Page 27

CHAPTER 27

A bout an hour before sunup, the cloud cover started to disperse.

Now the sky was clear and gradually brightening with the coming dawn.

Murdok lay belly-down on the bare sandstone slope and peered over the top of the ridge into the shallow valley below.

In the predawn light, he could clearly see the eastern entrance of the mine about two hundred yards ahead—and in between, some three dozen raiders sitting around electric warming units or standing around in groups talking.

Murdok didn’t need binoculars to get a good look at the mutants or the weapons they were carrying.

His augmetic implants provided all the magnification he required.

“Bossman, what’s the situation inside?”

Aeron was on overwatch for this one.

That meant he was on the ship, hovering high above the mission site, monitoring the entire situation from above.

Normally, for a run-and-gun mission like this one, they wouldn’t have bothered with such things, but considering the complexity of the mine-tunnel network, it had seemed like a good idea.

Plus, they’d all agreed they needed to leave at least one person behind to protect their woman, and of the three, Aeron was the best fighter.

There was no question about that.

Now, the lead Merc’s voice came through Murdok’s earpiece, answering his question.

“Everything’s pretty much the same as when you set out,” he said.

“You’ve got twenty-two tangos just beyond Checkpoint Alpha. No raknids. After that, the tunnels are clear until Sector Bravo.”

“Roger that.”

Murdok visualized the map in his mind’s eye.

Checkpoint Alpha was the entrance to the mine.

Beyond that lay a medium-sized ovoid chamber with three smaller tunnels branching off.

Before they could proceed into the depths of the mine, they would need to clear all the mutants on the outside, plus the twenty-two more who were hanging out just inside the entrance.

“Kid,” Murdok said, “you in position?”

This time, it was Zeth’s voice that answered him.

“Affirmative. Ready when you are.”

“We wait for the sun.” Murdok glanced upward.

The sky was already brighter than it had been a minute ago.

He glanced down at his watch.

“Won’t be much longer now.”

“Just say when,” Zeth replied.

“I’ll be ready.”

The kid was hunkered down a few hundred yards to the north, on a different part of the ridge.

Bastard was well hidden, too.

Murdok couldn’t even see him.

But he knew he was there, and it gave him an added sense of security.

Not that Murdok needed a security blanket.

He’d never been afraid of death, and he had no problem going out in a blaze of glory.

Nevertheless, he was in no mood for dying today.

He had better things to do.

He reached into one of the pouches on his vest and pulled out a little wadded up piece of fabric—the panties he’d torn from Rona’s body when he’d searched her in the holding cell.

He held the dirty little rag over his mouth and nose and inhaled deeply, like an addict huffing ether.

His cock went hard in his britches, and his heart started kicking.

Yeah… he wasn’t gonna be dying today.

Not when he had such a delicious piece of pussy waiting for him back on the ship.

He was going to wear that pussy out once the mission was over.

All three of them were.

Him and Zeth and Aeron.

They were gonna leave that woman dripping from all her holes.

“Bossman,” Murdok said.

“The little lady there with you?”

“Right here beside me in the copilot’s seat.”

“She’s not sittin’ on your lap?”

Aeron chuckled.

“I’m trying to keep my mind focused on the mission for the time being.”

“In that case,” Murdok said, grinning, “you’d better lock her naughty ass in the holding cell til we get back.”

He remembered the farewell the woman had given him a few minutes earlier, standing on the boarding ramp of the Talionis .

She’d stood there, looking up at him in the dim starlight, trying and failing to conceal her concern.

“Come back safe,” she’d said.

“Woman,” he’d answered.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were actually worried about me.”

She’d given him one of her trademark scowls.

“It’s not you I’m worried about,” she’d whispered as she’d touched the front of his pants.

“But I need this dick, and I’m willing to put up with the man that’s attached to it if I must.” She’d lifted herself up on her tiptoes to kiss him.

“Come back safe.”

Murdok planned on it.

He would come back safe, dick and all.

He pressed the torn panties to his face and drew another deep lungful of her pungent scent.

Then he stuffed the good luck charm back inside his vest and glanced back over his shoulder at the horizon.

The sun was starting to come up.

“Alright, kid. Get ready.”

“I was born ready.”

Murdok turned his eyes forward again.

Before him, the first rays of the sun were gilding the craggy stones above the mine entrance.

Over the next several minutes, the line of light crept lower and lower.

Just a little more, Murdok thought.

Just a little more…

He counted off a hundred heartbeats.

Two hundred.

“Now!”

At the same instant he said it, Murdok surged to his feet and began racing down the other side of the ridge into the valley below.

His rifle was in his hands, but he didn’t start shooting.

Not yet.

About fifty paces ahead of him, a silent steel bolt from Zeth’s accelerator bow passed through the neck of one raider, and embedded itself in the chest of another who was next to him.

A third raider standing nearby opened his mouth to scream, but before he could get any sound out, a second bolt transfixed his skull.

