Striker (The Alien Wars Book 2) (14 page)

“What do you
know?” Lucy questioned.

“Not much. One of
my contacts told me that an order had gone out to collect a certain number of
people. I know it’s not much, but that’s all I have at this stage. We can’t
save everyone. Too much is at stake.”

“This is our
planet,” Lucy said. “And they’re humans.
One of us.”

“I feel sorry for
them, but we would be risking—” Frank said.

“Let’s just try,”
Molly interrupted. She glanced toward her brother. “I wouldn’t be standing here
if someone hadn’t helped me, and I don’t want anyone to have that feeling of
hopelessness, not if I can help it.”

Frank strode to
the glass screen and looked through it. No one could be seen. “We have to leave
now. We don’t have time to discuss it. Besides, it’s one thing for me and you
to blow up the
armory
and escape, but another thing
to have ten or so humans joining us.”

Suddenly, two Seods
entered the hangar.

Derek noticed the
aliens weren’t in the white suits he’d always seen the others wearing. “Hey,
they’re wearing different clothes.”

Everyone studied
the close-fitting, olive-green silk garments. Frank gazed as the Seods strolled
toward them. “That’s what they wear underneath the suits. The suits are mainly
designed for warfare, so there’s no need to wear them inside an aircraft.”
Frank drummed his thumb on the sight of his weapon. “Hmm, I wonder why they’re heading
our way.”

Everyone fell
silent as the Seods kept on walking toward them. Fortunately, they stopped next
to the runway.

“I wonder if …”
Frank peered down the runway and noticed a Striker as it entered the Conqueror.
“Of course, they must be waiting for that.”

“Maybe there’s
someone important in it,” Derek said.

They all watched
as the Striker slowed down and came to a stop in front of them. The door opened
and a Seod stepped out. He held a silencer.

Two humans were
pushed past him and scampered out of the aircraft. Everyone on the Striker
gasped when their grim faces came into view.

As the seconds
passed and no one appeared at the small cave,
Logan
’s cheek
twitched more and more. There’d been too many close calls in the last week.
Every single time, the first indication that the plan was in trouble was when
someone didn’t show up on time.
Logan
checked his watch yet again and took a ragged breath. The contact
was only two minutes late after all. Maybe Seods weren’t as punctual as humans,
but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was up.

Logan
peered down
the tunnel, listening carefully. Only silence greeted him. Deciding to give
their contact the benefit of the doubt, he nudged Mike. “Is the rest of the
base like this?
Just a lot of small winding tunnels?”

Mike shook his
head. “The tunnels are a large part of this structure, but there are quite a
few massive caves in the
center
of this base.” He
touched the wall of the cave that they were currently standing in. “As you can
see, this is pure rock. No support from wood or metal or anything like that.”

“Are you not
afraid of it falling down?” Jet asked as he tried to see how stable the wall
was.

Mike shook his
head. “No. It’s been this way for some time, even before we came here.”

Kenneth frowned. “What?
Before you came here?”

“But I thought
your species built this place?”
Logan
asked.

“No, we didn’t.
Actually, we took it over from …” Mike paused as he heard a noise in the
tunnel. He peered out and smiled in relief as his contact sauntered toward
them. “I was beginning to wonder—”

“Run!” the newcomer
bellowed. “They’re …” The Seod stumbled and hit the rock floor hard as green bolts
tore through him.

Mike froze in
shock. His mouth was wide open. He couldn’t believe it. He was shaken out of
his shock as a green bolt hit his arm.
“
Aaggh
!”
He drew his body back into the cave.

“What the hell
happened out there?” Jet said, looking at Mike.

Mike took out his
silencer. “Someone betrayed us.”

“Who?”
Kenneth asked, worried.

“I don’t know.”
Mike paused as green bolts hit the cave entrance. He edged back a foot to avoid
the broken bits of rock and shouted at the others, “All I know is that we’re
being shot at.”

Logan
tried to peek
around the entrance of the cave, but he could only do so for a second or two
before more green bolts shot toward him.

“What did you
see?” Kenneth asked.

“It was too dark
to see much,”
Logan
admitted. “However, I think I saw three Seods.”

Jet spit out a
mouthful of pulverized rock dust. “Is there another way out of this cave?”

“No,” Mike muttered
as he glanced toward the cave entrance. The green bolts had stopped
momentarily. “Whoever is out there is to the left. If we were to go to the
right, we could escape. The tunnel splits into two just around the next bend,
so if we can get to the intersection, they won’t know which way we will have
gone.”

Logan
slapped his
knees. “That sounds like the best plan. But what’s to stop them from coming
after us straight away?”

“I’ll stay and
give them a taste of their own medicine.” Mike edged closer to the cave
entrance.
“When I start shooting, run as fast as you can.
Once you get to the intersection, head left. Got that?”

“Sure, but what about the backpacks?”

“They’ll weigh us
down if we take them,” Jet stated.

“But we need them
to blow up the weapon emplacements,” Kenneth said. “We can’t afford to leave
them behind. Without them, our mission is over.”

“Fine.
We’ll take them, but dump
everything except the demo charges.”
Logan
stuck out his
hand. “We’ll wait for you just after the turnoff.”

“Thanks. Good
luck to you all.”

Gripping the silencer
tightly,
Logan
peered forward and got the shock of his life as he came face to
face with a Seod in a white suit. He hollered at the others, “Go!”

