Hard Drop (14 page)

“Problem, Cap?” Chip asked, landing behind him.
 

Tyco shook his head slowly, searching the shaft for something he knew should be there, feeling along the smooth walls in the near-darkness. Leave it to the engineers to hide things a little too well, he thought, running his hands along the smooth metal until he found what he was looking for.

“There you are.” He said at last, opening a small black box tucked neatly into a corner of the shaft.
 

Chip let go of his rope and pulled the packet of cigarettes from his pocket. The flame of his lighter illuminated the darkness briefly, then went out, leaving only the dull red glow of the end of his cigarette to light the shaft. He glanced at Tyco, curious to see what the Commander was up to at the wall.

Tyco wedged open the metal box, revealing a small microchip embedded in a mess of wiring. Chip took a long drag of his cigarette and stared over Tyco’s shoulder as Tyco started slicing through the wires.
 

“The fuck is that, Cap?” He asked, exhaling slowly.
 

“Door controls.” Tyco answered quickly, without looking back.
 

“What door?” Chip asked, his voice loud and echoing in the quiet shaft. Tyco turned to see Chip standing freely on the elevator floor, his rappelling rope hanging loosely at his side.
 

“The one you’re standing on!” Tyco shouted with alarm, leaping towards Chip with one hand firmly on his own rope.
 

“What?” Chip asked, confused, as Tyco launched through the air towards him.
 

Tyco collided with Chip just as the floor gave way. He shoved him sideways, towards his rope, reaching for the sniper and missing as the man plunged into the darkness below.
 

Chip flailed, grasping for his line as he fell. His fingers brushed it once, twice, and then wrapped around it just in time, just as the gleam of the true shaft floor came into view. The rope burned through his gloves for a good fifty feet before he came to a hard, painful stop, breathing hard as he dangled on his rope far below the team.
 

Several long minutes later, Hog came bounding down the shaft, shaking her head as Chip gingerly worked his way down his rope hand over hand.
 

“Smart.” She said. “Real smart.”
 

He ignored her, groaning as he lowered himself to the floor. Tyco glided to a stop and unhooked close by, chuckling as he watched Chip pick his still-burning cigarette from the floor with stiff, pained fingers.

“We good now, Cap?” Chip asked quietly.
 

“Yeah.” Tyco grinned wryly. “This is the last stop.”
 

Chip smiled back thinly, picked up the cigarette that had fallen from his lips, and inhaled slowly. “Thanks for the heads-up.”

The gloom inside the building was thick and tense. At 20 stories below ground level, they were relying on the dim red emergency lights lining the hallways to guide them. The passage here was narrow, lined by a series of small side doors, locked down and disappearing as if camouflaged into the wall. There was no damage here, no sign of the violence above. Nor was there room to maneuver, and Tyco led on as quickly as possible, almost recklessly, knowing an ambush would be unavoidable no matter how cautiously they moved.
 

He cut down a long, narrow, slanting ramp, descending farther into the structure until they reached a large security gate running the width of the passage. It blinked a steady, unchanging red; emergency lock-down was in effect.

“Bingo.” Tyco said with relief, and took the last few steps down the ramp towards it, approaching the gate controls glowing in the wall. He was more than ready to have this mission done.
 

Hog assumed command as Tyco busied himself with the controls, arranging the team in rearguard positions. It was unspoken and assumed that she lead in his absence, her authority unquestioned. Even Mac, the junior trooper in this group, seemed to understand it implicitly. He held his rifle ready now, staring towards the door, tense and waiting on her command. Chip smoked in unhappy silence. His rifle would be useless in these close quarters even if it was needed, and anyway he saw no need for vigilance.

The controls were jammed, rendered unresponsive by the high emergency protocol that had locked down the whole building. It was going to take more than a basic hack to get it open. Tyco stepped back and slammed the panel with the butt of his rifle, the impact deafeningly loud in the cramped quarters.

