Deadly Cargo (Jake Mudd Adventures Book 1)

by Hal Archer

  Kharn stood for a moment after the door shut, then he crossed the room to his personal elevator and rode it down to the lab where the work on the bioweapon was still in progress.

  The door of the lift opened and he stepped out into the lab.

  Hearing the sliding door and Kharn's footsteps, Lorian looked up from his work. "Everything is progressing nicely."

  "When?" Kharn asked.

  "The timetable is the same. I've told you before. It's a process."

  "Speed up the process!"

  Lorian, visibly shaken by Kharn's tone, replied, "Yes. Of course. I'll do everything I can."

  "Good."

  "I still think we can do it with just a tissue sample, if you're willing to wait longer. Perhaps a few more days."

  "I will have no further delays, Lorian. You will do the encoding as we discussed."

  "But why take another life to do it, when I can achieve the encoding with tissue samples? I'm sure of it."

  "You have pledged your loyalty to our cause," Kharn said. "You will continue as planned. I have selected one of your own for the encoding."

  Lorian's face was awash with conflicting emotions. "Who?"

  "I have selected someone whose loss will not diminish our efforts. Finish the preparations. I will return for the encoding procedure."

  With that, Kharn turned and walked back into the lift, and its door closed.

  CHAPTER 29

  Hanlan sat near the peak of the mountain high above the cave to which Jake and the others traveled. From where he perched, he took in both sides of the battlefield. Behind him, the overwhelming numbers of Waudure and Cracian troops tried to kill each other, but to Hanlan on his lofty seat, they appeared as little more than insects facing off over territory.

  He preferred where he sat, above the fray. His loyalty lay with his people, the Waudure, no question. But he cared little for the chaos of battle. Why wallow in the mud when his work could be carried out much more efficiently from afar? He'd trained as a scout and a sniper since he was a child. If Kharn had known his skill set, or that of the others in his guild, he and his fellow snipers would have been culled from the enslaved Waudure that were brought here. But fading into the shadows, becoming uninteresting, came to him as easy as breathing.

  Ahead of him, far below, in Cracian territory, the land to the south remained still and empty. He could only partially see the tail of the Cracian forces to the north. They continued to feed into the pass the Waudure had blown through the mountains. But his focus remained below, in the empty plateau. He scoured the ground for any sign of movement.

  Soon Hodin and the others would set off the explosive charges in the caves, blowing out the rock that sat between them and Kharn's land. Hanlan looked for Cracian patrols.

  He listened to the muffled sounds that drifted up. Explosions. The blasts of weapons. Fury and lamentations. They were faint, but he heard them nonetheless.

  The wind shifted rapidly at the top of the mountain where he kept watch. He took notice each time, effortlessly calculating the adjustment he'd need to make for the shot, should a patrol appear. Such things were second nature. The layers he wore, knowing his mission, protected his body from the frigid air. And the cold he breathed in gave his mind calm.

  The land from the foot of the mountain range to the Cracian base were cleared long ago of any vegetation, and anything else that would hide approaching threats to the base. Thus, the survey for Hanlan was easy.

  Satisfied the route where the other members of the infiltration team would exit the mountain and cross the plateau was free of any immediate threats, he turned once more to view the panorama of war in the distance.

  He pulled his viewing goggles from the pouch on his side. He lifted them under his hood and adjusted the range on them to bring the details of carnage and sorrow into view. He watched without relish, but to remember. For he knew tomorrow, if he carried on with the living, there would be many Waudure who would not. For them he chronicled the battle with his eyes.

  Any semblance of formations had disappeared from the battlefield. The well-laid plans either side had made, it looked to him, were long abandoned. Small bands of Waudure men and women that stood together against the now rising tide of Kharn's forces only proved to be easier targets for their enemies.

  High-voltage channels, bands of Cracian lightning, crawled across the ground in lines and angles, a supercharged fence, emanating from several charge vehicles, the power supplies for the system. The lightning fences posed an impassable barrier to the Waudure. And for those standing in its path when a new section of fence deployed, a quick electrocution of a magnitude that left nothing but dust and cinders awaited.

