by Nick Thacker
For all he knew, they were simply floating in space, not moving forward or backward in the tunnel.
He began to feel the claustrophobia of the constricting space, imagining the walls pushing in slowly. He wasn’t prone to claustrophobia, but he knew that there was a point at which everyone began to feel uncomfortable.
Just when Ben thought they were going to have to give up and turn around, taking their chances with the Ravenshadow men, the soldiers in front of him reached up and pulled themselves out of the water. He felt himself being pulled up as well, the soldiers lifting him from under his arms. There was a ledge, about a foot wide, that they were sitting on.
Ben pulled himself up and out once his hands found the edge of the ledge, and he turned and helped Julie get out as well. Once they were both sitting, their backs against the wall of the tunnel, Ben looked around.
By the light of their dive lamps, he could see that the tunnel had widened considerably. They had entered some sort of antechamber that had ledges built along each wall, about a foot above the water line, no doubt for maintenance purposes.
And the object of that maintenance loomed over Ben to his left. An absolutely massive fan sat halfway out of the water, stretching from the very top of the mostly circular shaft to its floor underwater. The blades, made of some sort of reinforced steel, were half an inch thick and curved, a feature that Ben knew helped push the water in the proper direction.
There were six blades, evenly spaced out and spreading from the central hub of the fan. And they were spinning. The heavy machinery hummed as it turned, and the water roiled in front of the turbine.
“A propeller,” Jeffers said. “Shit.”
The blades were moving quickly, but not so fast that Ben couldn’t see through the spaces between them as they cycled. The tunnel continued up ahead, but it seemed that the ledges they were sitting on continued on both sides of the shaft. He assumed they would lead directly to whatever maintenance exit door lay up ahead.
“Just like we thought, Lang said. He looked toward Beale, who was sitting out of the water on the other side of the shaft. “Any ideas?”
“Yeah,” Beale said. “We turn around and get the hell out of here. Work our way up the cliff, maybe?”
Lang was shaking his head. “We have to get past this thing. There’s got to be a shutoff switch or something.”
“There won’t be,” Reggie said. “Not down here. That control will be farther up the tunnel, inside the base. It would be a pretty hefty security flaw if there was a way to shut it down from here.”
“Well,” Mrs. E said. “Can we blow it up?”
“No demolitions,” Beale said. “We don’t have anything small enough that would do the trick, and we can’t risk the integrity of the tunnel. Could have a whole mountain falling on us.”
Ben sighed, then looked at Julie. She shrugged.
“Okay, well for the time being, we’re safe. Let’s think about this a bit, and —”
The sound of gunfire erupted through the tunnel, reverberating around them. One round pinged off of one of the metal blades.
“Shit!” Jeffers said. “They’re here.”
He leaned forward, mounting his foot on the opposite ledge for leverage, and he started firing back.
The noise in the small space was deafening, and Ben immediately felt his ears begin to burn. He leaned out as well, trying to see what their options were.
The entrance to the tunnel was illuminated by the bright daylight filtering in from outside, and he saw the unmistakable shape of a man standing directly in front of it.
33
Ben
“They’re not coming in,” Jeffers muttered between bursts.
Beale added. “I think they’re just locking us down. Most likely cutting off our exit plan. They’ll have another team coming in from the other side of the fan.”
“Maybe they’ll turn the fan off for us? To get shots at us from that side?”
Beale shook his head. “Maybe, but we can’t wait that long. We’re dead if we get stuck between them.” He looked around. “Anyone got any bright ideas?”
“What about a gun?” Julie asked.
“Come again?”
“A rifle,” she said, pulling hers out from over her shoulder. “Stick the barrel up on the ceiling where it’s flat for a couple of feet, really close to the front of the fan, then let the butt swing in. It might work.”
Beale was already in motion, with another Green Beret by his side. He reached out for Julie’s rifle, and she handed it over. Ben was about to protest — he would rather they use their own weapons — but he didn’t want to cause any more trouble than they were already in.
Beale and the soldier held the rifle steady, then lifted it up carefully and placed the tip of it against the flat part of the ceiling. They pushed it as far to the right as they could, where there would be the maximum amount of leverage against the blade as it spun in its counter-clockwise direction. When they were ready, Beale gave the order.
“Okay, slowly, just drop it in on three. But get ready to jump back if it starts chewing ” He counted it out quickly, all while Jeffers and the Ravenshadow man at the other end of the tunnel exchanged shots, and then the two Green Berets softly nudged the rifle into place. Only a split-second passed before the first propeller blade impacted the assault rifle.
…at which point the rifle simply crumpled into two pieces, one of which sparked and flew into the other side of the tunnel beyond the blades.
Beale and the soldier fell back, cowering for a moment at the backlash. When the blades continued moving, now once again unimpeded, Beale turned to the rest of them. “That was a disaster,” he said. “Any other great ideas?”
Ben felt the man’s frustration, but he didn’t like how he had directed his assault toward Julie. It may not have worked, but he didn’t hear anyone else offering suggestions.
“I say we fight our way back out,” the other Green Beret said. “Get to the river again and kill those assholes waiting for us.”
