The attacker released Sheridan and turned to face Adams.
Sheridan struggled to get air down his burning windpipe. He saw Adams backing up and threw himself at the assailant. He jammed his pistol into the man’s side and fired a burst. The man dropped and shook violently on the bottom of the trench.
Right then, Sheridan knew they were facing another robotic assassin. He took Adams’ pistol out of his hand and fired a line of bullets down the robot’s side, chewing up his innards. A couple of seconds later, the robot stopped moving.
“Jesus, sir, I thought he’d never die,” said Adams.
“I think the bastard was on drugs,” said Sheridan. His voice was raspy. “No one could have taken that kind of punishment without being wasted.”
“I know drug use is pretty common among the soldiers of the regiment, but I’ve never seen a man so hopped up he didn’t know what he was doing.”
“Did he touch the colonel?”
“No, sir, the second he tried to enter the trench I went to stop him and well, you showed up a second or two after that.”
A couple soldiers from the next position sprinted over and stopped at the entrance to the trench with their weapons at the ready. “Are you guys okay in there?” asked one of the men.
“Yeah, some loon attacked the colonel,” said Adams. “We got him, though.”
“Thanks for your help,” said Sheridan. “But it’s all over now. Report back to your NCOs.”
“What about him?” asked Adams, looking at the corpse.
“I want you to keep guard over the colonel while I place this man’s body in the open.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I’m going to booby trap it so the first Kurg that goes for your old radio set will get a big surprise.”
A light on Adams’ radio came to life. He picked up the handset and listened. “Sir, you had best hurry. The Kurgs are on the move.”
Chapter 40
Cole jumped from the quad before it had even stopped moving. He had his pistol out. His eyes scanned the darkened building.
“Where is it you want to go to?” asked Suparat, switching off the vehicle’s engine.
“Where can one gain access to the base’s drinking water?”
“That’s easy. If Cromwell is going to poison the water, he’d have to go to the storage tanks.”
“Show me.”
They sprinted to the front doors. Suparat went for her passkey but found the door was unlocked. Cole warily stepped inside with his pistol out in front of him. He cursed when he spotted two security personnel lying on the floor with dark pools of blood underneath them.
Suparat gasped at the sight of the dead men.
“Which way is it?” asked Cole.
“To the right,” she replied, turning her head away.
Cole took her by the hand. “Come on, Solada, let’s put an end to this nightmare before anyone else gets hurt.”
They took the elevator to the floor above the storage tanks and switched to the stairs to avoid alerting Cromwell. At the door to the tanks, Cole reached up and turned off the light before slightly opening the door. He peered out but couldn’t see Cromwell. With Suparat close behind him, Cole slid into the vast cave which held the base’s drinkable water tanks.
“Where could he be?” whispered Cole.
“If I were him and wanted to do this in a hurry, I’d go to the central water line control room. From there he can access all of the facility’s clean water.”
“Where is this room?”
Suparat pointed to an office on the other side of the cave.
“Hope you’re up for a run,” said Cole.
She winked at him. “I bet I’ll beat you there.”
“Not today. Keep behind me.” Cole took off running. He used the shadows as best he could as they crossed the cave floor.
At the other side, Cole stopped for a second to catch his breath. His ribs were hurting, but he blocked out the pain. He had a job to do, and his discomfort was something he could ignore for now. As quiet as church mice, they crept up the stairs until they came to the second floor. Light shone out from underneath the office door.
Cole turned to face Suparat. He could see the concern in her eyes. “Stay here until I call for you.”
“Alan, what if something should happen to you?”
“Find a man called Michael Sheridan. He’s using an alias of Hill right now. Let him know what has happened. He’ll know what to do.”
Suparat leaned forward and kissed Cole on the lips. “For luck.”
“Thanks,” he replied.
