LAUREN OPENED HER EYES, expecting to be engulfed by darkness once again. Instead, the sight of a room bathed in a soft, pale light greeted her. A few other empty containment chambers sat on pedestals in the room, and a console stood at the center, but other than that she didn't see anything else of interest.
The anesthetic had faded away, but Lauren still felt sluggish, weak. The ordeal had taken its toll on her, and she had no idea how to extract herself from the chamber. Somehow she was able to breathe freely inside the liquid without a respirator, and it seemed to have healing properties as well. She didn't see any cuts or marks on her body.
But how long would it keep her alive? Lauren had no answers and nowhere else to go. The fact that she had even survived this long was nothing short of a miracle. Dr. Hammond had been right. But what would happen to her once the rest of Eon Path showed up? She had no doubt that he knew the location. He seemed to know far too much about this place.
Had he discovered some sort of secret information? He had hinted at such, but Lauren felt skeptical. Everything about him gave the impression of duplicity. Even in her short time with him she had picked that up. Rowen Hammond never seemed to tell the truth, or if he did he only gave out bits and pieces.
It was hard to believe that he had once been friends with Professor Hallas, or with Leon Skare. He seemed so different from either of them. Had something changed in the time they had been apart? Did the knowledge he possessed have something to do with that?
Lauren felt her heart beginning to pound inside her chest, the anger and frustration boiling inside of her. They had kept him alive for the information, and yet he had given him nothing. Worse, he had tried to kill one of their comrades, put her in here and would probably kill Kei once he thought he had outlived his usefulness. They should have killed him when they had the chance. If she could find a way out of here she'd do it, even if she had to do it with-
Something drifted into view inside the tank. It was another liquid, this one tinted light blue, and she began to feel sleepy. Her eyes began to close, and the voice spoke to her again.
“Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.”
Her heart stopped thumping, her breathing slowed, and she drifted into slumber again.
“AND HERE WE ARE. That wasn't so bad, was it?”
Kei looked over at Dr. Hammond. “That all depends. What are we looking for?”
“We're looking for the outlet chamber, where the transformation process completes itself,” he said. “And that's here, just through the middle of the next chamber.”
Kei glanced around the huge room, circular with several tunnels and hallways branching off in every direction. He saw thick metal pillars scattered around the chamber as well as raised balconies, though he didn't know whether they were for decoration or served some greater purpose.
“You're sure this is going to work, doctor?” Bray asked, his expression still severe.
“Of course it will. I wouldn't have tried it if I didn't have full confidence.”
“You're certain.”
“Yes. There's always the possibility that it will fail, but I'm confident that the information I possess is correct. It will work, and we'll have our path to the other side open.”
Kei's mind was racing. He had to come up with something, anything to keep them from opening the gate. He could kill Dr. Hammond, but that would still allow the rest of the enemy troops to use Lauren to open the Eon Gate. In the worst-case scenario he might have to kill her to keep them from achieving their goal…
Could he do it? Even if he could get his hands on a weapon, could he do it? Kei was no stranger to taking lives, but they had always posed an imminent threat to him. Killing a comrade…
Would that put him in the same place as Rowen Hammond, willing to do anything in order to achieve his aims? That thought chilled him. Even as the war raged on around him, Kei had made the decision to hold onto his humanity, no matter what the cost might be to him. Could he go against that now, kill a friend in cold blood in order to avert a disaster. If-
Kei heard cries and screams, along with another sound. It took him a moment to realize it was rapid-fire plasma weaponry. It took him another to recognize the bolts zipping back and forth across the chamber.
THEIR AMBUSH HAD BEEN SET up perfectly. Mirko didn't know how long they had been awake and on their feet, but their physical fitness, determination, and loads of stimulants had allowed them to take a longer route to this place.
None of them had slept in days, everyone was running on fumes, but they had made it here before the enemy, and they made their advantage count. The chamber had been strewn with limpets and tripod weapons, allowing the devices to put anyone inside under a withering crossfire from several directions. He had allowed Eon Path to enter the chamber and get partway across before they sprung their trap.
He lined up his own shot on an officer trying to rally her troops and shot her twice through the chest, then ducked back into cover and moved to a different spot. No use exposing himself, not when they could keep the enemy busy with the limpets. Mirko heard an explosion go off, probably from a grenade.
“Anyone see Kei? Lauren?” Nina asked over the radio link.
“Don't see either of them,” Salim said. “It looks like only Eon Path troops.”
“I see Hammond,” Gilroy cut in. “He's heading toward one of the exits. Should I shoot him?”
“Line one up,” Nina said.
“Understood.”
Mirko leaned out of cover and fired another pair of shots, hitting an Eon Path soldier right between the eyes with one. His eyes scanned the battlefield for a moment, and he saw the flash of a familiar face.
“I see Kei,” he said. “If-”
KEI SPRANG into action as chaos reigned around him. He lashed out at one of his escorts with an elbow to the face, then slammed him into the metal decking. As the other one tried to intervene Kei kicked him in the thigh to throw him off balance, then smacked him across the temple with a right hook and grabbed his handgun as he fell.