“Those ‘assholes’ are well-trained,” Beale said. “And they’ve got a clear shot at us. And heading downstream we’ll be unable to maneuver.”
“I got an idea, boss,” another man said. Beale and everyone else turned to stare at him. He pulled out a small handheld weapon from a pack he had been wearing. “A harpoon gun,” he said. “The propulsion is fast enough underwater that I can get it stuck in a rock on the bottom of the river. Out of water and this close? I bet I can sink it into the concrete. It’s got a little umbrella thingy that’ll hold it steady in there. Might be enough.”
“Okay,” Beale said. “But what about the other side? You can’t just hold the thing.”
“I’ve got that covered, too,” he said.
“Go for it.”
The Ravenshadow man and Jeffers had stopped firing at one another for the moment, both obviously feeling that it was a lost cause, and Ben was finally able to hear.
The soldier stretched his legs across the chasm between the ledges and aimed his harpoon at the wall on one side of the tunnel just beyond the fan’s blades. He took a breath, steadied himself, then fired.
The harpoon shot between the blades, then mounted into the concrete, just as the man had said. He then flicked a switch, allowing the spool of steel fiber to release. It flew outward from the harpoon gun with a whizzing sound, then the man threw the entire gun into the other side of the propeller.
The gun bounced off one of the spinning blades, but then flew down into the water on the opposite side of the propeller. Ben watched it hit the water, then shoot back up and out of the water as the fan blades turned and pulled the line of steel wire tight. It re-spooled onto the propeller, the blades churning and grabbing the line until it was completely twisted and intertwined in it, and then there was no more line for it to pull.
And the fan abruptly snapped to a halt.
“Yes!” the man shouted.
Beale jumped into action. “Move, now. My te
am first. We don’t know how long this thing will hold.”
“Then why don’t you let the civilians go first?” Reggie asked.
Ben frowned. Yeah, what’s up with this guy?
“Because if it’s going to fail, it’ll fail early. I’d much rather one of us get caught in it.
“Right,” Reggie said. “Better get going then. We’ll hold back the Ravenshadow guys from this end.”
Beale nodded and then slid between the blades. The rest of his men followed, one on each side, and Ben motioned for Julie to move ahead. Mrs. E had taken up a position guarding the entrance to the tunnel, but the Ravenshadow men still had yet to reappear.
“Go ahead,” Ben said. “I’ll be right behind you. The sooner we get inside, the sooner we find —”
Ben heard a snapping sound, and he flicked his eyes up. Beale met Ben’s eyes, just as the propeller blades started once again to turn. He had pressed the release on the spear end of the harpoon gun, allowing the giant mechanism to spin freely.
And Ben suddenly knew everything. He had sensed it, but he hadn’t wanted to admit it.
They’d been betrayed.
“Beale, what the —”
“I’m sorry, Bennett,” Beale said, shouting over the rising sound of the fan’s hum, even though his voice came through clearly in Ben’s headset. “Things are more complicated than you think. And you — your team — you’re a complication. Too risky.”
Julie pulled away from Ben and spat through the blades. “You — you son of a —”
Julie’s voice fell away as Ben caught her arm.
“Beale,” Ben said. The leader of the Green Berets focused again on Ben. “Why? Why bring us all the way here?”
Beale hesitated, but then shrugged and offered a reply. “I told you the truth. We needed you. You got us here, but we can’t risk getting slowed down.”
“Ravenshadow is waiting for us out there!” Reggie shouted. “You’re leaving us here to die, asshole.”
“Just sit tight. Hopefully this is all over soon.”
“‘Sit tight’?” Julie scoffed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Ben watched the faces of the other Green Berets. Lang, Jeffers, the men he’d gotten to know and trust a bit. Their expressions were unreadable. They might know everything. Or they’re just as in the dark about this as we are.
It didn’t matter. They were loyal to their captain, and they were going to follow his orders.
“I’m sorry, guys. Our goals no longer align. I can’t risk it.”
And with that, the Green Beret team turned and walked up the side ledges toward the Ravenshadow base, leaving the CSO team trapped between a massive propeller and a group of ruthless mercenaries.
34
Julie
Julie sat next to Mrs. E on the ledge. The older woman’s face was a mask, but Julie had known her long enough to know she was indignant. However, Julie wasn’t sure what exactly was the source of her anger. She was likely upset about the betrayal, but Julie also wondered if part of it was the fact that none of them had suspected anything.
Perhaps she was angry with herself for not knowing better.
Still, Julie wasn’t about to reach out and console her. They had a job to do, and at the moment that job was to stay alive, and potentially to fight their way out of the tunnel.
“We’ve got company,” Reggie said.
His voice came through Julie’s headset, but it was already beginning to crack and fade out. Beale’s team was growing farther away every second, and if they lost communication with the Green Berets, they’d be completely in the dark.
He raised his voice and said it again, no doubt hearing the failing transmission.
“Ravenshadow?” Ben asked.
“Yeah. Two snorkels. Probably didn’t have time to get suited up for a dive, but they’re heading this way.”
“Can you shoot them?” Ben asked. “It’ll at least buy us some time.”
