Cade kept a constant watch on the twisting column of darkness that rose over the buildings to the south, about four hundred yards away from them. While in the chopper he’d been close enough to see that the column was stationary, but that didn’t mean it would stay that way. He half expected it to suddenly start acting like the twister that it resembled and become mobile. Oddly there was no sound accompanying it and that made him more than a bit nervous. Something that big, something displacing that much air, should have growled with a life of its own the way a big tornado will. This one was silent and if he needed any proof that it was unnatural, this did the job nicely.
Riley took them to the designated location and then swung the HWMMV around so that it was facing back in the direction they had come. The position would make it easier for them to get out of there quickly should the need arise. The driver for First Squad, Chen, did the same, though he kept his vehicle half a dozen yards behind Riley’s preventing the enemy from hitting them both with the same attack.
Cade lowered himself back inside the vehicle and moved up to the front passenger seat. He pulled the microphone from the dash and contacted the command center.
“Echo to TOC. We’ve reached the target and are starting phase two.”
“Roger that, Echo. Good luck.”
The transmission was full of interference, as expected, and Cade knew they wouldn’t have the option of using the broadband radio for much longer. Rather than wait until they’d lost touch with Mason, who was operating as tactical operations command for this mission, he ordered his men to make the switch to the tight beam tactical communications system integrated into their helmets. This would allow them to stay in touch with each other even if they lost contact with the TOC.
Once each man had reported in, he gave the order for them to form a perimeter in front of the motor pool. Riley, Duncan and Cade set up in defensive positions around the lead vehicle, being careful not to block Wilson’s line of fire from his position in the turret of the second. Once they were ready, it was time for Olsen to go to work.
After lowering a ramp from the rear compartment, he knelt in front of the command console and used the controls to power up the strange looking contraption sitting in the cargo space of the HWMMV. NOMAD’s engine rumbled to life and then settled down into a barely discernable hum. Because of the interference they’d already been experiencing with the radios, he’d opted to use the fiber-optic interface and so he gave the leads one last look to be certain they weren’t tangled. It wouldn’t do to lose connectivity with the machine because he’d been lax in his checklist.
Once he was satisfied, he drove the robot out of the cargo area and sent it on its way.
The vehicle was controlled through three different LCD screens, representing a forward, backward, and alternating side view from the vehicles’ on-board cameras, and a small joystick, much like a video game. The control box was just a bit too large to hold for any long period of time, a design flaw Olsen was still miffed about, and so he was obligated to kneel before the console to operate it comfortably. This prevented him from having a weapon in hand, but he trusted the others to watch his back and he did have NOMAD’s firepower at his disposal if necessary.
The huge rolling bay door that provided access to the interior had been jammed open during the previous incursion. Olsen took advantage of that fact, rolling NOMAD up within a few feet of it and then extending the robot’s telescoping arm beneath the door. When he triggered the camera mounted on the end of the arm he was able to see inside the building.
Expecting to see the bodies of Jackson’s squad still lying where they had fallen several days ago, Olsen was surprised to see that the floor ahead was clear. He swiveled the camera, checking out as much of the interior as possible. Sunlight poured in from the windows high on each wall, banishing much of the darkness in the center of the room but creating deep shadows inside the various garage bays and preventing him from seeing what each might contain. Similarly, it was difficult to see what might be lying in wait on the catwalk high above, as the incoming light blinded the camera to some degree.
Olsen called Cade over and the two of them discussed the situation briefly. Neither man liked the idea of sending in the troops just yet; the fact that the bodies were missing disturbed both of them. It suggested that the shadow creatures possessed at least a rudimentary intelligence level, which made them more dangerous. For all they knew the shadow creatures could be lying in wait in the various work bays, waiting for more unsuspecting prey to wander into their den.
They decided to send NOMAD inside the building, to test the reaction of anything that might be waiting inside. If there was no response, Echo would then advance.
CHAPTER NINE
Olsen guided NOMAD forward under the garage door and into the building proper. He advanced the robot into the center of the room and then brought it to a halt. With all of its onboard cameras active, he slowly turned it through a 360 degree arc, giving him a good look on all sides.
The facility appeared just as it had in the video footage they’d seen; a central common area surrounded by eight bays for servicing vehicles, four on the left and four on the right. It was the last bay on the left that they were most interested in, for that was where Jackson’s squad had located the mysterious hatch, but they were going to have to check all of them out to be certain the facility was secure before venturing inside themselves.
Though heaven knew just what they were looking for, he thought.
He switched NOMAD’s video cameras into infrared mode and did another slow 360 degree turn, checking for heat signatures that the visible light camera might have missed.
Nothing unusual showed up on any of the screens.
Olsen nudged one of the controls with his thumb and the camera tilted upward until it was pointed at the ceiling. He repeated the same sequence of action, a visible light search followed by an infrared one, but again found nothing unusual.
“Looks clear,” he said to Cade, who was watching over his shoulder.
