by Rob Buckman
“No, I meant a lantern or power globe.”
“Oh, no I don’t have one.”
“You must be using night vision then.”
“No, just my eyes, why?”
“It would be nice to see where I’m going is all.”
“I’ll lead you out, once I get your legs free.” Mike rooted around in the rubble until he found a small crawl space he could worm his way into. This put him beside the desk and in reach of the man’s legs.
“It feels like you are caught in a bunch of junk back here. Can you move your legs at all?”
“Just a little.”
“Ok, hold on.” Peering into the dusty gloom, he saw the problem. Part of the slab above was dangling by several strands of rebar preventing the man from pulling his legs out. Mike wiggled in further, carefully moving rubble and debris out of the way as he did.
“So, what happened?”
“I take it you mean the explosion.”
“Yes, and how did you end up here?”
“At first, it seemed as if the negotiations were going well, which I felt was odd as up until now the Mufti wouldn’t even talk to us.”
“Was he there?”
“No, just his representative. He himself wouldn’t talk directly to a non-believer and all that nonsense.”
“Got you. And then?”
“The talk dragged on and on, and during a break, my security team felt they were dragging this whole thing out. My team leader whispered to me that something was up, as the Mufti’s rep kept looking at his watch…” The man stopped talking as the rubble shifted, filling the space with more dust. At length it settled again and he continued.
“…It was when the representative asked for a break so he could pray that my security team acted. The moment he left the room they grabbed me a rushed me down to this bomb shelter.” He stopped for a moment as if thinking, but his voice sounded funny when he continued.
“They then rushed back upstairs to get the assistant Ambassador, but it was too late. Just as the closed the blast doors, the bomb went off.” His voice husky with unspoken emotion. Mike nodded to himself in the darkness, knowing how he must feel.
At last he wiggled his way around the fallen concrete until he was in a position to feel the man’s legs. Luckily the broken slab wasn’t directly on his legs. The stub ends of the rebar were holding him in place. Mike got himself into a position where he could get his hands under the broken slab to lift it.
“When I say go, pull your legs out as quickly as possible. I don’t know how long I can hold this up.”
“Right. I’m ready when you are.”
“When you have your legs free, stay where you are until I can get around in front of you again, clear?” The man sounded calm, but he didn’t want him charging around in this rubble if he couldn’t see where he was going.
“One, two, three, go!” Mike pushed up with all his strength, feeling the slab lift. It was enough for the man to withdraw his legs. Mike back out of his crawl space feeling the rubble move as he did. This wasn’t going to remain stable for long, but he said nothing. Once back in front of the desk, he turned around in the confined space and began crawling out.
“Keep one hand out in front of you and touch my legs.”
“I understand.” His voice sounded a little shaky now.
“Just hang in there, and I’ll have you out as quick as I can.” In all it took another fifteen minutes before he saw daylight ahead of him, and another five before he could stand up. His first act was to hand his canteen to the man as he emerged, helping him to his feet.
“Thank you, I thought I was a goner for a while there.” He gratefully drank from the canteen before handing it back after using a little to wash his face and flush out his eyes. Just then, the rubble shifted and they all heard it collapse. A moment later a cloud of red dust erupted out of the doorway behind them, and Mike saw the man he’d rescued shiver.
“Close.” Mike shrugged.
“Yeah, a little.” He said offhandedly, feeling sweat pop out on his forehead. It was too close.
Dusty, disheveled, his expensive suit ripped in several placed, he looked nothing like the King’s diplomatic representative he was supposed to be. Not that it mattered, none of them looked picture perfect.
“Comm check!” Mike called after replacing his helmet, keying the general command frequency. In all, only fifteen men out of 65 checked in.
“I found Sergeant Cooper.” Mike ID the caller and his location in his HUD. “He’s in pretty bad shape, Tug.”
“Hold what you have Greg, I’m on my way. You two are with me, let’s go, and keep your heads down.” With that, he took off at a fast pace. Out of the fifteen, six were walking wounded, six more with minor wounds, and one badly injured Sergeant.
“Anything you can do for him, Doc?” The medic looked up and shook his head slightly.
“Not here, Tug, I don’t have the equipment anymore.”
“There must be something you can do, damn it!”
“Listen, son. There’s not much you and anyone can do for me. Leave me and get the hell out of here.” Sergeant Cooper grabbed Mike by the arm, his face distorted with pain. “I mean it Tug, you get these people back to the LZ at the space port, that’s an order!”
“Like hell I will. You don’t go, none of us goes!”
