Kraken Rising

CHAPTER 52

“Do you think we will ever see the sunlight again?” Soong asked softly.

Shenjung smiled down at her. “I can see it now.”

She titled her head and laughed. “Now you become romantic?” She grabbed his hand.

“Why not? Down here, in this dark place, it is exactly what we need.” He squeezed her hand back, becoming serious. “I hope we will see the sunlight again. But what I hope and what I believe might be two different things.” He turned, seeing Yang watching them. “He doesn’t trust us.”

“I don’t think he ever did,” Soong replied. “And I do not trust Yang either.” She looked up at him. “All our team, we left in the upper tunnels, do you think…?”

Shenjung shook his head. “Do not dwell on it. We must stay strong, survive together, and be prepared for anything.” He saw that Yang still stared, and steered Soong a little further away. “And that means, if it comes down to a choice, I trust the Americans more than I do Yang.”

Soong peeked over his shoulder at the PLA captain. “Yes, and I believe soon, he will want us to choose sides. I will not choose his.”

He sighed. “And if we do not, then even if we find a way out, we will never be able to go home. Are you prepared for that?”

Aimee and Cate broke off, walking towards a far wall, deep in conversation. Alex pointed to Franks and motioned with his head for her to follow them. She nodded.

He watched as the teams spread out, and then turned to peer up at the huge statue. He walked to its base and began to climb. In only a few minutes he had reached one of the shoulders, and stood upright. The ceiling was still another fifty or so feet above his head, and he looked across to the face. The golden eyes glowed with hints of blue, reflecting the weak bioluminescent light from above. The statue’s expression was frozen in a permanent stare. He followed its gaze.

At the far end of the room, about fifty feet up, there was another carving in the wall. The tentacled horror he had become used to. Maybe that’s how it started for them — the warriors fighting the creature, he thought, and this was a monument to them.

Alex noticed that at the center of the coiling mass, there was another opening. As soon as his eyes alighted on it, something moved inside, darted back into the shadows. He had an impression of a humanoid shape and colorless flesh, but with dangling appendages.

So, he thought. You are watching.

“Boss, got something here.” Rhino waved an arm up at him over near one of the huge walls.

Alex climbed down and jogged towards him. Jackson and Yang were leaning over a spot on the ground.

Rhino crouched. “Ground’s all messed up. Something violent happened here.” He turned about. “No prints leading away, and no doorways… that I can see.” He stood and turned to the wall, giving it a push. “Can’t see any pivot points.”

Alex leaned in close to the stone, running his fingers along the edges of some of the blocks. They had sat for so long that they had fused together. “I think it’s solid now. Don’t think they went through here.”

“They didn’t fly away,” Jackson said.

Alex looked to the huge McMurdo soldier, and then up. He remembered the small darting figure he had seen above them. He spun to the group. “Everyone back from the walls!” His voice boomed in the large room. As soon as the words left his mouth, there came a gagging sound, and they turned to see Jennifer Hartigan rising up, a rope around her neck and under one arm. More ropes came down, lassoing towards Yang, and then Cate.

Ben Jackson caught a tether as it tried to loop over his large head. He grabbed it and yanked hard. In turn, it was yanked back even harder and the loop slid tight around his wrist.

“Ah fuck.” He started to rise up. “A little help here.”

Rhino rushed to him, and grabbed the cord. Immediately another dropped down and also circled Jackson’s neck.

“Farg-gggh,” was all the big man could rasp out.

“Use your knives, get to the center.” Alex yelled instructions, but there was nothing but the chaos of flickering lights and shouting people. He saw in an instant what the alcoves were now used for — they were staging portals for capturing prey. Whether this was their original purpose or something later adapted by the descendants of the once great race, he would never know.

In each of the window-sized alcoves, multiple figures hauled on the ropes they had dropped down. Alex frowned as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. They were smaller than normal, and were bone-white humanoids, but their faces were like nothing he could recognize. They seemed smooth-skinned, and there were dangling tendrils starting from halfway down the face. Their eyes were just vertical slits, like those of a goat… or octopus.

