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the end of the cable. The reel went on my back like a pack, using the harness attached that
strapped securely across my chest. I'd tested it to be certain it would take my weight.
Last of all I retrieved a pair of gloves from the pocket of my coat and pulled them on.
They were thin with rubberised grips. I flexed my hands in them.
Ready.
I looked up at the wall and smiled. All underground facilities have one weakness in
common. They need ventilation. In a moment, I'd removed the vent cover in the storeroom
and climbed into the shaft beyond it.
****
Well I won't get into detail about my thrilling trip through the vents and maintenance
shafts. The Snapper pointed my way. The scrambler took care of any scanners and I hoped
everyone had better things to worry about than some vent scanners going on the fritz. I
crawled through vents and climbed down ladders in shafts between floors.
The ladders stopped two floors up from the bottom and that's when I used my reel of
cable. I climbed into the central ventilation shaft, which reached almost two kilometers to the
surface above me. I attached my cable to a stanchion, checked it would hold, then kicked
away from the wall and released the brake on the reel. I dropped, bounced off the wall again
with my feet, released the brake again and kept on abseiling down the shaft.
The cable ran out a couple of metres short and I had to slide out of the harness and
drop to the bottom of the shaft. I landed light, bending my knees in the rock, dropping into a
crouch. When I touched the metal floor it felt warm under my hands, from the rock beneath. I
remembered old stories I'd read about deep mines where the men worked stripped off because
of the heat.
The heat helped me. It meant the fans in the AC vents ran fast down here, cooling the
rooms carved out of the warm rock, and their constant hum drowned out any noise I made as
I commando crawled through the vents, searching for the one I wanted. The one that would
lead me to the false ceiling over the War Room.
I found it. The ceiling void was a space no higher than my old steel cage of doom.
Pipes and wiring ran across its "floor". I knew I had to be careful only to put my weight on
the joists that supported the ceiling panels and not on the lightweight panels themselves, or
else I'd go crashing through rather sooner than I wanted to.
I could actually hear voices from the room below as I moved across the ceiling,
almost painfully slow. Briefly, I switched my glasses to heat seeking. In the room below me
twelve blobs of heat clustered around what I assumed must be the famous War Room table.
Heat from equipment in the table radiated too. A couple of other blobs moved around.
There'd be no guards in there, I knew that. Outside, yes, but no-one stood guard in the
war room, because only members of High Command were allowed to know what went on in
there. The moving around blobs moved out of the room altogether after a moment. Probably
serving coffee, I thought, noting some small but very hot blobs on the table. I switched back
to night vision and kept moving.
When I moved into position beside a vent panel, I lay flat, spreading my weight. I
took the glasses off and looked down through the grill of the vent to confirm my position.
Perfect. Right over the war room table, which had a 3D projection running. The Earth in the
middle, our ships surrounding it, and just out of range of them and the orbiting weapons
platforms: the alien fleet. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of ships. They surrounded the whole
planet.
On the edge of the projection, I saw the moon, with its extensive colony and
shipyards. It looked as lifeless as it had before men first went there a thousand years ago.
"They're inside lunar orbit." I heard a voice I recognised. General Shandar. I knew
him from broadcasts. I knew all of them. "All the lunar bases have ceased responding to hails.
The scanning satellites report they are all destroyed."
It had started.
Chapter 31
Time for it to end.
I shuffled around and sat on a joist. It creaked a bit and I held my breath, but heard no
reaction from below. The general's voice kept burbling on. I peeled off my gloves and put
them aside. I took a deep breath.
"For you, Ilyan," I whispered to the darkness. "And all of you."
Then I smashed both feet into the vent panel. It crashed down and I launched myself
after it. My feet hit the table and I wobbled briefly, but stayed upright. I pulled my gun in a
flash. I hadn't dared draw it before I jumped, fearing the landing would jolt it out of my hand.
The generals and admirals leapt back out of their seats in shock and horror as an
entirely unexpected grunt smashed right into the middle of their game board. The tabletop
cracked and the 3D display they'd been studying fizzled out. I kicked the vent cover off the
table, scattering coffee cups, papers and Snappers with it.
One man, Dayo, a tall dark skinned marine edged back towards the table, probably
trying to reach a panic button and raise the alarm, but I shot him before he got within a metre.
The others jumped and gasped in horror as he fell. A couple of them bent over him, but they
couldn't do anything. I'd shot to kill. Shot to impress.
"Lock the room down now!" I ordered, pointing my gun at the one in charge, Chief of
Staff Sadra. Quite a short woman, looking almost overwhelmed by the thick crust of insignia
and decorations covering her army uniform. She glanced down for a second at Dayo's body
and spoke.
"Computer, lockdown, code fifteen z."
Blast shields rolled down across the doors. I knew similar shields would cut off every
other access point into the room, including the vents I'd used. The lockdown protocol sealed
the room from the outside world. Recyclers and reserves would feed us air.
"Drop your weapons, all of you. Get over to that end of the room. Move it!" The ones
kneeling by Dayo glared, but I showed no mercy. "Leave him. Do it now!"
One by one they dropped their guns in a heap and backed off to the far wall, away [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]