Bryce turned his attention away from the rocks to the center of the cavern and pointed. “We need to figure out a way across that,” he said.
A huge crevice ran through the center of the cavern, cutting it in almost equal halves, the side opposite their group being slightly larger. The scintillating blue light shining up from its depths shimmered hypnotically along the edges of the rock. How far down it reached Adan could not say, but it was over a hundred paces across. A black metal bridge, just large enough for one of the massive haulers to float across was the only access to the other side of the cavern.
“There is no way we can make it across that bridge unnoticed,” Von told them.
“What if it didn’t matter if they saw us?” Bryce’s mind settled on the nearby machinery. “Look at all these empty haulers stationed on this side of the cavern. What if we got inside these crates and then floated one of the haulers across the bridge ourselves? We can connect to the quorum channel now so they would think it was just another piece of equipment involved in the mining operation. After they load it up with rocks and ship it off down the far tunnel, we can get off.”
“If we cover ourselves in rocks, how will we get out of the crates?” Adan asked, not liking the sound of this.
“We can use the cutter to slice up some of the other carts and make slats to put on top of us,” Bryce suggested.
“That will still be a great deal of weight.” Von gave Bryce a distrustful look. He still hadn’t gotten over Bryce’s dishonesty about his past.
“The slats will keep the carts from getting too full and if anyone gets stuck, we can use the cutter to get them out.”
“But are you certain they won’t know when we’ve connected to the hauler?” Adan asked. “When I was in the Annex—”
“That’s just a risk we’ll have to take. They already know we’re here. We can’t wait around forever until they float our hauler across. Or would you prefer to just sprint over the bridge, running out in the open? There must be a dozen or more somatarchs on the other side.”
“I don’t like it,” Adan replied. “The Developers wouldn’t just let us take the hauler without noticing. Couldn’t we rip out the bioseine interfaces and control them manually, the way we did with the skiffs?”
“Those are fully automated vehicles,” Bryce explained. “They have no manual overrides. Listen, if the Devs do override the hauler I can use one of the contingency triggers to disrupt them and cover our escape.”
Von shook his head, but no one suggested anything else. Sierra just stared at the bridge in gaunt silence.
Reluctantly, Von pulled Zain and the other Waymen aside and explained to them Bryce’s plan. Adan could tell Von was hoping the Waymen would object, perhaps even come up with another idea, but when Zain nodded at the end, he knew that would not be happening.
“Very well,” Zain said. “We will try these machines. But we will have to leave our pinions. I do not think they will fit inside those crates.”
They hid their pinions behind a stack of carts and Bryce gave Adan his extra shiv as a replacement. Adan shoved it into his belt as quickly as possible, not wanting to touch it. The thought of what might happen if the somatarchs found them out loomed unsettlingly in his thoughts.
He wished the neutralizers they had taken from the assessors would have been of some use, but according to Von, they were not strong enough to knock out somatarchs. And they were trying to avoid confrontations anyway.
“Sierra, I think you should take the cutter,” Adan suggested. He added privately, just to her, “I don’t want to lose you in there.”
Sierra didn’t want the cutter, but she reluctantly accepted it with a grateful look.
Bryce regarded Adan smugly. He hid his thoughts on the channel, but it was obvious what he was thinking.
Adan brushed it off and walked over with the others to one of the haulers at the edge of a crowd of vehicles. As quietly as they could, they lifted Sierra onto one of the haulers and she began slicing up some of the crates. The flickering light on the end of her cutter was so small it disappeared almost completely as she ran it along the surface of the carts. She worked quickly, cutting out eight sheets. Adan and each of the Sentients took one and and crept into the crates. The containers were wider at the top so the sheets only slid down to about two handspans below the lip. Underneath, the Sentients hunkered down, readying themselves for what Adan hoped would be a quick trip across the bridge.
Twenty-Four
The Crossing
The hauler hummed along, making no more noise than the ubiquitous chromium carts, but from inside the crates every bump and jostle seemed to reverberate like someone was hurling rocks against the metal panels. They were on the top row of crates, stacked four high, and there was far too much movement for Adan’s liking. Each time his compartment quivered or scraped one of the other crates, his anxious imagination told him the somatarchs had found him out and were about to rip off the protective sheet and reveal his hiding place.
Bryce, who was controlling the vehicle from inside his crate, used his bioseine to determine their position and maneuver them around the stationary machinery on their side of the cavern. Still, the hauler wasn’t built for speed and with each passing moment, the tension mounted. When at last they made it onto the bridge, Adan fingered the hilt of his shiv nervously, certain someone would notice what they were doing.
As if in answer to his unspoken fears, the hauler came to an abrupt stop halfway across the bridge.
“I’m locked out,” came Bryce’s warning. “They’re coming to investigate. There are five—no, six somatarchs headed our way,” he informed them, relaying the information he saw on his modulator.
“We can’t defeat that many.” Adan was trying to stay calm, but not seeing any way they were getting out of this.
Footsteps pinged on the metal bridge.
“Make for the skiffs,” Bryce told them. “Use the skimmers to get there and make sure to help the Waymen.”
