Aegis Rising (46 page)

Thinking quickly, she stared at the spreader and tried to focus. Her breathing became panicked when she saw that the cone-shaped device was still moving. She pleaded with herself to concentrate, and slowly but steadily the spreader started to swivel away. She sighed in relief and pushed the swivel as far back as it could go, then ran to the worker who was lying in the dirt. She grabbed his hands and started to pull him away.

“Why are you so blasted heavy?” she grumbled, though she knew he couldn’t hear her.

The rosy-cheeked girl watched, then quickly ran up to Mariah and grabbed one of the man’s arms, and together they dragged him next to the first worker.

The girls only had to wait for a few moments more before the others returned, each carrying an immobilized worker. They placed the men next to a passageway that connected the mining tunnel to the crusher area and bound them up. The two men then picked up the workers lying at Mariah’s feet and slung them over their shoulders to bind them with their co-workers.

“Good job so far, everyone,” Saiyu said encouragingly. She nodded at the sisters. “Your turn. The barrels are against the wall behind the mounds.”

“May I see what they do?” Mariah asked.

The Spring, who was omnilinguistic, translated and Saiyu granted her permission. Mariah quickly clambered over one of the mounds. She slipped on the way down to the other side and tumbled forward, hitting the solid rock wall with the full force of her body. She groaned and pulled away, then stumbled after the sisters, trying to regain her balance.

When she reached them, they had already planted the incendiaries into four of the chemical barrels. The barrels were painted an innocuous green in an apparent attempt to conceal the deadly poison they carried. The sisters pried open the tops of the barrels before setting the timers on the devices. They carefully placed the green pyramids point-side up into the rest of the barrels. Mariah watched the incendiaries sink to the bottom of the liquid in the barrel. Saiyu had said that once they were set, they were not designed to blow up like ordinary explosives. Rather, they would erupt in an intense flame so hot it would melt steel in an instant and would incinerate any object on which it was placed.

The younger of the two sisters pulled Mariah away from the barrels. The girls quickly scaled the mounds and made their way back over to the adults. Mariah looked at the six workers in the passageway. “They won’t get hurt, right?” she asked.

The Spring shook his head. “They will be fine. The fire is intense but focused. It will not reach that far.”

Saiyu took a quick look around to ensure everything was set, then led the way back outside. They crouched under the vats, eyes peeled for any sign of threats, then bolted back toward the trees. Their footsteps were quiet, but to Mariah it seemed as if they were giants pounding on the ground; she winced every time her foot landed on the earth, certain someone must have heard their collective footfalls.

They did not stop running until they were far behind the tree line. Mariah sat down on the root of a tree, panting. It was much cooler out here than among the noisy and dusty machines in the tunnel, and she was grateful for that. “So what now?” she asked the others.

“We wait,” Saiyu answered. “If everything goes as planned, then we will not be needed any further.”

51

T
he villager whom Aari had been covering for had already switched clothes with the miner he had captured. He tied the captive with an active vine which coiled around the worker’s wrists instantly, binding them together. The villager then tied a cloth over the mouth of the unconscious miner.

At the far end of the mining tunnel, two groups of five miners each worked on either side of the loud tunneling machine, scooping ore into mounds behind them for the Bobcats to collect. But the machines were not returning. One of the miners working beside the tunneling machine looked back. He wiped the dust off the visor of his air-supplying respirator. Though he could barely see over the mounds, he caught sight of the Bobcats’ yellow roll cages as they sat idling. He nudged the worker beside him and the worker looked up questioningly, not wanting to remove his ear plugs and ear muffs and expose his ears to the jarring sound of the tunneling machine.

The first worker pointed to the idling Bobcats and turned his hand palm-up in a questioning gesture. The other worker shrugged disinterestedly and returned to his job. The first miner contemplated asking the tunneling machine operator’s assistant about the Bobcats, but decided not to bother her as she walked around the tunneling machine, constantly checking it to ensure that everything was running as it should. Casting another look at the Bobcats, the miner returned to work as well.