Yang easily stepped back, avoiding the tethers, not helping or hindering, just standing and watching. Alex was furious at his lack of support, but ignored the man, and pulled free his smallest Ka-bar blade. He spun it in his hand until he held the dark steel, and then launched it towards one of the humanoids dragging on Jackson’s rope. The blade flew through the air so fast it was near invisible, and then embedded in the center of one of the hideous faces. The figure disappeared, soundlessly, and Jackson dropped a few feet. The figure was soon replaced by another, and the big soldier began to be pulled up once again.

Alex took a step towards Jackson, but spun back at the sound of Aimee yelling. She had her arms wrapped around Cate’s waist, as the woman was also lifted, kicking, into the air.

He was momentarily torn, but in another second, both women were several feet up. He decided — then put his head down and sprinted. He pulled his last blade from it sheath, holding it backwards, and then leaping. In one powerful movement, he grabbed and slashed the rope at Cate’s neck, dropping her and Aimee to the ground. He landed on his feet, and called to Casey Franks, who was there to grab both women and drag them backwards, not bothering to check on their health until they were out of danger.

“Boss!” Rhino now had hold of Jackson, whose eyes bulged as his oxygen was cut off. Above them a large group of the humanoids tugged on the ropes, and both men were being lifted.

Too many of them, Alex thought. Must be how Blake and the two PLA soldiers were overwhelmed. He ran again, jumping up and catching hold of Rhino around the waist. The big HAWC still had hold of Jackson, who now had Alex clinging to his legs. The added weight made the soldier’s eyes bulge ever more furiously from his head as his neck was being crushed.

Alex began to quickly clamber up Rhino, but stopped when Jennifer’s scream dragged his head around. She was already halfway up the wall, twisting and struggling like a fish on a line. He knew if he went after Jennifer, then Jackson would be lost. He couldn’t be everywhere and his frustration was knotting inside him.

“Yang!” The man ignored him. “Goddamnit, Franks!”

He saw Casey run at the woman, and Alex then scrambled up the big soldier’s body, once again ripping a knife free and hacking through the ropes holding him. They fell in a heap on the ground. He turned to see Casey jump in the air at Jennifer, spearing toward her, arm and hand stretching out. Her fingertips grazed the woman’s boot, as she slammed hard into the wall. But she was too late, in another second Jennifer had been dragged into one of the windows and had vanished.

“Shit.” Alex bared his teeth and lifted both men to their feet as if they weighed nothing.

He yelled into their faces. “Get ’em all back.” He ran at Franks, who was now trying to scale one of the ropes. He was underneath her in a second, and pulled her back down. The female HAWC’s face was creased with fury, and Alex pushed her back.

“Defensive position. That’s an order.”

Her teeth were grit and her eyes were defiant as they went from Alex to the landing Jennifer had just been hauled onto.

“Franks.” Alex’s hand came down hard on her shoulder. Casey nodded, and headed back to the group, the HAWCs now herding the others back.

More ropes came down, trying to snag them, and Alex didn’t wait anymore. He dived for one of the looping cords that flew down to try and encircle him. He gripped it and began to climb, rapidly ascending. When he got near the top, the beings must have suddenly decided that Alex untethered wasn’t something they wanted to deal with and the rope was let go.

He fell backwards, plummeting the sixty feet to the ground. He spun in mid air, and landed hard, but on his feet. He immediately stood straight, the rope piling beside him.

“Holy shit. Awesome,” said Jackson, his voice still painfully coarse. He coughed and looked back up. “Did you see anything up there? Jennifer?”

“I saw people,” Alex said. “I think.” He backed up, keeping a watch on the windows. For now, they looked empty. “Pull in tight.” The group gathered in. He turned to Aimee, and reached out to her. “Are you okay?”

Aimee nodded. Cate rubbed at the red mark around her neck, scowling. “Hey,” she croaked. “I’m fine too. Thank you for asking.”

Casey shined her light upwards, but the beam didn’t reach the higher balconies. “We need to get up there. They took Jennifer, and no two guesses as to where Blake and Yang’s guys went.”

Rhino turned slowly. “Down here, we’re fish in a barrel.” He turned to Alex. “How many you figure, boss?”

“Dozens… and probably a lot more we didn’t see.” Alex backed up a few more steps. “We’re going to have to climb. Go after them.” He turned. “Everyone okay with that?”

Soong and Shenjung looked dubious. Soong spoke quickly to her partner who shook his head, and then turned. “We can stay here.”