He went to pick up one of the plasma rifles as well, but plasma fire zipped by him and forced him to dive behind cover. He still had his IFF active so the limpets wouldn't target him, but the Eon troops would shoot him, and there was always the danger of a stray shot.
And he knew where Dr. Hammond was headed. He had no more time to waste, not if he wanted to keep him from achieving his goal. Kei sprinted toward the hallway, heedless of the carnage going on around him.
Almost as an afterthought he looked down at the weapon he had picked up. Kei almost groaned at the sight. It was a revolver, loaded with only six shots. Wonderful.
But he didn't have time to agonize over it or search for a new weapon. He had to do something, anything to stop Hammond, and he had to do it immediately. Kei reached the tunnel and plunged into the darkness. What awaited him was anyone's guess.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Keep up the rate of fire. Don't let them escape,” Nina ordered.
The ambush had started perfectly, but to the enemy's credit they had begun to recover. Pockets of troops had begun to form a defense, blasting away at some of the limpets and creating zones where they could duck into cover.
They needed to keep pressing, because at the moment they only had five fighters on their own side. Nina had made the tough decision, leaving Rappa and a life-support unit to take care of Elsner while the rest of the team made their way through to the center of the complex.
At this point she had ceased to be the team leader, instead only acting as another soldier. Though she couldn't match the prodigious skills of the other four, Nina still had the training to hold her own in combat.
The limpets had saved them, and the element of surprise allowed them to cut down the enemy in droves during the first few minutes of the battle. Even now, as their foes were being destroyed, they continued to fire torrents of plasma and grenades into the midst of the enemy. More and more Eon troops fell, and others were forced to take cover in order
to stay alive.
Nina leaned over a balcony and shot an enemy trooper through the neck, then ducked back as more plasma bolts zipped by her.
“Keep your head in cover,” Soko warned over the radio.
“Huh, I'm not going to sit around in the middle of a fight,” she retorted.
IVIN floated in next to her, concealing himself behind the balcony wall.
“I can map the chamber and attempt to locate the enemy so you know where to shoot, but there will be a delay.”
“Do it, but try to stay out of trouble,” she said.
That was one of the main problems they had run into, since the sphere seemed to block out most communications. They had laid range extenders along the way from the entrance to here, small nodes that could transmit a wireless signal, but there was a delay. It was only a second or two, but it would be enough for someone to line up a shot on IVIN, and Nina didn't want to lose their AI at a time like this.
“Start throwing grenades,” she ordered.
“You sure you want us to do that?” Salim asked.
“The limpets are firing them, which means they're not picking up anything on the IFF,” she said.
Nina didn't want to think about what that might mean. Soko had spotted Kei, but Lauren was nowhere to be found. What had happened to her? Had Eon Path decided to kill her for some reason, or was there something else going on here?
She couldn't think about that right now. Even if they managed to stop Eon Path and reached the gate first, they'd still have to hold their position for two days and wait for reinforcements. Everyone was already running on fumes at this point, fueled by stimulants and sheer willpower. Nina didn't know how much longer they'd last.
They needed to kill as many of the enemy as possible to make that task easier.
KEI STEPPED INTO THE CHAMBER, gun aimed at the back of Dr. Hammond. He noticed the containment chambers, the pale light of the room, but his eyes only focused on the man in front of him, standing before a console and tapping the holographic display.
“And here we are,” Hammond said, not even bothering to look back. “And here's Miss Maxwell, safe and sound and doing well. Or perhaps even better than that.”
Kei glanced toward the chamber and saw her, floating in the midst of her tank with her eyes closed. She was breathing, at least, and her body showed no signs of injury.
“I told you that this would work,” Hammond said. “And here we have it. The key to the Eon Gate. The key to the advancement of our civilization and our species.”
“She's a person, not an object,” Kei said, cocking back the hammer of his weapon.
Hammond didn't turn around. “What are you going to do, shoot me? Do you even know how to activate the gate? How are you going to manage it if I'm dead?”
“We'll figure out something. That was going to be a problem we'd have to deal with anyhow.”
Kei began to pull the trigger, but a shot rang out and threw him forward onto the decking, knocking the wind out of him for a moment. He struggled back to his feet to see Hammond with a pistol in hand as well, but the weapon wasn't aimed at him.
“There's no need-”
“Explain yourself, doctor,” a new voice said, and Kei glanced around to see Bray approaching, gun in hand.
“I'm in here to retrieve the key to open the Eon-”
“That's not what I mean,” he snapped. “The enemy somehow manages to get ahead of us and sets up an ambush, and I'm supposed to believe that this is nothing more than a coincidence?”
“It might be. Our opponents are resourceful. And-”
“And they had help, or do you expect me to believe that you had nothing to do with this? There have been radio transmissions. Encrypted ones coming from an unknown source. And who would be responsible for this?” Bray asked, keeping his gun trained on Dr. Hammond.
Kei immediately thought about his equipment. If Dr. Hammond had taken his radio set and used it to send messages, they'd be encrypted…
But why? What would his motives be for helping the enemy? Kei couldn't even begin to fathom what he planned on doing. Was Hammond just that insane?
