Outcasts, page 20
They descended the shaft rapidly, Vale practically running down the liner backward while the huge ODST slid down the line above her. It would have been safer for them both to use a body rappel, but with the weight of Vale’s Mjolnir pulling the line taut, Golly would have been unable to use his braking hand to slow his descent—or even to rig a body rappel in the first place.
They were about a third of the way down the line when the wall changed from resin liner to rugged rock, and Vale realized they had dropped beneath ground level and entered the workings beneath the tel. She shone her helmet lamp downward and saw only darkness.
“How deep is this thing?” Golly asked.
“The utility line is a hundred meters long. So… more than that.”
After descending another twenty meters or so, they began to intersect the ragged mouths of rough-hewn passages. At each one, Vale deactivated her helmet lamp and paused, searching for even the faintest gleam of light and listening for any hint of sound, trying to build the beginnings of a mental map of the mine city’s layout. She found nothing but darkness and silence, and when she shut down her Mjolnir armor’s air-filtering system, she smelled only the musty odor of the water below.
It made no sense. Any species capable of creating molecular machines and opening interdimensional rifts could surely cut smooth shafts and drive uniformly-shaped tunnels. Yet the walls of the ventilation shaft were so knobby and uneven that she was in danger of turning an ankle with every bound, and the passages were so misshapen and variable that they often resembled shadows rather than openings. Vale did not yet grasp the paradox here. And it was going to kill them all if she didn’t wise up soon.
They had descended another fifty meters when Squad Two’s staff sergeant, Slim Sahir, came over the comm. “Spartan, can we have an ETA on securing an assembly zone down there? This nanodust stuff is starting to close off our access.”
“How?”
“It’s growing in from the edges of the breach you created. We’ve been trying to scrape it away with our entrenching tools, but no go. The stuff just cakes our shovel blades.”
“Can you still get your squad down the line?” Vale asked.
“If we start soon.”
“Then start now.” More nanodust problems… the stuff was proving dangerous in ways she had never thought of. “Send Commander Petrov and Professor Iyuska down first. I have a feeling we’re going to need their experience and expertise more than we need your firepower.”
“Affirmative,” Sahir said. “The professor seems nervous about the modified fast-rope, so I rigged a seat harness for her and showed her how to descend with Prusik knots. I’ll send her down in tight formation with Martinez.”
“Good job.” The Prusiks would eliminate any possibility of falling off the line and hitting someone else, but at the price of being cumbersome and slow… especially for someone unaccustomed to rope work. “On second thought, have Martinez bring the professor down at the rear. I don’t want her holding up the whole squad… especially if she freezes.”
Iyuska’s voice sounded in the background, small and tinny as it carried over Sahir’s microphone. “I won’t freeze. Not with what’s waiting for me down there.”
“Glad to hear it,” Vale said. “But you have no idea what’s waiting down here. None of us do.”
“Which is precisely why I should see it first. If not for me, you’d still think this is just a pile of tailings powder.”
“Fair enough. But Prusiks are too slow. If we run into a problem down here, I don’t want the rest of the squad waiting on you.”
“Then let me fast-rope,” Iyuska said. “Sergeant Sahir is overreacting. I just had a few questions.”
“Not going to happen,” Vale said. “I don’t want you falling on our heads.”
Before Iyuska could respond, Sahir said, “Ma’am, she won’t be holding a weapon, so she could fast-rope and use a single Prusik to self-belay. She’d be safe and able to move quickly.”
Clearly, Iyuska had been working on Sahir since Vale and Golly entered the shaft. And since he couldn’t shoot her, he was willing to give her whatever it took to shut her up.
“Fine, Sergeant,” Vale said. “But I still want her and Martinez coming down last. As long as they get down here fast enough, we’ll put the professor at the front of the squad when we move out.”
“Now you’re just being spiteful,” Iyuska said.
“The sergeant has his orders,” Vale said. “And, Keely, this isn’t spite. I’m giving you what you asked for.”
