Industrial Evolution полностью

“But who are these people, anyway? They must have been down here for generations, right? So where’d they come from? Why do they speak English? What’s got them all ticked off at us surface dwellers all of a sudden?”

“I have none of these answers. Perhaps the talker in the group will be persuaded to answer your questions when we overtake them.” Remo didn’t think so. The albino had barely used complete sentences and he talked as though he had gravel in his cheeks.

“Nice to see ya again,” Remo said to the guard at the desk at the Intersection.

The guard had his feet on the desk and was leaning back on the back legs of the chair, but Remo’s appearance sent him tumbling to the floor, shouting out a profanity that was cut off with the heavy clonk of his skull hitting the rock floor.

“You have a way with people,” Chiun observed. They walked into the outer perimeter of the work areas at the Pit. The control operator at the silent shipping dock was almost as surprised at the guard, but jumped to his feet instead of landing on his head.

“Is Wools around?”

“I’ll call him. Stay right here.”

“No, thank you. You’d better call the medic, too. Your guard at the Intersection just gave himself a concussion.”

“Wait, where are you going? You can’t just walk around down here!”

They walked, and weren’t surprised when the red lights began flashing in their wall fixtures and the alarm started blurting raucously.

Hal Wools couldn’t believe how his luck was flipflopping. First the NRC weirdoes show up, getting nosy, then they go for a little exploring into the Pit of No Return. Then, more than a day later, just when. he’s starting to breathe easily, the sons of bitches return.

Well, they were still in his mine shaft. Wools was the king of the Pit, and nobody left the Pit without Wools’s say-so, especially if they threatened the future of this facility. Everybody down here agreed with him on the need to protect the facility, as scared as they might be of whatever was making people vanish. After all, they were all going to be millionaires when this thing became fully operational.

“They’re heading for the elevators,” reported one of his staff on the walkie-talkie.

“Get security there in force. Do not let them board the elevator. Repeat, do not let them board.”

Wools ran for the elevators himself.

“Oh good, it’s here already. I hate waiting for the elevator.” Remo nodded to the point man of the ranks who had taken up a position between the Masters of Sinanju and the elevator. “Nice of you all to see us off.”

“We can’t let you board the elevator, sir.”

“Sure, you can.”

“I ordered them not to,” Wools panted as he arrived, winded from jogging.

“Hiya, Hal. I’d come with us if I were you. You’re not safe down here. The same folks that killed the guards and took the other MIAs are coming back soon.”

“What are you talking about?” Hal didn’t sound as if he really wanted to know.

“Listen, Hal, and all of Hal’s friends within the sound of my voice. The truth is that there is an access way through Shaft C. Some very bad people are lurking around down there, killing some of you, taking others.” Remo had decided against revealing that the killers actually lived inside the earth.

“Liar!” Wools growled.

“In the last day we saw no less than two teams of attackers on their way to the Pit. The first team was just six guys, but the second team was almost thirty. We disabled both the teams, but there could be more right behind them.”

“Preposterous!” Wools tried to laugh as if Remo were telling a grand joke. “You’re spreading lies!”

“I’m giving these people the chance to save themselves,” Remo responded. “I’m taking that elevator to the surface right now—I’d advise the rest of you to follow me.”

Wools’s face darkened. “I can’t let you go.” He turned to his forces. “Arrest them.”

The security forces moved in on Remo and Chiun, only to find Remo and Chiun everywhere else but where they had been. The pair moved through the ranks like slippery shadows, grabbing guns. In seconds the armed guards were no longer armed.

“We’ll just take these with us,” Remo said, dropping the pile of automatic rifles on the floor of the elevator. “Wouldn’t want you shooting at us when we’re on our way up.”

“Stop them!” Wools shouted, and his men descended on the elevator as the gate shut. Two of them blocked the gate bodily. Remo spun them like tops, their arms flying out uncontrollably and slapping the other armed men before they collapsed, dazed. The gate on the elevator slammed shut.

“Bye, now.”

“Get them,” Wools shouted.

Probing fingers reached through the gate and attempted to reach the emergency stop button, but Chiun snicked at them with his razor-sharp Nails of Eternity. The fingers plopped to the floor of the elevator and their former owners retreated, trying to hold their blood in.

“We’ll send back the guns and the fingers when we get off,” Remo said. “You’ll need them both when the cavemen get here.”