“All right, let’s check the bays. Start on the right and work your way over to those on the left.”
“Roger that.”
Olsen directed NOMAD into the first bay on the right, scooting it around the vehicular hoist in the center and taking care to check behind the oil drums stacked against the rear wall. He used the manipulator arm to open the doors of the tool cabinet and to check under a discarded tarp in the corner.
Not finding anything of interest, Olsen drove NOMAD back out of that bay and into the second, repeating the search in the same manner as the first. One by one, he declared each bay empty of any noticeable threat.
Finally, he came to the last bay on the left.
Olsen brought NOMAD to a halt just outside the entrance to the bay and used the spotlight to examine the interior, just as he had with each of the others. The vehicular hoist seen elsewhere was missing here. Gone, too, were the barrels and tool cabinets. In their place was the floor-level trapdoor that Jackson’s squad had uncovered during their ill-fated sweep. The hatch itself was still open, just as the squad had left it.
Olsen took his hands off the controls for a moment and flexed his fingers, working out the tension that had built up during the last half hour of work.
“Take us in closer,” said Cade. “Let’s get a good look inside that hatch.”
Olsen did as he was instructed, bringing NOMAD to within a foot of the open hatch. From there he raised the telescoping arm and extended it out over the floor until it was able to look down into the open hatch. They had a quick glimpse of a vertical shaft that disappeared into the darkness below and then, without warning, NOMAD’s cameras went dark.
“What happened?”
“Not sure yet,” Olsen answered. He checked the fiber-optic leads, figuring one of them had gotten tangled and simply pulled free, but they were still securely attached to the control unit. When those checked out he moved on to the camera controls themselves, just in case he’d accid
entally turned something off that he shouldn’t have, but that too turned out to be a bust. In fact, he could see that he was still receiving a signal from the camera, it just wasn’t showing anything through the viewfinder. He explained as much to Cade.
“Switch to infrared,” the commander suggested.
Olsen did so, but that, too, was inoperable. Concerned that they were going to lose the unit, he powered up the motor and backed the robot away from the hatch. The minute NOMAD left the repair bay the camera began transmitting a signal again, as if nothing had ever happened.
“You want me to run it through a complete diagnostic, see if it’s a software bug or something?” he asked Cade, but the commander shook his head.
“I think it’s time we gave it a look for ourselves.”
Cade ducked back inside the cab of the HWMMV and sent a final radio transmission to Captain Mason, just in case he was still receiving them. Then the Echo Team leader used the tactical communication system in his helmet to order his men to assemble next to his vehicle and prepare for entry into the structure.
The Command Squad would go in first, with Ortega’s First Squad watching their backs. When they reached the repair bay, First Squad would form up in a semi-circle facing outward into the common area while Cade and the others checked the hatch.
It wasn’t a perfect plan, but it would at least provide them with some measure of warning should that the enemy show itself again and they’d therefore be better prepared to deal with it than Jackson’s squad had been.
Cade looked at the men assembled around him, checking to be certain they were prepared for what lay ahead. He needn’t have worried; they were all professionals and more than ready to step off into the darkness to face the unknown. Riley must have guessed what was going through Cade’s head, for he gave him a quick smile and racked the slide on his combat shotgun, signaling his readiness to get underway.
Flicking the safety off his own weapon, Cade stepped toward the building, his men in position around him.
CHAPTER TEN
Compared to what Jackson’s squad had faced when entering the motor pool several days ago, Echo’s entrance was practically anti-climatic. They cleared the room swiftly and professionally, confirming Olsen’s earlier assessment through NOMAD that the place was now deserted.
Once he was satisfied that they wouldn’t be ambushed from the rear, Cade ordered First Squad into position and entered the last repair bay on the left with Duncan, Olsen, and Riley on his heels.
Using hand signals, Cade indicated that Riley and Olsen should circle around the open hatch so that they could approach it from either side. He caught Duncan’s gaze and pointed upward, indicating the young sergeant should keep his eyes on the rafters above. That left him to take the most direct route, approaching the open hatch from directly ahead.
Step by step they closed the distance, each of them fully expecting something to come charging up out of the shaft at any moment.
But nothing did. They were able to reach the hatch without incident and as one they shone their lights down into the darkness below.
The shaft was roughly three feet square. A series of metal rungs bolted to one side formed a ladder that disappeared into the darkness below.
There was no sign of the shadow thing that had attacked Jackson’s squad, nor was there any sign of the missing bodies.
“Give us some more light,” Cade suggested and Riley withdrew a chemical stick from his belt, activated it with a quick snap of its casing, and then tossed it into the shaft. By its light they could see that the ladder extended all the way to the bottom, some thirty feet below. The opening of a tunnel was also visible on the wall opposite the ladder. Far below, the base of the ladder itself was clear.
“Seems there’s more here than meets the eye,” said Riley.
Cade nodded. “All right boys, time to earn our pay.” He turned, pointing to the various squad members as he gave his instructions. “Riley, you take point. Duncan, you’re his back-up. Ortega, I want you on rear guard. Nobody comes down this shaft after us without my knowing about it, clear?”