Adan’s panicked muscles jerked into motion. He squirmed inside his cart until he had pulled the skimmers from his garrick. He had to rearrange his legs so he could fit the slats on his feet. In the process, he lost precious time.
The footsteps on the bridge rang out louder and louder.
Once he had the skimmers fastened on, he flipped over the chromium sheet so he could climb out. He tossed himself over the side and landed on a lower row of crates. When his foot hit, it slipped into a gap between two other containers. His leg buckled and he fell. The crates shifted even further as he sank down, wedging his foot deep in between them. He couldn’t pull it out.
As the rest of the group popped out of their carts and abandoned the floating platform, Bryce’s thoughts came racing over the Collective channel.
“I’ll stay on the hauler as long as I can to try and draw their attention. Now go!” he ordered.
Snatches of white robes could be seen over the edge of the crates. The somatarchs were almost to the hauler.
Adan engaged the power on the skimmer caught between the crates, trying to force it loose, but it wouldn’t budge.
“I’m stuck,” he sent his plea for help across the Collective channel.
Someone grabbed him by the shoulder from behind. He twisted around to see Bryce’s outstretched arm reaching towards him.
“Hurry,” Bryce urged, “They’re here.”
Bryce grabbed Adan’s arms and yanked on them several times before giving up and kicking at the crates to widen the gap. At last he booted one of them so hard Adan’s foot jerked free, but the sudden movement jarred his skimmer loose. It fell into the crack and disappeared.
“My skimmer,” came Adan’s frantic thought.
“Take mine.” Bryce slipped one of his skates off and thrust it into Adan’s hands.
“But how will you—I can’t—” Adan started to protest, but he never finished the thought. At that moment, a somatarch leapt up from below and onto the row of carts with Bryce and Adan.<
br />
Adan saw the creature reach for the oscillathe at its waist, but he didn’t wait for it to fire. He dove off the crates, jumping blindly off the hauler. He didn’t know if he was jumping into the crevice or onto the bridge. A cruel whisper rushed past him as he plummeted into the unknown.
He was just able to catch a glimpse of the metal surface of the bridge before he collided with it, landing awkwardly on his knees. The impact sent a numbing shock through his legs, but he rolled up and onto his feet, his bioseine quickening his reactions. He was standing on the edge of the span, but there was hardly any space to move. The hauler was only an arm’s length away. He refused to look over the side of the bridge, knowing it would only deepen the panic which threatened to take hold of him. He looked around for any of the Sentients, but he was alone.
Adan still had one skimmer on his foot, but he must have dropped Bryce’s skate during his fall. His eyes darted underneath the hauler, but he saw nothing. He looked up and down the bridge and then he saw it, lying near the edge, half on the bridge, half sticking precariously over the side.
He slipped off the one skimmer he was still wearing so he could run, but before he could take off, something thudded onto the platform behind him. He glanced back, expecting to see a somatarch, but it was Zain.
“Zain,” he called out, a surge of hope rushing through him. “Come with me.” He motioned to his friend before heading for the skimmer.
He coasted to a stop a couple of steps from the dangling skate. He crept forward, afraid any vibration might send it over the edge, and just as fearful of falling over himself. Every movement felt like a calculated risk. He slid his feet along the surface of the bridge, moving far more slowly than he would have liked. The somatarchs might appear at any moment.
Adan was reaching for the skimmer when a loud crash rocked the hauler floating beside him. He looked up just in time to see the body of a somatarch and several crates come hurtling down from above. One of the containers caught him in the shoulder, sending him off balance. His arms flailed wildly, as if they could somehow generate enough wind to pull him forward, but he couldn’t stop himself from going over the edge. The skimmer he’d been holding flew from his hand, but then his bioseine took over and his body contorted itself acrobatically. His arm shot up, grabbing the edge of the bridge and keeping him from falling into the crevice. With his body dangling over the dizzying drop, he gripped the metal ledge with a strength he did not know he had, but the metal was too smooth. He felt his fingers slipping.
His eyes darted towards the great void below. The body of a somatarch tumbled end over end alongside several crates and two tiny slats of metal which flashed in the light—the skimmers. A wave of vertigo washed over him and he nearly lost his grip. The black walls of the crevice plummeted far below like in the Basin, but here he could see the bottom.
A glowing flow of blue neophosphorous filled the crevice beneath him. The exposed, ichory river glided, ominous and sluggish, towards an opening at the far end of the divide.
Adan closed his eyes, not wanting to see any more. His fingers slipped further and further. Just as he prepared himself to slide into the abyss, a firm hand wrapped itself around his forearm.
“I’ve got you, my friend,” came Zain’s heartening voice as Adan looked up into his face. “Just reach up with your other hand,” Zain instructed calmly, though his face glistened with sweat as he strained to pull Adan to safety. “A little more…”
Adan swung his free arm up and was just barely able to reach Zain’s outstretched hand. As their fingers brushed, the body of a somatarch slammed on top of Zain. White robed arms shot around his throat and Zain was gone.
