by Richard Dusk
"Vince, Garrett, get the CHED. I'm going to look inside with Pace. All right?" he said and walked with him to the door.
Kaiden entered the code, but nothing happened. He repeated the attempt, getting the same result.
"Power's down," said Pace curtly.
Kaiden agreed and pushed against the handle-less door, but the sturdy locks resisted his will, and he had to admit defeat in this duel. He tapped on the PCA, searching for some other way around.
"Backup power source is offline too. Vince, we need to blow this open."
Vince opened a bag attached to the side of his ATV, "We've got only one charge. The rest fell with Hodge."
"This is not just any door. We can't pass another way around. The door inside should be easier to open."
"Okay, here you go," Vince handed him the charge - a long coiled red wire with a remote detonator.
Pace helped him to dig in the snow and stick it to the edges of the door frame. Once done, he signed others to group and cover by the wall on the side of the building. Kaiden's right hand showed three fingers and one by one counted down to zero.
A booming explosion resounded across the empty land, and dust gushed out. Kaiden waved at them to follow him and take a look at the scene of devastation he made. Doors tore off the rails, and hinges landed on the pile of smashed computers. Tiles of drop ceiling hanged down and swayed lightly or missed, lying strewed all across the room. Pressure wave piled up tables and lockers on the other side of the room and ripped open two massive pipelines running down through the floor. They walked inside, looking at all that havoc, and laughing Kaiden put down his helmet and mask.
"Awesome. I forgot how strong these little devils are."
Others put masks down as well and looked at the scuffed metal floor doors with the Diamond symbol in the middle, filling roughly a quarter of the room floor. The frosty air inside immediately froze Garrett's nose hair after the first breath without the mask. He walked across the room towards the shut door leading deep into the cave. Metal pieces of wrecked equipment creaked, and shattered fragments of glass cracked under his feet. He rose his hand and moved aside a big square light hanging on the cable to avoid hitting his face.
So this is it. After all these hardships we've made it to this room, he crouched down to dusted lines of the Diamond logo.
A strange feeling spread through his body as if some kind of rare energy emitted from inside and pushed him away. His contemplated mind, flooded with enclosing thoughts, forgot about the presence and conversation of others. It all suddenly became real. This room, this door.
Everything existed within his imagination until now, when he found himself in a new dimension. He is going to enter that door and destroy the reason why they are here. He is the one responsible for all of this, and he wanted to understand every single bit of his enemy before he'll challenge him.
Out of nothing, he woke up back to the quiet reality. He turned around, alone in the room. Only Pace stood by the door, watching him with hands behind his back, holding something. He looked to be stressed and under tension.
"I'm sorry. I was thinking hard again," he began a dialogue, but Pace didn't react. "Where are the others?"
Pace raised a hand to point outside, and Garrett saw why he hid them. He held iron pole as long as his arm.
"Why do you have that?" said Garrett uncertain about his intentions, but he quickly grasped the situation.
"You don't know why?" Pace slowly walked to him. "He's gone because of you. You've let my best friend fall."
"Pace, put it down. Many people died because of this already," Garrett moved backward with left hand risen towards Pace to calm him. His right hand automatically moved to the holster and unbuckled the pistol.
"Screw you and this mission. You've decided to go although you saw the blizzard outside. It's your fault!" he raised the pole above his head. "I can't kill you, but I can beat you the same way the ice walls beat him while he was falling."
"Pace! Put it down!" shouted Garrett, pulled out the gun and aimed at his chest.
His heart pumped the adrenaline to every cell of his body. He prepared the finger on the trigger to pull any moment, but he couldn't overcome the fact that he will shoot his teammate.
"Don't yell, Garrett. I want to enjoy this. Say hello to broken ribs," Pace broke into a run and swung the pole swiftly and smoothly as if it was made of air.
