by Dean M. Cole
Turning, he looked east. “Has anyone seen one of the emergency exit buildings?”
No one had.
Either Angela was wrong about their location, or the Necks had already leveled them.
“Shit!”
Bingham grinned sardonically. “You could always try talking one of the caterpillars into digging a hole through the pavement?”
Vaughn turned widening eyes toward the man. “Bingham, you’re a fucking genius!”
“Wh-What?”
Remembering how the V-22’s twinned jet blast and massive rotors had swept the ash from the street, Vaughn scanned the ground around the aircraft but saw nothing. He dropped to a knee and looked beneath the Osprey.
A smile spread across his face. “I’ll be a son of a …”
Directly under the center of the aircraft sat a circular outline that could be only one thing.
As Vaughn stood, Mark leaned out and looked back from the flight deck. “What, what, what?”
Grinning, he stepped onto the ramp and hustled inside. “I think I found a way out!”
Vaughn spotted the tool he needed on a pallet behind Bingham. He pointed. “Hand me that crowbar, the one you’ve been using to open crates.”
Confusion twisted the man’s face.
“Now!” Vaughn shouted.
Startled into motion, Bingham grabbed the tool and handed it to Vaughn. “What are you going to do, spear one of the robots? They’re not mechanical vampires. You can’t drive a metal stake through their hearts, Captain. That’s not going to work.”
“Just make sure my headset cable doesn’t get tangled up.” Turning from the man, he looked at Rourke and pointed at the belly turret. “Retract the gun. I need to go through the hellhole.”
“Why?”
“Goddamn civilians! Just do it!”
Rourke flinched but then toggled a command. The gun flipped to vertical and then slid up and out of the square hole in the belly of the aircraft.
As the mechanism moved, Vaughn pointed through the opening and addressed the entire crew. “The rotor wash exposed a manhole cover under the belly. You landed in a low spot, so the robots won’t see me go down there.” He pointed at Monique. “But let’s keep ‘em busy. Cover me. I’m going under.”
Monique nodded. “My pleasure.”
As she turned and opened fire, Vaughn dropped through the hatch and lay flat on the ground. Looking around, he saw that the low spot was indeed obscuring him from view. The depression in the road was sufficient that he couldn’t see any of the surrounding robots, which meant that they couldn’t see him either.
He started to low-crawl toward the outline of the ring. “Bingham, make sure Monique doesn’t run out of ammo. This is going to take a minute.”
The man grumbled something about not being a crew chief, but it sounded like he was doing as asked.
“Teddy!” Vaughn called out. “I need you to make sure that BOb isn’t low on ammo either.”
“On it, El Capitan.”
Mark’s voice came over the intercom. “What’s the plan?”
“Hang on. I’m almost there.” Vaughn reached the circular outline and smiled. “Yes! Something finally broke our way. It’s a manhole cover alright. Even has the same design as the one Angela and I used last time we entered the subway tunnel.” He glanced at the bandage that still adorned his wrist from when the scavenger bot had dragged him down the streets. It seemed like a lifetime ago, but it had been barely more than a week.
Shaking his head, he jabbed the end of the crowbar into the hole on one side of the ring and began to lever it. Through a grunt, he said, “Everyone, get ready. I’m opening it now. We’ll pop smoke and head down. By the time the caterpillars know we’re gone, we’ll be halfway to ATLAS.”
Another round of automatic grenade fire belched from the back of the airplane. Then Vaughn heard a shot come from the front as BOb blasted a caterpillar.
The far end of the lid finally levered upward. “Got it!” Vaughn shouted, his voice straining as he shoved the plate out of its frame and slid it across the pavement. He narrowly avoided crushing his fingers as it dropped to the ground. He pulled his flashlight from his battle rattle and aimed it into the hole. Metal rungs disappeared into the subterranean depths. “Yes! Looks just like the last one. Goes straight down.”
“That won’t work,” Angela said.
Vaughn looked across the ground, his forehead puckering. “Why the hell not? It did last time!”
