MiNRS (15 page)

There was a deafening roar as the disrupter ignited the air, sending a huge fireball hurtling up the elevator shaft, but also toward us down the tunnel. The Landers had inadvertently given the reaction a whole new source of flammable oxygen when they’d cut the hole in the floor.

Fatima and I reached the main tunnel and sprinted. She led me into a side tunnel and then pulled me down on top of her. “Take a deep breath!” she yelled. I did. The fireball flew past the opening and licked the ceiling over our heads. I could smell the hair on the back of my head burning, and then the fireball spent itself.

We held our breath for a few seconds until we could feel cooler air come rushing back into the tunnel.

I rolled to the side and exhaled.

Fatima did the same. We actually laughed, from relief, but maybe with a slight tinge of the oddity of the situation.

Fatima reached out and stroked the back of my head. “No burns on the skin, luckily. But your beautiful hair, how sad.”

My beautiful hair?

I got up and leaned into the main tunnel.

There was no sound of a pursuit from the elevator shaft—just the sound of flames, the dripping and sizzling of molten metal, and the crack of exploding rock.

The elevator was destroyed. There could be no question about that. The Landers who’d come to get us were dead. There was no question about that, either. My legs went limp, and I almost fell over as the shock hit me.

I’d killed someone. I’d done it to save my life and Fatima’s and everyone’s, but I’d still killed someone. I felt sick.

“Christopher, we have to go. We have to run.”

I looked at her dumbly and nodded. Fatima grabbed my arm and pulled me along. I could feel the heat of the blasted tunnel floor seeping through my shoes, and the pain shook me back to life. I ran faster.

There was also no question the Landers up top would know we were here and that we were dangerous. They would come after us.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Burns

Fatima and I crammed together
in the storage area of Maria’s digger. We smelled too much like oil and burned hair to sit up front.

I kept going over the attack in my mind. It had worked, but we’d almost died. And people
had
died. “We did it,” Fatima said to me, shaking my arm and smiling. “You did it, rich boy!”

We broke through the wall near the camp, and the others rushed to meet us. Jimmi had returned ahead of us. There were pats on the back and lots of questions. I said we’d have a full debriefing once we all got cleaned up, but no one wanted to wait for answers.

“Didn’t you check the battery before you left?” Pavel asked.

“Lesson learned,” I said. “Even a full battery will drain if you overuse the borer. And trying to cut through metal is not a good idea.”

“You saw Landers?” Finn asked, more impressed than scared.

“Yes.”

Fatima beamed. “And they saw us! We struck a pretty major blow to their operations, and they are going to be mad.”

Nazeem seemed ready to run. “Shouldn’t we move?”

“No, no,” I said. “Finding us would be like finding a needle in a haystack.”

Maria was holding her arms tightly around her. “But they can hurt us without attacking our camp, right?” Her voice was cracking.

“Possibly,” I said.

“They could take out critical systems like water filtration,” Fatima said.

“But they need those too, at least until they leave,” I added quickly.

That sent a shiver through everyone.

“But the good news is that destroying the elevator keeps them here longer.”

“Couldn’t they just leave now?”

I shook my head. “This operation has cost them millions. There’s no way they’re leaving valuable cargo behind, unless they absolutely have to, and they aren’t in that position yet. They’ve been here three weeks, and that’s just not long enough to call it a success.”

Pavel seemed unconvinced. “So, what do we do
if
they attack? Just sit here and die?”

“How do we get ready?” Mandeep asked. “Can we?”

Maria just rocked more quickly. “We can’t fight them.”

“We don’t even have any weapons,” Pavel added.

Everyone began talking all at once.

“We’re sitting ducks.”

“We have to attack.”

“We can’t attack.”

“They’re coming for us.”

I held up my hands to quiet everyone down. “If we know they are coming, we can run. We have food hidden around the tunnels. We can survive.”

“So how do we know when they are coming?” Pavel asked. “You a psychic?”

“We can have a permanent lookout. Instead of keeping watch in the tunnels, we’ll send a digger up closer to the surface. If they pick up any movement, they can signal us and we can escape.”

“So who gets that job?” Pavel asked, seeming to shrink back.

Jimmi raised his hand. “I’ll do it,” he said. “I’ve already done it twice, and it’s kind of nice and quiet when you’re alone up there.”