Garrett jumped back the very last moment, and the pole's tip scratched the gear he wore. His instincts fought with his rationality. He wanted to shoot Pace and save himself but couldn't do it. Every time he jumped a few feet back, the closer he got to the wall until he hit it with his back.
"You can't shoot, can you?" Pace mocked him and raised the pole. "Ready to feel pain?"
"Always," said Vince standing at his back and knocked him with a rifle to the ground. Pace immediately fell, and pole thudded beside him.
"What the hell is happening here?" Vince kicked the pole away with his foot. "We began unloading CHED, and suddenly you yell and point a gun at him while Pace is holding a pole? Are you both nuts?"
Garrett loudly exhaled and buckled the gun on his thigh.
"He said that Hodge's fall is my fault; I killed his best friend."
Lex walked to Pace and stood on his arm still groping for the pole. A minute amount of blood appeared on his skin and ran down his neck.
"Help me," said Vince to Kaiden. Jillian picked the chair lying nearby, and they sat Pace on it.
"Keep an eye on him and stop the bleeding," said Kaiden to Lex, who already took out gauze to cover the cut wound. "I'm going to open this door. You three, go get CHED and anything else we may need."
Vince nodded and led Garrett and Jillian out to the cargo. Garrett saw in his face that something ran through his mind while he unbuckled the CHED's power source.
"This was the last straw," said Vince irritated. "We've lost a man, other one cracked up, and we're heading into the cave with the weapon that will probably blow it all up and bury us alive," he sighed. "I'm drained, Garrett. When I'm listening to Kaiden and his operations, I can't believe it. I can't believe that I worked for Diamond. I've never been on such a task, same as the rest of this team, and suddenly he starts to speak about stuff I could only imagine. There are people involved in this mission I care about since I've met them. I didn't want to go at first, but then I've found out that this is the only honorable way how can I settle the debt for Lex's life. This year cost me a lot, but last month did the most."
"What debt? What happened to Lex?" said Garrett helping him to place CHED on the ground, but Vince shook his head.
"Garrett, Jillian, don't mention anything to her. I don't want to pour any more oil into the flames. Let's just finish this already, and then, somewhere safe, we can talk about anything you want."
"Okay then," said Garrett, and Jillian nodded. "What about Pace? Is it safe to take him to the caves?"
"He still belongs with us although I'd like to tie him up and leave him here. I'm going to take his weapons, and he will walk where I'll be between you two. I understand that loss of Hodge hit him hard, but these things happen on missions, and he has to keep that in mind. He's a soldier and can't fall to pieces and attack a teammate. It's unacceptable. It's nobody's fault that he fell. Hodge let himself go, and Pace has to deal with it. I hope you don't blame yourself," he handed Garrett a bag.
"No, I don't. I'm just sorry for him," he hung the bag on the shoulder.
'You bet it's your fault. You've dragged them out,' the voice sounded in his head.
"Let's take this inside," Vince stood between two parts of CHED. "Jillian, take the lighter front part, and Garrett, you take the end. I'll walk in the middle and carry them both."
When they walked inside, Kaiden had already opened the door, and they saw yellow railings about two feet high and gray metal platform of cargo elevator aligned with the floor. Pace's temporary insanity disappeared, and he stood with others by the control panel of the elevator. W
hen he noticed Garrett is back, he quickly turned to Kaiden and tried to talk with him, but Kaiden didn't pay attention to anything he said. They moved CHED on the platform, and all gathered around it. Kaiden glanced at their stuff and wrote an access code on his PCA. The moment when he finished, the elevator buzzed twice.
"Here we go again," said Kaiden, and they began descending to the dark underground.
Chapter 26 The Greater Good
The elevator traveled down in a steel-framed shaft with repetitive blue lights embedded in every side of the rock wall around them. Exposed grey thick bracings passed in stretched arm distance from them. The moment when room disappeared from the sight, and only opening and damaged ceiling remained over their heads, the floor doors hermetically shut and sprinkled them with bits of metal and frozen soil.
