“No, commander. Though I’m thinking the fire might be getting a little close.”
Mmrash looked out over the forest fire. It had to cover at least ten squares miles now and was burning its way out in a rough circle. Entering the pass, it was pushed into a narrowing cone, and the cliffs were going to cut it off from the forest beyond. A river to the north would form another firebreak. It would burn itself out, if a heavy rain didn’t come along to smother it first.
True to his mercenary roots, the only thing Mmrash saw as a result of what he’d done was the destruction of plants that could have been used to make product. Though it was only a tiny portion of the canyonlands, the Syndicate was determined to squeeze every credit from the planet they possibly could.
“We’ve found all the bodies of Lrator’s squad, sir,” the call came back over the comm. “All except the sergeant himself. He’s missing.”
So, the Humans took a prisoner, the commander thought. Normally that would be worrisome, and not because one of his people had been captured and was now in danger. No, it was more a matter of what information he might be persuaded to part with. Xlatan were brave and loyal, but given enough persuasion, any being could be broken. And Lrator had extensive knowledge of the compound.
“They must have burned to death in that inferno,” Mmrash said under his breath. He knew it was wishful thinking, but something had to fall his way eventually.
“Jillor will want bodies,” the pilot said.
“We have the one back at the battle site,” Mmrash said, glaring at the pilot.
“I don’t think one is going to be enough,” the pilot said, his ears twitching in amusement. The twitching stopped as he noted the expression on his commander’s face, along with the set of his ears, portraying pure rage.
“Of course one won’t be enough!” the commander roared, slashing a claw across the pilot’s face.
The warrior jerked as blood splashed, pulling the control over to the right and sending the gunship into a spin.
“Straighten it out, fool,” Mmrash growled in panic, grabbing the stick and pulling it back to its midline.
Mmrash cursed his temper, which had almost caused a disaster. He still needed this warrior, and it wouldn’t do to kill him, yet.
“I have the controls,” Mmrash said, his ears set in an attitude of apology. “Go and tend to your wound, and we will forget this ever happened.”
Mmrash almost laughed as he spoke the words. There was no way a proud Xlatan male would accept an apology for the kind of attack he’d launched at the unsuspecting victim. That was the kind of strike an adult would use to punish a child. Now more than ever, he needed to watch his back around the male.
The commander flew the gunship low over the fire, looking down on the inferno that was the forest below. The center area where the rockets had landed and the blazes had joined together had burned out, leaving an area of eight square miles of smoking trunks, covered in blackened bark. The flames were still sweeping out, and it was looking like a hundred square miles or more was going to be incinerated.
Thunder sounded in the distance, then closer. Fat drops of rain fell onto the windscreen of the shuttle, rolling off the frictionless surface. In seconds it turned to a cloudburst, sheets of rain falling. The fire continued to burn where it had fuel, though the burned-out area was soon steaming under the heavy fall of water. The fires on the front continued to burn, but it was lower, the flames not reaching so high.
I think this is going to put it out, Mmrash thought. That was fine with him. It had done its job, and now he could set the hounds in motion to track down enough bodies to satisfy Jillor.
“Sergeant Nlorn.”
“Here, sir. We’re getting soaked to the bone down here. Any chance the shuttles could pick us up?”
“Not a chance, Sergeant. You’re my ground force commander.” Now that Lrator is gone, the commander thought. “I want you to position your squads to do a complete sweep of the burned area. You’re to look for and recover as many bodies as you can find.”
“Yes, sir,” the sergeant said, his tone lacking enthusiasm.
Mmrash couldn’t blame the warrior. He wouldn’t have wanted to be down there, on the ground and soaking wet. But the commander needed the mission to be accomplished, and he wasn’t about to go down there and do it himself.
* * *
“I think we should wait a day, rest up, then go back through the pool,” Dotty Farrah said, twisting the cap of her canteen closed.
Well, we don’t have to worry about water, the colonel thought. The pool was clear and cold, and everyone had drunk their fill, then made sure all their containers were filled. They had enough cold rations to last them a couple of days, and the people could use the rest. Unfortunately, the clock was ticking. If they were to scout out the compound before the Ravagers arrived, they needed to move. The other company would need to know what defenses they faced, lest they be slaughtered during their attack.
The Xlatan, the one who called himself Lrator, was reluctant to give them any information, swearing that he’d die before he spoke. Dunking him in the water was enough. The cats, much like the Earth creatures they reminded Humans of, even if they weren’t in the least related, didn’t like water. Probably something to do with their inability to float due to their body density.
After ten minutes of repeated dunking to the edge of drowning, the sputtering alien had begged the Humans to let him speak. He’d given them detailed knowledge on the number of defenders and as many emplacements as he knew about.
But can we trust him? the colonel thought, looking over at the cat sitting by himself with his hands bound to his front. Two mercenaries stood with rifles held ready, in plain sight of the Xlatan.
Dotty had scanned the creature while he was answering questions. With Humans, she’d have been able to give an accurate report on whether they’d been telling the truth, based on physiological responses, with at least ninety-five percent accuracy, based on the variations of Human responses. With the cats, she hadn’t a clue. She thought the alien was telling the truth, but everything he said could be a lie.