Zeth was able to snipe three more before the first three even hit the ground.

Murdok had to admit, the kid was good.

But the silent, long-range approach only worked for so long.

The seventh victim was heartshot, and he managed to bellow in pain before he expired.

The remaining thirty or so mutants all turned at the sound.

They saw Murdok charging toward them, but only for the merest fraction of a second, because then the sun broke over the top of the ridge, blinding them with its glory.

Murdok started shooting.

His heavy assault rifle blurted, and the rounds tore through the raiders in front of him, vaporizing heads, amputating limbs, punching fist-sized holes through torsos.

Spent casings littered the ground in his wake.

Some of the muties attempted to return fire, but with the sun in their eyes, they couldn’t aim for shit.

Others tried to flee, but Zeth picked them off with his accelerator bow.

In a matter of seconds, the entire valley had been cleared.

“Look out,” Aeron’s voice said in Murdok’s ear.

“We’ve got movement inside the mine. Be ready for a counterattack.”

Murdok was ready.

Operating on pure gut instinct, he tucked and rolled to one side.

A millisecond later, gunfire ripped out from the darkened entrance of the mine, sending up spumes of dust where he’d just been running.

“Kid!” he shouted. “Light ’em up!”

Zeth was already racing down the other slope toward the mine, about thirty paces back.

He loosed another bolt from his accelerator bow, but this one was different from the ones he’d fired before.

Glowing orange and trailing sparks, it looked more like a shooting star than an arrow.

It disappeared into the entrance of the mine.

Then came a loud whoomp of superheated air, and the inside of the mine lit up like a jack-o’-lantern.

A second later, the screaming started.

Raiders burst from the entrance of the mine, their bodies engulfed in flames.

Murdok mowed them down with his gun and left them burning on the ground.

Zeth came running up beside him just as he killed the last one.

“Two at Checkpoint Alpha,” Murdok said.

“How’s it look inside?”

Aeron answered: “Need a second for the flames to die down… okay, you’re clear to proceed.”

Murdok slapped a fresh ammo mag into his rifle and gave Zeth a nod.

Together, they entered the mine, Murdok taking the lead, Zeth right behind him.

After a few feet, the entrance tunnel debouched into the wider, egg-shaped chamber Murdok had seen on the map.

A few charred mutants lay smoldering on the floor.

The air was filled with the smell of roasting meat.

More flames still clung around the walls and ceiling where webs of raw raknid silk had caught fire.

That stuff was worth money, so they’d have to try not to burn up too much of it.

The raknids themselves were even more important.

Brundage had specifically asked them not to harm any of the bugs.

“Stay sharp,” Aeron’s voice said.

“You’ve got three more tangos heading your way, central corridor.”

“Copy that.”

Murdok nodded to Zeth, and they moved to opposite sides of the chamber, pressing themselves against the stone walls.

There were three openings at the far end of the space.

They trained their weapons on the one in the middle.

“Remember,” Aeron’s voice said.

“It would be nice to keep at least one of them alive for questioning.”

Murdok looked across the chamber at Zeth, who was all but invisible against the wall.

“I’m on it,” the kid said.

Murdok could hear the muties coming toward them now, feet pounding, armor jangling, breath grunting with exertion.

The bastards weren’t very good at being stealthy.

They weren’t very good at anything besides dying.

As they came rushing out of the tunnel, Murdok blasted the first two, killing them with two quick spurts of his rifle.

The third he left for Zeth.

A blade flashed in the firelight as it whirled across the cave and embedded itself in the raider’s upper thigh.

The mutant howled in pain and dropped to one knee.

He started to lift his gun to shoot, but Zeth was already on him.

A kick sent the raider’s gun flying out of his hands.

Then the kid wrapped him up in a rear naked choke.

In a matter of seconds, the mutant had gone limp.

“Good work,” Murdok said, rushing forward to help secure the prisoner.

“Too easy,” said Zeth.

“I would enjoy a bit more of a challenge.”

“Yeah well, don’t get too cocky just yet. We’ve still got a bunch of these fuckers to get rid of.”

“I know, I know…”

Murdok cuffed the unconscious raider’s wrists behind his back while Zeth hobbled his ankles.

The raider was already beginning to stir.

He would be wide awake in a minute or two, but he wouldn’t be going anywhere.

They would pick him up on their way out and take him back to the ship for questioning.

Poor bastard would probably wish they’d killed him instead.

Then Murdok noticed the human scalp hanging from the mutant’s belt.

It was fresh. Probably one of the miners.

Poor bastard nothing.

“We’ve got one secure,” Murdok said to Aeron.

“We clear to proceed with entrapment?”

“Affirmative,” Aeron answered.

Murdok took a small remote detonator out of his vest and flipped back the safety cap covering the red control button.

“Now for the fun part,” he said and smashed the button.

There was a low rumble, like a peel of distant thunder.

Dust sifted down from the ceiling of the chamber.

