“Sounds like they’re on the move, heading up that ramp,” Bairamov said, “Once they’re out in the open in their suits, they’re not likely to care much about us.”
“You wish, sir,” Desoto said.
“This place only matters so long as they can hide in it. If we get back to the Legion, we’ll return to wipe it out. If they want to openly take on the Legion, hiding here won’t do them much good. Whatever their plan is, they’re going active now, maybe because we forced them into it. McCoy, we need our suits fast.”
“This is crazy,” Desoto said. “Surely they’d have just dumped the suits down in the water. What reason would they have to keep them?”
“Lot of useful intel in a suit, if they can manage to break into the AI. I sure hope they failed.”
“But what use do they have for them now they’re leaving?”
Logan slowed. There were muffled voices up ahead, barely audible over the noise of the marching suits on the ramp. The girl bumped against his back, and the others slowed behind her.
He stopped at the crossroads ahead, and looked around the corner. A light glowed a few metres down the tunnel to the left. The shadowy figures of two men moved in the light. Logan motioned to Bairamov, who moved up beside him, and studied the men.
A guttural shout came from the far end of the tunnel, and the two men glanced toward it. Bairamov motioned toward Logan. He released the girl’s hand, then crept along the tunnel toward the men as fast as he could without making enough noise for them to hear over the sound of the suits climbing the ramp. Bairamov followed, with his rifle ready at his hip.
Logan could see the two Legion suits now, standing in an alcove in the wall, facing away from the men. Some rectangular electronic boxes sat on the floor of the tunnel beside them, the glow of their lights faintly illuminating the darkness.
The furthest man pulled a grenade from his belt, and pulled the pin. He pulled his arm back to toss it into the suit. Logan broke into a sprint, and grabbed the man’s arm as he began to swing it.
Just a little too late.
The grenade fell from the man’s hand, and clattered to the floor. It rolled across the tunnel, and clunked against the rock of the far wall.
Bairamov struggled with the other man. He grabbed the man’s chin and pulled it back, preventing him from yelling. The man struggled as Bairamov pulled a knife from his belt, and slammed it into the man’s side.
Logan’s man opened his mouth to yell. Logan punched him in the face, then grabbed him as he spun around. Logan pressed his knee against the man’s back and pushed him down onto the tunnel floor. The man began to scream.
Then the grenade exploded beneath his chest. His body jerked, and blood oozed from his back where shrapnel had punched right through the body armour at point-blank range.
Logan wiped blood away from a gouge on his arm where a chunk of spent shrapnel had dug into it. Then he pulled the twisted metal fragment free, and tossed it aside.
He crouched and swung his rifle toward the far end of the tunnel. But the metal feet were still clunking up the central shaft, and no footsteps were heading their way. With that much noise in the mine, they probably hadn’t even noticed the sounds of the fight.
Bairamov studied the suits, then waved to Desoto to join them. Wads of dozens of coloured cables ran from the interior of the suit to the electronic boxes on the floor.
“How long will that take to fix?” Logan said.
Bairamov leaned in, and pulled one of the cables free. “Give me a few minutes.”
The girl leaned against the wall, trying not to look down at either of the dead men in the faint light around the suits. Logan smiled at her as Bairamov and Desoto worked on the suits, but it did little to change the wide eyes and tight lips of terror on her face.
The noise of the marching suits rose to a peak, then began to fade away. The Panzergrenadiers would be out of the mines pretty soon. And Bairamov and Desoto were still working on their suits.
“Anything I can help with?” Logan said.
Bairamov pushed his head deep into the suit as he pulled the last of the external cables free, then began to attach some of the internal cables that dangled inside it. “The bastards did a good number on the AI. We may have to go without it. Desoto, how you doing?”
“Not very easy with one hand, sir.”
Logan stepped back to Desoto’s suit, and pulled some of the cables free. But the two of them working together wasn’t much faster than one. Particularly with Logan looking for anyone who might be approaching along the tunnel.
“What’s going to happen to me?” the girl said.
Bairamov pulled another cable from inside the suit’s leg, and slid it into a socket near the waist. “I wouldn’t worry about that. Not unless you survive.”
Logan pulled the last of the external cables from Desoto’s suit, and tossed them aside as Desoto began reconnecting the cables inside it, groaning and wincing as he stretched into the suit and twisted his wounded arm. The suit hummed and buzzed as it began to come back to life.
“Can you operate this with one hand?” Logan said.
“Easier than I can climb a ladder. And I’ve done that many times today.”
“That’ll do,” Bairamov said, then clambered into his suit. He adjusted the straps that held him into the frame, and pulled them tight around his body. The HUD glowed as he grabbed his helmet from the holder and lowered it onto his head.
“Let’s move, Desoto,” he said. Then the back of the suit whirred as it began to slide closed. Logan ducked out of the way, and helped Desoto climb into his own suit.
Bairamov’s suit took a step back as Logan pulled Desoto’s straps tight, then placed the helmet on his head. He tapped the helmet. “Bonne chance.”
“We’re sure gonna need it. Sophia, seal up.”
The back of Desoto’s suit whirred as it closed. Bairamov’s suit crouched low, so the head wouldn’t hit the roof as he moved. He grabbed the gaussrifle that leaned against the wall beside it, and crept along the tunnel.
Desoto’s suit back closed, severing a cable Logan had missed, and Desoto grabbed his gaussrifle and followed. The noise of the suits’ movement was loud enough in the tunnel that Logan didn’t even have to show the girl where to go to follow them. She could easily hear where the suits were going.
When she moved too far ahead, he grabbed her hand and pulled her back. Who knows what would be waiting when Bairamov stepped out of the tunnel. They didn’t want to be within a few metres of an RPG explosion in a rocky tunnel if someone was waiting out there for them to emerge.
But no explosion came as Bairamov stopped at the end of the tunnel and leaned out to look up the central shaft. A few seconds later, he stepped out, and was finally able to raise his head to his full height.
Desoto followed as Bairamov stomped a few metres up the shaft. Logan stopped at the end of the tunnel and looked around the corner. Desoto’s IR illuminators lit up much of the shaft, as he looked toward the entrance.
“Desoto,” Bairamov said on the team net, “on me. McCoy, warn the Legion, then you can introduce your girlfriend to mademoiselle Poulin. Maybe she’ll be happier to talk after this. We’ll try to take the heat off you.”
“Do you really think you can beat them, sir?” Logan said.
“Do you believe in miracles, McCoy? If you do, try sending one our way. Now, you’ve got your orders. Follow them.”
Bairamov strode up the ramp. Desoto followed a few metres behind. Logan led the girl around the wide spiral, but there was no way they could keep up with the suits, even for the three loops of the spiral that stood between them and the entrance.