Casey shined her light upwards, but the beam didn’t reach the higher balconies. “We need to get up there. They took Jennifer, and no two guesses as to where Blake and Yang’s guys went.”
Rhino turned slowly. “Down here, we’re fish in a barrel.” He turned to Alex. “How many you figure, boss?”
“Dozens… and probably a lot more we didn’t see.” Alex backed up a few more steps. “We’re going to have to climb. Go after them.” He turned. “Everyone okay with that?”
Soong and Shenjung looked dubious. Soong spoke quickly to her partner who shook his head, and then turned. “We can stay here.”
“That’s not a good idea.” Aimee went and took the small Chinese woman’s hand. “We can haul you up.” She turned to Alex. “Can’t we?”
“Sure can,” he said. “And Aimee’s right. They’ll be back. Ropes might not be the only thing they drop down.”
The pair looked at each other, and then dropped their eyes. Alex took that as consent and went to the coils of rope still lying on the ground. He checked it quickly and then looped it over his shoulder and headed to the wall. He picked up speed and then leapt a dozen feet to the top of a stone column. It only took him a few minutes to scale to where the pale beings had disappeared.
Easing over the edge, he saw he was in a long balcony or windowed corridor. As he had earlier suspected, it was another level. He crouched, waiting and listening. There was stillness and silence. He stood, quickly tying off the rope and tossing one end over.
“Franks, you’re up.”
Casey didn’t hesitate, and scaled the rope quickly, arm over arm as Rhino held it straight. In no time she threw a leg in through the window and clambered in.
Alex looked down. “Rhino, rig a loop-step. Aimee, you’re next.”
Rhino immediately set to creating a small loop in the end of the rope, and showed Aimee how to put her foot through, and then hang on. Alex hauled her up in seconds. Followed then by Cate, Soong, and then Shenjung.
Jackson was next, the big man climbing slowly as he struggled with his own weight.
Rhino cupped hands around his mouth. “Too many donuts, hey, brother?”
Jackson climbed in, and then shot out his long arm, single finger flipping the bird.
Up next was Yang, and then Rhino, the big HAWC coming up with an ease and speed that told of someone who did this for a living. He stepped over the window edge, barely breathing hard. He held onto the rope. “Leave this, boss?”
“Take it. We need all the tools we can get our hands on.” Alex called the group in close. “We move fast and silent. I’ll take point.”
Alex moved in near silence in the dark, slowing from time to time to listen and try and sense anything that might have indicated an ambush. When he came to bends or corners he would stop and try and reach out, just using his senses. There was always the background hum of life, but for the most part, it wasn’t nearby.
The ornate architecture became more decrepit. Whoever was residing in the old buried city hadn’t been maintaining the tunnels for centuries. Perhaps the skills or the desire had been long lost. There was one change that seemed to be more gradual and evolutionary — the images carved into the walls became less articulate, as if the work wasn’t undertaken by craftsmen, but instead now by simple cave artists. The pictoglyphs themselves stopped being about multiple deities, warriors, and kings, and morphed into being about one thing only — the coiled mass of the creature outside the cave, the Kraken. Alex shook his head. It became their everything.
At a T-shaped juncture he slowed and then stopped. He could sense the crush of bodies ahead long before he saw them. Both sides of the hidden corridor end were jammed tight. Those beings were waiting for his group to round the corner, to catch them in some sort of crossfire.
Alex eased back, and then waited for the group to catch up. He held up a hand to Rhino, who then shot out an arm, stopping everyone.
“Around the bend, an ambush. We have a choice: go back, and find another way, or crash through it.”
“Punch it,” said Franks.
“How did I know you were going to say that?” said Rhino. He grinned at Alex. “Do it.”
Jackson nodded. “Let’s get it over with.”
Alex turned to Yang. “You get a vote too.”
The Chinese captain didn’t flinch. “They have my people. We go forward.”
“I’ll go first,” Alex said. “We hit them hard and fast. Preserve ammunition — knives and knuckles.”
“Wait,” Cate said. “The best weapon you have is your flashlight. They attacked us in the darkness, and I’m betting they see just fine. I think these guys have got to be dark-adapted. Living in permanent twilight and darkness means they will have evolved masses of enlarged photoreceptor cells. Even weak light should hurt them.”
Alex nodded. “Good, get your lights out. Franks, Rhino — left corridor. Jacksons, Yang — the right one. On my word.”
The soldiers crept forward until they were just a few feet from the corner. Alex held a hand up, and they waited. He closed his eyes momentarily, and could hear the multiple breaths, feel the warmth of the crush of bodies emanating from the junction. There were many of them, staying silent, waiting.
Alex counted down on his fingers… 3-2-1… then dropped his fist. Lights came on, and the soldiers roared as they rushed forward.
CHAPTER 53
The Seawolf class submarine, the USS Texas, had finally surfaced. There was no need anymore for the cat and mouse game of only a few hours ago.
Commander Eric Carmack in the conning tower smiled ruefully and lowered his field glasses, as he watched the wall of steel maneuver into place. The People’s Liberation Army Naval Force had now assembled five more Luyang III class destroyers to add to the Kunming’s presence. Each of the sleek vessels bristled with weaponry. There were also two submarines just below the surface and, imposingly, an aircraft carrier, called the Liaoning. This last one was a veritable mountain on the water.
Carmack exhaled, knowing that way up on the deck of this floating monstrosity they had a dozen Shenyang J-15 carrier based fighter craft. The planes were fast and furious darts known as Flying Sharks. Bad news.
“Armed to the teeth and ready for war.” He handed the glasses to his COB, Alan Hensen.
Hensen took them, scanned the vessels, and then turned to look over his shoulder at the horizon. “Our muscle is still hours away. Gonna get real crowded here soon.”
Carmack grunted, leaning forward on his forearms. This morning there’d been only two vessels of war on the water. Soon there’d be two mighty fleets — two horned bulls, squaring off against each other, both pawing the ground, and breathing fire.
“Think they’ll try anything while they’ve got us outgunned and outnumbered?” Hensen asked.
Commander Eric Carmack was the ranking naval officer and was given control of the approaching fleet. He knew that the naval war machinery arrayed, for and against, was formidable, and even deep diving would give little protection against the technology that could be brought to bear. He also knew that the modern Chinese ships had computer assisted guidance systems in their depth charges — good ones — of course they were, because the tech plans were hacked straight from one of the US secret military R&D databases.
He smiled; perhaps in the future there would be no need for armed head-to-head conflict, as everything would be fought in the cyberspace. Maybe that’d be better, but who knew.