  Dozens of sections had been deployed, leaving some Cracian troops on the Waudure side to continue fighting, while the ships stayed their advance. Instead, they struck targets from the relative safety in the air behind the surging electric channels that ran from the charge vehicles to a series of coiled relay posts.

  Hanlan followed a Cracian team with his viewing goggles as they ran farther into Waudure territory and deployed another post. Once it was fixed into the ground, they stood to one side of the equipment. As a member of their team was struck down by a blast from a Waudure soldier, another of them smacked a panel on top of the post. The lightning shot to it from an identical post already charged a hundred feet away.

  Hanlan turned to the Cracian side of the mountains for a moment. He scanned the landscape far below. With no activity there on the ground, he unslung his sniper rifle from his back and repositioned himself to face the ongoing battle once more.

  Now using the scope on his weapon to inspect the battlefield, he witnessed three more extensions of the lightning fence system. The Cracians were using it to surround the Waudure, rounding them together for an easier kill.

  He removed the portion of his glove that covered his trigger finger, pulling the leather back at the cut in the glove just below the middle knuckle point. Then he reached up with his other arm and pushed his hood from his head, letting it drop to the back of his neck. The wind caressed his cheek, and he set his aim.

  The pad on his fingertip touched the curved metal of the trigger. The rifle recoiled, but he kept it firmly against him, so the movement was slight.

  At one second intervals, he performed the ritual seven more times.

  When he had done so, he leaned back and lowered his rifle. All but one of the lightning charge fields disappeared. He had targeted the posts nearest the charge vehicles, rendering the other posts in each chain useless.

  He sat and watched the Waudure forces, galvanized by what he'd done, regroup and surge into the Cracian front line.

  CHAPTER 30

  "J ake, through here." Nadira reached for him as she walked in front of him, deeper into the cave, but he didn't notice her hand.

  He listened to the faint echo of her words.

  The two of them, along with Hodin and Alara, made their way over rough ground, squeezing through narrow passages in the cave. The air felt cool and damp. Their footsteps and the shuffling dirt and rocks they walked over sounded throughout the cave.

  Hodin, in the lead, held a device inset with a clump of the same blue glowing crystals Jake marveled at when he first awoke in the underground Waudure stronghold. Far from the entrance to the cave now, the light did its job, but Jake, who walked behind Nadira, could only see a few feet past his feet. The walls of the cave to his sides were dark, as was behind him.

  Stopping while Nadira scaled a three-foot rise in the rocky path, Jake felt Alara press against him from behind.

  "Sorry," she said softly. "I couldn't see."

  "It's fine." He didn't turn around. The passage at this point was too narrow to do so.

  He still felt her chest pressed against his back. Then he felt her weight against him increase, as she leaned into him more.

  "Still standing here," he said.

  Nadira made it up the rock onto the elevated path ahead. She walked on, catching up
with Hodin, who had turned a curve in the path. The light before Jake dimmed.

  He took a step forward, preparing to scale the rock Nadira had climbed.

  Alara kept pace with him and once again pressed herself against his back.

  "Hey," he said.

  She reached around his waist with her left arm and rested her hand on his pelvis.

  Jake's mind wrestled with the circumstances, and he stood there while it did.

  He felt her right arm slide against his waist on the other side.

  "It's really dark in here," she said in a whisper.

  In the blackness, she moved her left hand down and reached with her other hand for his blaster. He couldn't see what she was doing with her right hand. It was too dark, and his attention stayed elsewhere.

  He made a deep grunt, clearing his throat. Then, before she grasped either of her objectives, he stepped forward, leaving her arms to drop away from him. He didn't look back at her, but instead scaled the rock before him and walked after Nadira and Hodin.

  He took the turn in the cave and spotted them up ahead, and with them, standing at the back of the cave, Brun.

  "So, this is it," Jake said, walking up to the three.