Mike fired
point-blank at the Seod, who, as he wore the protective suit, was somewhat
protected. The Seod reached for his silencer and fired back.

Without the suit
to protect him, and being so close to his opponent, the energy bolts went right
through Mike. Blue liquid spilled all over the cave floor as he collapsed to
the ground, his weapon dropping to the ground, out of his limp hands.

As the others
raced down the darkened hallway, their flashlights lighting up the darkness,
the Seod fired green bolts in their direction.

The blasts
smashed against the rock wall, narrowly missing most of the group as they fled,
but Jet wasn’t so lucky. A green bolt caught his leg. He tumbled to the ground
and cried out.

Hearing Jet cry
out, Kenneth twisted his neck around. Seeing his friend in danger, he rushed
back, only to be met by a stream of green bolts as more Seods in white suits
appeared from within the darkness and converged on the fallen body.

“Shoot!” Kenneth skidded
to a stop on the loose rock. He didn’t like leaving Jet, but it would be
suicidal to try to rescue him. He reached the intersection and charged left,
fighting back tears. He raced down the tunnel, the light from his flashlight
bobbing to and fro. Catching sight of another light, Kenneth prayed it was his
brother and not another Seod.

Luck was with
him. “Where’s Jet?”

“He didn’t make
it.” Kenneth glanced back. “I don’t know how many there are, but there sure
seemed like a lot. I think we might have met our match.”

“As long as we
keep moving at the same pace as them, they can’t catch up,”
Logan
said.

Kenneth followed
his brother as they wound their way down the tunnel. Soon, footsteps sounded
behind them. “They’re catching up,” he muttered, glancing anxiously at
Logan
.

Logan
increased his
pace and tried to go as fast as he could in the tunnels. The brothers still
heard the footsteps. In fact, they seemed even closer.

“Damn!”
Logan
thrust his
backpack onto the ground. He took out a silencer and muttered to Kenneth, “Drop
yours as well. If we’re going to get out of here, we’ll have to be as light as
possible.”

Kenneth did as
Logan
suggested,
and the brothers raced down the tunnel. It was a long, long tunnel, and
Logan
knew that it
would have to end sooner or later.

Before long, they
spotted a light up ahead and
Logan
switched his flashlight off. Slowing down, he approached the exit,
hoping that he would be able to see some way of getting out of the mountain.

He came to a stop
just before the exit and his face fell. The tunnel led out to a massive cave.
It was the largest
Logan
had ever seen.

Even though
Logan
knew that he
was deep inside
Mount Shasta
, it seemed light.
Really light.
Glancing
up, he spotted a patch of blue sky above him. He frowned at Kenneth. “Hey, that
must be the hole the general saw in those photos.”

“Hmm.
I wonder if they created it for
that
thing?
” He pointed to a rocket-shaped object that
was lying in the
center
of the cave. It was massive,
half the height of the cave and as wide as two helicopters.

The cave was
abuzz with Seods in olive green. They appeared to be doing a variety of jobs
that all involved fixing up the rocket.

A noise flooded
Logan
with
adrenaline. The Seods would see them in just a matter of seconds. He hurriedly
looked around the cave. Several of the aliens in white suits milled about, chattering
amongst themselves.

Suddenly, a green
bolt grazed the wall of the tunnel as their pursuers caught up with them. Logan
and Kenneth quickly stepped out into the cave to avoid any more green bolts.

Logan
quickly hid
his silencer in his pocket. The Seods in the cave halted what they were doing and
whipped their weapons up at the two humans. Before any of them could shoot
them, Logan and Kenneth raised their hands.

“Don’t shoot!”
Logan
flapped his
arms and hissed to Kenneth, “Don’t try anything. There’s no way we can blast
our way out of this mess.”

Kenneth nodded as
the Seods who had been chasing them through the tunnel advanced toward them.
All five were dressed in white suits and carried silencers.

Logan and Kenneth
were herded in one direction, and with the eyes of everyone in the room on
them, the humans followed two of the Seods through the massive cave while the
other three brought up the rear.

Logan
kept his
hands up, as did his brother. This wasn’t the time or place to try and start
something. As he passed the rocket, he spotted two Seods putting some liquid
through a hole in the side of the rocket. Before he could see anything else, he
was pushed to the right and toward another tunnel.

This tunnel was
lit by some kind of object that protruded from the tunnel roof.
Logan
was in the
middle of thinking of a way he could distract the Seods when they paused by a
door set in the cave wall.

After thrusting
the door open, a Seod pushed the two of them inside and closed the door. As
Logan and Kenneth stood still, wondering what was going to happen next, most of
the Seods, all except one, continued down the tunnel.

The remaining Seod
took one look at the humans before he moved to the left of the door and leaned
against the tunnel wall.

Logan
’s heart sank.
Maybe if they had been left alone they could have had a chance of escaping, but
not now. One sign of attempting to escape and the Seods would be alerted.

Logan
glanced
across at his brother. “We’ve been in tight spots before, but this one tops
them all. There is no way at all that we can escape.”

“What about the
door?” Kenneth stretched his hand out to it. “If—”

“No.”
Logan
put an arm on
his brother’s shoulder and stopped him from reaching for the door. “Let’s just
go and lie down. They’ve beaten us. If you run, you’ll just die tired.”

“What the hell is
wr
—
”

“For once, just don’t
argue.”
Logan
gave him a wink,
slumped
his shoulders,
and shuffled to the back of the cave. Kenneth growled, but like always, he soon
followed.