Up Against It - M. J. Locke [173]
Kamal and Amaya looked at him. He heard the unspoken question as he deactivated the charge.
I nearly killed them, he thought. The explosive lay in his hand like an unhatched egg. Jane would have done it. I may have just cost us our lives.
They agreed on radio silence once they reached the chem plant, since their enemies were capable of tracking their communications. Xuan led the way to the slurry mixing hoppers. As they moved through the pipe, Xuan set two charges: one at the pipe entrance at the hopper, and the other near the junction below the maintenance hole.
Kamal gestured, looking excited. Xuan pressed his helmet to Kamal’s, who said, “Listen to this!” Then he did likewise to Amaya, and pinged their faces. Xuan heard a distress call. No—more than one! Clever young man.
“That has to be Geoff’s doing,” Xuan said to Kamal. He touched his helmet to Amaya’s and said, “Geoff got the word out. Help is on the way.”
“What next, then?” Amaya asked.
“We leave the pipe, and do our best to avoid detection. I blow the charges inside the pipes while you hide among the rocks, up on the hill. Then I distract our enemies and see if I can draw them away. You two find and rescue Geoff.” If you can. He did not say it but he saw that Amaya knew his meaning. “All right?”
She nodded behind her visor. Xuan then repeated the instructions to Kamal, who also nodded.
“They may have rescued the men you launched into orbit earlier,” Xuan told Kamal. “There may be as many as three armed men. Be forewarned: one of them, the biggest, the one with the silver striping down the arms and legs, is extremely dangerous. Stay away from him.” He repeated this instruction to Amaya. Then he led the way up the pipe, to the maintenance opening, and thrust his head out.
No sign of anyone. He ejected himself from the maintenance hole, looking around. The earthmover lay in a pile of crumpled metal and charred debris across the ridge. The chem plant piping and towers showed blast damage. Distress calls emanated from several small objects orbiting overhead. He alighted, magnified his visor’s optics and focused his own powerful vision, and saw that they were minerbots.
That explains the explosion, he thought. Geoff must have launched them into orbit—but how? With the earthmover, of course! Which was why they had counterattacked with a missile—which was why the earthmover was destroyed. Xuan swallowed despair. If Geoff was in the cab, he could not have survived.
Xuan decided. Mills and his sort intended great harm not only to these young people, but all of Phocaea. The way of peace would not do. He would have to borrow Jane’s harder kind of strength. He said a last, sorrowful meditation in his own mind, then signaled Kamal and Amaya to head up the hill. Once they were ensconced among the boulders, Xuan grabbed hold of a nearby piping support strut and triggered the detonator.
The explosion threw debris out the end of the pipe and collapsed the ground underfoot. Stones and boulders danced on the hillside. That should take the three men inside the mine out of commission for now, but perhaps it would not end their lives.
Mills bounded clumsily around the outcropping. Xuan grabbed a second explosive and launched himself at the other man. Mills shot at Xuan, but his balance was off, and the rifle’s powerful kickback sent him flailing backwards. Then Xuan was on him. They grappled briefly, a meter or two above the ground, their helmets pressed hard enough together that Xuan could hear Mills grunt and curse when Xuan struck him.
Xuan shoved the explosive between the bigger man’s airpack and helmet, then planted his feet on Mills’s chest and kicked off. Mills flew backward and bounced off the ground; Xuan soared into the sky in a wobbling tumble. Mills fired off another wild shot at him. It missed, and the kickback made Mills flail and lose his balance.
The tumbling disoriented Xuan. Am I far enough away? He couldn’t tell—everything was spinning. He spotted Amaya and Kam: they leapt over the outcropping,