Eden's Children (Earth Exiles Book 2) (20 page)

Mike grinned, and motioned towards the fissure, “After you.”

Everett pointed at Matki, then motioned for him to follow, “Come on if you want to see it.”

Matki smiled and eagerly stepped forward.  They walked down the fissure.  Matki was about to step forward past the bend, but Everett put his hand on Matki’s chest to stop him.  He did a repeat of Rob’s move, and peaked around the corner.  Once he was satisfied that things hadn’t changed, he put his hand on Matki’s shoulder to indicate that he could continue.  They stepped around the corner.  Once again, Mike worried until he saw them coming back around the corner.

Everett and Matki walked back to the group.  When they stopped, Everett started speaking, “Well, it’s exactly what Rob said.  A big metal door set back into the mountain.  It’s got a metal awning over it.”

Smiling, Rob spread his hands, “What, you thought I was making that part up?”

Ignoring Rob, Everett continued, “The door looks like it won’t open from the outside.  I banged on the door, and there was no response.  If you want to see the inside, I think we’re going to have to use some explosives.”

Mike’s eyebrow went up at the last.  It wasn’t something that he had considered previously, but he damn sure wanted to see what was inside that big metal door.  Beyond destroying whatever it was that wanted to kill them, he wanted to find out more about the technology, and get some information on who created it.  His thoughts were interrupted by Tom.

“Why?”

The group turned to look at Tom.

“What do you mean?” Mike asked.

“Why is this here?” Tom asked.

The team didn’t say anything, perplexed by the question.

“I mean, there has to be a reason.  Killer robots don’t just grow on trees.  There has to be an investment of resources for them to be here,” Tom continued.

Mike got it.  “
Why would somebody put these robots here?”
he thought.

Aloud, he said, “That’s a damn good question, Tom.  There has to be reason for them, whoever they are to put robots here.”

Everett hooked a thumb back at the city, “Has to be something to do with that city.  They killed everybody there for a reason.”

Mike looked around, “Any ideas?”

Nobody answered.  Mike looked at Matki, “What do you think?”

Matki took a bit before he answered, “It is a mystery to me.  My people, the people that live in these mountains, we don’t have towns or cities like that.  Too many people are a target.  They would have to fight off dragon spawn all the time.”

Mike looked at Matki’s atlatl and arrows, “Maybe they had better weapons than you do.”

Matki spread his hands, “Anything is possible, my friend.”

Everett asked the next question, “You say there are lots of cities like that?”

Matki shook his head, “Not like that, Everett.  There are all sorts of ancient cities in the mountains.  But they are all long deserted, buried, overgrown with weeds.”

It was a mystery to Mike, “My question is, why use them to target people?”

Mickey nodded, “Right.  I mean, if the people were in a war, they were outclassed.  Iron Age tools and weapons against robots.  You’d have to be pretty stupid to start a war with somebody that has killer robots to send after you.”

“Maybe these people had something that somebody else wanted,” Everett mused.

Mike turned his head to look at Everett, “If that’s true, I’d think they’d have taken it and left.  Why leave the robots?”

They were stumped.  None of this made any sense.

Mike made a decision, “Well, I don’t want this thing behind us.  I don’t want to have to fight my way through to get back.  I sure don’t want to give them time build more, or bring more here.”

He looked at Rob, the explosives expert.  Rob was trained as a Special Forces 18C, engineer, and had a degree in structural engineering, “Do we have enough explosives to take that door down?”

Rob grinned, and slowly nodded his head, “Oh yeah, I have enough det cord and C4 to bring down the side of the mountain on top of the door.”

Mike grinned back, “Well, I’d prefer you not do that.  I want to get a look inside and see what’s in there.”

A hurt look appeared on Roberto’s face, “You have no faith in my abilities, Mike.  I operate with incredible precision, my friend.  I can perform surgery with explosives.  It will knock the door off its hinges, and nothing inside will be harmed, I assure you.”

