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ERIC NYLUND
305
He used both hands to point at Fred and Linda, turned his
hands so they pointed to himself, and then nodded to the data
terminal.
Linda lay flat and slithered to the edge of the alcove shadows
on his right; Fred took the left. They would cover him while he
moved to the terminal.
John reached to the back of his neck and pulled Cortana's chip
from his skull. He crawled on his stomach, hugging the wall until
he got to the terminal. He slid Cortana's chip into the input slot
and then eased back into the shadows.
"I'm in," Cortana reported over the COM. "I have secured our
own channel and encrypted the signal so we're free to use the
interteam COM."
"Good work," John told her. "Is there a central reactor in this
station? How well defended is it?"
"Stand by. I have to move carefully. There are Covenant secu-
rity AIs in this system."
John hoped that this copy of Cortana's infiltration routines
was as good as the real Cortana.
"I have schematics for the station," she told him. "The good
news is, each lobe has a central reactor complex with five hun-
dred twelve-terawatt units similar in design to the pinch fusion
reactors on their ships. Apparently this energy is used to power a
shield generator that can repel the collision of a small moon. I
can overload one reactor, causing the melting of its field coils,
which will saturate the surrounding—"
"Will it explode?" John asked impatiently.
"Yes—an explosion of sufficient force to vaporize both
sections."
"That's the good news? What's the bad?"
"The reactor's control system is isolated. I cannot reach it
from this terminal. You will have to physically deliver me there."
"Where is 'there'?"
"The nearest reactor-control access point is seven kilometers
farther into the station's top lobe."
John considered this. If they were careful and lucky, it might
be possible.
"Is there a way to leave you in the central system until we need