The car crept down the rails, the counterweighted cable system governing its speed. Though her recess was in one of the shadowy areas between tunnel lights, she huddled as low as she could get when the train passed by. Once it had, she peeked out and saw that the riders were all focused down the tunnel, with none looking back the way they’d come. She moved out of the recess and climbed to the top where Ash was waiting.
“Where’s everyone else?” she asked, looking around.
“Coming. Shall we do this?”
“Definitely.”
She led him over to the wall panel that contained the control switches and checked the train’s position. It was about a quarter of the way down, nearing where her team waited.
Ash, his fingers on the POWER switch, said, “Ready?”
“Not yet.” She let the train travel another ten yards. “Now.”
Reni stood behind Vintner, annoyed. While the strike team leader no longer had one of his men guarding her, he had yet to return her gun.
She wasn’t going to sit back and watch while he and his men dealt with the bastards who had broken into Dream Sky. This was her base. She should be part of its liberation. She just needed to convince him of that.
“Commander,” she said. “I realize that you don’t really know—”
Before she could say another word, the lights went out and the train lurched to a stop.
Vintner grabbed the handrail just in time to keep from pitching forward onto the lower platform. He heard Barton’s grunt as she slammed into the railing, and shouts of surprise from the others.
While the tunnel in front of him was pitch-black, there was a dim halo of light at the very top, back the way they’d come.
And in the halo, something moved.
“Everyone down!” he ordered.
He dropped just as a gunshot roared down the tunnel, the bullet whizzing several feet above his head.
“Off the train,” he whispered.
He climbed over the side into the narrow gap between the car and the wall while his men did the same. Another rifle blast, this one closer and from below.
“Lay down your weapons,” a male voice called from above. “If you haven’t figured it out yet, you’re surrounded.”
“Grady?” Vintner whispered.
“Here, sir,” the sharpshooter said from the other side of the car.
“There’s at least one person standing at the top. Take him out.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You have thirty seconds to comply,” the voice yelled. “It’s the only way you’ll walk out of here.”
Grady’s rifle boomed.
Ash heard the thud of someone hitting the ground at the same moment the rifle blast reached the top. He dropped to a crouch.
Blake lay on the ground a few feet away, a bullet hole in his cheek. Robert was kneeling next to him, but Ash could tell Blake had died before he even hit the dirt.
“They’ve given their answer,” he said. “Prone position, goggles on.”
Those with rifles lay out in a line and aimed down the tunnel.
“Chloe and I will take the first shot,” Ash instructed. “The rest of you wait until I give you the go-ahead.” He glanced over at Chloe. “One shot. You take the right, I’ll take the left.”
He sighted down his rifle. At this distance, he could just make out a target.
“Ready?” he whispered.
“Yeah,” she said.
“Now.”
“Again,” Vintner ordered as the echo of Grady’s shot faded away.
“They’ve dropped out of sight. I don’t have any targets.”
“Then the second you get one, fire.”
As soon as Vintner and his men got out of this situation, he would teach these assholes a permanent lesson about interfering with Project Eden. Yeah, the infiltrators had been able to spring a trap on the strike team, which meant some of them probably had some military training, but the rest? Amateurs hunting for food and shelter. What else could they be?
“Something’s going on up there,” Grady said.
“Take the shot,” Vintner told him.
“They’re too low. I can’t—”
A double rifle blast from above, the shots so close together that they almost sounded like one.
The man huddled between Vintner and the back end of the car gasped and crumpled to the ground. Vintner dropped flat to the platform and scooted under the train.
“For God’s sake, Grady, take the damn shot!” he ordered.
The sharpshooter’s rifle remained silent.
“Grady! Shoot, dammit!”
From the other side, a different voice said, “He’s dead, sir.”
Vintner seethed before saying, “Then take his place.”
A nervous “Yes, sir.”
Vintner turned his attention to getting them out of there. If they could get the car going, they could ride it out of range and regroup and show these people who was really in charge here.
As Grady’s rifle boomed, Vintner pulled out his flashlight and covered the lens with his palm before turning it on.
“I’m not seeing any targets, sir,” his new marksman said.
“Keep firing!”
Letting a small amount of the beam out between his fingers, he moved it across the undercarriage — a heavy-duty frame, axle mounts for the eight sets of metal wheels, and the back sides of the platform’s plates.
A barrage of rifle cracks, two from his man and the rest from above.
His shooter groaned. “I’m hit.”
“Can you still shoot?”
“I…I think so.”
“Then fucking shoot!”
Vintner moved the light again, but saw nothing that would—
Wait a minute.
In the center of the beam was a thick metal rod that ran from one axle group to the other. The brackets holding it in place were more like cradles that allowed the rod to move back and forth. He scooted closer and traced the system with the light. If he wasn’t mistaken, the mechanisms at both ends controlled a set of emergency brakes that could be deployed in the event the train broke away from the cable that hauled it up and down the tracks. There was probably an activation switch on one of the platforms, but with the power out, it probably wouldn’t work. Not a problem, though. Folded against the rod was a handle that, when extended, stuck around the side of the platform so that someone riding the car could operate it.
It would be a wild ride to the bottom, especially if he couldn’t reengage the brakes, but he’d rather take his chances than have his team sit here and get picked off one by one.
He found the bracket connecting the train to the cable. It was not designed to be easily disconnected, and without the right tools, he wouldn’t be able to do it anyway. But that wouldn’t be a problem, either.
Since he’d been unsure what to expect when his team arrived at Dream Sky, he had brought along a variety of explosive devices. Some were powerful enough to blow apart the base’s main entrance, while others were only strong enough to kick open a security door. A couple of the latter should do the job.
He located one of the men carrying the explosives, took two of the small devices, and attached them to the bracket. Moving back over to the emergency brake, he extended the handle and moved it into the on position so that the car wouldn’t immediately start racing down the hill.
He then said in a voice loud enough for his squad to hear, “Everyone back on the train as quickly as you can.”