Page 131 (1/2)

Phelps stood at the entrance to the passageith his lips contorted into a strained grin He was stripped to the waist, and a e soaked with blood covered the upper left part of his chest His face was pale, but his dark eyes were defiant

“You look like crap,” Austin said

“Feel like it too,” Phelps said

“What happened to you?”

“I figured Chang was going to be on hair trigger, thanks to you NUMA boys, so on rabbed a soft body-armor vest It only covered ’s bad aim Bastard nicked me in the shoulder”

“Why did he shoot you?”

“He got testy when I told hiht down in the shuttle”

“He planned to destroy the lab with people in it?”

“Oh, hell, they put down enough explosives to wreck the Great Wall of China Sloppy work, though Lucky they didn’t blow themselves up”

Phelps tossed a bundle of colored wires on the floor in an expert’s gesture of disdain for amateurish work

“What’s Chang going to do when he discovers that his explosives didn’t go off?” Austin asked

“My guess is, he’ll send somebody down to check it out” Phelps cocked his head “On second thought, he’ll probably come back to shoot your friends so he can tell you about it” He gingerly touched the bandage “Chang’s kinda bad-tempered that way”

“I’ve noticed,” Austin said “We’ve got to get everyone off the lab in the minisubs”

Phelps pointed at the black discs that had been pulverized under Chang’s heel

“These are circuits for the subs’ controls,” he said “Chang stomped them”