Garrett looked at others and watched lights reflecting in their eyes. A click sounded, and glow coming from gaps between platform bottom and wall appeared and grew stronger. They heard a distinct click of every spotlight and echo spreading through space beneath them. Elevator speeded up a little, and they came at the top of the ice cave's dome, nine hundred feet above the ground, and neared to a concrete platform below. A freezing, moist air hit their noses.
"Hundred percent humidity," Garrett murmured to himself, and Jillian leaned closer to the metal framework to see the whole cave beneath.
The bracing scratched her nose, but nobody noticed that. Strong lights illuminated rough-hewed rock top of the dome and walls. Deep cracks ran everywhere through the gray rock, colored here and there with yellow and red precipitated minerals. A narrow catwalk led from the platform deeper down, illuminated by lights attached to iron railings, and built above the massive thick layer of grayish bumpy ice. It looked that a river used to flow through here, but now is immobile and covered with pieces of shattered icicles frozen to it. Only a few hung from the walls, but thick and heavy enough to kill a grown man if they would fall. Two broken pipelines coming from the building above ran along the catwalk deep in the cave. They almost reached the bottom when all of a sudden, everyone's PCA began to annoyingly beep.
"Increased CO2 levels. As could be expected," Vince took the bag he carried and put it down with a clanging sound. He reached inside and took out small steel bottles with a yellow stripe. "The ventilation is down, so take these. It's a mixture of purified compressed air and gaseous stimulants. If you'll begin to feel dizzy, tired, or anything uncommon, plug this tube in your mask and breathe deeply. It'll keep you going," he handed them out.
Garrett buckled his bottle on the side of his bag and got off the elevator. He looked down the stairs, hearing a dull electric humming and buzzing of lamps.
"Garrett, come and help us," said Vince. "We're going to take the power source and Kaiden with Pace the main body. Girls, you'll go first. Search for any damages, obstacles, or danger ahead of us, okay?"
"How far is it?" Lex looked down the stairs covered with skiddy and glossy ice.
"It should be about a mile. Maybe a bit less," Kaiden looked down their way as well. "The path leads through these stairs, and then it is straight with no branches or anything. They never had the need to finish this place, so watch out for everything."
"Why is it okay here?" Jillian searched with eyes for battery powering elevator and lights. "Like everything is destroyed, but this place looks untouched."
"Maybe the wave's amplitude reached zero value in this location, or two waves reflected and collided together, which caused cancellation of their inverse-" Garrett stopped when he saw Jillian looking at him with her typical face when he explained facts by his scientific way.
"Yeah, you've made it clear," said Jillian derisively.
"We should move," Kaiden looked at digits on his PCA. "I've never been so late on any mission. If I'm right, we were supposed to be a hundred miles away from Greenland by now."
"Why are you always in a hurry?" said Lex. "We're here. We've made it."
"Do you need a tea party?" he picked up his side of CHED.
Lex didn't answer, grabbed Jillian by the arm, and led her down the stairs. Kaiden chuckled and with Pace's help lifted CHED and followed girls.
"What's going to be there?" said Garrett. "Sarah gave me some sketches and plans of X-RON, but I don't presume it will be still the same."
Vince looked at him, and Garrett saw that he is clueless.
"I've asked Kaiden several times, but he always said he doesn't know and received only the information needed to get here. It never sounded that way, and I guess he knows exactly what's happening and what he's doing or what's going to happen. Whether he knows or not, he got us here, and the end is within easy reach."
"He palters?"
"I don't know him for much longer than you, but sometimes it shows," Vince grabbed the power source. "Come, I want to be through this already."
Garrett helped him to lift it, and they walked to the stairs. He had tons of questions in his mind about Kaiden, this mission, and X-RON that led them here, but only one bothered him the most, What if I'm wrong?
