Trident Fury (The Kurgan War Book 3) (14 page)

“So can I,” replied Tarina.
 

“Has this kind of thing ever happened before?” Wendy asked Angela.

She shook her head, “No, and I’ve never seen a Kurgan with half of his face covered in tattoos before, either.”

Tarina asked, “What the hell is going on?”

“I wish I knew. All I do know is that we can’t afford to waste any more time. I’ll show Tarina the way out tonight and Wendy tomorrow. Three nights from now, we’ll make our escape and hope that the ship we need is there. If not, all my planning will be for nothing.”

“Better to die on our feet trying to escape than to wait to die down here.”

“Amen to that,” added Wendy.

“Okay then, it begins tonight,” said Angela with a gleam of hope in her eyes.

High above, two ships suddenly appeared on either side the planet.

Klatt, the desert world, loomed large beneath Wright’s vessel. “Any Kurgan military ships or satellites in our local area?” he asked Eskola.

“None,” she replied. “There is not a single electronic signature in a one hundred thousand kilometer radius. We are free to deploy the payload.”

Wright reached over and flipped a switch on his control panel. Their satellite detached and began to float free in space. Guided by its thrusters, the spy satellite moved into orbit right above the prison.

“Sir, I’m getting a good signal from the satellite,” reported Eskola.
 

“Excellent.”

“Sir, my return flight calculations have been inputted into the navigational computer.”

That was all Wright needed to hear. He said into his helmet mic, “Begin the countdown.”

“Rodger that, sir. Jumping in five-four-three–two–one.”

Again a cold, dark bubble surrounded their ship as they began the long flight back to the asteroid belt.

Wright checked the time. It had taken them less than thirty seconds to deploy their satellite. He doubted that their presence above the planet had been detected by any of the orbiting enemy satellites. The only thing that he had no control over was the other team. He would have to wait until they reached their transport ship in twenty-four hours’ time to know if they had succeeded in their mission. He sat back in his seat and took a deep breath. If he thought that the flight in was boring, now that the excitement was over, the next day was going to be the longest and most tedious day of his life.

Chapter 16

The flight to the drop off point near the asteroid belt had gone by far too fast for Sheridan’s liking. He had barely had a chance to acquaint himself with the other members of the reconnaissance team.
 

Up front, the shuttle flight crew were fast asleep in their chairs so they could be ready at the drop of a hat to jump into Klatt’s atmosphere. It was planned to land the team in walking distance of the prison. Sheridan hadn’t found them in the officers’ mess back on the
Colossus
, in fact, they had been going over the updates to their ship for the third time with an exasperated-looking technician.
 

Master Sergeant Cole had taken Sergeant Urban and the five other close protection Marines off to a quiet part of the transport’s cluttered hangar and ran them through instinctive shooting drills with a floating target drone. They were keen and focused. It didn’t take them long until they could react without hesitation. Once he was satisfied, Cole took a couple of hours and inspected everyone’s weapons and equipment to make sure that it was all working as it should be. There wouldn’t be a quartermaster stores where they were going. If something failed in battle, it could cost the life of one or more of the team, and Cole was not about to let that happen.

Sheridan left the two officers to get to know their communicators. Normally, the officers would carry their own communicators and speak directly with the asset they were controlling. However, as Sheridan had learned the hard way several times, comms is life. If you cannot call for fire or help, then you risked being overrun and killed. The Marines carrying the secondary radios were backup in case the first comms devices failed, which they had a bad habit of doing the instant you met the enemy in combat.

A metallic-sounding voice came over the ship’s PA system. “Captain Sheridan, to the bridge, please. Captain Sheridan, please report.”

Sheridan had to chuckle; the ship from bow to the stern was only one hundred meters long. It was a glorified engine with a small hangar bay to move goods around in. The bridge was in the next room. He pressed a button on the wall and stepped inside the cramped room. There were three people operating the ship’s controls. Everyone had two jobs. The captain was also the pilot. The co-pilot was also the navigator, and the last person there was the engineer and comms specialist.

“What’s up, Master Chief,” asked Sheridan.

A man with thinning blond hair looked over. “Sir, we’re going to be at the drop point in just over one hour. We’re receiving feed from only one of the satellites above Klatt.”

“Well, one is better than none,” replied Sheridan philosophically.

“Sir, it gets worse. The signal keeps coming and going. There could be any number of things to explain that, from faulty equipment to sun spots to enemy jamming. I’ve had the live feed forwarded to your shuttle’s computers to help you plan your jump.”

“Thanks.”

“Sir, if I were you, I’d plan my jump now. My gut tells me that we’re going to lose both satellites before too long.”

“I’d rather you were wrong, but I’ve also learned to trust my gut as well. Thanks, Master Chief. I’ll get my people up and working on the jump calculations right away.” He turned and left the bridge, making his way to the shuttle to wake up Parata and Mercier. While they shook themselves awake and got to work, Sheridan opened up a computer console and studied the images sent back of the prison. The only things visible on the surface was a processing plant over three hundred kilometers from the prison and a small landing site near a cluster of buildings at the mine’s entrance. He wanted to find them a place to land that afforded them cover and was not too far from the prison. A couple of minutes later, he chose a spot in a canyon fifteen kilometers from the mine. To go any closer was to risk being detected by the prison’s scanning devices, he reasoned.
 

“Here, I want to come out of our jump right above this spot,” said Sheridan to Mercier.
 

Mercier leaned over and took down the coordinates.

“Can you do it?” asked Sheridan.

Mercier shrugged. “I’ve never plotted a jump this far in my life. Ask me when we get there.”

