Shizuka's shoulders jerked in reaction.

"Explain," Brigid snapped.

"Gladly. During the late 1990s, there was an epidemic of disappearing nuclear warheads from ar- senals all over the world, in particular the small, 'squeeze yields' ones."

Brigid frowned, sifting through her memory. "Yes, I remember reading about it. They called them backpack nukes. Evidently they were stolen and sold to small nations without nuclear weapons capabilities or to terrorist groups."

"That was one theory," Sindri agreed. "And I'm sure that happened to a few of them. But not all." He widened his eyes in mock fear. "I wonder, oh, I wonder what happened to the others."

"Bulls.h.i.t," Grant spit contemptuously. "You're bluffing."

Sindri crooked challenging eyebrows at him. "Oh, really? If I can s.n.a.t.c.h a human being literally from the jaws of death, don't you think it would be easier to s.n.a.t.c.h up stationary objects from the past? Like missiles in silos?"

He paused to let his words sink in, men continued. "I confess I managed to make only one functional, but it's more than sufficient to obliterate this island and New Edo. The warhead is fairly small, around 200 kilotons, but it's exceptionally duty-a mixture of cobalt and iodine. If I detonate it, the yield effect is roughly three miles. Within one mile of the hy-pocenter of the explosion, this entire island would be vaporized instantly. Within two and a half miles, ninety percent of the population of New Edo would be killed, and all the buildings leveled."

Shizuka's face paled, but she only compressed her lips.

"How do you control it?" Kane asked casually.

"That will be my secret."

"And the other ace you mentioned?"

Sindri gestured toward the fallen Oakshott. "The empirical evidence of reverse entropic immortality." He raised his voice. "Oakshott! You may get up now."

Grant made a noise of disgust deep in his throat. "He's not going to get up, you little-"

A deep, gargling groan rose from the black-clad body. Kane felt his skin p.r.i.c.kle and clammy sweat form on his face. The body of Oakshott stirred, his hands came up, the b.l.o.o.d.y fingers twitching fitfully.

Grasping the railing, he pulled himself to a sitting position. Grant, Kane, Brigid and Shizuka stared in incredulous horror as the giant reeled upright. His small eyes were gla.s.sy. Blood glistened wetly on his shirtfront, and his face was screwed up in pain."Hurts," he said hoa.r.s.ely. A coughing fit overcame him, and he bent at the waist, his body shaking violently. A jet of scarlet spewed from his lips, and a little metal cylinder clattered on the grillwork.

Kane, his heart turning to ice, realized it was the flattened bullet Grant had fired into the giant's chest.

Gasping for air, Oakshott straightened. He dragged a sleeve across his blood-flecked lips. Sindri said rea.s.suringly, "You'll be as right as the mail soon enough, Oakshott. That's a stout fellow."

Smirking into the astonished faces of the four people standing around him, Sindri declared, "I can only speculate on the extent of entropic reversal on organic matter, but as you have witnessed, Oakshott's cellular structure renews itself from moment to moment. It rejects all foreign bodies from bacteria to bullets."

His hand trembling perceptibly, Grant raised his Sin Eater and aimed it Oakshott1 s head, who merely blinked at him. "And what happens if I blow his brains out? Will that be reversed?"

"I really couldn't say," Sindri answered. "I was saving that experiment for one of you three. However, if you do that to Mr. Oakshott, I'll have no choice but to retaliate with a nuclear detonation. A bit of overkill, I can't deny, but you would leave me no option."

Very slowly, Grant lowered his arm. In a quiet, even tone Sindri said, "Very good, Mr. Grant Now you and Mr. Kane will disarm."

Kane didn't move. "Why should we?" he demanded. "We refused to do it earlier."

"Then you didn't have an inkling of die kind of power I control. Even if you're ninety percent certain I'm running a bluff about the warhead, surely you don't want to gamble the lives on New Edo."

"I'm sure this has occurred to you at some point," Brigid pointed out sardonically, "but you'd die along with them."

"I'm not afraid to die, Miss Brigid," he retorted sharply. "Not in the least. That's one thing about me you should be certain of." He gazed up at her unblinkingly. "Don't force me to prove it."

