The sun was starting to come up.
“Alright, kid. Get ready.”
“I was born ready.”
Murdok turned his eyes forward again. Before him, the first rays of the sun were gilding the craggy stones above the mine entrance. Over the next several minutes, the line of light crept lower and lower.
Just a little more,Murdok thought.Just a little more…
He counted off a hundred heartbeats.
Two hundred.
“Now!”
At the same instant he said it, Murdok surged to his feet and began racing down the other side of the ridge into the valley below. His rifle was in his hands, but he didn’t start shooting. Not yet.
About fifty paces ahead of him, a silent steel bolt from Zeth’s accelerator bow passed through the neck of one raider, and embedded itself in the chest of another who was next to him. A third raider standing nearby opened his mouth to scream, but before he could get any sound out, a second bolt transfixed his skull.
Zeth was able to snipe three more before the first three even hit the ground.
Murdok had to admit, the kid was good.
But the silent, long-range approach only worked for so long. The seventh victim was heartshot, and he managed to bellow in pain before he expired. The remaining thirty or so mutants all turned at the sound. They saw Murdok charging toward them, but only for the merest fraction of a second, because then the sun broke over the top of the ridge, blinding them with its glory.
Murdok started shooting.
His heavy assault rifle blurted, and the rounds tore through the raiders in front of him, vaporizing heads, amputating limbs, punching fist-sized holes through torsos. Spent casings littered the ground in his wake.
Some of the muties attempted to return fire, but with the sun in their eyes, they couldn’t aim for shit. Others tried to flee, but Zeth picked them off with his accelerator bow. In a matter of seconds, the entire valley had been cleared.
“Look out,” Aeron’s voice said in Murdok’s ear. “We’ve got movement inside the mine. Be ready for a counterattack.”
Murdok was ready.
Operating on pure gut instinct, he tucked and rolled to one side. A millisecond later, gunfire ripped out from the darkened entrance of the mine, sending up spumes of dust where he’d just been running.
“Kid!” he shouted. “Light ’em up!”
Zeth was already racing down the other slope toward the mine, about thirty paces back. He loosed another bolt from his accelerator bow, but this one was different from the ones he’d fired before. Glowing orange and trailing sparks, it looked more like a shooting star than an arrow. It disappeared into the entrance of the mine. Then came a loudwhoompof superheated air, and the inside of the mine lit up like a jack-o’-lantern.
A second later, the screaming started.
Raiders burst from the entrance of the mine, their bodies engulfed in flames. Murdok mowed them down with his gun and left them burning on the ground. Zeth came running up beside him just as he killed the last one.
“Two at Checkpoint Alpha,” Murdok said. “How’s it look inside?”
Aeron answered: “Need a second for the flames to die down… okay, you’re clear to proceed.”
Murdok slapped a fresh ammo mag into his rifle and gave Zeth a nod. Together, they entered the mine, Murdok taking the lead, Zeth right behind him. After a few feet, the entrance tunnel debouched into the wider, egg-shaped chamber Murdok had seen on the map. A few charred mutants lay smoldering on the floor. The air was filled with the smell of roasting meat. More flames still clung around the walls and ceiling where webs of raw raknid silk had caught fire. That stuff was worthmoney, so they’d have to try not to burn up too much of it. The raknids themselves were even more important. Brundage had specifically asked them not to harm any of the bugs.
“Stay sharp,” Aeron’s voice said. “You’ve got three more tangos heading your way, central corridor.”
“Copy that.”
Murdok nodded to Zeth, and they moved to opposite sides of the chamber, pressing themselves against the stone walls. There were three openings at the far end of the space. They trained their weapons on the one in the middle.
“Remember,” Aeron’s voice said. “It would be nice to keep at least one of them alive for questioning.”
