Shaking his head, he said, “I don’t understand. How could all of this have been happening without anyone noticing? This is a small planet, Captain, everyone knows everyone else. People die, yes, of course, and occasionally the bodies aren’t recovered, but why bury them here?”
“A place no-one goes, and people who do never come back?” Caine said.
“Yes,” Richardson said, “but that was just a handful of people. Maybe ten, eleven over the years, and none for a long time. There aren’t that many disappearances around here.”
Looking down at the corpse, Marshall said, “Add that mystery to the list, then. I don’t think we’re going to find the answer here. Not without equipment we don’t have access to. The only place we’re going to find what we seek is in town.”
Nodding, Richardson said, “We’d better get moving. If this place is important to the Guard, we just made ourselves even more of a target.”
“As soon as we bury him again,” Daniels replied. “And say some words. I’d wager we’ll give him a better burial than he had the first time around.” Looking down at the body, he added, “Son, when all of this is over, we’ll find out where you belong, and make sure you rest with your kin.” He reached over to Caine, and said, “I’d like my shovel back.”
Chapter 18
“Down there?” Cooper asked, passing the binoculars back to Vaughan.
“Yes, sir. The only outpost I couldn’t contact. It looks like they’ve got our people holed up inside. If he followed doctrine, Corporal Pavlov will have picked somewhere he can reinforce, with only one way in to guard.”
“Ironically,” Blaine suggested, “I think he’ll have taken over the guardroom. Right by the far wall, with only one way in or out, and a window too small to access but big enough for observation. All of these outposts were built to the same basic plan. Grant was the first, actually.”
Peering down through the gathering darkness, Cooper spotted four guards walking perimeter, others at the machine gun nests, and a smattering of red-uniformed guardsmen supplementing the soldiers. He didn’t see any Neander in evidence, or any officers. Frowning, he started to push back into cover. Corporal Max looked dispassionately out across the terrain, as though disengaged from what was happening.
“Technically, sir, we don’t need Pavlov’s force today,” Vaughan said. “I’m sure he can take care of himself, and we have a more than ample force assembling above Patton Outpost. Five hundred Neander and twenty Espatiers ought to make one hell of a bang.”
Shaking his head, Cooper replied, “I don’t want to leave any hostages behind that might be exploited, Corporal. I’d like to make sure that we get all of our weapons back as well. The last thing we need is to run into a plasma barrage when we make our strike in the morning.”
“That, and you don’t want to leave anyone behind,” Vaughan said, nodding. “Not that I disagree, sir. I just thought I’d make the point.”
“It’s a good one,” Max said. “Four more men will make little difference, and if they had yielded their equipment, we would already know about it.”
“We’re getting back our men,” Cooper said. “They would do it for me.”
“A fool led by fools,” Max replied, shaking his head, earning a sharp stare from Vaughan.
“What about launching our attack here, then?” Blaine said, “It would have the benefit of surprise, and they haven’t made anything like the preparations.”
“Nor have we,” Cooper said. “Moving that mob will take a long time, long enough for them to react. They’ve got motor transport and interior lines of communication. That gives them an edge. We’ll stick to the plan, but we’re going to go and get back our men.”
“The three of us? Now?”
“Why not?” Cooper asked. “We’re all armed, you know the terrain, and I’d rather make this a stealthy operation anyway. This is a job for a rapier, not a sledgehammer. We sneak into the base, get to the guardroom, and free Pavlov, Freeman and the rest. Then the seven of us can break out in a rather more violent manner, and get back up here to the plateau.”
“This isn't going to be easy,” Blaine warned. He paused, pulled a pencil out of his pocket, and started to draw a quick map of the interior layout in the sand, making walls and entrances with hasty strokes, slashing into the dust. “We go in here, then around here. Assuming we can get past the perimeter, and I’m not sure how we’re going to do that.”
“No problem,” Cooper said, quickly scanning the layout. “They know that you have switched sides, right?”