“Good, thanks. Now, no more questions. I smell like garbage, and I need to wash up.”

“That’s no lie,” Julio said. “And I work with Fatima so I know what a dump smells like!”

Fatima slugged him in the shoulder. “I can take a hint. I’ll see everyone at dinner.” I gave Fatima a hug, and she went to clean up.

Elena had been waiting the whole time against the back wall, watching, not saying anything. Everyone left, and she marched up to me with a scowl on her face. She didn’t hug me, give me a high five, or even a pat on the back.

“You and Fatima make a good team?” she asked.

“She knows the tunnels better than anyone I’ve seen.”

Elena flinched.

I tried to lighten the mood, so I turned around and pointed at the back of my head. “Look, I got the same haircut as you now!”

She didn’t say anything.

“See? It was a close shave, get it?”

When I turned back around, Elena wasn’t there.

My shoulders sagged, and I leaned against the wall, a wave of exhaustion and confusion and sadness hitting me at the same time.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Mixed Results

The Landers didn’t attack
that night or the next day
or the next. That had me more worried than if they had attacked. It meant the Landers weren’t worried about us. They were just going to speed up their work.

So we decided to lead another, bigger attack on their “primary operational capabilities.” Fatima stayed behind this time, getting both grinders and miners prepped to leave at a moment’s notice.

We approached in two groups of diggers. Elena was leading group one, with the goal of attacking the Landers’ garage and taking out some of the big transport vehicles. The only problem was that we really had no
idea where it was. She didn’t seem worried. “Whatever we destroy will hurt.”

Jimmi went with her in his digger.

I was trying something else.

None of us had spent much time in the docking area of the colony, but we’d seen it in bits and pieces. And we’d all arrived here through the landing pad. The main medical center, the processing plant, and the administrative buildings for the colony were there. We were all fairly certain we remembered one main ring road that connected all the silos to each other and then to the loading dock.

I was going to take it out, or at least a big section of it. Mandeep and Finn joined my group.

We couldn’t break through the surface. That would leave us exposed. But we could weaken the ground under the road.

The risk this time was that we’d be doing our digging while the Landers were actually using the road. It was the safest way to mask any vibrations we’d be giving off. And we’d be giving off plenty.

We kept strict radio silence, but I had plotted a pattern into everyone’s map.

We fired up our diggers and then began cutting, carefully keeping our directional arrows pointed straight ahead. We cut four parallel tunnels under a 200-yard
stretch of the road. If my calculations were correct, there was barely a foot of rock left between the road and the holes we were leaving behind. I could even see cracks appear in the ceiling as I passed. Chunks of rock began to fall and ding off the hull of my digger. I nosed down just a touch. I didn’t want the road to collapse while we were directly underneath.

My original plan was to come back and cut cross tunnels to further weaken the road, but now that wasn’t necessary. I turned on my radio and tapped three times. The others tapped back, and we left. I kept my eye on the rear camera display and slowed. After a minute the huge track of a transport vehicle broke through the hole.

Mission accomplished.

We headed back to camp, washed up, and began prepping lunch.

I stared nervously at my watch. Elena was supposed to have gotten back almost at exactly the same time we had, but she hadn’t.

Halfway through my lunch, Elena’s digger finally shot through the tunnel, sliding and skidding. She threw open her cockpit and looked around the tunnel. She was hyperventilating.

“Is Jimmi here?” she asked. “Is he back?”

“No,” I said.

She slammed her fist into the side of her digger.

“What happened?”

She leaned against her digger and rubbed her hand through her hair. “It started off well. We found a garage, collapsed a wall, and got out of there.”

“You destroyed some transports?”

She nodded. “But then I had an idea.” She stole a look at me and then lowered her eyes.

I winced. I had a bad feeling about where this was heading, but I let her go on.

“Jimmi was used to digging near the surface. So he agreed to try breaking through.”

“What? Why?”

“It was just for a few seconds. We wanted to sneak a quick look at the setup to help us get some visuals of the ship, its location, the number of Landers . . .”

I began to pace back and forth in front of her.

“Go on.”

Elena began to shake. “I don’t know what happened. He was supposed to take some pictures and then join me back in the tunnel. I never got a distress call, so I assumed he was fine.”

