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running through it, but it cannot interrogate a remote gate. I punched up the code for the gate at
Pygmalion s place. I should have gotten a new pattern on the board that I would have had to complete
so I could travel there, but nothing.
I pointed at the crystal rectangle. So is that a dimensional gate or not?
He shrugged. I think so, and I think it s operational, but I don t know why it would be. In any event, if
it is, the coding is in that crystal and it only goes one place. He reached beneath the right side of the
console,then nodded. Power switch is in the on position.
Mickey scowled. Does it go to the bad place?
I nodded. I think we d best find out.
I loosened the Colt Krait in its holster and sawCrowley do the same with the Beretta M9 he had chosen
to bring on the expedition. From the start, we had known we would have to try to go through any
dimensional gate we could find, and would have preferred to be loaded with heavy weapons and
explosives. Unfortunately, the way we had to get into the base precluded that, so the two of us settled for
using pistols that carried Teflon-coated, armor-piercing bullets. Hardly subtle, but if things got nasty,
subtle was not much of a concern.
I led the way up the ramp and moved toward one edge.Crowley moved to the other, leaving Mickey
between us. On three, gentlemen, I instructed them. One... two...three.
Stepping through a dimensional gateway is normally a disorienting experience. Colors flashed before my
eyes, but that came from the transition from a dark cylinder to the bright sunlight that greeted us on the
other side. The external heat also spiked and could have led me to believe we had just exchanged night
for day in theArizona desert, but the air smelled different and felt even less humid. While experiencing
none of the discomfort dimensional gating usually causes, I knew we were far away from Earth.
It took my eyes a couple of seconds to compensate for the shift from dark to light. When vision
returned, I found myself standing on one platform of a whole tower created from the blue gemstone that
made up the gates in theNevada base. I looked down at my feet and saw the disk on which I stood had
been coated with the black, no-skid covering as back on the other side, and I could not be 100% certain
the same disk with the same rectangle was not existing in both places at the same time.
Out beyond the tower, as far as I could see to the horizon, a city built of black-purple obsidian rose up
out of a black sand desert. While some of the outlying buildings seemed little more than shelters
constructed like houses of cards from stone slabs, the hub of the city was very much a work of art. Each
building appeared not so much built as sculpted, and I had no doubt that from the air the effect would be
as stunning as an Aztec calendar stone or a primitive sand painting.
Vast though the city was, and as captivating a vision as it constructed, it did not hold my attention for
long. To my right, Mickey nodded his head emphatically, telling me wordlessly that we had arrived in the
bad place. Beyond him, I sawCrowley s shadowform and he clearly understood what Mickey meant to
communicate. We had arrived at our destination and now we needed to return, if that were possible.
Unfortunately, standing directly to the north of us, three men were enjoying the view of the city. Two
were dressed in suitcoats and white shirts, with the conservative sort of haircut I had grown to expect on
young executives. The third man stood tall and gangling. The Build-more security uniform he wore in no
way disguised his lack of shoulder breadth and the stiff collar called attention to his scrawny neck.
...Now this is just a Saudi Arabian test site of course, since it s petrodollars building the place in
Nevada, but wait until we hook up with Hawaii... the security man droned. His companions took notice
of us first, and he turned to follow their lines of sight. Oh, hello, he began, then his voice sank and his
hand started to go for the pistol on his right him. I know you. You re Tycho Caine.
Chapter 27
And you re Watson Dodd. I knotted my face in a snarl and pointed to a spot beyond him. Over
there, now! I ignored his half-drawn gun and passed between him and the other two men with long
purposeful strides. I said now!
It seemed like a lifetime ago, but I had met Watson Dodd and his wife through Marit Fisk, a woman
who had been one of Coyote s trusted aides. Marit and I had become an item, and our break-up was
anything but pretty. Watson had, at that time, been in Buildmore s Operations division and what little of
his talk I had caught here showed he should have been back there pursuing marketing goals. When
Sinclair MacNeal had left Build-more, Dodd had been elevated to replace him in the security hierarchy
because Darius had wanted a puppet he could dominate in that position.
Dodd s presence explained the uneasiness among the guards on the site. I knew the bluff I was going to
try to run might not work, leaving me with the alternative of killing Dodd and the two men with him. I was
reluctant to do that more because of Mickey s presence than because I knew Dodd s wife had been
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