“You’re a bloody fool then!”
“No, just hard headed. I don’t want anyone else to die on my account.” He said it more to himself than anyone else, remembering his grandfather.
“I could give him ‘Somanex’. That would lower his body functions.”
“Do it.”
“But, we had to get him into a tank within twelve hours, or he’s died.”
“He’ll be dead in an hour if you don’t. Give it to him.”
“Shit! You’re a bloody fool, Grayson! I told you to leave me.”
“Sarg, whether you like it or not, you are going with us!” He snapped back. “We don’t leave anyone behind, remember?” Sergeant Cooper gripped his arm hard, gritting his teeth against the pain.
“Thanks tug. Even if I don’t make it, I’ll die knowing you tried.
“Shut up and go to sleep you old fart!” Sergeant Cooper managed a laugh even with the pain.
“You’ll need this.” He reached over, lifted his helmet, and shoved it into Mike lap. “Put it on, and it will register the change of command. As of this moment, you are Platoon Sergeant.”
“Oh fucking wonderful, two promotions in one day.”
“Yeah, how did you get so lucky.” He groaned and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. “Hold it up towards me.”
Mike did, and Cooper did something inside the helmet.”
“She’s all yours now, including command frequencies.” He gasped for air through the pain for a moment before continuing. “Get on to HQ and tell them what happened.”
“Hope the bloody thing reaches that far without the main comm gear.”
“It should, just.” Cooper slumped back them.
“Give him the stuff, Jimmy.”
“Right, Sarg.” The medic quickly applied a hypo-spray against the Sergeant’s neck, and then watched as he quickly went under.
“Get him ready for transport, and I’ll send two men over to help.”
“Yes, sir.” Jimmy gave him a weak smile.
“I’m not a sir, you...” He stopped; it was an old joke. He tapped the medic on the shoulder as he moved away. “Thanks Jimmy.” Finding a high spot wasn’t easy with the snipers around.
He managed to find a place near the top of the pile rubble that had once been an Embassy. By carefully crawling through the ruins he found a safe niche atop the rubble and tried calling HQ. At first, he didn’t get anything, just a few random snatches of chatter.
“Embassy! This is HQ, who’s calling?”
“Corporal... I mean Sergeant Grayson, who’s this?” His command channel gave him no information of the sender, as it should.
�
�This is Captain Rider, Sergeant.”
“Not really a Sergeant, sir, just a field promotion is all.”
“Not any longer, we are short of noncoms all up and down the line, so as of now, it’s permanent.”
“Yes, sir.”
“As of now, consider yourself as acting Squadron Sergeant Major, effective immediately. What is your situation?”
“The Embassy is gone, sir.”
“Say again?”
“I said, the Embassy is gone, sir. The indigs blew it up.”
“Good god! Any survivors?”
“Yes, sir. Myself and fifteen other ranks, plus the Earth representative.”
“Christ on a crutch! Thank god for that. What is your situation?”
“I have six walking wounded, and six with minor injuries. That only leaves three of us fully functional, sir.”
“Whatever you do, you have to get the um... Earth rep to the LZ at the space port, no matter the cost, do you understand, Sergeant?” That didn’t sound good.
“Yes, sir, I understand.”
“Good, because if you don’t there will be hell to pay.” A puzzled frown crossed Mike’s face as he listened.
“I’m not sure how I’m going to get him to the LZ, sir. We no longer have air or ground transport, and its sixty miles of open desert between the LZ and us. Can you send transport?”
“Tried that and lost three assault shuttles.”
“Damn!” He muttered, but not low enough for the Mike to pick it up.
“You can say that again, Grayson.”
“Any chance of a relief force?”
“No, we are barely holding the line here as it is.”
“Anything from up top?”
“Our battle fleet is fully engaged at this time with Sirrien intrusions into local space, and they aren’t due back for another 24 to 48 hours.”
“We can’t stay here that long, sir.”
“Then you will have to move.”
“Agreed, but to where?”
“I’ll leave that up to you, Sergeant, but whatever you do, make sure the Earth rep remains safe.”
“Easier said than done, sir, with only fifteen men.” Just then, a wave of static swept the band and he lost his contact. That was unusual, as their military bandwidth was usually as clear as a bell.
“You still there, Sergeant?”
“Yes, sir.”
“The locals have rigged up some sort of jamming device, and it fouling up our comm system here.”
“It's affecting your transmission to me as well.”
“Damn! Our Comm tech thinks our comm frequency might be compromised, so until you have an emergency, no radio contact.”