Sindri's voice had acquired a raspy undertone of conviction. Kane understood that somewhere inside of the man's diminutive frame was a soul that had lived with pain since the day he was born-and whose focus in life was to find a way to end it.

"So much for your promise you meant us no harm," Brigid said darkly.

"I mean to keep my promise. I'm offering you immortality. How is that harming you? I may hurt you, but I won't permanently harm you. Not if you cooperate."

Grant cast a questioning glance toward Shizuka. "It's your home at stake here, so it's your call. Yes or no?"

Shizuka hesitated and nodded in resignation. "Hai. Yes. We cannot take the chance."

Kane and Grant pushed their pistols back into their holsters and stripped them off. They pushed theminto Sindri's arms. He inclined his head in a parody of a gracious nod. ' 'Thank you, gentlemen. I always knew you could be reasonable...at least when you're forced to be."

He turned, marching back toward the control room. "Come with me now."

The four people slowly followed him along the catwalk. As they did so, Kane bent his head close to Brigid and whispered, "I'm betting you remember how to activate the dilator."

Her lips barely moved as she breathed, "You'd win."

Kane said no more. He lengthened his stride to step in front of her. When they entered the control room, he positioned himself in such a way that Brigid was blocked from Sindri's view. As it was, the little man was pushing the still-dazed Oakshott ahead of him. Imperiously, he ordered, "Step lively, now."

As the giant obeyed, Brigid slid to one side, standing at the edge of the console. She ran her eyes over the b.u.t.tons and toggle switches. Her fingers flew over them like a concert pianist's. The throbbing vibration of the generator suddenly climbed in scale and pitch, becoming almost painful. Sparks flashed through the facets of the prisms on the arms of the pylons.

Sindri spun, arms full of pistols and holsters. His face twisted in shock. "What are you doing? The chronon wave guide doesn't have a target-"

Grant lunged forward in a diving tackle. He ducked under an arm Oakshott flung out and closed his hands around Sindri's throat, slamming him off his feet. As he grappled with the little man, the momentum of his leap carried him into Oakshott's legs and sent him staggering backward. With Grant on top of him, Sindri squalled in pain and anger.

Grant s.n.a.t.c.hed up the little man, left hand cupping his chin, while his right forearm came across the windpipe and hauled back. Sindri uttered a small, aspirated gurgle. "Tell your lobotomized valet to back off, or you're dead in about two seconds," Grant snarled.

Sindri clawed impotently at Grant's arm, then waved at Oakshott, The giant, in the process of lumbering forward, froze in midstep. Shizuka glided forward and picked up the Sin Eaters. Carefully, Grant got to his feet, holding Sindri in front of him. Kane was irresistibly reminded of a ventriloquist and dummy he had seen in an old predark vid.

"Tell him to back all the way off," Grant said.

Sindri squirmed. "You idiot, you don't understand. You've got to cut the dilator's power-"

Grant cinched his grip tighter, increasing the pressure on the dwarfs neck. Sindri yelped in pain. "Tell him," Grant repeated.

Current crackled loudly between the forks of the pylon. From the curving arms hissed bolts of lightning, which whipped and snapped along the network of wires like serpents made of blue plasma.

Exhaling a pain-choked breath, Sindri shouted, "Oakshott! Go to the corner and stay there until I say otherwise."The giant hesitated. "Do as I say, d.a.m.n you!" Sindri shrilled.

Ponderously, Oakshott followed Sindri's command, stepping to the far wall and jamming himself into the corner. Grant edged toward the door. His companions followed him, keeping their eyes on Oakshott.

They entered a corridor, dimly lit by neon strips on the ceiling. They had traversed it before and Bri-gid took the lead, since she remembered all of its twists and turns. Sindri tried to speak several times, but Grant clapped a hand over his mouth. After a few minutes they pushed their way through a gla.s.s-and-chrome door and entered a large lobby. The floor was thickly layered with concrete dust. The walls were black-speckled marble and showed ugly crisscrossing cracks. A litter of office furniture was half covered by broken ceiling tiles.

A big reception desk occupied the far wall, and it was nearly buried by plaster and metal electrical conduits. On the right side of the room, a hallway stretched away, lined on both sides with wooden doors. Past the desk lay the entrance door. Beyond it they saw only a murky semidarkness, as of late afternoon on an extremely overcast day.

