The Chimera Secret

59

‘This isn’t working.’

Archer squatted in the control center, his shotgun trained on the door to the mine entrance.

Klein nodded in silence. Jenkins could hardly blame them. With their officer lost, communications gone and their sergeant apparently losing his authority and their respect, the situation was as bad as anything faced in a true war zone. The one thing that a soldier relied upon was a clear picture of who was calling the shots. Even among such a close-knit and elite team like the 24th STS, a breakdown in the chain of command could be lethal.

Worse, Jenkins knew that every single man in the squad, himself included, was now aware that even if they did manage to escape the mine they had been marked as an expendable asset by their superiors. Their job, to extract and send the data kept in the facility’s computer servers, was expected to be their last living act.

‘What are we going to do?’ Archer asked him.

In the gloomy darkness, two pairs of eyes swiveled to look expectantly into Jenkins’s and the weight of responsibility bore down upon him. Officially the third-ranking soldier when they set off on this mission, the men were clearly now looking to him for decisions while Sergeant Agry was out back.

The prospect of outright mutiny would have scared the corporal enough, but the idea of being hunted down by the CIA for the rest of his life scared him even more.

‘We need that data. It’s the only thing keeping us alive right now.’

‘Kurt’s not going to just hand that shit over,’ Klein pointed out. ‘He’ll cover his own ass, even kill us before giving it up.’

Jenkins nodded slowly in the darkness. Agry was already at the tipping point, unable to take the stress of command to the point that he was abandoning the basic principles of humanity. Locking up the civilians wasn’t any part of the briefing they’d received from Lieutenant Watson before deploying. Even if the CIA had decided to burn them, wasn’t it worth trying to find a solution that fit all parties? They could still salvage something from this mess. That was what they were trained to do: get results, not kill fellow countrymen and flee into the woods.

Yet he was the corporal, and Kurt Agry would be relying on him to maintain the morale and cohesion of their unit in his absence.

‘I’m going to take the drives from him,’ Archer said finally. ‘We can figure this out once we’ve sprung Warner. He seems to know what he’s doing.’

‘Are you fucking kidding?’ Jenkins hissed. ‘What the hell will that achieve? We’ll still be here and the sergeant will shoot you on sight.’

‘That’s a chance I’m willing to take,’ Archer snapped. He looked at the other men. ‘Who’s with me?’

Klein nodded. Archer got to his feet.

‘Let’s do it.’

Archer turned and stared straight into Kurt Agry’s eyes staring at him over the barrel of a pistol. Before Jenkins could intervene, Kurt’s voice growled in the shadows.

‘Let’s.’

The gunshot was shockingly loud in the confined space of the corridor. Archer’s head flicked backward and his body flailed as the impact of the bullet into his skull hurled him into the control center.

He hit the floor hard, the back of his smashed skull crunching across the tiles.

Kurt Agry lowered his pistol. Jenkins stared at Archer’s lifeless corpse and then looked at the sergeant.

‘Jesus, Kurt, that didn’t help anything. We’re a gun down now.’

Kurt glared a challenge into the eyes of the remaining soldiers as Milner joined them and stared in disbelief at Archer’s body.

‘Gentlemen, our survival depends upon our ability to stick together. We split now, we’ll be dead before dawn. Anybody else tries to take control of this situation I’ll put a bullet in them too, understood?’

Klein stood up and pointed down at Archer’s body.

‘That what you call sticking together?’

‘That’s what I call mutiny,’ Kurt shot back. ‘We’ve got to get the hell out of here, and the only currency we have is the civilians. Unless any of you would like to set foot out there and tempt that fucking thing inside?’

‘We tried baiting it,’ Milner snapped. ‘It didn’t go for it.’

Kurt’s thin lips curled into a grim smile.

‘We’re not going to bait it,’ he replied, ‘just keep it occupied. Milner, get Proctor and Dana out here, and bring Lopez too.’

Milner hurried down the west corridor toward the living quarters as Kurt glanced at the mine entrance. The warped metal bars could hold the creature back, but not forever. Sooner or later it would come through.

He turned as Proctor, Dana and Lopez were marched into the control center, Milner prodding them along with his rifle.

‘This won’t work,’ Dana said. ‘We could hear what you were up to earlier. You tried this with Ethan and failed.’

Dana Ford stood with Proctor at the door to the mine entrance, their hands cuffed as Kurt Agry aimed his rifle at them.

‘It’s better than nothing,’ the sergeant replied. ‘It’ll have to come through you to get to us, and that’s all the extra time we’ll need.’

Proctor swallowed thickly, his eyes quivering behind his spectacles.

‘It’ll kill us,’ he said, his voice trembling.

‘Better you than me,’ Kurt grinned, ‘and it’ll save on bullets. Move.’

Dana Ford stood her ground.

‘Go to hell,’ she spat. ‘You’re going to kill us anyway, so the way I see it, it’s better to die quickly from a bullet than get torn to pieces out there. You want to escape so badly? Go do it yourself, asshole.’

Kurt Agry stared at her for a moment in what might have been surprise. He performed a brief calculation.

‘Have it your way.’

Kurt Agry fired his rifle.

The shot impacted Dana Ford’s chest. Her body jerked as it was thrown backward, the bullet passing through her heart and exiting her back in a fine mist of blood that splattered the paneled wall behind her.

She collapsed to the floor and slumped against the wall, her eyes wide but sightless.

‘Jesus Christ!’ Proctor blurted as tears flooded from his eyes. ‘You’ve killed her!’

Kurt sneered at him. ‘I can see why you’re a scientist.’ He swung the rifle to point at him. ‘You too?’

Proctor stared in terror at the rifle as his hands flew into the air beside his head.

‘Don’t shoot!’ he blubbed, his legs jerking and swaying as he tried to stay upright. ‘I’ll do it.’

Kurt, his rifle pulled tight into his shoulder, gestured with the weapon for Proctor to move to the main door. The scientist shuffled miserably across as Klein reached out and pulled the steel bolts out of the locks before hauling the door slowly open.

The dark, damp interior of the mine entrance yawned open in front of Proctor as he stood with his hands in the air and stared into the blackness. His legs trembled and he seemed to crouch forward slightly as though he wanted to crawl into the tunnel.

‘Get moving,’ Kurt snapped, and with one boot shoved Proctor forward.

The scientist cried out as he plummeted into the darkness and crashed down onto the rocks, his sobs echoing down the tunnel. The rocks dug into his palms and his knees as he struggled to his feet and reluctantly started pushing one foot in front of the other.