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Boris, a thirteen-year-old with eyes so blue they appeared frosted, see her His talent was an eidetic htened He even reo with the others?" he asked

More heads nodded

Savina sed before answering "There is another path for all of you Do you have your bags packed?"

They just stared No ansas necessary Of course their bags were packed The question displayed the level of her own nervousness Before her lay the power that would fuel the Motherland into a new era And deep down, Savina knew such a power re in an hour," Savina said

Those ten pairs of blue eyes stared back at her

Footsteps sounded behind her She turned as one of the technicians joined her

"General-Major," he said, "we’re having solitch with the blast doors on the other side of the tunnel If you could advise us how to proceed"

She nodded, glad to focus her mind upon a problem

She followed the technician back to the staircase Still, she felt those ten pairs of eyes tracking her, cold and dispassionate, icy in their regard To escape their judgment, she hurried down the stairs

"Open the doors!" Monk called to Konstantin

From inside the control station, the boy nodded Electricthe blast doors out of the way, splitting down theover to him, out of breath "Five minutes," the boy warned

Monk understood Konstantin had sent the tunnel’s digital canostic shutdown and reboot The clever kid had engineered a five- to evacuate the children from the train before the cameras were back online

There was little else he could do The master control station lay at the other end of the tunnel Once the subterfuge was detected, the other station would kill the power to Konstantin’s shack

They had only this one shot

As the doors parted, Monk squeezed through, followed by Konstantin Marta also loped after them The old chimpanzee wheezed with exhaustion, but she didn’t slow, even passing Monk

The old girl knew they had to hurry

A hundred yards away, the train rested on the tracks

Monk ran toward it, hopping a bit on his wounded leg Konstantin called out in Russian, yelling at theet off the train and out the blast door The boy waved both his ar as quickly as possible"

Monk jangled alongside the train as he ran He carried two assault rifles over his shoulders, each with sixty-round iven him a lesson on the manual drive mechanism for the train It wasn’tthe train, Monk trotted along one side, Konstantin along the other "Everyone off the train!" Monk shouted "Out the doors!"

Konstantin echoed his orders in Russian

Still, chaos ruled for a full half rabbed at hi But the kids were also well trained to follow orders Slowly the tide shifted, and the children began to drift down the tunnel toward the doors

No longer crowded underfoot, Monk reached the last car, a covered cab He leaped through the open door and went to the front end A sreen and red stick Green for go Red for the brakes A ss

Monk did not have time for finesse He leaned out the"Konstantin!"

The boy’s voice echoed to hireen lever forward Electricity popped, casting a few sparks into the darkness ahead The train lurched forward, then began to roll off down the tunnel

Four et this train to the other end of the tunnel before the camera system rebooted It was up to Konstantin to herd the children out of the tunnel and close the blast doors Monk had instructed the boy how to jaears so that the doors would remain closed

Konstantin also had one other task

Monk had confiscated a pair of the nal Konstantin to open thee of surprise--and two fully loaded assault rifles While likely a suicide mission, what choice did he have? The children were safe for the moment, but if Operation Saturn succeeded, how many millions more would die? Monk had no choice but to stor

Initially, he had considered sabotaging the estion The charges--fifty of them--were primed with radio detonators Even if he could scale the half kilo of the explosives risked setting them off

So the matter was settled

With a rattle of wheels, the train sailed down the dark tunnel, lit by occasional bare bulbs The front cab also had a single headlalow ahead of him As the train trundled faster and faster, Monk noted kilo to Konstantin, the tunnel ran four kilo off a full ht side, he saw the number 2 stenciled into the wall