Shades of Gray (33 page)

“It might come in useful, Captain,” said M’kou. “After all, wasn’t it an omen you found a carving of it on the Orbital?”

“Since when did you become superstitious?” he demanded of the young lieutenant. “Do what you damned well want, so long as it doesn’t delay us any longer! I’ve one person injured already, and we’re getting too close to our deadline!”

He turned away from M’kou and began walking toward the right-hand tunnel entrance. “We have forty minutes left not only to reach the Control Room but to break in and take over the Palace and its defenses.” The clock in his head was ticking down at an alarming rate now.

“There is only another 350 feet of tunnel, Captain,” said M’kou, accepting Khadui’s sword. “Ten minutes at most.”

“I didn’t expect to meet that down here,” said Kusac, as he watched the ’bots scuttle ahead. “This is the second rockfall we’ve seen; there could be more ahead as we pass farther under the Palace.”

He waited for them, his suit picking up the almost inaudible hum as the vibro blade was activated. One slice and the head would be severed.

“Seal it with a blaster,” he ordered. “I’m not having it leave a trail and possibly attract more of them, or stink the tunnel out ahead so the Primes smell it as soon as we break in.” The germ of a plan was beginning to form in his mind.

 

They were on their way again, the head of the beast stowed in a backpack, Zsurtul and Valden talking about it in excited low voices, with the occasional dry comment from Zhalmo. Up ahead, he could already make out what looked like another partial blockage.

Calling up the map on his HUD, he checked the area out. “J’korrash, there’s a dip in the tunnel ahead and a rock pile that doesn’t look natural. Check out the map.” He stopped just before the ’bots would reach it.

She was at his elbow a moment later. “You’re right,” she said. “It’s not ours, Captain. Ours were mainly trip wires to alarms, and the ’bots found them all so far. This is K’hedduk’s work.”

“I’ll send the ’bots on ahead,” he said, pulling the remote for them off his belt. “We should all back off another five feet or so.”

Increasing their range, he watched the faint telltales on his HUD as the ’bots scuttled past the partial barricade and down into the dip.

“They’ve not stopped, and we can’t see what’s beyond it until we’re actually there.” He looked up at J’korrash, seeing only the faint image of her face through the special Prime coating on both their helmets. “I need you and Q’almo to go ahead and scout it out. Be careful, it’s likely to be a trap.”

“Understood, Captain,” she said quietly, turning away to call for Q’almo.

Guns held ready, the two advanced slowly to the barrier, skirting around it then disappearing from sight.

“There’s nothing obvious to see, Captain,” she said a few moments later. “It’s a small cavern, and apart from the barricade, it looks the same as we left it.”

“Stop when you get to the center,” he said.

“Aye, sir. Approaching there now. Still seems normal. No, wait.”

The channel fell silent.

“J’korrash, report,” he snapped after a minute’s prolonged silence.

“Sorry, sir. Seems to be another blockage, this time filling most of both tunnels where our route splits up ahead. We can’t see from here whether it’s natural or not.”

“The ’bots are just ahead of you. What’re they doing?”

“Nothing,” said Q’almo. “They can’t go any farther. They don’t seem to have found anything, though.”

“It could be mined,” he muttered to himself as he mentally ran through all Kaid’s knowledge of dirty tricks, searching for an answer, and coming up blank. If there were explosives, the ’bots would surely sniff them out—unless they were buried deep in the fake fall-in. “Stay where you are,” he ordered. “We’re coming in. Zhalmo, take Valden and Zsurtul to the rear and keep them there.”

They advanced slowly toward the barricade, edging carefully past it until they were inside the small cavern. Even with all his senses straining to find anything unnatural in the area, he could sense nothing that was out of the ordinary.

Ahead, the floor of the cavern was uneven, with several large boulders strewn haphazardly about where the long gone river’s flow had left them. Just beyond the center, some twenty feet away, J’korrash and Q’almo waited for them.

“Single file. Stay close to the walls,” he said, leading by example. “If anything happens, it should be safer there. J’korrash, Q’almo, head for the other side. Work your way closer to the rockfall.”