“Sure, but don’t expect that to win any favors. I’m guessing that the Territorial Guard has taken command down there. We didn’t have any trouble convincing the other garrisons to let the Espatiers walk out peacefully.”
“None of them wanted to deal with a plasma barrage,” Vaughan said. “I was half-tempted to show them what they were up against.”
“I’m glad you didn’t,” Cooper said. “There’s still a chance that we can deal with this peacefully. Knocking out the Guard is one thing, but those soldiers are just doing their job. Somehow I feel easier about killing an android than a human, anyway.”
“What is the plan, then?” Blaine asked. “And why do I think that I’m not going to like it?”
“Vaughan and I will rappel down the side of the wall here,” Cooper said, gesturing at a fissure in the rock. “Wait five minutes, then start walking down the pass, drawing as much attention as you possibly can. My assumption is that at least some of the patrols will go after you, and you can retreat up to the top of the slope, heading right back to camp. We’ll use the distraction to make our way into the compound.”
Max chuckled, and said, “Bait. I’m warming to this plan.”
“They won’t be diverted long,” Vaughan warned.
With a shrug, Cooper replied, “In my experience, soldiers are usually a lot more worried about what might be coming in than what might be coming out. We need to make this quick, Corporal. In and out in as few minutes as we possibly can.”
“What do you want me to do, Ensign?” Max asked. “Do you need a third for your kamikaze mission.”
“Stand and watch,” Cooper said. “Once Blaine runs for it, keep an eye out at the top of the pass, and check for anything coming in.”
Nodding, he replied, “Hang around in the rocks and wait for something to happen. Or for someone to come up here and shoot me. Got it.”
Flashing the Neander soldier a glare, Vaughan asked, “Weapons?”
“We’ll get them charged, but use them only as a last resort. If we have to use them coming in, then the game is probably up anyway. Are you ready, Lieutenant?”
“No, but that probably isn’t going to stop you. Good luck.”
“And to you,” Cooper replied, clapping the nervous officer on the shoulder. He turned, hunching down low and running along the side of the cliff, dodging from one piece of cover to another, Vaughan hard on his heels. He reached down to his datapad, then frowned. Getting down to the surface of the crater was going to be easy enough, but getting back up again could prove rather more difficult.
Two minutes to get to the right spot on the crater, a blind spot that he had identified as soon as he had seen the plans of the base. Pavlov and his team had been given instructions to deal with it, but it appeared that he hadn’t been given the time or the opportunity to do a proper job. The only obstruction was some barbed wire at the bottom, a few tangles that should be easy to get over.
“All set, sir,” Vaughan asked, pulling his cable free from his belt. “Never done a drop quite like this one before. Wish I had a parachute with me.”
Clicking his cable to that of the Corporal, Cooper replied, “We should have just enough to do the job. I’ll go first.”
“Really, sir, I ought…”
Shaking his head, he replied, “Keep watch at the top. If you see anything I need to worry about
, don’t be shy about letting me know. The game will be up anyway if we’re spotted, and Blaine will need to get clear as well.”
Glancing back, Vaughan said, “I’m not sure how far I trust him, sir. Not that I think he’ll betray us, I just think he’s a little jumpy.”
“Give him a break, Corporal. Being under fire for the first time is bad enough, it must be a lot worse when your own people are shooting at you.”
With a smile, he replied, “Besides, sir, you’ve given him a job which would be pretty difficult to mess up.”
“All he has to do is run down, scream, and run back up again. They’ll go after him.”
“It’s a pretty obvious trick, sir.”
“Which just means that they won’t send everyone. He’s a wanted traitor to his government. They daren’t just let him escape without at least making the attempt to snatch him.” Glancing at his watch, Cooper said, “I think we’re about right on the time now. Secure the cable.”