“That’s not a good idea.” Aimee went and took the small Chinese woman’s hand. “We can haul you up.” She turned to Alex. “Can’t we?”

“Sure can,” he said. “And Aimee’s right. They’ll be back. Ropes might not be the only thing they drop down.”

The pair looked at each other, and then dropped their eyes. Alex took that as consent and went to the coils of rope still lying on the ground. He checked it quickly and then looped it over his shoulder and headed to the wall. He picked up speed and then leapt a dozen feet to the top of a stone column. It only took him a few minutes to scale to where the pale beings had disappeared.

Easing over the edge, he saw he was in a long balcony or windowed corridor. As he had earlier suspected, it was another level. He crouched, waiting and listening. There was stillness and silence. He stood, quickly tying off the rope and tossing one end over.

“Franks, you’re up.”

Casey didn’t hesitate, and scaled the rope quickly, arm over arm as Rhino held it straight. In no time she threw a leg in through the window and clambered in.

Alex looked down. “Rhino, rig a loop-step. Aimee, you’re next.”

Rhino immediately set to creating a small loop in the end of the rope, and showed Aimee how to put her foot through, and then hang on. Alex hauled her up in seconds. Followed then by Cate, Soong, and then Shenjung.

Jackson was next, the big man climbing slowly as he struggled with his own weight.

Rhino cupped hands around his mouth. “Too many donuts, hey, brother?”

Jackson climbed in, and then shot out his long arm, single finger flipping the bird.

Up next was Yang, and then Rhino, the big HAWC coming up with an ease and speed that told of someone who did this for a living. He stepped over the window edge, barely breathing hard. He held onto the rope. “Leave this, boss?”

“Take it. We need all the tools we can get our hands on.” Alex called the group in close. “We move fast and silent. I’ll take point.”

Alex moved in near silence in the dark, slowing from time to time to listen and try and sense anything that might have indicated an ambush. When he came to bends or corners he would stop and try and reach out, just using his senses. There was always the background hum of life, but for the most part, it wasn’t nearby.

The ornate architecture became more decrepit. Whoever was residing in the old buried city hadn’t been maintaining the tunnels for centuries. Perhaps the skills or the desire had been long lost. There was one change that seemed to be more gradual and evolutionary — the images carved into the walls became less articulate, as if the work wasn’t undertaken by craftsmen, but instead now by simple cave artists. The pictoglyphs themselves stopped being about multiple deities, warriors, and kings, and morphed into being about one thing only — the coiled mass of the creature outside the cave, the Kraken. Alex shook his head. It became their everything.

At a T-shaped juncture he slowed and then stopped. He could sense the crush of bodies ahead long before he saw them. Both sides of the hidden corridor end were jammed tight. Those beings were waiting for his group to round the corner, to catch them in some sort of crossfire.

Alex eased back, and then waited for the group to catch up. He held up a hand to Rhino, who then shot out an arm, stopping everyone.

“Around the bend, an ambush. We have a choice: go back, and find another way, or crash through it.”

“Punch it,” said Franks.

“How did I know you were going to say that?” said Rhino. He grinned at Alex. “Do it.”

Jackson nodded. “Let’s get it over with.”

Alex turned to Yang. “You get a vote too.”

The Chinese captain didn’t flinch. “They have my people. We go forward.”

“I’ll go first,” Alex said. “We hit them hard and fast. Preserve ammunition — knives and knuckles.”

“Wait,” Cate said. “The best weapon you have is your flashlight. They attacked us in the darkness, and I’m betting they see just fine. I think these guys have got to be dark-adapted. Living in permanent twilight and darkness means they will have evolved masses of enlarged photoreceptor cells. Even weak light should hurt them.”

Alex nodded. “Good, get your lights out. Franks, Rhino — left corridor. Jacksons, Yang — the right one. On my word.”

The soldiers crept forward until they were just a few feet from the corner. Alex held a hand up, and they waited. He closed his eyes momentarily, and could hear the multiple breaths, feel the warmth of the crush of bodies emanating from the junction. There were many of them, staying silent, waiting.

Alex counted down on his fingers… 3-2-1… then dropped his fist. Lights came on, and the soldiers roared as they rushed forward.