“We’ll wait until the Yamashuris come back from their reconnaissance to make our decision,” Jonah said, looking over and meeting Charley’s eye and getting a nod of approval. He turned his attention back to his medic. “I’d prefer to keep moving. The damned cats might stumble on us here, and we need to make up some of the time.”
“I don’t think the cats are going to dive into that pool and swim in to find us,” Ivan said, shaking his head. “Not from the way that fool acted.” The Russian looked over at the Xlatan as he spoke, and the alien glared back under hooded eyes.
“But I think Dotty has a point about not going out there while the other cats might still be prowling,” Ivan continued, “especially since we’ll have miles to cover with little concealment.”
“Our active camo might let us blend in enough, but the Kalagarta won’t have that advantage.”
“We can leave them here in this cave,” Charley said, shrugging his shoulders as he caught Xebraferd’s eye. “You’ll be safe here, and you can come out in a couple of days and head on home.”
“We are sworn to follow you,” said the war chief, his voice flat in the translation, his croaking rising to a higher pitch. “We are here to escort you to the river tribes, and that is what we will do.”
“Colonel?” Charley asked, looking over at Jonah for help.
“What do you want to do, Charley? Shoot them? Or maybe tie them all up and hope they can get free?”
“We’ve found something, sir,” Hotaru called out, running up the path from the cavern, her body moving like a globe of light through the darkness. “Asuka is watching the exit.”
Hotaru was still the healthiest of the pair. Asuka was recovering, and an eighty percent Asuka was still a better athlete than ninety-nine percent of the general population. All that considered, his wife was at a hundred percent, and had a run of speed he couldn’t ma
tch at present.
“How far?”
“About eleven miles, more or less. Probably nine as the bird flies.”
“Then let’s hit it.”
“What about him?” Ivan asked, standing over the Xlatan with his long bayonet in hand.
“I don’t want to kill him in cold blood,” Charley said, frowning, “but if you order it, I guess it’s best that I do it.” The short man pulled his kukri blade from its sheath, touching the carbon nanotube edge with extreme care.
“Do you want to live?” Jonah asked, walking over to the prisoner. “If you can keep up with us, and keep silent, I’ll let you live until we can get to a point where we can let you go.”
“Colonel?” Joey exclaimed, an expression of disgust on his face. “He could be the one that killed Basil!”
“And he might not be. I was raised to believe helpless prisoners must be protected.”
“Once we’re in the jungle again, and many miles from here, I think it’ll be safe to let him go,” Charley said, sliding his signature knife back into its sheath.
“I’ll be no trouble,” the cat said, closing his eyes tight. “I’ll go with you.” The Xlatan opened his eyes and looked into Jonah’s eyes without hesitation. “But once I am free, I will seek out my people, and it will be my duty to try to kill as many of you as I can.”
Jonah leveled a cold stare at the cat until the creature looked away. “Fair enough. And once we release you, when we come upon you again, we will kill you and all who stand with you.”
Manny grabbed the Xlatan’s upper right arm and pulled him to his feet. The mercenary pushed the cat along, starting him on his way, while the rest of the party gathered their equipment.
“Lead on, Hotaru,” Jonah ordered, nodding toward the cave that ran away from the pool. “Everyone, make sure you leave nothing behind. I don’t want the cats coming through that pool and finding evidence we were here.”
The colonel thought he really didn’t have to give that order. His people were professionals and should know better than to leave a trace. They were also tired, enduring a level of fatigue that had started up on the high plateau, carried through to the midlands, then down here in what he was coming to think of as the hotlands.
In minutes, the pool was again deserted. Pitch black, silent. Moments after the lights faded into the distance, the small animals that called this place home came back out. Phosphorescent fish and lightly glowing insects all came out, happy in their simple minds that the intruders were gone.
* * *
“How in all the hells are we supposed to find any bodies in this crap?” one of the Xlatan soldiers complained as the squad moved through the horrible landscape.
The ten Xlatan were arrayed in a formation with eight troopers in a line, about ten yards apart. Nlorn and a senior private walked about twenty yards behind the line, keeping their eyes open for anything the front line might miss.
“We have our orders,” Nlorn said, sounding unhappy. The sergeant was already tired of walking through the ash slurry the continuing rain was making out of the ground. The fallen trees, most burned to the point where they were barely holding together, formed an obstacle course that forced the line to bend and turn along the way.
Nlorn thought the mission was hopeless. If the Humans had been caught in this, there’d be nothing left of them but charred bones. Those could blend into the ash and slurry, where only the greatest of luck would lead to discovery.
“Why in the hells can’t we go back to the compound and get something to eat?” asked another of the soldiers.
“Because we’ve been ordered to search this area for the bodies of the enemy,” Nlorn said, slowly, as if talking to a child. “If you don’t like it, you can go argue with Commander Mmrash. That’s not something I’m prepared to do.”
From the look on the soldier’s face, that wasn’t something he wanted to do, either. Mmrash wasn’t known for his even temper, and lately it had been worse.