Mike laughed, “Sorry to impugn your integrity and capabilities, Rob.  I promise you, I have nothing but respect for your considerable talents.”

Rob performed a small bow with great dignity, “Thank you for your patience and comprehension of my capabilities.”  He studied Mike, “You are a very perceptive man.”

Mike laughed and Mickey’s eyes rolled.  Tom snorted as a small laugh escaped him.  Rob glared at him and Tom changed the chuckle to a small cough, his fist over his mouth.

Rob took charge.  Since combining blasting caps, det cord, C4, and claymores was an inherently bad idea, the explosives had been farmed out between the team members.  Now, everybody pulled out the explosives that they had.  They brought it over to Rob, who made sure that the blasting caps were kept separate from everything else.  He grabbed a block of C4, a length of det cord that he’d measured out, a blasting cap and one of the electronic remote switches, transponder and receiver, placing them away from the rest of the explosives.

While he was doing this, Tom and Mickey walked into the fissure to take a look at the door.  They just went as far as the bend and stepped out to take a look.  Satisfied, they didn’t go any further and came back.  They told Mike the same thing, a metal door, a metal frame set into the rock, and a metal awning.

Rob took a look at what he had.  Evidently satisfied with it, he stood up and started retrieving the explosives he’d set aside.

Mike stepped forward, “Well, I’m the only one that hasn’t seen it yet, so I’ll help you set it all up.”

A smirk appeared on Rob’s face.  He responded by motioning Mike forward, “Come here, mule, I have something for you to carry.”

Mike grinned and walked over holding his hands out.  Rob piled the explosives in Mike’s hands.  Rob kept the switch set and blasting cap.  Rob made sure that the cover for the switch was in place, then he slid it into his pocket.  Rob started walking and Mike followed.  They moved into the fissure, Rob slightly ahead of Mike.  They stopped at the corner and looked around.  They didn’t see anything problematic, so they rounded the corner and walked toward the metallic door.

Rob whistled as he walked.  Mike studied the door as they approached it.  It was large, very wide, big enough for the giant robot to walk through.  It seemed to be made from the same metal as the robots.  That, or it was covered in something that protected it from the elements.  There were no markings on the door.  The door either slid to one side or opened inwards since there were no marks indicating that it opened outward.  It looked like the door butted up to the inside of the frame.  Mike pointed this out to Rob.

Rob nodded, “Yeah, if it swings in, that will actually help.  If it slides from one side to another, it might have some more support.  Either way, I’ll get it open.”

Rob took the det cord from Mike and started at the bottom of the door, pushing it into the space between the door and the frame.  As he moved up the frame, he motioned for Mike to give him a boost.  Mike walked over, interlaced his fingers, and hoisted Rob up high enough so that he could wedge the det cord all the way up the side of the door.  He took pieces of the C4 and molded it like clay to push in behind the det cord to keep it in place.  Once he had the det cord wedged in and stable, he took a big chunk of C4 and started molding it.  He wedged it into the frame about where a lock might have been.  He repeated the process on the other side of the door.  Then he extended a single piece of det cord between the two big chunks of C4 and attached it.

Rob stood back and looked at his handy work.  He stood there for a moment, letting gravity work, checking to see if anything was going to come undone.  Nothing sagged, so he was happy with it.  He checked the detonator, flipped up the cover, and clicked the button.  He gave a satisfied grunt as a small green LED light lit up on the receiver.  He took the blasting cap, and wired it to the receiver.  He pressed the blasting cap into the chunk of C4 on the right side of the door, and then he started walking back towards the bend in the fissure.

“Ah, one second.  I want to make sure that nobody’s back there,” Mike said.

Rob stopped and Mike walked over to the door and hammered on it.  He waited a second.  Nothing happened.  The door remained closed, and there was no noise to indicate that it would open.  Mike turned around and walked toward Rob.  Rob turned and walked back toward the bend in the fissure.  Mike caught up and they both stepped around the bend so they would be away from the blast.

