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In the meantime, the Spartans would use these.
The Master Chief strapped the curved piece of metal to his forearm. He touched one of the two largebuttons on the unit and a scintillating film appeared before him.
He handed the other shield devices to his teammates.
He pressed the second button and the shield collapsed.
“Don’t use these unless you have to,” he said. “The humming and their reflective surfaces might give usaway . . . and we don’t know how long they last.”
He got three acknowledgment lights.
Kelly and Fred took up positions on either side of the open door. She gave him a thumbs-up.
Kelly took point and the Spartans moved, single file, up a circular stairwell.
She paused a full ten seconds at the doorway to the main floor. She waved them ahead and they emergedon the main level of the museum.
The skeleton of a blue whale was suspended over the main foyer. The dead hulk reminded the MasterChief of a Covenant starship. He turned away from the distraction and slowly moved over the blackmarble tiles.
Oddly, there were no more Jackal patrols. There were a hundred Jackals outside guarding the place . . .but none inside.
The Master Chief didn’t like it. It didn’t feel right . . . and Chief Mendez had told him a thousand timesto trust his instincts. Was it a trap?
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The Spartans staggered their line and moved cautiously into the east wing. There were displays of thelocal flora and fauna: gigantic flowers and fist-sized beetles. But their motion sensors were cold.
Fred halted . . . and then, with a quick hand signal, waved John to move up to his position.
He stood by a case of pinned butterflies. On the floor, facedown in front of that case, was a Jackal. Itwas dead, crushed flat. There was an imprint of a large boot where the creature’s back had been.Whatever had done this had easily weighed a ton.
The Master Chief spotted a few blood-smeared prints leading away from the Jackal . . . and into the westwing.
He flipped on his infrared sensors and took a long look around—no heat sources here or in the nearby
rooms.
The Master Chief followed the footprints and signaled the team to follow.
The west wing held scientific displays. There were static electric generators and quantum fieldholograms on the walls, a tapestry of darting arrows and wriggling lines. A cloud chamber sat in thecorner with subatomic tracers zipping through its misty confines—the Master Chief noted it wasunusually active. This place reminded him of Déjà’s classroom on Reach.
A branch opened to another wing. The word GEOLOGY was carved on the entry arch.
Through that arch there was a strong infrared source, a razor-thin line that shot straight up and out of thebuilding. The Master Chief only caught a glimpse of the thing—a wink and a blink then it was goneagain . . . it was so bright his IR sensors overloaded and automatically shut down.
He waved James to take the left side of the arch. He had Kelly and Fred drop back to cover their flanks,and the Master Chief edged to the right of the arch.