The line shuddered and twitched as the troopers of First Squad climbed on and fast-roped after Vale and Golly. She continued to descend, her helmet lamp shining into the darkness below. The water at the bottom of the shaft remained hidden in gloom, and the rope continued to dangle into the emptiness with no sign of the figure-eight knot she had tied into the end. But soon there came the sound of a distant trickle, so faint and far below that she had her VISR system amplify her audio receptors to be sure she wasn’t imagining it.
She swept the beam of her helmet lamp over the shaft walls directly below and to either side, searching for the source of the trickle. There was no water, only the dark maw of another dry passage, but the sound continued to grow louder and more distinct. Vale had Golly halt his descent, then hung from the rope and spun around to check the wall behind her.
Nothing.
But the trickle was still there, just below her. She could hear it clearer than ever and even see its decibel bar pulsing on her heads-up display. She lowered herself another meter and turned back toward the near wall, then swept her lamp beam across the rock below… and glimpsed a silver flash.
Light reflecting off water.
She began to descend again, shining her lamp beam between her knees, as far down the shaft wall as she could see. A string of flashes appeared, drops falling into darkness, then the long silver thread of water snaking down the rock. It wasn’t much, just a tiny rivulet no larger than a child’s finger.
But it was the first free-running water she had seen on Netherop, and settlements needed water. Vale used her lamp beam to trace the water back up the wall to the mouth of a small round passage. In contrast to the openings she’d passed earlier, this one was perfectly circular, a little over a meter in diameter with smooth sharp edges. She dropped a little farther and stopped when the bottom rim was at chin height, then cautiously shone her helmet lamp along the length of the floor.
The water trickle extended in front of her, running up the center of the floor. The passage was as circular as its entrance and as straight as an arrow to the limit of her lamp beam. The walls appeared smooth, blemished only by water stains and what looked like bits of vegetable matter from the midpoint down. From the midpoint up, the walls were coated in the same gray-yellow nanodust that formed the tel.
As the light of her helmet lamp swept over it, the nanodust began to fall free of the passage wall and hang in the air.
“I think we’ve found our back door,” Vale said over TEAMCOM. “If we can survive it.”
CHAPTER 14
The trail could not have been easier to follow, and Thel ‘Vadam was suspicious. For fifty centals, he and his companions had been tracking Nizat ‘Kvarosee and his warriors deeper into the tel, half expecting the tunnel to collapse on their heads at any moment, or a pit to open beneath their feet and drop them into the bowels of the planet, or the dust pall to grow so thick it clogged their airways and condemned them to a painful suffocation.
Instead, the tel inhabitants seemed content to let them follow, leaving a shoulders-width band of churned dust that seemed more of a dare to keep coming than an inability to conceal their tracks. Even now, when the tunnel forked into three branches and it would have been easy to lay a false trail, the path continued as obvious as ever down the center passage.
“They are making it too easy.” Varo’dai was standing to one side of the main tunnel, leaning into the center branch to shine her helmet lamps at the floor. “They want us to take this passage.”
“Perhaps.” ‘Talot stood opposite Varo’dai, looking at ‘Vadam rather than at the trail in question. “Or perhaps they are just hurrying back to their stronghold, moving too fast to conceal their trail on such soft ground.”
“It could be either.” ‘Ayomuu was directly behind ‘Vadam, speaking over the Arbiter’s shoulder. “But their human hostage is in the middle tunnel.”
‘Vadam ran his lamp beams along the floor of the center passage, looking for any hint of small oblong boot-prints among the double-pointed wedges left by ‘Kvarosee and his Sangheili followers. ‘Vadam found none, though so much dust hung in the air it was difficult to see very far. But even if the human were on foot, her tracks could have been buried beneath those of the warriors trailing behind her.
“How do you know this?” ‘Vadam turned to face the Oath Warden and found him looking not at the trail ahead, but at a data disc he held in his hand. “Have you sent a spy fleg ahead without my consent?”
“Of course not.” ‘Ayomuu held the data disc out where ‘Vadam could look at the screen. “I put a tracking tetht on the human.”