Chapter 17

I’m being smothered
, thought Tarina as she fought to take a deep breath. She opened her eyes and tried to sit up but found that she was being held down. In the near pitch-black room, she began to panic and reached for the arm pinning her to her bed.

“Ssshhh,” said someone in the dark.

Tarina instantly recognized Angela’s voice. She relaxed and turned her head to see her friend kneeling beside her bunk.
 

Angela removed her hand from Tarina’s mouth. “Come on, the guards have gone to get a bite to eat. They won’t be back for nearly an hour.”

“How do you know?”

“I’ve been watching and studying them for months. Trust me, they’re creatures of habit. Today is Tuesday, and the late shift always sneaks off around this time for a bowl of soup and a drink or two.”

Tarina swung her legs down, slipped on her clogs, and followed Angela to the entrance of the cavern. They paused for a moment to make sure that there wasn’t anyone still lingering around in the tunnel before making their way down the corridor to a boarded up shaft. Angela got down on all fours and pulled the bottom three wooden boards free. She turned and waved for Tarina to follow her as she disappeared into the opening. With her heart racing, Tarina hurried to join her accomplice. The inside of the air shaft was dark and foreboding.
 

“Take this,” said Angela, handing Tarina a small flashlight. When she turned it on she saw that it had a red filter on it, making it hard for anyone to spot them.

“This is an air shaft. It used to be open when I first arrived,” explained Angela. “They closed it and opened another one further down the mine. It took me forever to loosen the bottom boards so I could easily sneak in here.”

“Where does it lead?”

“It comes out on a rocky ledge that overlooks the administration buildings and more importantly, the mine’s landing strip.”

Tarina looked up but could only see darkness. “How long of a climb is it?”

“It takes about ten minutes. Just stay close behind me and climb where I climb and you’ll be okay.”

Tarina nodded and began to climb up the wooden rungs. She might as well have been blindfolded as she could barely see more than a meter in front of her. Dirt and dust trickled down into Tarina’s eyes from above as Angela led the way up. She stopped for a couple of seconds to rub the dirt from her eyes before continuing the climb. Less than a month ago, she could have made the ascent without breaking a sweat. Now, however, after the abuses her body had taken, she had to force herself to keep going. It actually took twice the time Angela had said it would to make it to the top of the shaft.

Angela reached down and helped her friend climb the last few rungs before letting her catch her breath. “We don’t have a lot of time to waste up here. We still have to climb down and make it back to our bunks before the guards get back.”

Tarina took a deep breath and nodded.
 

Angela turned off her flashlight, reached above her head, and pushed the top cover aside. Light from outside flooded inside. She tapped Tarina on the head and whispered, “Stand up.”

Tarina stood. The fresh night air felt warm and refreshing. It reminded her of having a shower with Michael after having made love.

“Look over there,” Angela said, pointing toward a brightly lit landing port. “That’s where the Inspector General will land. Unless they’ve changed how they do business, the shuttle will be moved to a bunker dug into the side of the mountain. His inspections usually last two to three days. We’ll steal it on the first night he’s here and make our run for it.”

“How do we get there from here?”

“There’s an old path that leads down to the far side of the landing strip. From there we can use a dry riverbed to mask our movement to the shuttle. I’m sure that we can make it the whole way there without being seen.”

Tarina raised an eyebrow. “How can you be sure that it is an unobserved approach?”

“Because the guard towers are all facing the mine’s entrance. They don’t expect anyone to be moving around behind them. Their arrogance is their weakness.”

Tarina couldn’t fault her logic. “Do you have any homemade weapons? I doubt that they’ll let us simply walk onto a Kurgan shuttlecraft and hijack it without trying to stop us.”

“Watch your head,” said Angela as she bent down and pulled the cover back over the shaft.
 

Tarina got below and switched her light back on. She was surprised to see the small stash of supplies and equipment that Angela had acquired. There was a set of NVGs, a couple bottles of water, a few rations packs, and most surprisingly a Kurgan pistol with a full clip. Her father’s voice echoed in her mind . . .
if it looks too good to be true, then it’s too good to be true
. “Angela, how did you get all this stuff?”

“We can talk about that later. We have to get going or we’re going to get caught.”

“No, now!” said Tarina, grabbing a hold of Angela’s arm.

“I did things I’m not proud of. There, are you happy now?”

The bitterness in her voice told Tarina that she had asked the right question, just the wrong way. “I’m sorry, Angela, but I had to know.”

“Can we go now?”

“Yes, of course. Lead on.”

Tarina felt sorry for making Angela confess her sins, but with her and Wendy’s lives on the line, she wanted the truth no matter how unpleasant it may be to learn or admit. At the bottom, Angela made sure the way was clear before sliding out into the tunnel, closely followed by Tarina. They moved like a pair of cats hugging the shadows for cover all the way back to their cavern.

“Thanks for trusting in Wendy and me,” whispered Tarina, trying to make up for her earlier remarks.

“Who says I trust you? You’re a means to an end. I need you and you need me; that’s all there is to this arrangement. Don’t confuse what has happened between us with friendship.” With that, Angela turned her back on Tarina and made her way to her bunk.

Tarina shook her head and climbed into her bed. She kicked off her clogs, pulled up her blanket to the shoulders, and tried to make herself as comfortable as she could. Something nagged her tired mind. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but she knew she would eventually, just not tonight. In a matter of hours, they would be woken up for another day’s toil in the mines. Within seconds, fatigue washed over her and she was fast asleep.

Chapter 18

With a loud crash, Colonel Wright flung his helmet to the hangar bay floor, cracking open the glass face plate. “Just what the hell are you telling me?” He could barely hold back his brewing temper.