“These caterpillar bots won’t simply let us go, Vaughn. Remember, they can dig. Once they figure out we’re not in the aircraft, they’ll come after us.”
Vaughn blinked and then hammered the side of his fist into the pavement. “Shit!” Clenching his jaw, he shook his head. “We’ll just have to stay ahead of them.”
“No, Captain,” Rachel said from the flight deck. “We won’t have to stay ahead of them. You will.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m going to take the Osprey back up. Once all of you are below ground, I’ll take off and make them think we’re still in the fight.”
“No! We don’t need to separate. The battlebot can fly just about anything, including the tiltrotor. Let BOb do it. It’s in his programming. We can all go down.”
“That won’t work either, mate,” Bingham said. “The robot is the only one that can fire the BFG. The thing may only have one more shot left, but that might be the shot you need. No, Major Lee is right. Some of us need to stay on the aircraft. We’ll have to keep firing on them, or they’ll come after you.”
The autocannon roared as Monique fired another volley into the robotic horde.
“There’s one other thing, Singleton,” Rachel said over the intercom, her voice uncharacteristically dour. “You need to get as deep as you can as fast as you can. If I see that light start to come out of the ground, I’ll detonate the nuke.”
Vaughn’s eyes flew wide. “What?! Why?”
“It will take a while for the light wave to reach you underground, but if it beams us out, it’ll leave a few thousand caterpillar bots up here with nothing to do but look for stragglers. The collider tunnel will get crowded in a hurry.”
Everyone fell silent.
Rachel continued. “No. I’m not going to let that happen. The light is fast, but not so much that we won’t have time to fire the nuke. We’ll fly around, make them think we’re looking for another way in, keep them engaged until the end. When the light comes, I’ll fry ‘em up nice and crispy-like. It’s a low-yield tactical nuke, and there’s two hundred feet of earth between you and the explosion. You’ll be safe enough, especially considering the steel plates they welded over the shafts.”
Vaughn tried to swallow but couldn’t against the lump that had formed in his throat. She was right. This was it. This was their all-or-nothing final dash.
Mistaking his silence as disagreement, Monique said, “If you succeed and Angela resets the timeline, it will not matter if we die here now. All of us will return to our previous lives, back where we were just before the Necks first opened the portal.”
Gnashing his teeth, Vaughn nodded his agreement. “Okay, you’re right. Team Two, let’s get ready to head down. Mark and Chance, I want the two of you down here, too. You weren’t firing weapons. The bots won’t know you’re not on board.”
“Negative, Captain Singleton,” Bingham said. “The others will be too busy doing their jobs. I’ll be firing the biggest weapon of them all. Been itching to ‘pop a nuke’ as you Yanks like to say. I can’t very well bail out now.”
Before Vaughn could argue, Mark chimed in. “Same answer here, buddy. I need to stay on board. If something happens to Rachel, this thing won’t fly for long. We have to sell this. If we fail, if the bots realize that some of us have gone underground, they’ll come after you, and there’ll be no stopping them this time. If you’re below ground, I don’t think they’ll settle for keeping you cornered.”
Still grinding his teeth
together, Vaughn released the intercom trigger and slammed his fist into the pavement. “Shit! Shit! Shit!” Mark was no longer his only buddy up there. They were all good people, people he now counted as friends—even that asshole Bingham—but knowing that his oldest friend was about to sacrifice himself for the good of the mission threatened to end Vaughn.
It was almost more than he could take.
But he had to take it. Half-measures weren’t going to get this done. He and the rest of Team Two would just have to make sure that their sacrifice wasn’t in vain.
“Okay—” Vaughn’s voice cracked. He released the mic key. After a short growl, he toggled the switch again. “Copy. We’ll … We’ll make sure your … departure … is short-lived, have you back home in time for dinner.” He sighed and then added, “Bill and Teddy, retrieve BOb and get your asses down here. You, too, Angela. And I swear to Christ, if one more person argues with me, I’ll have all your asses court-martialed.”