Time was wasting again, but they couldn’t afford to be careless this close to their goal.

He held up his hand, signaling those behind to stop just before he got to the halfway mark. J’korrash and Q’almo were approaching the second barrier now.

“Blockage seems to be mainly across the right-hand fork, Captain,” said J’korrash, her voice a soft whisper. “We’ll still have to dismantle some of it to get through, though.”

He did some rapid calculations, mostly involving the time they had left—twenty-six minutes and forty-five seconds.

“Back off fifteen feet, then hit the left-hand side with five thirty-second streams from the rifles,” he ordered. He had no option but to risk the lives of the two commandos. They had to get into the Control Room in time to turn off the force field and the gun turrets, or the area outside the Palace walls would become a killing ground. Nerves taut, he settled back against the wall, watching them, gun ready for anything that presented itself as a target.

Slowly the two soldiers backed off until they were at the distance Kusac had said. As one, they began to shoot at the rockfall, streams of energy leaping from the barrels of their rifles and splattering over the surface.

Far away, out by the Orbital, Kusac felt Carrie’s fear and reached out to her.

 

Just slow your breathing, cub. Take long, slow breaths,
Kusac sent, keeping as much of his attention as he could on what J’korrash and Q’almo were doing.

Inside her helmet, she nodded, forcing herself to hold her breath a little longer before taking another gulp of air.

That’s right. Now let it out,
Kusac sent, his tone gentle and patient.

With an effort, she began to release the breath as a great weight continued to press her deeper and deeper into the pod’s padding.

She heard a mental chuckle, and afterward she swore she felt the touch of Kusac’s fingers on her cheek.

Kusac? Kusac!
she cried out. “Don’t go yet!” The break in their contact hurt so much.

He has to, Dzinae. He has his own people to look after,
sent Kaid.
I’m right behind you. Just breathe slowly like he said, and you’ll be fine.

Fighting down the panic, she began to gain control of her breathing and tried not to envisage how she was tumbling toward the planet’s surface at a speed that was already beginning to burn the outer ablative shell off the drop pod.

It’s designed to burn up a layer at a time,
sent Dzaka, his mental tone steadying her and driving away the last of her panic.
I’ll be here for you, Carrie. My father will contact you when he can, but he has to oversee the whole mission too.

I understand,
she replied.

 

A murmur of conversation from behind him caught Kusac’s attention, drawing it back from Carrie to the scene in front of him. He turned around, catching sight of Valden stepping away from the wall to stare up at the cavern roof. Zsurtul was already reaching out for him, ready to draw him back.

“Valden!” he shouted.

At that precise moment, the barrier on both tunnels broke open with a roar that deafened them all.

Kusac barely had time to launch himself backward, not for Valden, but for the Prince; then the wall of water engulfed them all.

As the water hit him, it flung him forward into Zsurtul, allowing him to grab hold of the young Emperor and lock him tight against his body. He felt another body hit them both—Zhalmo—and cling onto Zsurtul from behind as the force of the water tossed them. Briefly, he wondered if Valden was safe; then he was slammed against a boulder, bent around it, and was swept away again.

All it needed was a crack in the visor, and any one of them would be dead. He tightened his grip on the Prince as the water surged between them, threatening to drag them apart as it sucked them backward, swirling them about until they were once again slammed into a solid surface.

This time, his head hit the back of his helmet with enough force to stun him. He felt his grip on Zsurtul begin to relax and gave a low moan of pain as nausea swept over him.

Someone was saying something, but the cries of fear and distress from the others were drowning it out.

Just as he was about to lose contact with the youth, he felt himself grasped firmly by the waist, and again by one arm. He heard a dull clunk as something hit his helmet, and he fought to focus beyond the blurry lights of his HUD.

“We’ve got you safe, Captain.” Now he could hear. The voice—Zsurtul’s—was reverberating inside his helmet.

He blinked several times until his vision began to clear. Yes, it was Zsurtul, with his helmet pressed up against Kusac’s.