“Cap – “ Hog started. “There are other ways – “
 

But Tyco grinned at her easily, without a trace of anger on his face. He reached back and flipped up the broken panel with a deft hand. “Had to get it loose.” He said, ripping out the wires and connecting them directly to his wrist display. He waited until the display beeped in response, then keyed in a long override code, reading each digit from his rifle display. The controls whirred to life, processing the code as it sent. The facility groaned loudly around them, the shivering metal audible over their expectant silence.
 

“Chip - ?” Hog asked quietly, staring back down the corridor.
 

“Nothing.” He answered casually, shrugging as he smoked. “The wind.”

The gate unlocked loudly in front of them, its large metal doors pulling apart with a shuddering groan. Blinding white light poured through the opening. Tyco stepped back instinctively, shielding his eyes, stepping quickly to the side and out of the line of fire. The team took up positions along the wall behind him, guns raised and ready, advancing towards the door.
 

“Chip - ?” Hog asked, nervously.

“Can’t see shit,” Chip cut her off, and then added, with bitter sarcasm, “Cap.”
 

Ghost flicked his safety off and moved in.
 

“Sir, do you see anything?” He asked pointedly. Tyco didn’t respond, and he repeated “Commander?”
 

Tyco shook his head, finally, staring into the bright white space beyond the gate.
 

“Negative.” He said at last, stepping forwards into the open passage. “It’s empty.”
 

He walked into the light. The team followed quickly, their eyes adjusting slowly to the blinding brightness.
 

They found themselves stepping across the shining white floor of a laboratory clean room. Bright overhead lights shone down on gleaming counters, sparkling off of floor-to-ceiling computer displays. Heavy reams of old-fashioned print materials were stacked high, spilling wild and disheveled across every surface in a manic frenzy.

But the room was empty, each footstep echoing hollowly off the walls. There was no indication that it had been anything other than deserted for weeks, even months.

“What are we looking for here, sir?” Hog asked quietly.
 

Tyco grimaced. “Not sure.”

He touched the nearest computer display, bringing the dark, gently buzzing screen to life. A security prompt appeared, blinking white against the black background. Tyco once again entered his override code meticulously, making certain each digit was correct. The displays surrounding the team flickered to life one by one as the computer processed, the sparkling white monitors turning on and making the room even brighter. In the middle of each one was the jagged infinity design, unbroken like the one that had crowned the building outside. Tyco ignored it, focusing instead on the message blinking at the center of the display.

‘ENTER PARAMETER’, the basic grey database screen prompted, the message repeated on every monitor around the room. Tyco typed in ‘MAP-11’.
 

The troopers waited tensely, each staring at a different screen around the room in anticipation. The displays flickered once in unison, blinking on and off, then presented a small, neat message in the middle of their screens.
 

There, in small white letters against a red background, were the words ‘INSUFFICIENT CLEARANCE.’
 

They stared at the monitors, open-mouthed and disbelieving. It was a joke, an awful piece of gallows humor too grim even for their dark humor. Anger flashed in Tyco’s eyes as he stared at the screen, and his knuckles whitened around the grip of his rifle.
 

 
“God damn it.” Chip was the first to move and he moved violently. Turning toward the desks, he reached down and flung a heavy sheaf of paper across the room, its thin white pages fluttering down onto the floor. “Once, just once, I fucking swear – “ He whirled and slashed at a chair, kicking it over and sending it crashing into a monitor. “Just
once
give us a fucking chance!”
 

His anger had flashed suddenly, without warning, though it did not come as a surprise. Everyone was weary of the mission, frustrated and angered by their ineffective deployment. The loss of their friends and comrades had come into painful relief with the loss of Ringo, and now, their betrayal by the Admiralty’s need-to-know discretion had poured salt in an open wound. Each of the troopers felt Chip’s anguish, and they watched mutely as he tore through the room. The red-tagged clearance message blinked mockingly through the splintered glass.
 

“Just
once
!” Chip stood over the papers, his face distorted in a mask of fury.
 

“Chip.” Tyco said, calmly. “Have a fucking smoke.”
 

