Tani's Destiny (Hearts of ICARUS Book 2) (18 page)

“I’ll walk with you,” Astra offered.  “I need to get out and stretch my legs a bit anyway.”

“Thanks,” Tani said.  Astra set her sewing aside and they left the cave together.  The faint paths between the caves going up and down the sandstone cliff face helped, but it still required one’s full attention to navigate safely.  Even though Astra had lived there for a year now, she still had more trouble than Tani did, which Tani found odd.  After several minutes Astra paused to catch her breath.

“Are you all right?” Tani asked, not even the slightest bit winded.

“I’m fine, it’s just a really steep climb,” Astra said.  “How can you not be out of breath?”

“I don’t know,” Tani said.  “Why don’t you point out where we’re going and I can go the rest of the way myself.”

“Are you sure?” 

“Positive,” Tani said.  Astra pointed at a cave not too far from where they stood, and Tani climbed up to it with ease.  She went inside and paused to take in her surroundings. 

“You’re a little late,” Steel said.

“Yes well, I’m afraid that my watch, like everything else that I own, is back at New Oxford.”

“I know, I’m sorry, Tani, I was just teasing.”

“I was too, Steel,” Tani said.  “Actually, Astra made a snack for me and I was hungry so I ate.”

“How’s Naran doing?” Marbic asked.  “I haven’t had a chance to talk with him today.”

“He’s doing very well,” Tani said, shaking her head.  “Better than I expected, actually.”

“I’m impressed,” Khurda said.  “You’re a skilled healer.”

“I’m really not,” Tani said.  “I have no idea why or how I’ve suddenly become a healer, I’m just glad I was able to help.”

“As are we,” Marbic said.  “Thank you, Tani.”

Tani nodded and moved toward the large table in the center of the room where Steel, Marbic, and Khurda were gathered.  “Normally Naran would be here for this, but I just checked on him a while ago and found him sleeping,” Steel said.  “He’s in no condition to go tonight anyway.”

“No, he’s not, though he may think otherwise.  Healing like I somehow managed to do uses the energy of both healer and patient.  He’ll be tired for a couple of days.”

“Yes, that’s what I thought,” Steel said.  “How are you?  Are you tired as well?”

“No, just inordinately hungry,” she replied with a quick smile before turning her attention to the detailed image of the mining compound that covered the large table. 

“We’ve got everything you asked for,” Steel said.  “Lists of their known weapons, ground transports, computers, alarms, vid terminals.”

“Thank you, Steel.  Before we get to that, I wonder if any of you are familiar with what these long gray buildings are.  The ones being used as bunkhouses.”

“I’m not sure I understand what you mean,” Steel said.  “They’re all new, brought in last year when the Nomen returned, but other than that, they’re just buildings.”

“No, they’re a bit more than that,” she said.  “They’re
modules
created by a company, now bankrupt, called
Self-A-Ware
.”

“Cute name,” Marbic said.  Tani nodded with a wry smile.

“What are
modules
?” Khurda asked.

“In this case, they’re pre-fabricated collapsible buildings,” she said.  “They’re made of a polymerized metal alloy that’s really tough, but half the weight of aluminum.  The walls are maybe twice as thick as this paper, but you could take a sledgehammer to it all day long and I doubt you’d dent it.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Marbic said.

“That depends on what side you’re on,” she said cryptically.  “These buildings were made in a factory.  They’re prefabricated because as tough as the metal is, you need special equipment to work with it.  So they made these buildings in one big piece.  Four walls, floor, ceiling.  Each one comes equipped with a pre-programed motorized assembly system, and an air exchanger.  No windows, two doors, period.  No modifications or special orders allowed because the metal’s molecules start to depolymerize the more you muck around with the original design, weakening the structure.  Because of that, they marketed them as instant warehouses, but obviously you can use them for whatever you want.

“They shipped out flat, no thicker than this table except for the air exchanger and assembly motor.  Those come in separate crates.  You take them out of the crate, drop them onto preinstalled brackets, plug them in and push a button.  The motor starts and fifteen minutes later, you’ve got a building that will never rust, dent, or fall apart.”

“What’s the catch?” Steel asked, knowing there was a reason she was telling them all of this.

Tani grinned, pleased that he was getting to know her so well.  “There are two catches, actually, and they’re serious enough that both the production and sale of these modular buildings has been banned by the ICU.  Obviously the Nomen got their hands on a few somewhere, and that’s good for us because we know the weaknesses in them.”  She looked around then shrugged.  “Well, I know, and I’m about to share.”  Marbic and Steel both chuckled softly and she smiled.

“First, these buildings have wheels, the idea being that you can move them whenever, wherever you want.  Wheels that are made of the same material the building is made of so they can double as support struts.  Of course, round support struts aren’t all that stable, especially when they’re attached to a lightweight structure in a high wind.  The number of people killed while inside one of these things on a breezy day was exceeded only by the number of people killed when this building made of metal that can’t be dented, let alone broken, smashed through homes, towns and cities.  But it was the cheapest way for the manufacturer to go, kind of like two birds with one stone, so that’s what they did.  What the hell, right?”

“Bless the Creators,” Khurda said, looking sick.  Tani nodded in agreement. 

“How do we use this to our advantage?” Steel asked after a few moments.

“For one thing, you could hook a tow chain to one of those buildings and take it wherever you want.”

“How did we manage to miss that?” Marbic asked as he stared at the image in wonder.

“Well, you know now,” Tani said with a shrug.  “The second, and most serious, problem with these things is that there’s a flaw in the computerized mechanism that puts it up, and folds it down again that makes them quite deadly.  We can’t use that flaw to our advantage so I won’t bore you with the details.  Suffice it to say that if there’s a power surge, those buildings can and will fold down under power, crushing everything and everyone inside of them.  That gives us an even more urgent reason to get your people out of them.”

