Chapter 102

Chapter One Hundred Two

Elise led them through the ruins, past all the site where people had died, to a building that looked down the slope, onto the pit. The place offered a lot of potential as their forward defensive position.

For Connor, it felt ideal.

The room was maybe five meters wide and three deep. There were two ways in, and the walls had a sense of sturdiness about them. From the outside, there was a clear line of sight down the steep slope to the black hole in the ground.

It was defensible, and it would give the forward team—his team—cover.

Picking which of the two entries to collapse was easy. One led down a straight hallway to the room they’d entered the building through. The other led down a hallways that ran deeper into the building.

They needed the exit, not access into the building.

A small explosive charge brought the ceiling down in the corridor about ten meters out from the doorway.

There were two other doorways in the room that exited the building, both giving them access to more rooms.

Connor sealed those doorways with small charges, too.

One way in and out, a stable roof overhead, a hard, stone floor.

They weren’t going to find better on this crazy planet.

Choking dust floated in the air after the explosions. That dust carried a strange odor, like algae dredged up from a pool formed at the dawn of time.

The smell grew worse as he and Vicente took hammer and chisel to the wall facing down to the pit. Their strikes were headache-inducing, metallic thunderclaps.

Once they had a rough rectangle outlined about a meter above the floor, Connor set more charges, then sent the team to the outer chamber.

He squatted next to the doorway that led to their defensive position, scanned the room to be sure everyone was with him, then pressed the trigger.

Another explosion spat dust past him. Then another.

When the echoes of the final blast died off, he led the way back in, holding his breath.

What could make stone smell so strange?

Age, maybe. Being underwater for a long time.

Being alien.

Except stone was stone. The chemical compositions they might run across should be the same with a few minor variations.

Just another oddity about the crazy world, he told himself.

While he and Vicente chipped out rough edges with their hammers and chisels, the others piled chunks of rock at the base of the single entry to the room, providing a low wall for a defender.

Then they were done, and they were looking at a perfect position for someone to hold.

Not perfect. No such thing existed. It was acceptable. Adequate.

Everything was a compromise on this mission.

Vicente dropped into a corner, wiping sweat from his face. “Hey, Boss—can I take a nap?”

Connor chuckled. “We’ll can all sleep on the trip home.”

The Moon twins sat atop the low wall protecting the entry, talking with Kalpana and Aubriella. Yemi and Mosiah seemed to be discussing where the artifact cases could go. In the corner closest to the sealed-off door, Lem and Elise chatted excitedly.

Selen stared out through the opening. “Clear line of sight all the way down.”

Connor stuck his arm through the hole, the flesh of his bicep and tricep scraping. “Big enough for our weapons, but not big enough for the bugs to squeeze through.”

She nodded, satisfied. “We bring the cases down here, set up the team, then head down.”

“We? I thought I was running the team?”

“For the final stretch, I need to see this through personally.”

“And I’m stuck back here?”

“No. This is a simple overwatch. I need you with me.”

But not in charge. “You don’t trust me.” He kept his voice low, but the others were already watching.

This was what he should have seen coming. Maybe the others had.

Selen stepped closer. “We can’t have another mishap, Connor.”

He nodded. Everything had been his fault, then. This was just further proof of that, a statement for the whole team to absorb.

Instead of trying to repair relations with the team, Selen was thumping her chest and reminding them who was in charge.

Fine. He couldn’t force her to to the right thing.

Connor hooked a finger at Aubriella. “You’re going to cover that door when we leave. You’re protecting Vicente and Kalpana’s backs.”

The young woman nodded, wide-eyed. “You’re going—”

A column of dust whirled to Connor’s right, and he caught the stench of sulfur.

Another column of dust spurted from the floor.

How? How could the scorpions come out of the floor? It was covered in thick stone!

Fissures spiderwebbed out between the sulfur columns, as the slab popped and cracked.

Their defensive position was compromised.

Connor pulled his swords. “Fall back to the exit! Double-time!”

All around the room, the team brought their weapons up.

Mosiah shook his head. “Can we hold this position?”

A section of the floor popped up, nearly breaking free of the stone. The stench of sulfur grew stronger.

Connor stomped on the raised stone. “They got through the floor. Go!”

There was no time to think of how, and it shouldn’t have been a shock. If the flying scorpions could tunnel under the ground, it made sense they could crack rock.

He elbowed everyone out of the room and down the hall. “We head for the vehicle!”

Selen grabbed Connor’s arm. “We have to hold out here.”

“Not if they can come through the floor.”

Buzzing filled the air near the exit. Connor took a step toward it, then froze. More cracking and popping came from the place that had been intended as their base of operations.

Scorpions crawled out of the ground.

Someone cursed behind him, and he turned in time to see Aubriella fire at a scorpion crawling along the ceiling.

Except her gun didn’t fire.

She pointed. She pulled the trigger. And nothing happened.

The same thing happened all throughout the room: weapons came up but didn’t fire.

Then the scorpion swung its tail, catching Aubriella under the chin and lifting her off the ground.

She didn’t even manage a scream before the bugs charged.

Connor cut down the ones coming from the defensive position. When he turned back around, Vicente had battered the one on the ceiling with Mamacita and was now stomping on its head.

The big man scooped up Aubriella’s twitching form, roared, and lumbered out the entry.

Outside, black shapes flitted across the sky.

Rather than risk an argument with Selen, Connor charged after the heavy weapons expert. The team would either follow, or they would die.