Adan slipped, but somehow held on. He doubled down on his grip to keep himself from falling and yet the metal continued to slide beneath his sweaty fingers. His hold would not last forever.
“Please, someone help me,” his thoughts went flying out across the Collective channel, “Please—I’m on the edge of the bridge. I can’t hold on much longer…”
“I’m coming for you,” came the answer. It was Sierra.
It was too late. At that moment Adan lost his grip and the tips of his fingers slid over the edge.
He felt weightless for the briefest of moments and then the air came rushing past him, his garrick billowing around him as the rushed past. He recalled the last time he had fallen like this, in the storm which destroyed Oasis. But this time, there was no mysterious presence to wrap him serenely in its arms.
The world above flew away even as the light reached up to embrace him from below. The neophosphorous was strangely forgiving as he impacted on the surface, breaking his fall and saving his life, at least for a few moments longer.
His legs plunged into the thick, gelatinous river. Instantly he began to sink. At first, he fought desperately to keep himself from slipping further into the sludge-like flow, but the more he struggled, the quicker he went under. His hips, and soon his torso and chest, passed below the surface. He was hopelessly trapped inside the lumbering currents of the warm, oozing, river of light. The enveloping flow had captured him and it did not intend to let go.
He thrust his arms above his head as his shoulders, followed quickly by his neck and chin, sank beneath the surface. The ooze covered his mouth. Then his nose. Then the rest of his head. All this in a matter of moments. All he could do was hold his breath and wait for the inevitable.
His forearms, still raised above his head, started to slip below, but then soft sure hands grabbed hold of his own. A moment later he was spitting the metallic neophosphorous from his mouth and gulping desperately for air. Above him was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen, the face of Sierra, pink with effort, but shining brighter than all the glowing river surrounding him. Looking into her eyes, he knew he would be safe.
His chest and hips came free with squelching pops. After that his knees and feet shot out in a sliding rush as Sierra pulled him into her arms.
Buoyed by her skimmers, she flew over to a narrow ledge of rock alongside the river. His entire body was glowing and his clothes were torn, but he was alive.
“You came back for me,” he said.
“I guess you were right,” she said, breathing heavily. “You needed me after all.”
Though the joy Adan felt seemed like it would last forever, it faded all too quickly as he gazed towards the top of the crevice.
“How are we going to get out of here?”
“I don’t know. Skimmers can’t fly that high.”
“We have to at least try.” He had not escaped death to stay down here, trapped, until the Developers found them.
Sierra slipped the skimmers off her feet and handed them to Adan. “It would be better if you carried me,” she said, “You’re kind of heavy.”
“All right,” he said, grinning.
As Adan finished placing the slats on his feet, a deafening boom from above shook the air around them, echoing off the walls of the crevice.
Sierra and Adan looked at each other, as if to brace themselves for what might come next, but all they could see was the bridge which, from this distance, looked unharmed.
“If that was an explosion,” Adan said, “I hope the others got out before it hit.”
Sierra’s hand went to her mouth. “Wik—I set him down to come after you.”
Adan looked up, hoping to see a sign of movement—anything that would let him know what was going on up there, but an eerie silence settled over the cavern. The machines all stopped. “We’ll find him,” he said. “But we have to get up there first.”
Sierra wrapped her arms around him from behind and Adan engaged the skimmers. He was so consumed by the urgency of getting out of the crevice he barely felt her weight at all.
“I know you can do this,” she whispered in his ear.
Adan set out over the ribbon of neophosphorous. Skimmers were not designed to fly straight upwards. Like the sand duster ships, they required something solid beneath them to generate the cushion of
energy along which they could float.
Adan headed for the far end of the crevice, where the river disappeared into the rock. Flying above the flow, he rapidly picked up speed.
Sierra gripped him even harder. “You do have a plan, don’t you?” she asked.
“I’m just going to try this and see what happens. Hold on tight.”
He raced along the flow until there was barely any space between the two sides of the crevice. Then he turned abruptly, so that his feet went perpendicular to the wall. For a few moments, they shot up the side, but then their momentum stalled. Before it was gone completely, Adan pushed off the wall and flipped his legs to the other side so that they shot up the opposite wall instead. He kept going up that side until they started to lose speed again and twisted back to the other wall. He repeated the process, each time, rising a little higher, jumping back and forth between the walls until they reached the top of the crevice.
“You did it,” Sierra squeezed him tight as they crested the edge of the cliff wall.
Their elation lasted but a moment, cut short by the scene of wreckage and devastation which greeted them as they hovered above the floor of the mine.
The mine was strewn with bodies and overturned equipment. The bodies were mangled beyond recognition. Adan had no way of telling whether they were somatarchs or his friends.
A sickening wave rose into his throat. He fought against it, forcing himself not to give in to panic.
At first he had thought there was nothing moving in the cavern, but he soon realized that was not true. A group of somatarchs were silently advancing towards them from the far side of the bridge, the side from which Adan and the Sentients had come. The vehicles there remained undamaged.
The moment they spotted Adan, all six somatarchs broke into a run.
The Chronotrace Sequence- The Complete Box Set Page 56