  Brun, who was kneeling beside the rock wall dead end and facing it, twisted a pair of wires together. Then he rose and stepped back and to the side, giving the others a clear view of his work.

  "That ought to do it," he said. "I had to take a good look at the rock first, the walls, and overhead. Want to make sure it goes right."

  Brun had fitted explosive charges to the wall, stuck into the rock with small spikes, driven into cracks. Jake counted nineteen charges on the back of the cave and four more on the walls to either side.

  "Those are supposed to give a little counter force for the main blast," Brun said. "If I put them in the right places, they'll keep the mountain from falling down on top of us."

  Jake looked uneasy about the prospect of being buried alive under a mountain, especially after escaping death at least a few times since he arrived on Daedalon.

  Nadira put her hand on his arm and gave it a playful shove. "Don't worry. He knows what he's doing."

  "She's right," Hodin said.

  Jake tipped the palms of his hands upward halfway and shrugged. "We've made it this far."

  Alara rounded the curve and came into the wider part of the cave where they stood.

  Jake glanced at her, but made sure he didn't look too long.

  "Alara," Brun said, his eyes lightning up at her, "your bear did it."

  "Brun," she said in a reprimanding tone, evidently because he openly used her pet name for him.

  "Take it easy," Hodin said. "No one here has a problem with you two."

  Jake tapped his foot, but only once before he realized it and stopped.

  Awkward.

  Hodin looked over Brun's work. "How far back did you say for the blast?"

  "Back around that turn and down the drop in the path should do it," Brun said.

  "Good." Hodin looked satisfied. "Let's do it."

  He headed back down the path. Nadira followed.

  Brun knelt to pick up a few pieces of gear he'd left on the ground. He opened the small pack next to him and put them inside.

  Alara, while Brun put away his things, walked over to Jake and looked up at him. She puckered her lips. Then she smiled and continued around the turn in the cave, toward the designated safe spot.

  Jake gave her a good head start before leaving Brun to join the others.

  Half a minute later, all five of them huddled down against the wall of the cave.

  Brun pulled out the triggering device for the explosives. He grabbed the switch on top after flipping open the safety guard. Then he looked at everyone.

  "You may want to cover your ears," he said.

  They all did so with their hands.

  He took a deep breath and exhaled. "Hope this works."

  He moved the toggle switch, and the lot of them fell to the ground as the explosive force of the blast far on the other side of several tons of rock shook every bit of stone around them.

  A torrent of dust, heavy and gray, shot out into the path to the exploded wall. It quickly filled the entire space around them. They waved their arms about to displace the cloud, as they coughed. Covering their mouths and noses with their hands, they stood and cautiously moved to see if the explosives had done their job.

  Jake's ears rang, as did everyone else's from the looks on their faces. Brun's face was the exception. He looked unfazed. He pulled a set of plugs from his ears and shoved them into a pocket on his shirt.

  The large opening leading out of the cave allowed part of the cloud of powdered stone to drift outside. The room cleared, and they could once again breath without filtering the air with their hands, which hadn't helped much anyway.

  "Nice work," Hodin said, glancing at the ceiling above them. "I'm not sure how you managed it without a cave in, but you did."

  Brun, hands on his hips, beamed with pride. "What can I say. I'm an artist."

  "Yes, you are," Jake said, slapping him on the back.

  Hodin touched the communication device in his ear. "Hanlan, how's it look?"

  Jake pulled his blaster from its holster and checked the charge reading. Satisfied, he put it back and stepped to the edge of the newly created portal into Kharn's territory.

  "Ok," Hodin said before tapping the device in his ear once more.

  "Well?" Nadira asked.

  Hodin moved next to Jake and looked outside. "So far our plan is working."

  "The Cracian forces are engaging?" Alara asked.

  "They've moved through the pass we cleared with the transport pods," Hodin said, staring out at the hundreds of acres that surrounded Kharn's base, the top of which was just barely visible in the distance.

  "How does it look for our people?" Nadira asked.

  Hodin turned to her. "It's war."