“So, if one of these buildings is a bunk house for the Nomen, we could lock the doors so they can’t get out, short out the motor, and the building kills them?” Marbic asked.

“Shorting it out wouldn’t do it, but a power surge would do that, yes,” Tani said.  “But that power surge would cause all six of them to collapse, not just those the Nomen are in.”

“Not if we cut power to the other buildings first,” Khurda said.

“I thought of that,” Tani said.  “Unfortunately, the power lines are all underground, so that’s not an option.”

“Can we use a ground transport to tow the building holding the women out?” Marbic asked.

“Not without waking the entire compound,” Tani said.  “But why just the women?  What about the two buildings holding the men?”

“The women and children are a priority,” Steel said.  “Once they’re free, the Nomen won’t be able to use them to control the men, and they’ll be able to escape on their own.”

“Well, it’ll still make too much noise, even if it’s just for one building,” she said.

“Since the buildings are so light, I think a few of us in our
mahrac
forms might manage to pull the women’s bunkhouse out of the compound if we don’t have to take it too far,” Steel said. 

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like there’s enough room between the other buildings to get it out,” Tani said.  “It’s almost like they just dropped the buildings off of a loader wherever there was room and left them there.”

“I think that’s exactly what they did,” Steel said.  “They were in a tearing hurry to get that mine running again.”  He looked up and smiled at Tani.  “You’ve already thought of a way for us to take advantage of these buildings or you wouldn’t have brought them up to start with.”

“I have an idea, yes,” Tani said.  “Like I said, these buildings are very tough, made in one piece, and have no windows.  The only weak points are the two doors, one on each side.  If we brace the doors shut, the Nomen won’t be able to get out until someone on the outside removes a brace.”

“What if they have weapons in the bunkhouses?” Khurda asked.  “Laser guns, grenades, anything like that.”

“It won’t matter,” Tani said.  “It takes a missile to get through one of those buildings, literally.  I don’t think any of those Nomen will have a missile stashed under their bunks and if they do, and they set it off, it’ll kill everyone in the building anyway.”

“So, we lock the Nomen in their bunkhouses, then we break into the other buildings, take our people, load them in the ground transports and get the hell out of there,” Steel said.

Tani frowned, not prepared to agree to that plan without covering a few more details.  “Is there anything at the mine that we can use to brace the doors shut with?  Or will we have to take something with us?”

“Here,” Khurda said, pointing to a spot just outside the mine entrance on the overhead image.  “These are stacks of wood beams that are used to shore up the walls of the mine.  There’s not much in the way of wood on Garza, so they have to bring them in.  They’re about eight feet long and six inches thick.  They should do the job.”

“Excellent,” Steel said, smiling.

“That solves that problem,” Tani said, nodding.  “We’ve got the bad guys trapped in their bunkhouses and they can’t break out.  Now, what about the guards who aren’t inside a bunkhouse?”

“The foreman is a man everyone calls Brutus,” Naran said, entering the cave.  “All of the Nomen except for him sleep in one of those two bunk houses.”  Everyone turned to look at him in surprise as he crossed the chamber and leaned on the table.

“I thought I told you to stay in bed?” Steel said.

“You did,” Naran said.  “I can’t go on this raid, but I can still help plan it.  I was there for a week so I might know a thing or two that the rest of you don’t.”

“How many guards do they have on duty at night?” Tani asked.

“Seven,” he said. 

“That’s all?” Tani asked in surprise.

“That’s all they need,” Naran replied.  “The guards are there to keep the people inside the bunk houses, just like the fence is there to keep them from escaping.  One at each door, two doors to each of the three buildings used by the Khun, and one guard at the front office door.”

“Do the Nomen know about the
mahrac
?” she asked.

“Yes, and no,” Naran replied.  “There have been a few accidents in the mines when men have changed without meaning too.  But they don’t know that we can all do it.  Those that they know can shift they watch very closely.  If they shift and don’t immediately shift back, they’re open targets and they know it.”

“Will the Nomen shoot to kill, or will they try to injure instead?”

“Hard to say,” Naran said with a shrug.  “Sometimes they all act like robots.  Other times they don’t.  You never really know how any of them will behave at any given time.  You never know what their weaknesses are going to be either, since they each have different modifications.  Because of that, and the fact that it’s nearly impossible to tell them apart, attacking them becomes much more difficult.”

“Not really,” Tani said with a shrug.  “Most living, breathing creatures that have a brain have one weakness in common.”

“Do they?” Naran asked, his voice laden with doubt.  “And what would that be?”

“They don’t live long without a head.”  Tani’s eyes caught and held Naran’s for a long moment. 

Naran grinned.  “You’re a bit bloodthirsty aren’t you?”

Tani shrugged, but didn’t reply.  She didn’t think she was bloodthirsty at all.  In fact, until the attack on EDU-12, she’d never killed a living creature of any sort in her entire life, and that had been self-defense.  This would be different, but that didn’t change her determination to free the women and children being held against their will.  If she had to kill the enemy in the process, then that’s what she’d do.  If that made her bloodthirsty, then so be it.

“Okay, so we have seven Nomen outside the bunkhouses,” she said, returning to the business at hand.  She tapped the image at each of the doors that the guards could be expected to be at on the three bunkhouses occupied by the Khun, and the main office.  “How do we get inside the fence?”

“I’ll fly in, shift, then disable the security systems,” Khurda said. 

“Will you need an extra pair of hands for that?” Steel asked.

Khurda took a moment to consider that carefully.  Too much was at stake for him to be careless.  “If they haven’t added to their existing security system, then no, I won’t need help.”

“Is there a chance they’ve done that?”  Tani asked.  Khurda wanted to say no, but he couldn’t.