EVERYONE MASHED AGAINST THE WALLS
1563 4D
“EZ, hurry on down,” Rennie said softly in her helm. “We’re at the entrance.” A shushing sound cut him off. She came down the last few rungs at last to a catwalk across the vent, leading to a small landing by a steel door marked in her infrared viewer like the door above.
“You’re first, Toughskin,” Ellichik said in her helm. “I’ll get the door open. Go in, face left and belly to the floor. Big Shot, you follow her, face right, belly down. Any fire, get back in here and I’ll chuck a couple of these.” He showed them a snouted shell.
“Explosive and neuroactive.” Rennie reached out a finger and stroked the shell. “I saw these. What does it do?”
“I don’t know. Gotta toss ‘em far, their working range is ten paces, helm audio suppression mandatory up to one hundred. We have to wait a full thirty beats before going in there afterwards. And no touching the bodies.”
“Damn.” Rennie. “Don’t drop one on my foot, okay? Hey, maybe Angie knows.”
Angie‘s soft male voice said, “It explodes and emits a coherent train of electroacoustic pulses of extremely short duration and high amplitude. These pulses disrupt certain neuropeptide bonds in both humans and alien soldiers, triggering a metabolic cascade yielding significant amounts of motor paralytics. Humans die in seconds, alien soldiers in minutes. Like he said, don’t touch the bodies.”
A soft, awed curse came from Ellichik.
Thanks for the warning, Ezzar vocalized sourly.
“Of course,” said Angie.
“Ready?” Ellichik again.
“Ready.” They gripped guns and waited. Ellichik released the door’s security latches, held it for a heartbeat, then eased it open a hand’s width. Light poured in on them, but no sound came. He pushed it just wide enough. “Go. Go.”
Ezzar leaped through the door, dived under it and faced left into a clean, white-walled corridor bending gently to the right. Empty. “Clear,” she muttered.
The scuffle and thud of Rennie came, and his voice said the same thing. The door closed with a click, and Ellichik stood over her, his back to the inner wall of the curve.
“So far so good,” he said in a near-whisper.
“Something coming left,” Angie said.
She strained to hear, her hands tightening on her gun. “Angie‘s got a target coming here,” she muttered. Four red outlines bobbed in her remote-view LF sensor. “Range forty and closing at walk.”
“Nargolin, where are you?” Ellichik‘s voice.
“We’re at the entrance.” Nargolin.
“Targets between us,” Ellichik said.
“Six down my way, in red, forty out, walking,” Rennie growled. “We’re in the sandwich again.”
“I’ve got a bunch on sensors, through the wall, I can’t tell how many,” Nargolin called in. “We’re stuck until they pass.”
“Use your fucking brain, Legs,” Ellichik urged Nargolin. “We’re getting busy over here.”
“Hey, the overhead,” Rennie pointed up between garish floodlights. He jumped straight up, seized a pipe with one hand, and disappeared. Then his head and arms dropped down. “Ezzar, come on,” he said. She reached out, he drew her up, and she found a grip and squatted on two hot pipes above the lights. A moment later Ellichik found a place near her, and Rennie righted himself.
“This may be more fun,” Ellichik said, his voice flat. He snapped out an acoustic grenade and thumbed it. “On my signal, you two fire left, I’ll dump this right.” The red figures in Ezzar‘s remote display neared the point where they could see around the bend. “Now,” Ellichik said, reaching down and chucking the grenade; Rennie swung down again and fired a beam shot the opposite way. A screeching bang, shouts, and a fusillade of beams ricocheted beneath the three as they hung above the floodlight. The defenders were shooting at each other.
“They’re not happy,” Angie reported.
“All right, Nargolin,” Ellichik called over the noise, “What’s your story?”
“They passed, coming your way. We’re on our way in. You in a fight?”
“Sort of. Don’t come out. Just pitch an acoustic out behind them and duck back and lock up. We need to draw them your way.”
“Ah. Got it. How about a second, on delay, down the other way?”
“Perfect. Make ‘em chase their buggy asses.” More shouts, and the shooting stopped. The distant shriek of an acoustic grenade echoed, and then scrambling sounds, more voices, and running feet.
“They’re all gone but one, down, to the right,” Angie said to all of them.
“Moving?” Ellichik.
“No, but alive and hot. Bug man.”
“Shit. Okay, this one’s got a caster?”
“Yes. Talking on it now. Hurt, but not badly.”
“They like these traps. Angie, can you run a groundhog? We gotta get back to Nargolin.”
“Sure. You got one?”
“It just so happens I do. Just one, so get it right. Low noise. Here goes.” Ellichik pulled a forearm-sized object from his carapiece and stuck it on the wall. It stayed, changing color to match its background. Then it arched itself to one side and descended the wall, turning to white as it came into the lights and moved to the floor. Ezzar lowered herself to watch it sidle to the inner curved wall and suddenly streak off toward its target, the red outline in her viewer, exploding with a soft Whump! Silence. The red target dimmed.
“Target’s dead,” Angie said.
“Let’s go,” Ellichik said. They dropped to the floor and sprinted to overtake the defenders. “Nargolin, we’re on the way.”
“They took the bait,” she called back. “We’re coming out behind them.” Gold figures appeared on Ezzar‘s display. As they rounded the bend, the four figures filled out and became helmed brown-suited soldiers. Nargolin secured the door. “Glad you’re here. There’s about a dozen up there, and they’ll be back.”
“We’re supposed to find a door up that way,” Ellichik said. “Looks like we have to go through them before they get more help. Too bad I had to use that groundhog.” He and Nargolin went offline together.
Ezzar‘s mind raced. Andrew would find conduits. But this place was sealed up. She scanned the walls and ceiling and floor. Angie, she vocalized, can you make out wiring and lighting?
“Some of it. In the floor here.” A few lines sketched themselves in Ezzar‘s visual field as she looked down.
Any high-power stuff?
“Oh, yeah, that’s easy to spot.” Two of the lines enlarged to violet bands.
Ezzar took Rennie‘s arm. “We can short out some big-time stuff here.” She pointed to the floor.
“But what does it do?”
“I don’t know. Angie?”
“I don’t know either. Probably the mains for lighting, doors, lifts, safety and security supplies, not City power mains, not reactor lines.”
“Good. Rennie, get a panel up.” Rennie examined the floor, pressed his fingers experimentally here and there, and found a sliding latch cover.
“What are you doing?” Ellichik.
“Trying to cut the lights in here.”
“You’re crazy. Get in position. We’re expecting those guys back here any second.” As Ellichik turned to look up the corridor, Rennie raised a floor panel, jumped down, and readied a ballistic gun.
“They’re coming,” Angie chimed in, “And they’ve got helms too.”
“Fun’s over, assholes,” Ellichik said, “Get up here, Big Boy.”
“Duck away,” Rennie barked. Everyone mashed against the walls; he fired. With a roar, a huge white ball flew straight up from the floor recess, slamming into pipes in the overhead and shattering into sparks. Instantly the lights went out, and an alarm went off with a whoop whoop whoop. Thin beams caromed off the outer curved wall at the group; Ezzar and Ellichik bellied to the floor. Fire belched from the damaged floor recess; Rennie dived up and out, rolling and beating at glowing threads on his skin.
