He looked up the shaft as they climbed the ramp. The ropes still dangled in the centre of the shaft, torn at the ends where the earlier firefight had ripped them apart.
The cables on the roof of the shaft were still there. But what were they for, anyway?
Bairamov was almost at the top of the ramp. Desoto just a few metres behind him, rounding the final turn on the spiral before the entrance. His suit’s IR illuminators shone brightly on the ceiling, revealing more detail through Logan’s goggles.
The cables ran across the roof to eight or ten shoebox-sized boxes around the circumference, and perhaps a dozen more in the centre. The other ends of the cables were tied together, and hung down the walls for a metre or so, before they disappeared out into the entrance tunnel.
Logan’s heart jumped as he realized what they were.
“Sir…” he began.
Bairamov was just about to duck into the entrance tunnel when the ceiling exploded.
CHAPTER 29
The roof of the mineshaft erupted into a mass of tumbling, shattered rock that fell in what seemed like slow motion. Chunks slammed into the legs of Bairamov’s suit’s and the shoulders of Desoto’s with the thuds and crunches of mangled metal, before Logan came to his senses and looked away.
He grabbed the girl by the waist and pushed her into the tunnel entrance just ahead of them, then followed her himself, diving down beside her just as a chunk of rock the size of his chest slammed down onto the ramp where he’d been standing.
The ground shook beneath them as more rocks tumbled down the shaft. Logan covered the girl’s body with his as the rocks continued to fall in a cacophony of thumps and crashes, followed by splashes from the chunks that tumbled all the way to the bottom of the shaft and landed in the water. He waited a moment longer, until the last echoes of the explosion had faded away. Then stood and helped the girl up.
“What happened?” she said.
“They must have decided to destroy the mine to cover their tracks. Or to trap us in here.”
The tunnel shook again, and loose dirt and stones fell from the roof.
“And I would guess that was probably the emergency exit tunnel going up.”
She gasped, and her body shook. “Then we’re trapped? We’re going to die in this darkness?”
Logan glanced behind them. The rocks piled up beyond the mouth of the tunnel were too big for him to move.
With a suit, he might be able to do it, but the only suits were on Bairamov and Desoto, and they’d be busy trying to dig themselves out right now.
If they were still alive.
In any case, there was no point in trying to get out that way, when the mine entrance would be blocked, too. He thought back to the last second before he dove into the tunnel, and what he’d been able to see. The dark entrance to one more tunnel above them, then the mine entrance above that.
He peered into the distance along the tunnel where they stood. There was a side tunnel just ahead. Something long and thin lay near floor level, and followed the tunnel onward.
Pipes. Metal pipes ran along the walls. He grabbed the girl’s hand, and pulled her toward the tunnel.
“I think I have a way out.”
CHAPTER 30
Logan climbed up the wooden ladder. It had been easy to find by following the pipes, which now rose beside it, up the shaft between levels, along the wall. The ladder ended just above the floor of the next level, and he pulled himself out of the shaft, then grabbed the girl’s hand and helped her up beside him. The pipes led away to the right. He turned on the helmet’s lights and pushed the goggles away from his face. There was little point trying to be stealthy any more, now the Montagnards and Panzergrenadiers had left the mine.
The girl raised her hand in front of her face. “Turn that off.”
She’d been in the dark for the last hour or more. No wonder her eyes needed some time to adjust to the harsh glow. Logan turned away from her, aiming the lights down the tunnel.
“You’ll get used to it in a minute or two.”
He followed the pipes along the tunnel. She crept behind him, blinking, and holding her arms out in front of her. He grabbed her hand again, and helped her on to the next junction. The pipes turned left, and he went that way.
This was beginning to look familiar. Those wooden wheels on the wall with the handles. More pipes joining those he was following, down near the floor. The wide, curved surface of the effluent pipe leading out to the cliff face.
And the hatch, still slightly open.
He stopped beside the pipe and lifted the hatch.
“What is that?” she said.
‘Our way out. Follow me, and be careful. You don’t want to fall out when the pipe reaches the cliff.”
He swung his legs down through the hatch, then adjusted the rifle on his back, and dropped into the pipe. The girl peered in and bit her lip for a moment, as though wondering whether she should risk climbing in.
But where else was she going to go?
Finally, she clambered in behind him, and crouched low.
Logan began to move.
“Where does this go?”
“Out.”
Assuming they hadn’t blown this up, too. If they had… well, maybe he could dig his way out somehow. But, if it was clear, they’d be outside in a few minutes.
There was only one way to find out which.
“I think I liked it better when I couldn’t see,” the girl said. “Now I can, it feels like this pipe is getting smaller all the time.”
“I came in this way. If it’s big enough for me, it’s sure big enough for you.”
“I want to go back.”
“Sure. Go back into the tunnels in the dark. You’ll be dead in a few days. If you don’t fall down one of those shafts and break your neck, you’ll die of thirst. Or starve.”
“I don’t want to die at all.”
“I’d say it’s a bit late for that. You could have been safe at home right now if you hadn’t decided to help the insurgents shoot at us.”
Her breath was coming in long gasps behind him. So was Logan’s, but he still hadn’t grown accustomed to the air. She’d grown up on the planet, and she must be used to the lack of oxygen in the atmosphere.
No, she was just scared. And no wonder, after everything that had happened in the last few days. When all was said and done, she was just a girl taken advantage of by adults who should have known better. She couldn’t help it.
“Are you really going to take me to be tortured?” she said.
Something was glowing faintly in the distance. “Can you see the stars?” he said, as much to distract her from her fears as to confirm what he was seeing.
“Where?”
“Up ahead. At the end of the pipe.”
And he could definitely see them now. The pipe was still open, and he could see the sky through the hole at the end. Just a few more seconds, and he was slowing for the end of the pipe as it reached the cliff. He stopped just inside, then leaned out of the pipe and looked around them. No sign of anyone waiting, and the only sounds were the running water far below them, and the wind whistling through the valley.
He grabbed the edge of the pipe, and swung his legs around, down onto the ledge.
“Careful,” he said. Then helped her out. He nodded to the left. “There’s a ladder that way. You probably don’t want to look down.”
Though she wouldn’t see much if she did, other than the faint starlight reflecting from the river. All he could see was the ledge ahead of them, in the helmet lights.
She grabbed his waist, and he turned toward the rock face and helped her along it. He clambered onto the ladder, then climbed up a couple of steps before leaning over and helping her grab the rungs. He climbed higher, pointing his face down so the lights cast an oval glow beside the ladder that she could use to get onto it.