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"I can't say," Kalmiya replied, "but perhaps there's a back door you can use to escape."
"Yes, yes." Dr. Halsey downloaded all of Ackerson's secret files to her data pad. "I'll consider that later. Right now we should concentrate—"
"Detecting increased seismic activity, Doctor."
Dr. Halsey froze. She felt it more than saw it—a series of faint, rhythmic thumps, like thunder in the distance.
Dust rained from the ceiling tiles and scattered the light for the holographic system into a dazzling starburst.
"They're coming," Dr. Halsey whispered. She opened a COM channel to the Spartans. "Get back to the lab ASAP. I might have away out!"
She stumbled as a powerful blast rocked the chamber. There was a shriek of stressed metal, and the main support beam over?head shifted, fell, and crashed onto her desk.
The lights went dead.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
0901 hours, August 30,2552 (Military Calendar)\Epsilon Eridani system, ONI underground facility, planet Reach.
The secure storage doors whispered open, and overhead fluo?rescent lights strobed on. Fred saw motion—but it was only his own reflection in the burnished-mirror finish of the chamber's stainless-steel walls. Will stepped inside and looked up, then glanced back down the corridor.
The room was a three-by-five-meter vault with steel walls, floor, and ceiling. Their footfalls were muffled as they entered, so the floor had to be at least a quarter meter thick. Along the right and left walls stood secure floor-to-ceiling lockers, and two metal crates sat along the far wall. Every surface was spotless, and every seam had been precision-milled to prevent explosives or acids from penetrating.
"One moment, please," Kalmiya told them. "I'm attempting to access the locks now. Please stand by."
Will stood at the doorway and watched their backs. It didn't make Fred feel any more at ease. The abandoned ONI base was somehow more intimidating than facing the Covenant invasion force overhead. He had walked down these corridors a dozen times during his training on Reach. This base had always been full of people; now, empty, it drove the point home that the Cove?nant were winning. First the Outer Colonies had been crushed; now Reach. How long before humanity was forced to retreat all the way back to Earth? And after that... what? There would be no other choice but victory or extinction.
Enough. Such musings didn't help him achieve his immediate
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objective. He'd leave the long-range strategies to Generals and Admirals. It was time to concentrate on what he did best.
The walls hummed as thick metal bolts inside the lockers re?tracted, the sound of heavy oiled steel sliding over steel. With a final thump, the sound ceased.
Kalmiya said, "Lockers open and safeties disabled, Spartans. Help yourselves."
"Secure the outer door, please," Fred told her.
The door to the hallway eased shut and locked, and Will moved to Fred's side. Each Spartan opened one of the wall lock?ers, standing to the side in case there was some leftover booby trap within that Kalmiya had failed to disable.