A tetht was a flying arachnid so tiny it was seldom seen until a victim felt it sting and reduced it to a bloody smudge. A tracking tetht, ‘Vadam assumed, was a robotic version of the pest, used by Oath Wardens to follow their subjects remotely.
“When did you do that?” ‘Vadam demanded. “You were never close to her.”
“I find it works better that way. Targets tend to grow suspicious when an Oath Warden strokes their shoulder.”
Realizing ‘Ayomuu was not about to share the secrets of his trade, ‘Vadam clicked his mandibles and looked at the screen. It was less informative than expected, merely a series of concentric circles with an orange tracking line leading into the center of the innermost circle. At the top of the screen was a fixed directional arrow, which he assumed was used to keep the disc oriented in the direction they were facing.
“They are three hundred units ahead,” ‘Ayomuu said. “And moving away quickly.”
“Your tetht is three hundred units ahead,” Varo’dai corrected. “How can we be sure it is not being used as a decoy?”
“To do that, they would have had to find it. And they have no reason to look. As the Arbiter said, I was never close to her. None of us were.”
“Perhaps so,” ‘Vadam said. “But how does it communicate with you? There must be some kind of signal.”
“None that can be detected.”
“How do you know what they can detect?” Varo’dai wiped her fingertips across her dust-caked helmet, then flicked a cloud of gray powder toward the floor. “You heard their Worldmaster confirm that he was watching when the Arbiter conferred with the Spartan. Do you know how he did that? Because I do not.”
“You talk as though he was using magic,” ‘Ayomuu countered. “We may not understand their capabilities, but that does not make them capable of everything. They have their limits too.”
“No doubt,” ‘Vadam said. “But until we understand those limits, we need to be cautious.”
“Within reason,” ‘Talot said. “We may be following the tel inhabitants, but we are racing the humans to secure the weapon. Let us remember that.”
“The kaidon is correct,” ‘Ayomuu said. “If we waste time avoiding every imagined risk—”
“The risks are real,” Varo’dai said. “ ‘Kvarosee has already tried to ambush us once.”
“He was prepared to ambush us,” ‘Talot noted. “But he was still talking—until you called him a fool. It is a wonder he attacked only you.”
“He talked because his ambush had been exposed and he saw he was outnumbered two to one,” Varo’dai said. “Attacking me was good tactics. He needed a distraction so he could withdraw to better ground.” She pointed down the center passage. “His better ground is in there. Nizat ‘Kvarosee may seem like a mad zealot to us now, but let us remember that he was once master of the Fleet of Inexorable Obedience. If we underestimate him, he will bury us in this tel.”
“Better that than to be ruled by your fear of him.” ‘Ayomuu turned to ‘Vadam. “If you allow her trepidation to slow us down, it will be the Spartan and her ODSTs who recover the weapon… not us.”
“And by ‘us,’ ” ‘Vadam replied, “I assume you mean you and your client?”
‘Ayomuu tipped his helmet to the side. “Would you rather it go to the humans?” His tone was wry. “They have caused enough trouble already. Better us than them.”
“I might agree with that,” ‘Vadam said, “if I knew who your client was.”
“I am confident you would. But that is not a bargain I can accept on my own authority.”
“I was not offering a bargain.”
“No? My mistake, then.” ‘Ayomuu returned his gaze to the screen of his data disc. “But I suggest we quit dithering. They are moving out of tracker range.”
He turned the screen toward ‘Vadam, but the only difference apparent was that the space between the concentric circles had grown smaller. Still, ‘Ayomuu’s earlier assessment was a good one. Whether ‘Kvarosee and his warriors were lying in ambush or rushing toward their stronghold, Vale and her ODSTs were racing to find the weapon on their own. And they would probably not face much opposition. Amalea Petrov had estimated the number of the tel’s warriors to be less than ten—and so far, ‘Vadam had seen nothing to suggest they had even that many.
‘Vadam turned to Varo’dai. “Let us assume ‘Kvarosee and his followers are lying in ambush. Would they do that on the path to their stronghold, or would they lead us off course first?”