Cole stood up and edged down the corridor until he came to the control office. He took a quick glance inside and saw Cromwell sitting at a desk, fidgeting with a small metal container in his hands. Cole flipped off the safety on his pistol and rushed inside. “Move a muscle, and I’ll blow your head clean off your shoulders, Mister Cromwell.”
The scientist looked up, let out a weary sigh, and shook his head. “What a bother. I take it this means all my femme fatales have failed to kill Ms. Suparat?”
“Correct. Now slowly place whatever you have in your hands on the table and then put your hands palm down on the table as well.”
Cromwell shrugged but did as he was instructed.
“I don’t get it,” said Cole. “I thought you died when Kadir’s control room exploded.”
“Please, give me some credit for being able to out think that annoying Kurgan. It was one of my robots who died in my place.”
“I was under the impression that attempting to kill Suparat and Denisov was the Kurgan colonel’s plan.”
“Quite so.”
“So why did you help him?”
“My dear Mister Cole, I knew Colonel Kadir was wrong about time travel and the paradoxes which may or may not ensue. Time is linear; what you and I have done here was meant to be. Kadir wouldn’t believe it, so I went along with him while I bided my time. You have to understand, for all his faults, Kadir was a brilliant man. He and his men never trusted me and watched me like a hawk; your fortuitous arrival helped in my escape.”
Cole furrowed his brow. “So the robots were doomed to fail?”
“Correct. I always saw them as a smokescreen from the real task at hand.”
“Which is?”
“Can you imagine the credits I could make one hundred years from now when I let the rebel Kurgan forces know I have the ability to turn two to three million humans into willing agents? Or perhaps I’ll hold an auction with the information that I possess going to the highest bidder. Heck, our federation may even try to outbid the Kurgs.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I know your feeble military mind must be close to overload by now, so I’ll keep it simple. I have with me in this container the ability to alter, ever so slightly, the genetic coding of everyone on this base. This genetic mutation would then be passed on from generation to generation, lying dormant until I triggered it. Just think about it, a word, a sight, or a sound given by me would create millions of willing subjects who could conceivably turn against their own side and wreak havoc across the stars just when your people want peace.”
“You’re insane!”
“Am I? Think about it for a moment. History shows that the Kurgans used sleeper agents to try and bring Earth to its knees. The attempt failed, but what if I could do what they could not? In your time Denisov and Suparat are influential people who are responsible for helping bring your war to an end. What if they suddenly turned belligerent to the Kurgans, or perhaps died of a sudden an unexplainable malady? With the ability to alter people’s genetics, I can do just about anything I want. I convinced Kadir to allow me to design my genetic coding weapon by telling him if he was unable to alter the past that he could always change the future. Silly him. He thought it would help the Kurgs win the war. I, on the other hand, saw things quite differently.”
Cole shook his head. “Why would you do this?”
“My
God, man, open your eyes. There’s a fortune to be made in blackmail. I’ve been planning this for decades. Steal from the past to live the good life in the future. Once I’m paid off in your time, I’ll return to mine and live like a king off the interest.”
“What would your wife think of what you’ve become?”
Cromwell chuckled. “My wife! She’s dead. She died of cancer a year after the Kurgs caught us. I just carried on about her to make me seem sympathetic and vulnerable to fools like yourself.”
“For all your bluster, Cromwell, you’re nothing more than a common crook.”
“No, Mister Cole, I’m a genius crook. Now I’m growing bored of all these questions. As I see it, you have two realistic options open to you. Captain, you can help me and become filthy rich yourself or you can hand me over to the authorities in this timeline and try explaining to them what a man from the future is doing here.”
Cole raised an eyebrow. “Really, for a smart man I expected more than that. Even I can think of a third option.”
“And what would that be?”
“This,” said Cole, firing his pistol. The shot hit Cromwell right between the eyes, killing him. Cole reached over and scooped up the metal container and stuck it in a pocket. As he left the room, he turned off the light and closed the door behind him. Cole turned around and ran right into Suparat.
The wide-eyed look on her face told him she had heard everything.