The other man nodded.
“Once Riley and Duncan give the all clear, the rest of us will follow them down and see where that tunnel goes. Let’s get to it!”
The light stick’s initial bright flare had passed, but there was still enough light in the stick to see the rungs without too much difficulty. Riley slung his weapon over his shoulder and started down the ladder, while the others covered him from above. When he had descended about fifteen feet, Duncan started down after him.
The descent passed without incident and the two men soon found themselves standing at the base of the shaft. Their weapons were fitted with both a laser targeting light and an optional side LED, standard issue equipment among the various Templar rapid-response squads, and so with the flick of a switch they used the latter to illuminate the area ahead of them.
Riley used the tactical radio to contact Cade. “We’ve got a tunnel ahead of us, running due south for about ten yards before opening into a wider space. We’re going to check it out.”
“Roger that. We’re on our way down.”
The big master sergeant stepped forward with Duncan close at his heels. A few moments later they emerged from the tunnel onto a wide platform like that found in a subway station. Another larger tunnel ran perpendicular to the one they had just emerged from, reinforcing the comparison. The platform itself extended only for another ten feet before ending in a wall. When Duncan shone his light into the second tunnel, he discovered a set of thick steel rails running away into the darkness. Along the ceiling, running parallel to the rails below, were a set of electrical cables.
“What the heck do they need with a monorail?” Riley asked aloud, though the answer was obvious even to him. The base above had just been a good set of camouflage. The real facility was down here, below ground and hidden from even the best spy satellites.
When Cade and the rest of Echo caught up with the point men, the decision was made to continue forward down the tunnel. Riley and Duncan would advance slightly ahead of the rest of the party. They in turn would be strung out in a line, the standard five feet between each man, with Cade in the lead and Ortega bringing up the rear. They would stick to the middle of the tunnel, giving them as much room to maneuver as possible.
Expecting the equivalent of a New York City subway tunnel, Riley was surprised at the condition of this one. It was cool but dry, the desert heat on the surface above keeping the moisture from accumulating down below, and there was very little debris anywhere along its length. Nor were there any rodents. The darkness, however, was all-encompassing and it seemed to crowd around him. The light he carried was a powerful one but it had a narrow beam and so it did little to banish the sense that he was slowly being smothered as the darkness flowed in like water to fill the space in the absence of the light when he turned to look at something new. It was unnerving. He could almost feel it crawling across his skin…
Riley shook himself. Come on, get over it. You stopped being afraid of the dark when you were two, remember? But it wasn’t just the darkness; that he knew. It was what that darkness could be hiding. The video of Jackson’s unit and the being that they had faced had gotten under his skin in a way that few things had during his years with the Order. He’d fought against hundreds of different supernatural creatures over the years, from witches to were-creatures, from the living dead to the ghosts of people past. None of them had bothered him like this. There was a wrongness about the creature that struck him at his core, a gut sense deep inside that cried out against it, that shuddered in revulsion at the knowledge that such things walked the face of the earth. He wondered how he was going to handle it when they finally came face to face.
It was not an encounter he was looking forward to, by any stretch of the imagination.
They found the train about half a mile down the tunnel. It loomed out of the darkness, a behemoth filling the narrow space ahead, the sp
otlight at the top of the car the dead eye of a Cyclops staring down at them. Riley held up his left arm, fist closed, signaling for the group to stop. The team crouched in place, waiting for him to check things out.
He took his time, giving the situation some thought and considering the alternatives. The train filled the tunnel; there wasn’t half a foot on either side to allow them to get past it. They had no idea where the tunnel led, so backtracking and trying to find another way in was out of the question. Which means we’re going to have to go through it, Riley thought.
He didn’t like that idea. Didn’t like it at all. They’d be penned up inside, their mobility and tactical options greatly reduced should they encounter something dangerous. It was the perfect set-up for a trap and he didn’t want to think what it would be like encountering those shadow creatures in such a dark and confined space.
But what choice did they have? Short of calling it quits, there wasn’t any other option. They’d have to go straight through it and hope for the best.
From where he stood he could see that the two wide windows that fronted the driver’s compartment had been smashed. The window frames were big enough to allow Duncan and he to enter through them without too much difficulty. Once inside, they could make their way down the length of the train and hope that they could find a way out in the rear car. Then, and only then, would he call the rest of the team forward.
It wasn’t a great plan, but it was good enough. He turned slightly so that he could see the others behind him and then used hand signals to indicate his decision. Cade nodded his agreement and as Riley cautiously began moving closer to the train Duncan stepped up beside him.
They crept forward and took position on either side of the sloping front of the engine car. On a signal from Riley, both of them stood and shone their lights inside the car.
It was empty.
The door at the back of the engine compartment was also closed, something Riley was pleased to see. The door would give them a few seconds of warning should something react violently to their presence.
The Templar Chronicles Omnibus Page 26