Last night, when he’d been scoping out the mission site, Aeron had planted a pair of explosive devices, one at the north entrance of the mine, the other at the south entrance.

With those two passages blocked, the only ways out would be the eastern entrance—which Murdok and Zeth were currently guarding—or the entrance to the west.

“How we lookin’, boss?”

“Two successful detonations,” Aeron said.

“The northern and southern exits are sealed. The mutants from those areas are heading for checkpoint bravo. Now all you have to do is chase ’em out the other end.”

Murdok grinned.

“We’re on it.”

He and Zeth headed further into the mines, guided by Aeron’s directions from the ship.

They went swiftly but cautiously, moving down the tunnels in a leap-frogging fashion, each one giving the other cover while he advanced to the next strong point.

They encountered a few random muties along the way and wasted all of them with extreme prejudice.

They also encountered some raknids, the massive, spider-like critters that produced the mine’s valuable silk.

The raknids looked mean, but their behavior was docile, having been domesticated centuries before.

The tunnels were thick with their webs, and the sticky stuff clung to Murdok’s arms and legs as they plunged deeper and deeper into the mine.

There were no signs of dead raknids, however.

That was a bit surprising, considering the raiders’ apparent propensity for violence.

It was almost as if someone had given them strict orders not to harm the profitable creatures.

Suddenly, Aeron’s voice came through Murdok’s earpiece again.

“You’re coming up on Sector Bravo in about fifty yards. Get ready.”

“Copy that, boss.”

Sector Bravo was their designation for a place in the center of the mine where multiple tunnels came together.

It was there that the fleeing mutants would converge as they attempted to exit the mine.

Murdok and Zeth were ready for them.

They waited until the raiders had flooded into the chamber, then they opened fire.

Some of the mutants tried to fight back, but most of them fled, racing up the western tunnel in order to get away from the Mercs’ deadly rounds.

That was exactly what Murdok wanted.

Together, he and Zeth herded the raiders westward, picking off the stragglers as they went.

After several minutes of running, sunlight was visible ahead.

They were nearing the western entrance of the mine.

“Getting close now, boss,” Murdok said.

“The muties’ll be running out shortly.”

“Copy that,” Aeron answered.

“I’ll be waiting for them.”

The running raiders started to shout as they exited the mine.

The stupid bastards thought they’d gotten away.

As the mutants poured out into the sunlight, they spread out and turned back to face the entrance of the mine, their guns aimed and ready to retaliate against their pursuers.

They just had to wait for the rest of their buddies to get out of the way.

As soon as the last one was out of the mine, Murdok sent a message to Aeron.

“That’s all of ’em, boss.”

“Got it.”

From his position inside the mine, Murdok could not see the Talionis .

He couldn’t hear the ship’s engines either, since they were virtually silent.

What he could hear, however, was the collective scream of terror as the raiders realized how badly they had fucked up.

While Murdok and Zeth were chasing the mutants from Sector Bravo, Aeron had brought the Talionis down from high altitude.

Now the ship was hovering a short distance away from the western entrance of the mine.

A perfect position to finish off the mutant gang.

The ship opened fire.

From his vantage safe within the mine, Murdok watched as the landscape outside erupted in geysers of dirt and pulverized stone raised by the barrage of ammunition from the ship’s underwing guns.

The raiders exploded as the fat-caliber rounds tore through meat and bone.

It was a massacre. A complete and utter massacre.

Murdok grinned. He lived for this shit.

The roar of gunfire, the smell of freshly spilled blood.

Violence on a grand scale.

There was only one thing he enjoyed more, and right now she was sitting in the cockpit with Aeron, watching it all go down.

Murdok moved forward to get a better view of the action.

He sensed Zeth right behind him, equally enthralled.

Then he noticed something.

About a hundred yards out past the mine entrance, a stray mutant was hoisting something onto his shoulder.

It wasn’t an ordinary old rifle.

It was a big tube-shaped weapon with a muzzle so big Murdok could have fit his whole fist inside it.

An anti-aircraft rocket.

“Boss, check your two o’clock. There’s a tango with a double alpha.”

“I see him,” Aeron answered calmly.

Outside, the spumes of dirt cut a trail across the ground as Aeron swung the ship around to face the raider in question.

Bullets ripped the mutant to pieces, but as he died, he managed to pull the trigger on his weapon.

The rocket-propelled grenade whooshed out of the muzzle.

Only it wasn’t aimed at the Talionis anymore.

It was headed straight for the entrance of the mine.

“Shit!” Murdok shouted.

“Look out!”

He turned and started to run.

Zeth was already doing the same.

They managed to sprint about ten paces back into the mine before the grenade exploded behind them.

The wave of overpressure sent them sprawling.

Then came the whoosh of super-heated air.

And after that, a deep tectonic rumbling that made Murdok’s blood go cold.

The tunnel was collapsing.

Before Murdok could push himself to his feet again, the section of tunnel came down around him, burying him and Zeth beneath darkness and stone.