"What's the plan?" Kane asked.

"How the h.e.l.l do I know?" Grant retorted stiffly.

"I'm open to suggestions. I'm sure as h.e.l.l tired of carrying this slag-a.s.s midget around."

Tersely, Shizuka said, "There may still be landing boats at the beach, ones we used to get here from New Edo."

"One problem," Brigid said. "Once the temporal dilator builds up a charge, it releases a microwave pulse. If we're not out of the effect radius, we'll be cooked."

Sindri began squealing wordlessly behind Grant's m.u.f.fling hand, kicking his legs violently. His eyes shone with wild, frantic light. "Let him talk," Kane suggested.

Grant removed his hand and after dragging in a noisy breath, Sindri said, "It's worse than me microwave pulse! I've got to cut the power. Let me do it and you can go on your way."

Kane stared into Sindri's face, looking for any signs of duplicity. He gave it up after a moment as a pointless exercise. "What's worse than the pulse?"

Sindri struggled in Grant's arms. "Put me down and I'll tell you."

Kane nodded. "You'd better do it."

Scowling, Grant released the little man, allowing him to drop none too gently to the floor. He stumbled and would have fallen if Kane hadn't steadied him. "Explain," he snapped. "And make it fast."

Words tumbled out Sindri's mouth. "Critical ma.s.s-critical ma.s.s!"

"What?" Grant grunted.

Sindri squeezed his eyes shut, his body trembling. "There's a critical ma.s.s for certain elements-plu-tonium, for instance-beyond which no increase in energy is possible without a release.It's the same with some subatomic particles."

Green eyes bright with worry, Brigid demanded, "Like chronons?"

Sindri bobbed his head. "And photons. Once critical ma.s.s is reached, it can only resolve itself by a venting of energy. There has to be an escape."

"You mean an explosion?" Shizuka asked.

"Yes!" Sindri blurted desperately. "Possibly even a dimensional cross-rip. I wasn't lying about possessing an atomic warhead-the dilator is running wild without a target conformal. If its energy builds to critical ma.s.s, it'll touch off the bomb. A hole half a mile deep could be blasted through the bottom of the Pacific Ocean."

"And you can keep that from happening?" Grant asked.

"Yes, if you let me go right now!"

Kane and Grant looked toward Brigid in unison. She met their questioning gaze with one of angry frustration. "Don't look at me! I don't know enough about Operation Chronos to confirm or deny anything he's saying."

Kane hissed out an obscenity. To Grant he said, "We can't afford to take the chance."

Grant's lips peeled back over his teeth in a snarl. "I know-d.a.m.n him to h.e.l.l."

Kane stepped aside and waved toward the door. "Go. We'll settle up with you later. Count on it."

Without another word or a backward glance, Sin-dri immediately broke into a sprint, running as fast as he could, slamming open the door with a squeal of rusty hinges.

Watching him go, Shizuka asked apprehensively, "What should we do now?"

Kane handed Grant his Sin Eater and began strapping his own onto his forearm. "What we always do when we're in a situation like this."

Shizuka c.o.c.ked her head at him quizzically. "What's that?"

Balancing herself on the b.a.l.l.s of her feet, Brigid spoke a single word: "Run."

Chapter 20.

In their rash to get away from the Operation Chronos installation, the four of them simply ran- away, anywhere, beyond the effect radius of the microwave pulse.

Grant slammed open the door and they plunged down a short, wide set of stairs and out into the complex of structures. Dusk shrouded them, yet the semidarkness was a blessing. They were, after all, in enemy territory, in Sindri's playground where the possibility of any threat couldn't be discounted.

Kane glanced back at the building they had just left. It was the largest structure and showed little signs ofwear. It was an almost perfectly square block, appearing to be hewn from a single monstrously huge chunk of stone. He had named it the Cube on their prior visit. Its dark facade had no windows, and when he looked at it, he again sensed a subliminal aura of evil radiating from the structure.

