Malherne looked uncertainly toward the desk. "I'll do what I can," he said.
When Randall and McClellan threw their combined weights against the panel in the Hive corridor, they had no idea what lay beyond.
The metal sheet bulged, then popped from its guides, and Randall sprawled through the opening, with McClellan atop him.
They found themselves in a room which was shining white from ceiling to floor. In the middle of the room was a flat white table over which several Kralons were absorbed.
Gathered around the central figures were a dozen or more Kralons, apparently spectators. And on the table lay something which Randall knew, from its outlines, had once been human.
Randall looked around for a weapon. A neat stack in one corner of the room caught his eye. There were a dozen or more foot-long metal bus-bars or ingots, apparently spares for fusing electrical circuits.
McClellan followed his glance. Simultaneously both men dove for the bars, each arming himself with one of the twenty-pound metal ingots.
Meanwhile, the room was in a furor. The metallic clack of Kralon conversation sounded furiously, and huge insect figures were converging from all sides.
"Back to back," said Randall tersely, "and let 'em have it!"