He saw Teddy’s boots hit the ground behind the ramp and then run around to the front of the aircraft. Then the pair of them quickly returned to the ramp and disappeared inside. At the same time, Angela slid down through the belly hatch and soon joined him on the ground next to the open utility access. Muddy tears streaked her cheeks. A moment later, Bill, Teddy, and BOb dropped through the hellhole and lay next to Angela. The eyes of the two men glistened as well.
Vaughn pointed to the robot and shouted over the rotor noise. “You head down first, BOb. Don’t stop until you reach the bottom of the shaft. Wait for us there.” He started to turn away but then gave the bot a meaningful look. “But make sure you’re the only thing waiting for us. Visually verify the adjoining tunnel is clear before we reach you.”
The robot dipped its head. If BOb had responded, Vaughn couldn’t hear it. That was just as well. He could do without being called Captain Asshole for the moment.
The battlebot eased down through the opening. With the second nuke still strapped to its back, the machine barely fit through the ring, but a moment later, both BOb and the nuclear-armed backpack disappeared down the black hole.
The autocannon mounted to the tail barked to life again. Looking toward the sound, Vaughn shouted over his shoulder, “Alright, the rest of you get your asses down there.”
He could’ve saved his breath. When he looked back, Angela was already halfway through the opening. She rapidly descended out of sight. Bill and Teddy zipped through after her.
As Vaughn swung his legs over and started to descend, he looked at the belly of the aircraft and toggled his headset. “Everyone’s down the hole, and I’m going now. Godspeed, Team One. We’ll see you on the other side.”
He started to yank off the headset, but then Mark’s now unsteady voice crackled in his ear. “We’re all counting on you, Singleton. Don’t … Don’t fuck up.”
“Oh, shit. Th-Thanks …” Vaughn swallowed and then took an unsteady breath. “Thanks for that, Chewie. I almost jinxed everything.”
“Yeah, you did. Now, get the hell out of here. We got work to do.”
Vaughn gave a short nod and pulled off the headset.
Bingham leaned down through the hellhole and took it from him. Then the man pointed. “Get your arse down there ASAP, Singleton. I’ll not wait until I’m back in Hell to detonate this thing. If I see that light coming, I’m pulling the bloody trigger.”
Chapter 51
Vaughn looked down as he descended the last few rungs of the long ladder. Even using the night-vision goggles, he could barely see the four other members of the team beneath him. The two small holes in the utility access cover didn’t provide much light for the tubes to amplify.
Team One had taken off in the V-22 shortly after he had slid the steel plate back into place. Even now, he could hear the distant sound of sporadic cannon fire. They were doing an excellent job of keeping the bots occupied.
Vaughn felt solid ground beneath his boots. He could also feel the other four members of the team standing around him. “What are you waiting for? Head down the tunnel!”
Bill, Teddy, and Angela exchanged confused looks in the murky darkness. Then their night-vision goggles swung back and forth as they glanced left and right. Teddy stared back at him. “Okay, El Capitan. Which way?”
“Geez!” Vaughn looked at the other pilot. “Come on, Bill. Am I the only one with a sense of direction?”
The man merely shrugged. “You’re the one that’s been down here before. I have no idea where this leads, and I can’t see shit with these goggles. There’s not enough light.”
Vaughn nodded. He flipped up his NVGs and motioned for the others to do the same. Then he activated his flashlight, shielding it so that its illumination wouldn’t reach the small holes in the lid above them. After directing its beam down the tunnel, he looked back at the robot. “BOb, cover our six. I’ll take point. The rest of you, try to keep up.”
Not waiting for them, he headed toward the end of the shaft that ran toward ATLAS.
His flashlight’s beam glinted back at him from multiple points along the tunnel’s damp walls. He doubted this was the passageway that he and Angela had traversed before, but he hoped it followed the same routing structure as had the last one.
He ran as fast as the range of the light cast by his flashlight permitted. The multitudinous clattering footfalls behind Vaughn made it sound as if an entire army were chasing after him. Unfortunately, he couldn’t run full-tilt lest he outrun his vision and fall down another vertical shaft.
Just as Vaughn had the thought, a dark pit emerged ahead, swallowing the beam of his flashlight like the event horizon of a black hole.