As they walked down to the bottom, they entered a significantly smaller space. Garrett could reach the rock over his head just with stretched arm, standing on tiptoes. The metal grating of the catwalk was coated with thin white ice running on both sides and surrounded by thick ice columns running down all the way from the top. They looked like an army shielding the walls of the cave. White lights on frost-covered steel railing intensified the feeling of this uniqueness.
As they moved further, the whole space changed into a narrow corridor with an ice river spreading on the entire ground below their feet. The walls changed from sharp and angular to ones covered with a smooth layer of ice and shaped like glinting waves. Garrett thought they had to be at least in the middle of their way because he began to feel the lack of oxygen affecting his strength and abilities.
"Stop," said Lex and made a few steps forward to scout for the source of a new unknown sound.
"What is it?" said Kaiden.
"Sounds like a waterfall," she walked on, followed by Jillian.
Garrett's lungs, exposed for a long time to dust outside, still needed to heal despite Lizzie's efforts. He sat down, putting on the mask plugged into the steel bottle tube, and took several deep breaths. The last thing he needed now was to keel over.
"I hope you don't mind a bit of water," Lex's yelling echoed through the corridor.
"Yes, we do," said Kaiden and followed girls. "How deep is that?"
The corridor ended in another vast dome made of calc-silicate rock. Half frozen waterfall cascade flooded the circular space with a water pool draining into the unknown. The broken catwalk built at the outer periphery lay sunken for two hundred feet of its length. Lex walked all the way to the missing part and looked into crystal pure water to measure the depth.
"It's about this deep," she showed them with a hand placed a little below her ribs. "We can make it. Come, Jill," she jumped into the water, holding the rifle above the surface. "Wait here for now. We'll check what's ahead."
"Brrr," shuddered Jillian when she followed her into the water, but she exclaimed from habit rather than actual coldness.
They struggled to get through quick current pulling them down to underwater outflow. Jillian felt the grit float away and hit her other leg every time she made a step. Ice fragments carried away on the surface slowed them all the time until they reached the other side. This part of the catwalk lay submerged on the bottom, and they quickly climbed back on it. With lights ahead turned off, the next tunnel gaped with pitch-black dark. When Jillian turned back to show thumbs up to the rest of the team, she didn't see them. A giant boulder that tore of the ceiling and lay in the middle of the pool blocked the view at the other half of the split team.
"We're good, but watch out for the current. It pulls down," she sounded in earbuds.
"Pace, I'll go first. Grab the back," Kaiden jumped into the water. His feet got few inches away from the river gravel when bottom tugged
and began gradually shake faster and more furiously with every next second.
"Damn it, not now! Everyone back. It's another earthquake!" yelled Kaiden and pulled himself out from the water with Pace's help.
Overhanging icicles tore off the ceiling and fell in the water splashing everywhere. Dust of crumbling rock dome fell from the top and sprinkled the catwalk with a tinkling sound. Garrett and others immediately grabbed CHED and dragged it back into the corridor.
"Lex, Jill- Take cover- There!" said Vince discontinuously because he could barely stand on his feet, but his voice got lost in frightful cracking of rock walls and ground beneath the pool.
Massive ice waterfall cascade by their side tore off and fell into the water. It splashed them with a wave that knocked Garrett and Vince of their feet. When they got up and pulled wet-through CHED again, a sudden loud scream sounded in their ears and echoed in the rumbling.
"Lex, what happened!?" said Vince in haste.
When he received no answer, he dashed towards the end of the metal platform and jumped in the water.
"What the hell are you doing?" yelled Kaiden at his back, and his words immediately followed another scream and order, "Jump!"
Vince struggled to run and swim in the water to search for them when suddenly a massive boulder ripped off the ceiling and fell right on the place where girls stood. The wave hit him hard, and he couldn't hold the balance on slippery bottom and dove under the surface. The current pulled him away, but he scratched his gloves on the gravel to stay in the place, fighting against it. A pair of hands grabbed him by the vest and pulled him up above the surface.
