Overlord

25

Anders Larsen led Jasper Olsen and his heavily armed squad into the caverns. Nerves clutched Larsen’s muscles tight, but he felt excitement, too. Exhilaration that he had fulfilled his role as requested. That the whole thing, or at least his part of it, was almost at an end. The eight men at their back had the grim determination of experienced mercenaries. The scientists and their three security guards didn’t stand a chance.

Well, Larsen corrected himself, perhaps those three — Reid, Gates, and Tate — they might put up some genuine resistance. He had told Olsen to target them and Sol Griffin first. Take them out and the rest of the team would quickly fall into line without the need for more bloodshed. Although they probably ought to kill Sam Aston, too. That man looked like he could be trouble.

He tapped Olsen and shared his musings and the big mercenary leader grinned. “We’ll massacre them all if necessary. But don’t you worry about it. We’ve got it in hand now.”

Larsen nodded, smiled. He was certainly glad to be on this side of the forthcoming encounter. These guys were cold-blooded killers. He thought that maybe, once the shooting started and the engagement was underway, he might quickly run back in the other direction and wait for everyone topside. The less time he spent down here the better. He’d be happy if he never saw another cave for the rest of his life.

At the back of the marching squad, Adamsen and Jansen walked side by side. At first they had talked, pleased to finally be doing something pro-active. The long journey to the base had been boring, Jansen thought, and taking the base turned out to be nothing more than waiting outside a locked door until the local mole came and let them in. Now, finally, some action.

The scrape and scuff of their boots echoed off the curved walls of the passage, their flashlights striping the dark rock, the uneven ground. They made no effort to conceal their progress. After all, what resistance could a bunch of scientists and a couple of hired guns really offer? Jansen realized that maybe putting this expedition team under control might be as boring as taking the base and his excitement waned. He turned to Adamsen to run the thought by his friend, but the tall, blond man wasn’t there.

Jansen frowned. He looked forward into the group, but everyone he expected was clear to see, except Adamsen. He glanced back, shined his light into the darkness, and no one was there either. He opened his mouth to call out his concerns when something dark flashed across his flashlight beam. Dark but shiny, the size of a large man. He had the bizarre sensation that it was a VW bug car, zooming along on its back wheels like Herbie in those crazy old films. But it had seemed to have waving limbs and glistening fangs of some kind. Surely not. He swallowed, nerves twanging taut. The squad marched on while he stood motionless, panning his light left and right. Surely he had imagined it. But where the hell was Adamsen?

“Commander!” he called out, and heard the marching boots slow, then stop. He didn’t turn to see them, but imagined them all looking back, brows furrowed.

“What is it, soldier?” Olsen’s voice seemed more distant then he had expected.

He opened his mouth to reply but the darkness right beside him came alive and something ice cold and frighteningly hard closed around his neck. He tried to scream but no sound came and then there was only pain and darkness.

Larsen’s guts turned to water as he, along with the rest of the squad, watched the soldier’s head detach from his body. His headlamp waved hectically as the head rolled across the passage floor, repeatedly shining on bright black carapaces and multi-faceted eyes. Long, curved mandibles snapped and clicked and the passage was suddenly full of giant, swarming creatures. It was like they had stumbled into a scene out of a bad B movie.

The squad erupted into action, firing into the darkness, green flashes and sparks bursting off the creatures as they advanced.

“Fall back!” Olsen ordered, and the squad backed along the passageway, deeper into the caves, firing in controlled bursts.

Larsen hurried behind them, made sure the weapons were facing away from him and all the soldiers were between him and whatever the hell those things were. He realized, as they rushed deeper into the caverns, holding the monsters back with gunfire, that they hadn’t taken the fork towards the cavern with the vines and the stream running across it. They were in uncharted territory, the snapping, glistening creatures between them and escape back to the surface, and they were being forced still deeper. He couldn’t help wondering if that’s exactly what these things, whatever the hell they were, desired.