“I am sure you have your own answer to that. You are a fine tactical thinker yourself.”
“Then I want you to use five of your rangers as a counter-ambush force. Trail as far behind us as necessary to remain undetected, and if you are right about ‘Kvarosee’s intentions, take them from behind.”
Varo’dai raised her chins in acknowledgment. “And by take, do you mean ‘eliminate’?”
“I mean do what is necessary. I have explained the situation to them quite clearly. Anyone who wishes to die with the Covenant is welcome to do so.”
“As you command.” Varo’dai glanced into the other two forks of the tunnel. “And what of my remaining rangers? Have them scout the other passages?”
“Yes. And do it quickly.” Both forks were wider than the main tunnel, and when ‘Vadam shone his lamps into them, he saw that they descended almost immediately into the bedrock beneath the tel. Their walls were knobby and rough, their ceilings not quite high enough for a Sangheili to stand upright. “Vale and her ODSTs are still our biggest problem. If they find the weapon before we do—”
“They will not,” Varo’dai said. “I would never let that happen.”
“Good. I will be counting on you.”
When ‘Vadam turned to send ‘Talot forward, he found the old kaidon watching ‘Varo’dai, his posture stiff and still. At first, ‘Vadam assumed he was just waiting to hear her orders before volunteering to take point. But when she began to issue assignments using hand signals, ‘Talot merely shifted his gaze to the center passage and stared into the hanging dust ahead. Now that his followers would be leading the column rather than Varo’dai’s rangers, he seemed to be having second thoughts about pushing ahead quickly—probably because he feared his warriors lacked the skill to spot an ambush in this environment before it was sprung.
“I will lead with my warriors and the Oath Warden,” ‘Vadam said. ‘Ayomuu would be more liability than asset at the head of the column, but it would not do to have him in back with ‘Talot. The Oath Warden would only use it as an opportunity to further attack ‘Vadam’s authority. “Kaidon ‘Talot, you will follow twenty paces behind in close support position. Keep three paces between each pair of warriors.”
“I should lead with my warriors.” There was no enthusiasm in ‘Talot’s offer, merely obligation. “The Arbiter is not bait.”
“And that is not my intention,” ‘Vadam said. “But if there is any hope of persuading Fleetmaster ‘Kvarosee to help us recover the weapon before the UNSC does, it remains with me. I will be counting on you for my protection.”
‘Talot hesitated. “I am still reluctant, Arbiter. The fleetmaster is unbalanced. You will not be able to persuade him of anything.”
“Then we will neutralize him another way,” ‘Ayomuu said. “Have no fear, my friend. The Arbiter will be under my protection until you arrive.”
“A great comfort,” ‘Vadam said. It took conscious effort to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. “Do as I command, old friend. This is our best deployment.”
“Very well.” ‘Talot lifted his helmet to acknowledge the order. “Since you have made it a command.”
By the time they had rearranged their marching order, Varo’dai’s scouts had disappeared into the adjacent passages, and she was waiting in counter-ambush position with the rest of her rangers. ‘Vadam sent one of his own warriors forward on point, with instructions to stay close to the wall to avoid disturbing the trail. He followed next, with ‘Ayomuu at his side, both studying the tracks ahead of them, their shoulders often touching in the cramped confines of the tunnel.
In part, ‘Vadam was merely keeping ‘Ayomuu where he could see him. But Oath Wardens were talented trackers and experts at ambush, so he was glad to have help with watching the trail for any signs of a change in pace or the number of passing feet.
The passage descended through the tel in tight meanders that often made it impossible to see what lay around the next curve. Still, ‘Ayomuu insisted on moving quicker than ‘Vadam liked, for the tracking tetht was now at the limit of its range, and its signal sometimes vanished from the data disc altogether.
They had traveled about two hundred units when the floor gradually changed from packed dust to solid rock. The dust in the air seemed to defy gravity, never settling to the floor, and the trail of footprints grew steadily harder to follow. Soon, they found themselves tracking by the rub marks their quarry had left on the walls or the rare clump of dust that had fallen off a passing foot.
