as he feared he'd pulled it too hard.
The rocket streaked away, smacked into the monster's chest, and exploded.
When the fire and smoke cleared, the monster was knocked down.
'All right, Jay!' Saji yelled.
The triumph was short-lived. As they watched, the monster rolled, used its tail as a prop, and got back to its feet. It looked around for the source of the attack.
Ohhhh,
Saji was already shoving another rocket into the bazooka-style launcher before Jay could speak. She slapped him on the shoulder. 'Loaded!'
The rocket lanced into the beast again.
Then it climbed back to its feet again, and roared loudly enough to wake everything that had died since the beginning of time. It leaned forward, stuck its big tail straight out behind it, and spotted Jay and Saji. It looked like a giant hunting dog on point at a covey of quail.
Man! At least it was having an effect. Thing was, they had one more rocket and then the party was over. They could bail from VR if it got too close, and they'd sure as hell have to do that. Given what the little tiger had done to Jay's brain, he had a feeling that if this beastie got its claws on them, VR image or not, they would be in real physical jeopardy. If they had to bail, the thing would win, and Jay did not want to let it do that. More than anything he had ever wanted in his life, he wanted to beat this thing. Not just beat it, but to kick its ass seven ways from Sunday, to stomp the crap out of it big time.
But it didn't look good for the home team, no sir.
'Reloaded!'
Jay took a deep breath and readied his last shot.
Sure enough, Bascomb-Coombs was still there in the study, waving his hands around, wiggling his fingers, and directing some unseen computer wizardry. Peel glanced up and down the hall. No one around. He slipped into the room. He pulled the small Cold Steel Culloden boot knife from the sheath on his belt. The knife was short, pointed like a stiletto, with a hard, rubbery handle that gripped well. He stepped up behind the computer scientist, reached out, caught his forehead with his left hand, then drove the knife into the base of his skull with his right. Bascomb-Coombs stiffened.
The monster opened its toothy mouth, flashed fangs the length of a man's forearm, and screamed that terrible scream again. Then it froze in that position, jaws agape.
'What is it doing?'
Jay shook his head. 'Hell if I know. But there's my target.' He lined the crosshairs up on the thing's open gullet, held his breath, and pulled the trigger.
Bascomb-Coombs jittered a few times, then collapsed, his suddenly dead weight more than Peel could hold up. He bent and pulled the knife out of the man's hindbrain, wiped it on the dead man's shirt, and put the blade back into the sheath.
'Sorry, old man, but you mess with the bull and sometimes you get the horn.'
The knife was the way to go, all right. He didn't want to attract any attention. Once he was done in here, he would use his gun to do Ruzhyo. He didn't want to get too close to that one.
Now, let's see. There was Goswell, the maid, the cook, and old Applewhite left inside, then Ruzhyo. Huard he could save until last, the boy would never have a clue. Then pop the safe — whose combination he'd had for months — take whatever cash and baubles were there, and a lively stroll through the rainy fields and away. A long and hard day, and it wasn't over yet, but there it was: You did what you had to do, and God save the king.
He went down the hall toward the dining room to have a word with his lordship.
This time, when the rocket exploded, so did the monster's head. Ersatz brain and bone and blood sleeted in all directions, some of it hitting Jay and Saji, but neither of them cared.
'You got it! You got it!'
'You seem awfully joyful for a Buddhist, under the circumstances.'
Saji hugged him. 'What, for shutting down a computer program? That's all you really did, isn't it?'
Jay Gridley was
Chapter 40
The entry team made it to within a few hundred meters of the house without any trouble. Michaels had expected to hear shooting from the perimeter team when it got to the gate, but either they were too far away, or things had gone better there than expected.
In the headset, Howard said, 'See anything, E4?'
Fernandez was on point. 'Negative, I — wait. There's one just passed under the light by the back door. Looks as if he is walking patrol.'
'Copy. Let's move in.'
Michaels waited until Howard passed him before he got up from the wet ground where he'd been prone and started moving in a low crouch.