“Goddamn it, Solada, you should have stayed where you were,” said Cole.
“You’re not going to kill me like that man, are you?” stammered Suparat, staring at the pistol in Cole’s hand.
“I can’t do that; one day one of your offspring will be called Madame Vice-President. Come on, let’s get the hell out of here and I’ll tell you what I can if you swear to keep it a secret until the day you die.”
All Suparat could do was nod.
Chapter 41
“Sir, they’re on the move,” reported Adams.
“Pass the word to hold fire until I give the order,” said Sheridan. He was surprised that the Kurgans had foregone their usual pre-attack bombardment. High above in the dark cloud-filled sky, what was left of both sides’ air assets rushed to engage the other. Missiles and cannon fire ripped through the air; flaming debris plummeted to the ground all around Sheridan’s position.
All along the Sayan Highlands, tens of thousands of Kurgan warriors, pushed on by their officers, rushed to meet their fate.
Sheridan tapped Adams on the shoulder. “Order the engineers to fire the Raptors and tell them to keep going until they’re out.”
With a loud whoosh, the Raptors launched a belt of anti-personnel mines across the front of the Devil’s Rock. No sooner had the first minefield landed when a second and third barrier of mines dropped to the ground.
Sheridan brought up his binoculars and switched on his thermal imaging. Across the ridgeline he could see a long wave of ghostlike figures forming up under their officers. He heard a trumpet blare out into the night, followed by a loud cheer from a thousand Kurgan throats as they charged forward.
The first Kurgans to hit the minefield were blown skyward; their shattered bodies fell on those coming behind them. If Sheridan had expected them to slow down, he was mistaken. The Kurgans pushed into the mines, dying by the dozens in a frenzied attempt to get to grips with their hated opponent.
“Now, sir?” asked Adams. His voice quivered slightly.
“Not yet,” responded Sheridan. “Let’s let them get a bit closer.”
The night lit up each time a Kurgan sold his life to force a path through the belts of mines.
Sheridan watched the agonizing progress of the Kurgans and counted down in his head until he was satisfied he had as many of them as possible in his kill zone. He raised a hand. “Pass the word.”
Adams relayed the message. “All stations, open fire. I say again, open fire.”
Trapped in the minefield, the Kurgans could do little to stop the hail of bullets cutting down whole ranks of warriors at a time.
“My God,” said Sheridan to himself when he saw the Kurgan front ranks weren’t carrying any weapons. They must have anticipated his move and sent forward their version of a penal regiment to clear the mines and soak up the bullets. None of the Kurgans he saw were wearing a mask, either. Sheridan ripped his off and felt the cool night air on his cheeks.
“Sir, the engineers want to know if you want their fire support vehicles to engage the enemy,” said Adams.
“Yes. Have them fire at the extreme ends of the Kurgan line and work their way to the middle.”
The sight of the support vehicles opening up with their flame throwers was both magnificent and horrid to Sheridan. The bright orange and red flames burnt everything they touched.
The sound of a drone’s engine growing closer by the second made Sheridan look up. A split second later, a Kurgan drone dove down and slammed into one of the support vehicles, blowing it apart. With a loud boom, a massive fireball shot up into the night. The other vehicle stopped firing and adjusted its position just before another UAV hit the ground where it had been only seconds before.
The waves of Kurgan warriors never abated. They kept creeping closer and closer to Sheridan’s position. Some hurled rocks in anger as they clamored over the mounds of their dead and wounded fellow soldiers.
The chain guns on the engineering vehicles added to the fire thrown into the Kurgan masses. Sheridan had never seen such fanatical behavior from the Kurgans. They wouldn’t stop no matter how many of them died within an arm’s reach of the human trenches. Sheridan moved to his right and looked through his binoculars. The hair on the back of his neck went up when he spotted a fresh regiment closing in behind the Kurgan cannon fodder. The unmistakable tattoos on their faces identified them as Imperial Young Guard warriors.