Reggie responded by lifting his rifle and aiming toward the two thin cylinders that were slowly creeping toward them. He pulled the trigger. Julie watched as he fired, his shots slowly centering in the tunnel and finding their mark. He sent three bursts into the two divers, then waited.
Julie frowned. “They’re… still moving.”
“Yeah,” Ben said. “It’s like you didn’t even touch them.”
“I definitely hit them. More than once. What the —”
He fired again, this time aiming a bit lower. Julie saw all the rounds impact the water just in front of the snorkels, but when the water and mist settled, they were continuing to make their way up the tunnel shaft.
“Who the hell are these guys?” Ben asked. “Robots?”
“Try again,” Julie said, her voice low. She was feeling the pangs of panic beginning to build in her chest, and she tried to ignore it. There’s something strange about these divers, she thought.
Ben and Reggie raised their rifles and crammed close to one another on the ledge, Ben leaning outward just a bit and Reggie straddling both ledges with a foot on each. Mrs. E was watching, waiting, with Julie.
Both rifles kicked to life and they sent multiple bursts of gunfire toward the swimming shapes. They were still halfway to the entrance, but it seemed to Julie as though they may have begun to speed up.
Ben pulled one of his shots a bit to the right of the snorkel and suddenly the entire tunnel lit up in a flash of light.
A shockwave, followed almost immediately by the sound of a deafening blast, filled Julie’s ears. She rocked sideways on the ledge, her head narrowly missing an impact with one of the fast-moving propeller blades. A surge of water pushed backward against the current, causing a torrent of whitewater that pressed upward for a few seconds, then receded.
Julie blinked a few times, and then leaned out to look down the tunnel.
“It’s… gone. Both of them.”
“Holy mother of God,” Reggie said. “They weren’t divers. They were bombs.”
“How’s that even possible?” Ben asked.
“Submersible-controlled demolition devices,” he said. “Usually just MacGyver-ed together with whatever you’ve got on hand. These were radio-controlled, judging that snorkel-periscope thing. It was actually an antenna.”
“They were driving them to us?” Julie asked.
“Must have been. Probably had a little radar scanner updating its position back in one of their cars. I’ve seen them made from grenades, RC boats, walkie-talkies — really, anything that’s automated and blows up.”
“These seem… a bit more advanced than that…” Ben said.
“Not really,” Reggie said. “They’re just semi-submersible RC boats that they’ve wired up a remote detonator. Like C4, or something that can be triggered from somewhere else. Your shot hit one of them, but the blast must have knocked out the other one, too. Probably factored in the integrity of the place, too — just enough to smear us all over the walls without damaging the fan or walls, or bringing the mountain down around us.”
“Well, whatever they are, there’s more,” Julie said. She was watching the entrance to the tunnel shaft and saw two more tall, skinny shapes — what they had thought were snorkels — begin their ascent up the shaft.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Ben said. “They can just drop in a couple at a time, let us take potshots at them, get our ammunition store depleted.”
“And I don’t even have a gun,” Julie said. She was once again reminded about the soldiers’ betrayal. Her list of people she needed to confront had just grown.
Ben raised his rifle and prepared to shoot at the newcomer submersibles, but Reggie pulled the barrel of his gun down.
“What’s up?” Ben said.
“I think we’re far enough from the Green Berets by now that we’re out of radio distance.”
“Which means?”
“Which means I think it’s time to head into the base, see what we’re missing out on.”
Ben frowned. Ju
lie was confused as well, until she saw what Reggie was doing.
35
Ben
Reggie had his right arm lifted into the air and he was gently waving it back and forth. “It’s way stronger than these blades,” he said. “And I think I can do what Julie was trying to do with the rifle.”
“You think… it is safe?” Mrs. E asked.
“What’s the worst that’ll happen? I lose my arm?” He grinned, walking on the ledge toward the fan. He held his prosthetic arm up and then placed his closed fist against the flat part of the concrete ceiling. “I thought about it right away,” he continued, “but I wanted to save it for… you know, something like this.”
“Something like our getting betrayed and left for dead?” Julie asked.
“Yeah. I wasn’t clear on the specifics, but I just had a feeling things wouldn’t go as planned.”
“Well I’m glad you did,” Ben asked. “But if you lose your arm again, I’m never forgiving myself.”
Reggie laughed. “This time it was my choice.”
Without delay, he shoved his elbow out and into the rotating circle of blades. The impact was nearly immediate, and the clang of metal on metal rang out in the confined space.
But the trick worked. Reggie’s prosthetic arm held in place, stopping the blades and opening gaps between which the team could climb.
“Go,” Reggie said. “Hurry up. Those little bomb floaters are catching up.”
Ben glanced backward and noticed that they were, in fact, moving faster than they had been previously. They would be at the propeller in less than a minute, and while the increasing current that had been pushing against them would have slowed their progress, for the time being, there was no current.
“Can you hold it?” Julie asked.
“We’ll find out. Better get through quick,” he answered with a grin.
Ben and Julie slid through the gap, then Mrs. E, and finally Reggie, contorting his body so he could step through. He rotated his elbow and shoulder as he did, ending up in the same spot on the opposite side of the fan.
