'At E-Branch?' Trask's voice rasped his anxiety.
'No. Out there. At the Refuge!'
Trask trusted the other's talent to the limit. He didn't question him further, except to say, 'When?'
'Any time now!'
'Who is it?'
'I can't see it too clearly. Just explosions - shouting -violence! And Ben - I don't see you. You and David Chung, you're not there!'
'But we are here!'
'Not in the immediate future.'
Trask felt the short hairs at the back of his neck stand on end. 'Death?'
'God, I don't know! But before I've always known you'd be there - in my future, I mean - now you're not...'
Nathan saw the expression on Trask's face, said, 'What is it?'
'Get down to the basement, the cellars, whatever the hell they call that place down there . .. the sump, yes. Go now, Nathan. And you too, David.'
'And you?' Chung's face was suddenly shiny with sweat. He knew it must be bad.
'I'm coming.' Trask nodded, 'but not without one of these! He snatched up a machine-pistol from the floor, one of the few remaining items of weaponry in the room, and slammed a full magazine into its housing. 'Now come on, let's go!'
The phone was dead in Trask's hand. He hooked it into his breast pocket and let it dangle.