There was no way he would have been able to spot the six outsiders—four of whom wore coveralls identical to the miners’—as they crept deeper into the tunnel and approached the tunneling machine with their packs on their backs, making sure to stay bent so they wouldn’t be spotted over the mounds of ore.

The villagers reached the mounds and remained hidden. One of them, covered by Ashack, stood and looked over the heaps of ore. “We will have clear shots at three of the miners on the left, and three on the right,” he informed the others.

Aari and the men quickly wound their miniature crossbows, which were especially designed for close-quarter combat situations. They set their immobilizing darts on the weapons’ grooves, then stood up and took aim over the mounds. The darts were released and each one impacted successfully, penetrating the workers’ coveralls. Within seconds the six men had all dropped like flies. The group grinned at each other. They ducked back down as the other miners spun around and caught sight of their fallen comrades. The miners saw the darts protruding from their fallen comrades’ clothes and scanned around, knowing that there was an imminent threat.

The villager who Aari had covered for turned to him and smiled as he pulled a respirator mask over his face. “Do not lose me this time.”

Aari looked back embarrassedly. “I’ll try.”

Ashack motioned to the four men. They nodded. Bending their knees and bouncing a little, they leapt up and flipped, landing on the far side of the mounds with perfect form. The workers saw them but were confused. All they could see were four men in coveralls with hardhats and respirator masks. But when they spotted the bows the four were holding, they realized the threat. The miners faced the four men, shovels in hand. With the lights from the workers’ hardhats now shinning directly at the villagers, Aari and Ashack cautiously peeked from behind the mounds and deflected the light. The men shimmered, and then disappeared.

One of the workers nearly dropped his shovel. “
What?
”

The last four miners and the machine operator’s assistant stared at where the intruders had stood just a moment ago. “What happened?” the operator’s assistant stuttered. “Where did they go?”

No answer was given. The workers only felt the stab of the darts into their arms before the numbness spread throughout their bodies and to their heads, causing them to black out.

The machine operator’s assistant stood frozen, not knowing what to make of the invisible threats. She wanted to flee to safety, but didn’t know where the ghosts were lurking. She needn’t worry too much, because a dart pierced through her protective clothing and into her skin. A moment later, she fell limp and the invisible force that caught her gently placed her to one side of the machine.

The bald villager with the long scar looked up at the tunneling machine. He was glad he had the earplugs and earmuffs to wear; the noise was intense. He noted the operator standing on a platform at the back of the drill, oblivious to what had happened to his colleagues. As the villager watched, the operator suddenly arched and reached behind his shoulders where a dart was lodged, then collapsed in a heap on the platform, unconscious.

Someone tapped the villager’s shoulder from behind. He looked over to see one of his kin beside him. Picking up that they were no longer being covered, he nodded as the other villager pointed to either side of the machine where two men equipped with back-pack sprayers and respirators were spraying the rocks and dirt in front of the tunneling machine. The workers, clad in smooth suits covering their entire bodies, had not yet noticed that the mammoth machine, though still running, was no longer moving.

The villager with the long scar nodded at the other man. He crept up behind the worker on the left side of the tunneling machine and paused behind the man, observing the worker as he nonchalantly sprayed some kind of liquid onto the tunnel walls and ground.
So this is how the contaminant gets into our waters
, the brawny villager thought. He wound up his arm and balled his right hand into a fist. “Maggot,” he muttered to himself, and delivered a compact punch to the side of the worker’s head, knocking him unconscious. The worker fell on his side, and the clang of the back-pack sprayer as it made contact with the ground rang across the tunnel.

“I do not think we were supposed to put them out in that manner,” one of the other members of the team said, grinning.

The villager shrugged. “Okay.” With a satisfied look on his face he then roughly jabbed an immobilizing dart into the worker’s shoulder.