“We have to move camp. Fast,” I said.

Elena didn’t move. I didn’t care. I turned back toward the storeroom.

Fatima was standing in the doorway. I wasn’t sure how much she’d heard, but she was angry.

“Fatima, you and Mandeep prepped everyone?”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s move.”

She nodded and hustled to camp.

I shook my head at Elena, who stayed glued to her digger, hugging her arms to her sides and staring at the ground.

There was a low rumbling from the wall. “Landers,” I said, my eyes growing wide.

There was a blast of rock, and Jimmi’s digger flew straight toward us, the borer spinning. I lunged and pushed Elena out of the way as the digger smashed sideways into her cockpit. The entwined machines careened across down the tunnel, sending out sparks before crumpling against the wall.

I ran over. The digger spit and smoked. There was a giant crack in the cockpit hatch, and Jimmi was trapped inside, packed in by dirt and rock. He was gripping his steering wheel, staring straight ahead, his face covered in grime.

“Jimmi, Jimmi!” He didn’t answer.

I began clawing at the hatch. It gave, and I pulled the cockpit lid off. Then I began digging with my bare hands.

Jimmi kept holding on to the wheel, white as a ghost.

“Elena,” I called. “I need help.” I turned, but she was gone. Maria and Finn heard the commotion and rushed to help me, and together we were able to loosen the dirt enough to get Jimmi free. I had to pry his fingers from the wheel.

I laid him down on the ground. He was shaking.

Mandeep ran up and covered him with a coverall.

“Jimmi, it’s Christopher. Are you okay? What happened?”

He didn’t answer right away; he just closed his eyes. Mandeep took his hand and stroked it. He seemed to calm down, slowly.

“Good, good,” she said.

“Jimmi, did you get any pictures?” I asked.

“N-n-n-n-n-n no,” he sputtered. “I came up out of the ground and—and—and I was in the middle of a whole group of them. They had guns out and were running toward the garage.”

“Why didn’t you dive back down?” I said.

Jimmi closed his eyes again. “I panicked. I just sat there in the middle of them without moving, and then my disrupter turned off.”

Jimmi trembled again.

“What happened next?”

“Once the disrupter turned off, I knew I had to run
for it. There was no way I could dig down fast enough.”

Tears began to stream down his face.

“I knew the road had cracks in it from your raid, so I headed there. I just floored it and went right through them. I mean, really through them.” He paused, sobbing.

“Jimmi, did they follow you?”

He took a few seconds to answer and then shook his head. “They just started shooting at me. They hit the digger again and again. I thought I was going to die.”

“You’re alive. You’re safe now,” Fatima said.

Jimmi shook his head. “I was able to reach the road, and then I dug into the rock. But they must have hit the cockpit because the rock just kept pouring in.” He coughed, and his hand was covered in muddy mucus.

“That’s enough,” Mandeep said. “He needs some rest.”

I got up and went to examine the digger. It was a total wreck. The camera and dashboard were completely shattered.

It could have been so much worse. The Landers hadn’t hit the engine, or anything that would have stopped him and allowed them to capture a digger. And, of course, Jimmi was alive.

“Christopher,” a voice next to me whispered.

It was Alek of all people. I hadn’t heard him coming.

“Don’t scare me like that!” I said, catching my breath.

“Sorry,” he said. He was staring at the damaged digger. “Christopher, Jimmi looks sick.”

“He was in a battle.”

Alek nodded but was silent again.

“Alek, I know you’ve seen a lot. I know it hasn’t been—”

“I’m okay now, Christopher,” he said. “I’m better.” As if to prove it, he pulled the tattered remains of the safety poster from his pocket and let it fall to the floor.

“They killed Brock, my parents, everyone I cared about. Right in front of me.” He closed his eyes.

I put a hand on his shoulder.

Alek took a deep breath and continued to stare at the digger. Then he looked straight into my eyes. His were narrowed and sharp. “I want to help.”

I probably should have said no, he wasn’t ready, or wasn’t prepared to deal with what our battles were going to be like now that the Landers were aware of us. But something in his eyes told me he wasn’t asking.

Plus, with Jimmi dealing with his own trauma, we needed everyone to chip in, so I shook his hand and said, “Welcome back.”