Chip stared at him hatefully, his chest heaving and hands shaking against his rifle. “Yeah,” he said, at last, taking a deep, heavy breath. “I should do that.”

“Gentlemen.” The voice came from the passage at the far end of the chamber. A large, hulking figure emerged from it, stepping out into the light. The man was dressed in a white lab coat too small for his mass, disheveled and dirty, his voice thinner and higher-pitched than the body that produced it suggested. But his eyes sparkled with amusement. “There’s no need to do that.” He said, smiling smugly from person to person. “I’ll come quietly, I promise.”
 

They stared back at him, unsmiling and unamused. Chip drew his pistols instantly, pointing them squarely at the intruder’s head. Hog and Mac followed suit. Ghost hung back and kept his rifle low, but his eyes stayed fixed on the newcomer’s every movement.
 

The man stopped in his tracks, but the amused expression remained on his face as he looked around the room.

“Who are you?” Tyco asked, stepping forward with a steady grip on his rifle. “What are you doing here?”
 

“I’m – a researcher.” The man said, holding up his hands in mock surrender. “Dr. Ethan Shelley. I came down here when the fighting started.”
 

Tyco stared at him, sizing him up, considering the likelihood he was telling the truth. On this planet, given what they’d seen so far, it wasn’t high, and the man’s dirty, ill-fitting clothing didn’t help his case. The doctor stared back, meeting Tyco’s wary eyes, smug and unintimidated. If he was lying, he was being cold-blooded about it.

“Show me.” Tyco growled at last, motioning him towards one of the working monitors. They had blacked out since Chip’s outburst, resetting to their welcome screen.

The doctor nodded evenly, his eyes drifting slowly back towards Chip’s pistols. “Would you mind?” He asked, motioning for the troopers to lower their weapons. “I assure you, I’m not a threat.”
 

Tyco nodded warily. “At ease.” He said, with a quick glance at the team. They obeyed, lowering their weapons slightly and backing away. Shelley stepped towards the monitor, tapping quickly to bring up the login prompt. His fingers flew across the screen with practiced ease. He entered his code quickly and submitted with a flourish, turning away from the monitor with a look of expectant triumph.

The team was silent, waiting cautiously on the result. The screens around them flickered and reloaded, then faded into a solid, unchanging black.
 

“Cap - ?” Chip asked, his grip tightening on the pistol in his right hand.
 

But the monitors came to life again, bringing up the same welcome screen that Tyco had encountered.
 

Tyco nodded approvingly and looked back at Chip. “At ease.” He said, again, with a bemused smile on his face.
 

“Satisfied?” Shelley turned to face Tyco, doing nothing to hide the amusement on his face.
 

“No.” Tyco answered, ignoring the doctor’s mocking, condescending tone. “Where’s the weapon?”

The smile on Shelley’s face dimmed, but he held his expression, bluffing bravely. “What weapon?” He asked.
 

Chip growled in the silence behind Tyco, shaking his head. He was decidedly not in the mood.
 

Tyco, too, was unconvinced, and he pressed the point home firmly. “Our orders are to proceed to coordinates 55’64”, 45’50”, locate military installation, locate weapon designation MAP-11, and neutralize.”
 

Shelley nodded slowly, considering the information. He waited a long time before answering. “Those are the wrong coordinates. ”
 

“Now there’s a surprise…” Hog muttered sarcastically, shaking her head.
 

“The weapons research facility is under the mountain,” He continued. “But I’m sorry, Captain, there’s nothing there.”
 

Tyco stared at the man curiously. “What do you mean, nothing?”
 

Shelley shook his head and shrugged. “The city’s been overrun for days – weeks even. Whatever was in there, whatever they’ve sent you for, it’s gone.”
 

Tyco cocked his head to the side and frowned. “We’re going to have to confirm that.”
 

“Captain – “ Shelley responded, but Tyco interrupted him.
 

“It’s
Commander
.” He said. “And my orders are specific. We are going to proceed to the correct coordinates and find that device. Or what’s left of it.”