His mouth turned dry. The real fight had yet to begin.
Sheridan pulled Adams to his side. “Has division anything left they can send our way?”
“Sir, I’ve been trying to reach them for close to ten minutes,” replied the young soldier. “I think they may have been taken out by a Kurgan missile.”
Sheridan clenched his jaw tight. He needed fire support, and he needed it now. “Adams, see if you can reach the strike force that was supposed to be here by now. Once you have them, give the handset to me.”
The young guard warriors, disdaining firearms, drew their swords and hurled themselves into the forward line of trenches. Human and Kurgan fought to the death. In less than a minute, the forward edge of Sheridan’s defensive line lay in ruin.
From just off to his right, Sheridan heard the engineer vehicles rumbling forward. The armored bulldozers lowered their blades and drove toward the Kurgans like giant, mechanical beasts. They smashed into the flanks of the warriors and pushed them back. Those who stood and fought back against the dozers with their swords died under the vehicle’s heavy tracks.
The respite, however, was short-lived. Sheridan saw the Kurgans recoil, only to split their ranks and allow suicide bombers to rush forward. In packs of three or four, they threw themselves against the dozers and one by one destroyed them.
Sheridan climbed up so he could have a better view. He saw a lone Kurgan sprint away from the others and brought up his pistol to fire. At the last second, he lowered his weapon when the Kurgan, thinking he had captured a radio, yanked on it. What he didn’t realize was that Sheridan had placed a thermite grenade beneath the robot’s remains. The instant the weight shifted, the grenade went off. A brilliant flash of light, followed by a spray of superheated chemicals, shot out from underneath the robot and all over the doomed Kurgan who was still pulling on the radio. Sheridan recoiled when he heard the soldier’s skin sizzling in the flames.
“Sir, sir, I’ve got someone on the radio!” yelled out Adams.
Sheridan slid back down into his trench. “Who is it?”
“I think it’s a ship called the Colossus.”
Sheridan gr
inned. His father’s old command ship had been called the Colossus. “Can they support us?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“Tell them to use the forward edge of our position as their aiming point and let loose with everything they’ve got.”
Adams nodded and rushed to pass the orders.
Sheridan knew it would take a couple minutes for missiles fired from orbit to reach his location. Until then they had to keep the Kurgans at bay. He crawled out of his trench and looked over at the Kurgans, trying to spot their officers. Bullets flew thick over his head, making him duck. A tall Kurgan with a banner in his arms ran forward. Sheridan saw the warrior, laid his pistol’s sights on the man, and fired. It took three bullets to bring the officer down.
All around the Devil’s Rock, the human defenders were slowly pushed back. Trench by trench and rock by rock the Kurgans ground forward. They weren’t going to be denied the prize. The hill was theirs for the taking. What had been just over one hundred men thirty minutes ago was down to forty and shrinking fast.
“On me,” called Sheridan. The survivors ran to his side and formed a circle around him. With ammunition beginning to run low, some of the soldiers affixed their bayonets to their rifles.
Sheridan could see the writing on the wall. They weren’t going to make it. There were just too many Kurgans. He stood and took aim at the nearest Kurgan and shot him down. The slide on his pistol stayed back. He was out of rounds. Sheridan threw his empty pistol at the Kurgans and yelled obscenities at them. The men by Sheridan’s side fought and died trying to keep the Kurgan masses from taking the Devil’s Rock.
Sheridan felt an arm wrap around his neck and pull him off his feet. He struggled to break his attacker’s grip just as the night sky turned red. Sheridan saw the long streaks darting out of the clouds and rolled over. The last thing he saw before his world went dark was Adams’ scared face.
“Hey, are you okay?” said a woman’s voice.
Sheridan wiped the dirt from his face and opened his eyes. In the gray light of dawn, he looked into the greenest eyes he had ever seen. He sluggishly sat up. “Yeah, I’m okay. Who are you?”
Renegade (The Kurgan War Book 7) Page 23