As Vaughan hurriedly tied it to an outcropping, testing the weight to make sure that it would hold, Cooper threw the cable over the edge, watching it unroll as it dropped down to the floor of the crater below, hooking itself up on one of the pieces of barbed wire. He gave it another experimental tug, then clipped his harness into position, swinging out over the edge, beginning to drop.
He let himself fall, a few meters at a time, using his gloves to keep his speed nice and steady, kicking himself free of the cliff face whenever he drew too near. The view was spectacular, but he had no time to enjoy it, unable to worry about anything other than getting quickly into position on the ground, before anyone could spot him.
Up above, Vaughan swung into position, giving him a slight pang of worry. The cable was designed to carry both of them, or even an entire fire team if necessary, but he was less happy about the rock face, and he redoubled his efforts to reach the ground. Just as he touched down, he saw a flash of light from the plateau, a few hundred meters from where their cable was secured, about where Max was meant to be hiding.
Crashing to the ground, he quickly unstrapped himself and raced into cover, looking up to try and see what the Neander was doing. A series of flashes in sequence followed, twelve of them, but they didn’t match any code he knew about. As Vaughan dropped in beside him, he gestured up at the figure, a grimace on his head.
“He might be trying to warn us, sir,” Vaughan suggested.
“I don’t think so,” Cooper replied. “He’s signaling to someone. Damn, I didn’t like him, but I thought we could trust him.”
“What do we do now, sir?”
Pausing, Cooper said, “Proceed with the mission as planned. There’s no sign of any activity down there, and it isn’t as if we have anything better to do with this evening. If he has sold us out, then there will be search teams combing the desert for us any moment now.”
“And if the garrison is alerted?”
“Then we still have the plasma carbines and smoke grenades to cause enough chaos that we just might be able to pull this stunt off yet.” With a quick look back, he said, “You take point. I’ll cover.”
The two men sprinted around the edge of the cliff, hugging it as close as they could, ever watching for signs that the garrison might have detected them. They only had to cover a few hundred meters, but it might as well have been a hundred miles, time almost seeming to stand still as they raced for cover. A loud report echoed from ahead, one of the sentries firing at a fleeing Blaine, hopefully, and they paused for a second, ducking behind a large rock, looking at the garrison ahead.
“Someone really messed up here,” Cooper said. “The kill zone is barely fifty meters.”
“It doesn’t need to be that wide,” Vaughan replied, “Not if their aim is sharp.”
Two figures were racing up the pass, leaving a wide gap in their defenses. For a moment, all attention would be on the fleeing rebel, and the two Espatiers took full advantage of their brief window of opportunity, sprinting across the sand, taking the thinly stretched barbed wire fence in a single leap, and flattening themselves against the side wall, hugging the blind spot of the overhead defenses.
Picturing the map of the base in his mind, Cooper led the way around the outside, glancing up at the side wall. When he thought he was in the right place, he pulled out a quartet of climbing spikes from his pack, quickly fitting two of them to his boots while attaching the remainder to the palms of his hands, Vaughan doing likewise.
“I hate these things,” the veteran trooper said, shaking his head. “Too risky.”
“We only need to use them for a moment,” Cooper said, digging into the plastoform wall with the first spike, pulling himself up the side of the stockade with the other. The material was old, with plenty of small gaps and fissures to exploit, and the two men hastily climbed to the top of the wall. Cooper glanced across, and saw a figure at the top of the pass, looking out across the plateau. At least Blaine appeared to have made a break of it.
Rolling over the top, he lay on the platform behind the wall, looking around the perimeter. A trio of guards lounging in a corner, sitting around a flickering fire, in front of a locked and bolted door. Vaughan quietly moved in beside him, and started to take off the spikes.
“That must be it,” Cooper whispered. “Not much of a guard.”
“Doesn’t have to be much,” Vaughan replied. “Nothing will sneak past, and there are two machine gun nests covering the door.” He gestured at the two nests on their side of the wall, both manned by red-uniformed guards.
“Grab one of them, quietly,” Cooper said. “I’m going down.”