All the looming buildings of the Operations Chronos base were made of blocks of a dark, stained stone that reflected no trace of light. Some of the smaller buildings had eroded so much they had fallen completely into ruin. Roofless arches reared from the ground, and a few storage buildings were scattered around the outer perimeter of the walls.

They clambered over walls, concentrating more on what lay behind them than ahead. Kane, Shizuka, Brigid and Grant ran across a broad courtyard filled with great chunks of concrete and blocks of basalt that had fallen from buildings. As the fleetest of foot, Kane had to hold himself back, so as to not outdistance his companions, and he chafed at the delay.

They reached a broad blacktop avenue that ran outward from the Cube. The asphalt had a peculiar ripple pattern to it, and weeds sprouted from splits in the surface. Kane, Brigid and Grant had seen the rippling effect before, out in the h.e.l.l/ones. It was a characteristic result of earthquakes triggered by nuclear bomb shock waves.

Lampposts lined the road, most of them rusted through and leaning over. Secondary lanes stretched out in all directions, like the spokes of a wheel. Legs pumping, lungs laboring, the four people sprinted through the empty streets, bordered by the empty husks of buildings. One of the structures had collapsed entirely, folded in on itself like a house of dominos, with the fallen rear wall knocking down all the interior sections one by one.

Once beyond the complex area, a bitter, acrid odor stung their nostrils and coated their tongues.

Their pounding feet churned up ash and grit. They had entered the dead zone, a flat, sandy plain at least half a mile across wherein the microwave pulses had rendered the soil sterile. What little gra.s.s grew was thin and brown, little more than stubble.

Even in the fading light they could see the circle of demarcation. On the far sides of the circle grew thick, lush gra.s.ses and ferns. Sprinkled across the barren and sere landscape were the browned skeletons of birds, their featherless wings outstretched as if they had dropped dead in midflight. Here and there were smaller collections of bones, like those of rats and other animals.

Light gleamed dully through the layer of ash, and when they drew closer, Shizuka couldn't swallow a sob of grief and a groan of horror. She slowed her pace, rocking to a stop, her small b.r.e.a.s.t.s heaving beneath her cotton shift. Grant grabbed her by the arm. "Come on," he wheezed.

She refused to move, and her three companions followed her gaze downward. All of them recoiled in revulsion. Two nearly fleshless faces grinned up at them from the soot-covered ground. Radiation and exposure had turned the faces into mummified travesties. They wore full suits of samurai armor and had apparently been caught in a microwave burst. It had literally cooked them inside their armor, like lobsters in their sh.e.l.ls.

"They came looking for me," Shizuka murmured in a congested voice. "I ordered them to stay with the boat, but they-"She swallowed hard, bent and pulled a pair of bladed weapons from one of the corpses, a long ka-tana sword and a shorter-bladed tanto. Kane relieved the other corpse of his pah" of weapons, handed the katana to Brigid and they started running again.

When gra.s.s swished against their ankles, the four people realized they were out of the dead, defoliated zone. Shizuka panted, "When can we-"

The rest of her question was lost in a distant thunderclap. They skidded to a halt, twisting their heads as a deafening, concussive blast cannonaded up from the complex of buildings behind them. A consecutive series of brutal, overlapping shock waves rolled over the ground like invisible breakers, hurling up dust and ash and knocking the four of them flat.

The ground heaved violently, and they heard a clash of rending rock and a distant shriek of rupturing metal. They saw the Operation Chronos complex seeming to shake itself to pieces. Cornices and basalt blocks toppled, crashing and colliding. All of them shared the same terror-that a chain reaction caused by the dilator's energies would touch off the atomic warhead and a mile-high mushroom cloud would swallow not just Thunder Isle and New Edo, but most of the Cific coast.

A reverberating, extended thunderclap rolled as they saw the walls of buildings folding in on themselves and cascading down in a contained avalanche. In the dim light, veiled by swirling clouds of dust, the entire complex seemed to implode. Finally, the cataclysmic sounds began to fade, replaced by the crunch and grate of settling stone. Planes of dust and ash rose toward the sky.

Kane squinted through the vapors and saw the dark edifice of the Cube still towering in the distance but its facade was riven through with cracks from which shimmers of light glowed. He spit some of the sour ash from his mouth and asked, "What the h.e.l.l happened?"