  They stood silent for moment. Everyone knew what he meant.

  "That's why we're going to get in there," Jake said, changing his posture to that of a man ready to get on with it. "They're counting on us to stop Kharn, to get that weapon from him."

  "He's right," Brun said.

  "We need to do more than just get the bioweapon," Nadira said.

  "Your father," Hodin said. "We'll do everything we can to get him out too."

  "Kharn," she said. Her eyes swam in a distant pool, one of malice and darkness.

  Jake and the others said nothing.

  A calm came over her face, as if from the comfort of an epiphany. "I'm going to kill him."

  Alara stepped up to her. "Our mission is the bioweapon."

  Nadira tensed. Her shoulders drew up slightly, and a fiery countenance washed over her face as she glared at Alara.

  "That's not going to get your father back," Alara said.

  "Of course it will," Nadira replied.

  Jake noticed that Nadira looked as if she was about to explode, maybe even louder than Brun's handiwork. He reached his arm between the two women, laying his hand on her shoulder to persuade her to walk with away from Alara. It took her a couple of seconds, but she did.

  They're going to kill each other before this is over.

  Once they moved closer to Hodin and the portal blasted through the rock, Jake spoke to all of them. "The faster we do this, the more Waudure lives we can save. For those that still fight, our actions may turn the tide. For those already fallen, we need to make their sacrifice worthwhile."

  Brun assented with a bellowing grunt.

  Hodin nodded. "Well said."

  They stepped through the opening, one by one. The terrain set before them posed little challenge by way of topography. Mostly a barren flat plain, a few small hills and ridges broke the continuity, but posed no significant hurdle. Most of the hills lined the perimeter of the grounds. The same such rock and dirt as in the Waudure land covered the surface, but with sparsely scattered vegetation, nothing larger than a fis
tful of weeds.

  Jake noted how little dust was in the air compared to the other side of the mountains. The cloud from the blast through the mountain had dissipated, except for a thin wisp of it, which rose high above them now.

  Hodin touched his ear device again. "We're moving."

  Nadira walked over to Jake and pulled her weapon from its holster.

  "Finally decide to shoot me?" he asked.

  "Still thinking about it."

  "Give me a heads up. OK?"

  She laughed, not too boisterously. The situation demanded she didn't.

  "You may want to be ready," she said, glancing down at his blaster.

  "Yes," he said. Then he called out to Hodin, who stood ten feet away, surveying the land from them toward the base, "Hanlan's got eyes on us?"

  Hodin called back, "For a few more minutes. He's making his way down the mountain. He'll join us when he can."

  "Let's do this." Jake walked past the others and took the lead, heading toward the Kharn's stronghold.

  Hodin joined him. "Keep your eyes open. Hanlan said there's nothing out there, but that could change."

  Brun, Alara, and Nadira followed. Once they'd caught up with the others, everyone fanned out.

  They moved at a brisk pace, short of a jog.

  "We should reach the base in twenty minutes," Hodin said.

  "Brun," Nadira said, "the entrance may be unguarded, but they'll have it monitored from inside. You'll need to be quick."

  "Watch my back," he said, "and I'll have us inside in ten seconds."

  Another few minutes of travel took them over one of the ridges, easy enough to scale. They paused at Hodin's signal. He gestured with his fingers first to his eyes and then out, pointing at the land ahead.

  Jake pulled out the viewing goggles Hodin had given him. He scanned the horizon. Nothing in sight but more empty land, and the base, now half visible. A stark contrast from the natural surroundings of rock and dirt and mountains in the distance to the west, the Cracian facility, with huge curved structures and smaller rectangular buildings below them, was larger than Jake had expected. He saw a series of stacked and overlapping long rectangles, all made from metal, but weathered in appearance. No doubt the harsh elements of Daedalon had taken what must've once been polished surfaces and turned them into a patchwork of rust and pitted steel, or whatever material made up the series of fused buildings. No guards in sight. He couldn't see the bottom of the structure. He saw no windows. No doors. No openings of any kind.