There were no more calls to stop the search, though the Xlatan soldiers continued to grumble under their breath. Nlorn could live with that. As a sergeant, it was bad for discipline to engage in it himself, but as long as he kept the complaints to a low whisper, below the hearing of his sharp-eared compatriots…
“Nlorn!” yelled out a Xlatan from another squad, running toward the sergeant’s squad on all sixes, rifle over his back.
“That’s Sergeant Nlorn, Quarrl!” Nlorn shouted back.
“Don’t let that rank go to your head, Nlorn. Okay, Sergeant Nlorn. Now, do you want to hear the news I bring?” Quarrl stood up on his hind legs, placing both sets of hands on his sides.
“Well, what’s the news?”
“We found the entrance to a cave back that way,” the soldier said, turning his torso and pointing back the way he’d come. “Sergeant Kkrall is searching it, but thought you, as our designated leader, should be advised immediately.”
Nlorn didn’t like the tone in the soldier’s voice. Everyone had been satisfied when their only duties had been to protect the compound and round up poorly-armed slaves. Being deployed out in the bush, against enemies that could actually fight back, had changed that dynamic. Losing an entire squad hadn’t helped.
“Let’s go,” Nlorn said, slinging his rifle over his back and dropping to all sixes. He looked back over his shoulder a moment. “The rest of you, keep on the sweep.”
Nlorn was off on the run then, following closely behind Quarrl. They loped along for about a mile, stopping for a moment to catch their breath. They weren’t made for distance running. Xlatan were sprinters, and no amount of training would change that.
After a couple of stops, the out-of-breath pair arrived at the hillside where a half dozen soldiers stood around, a couple looking into the small opening that led into darkness.
“Where’s Kkrall?”
“I think he’s gone swimming,” one of the waiting soldiers said with a chuckle.
What in all the hells? Nlorn thought, staring at the other male in disbelief. Xlatan hated and feared water. They sank like rocks without the aid of diving equipment. In a pinch, they could use their gas protection equipment to breathe underwater for a limited time. Without floatation devices, they had a hard time getting their bodies off the bottom, so in deep water they were in trouble.
Nlorn pushed past one of the soldiers, went down to a six-limbed gait, and moved through the opening. He could see light ahead as soon as he entered the total darkness of the underground. When he reached the main cavern, if the ten-by-twelve-yard chamber could live up to that name, it was brightly lit by a number of suit lights.
A pair of Xlatan stood by the pool that took up a third of the cavern, holding onto a cord of carbon nanotube wire wound into a thin rope. Neither looked his way, both focusing all their concentration on the task at hand. The sergeant approved.
“Where’s Sergeant Kkrall?”
“He and one other are down there,” the soldier he’d asked said in a tone of disbelief.
“How long?”
“A couple of minutes. I couldn’t imagine being under that stuff for that long.”
Nlorn shuddered as he thought about doing so himself. His respect for the other sergeant went up a notch.
The males at the pool edge started pulling on the rope. Either something was very wrong, or a signal had come up the cord. Maybe both.
The first of the Xlatan came to the surface, pulling himself up the cord and grabbing onto the side of the pool, scrambling to get back up on dry land. The male’s fur was soaked, slicked down on his face and hands. He shook his head, sending water everywhere.
“What did you find down there?” Nlorn asked, moving over to the soldier once it was clear the shaking was over.
“Nothing but water,” answered the male between deep breaths. “Over fifty yards of water, with rock overhead, squeezing down on our heads. It just kept stretching ahead, endless.”
Another male broke the surface, this one taking his time ge
tting out, a show of courage. Kkrall pulled himself out of the water while the first male started stripping out of his battle suit, releasing large splashes of water on the cavern floor.
“No way they could have gone that far,” Kkrall said, starting to pull off his own clothing.
“No way Humans could have done it?” Nlorn asked, staring at the disturbed surface of the water. “Or are you thinking that because our people couldn’t?”
The other sergeant looked confused for a moment, his ears twitching. Nlorn stopped his own ears from twitching in response to his own thoughts, something he’d worked on over the years. It had served him well in dealing with superiors, making him an oddity among a species that couldn’t hide their emotions.
“I think we should investigate further,” Nlorn said, looking dubiously at the pool. “We’ll need diving equipment.”
“While we’re at it, why don’t we just ask for someone from one of the other species? One that can actually swim in that?”
That actually struck Nlorn as a great idea, especially if the Humans hadn’t been burned to death, and they were waiting on the other side of the pool.
“I’ll get on the comm and alert Commander Mmrash,” Nlorn said, letting his ears twitch in agreement. Hopefully the commander would listen to reason and not just order them to go back into that nightmare realm. With Mmrash, that was never a given. He just had to hope the senior warrior was in a good mood.
* * *
“And again, you can’t guarantee the Humans were burned in the fire,” Jillor growled over the comm.
Of course I can’t, you idiot, the commander thought, glaring at the boss, his ears twitching out a signal that, fortunately, the alien couldn’t read. “They may have been burned to ash, Boss.”
“And they might be lurking in another area of the jungle, laughing at us!” Jillor yelled, the sound of his fist striking his desk with a smack. “You thought they were dead once; you came down to the canyonlands without making sure, and they got away from you.”
When Eagles Dare Page 23