The Temporal Knights Read Online Free PDF Page A

and a slight, grim smile. “Is your team ready?”
    Matt nodded. “Yes Sir. We could leave now if needed.”
    “Yes, that seems to be the consensus, but I’m afraid Lieutenant Cummings needs a bit more time to reroute our energy needs. But he will be ready in just under an hour, so be set at that time just in case,” Wilder said. “Come walk with me,” he said moving out of the room. Once in the hallway they were bombarded with official aids coming to the General with last minute suggestions or questions, and it took several moments before they were relatively free.
    “I thought you should know that I’ve decided that two volunteers should be left behind to manually detonate the nuke here at the mountain. We’ve erased all possible information about the Door from our computer systems, but the hardware will still remain. I’ve decided that this is too dangerous to leave to automation. We don’t want any clues at all left behind for the Skawps after we’re gone. If the nuke doesn’t blow, they may be able to piece together what we’ve done, where we’ve gone. Christ, the answer to the Door is in their own computers. It’s too important of a job to be left to machines.”
    Matt nodded, suddenly sick to his stomach, but aware of the necessity of the situation. It would be a mighty sacrifice for anyone. Wilder noticed his look.
    “We have to be sure! The nukes have to detonate! It’s imperative or I wouldn’t ask this of anyone.”
    “I know that Sir.”
    “Duncan Hoff is one of the volunteers,” Commander Wilder said softly.
    Matt’s ears began to roar, and his heart beat wildly in his chest. Duncan had been his close friend since before the first attack. He was there when Cindy and the kids died. They were the last of the pilots from Peterson Air Force Base.
    “Carl Knubley is the other...” Wilder said mostly to himself, but Matt hardly noticed.
    “You can find them in 22d West,” he added and Matt headed off.
    “Major Thane,” Wilder called to his back and Matt turned around, his face frozen in pain. “If there was any other way...” his voice trailed off and Matt suddenly noticed just how much his commander had aged these past few years.
    ‘God he’s an old man,’ Matt thought, and nodded that he understood.
    “I want you on that ship in twenty minutes, Major,” Matt heard as he spun and headed off running to 22d.
    “Yes Sir,” he yelled but did not stop and did not turn around.
    He burst into room 22d to find Duncan bent over Knubley’s shoulder staring at a computer screen, monitoring the progress of the Skawps against the flamethrowers.
    “Man, but they are a stupid lot,” Duncan said standing and catching the eye of his friend. They held the look for a long moment.
    “You heard,” Duncan said simply, and Matt was again painfully aware of the haunted look in his friend’s eyes. Duncan had been held out of the fighting for several weeks now. He had that look; the look of a man on the breaking point where he was a danger not only to himself, but also to everyone around him. It was the look Matt himself would have acquired had the war gone on only a month longer. It was the look of a supremely tired man.
    Matt nodded, trying to control his emotions.
    “Look,” Duncan started, “it’s not like we were going to see much of each other in the coming years...” He stopped as his throat suddenly constricted. Knubley stood and left the room without a word, only nodding slightly on his way out.
    “But why? You could have a new life...”
    “I haven’t had much of a life since Tammy and Suz died,” Duncan replied, suddenly quiet, thinking of his lost family. “I really don’t know what’s been keeping me going all these years, except maybe revenge...and our friendship. But I’m tired,” he added, finally bowing his head, “and I’m empty, and I consider it a huge privilege to explode the bomb that will kill so many of these…bastards. You have your bombs to drop and I have