Elric to Rescue Tanelorn - Michael Moorcock [93]
They could now see shapes flickering around them, like a colour-film negative. Traceries of deep red and luminous blue veined the walls.
Then the lights went out and they were in pitch blackness.
One wall became transparent all at once. Behind it a huge black-and-white disc began to whirl, and a rhythmic boom swam up the decibel scale, almost to pain level. It seemed that the enlarged room swayed like a ship as they staggered after Jerry, who was none too steady on his pins himself, heading straight for the disc.
Jerry grabbed a gun from one of the dazed, mesmerized mercenaries, switched it to full automatic, and fired an entire magazine into the wall. Plastic cracked, but the disc continued to whirl. As he turned to take another gun, Jerry saw that all of them were now transfixed by the disc.
Another burst and the plastic shattered. The bullets struck the disc, and it began to slow down.
Behind them the far wall slid upwards, and half a dozen of Frank’s guards stood there.
Jerry ignored them as he kicked a larger hole in the wall and smashed at the big disc with his gun butt until it crumpled.
“Throw down your arms!” ordered the chief guard.
Jerry flung himself through the hole. Aiming between Miss Brunner and Dimitri, who were beginning to blink back into wakefulness, he killed the chief guard.
The shot seemed to be enough to bring the others round quickly. Almost before Jerry knew it Miss Brunner had jumped through the hole, her high heels catching him on his buttocks.
Firing broke out generally, but Mr. Smiles, Dimitri and Mr. Crookshank all got through safely, although several of the mercenaries, including the big South African, died.
They fought back until they had killed all Frank’s guards. It was fairly easy from their cover.
They were in a small room, now bathed in a soft red light, a sound like the swish of the sea in their ears.
Something dropped from the ceiling and bounced on the floor until its sides opened up.
“Nerve bomb!” Jerry yelled. “Cover your mouths!”
He knew there was an exit somewhere to the right of the smashed disc. He edged in that direction and found it, using his gun to prise it open. If they didn’t get out shortly, their nose filters wouldn’t help them.
He went through the doorway, and they followed him.
The next room was yellow, full of soothing murmurs. A remote-control camera panned around close to the ceiling. One of the mercenaries shot it. A normal door, unlocked, opened onto a flight of stairs leading upward.
There wasn’t another door. They ascended the stairs. At the top three men waited for them.
“Frank’s spreading his guards thin,” said Jerry.
Their first burst missed him but shot the head of one of the Belgians to bits. Feeling panicky, Jerry hugged the wall, raising his needle gun and shooting a guard in the throat.
Behind him the leading mercenaries opened up. One guard fell at once, blood spurting from his stomach. The second fired down the stairwell and got two more mercenaries, including one of the Britons.
Jerry, rapidly repressuring his gun, shot him, too.
On the first-floor landing everything was silent, and Jerry relaxed his pursed lips. The mercenaries, with the civilians behind them, moved up onto the landing and looked at him questioningly.
“My brother’s almost certainly in the main control room,” Jerry said. “That’s two floors down now, and there’ll be extra guards turning up at any moment.” Jerry pointed at a television camera near the ceiling. “Don’t shoot it. He isn’t using it at the moment for some reason, and if we put it out he’ll know we’re here.”
“He must have guessed, surely,” said Miss Brunner.
“You’d think so. Also, he would have sent some reinforcements here by now. He could have a trap waiting somewhere for us—wants us to relax a little. This landing’s equipped with a Schizomat in a panel in that wall. My father’s crowning achievement, he always thought.”
“And