A second strike lit the sky, and she grabbed his arm. “Ethan.”
“There’s nothing we can do.” He could hardly stand it. He was Commander of Demeter Special Forces, and his city was under attack. It was almost unbearable.
Without conferring, they kept going, moving faster than they had before, pushing themselves, until it got almost too dark to see a path.
The river was quite far below them, and Ethan emptied his pack, took all the water bottles, and climbed down to fill them while Velda set up the small burner stove and heated their dinner.
They ate and drank leaning back against a wall of rock, with a small fire right in the middle of the narrow track they’d been walking on.
Ethan kept looking toward the city, and so did Velda, but if there was smoke and fire, they couldn’t see it from their current position.
“Maybe we should have let the rescuers finds us,” Ethan said, for the first time admitting to doubts about his original plan.
“We could never have anticipated a laser strike on the city. Never.” Velda tipped her head back, and Ethan glanced upward as well. The flash and flare of falling debris continued.
It made him sick to the pit of his stomach, because he couldn’t believe how much of it there was. He worried the entire space observatory was gone.
And now, Demeter.
They could do nothing about the rescue team now, anyway. He’d made the call for them to go it alone, and that was that. Too late for regrets there.
They needed to concentrate on getting through the mountains and making for the city.
He settled back against the rock wall, legs stretched out in front of him, Velda pressed up against his side, and closed his eyes for a moment, just absorbing the hushed peace of their surroundings.
“Do you hear that?” Velda asked.
He opened his eyes, found her leaning forward, head turned to the right. She was frowning.
Ethan concentrated. Then he heard it, too. The throb of an engine.
“Could it be the rescue team?” Velda wondered.
“Could they have gotten ahead of us?” Ethan asked. “I don’t see how, but that’s definitely an engine.”
He stood, and Velda got onto her haunches to pack the bags.
“You want to investigate?” he asked.
She nodded.
He wouldn’t have left her, but he was glad she was up for walking further in the dark.
He would not be able to sleep knowing there was someone out there. Perhaps with a faster way to get back to Demeter.
He doused their camp fire and swung his pack onto his shoulder, interested to note that the engine didn’t seem to be moving closer or getting further away. Whatever it was, it was staying in one place.
Who the hell was out here in the mountains, running equipment or a hover, he wondered?
They were about to find out.
9
Whatever Velda expectedto find after hours of walking, she had to admit, a full blown mining operation was not it.
They’d hunkered down on a rocky outcrop in the darkness when they’d reached the moving lights, with engines moving directly below them, and in the breaking light of day, she saw a few things that made her think it had been there for a while, but originally on a smaller scale, and mainly under the mountain, if the massive cavelike entrance was anything to go by.
“What are they mining for?” Ethan wondered.