No, that couldn't be it. He might not be sane in the conventional sense, but he followed his own logic, twisted as it might be. Dr. Hammond seemed to always manipulate things in his favor. This might be no different, though who knew what he stood to gain from this?
Kei still had his hand on his weapon, but…
But which one was more dangerous? Bray seemed to have the attitude and bearing of an ex-soldier, and likely had the better aim. Kei could still feel his back throbbing from the first shot, even though his armor had managed to stop it from doing too much damage.
Hammond, on the other hand…
He might not pose as much of a physical threat, but his mind and sheer force of personality made him even more dangerous. Worse, Kei couldn't tell whose side he was on at any given moment. Would he side with Eon Path, or with him?
And Kei had no doubt that Hammond would turn on him as soon as he got the chance. He wasn't on anyone's side, just an opportunist that used anyone and everyone for his own ends. Lauren had been caught up in his schemes, and only by some miracle had she managed to survive. That thought made him want to put a bullet through Hammond's head.
But as soon as he aimed toward one and pulled the trigger the other would turn his weapon and probably kill him. Kei hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to do as the others argued. He had a shot, he had the ability to eliminate a dangerous foe, but…
Which one should he chose?
THE PLASMA BOLT missed him by mere inches, maybe even less. Mirko swore that he felt the heat from the shot, though that was probably just his imagination.
But the enemy's aim was getting better after the initial surprise had faded, and these ones seemed to know what they were doing. They hadn't panicked, even as they were being cut down in the crossfire, and now they were putting up stubborn resistance.
If they had the rest of the squad with them Mirko believed they wouldn't have too many issues, but with only five members present they'd have a difficult time pinning down the enemy. And despite their predicament, Mirko didn't want to expose Nina to danger if he could help it.
“I have a count,” IVIN said over the radio link.
“Anytime you're ready.”
A moment later the data flashed on his HUD. Twenty-eight enemy troops left, scattered around in various places around the chamber. Several of them had holed up in a good position, destroying the limpets around them and only having one direction exposed.
“See the cluster?” he said.
“I see it. What do you want me to do?” Gilroy asked.
“Focus on targets that you can hit easily, and don't expose yourself,” he ordered.
“Got it.”
“So are we just going to leave them there as they are?” Salim asked.
“For now. Keep firing,” Mirko ordered.
He saw movement below and fired a burst, catching his target in the leg and dropping him to the floor. Mirko shot him again for good measure.
One at a time. They'd pick off the enemy one at a time. After that, who knew what lay in store for them?
“I GUESS the ruse is over,” Hammond said to him.
“What?” Kei said. He kept his weapon trained on Bray, but he'd try to shoot Hammond if he got an opening.
“The ruse. You know.”
“No. No I don't,” Kei replied. “All I know is that you seem to switch sides like you're switching outfits, and I'm suddenly supposed to believe that you're on mine?”
“There's no need to carry on this deception, especially since we've been caught. There's two of us and one of-”
“So I pull the trigger, and then you shoot me while I'm busy,” Kei said. “Works fine for you. In character for you too, since you seem to like to sacrifice anyone except for yourself.”
“So you're a traitor,” Bray said, his weapon trained on Hammond.
“A wild card, m
ore like it,” Kei said. “One that keeps switching sides and screwing the other one over.”
“As suspected. We're all nothing more than pawns in your game, or so it appears, doctor.”
Hammond shrugged. “I wouldn't put it that way, and I think you're both overreacting. I did what I had to do in order to get this far. It happens when two sides want to fight and kill each other when they should be working together.”
“Actually, that's not a bad idea,” Kei said. He glanced toward Hammond, then back at Bray. “I say that we shoot him here and now so he can't interfere.”
“You can do it. I won't stop you.”
“You're the one with the gun pointed at him.”
“Do you think I'm a fool?” Bray asked. “As soon as I pull the trigger you'll shoot me and take the prize for yourself.”
“Yes, I'm totally in a position to do that with an entire platoon standing outside,” Kei replied sarcastically.
“Then you take the shot, if you're so eager.”
Kei glanced over at Hammond again, his weapon still pointed at Bray. To all appearances he was back on their side, but Kei knew better than to trust him. If he pulled the trigger and Hammond decided to kill him he wasn't sure he could defend himself in time…
“So mistrustful. Both of you,” Dr. Hammond said. “I helped you all get so far, and yet all you want to do is fight and claw at each other. The greatest advancement in human history is mere steps away, and you're still squabbling over petty differences.”
Kei heard a twinge of anger in his voice. Maybe he could exploit that.
“You haven't given either of us any reason to trust you,” he said. “It's always the same with you. Deception, secrets, misinformation. If you want someone to trust you then do something to make us believe you.”
“And what would that be?”
“I notice you have your gun pointed at him and haven't fired.”
“I could say the same for you.”
“Because I clearly don't trust you,” Kei said, trying to keep his voice level and his emotions in check. He wanted to wrap his hands around Hammond's throat and strangle him, but with Bray present he couldn't focus all his attention in one direction.
Eon Gate (The Eon Pentalogy Book 1) Page 23