The nozzle of the back-pack sprayer was still spurting the chemical. The villager had to tinker around with the mechanism for a little before he finally managed to turn the nozzle off. “So far so good,” he smiled.

Ashack and Aari climbed over the mounds of ore to help the others drag all the workers into the abandoned tunnel. They tied up and gagged the workers. Once they were done, they returned to the mining tunnel, where Ashack handed out the cube-shaped explosive gels. “Get with it,” he said, gruff as always.

Up at the top of the mountain, Nageau turned to the others. “Ashack’s team has secured the main tunnel. They have just begun to place the explosives.”

“Excellent,” one of the men said, beaming.

“Has Saiyu moved in with her team?” another man asked.

“They moved in about the same time Ashack did.”

Kody was lying face down beside his mentor and peering down the mountain. He murmured, “I can see Elder Saiyu leading her team back to the trees.”

Nageau frowned. “Did they plant the explosives on the cauldrons in front of the tunnel?”

“Uh . . . no.”

“She must have forgotten. I will remind her.” Nageau gazed down at the site and probed for Saiyu’s presence. When he found it, he asked,
Saiyu, have you installed the detonation gels onto the large cauldrons?

Oh no
, Saiyu groaned.
We missed that in our haste. I will send someone from my group back to do the task right away.

As Kody watched, he saw the shape of a girl running light-footed out from the trees toward the vats. She was carefully cradling a bag to her chest; Kody assumed that the explosives were in there. She weaved her way around the vats, carefully planting the explosives and setting the timers.

“Tayoka’s turn,” Nageau said to himself as he and his apprentice surveyed the ground.

Jag stared out of the tree line, eyes darting back and forth. He was looking from behind a young evergreen tree that stood behind the cluster of lunch tables, just as shown on Tikina’s map. To his left would be the workshop, and to his right was what he figured to be a medical building, judging by the red cross painted on it.

As he looked up at the sky and observed Nageau’s spot at the top of the mountain, he heard his name called softly. “Jag!” He turned around and saw Tayoka waving him over to join the rest of the group. He quickly headed over and stood by the Elder, who checked for the umpteenth time that everyone remembered their roles.

Who knew Tayoka was such a stickler?
Jag thought, amused, as a woman rapidly translated Tayoka’s words for him. While easier said than done, their plan wasn’t difficult to understand. He and Tayoka were to take down the four guards on shift before the others planted the cube explosives on three targets: the beasts’ steel enclosure, the workshop, and the vehicles in the vehicle shed. The Elders had made it clear that no explosives were to come in contact with the medical building or the mess hall that were constructed side by side, nor were they to rig the workers’ barracks.

Jag was near to losing his patience as he waited for his mentor to dismiss the group. When the villagers at last nodded and rose to their feet, Jag straightened. “Finally,” he murmured. He followed Tayoka as the Elder prowled along the tree line, looking for the guards who should have been continuously circling the site. He watched for a few minutes, but had so far only noticed one guard walking about.

Tayoka swept his hand behind him, halting his apprentice. Creating a telepathic connection, he said,
Nageau, I do not see any of the guards.

The youngling tells me he observed one walking into the workshop building a while back and never came out.
Nageau paused
. Ah, and there is another walking around the vehicle shed.

Yes, I saw him. But what of the other two?

I believe they went into the mess hall.

Is that not where you said the head guard who controls the beasts went?

He left a while ago to retire.

So we have three guards occupied indoors, and only one is out and about. Is that correct?

Yes.

Alright. Thank you.
Tayoka turned and went back to where the team waited for the Elder and Jag to take down the guards.

“Slight change of plans, my friends,” Tayoka said, gathering them into a huddle again. “There is only one guard on active duty at the moment. Two have entered the dining building, and one has disappeared into the workshop.”

Jag chuckled to himself. “Slackers.”

“Continue as if we have already taken down the guards,” Tayoka told his group. “But be mindful that they may come out at any time, so do not make a sound. Am I understood?”