Rob stood there for a moment, “Hell, this isn’t going to work.”

Mike stepped past Rob, further away from the bend.  Rob extended the antenna on the detonator.  He looked at Mike, “Ready to breech?”

Mike nodded.  Rob pulled out his ear plugs and put them in his ears.  Mike put his hands up over his ears.  Rob extended the antenna, and lifted the detonator so that the antenna was past the bend.  He flipped up the cover and hit the button.

The over pressure wave from the explosion surged through the fissure, lifting dust in its wake.  They coughed as the dust started to settle.  Rob moved to step out, but Mike put his hand on Rob’s shoulder, “Let’s wait until we can see things better.  If the door’s down, no telling what might come out of there.”

Rob nodded, and settled back into his previous position.  It took a few minutes for the dust to settle, then Rob did a quick peek around the bend.

“What do you see?” Mike asked.

“Well, the door’s gone,” Rob answered.

“See anything else?”

Rob shook his head, “No, too dark.”

“Alright, let’s go take a look,” Mike stepped around Rob.  He shifted his rifle to the low ready.  Rocks crunched under foot.  Rob took position to his right, slightly behind him.  They walked towards the opening where the door used to be, prepared for trouble.  They stopped just short of the doorway. 

Daylight barely penetrated into the opening, the dust still settling.  He pulled out a flashlight, and clicked it on.  The bright light from the LED flashlight penetrated better than the daylight did, but it still wasn’t enough to reveal what was in there.  He put the flashlight back into his pocket, and clicked on the light attached to his rifle.  It wasn’t as bright, but he didn’t want to compromise his capability to engage anything that came at him.  He held his rifle at low ready.  Rob did the same.

The door had been ripped from the frame and thrown forward into the room beyond.  The frame was warped from the explosion.  Mike approached the open doorway.  The light played over the floor.  There wasn’t anything there, just the detritus of the metal door frame that had been shredded by the explosion, plus the warped door.  As he stepped past the frame, the light exposed more of the room ahead of him.  The floor was roughhewn, as were the walls.  The gouges in the wall betrayed the fact that these walls had been created using hammers and chisels.  At eye level, that changed.  The rock was smooth, and looked almost like glass.  Two very different processes had been used here.

Rob stepped forward, the light on his rifle on as well.  He flashed it around, looking at the walls, “Hey, this looks like a mine.  Only, old school.  Like Roman or Greek old school.”

Mike could imagine the men of the necropolis coming here day after day to chisel away at the stone of the walls, “I wonder what they were mining here?”

“Well, could be iron, I guess.  The dark, black rock and red layers indicate it could be iron.  That, plus the pyrite is an iron sulfide.”

Mike looked back at Rob, “How the hell do you know that?”

Rob shrugged, “Engineering, a little chemistry, some geology.  You never know what you’re going to end up doing.  I was thinking about mine engineering for a little while.”

Mike pointed at the smooth surface of the roof and the upper walls, “What do you think about that?”

Rob studied the differences between the chiseled walls and the smoothness of the upper walls and ceiling, “Definitely a different technology.  Looks more like what our pulse laser does.”

Mike nodded, “Yeah, I was afraid of that.”

The tunnel stretched before them, the darkness shrouding anything that might be down there.  Their lights did nothing to dispel the shadows.

“What do you think, Mike, call the team?”

Mike shook his head, “No, not yet.  I want to make sure that we have as little exposure as possible.  We don’t know what’s down here.  I think you and I can do a little exploring before we go back to get them.”

They walked forward, keyed up, waiting for the next shoe to drop, whatever it may be.  Mike carefully placed his feet as he walked to ensure nothing tripped him up.  There was no way they could sneak up on anything, not with the explosion that had ripped the door off of the frame.  Still, they could be first on the trigger if it came to a fight.