He shouted over his shoulder. “Careful! there’s a drop ahead.”
By the time the others caught up with him, Vaughn had already started down the shaft. He descended twenty feet through the darkness before he felt firm ground beneath his boots once again. Above him, he could hear the breaths and steps of the rest of the team as they descended. This time, he didn’t wait for them to join him, he just continued, heading farther down the tunnel.
Over the next few minutes, they negotiated one more vertical descent before running into a closed steel hatch.
Inspecting it with his flashlight, Vaughn tilted his head. “This is new.” It looked like the type you would see on a ship. He tried to spin the wheel, grunting with the exertion. “Dammit!”
Angela peered over his shoulder in the narrow passageway. “What’s wrong?”
“It won’t budge!”
“Try it the other way.”
He started to argue but reconsidered. Maybe this wasn’t a righty-tighty-lefty-loosy configuration.
Vaughn heaved against the wheel, trying to turn it in the other direction. “Ah! It still won’t move.”
He stepped back and shouted over his shoulder. “BOb! Get your ass up here. Open this door.”
“Yes, Captain Asshole.”
The robot squeezed past him in the tunnel’s narrow confines. Vaughn moved back, giving the obstinate shit room to work.
The machine grabbed the wheel and began to wrench on it. The handle moved half an inch, but then it seized.
Expecting the blast wave to pulverize them at any moment, Vaughn peered back over his shoulder nervously.
This was taking too much time. They’d already been underground for more than ten minutes.
It wouldn’t be long before the last Neck passed through the wormhole.
Then the light would come, and the nuke would follow.
Vaughn and his team had descended a fair distance, but he had no illusion that the manhole cover alone would protect them from the overpressurization that was sure to come. The heat and radiation might not reach this depth, but the shockwave would likely pulverize their bodies.
Everything would be lost.
The electronic muscles of the robot strained audibly against the latching mechanism of the door.
Vaughn tried to reach around the bot, but the tunnel was too narrow.
>
“BOb! You need to hurry!”
“I am hurrying, Captain Asshole. I believe the door has been locked from the other side. I’m detecting the sound of a chain moving when I turn the handle.”
Vaughn swore under his breath. He knew ATLAS likely lay just beyond this door. Of course, they would keep the sewer-access hatch locked, but if he and his team couldn’t find a way past the thing, it was all going to end very soon.
He eyed the nuke warily. They were much closer to the wormhole now. If they detonated the bomb here, it would almost certainly collapse the near part of the tunnel, including ATLAS. They’d at least be able to deny the bastards this world.
As Vaughn stared at BOb’s backpack, the BFG strapped alongside it drew his attention. Seeing its long length, he reached up and tried to pull the bot away from the door. “Get back. I have an idea!”
Chapter 52
Rourke searched the ground, slewing the belly turret’s gun camera with an unsteady hand. Seeing another sharp-edged rectangle, he keyed his mic. “Th-This shaft is covered, too.”
In his peripheral vision, he saw Rachel nod as she guided the aircraft across the city. “Good, that makes all of them. The caterpillars even plated off the new hole behind their construction site.”
“What about the emergency escape shafts that Angela told us about?” Mark Hennessy asked.
Monique looked forward from her position on the tail ramp. “I just saw the remnants of one.” She pointed to their back left. “There is a steel plate surrounded by some rubble. Looks to be about the size and position Angela described.”
Returning her attention to the autocannon’s monitor, the naval lieutenant shook her head. “Oh, you naughty bastards.” Adjusting her aim, she squeezed the trigger, releasing a short burst of grenades. “I will give them one thing: these caterpillars are tenacious.”
Rachel leaned out and looked back. “They still following us?”
Straddling the nuke atop a crate in the center of the cargo area, Bingham released a snort. “Yes, my Asian-American princess. They swallowed our ruse hook, line, and nuclear device.” He looked outside. “They’re quite anxious, kicking up one hell of a dust cloud in their wake, too.” He laughed and then patted the missile. “Come and get it, you little shits.”
