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through." He looked at Doc. "You know where Boldt is?"
Doc tapped the keyboard. The monitor in front of him cleared, suddenly shifting to a
multilayered map. A bright blue dot was in one of the rooms. "There we are, Ryan."
An emerald dot flared to life in the upper right corner.
"And there is Prince Boldt."
Ryan studied the map, committing the twists and turns to memory. "Jak."
"Yeah."
"You remember how that guard said to find Mildred."
"Yeah."
Ryan touched the monitor. "Once you, Doc and J.B. get her, you figure you can find your
way here?"
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"Probably."
"I'm going to be counting on it."
Jak nodded.
"If he's got that place too well defended," Ryan said, "could be we'll come to find you."
J.B. rocked back on his heels, pointing the shotgun in the direction of the door. "We're
found." Even as he was talking, the door started to shake.
"Let's go," Ryan growled. "Getting pinned down here isn't going to do any good. Like as
not, Boldt's probably already got sec teams headed in this direction." He turned and led
the plunge into the darkness, his headlong pace just short of suicidal. The tunnel inclined,
taking them deeper into the mountain.
Then, without warning, the monitors in the sec room behind them suddenly exploded,
sending out showers of glass to slam against the walls of the room. A heartbeat later the
door was ripped from its hinges, followed immediately by the sound of gunfire.
Then Ryan took the second left fork ahead of him, pausing only long enough to wave a
brief salute to J.B.
"See you on the other side of this run," the Armorer said.
"Do that," Ryan replied. He turned and raced into the tunnel, Krysty only a half step
behind him.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Clove passed through the gate warily, easing through the sliding iron bars. His eyes
burned as he stared at Mildred. Then, as he drew closer, lust and curiosity stamped out all
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other feelings and emotions.
Mildred let him come, quelling the instinct inside herself to recoil from the young Celt's
advances. She didn't want him touching her, nor did she especially like what she had
planned for him. However, getting out of the cell required both.
Reaching out to her, Clove cupped one of her breasts timidly.
"Like what you got hold of, Clove?" Mildred asked. She let the desperation inside her
block out any remorse or humiliation.
"Yeah," Clove said huskily.
Mildred remained in her seated position, not wanting to do anything to startle the boy.
"You just be patient, though. Let me take care of you."
Clove shook his head. "There's no time. Someone could come "
Mildred grinned up at him as she reached for the front of his breeches and opened them.
"That is the idea." Then she had his cock in her hand, stroking it firmly.
"Oh, blessed Lugh," Clove said, suddenly sucking in his breath, "that feels so good."
"You ain't felt nothing yet," Mildred promised, shifting.
BOLDT FELT THE PANIC rise in him. The strangers were inside his fortress. Never in
all his years had the complex ever been invaded. He allowed in only those whom he
wanted in.
"Merlin, close down the nerve center."
Steel plates clanked down over both doors, closing them off from the two points of
egress. Farther out in the underground root system, other sections would be shut off, as
well.
"Done," the computer responded. Boldt studied the monitors before him. He could easily
identify Gehrig's men among the battling seed heralds and Celtic populace. Leaning on
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the machines, he forced his breath in and out, maintaining the adrenaline rush. Strong
emotion had always been an addiction for him. It was when be most felt like his father.
Boldt searched the screens, watching as the skirmish lines Pepper and his men had set up
suddenly gave way in front of the New Londoners' vehicles. "Reference the people who
first breached the integrity of this complex."
"Searching." One of the monitors suddenly started cycling images as Merlin flipped
through the banks and cameras available to him.
Boldt watched the carnage unfold on the screen. The fires had spread across the houses,
whirling infernos that at once covered over and backlit the struggle. One of the jeeps
from New London got too close to a tangler bed. A plant shot out, and as the cameras
outside picked up the motion and cataloged it, Boldt saw the poisonous thorn ram deep
into the man's throat.
The dead man lost control of the vehicle. It skidded and overturned, flipping and tearing
through one of the burning homes. Embers and flaming debris were scattered in all
directions, setting off even more fires.
"There are three groups," Merlin replied in the mechanical voice.
"Where?" Boldt demanded.
A map formed on the monitor that the computer had been directly accessing. Boldt
recognized the layout at once, realizing the strangers were closer than he'd imagined.
"Sec post 8 has been breached," Merlin said. "Uplinking video now."
"Has the system been shut down at that sec post?"
"Affirmative. Less than five seconds ago. Following primary security programming."
Boldt followed the maze of lines, locating the two groups of bright dots one paired, the
other in a triangular grouping that were headed in opposite directions. The three were
closing in on the cell where the woman was being kept under guard.
The pair was making the turn at the far end of the corridor that would bring them to the
outer door walling off the nerve center where Boldt stood. Somehow they'd found him.
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