“Careful, boss. This could still be a trap.”
Pausing for a second, he threw Vaughan an incredulous stare, and replied, “I think you might be leaving that realization a little on the late side, Corporal.”
“Better late than never, sir,” he grinned, quietly sneaking along the platform. Cooper scrambled down the ladder, a pair of smoke grenades in hand, and waited for Vaughan to do his job. He started to take deep breaths, calming himself down, his eyes scrutinizing every detail he could make out. In less than a minute, they would either be on their way out of the stockade and on their way up to the plateau, or they would be captured, or dead.
Looking up, he saw a quick wave of the arm from the machine gun, a sign that all was ready. He raised the first grenade, pulled the pin, and rolled it gently across the ground, quietly enough not to attract any attention until it erupted with smoke.
“Fire!” he yelled, hoping for a brief second’s distraction, while he threw the second grenade into the mix, another burst of smoke filling the air. He sprinted through the confusion, pushing a hapless soldier to the crowd, and raced up to the guardroom. The door opened as he approached, and Corporal Pavlov stepped out.
“Good evening, sir,” he said with a smile. “Are we leaving?”
“We are indeed. Are you all good to go?”
“Packed and ready.”
A burst of machine gun fire raked across the compound, catching one of the panicking soldiers square in the chest, his bloody corpse collapsing to the ground. Before the guardsman could fire again, Vaughan turned his machine gun on the red-uniformed murderer, smearing the next with enough bullets to silence it forever.
Cooper raced through the compound, lobbing another smoke grenade to his side, Vaughan providing covering fire to prevent the other machine gun nests from intervening. Pavlov’s squad charged after him, weapons in hand and ready, and they slammed into the big double gates, bursting them open, to reveal a Territorial Guard formation standing before them, weapons at the ready. Quickly raising his plasma carbine, he pulled the trigger, only for a red light to flash on, an error message as a series of diagnostic checks began.
He managed to hurl himself into cover before the shots ran out, Pavlov attempting a shot with the same result. Cooper glanced up at Vaughan’s machine g
un nest and swore, seeing an empty gun. By now the erstwhile gunner was on his way back around to join them.
“We’re pinned!” Pavlov said. “We go back the machine guns get us. Go forward and we’re charging our own personal firing squad!”
Pulling out his backup pistol, Cooper cursed, firing off a round to reassure himself that it was still working. Trying to charge machine guns with pistols was likely to yield an unhappy ending, but the troopers were rapidly running out of alternatives. He had one smoke bomb left, and there was a remote chance that he might be able to use it to give them cover to withdraw back to the guardroom. Some of them, in any case. He was just about to give his final order, when Private Freeman pointed at the pass.
“Reinforcements!”
A figure came racing down the hull, firing semi-automatic bursts ahead of him, breaking up the line of guardsmen that was blocking the door. None of them were in cover, all perfect targets for a good marksman, and this one was taking them down all over the field. Tossing his grenade ahead, Cooper began to charge forward.
“Come on!” he yelled, and the five of them raced towards the pass, Vaughan sprinting after him out of cover. Pavlov and his team hastily deployed their respirators, while Cooper provided some suppressing fire, allowing himself a brief glimpse of satisfaction as he brought down one of the guardsmen.
By the time the enemies had recovered, they were already almost a quarter of the way up the pass, and gaining speed all the time. Max waited until they were level with him, emptied the remainder of his clip, and raced to catch up with Cooper.
“Hope I timed that right,” the Neander said.
“Couldn’t have been better,” Cooper replied in between gasps of air. He shook his head, then said, “I thought you’d sold us out.”
“You saw the signal?” he asked. “I guess my cover’s blown, then.”
“Cover?” Vaughan asked, while a pair of ineffectual cracks echoed from the stationary guardsman behind them.
“I’m with the Underground. Have been for years. Sergeant Gurung sends his best, by the way.”
Battlecruiser Alamo: Cage of Gold Page 15