CHAPTER 33
Hell’s Cross, Outpost Fisher Four
ANNOS MARTIS 238. 4. 0. 00:00
I hear the echo of the shots before anything else. They come from the main tunnel, I think. But with these acoustics, I can’t be sure. For twenty minutes I waited alone on the Cross, perched on a skyhook container turned on end, the stillness of the air weighing on me, the stinking bones of the fire annoying me, waiting to hear from my troops.
At twenty-one minutes I receive a broken message from Vienne. “Chief, we’re…fire…”
“Say again,” I say. Then wait.
Nothing. Just a ringing sound in my ears and the fear that I made a huge tactical mistake, because the Dr?u are about to rain down on us at any moment. “Mimi,” I say. “Get a reading. Are they all still in range?”
“Yes, chief, all accounted for—wait. I am now reading signatures for Dame Bramimonde and Jean-Paul.”
“Pinpoint their location.”
“I cannot. There is too much chatter on the sweep. I…uh-oh.”
“Uh-oh? What is uh-oh?”
“You are not going to like this.”
“I already don’t like it.” I walk to the edge of the container for a wider view. “Spit it out!”
“I am picking up multiple unknown signatures along the perimeter of my field. Dozens. It is the Dr?u. They didn’t wait for the deadline.”
“Jumalauta. I carking hate when guests come early for the party.”
Using a metal pole, I swing to the ground and pull one of the alarms. The sound of whooping horns brings the miners out of their quarters, yanking on their boots and coveralls as they run. Among the first out are Spiner and Jurm.
“Tell me this is a drill,” Spiner says.
“It’s not a drill,” I say. “The Dr?u are attacking now.”
Jurm shields his eyes. “Where? I didn’t see none when I was busy putting on my drawers.”
“The Regulators,” Spiner says, ignoring Jurm. “They’d got in position already?”
“No,” I say. “I sent them on a scouting mission. They’re not back yet.”
“Scouting for what?” Jurm asks.
“Dame Bramimonde,” I say. “She’s missing.”
“You’d sent out soldiers for a useless crone?” Jurm whines, ignoring him. “What’s the sense in that?”
Spiner pulls up his bootstraps. “There’s no use crying about it, Jurm. Chief, what d’you want us to do?”
“Just like we planned,” I say. “Get the operators on the cranes. Line up the rest in the chigoe holes. Wait for my signal.”
“Gotcha.” Spiner starts calling orders to the miners.
They snap to it and move quickly to their places. Not military precision, mind you, but good enough in a pinch. And better than I’d expected.
“Mimi,” I say, “what’s the story?”
“Two separate mass signatures. One approaching from twelve o’clock. The other from nine.”
Since I’m facing dead north, she means the corridor leading to the Zhao Zhou Bridge. But to the west? There’s no entrance from that direction. “We closed all of those tunnels down.”
“Maybe the miners missed one,” Mimi says.
“Where?” I say, noting the twin minarets and the zip line running between them, and two others running to the ground. Alongside them is the tall crane I noticed on the first day, also an important link in the chain. That’s where Vienne and Ebi are supposed to be stationed. Without them, my defensive plan has a much lower chance of success.
“Indeterminate.”
“Determine it, then, and alert me when you know.” I turn to Spiner, who is still standing beside me. “Don’t you have a post?”
“Yep. I’ll take it when the Dr?u is here.”
Damn these obstinate, thickheaded, stubborn pains in the ass. “Trust me. They’re here.”
“I still dint see nothing,” Spiner says. “Wait…uh-oh. Reckon I’ll find my post now.”
Uh-oh. I’m beginning to despise that phrase. Through the scope of my armalite, I see Jenkins and Fuse running for the Zhao Zhou Bridge. Each of them is carrying a body. Fuse, who has Jean-Paul, is in the lead. Jenkins, the Dame tossed over his shoulder like a sack of synthetic flour, brings up the rear.
When Jenkins reaches the edge of the bridge, he plops the Dame on the ground. Then opens fire on the pursuing line of Dr?u with his chain gun. To support him, I fire several bursts into the lead fighters. The result is predictable. And messy.
Between the two of us, our bullets take down a half dozen Dr?u. The rest of skirmish line retreats, pulling the casualties with them. But Jenkins isn’t finished. With the barrel of the chain gun spinning empty, he charges toward the mouth of the tunnel.
“Jenkins!” I shout via the vid. “Retreat, you whacker! Get Dame Bramimonde to safety!”
“Aw,” he says, and returns to the Dame, his shoulders slumped in disappointment. He slings her limp body over his shoulder again. Then trudges off toward safety.
“Is she dead?” I ask him on the link.
“I wish. She just had a fainting spell. The boy’s hurt, though. Took a round in the gut. Or the butt. Whichever.”
“Fuse,” I say. No response, just static. “Mimi, check the link with Fuse.”
“Link is down,” she says after a few seconds. “And his symbiarmor is not responding to telemetry pings. That’s odd.”
That explains a lot. “Jenkins,” I say, while keeping suppressing fire on the tunnel to cover their escape. “What happened to Fuse’s symbiarmor?”
“It’s fragged. He took a punch to the back of the head from that Kuhru.” By then Jenkins reaches the end of the bridge. He spins Fuse around and points to me. Fuse nods, and they join me near the edge of the bridge.
“They ambushed us,” Fuse explains after I demand an explanation as we retreat to the Cross. “It was her doing. The Dr?u were waiting, and she was leading them right back to us.”
“What about the boy?”
“You mean, did he betray us, too? Not if being bound and gagged and forced to walk barefoot over sharp rock is a sign that you switched sides.” He touches the back of his head. “Sorry about the suit. I can reboot it when I get back to quarters. That Kuhru got me with the stock of a battle rifle before Jenkins could kill him.”
We reach the courtyard, and I do a quick scan for hostiles. All clear. “So he’s dead?”
Jenkins laughs. “I put a hundred rounds into his belly. If that don’t kill you, won’t nothing kill you.”
About time. We owed that rooter some payback. “Get them both to the infirmary,” I tell Fuse and Jenkins, “and report to your stations double time.”
“Chief,” Mimi says. “I have determined the exact location of the secondary entrance.”
“Finally!” I say, stepping up on the statue dais. “Some good news.”
“I am not sure this constitutes good news. Look up.”