Control was coming back to his limbs now, and reaching out, he grasped the youth by the arms, trying to ignore his pounding head. He sucked in a breath at the sting in his neck as the suit decided to medicate him.

“Thanks,” he said. “Zhalmo?”

“She has hold of us both,” Zsurtul said. “The worst seems to be over now. The water’s calm.”

Water. That’s what had been behind the barricade!

“An effective trap,” said Zhalmo as the three of them began to slowly sink to the bottom. “If we hadn’t been in armor, we’d be dead.”

“I want K’hedduk alive, remember that,” said Kusac as he began checking his HUD for the rest of his team. “Where’s Valden?”

“I’m here,” said the youngster.

All telltales were present and, for a wonder, green, including those of J’korrash and Q’almo. Even the two ’bots were still operational.

“Report in!” he ordered, feeling the cavern floor beneath his feet and trying to get a grip on it with the artificial claws in his boots. “Anyone injured or with a suit breach?”

They reported in, one at a time. Only J’korrash and Q’almo knew they had suit damage as the sealant had activated to repair it.

Now that the immediate danger was over, reaction was setting in for them all. Time to get everyone moving again and focused on their mission. The rifles would be thoroughly soaked and needed stripping down before they could risk using them. The pistols, stowed inside their suit thigh compartments, should still be dry, but he couldn’t take the risk.

Twenty-nine minutes left. He began swearing under his breath.

“Very graphic, Captain. I’ll try to remember some of them,” said Zsurtul, with a forced laugh.

“You do, and Kezule will really try to skin me!” he said.

“My money would have to be on you, Captain,” said Zhalmo. “May I suggest you don’t let the General hear Sholan cuss words, Majesty?”

Aware that everyone was hearing their small talk, now that his head had cleared, he was able to sense their banter lifting the mood. He responded to her in kind.

“If you do, he’ll learn a few more from me, Zsurtul! Head out to our tunnel exit, everyone! We’ve a job to do—and wet rifles to see to first!”

Their responses were crisp and businesslike, he was glad to hear, even though he knew most of them were still shaken by the experience—hell,
he
was.

“Remember, we’re not dead yet, and they’ve only made us more determined to succeed,” said Zsurtul, his voice firm and confident.

Our Princeling continues to amaze me,
he sent to Zhalmo.

I know,
she replied.

Had he heard pride in her mental voice? Was she that attached to Zsurtul after knowing him for such a short time?

Shaking his head slightly, he began to turn around, using the wall to help propel him. It was like moving in zero-gee but without being able to magnetize his boots to a metal surface.

The suit’s system suddenly recognized his difficulty and increased his gravity. Now he was firmly on the cavern floor. Walking was still difficult because of the water, and he couldn’t see more than a few inches beyond his faceplate because of the amount of mud and silt that had been churned up, but his HUD scanners were still functional and showing him which direction to take.

A few exclamations of surprise came across their channel as the others suddenly found themselves able to walk vertically too.

 

Within minutes, they were all clear of the water and standing just inside the left-hand fork of the tunnel.

Inspecting the rifles, Kusac found that two had been badly damaged—one bent beyond repair, the other possibly repairable in a workshop. He was pleased no one had dropped his or her weapon. Searching in mud for it wasn’t something he could waste time on.

“Bury them under those rocks so we can retrieve them later,” he said. “Meanwhile, get your pistols out. They need to be checked for water. Rest of you, strip the energy cells out of your rifles and dry them and the contacts. You have two minutes. Valden, give your rifle to Q’almo to deal with, then check your pistol, and, starting with mine, check everyone else’s. Q’almo, when you’re done, check everyone’s suit for external damage.”

“Aye, sir.”

Crouching down on his haunches, he pulled out his pistol, laying it down before opening the sealed belt pouch containing his gun cleaning kit.

Quickly and efficiently, he popped his rifle cell free, mentally thanking Kaid for the hours of cleaning drills he’d put him through. It was good to be able to rely on his own experience this time.