What Captain Rider considered an emergency Mike had no idea. He thought he had one now. If the Captain couldn’t help, what good would calling him do. Maybe the situation at the LZ would chance and they could get someone out to help them. In the mean time, they were on their own. How he was supposed to keep the Earth rep safe, and get him to the LZ in one piece Mike had no idea. From where he sat now, he doubted they’d last until morning. He carefully worked his way back down, and went into a huddle with his two remaining corporals. Someone had managed a brew up, and each sat with a canteen cup of hot sweet tea, paying attention to what he said, while keeping a wary eye on the parameter.
“So we're screwed then.”
“Don’t I know it.”
“So where do we go from here?”
“You’ve got me Jenks, unless you have any ideas?”
“Not a one. As far as I can see, one major rush tonight under the cover of darkness, or a sand storm, and this lot will be all over us like stink on shit.”
“That means we have to find a more defensible position.”
“Oh, that's brilliant, Taffy, and where do you suppose that might be?” Jenks asked with a horselaugh.
“Beats me laddy, but we’d better make it soon.”
“All right, you two, knock it off. It’s not helping.”
“Hey, Tug… I mean Sarg!”
“What!” Mike looked around to see who was calling. “What’s up, Charley?”
“I was just thinking...”
“Something you don’t do much of.” Taffy added.
“Hold it, Taffy, he might have an idea.”
“Them buggers got a bomb underneath the Embassy, right?”
“Right, that’s obvious you twit.” Jenks shot back.
“Okay then, answer me this oh wise and wonderful Corporal, how the hell did they manage that?” It took a moment to sink in, and they each looked at the other and shrugged.
“Okay Charley, how did they manage it?” In answer, he pointed down the once tree lined street to a sign. All three looked and swore at once.
“Good grief! Why the hell didn’t we notice it before.” Jenks spluttered.
“I’d say, because we’ve been looking at it so long it became invisible.” Mike muttered, looking at the subway sign. “And maybe a way out.”
“What good is a subway system to us, the power is out in most of the city.”
“Hold on. Let me see if there are any local maps in the command database. He double blinked for the main menu and looked down the list until he found maps. This brought up a second menu in his HUD and scanning down, he found a sat map of the area.
“Heads up.” He relayed the maps to both men, and for a while, they sat in silence studying them.
“According to this, the subway system runs all the way out to the shuttle port.” Mike said at last.
“Don’t do us much good without transport.” Taffy interjected moodily.
“Not so, we can always walk.” Jenks added.
“True. Anyone see any stations between here and the space port?” Mike asked as he looked over the maps. He zoomed in and out, trying to find the best view and the most detail, but he couldn’t get both.
“I don’t see any.” Taffy muttered.
“Me neither, but what are you thinking, Sarg?”
“I’m thinking that if we can get down into the tunnel, we’d have a good shot at making it to the LZ.”
“Right!”
“But, it’s not going to take the indigs long to figure out where we’ve gone.”
“But if there are no stations between us and the LZ, there is no way they can get at us, except from here.” Jenks chuckled.
“That’s not to say they can’t blast an opening somewhere ahead of us and drop in, now is it?” Was Taffy’s contribution.
“God! You’re such a wet blanket, Taffy, I sometimes wonder about you.” Jenks grouched.
“He has a point. I wish I knew more about subway construction.”
“Maybe I can help there, Sarg.”
“How’s that, Charley?”
“Well, my old man was a contractor, back on Earth, and we did a lot of maintenance on the subway system, both on and off world.”
“OK, let’s get to the point, we are running out of time here, man!”
“Let him talk, Jenks.”
“Well, what we have here is a standard Bechtel design, which means that by the look of it, its bored straight through solid rock from here to the shuttle Port.”
“And?”
“That it has to be at least a hundred feet down.”
“Oh yes!”
“That means they won’t be able to blast their way in ahead of us.”
“Why not!” Some on the net asked.
“Surface blasts won’t penetrate, and they sure as hell don’t have time to drill and blast.”
“Oh, right.”
“Now we are getting somewhere.” Mike muttered, suddenly feeling as if someone had lifted a great weight off his shoulder.
“The question remains. How do we get down to the tunnel without getting killed doing it.” He snapped a quick laydar shot on the entrance to the subway. It came back at one hundred and twenty five feet.
“If I might, Sarg?”
“What?”
“Well,
the indigs blew the Embassy from one of those tunnels, which means they have already done more of the work for us.”
“You think you can find a way down there?”