“I send seven of my best PLA, and only one comes back.” Yang’s eyes were like obsidian chips in the flashlight’s glare. “It would be too much to hope that the Americans are all dead.”
Yang stared for a moment longer at Han Biao before turning to look along the granite-hard expressions of his men. “And now it seems we are trapped down here… with them.” He could only assume that the Americans were sent to stop him from getting to the submarine, and if they came in via the elevator shaft, then they must have overrun the base.
A serious problem, he thought. This was the time where command could slip, and fear caused stupidity and rebellion. Yang would not let that happen. The men would die on their feet, and never give up; he’d see to that. First he needed a common enemy — fear could kill, but fear could also unite.
“The Americans will try and stop our mission. They will try to kill us all — shoot us dead or bury us alive.” He slowly looked at each. “They will try.” He shook his head. “But they do not know who we are.”
Yang spun. “Tell me!” he roared.
As one, came the reply: “The mountain bows, the ocean splits before us; we are PLA Elite.” The men shouted the words, the loudest coming from the giant Mungoi, the ogreish man’s wide-spaced eyes furious in their fervor.
Yang held up a fist. “We fear no pain, fear no challenge, and fear no death.” After a moment, he dropped his hand and looked up above his head into the cave roof as if seeing the light of day, miles above.
“We are too deep, there will be no rescue attempt.” He waited, letting the words sink in. “We have been given a mission, and we will complete it.” He looked back at his men, but let his eyes rest on Shenjung Xing.
“Mission success first, then, we obliterate the enemy.” He pointed to the dust covered Han Biao. “You.” Then he nodded to the endless black depths of the cave. “Lead us out, fearless warrior.”
Hours passed, and the caves led ever downward. Shenjung Xing started to feel a coil of nausea from exhaustion, and wished now that he had spent a little more time exercising instead of researching.
Yang pushed them hard, and Shenjung guessed it was to ensure that physical exertion would leave little room for claustrophobia, dissention, or fear. Sweat streamed as the warmth rose upon the hour, and sometimes the walls closed in so much that he and the soldiers had to move sideways through massive fissures in the walls that looked ominously like they were about to close back up, crushing their insignificant bodies to paste between giant slabs of unyielding granite.
At times he felt like a rat running through a maze in the dark, and often they had to skirt around massive chasms that dropped away to fathomless dark depths. At one, Yang called a halt. The PLA captain went to the edge and crouched. He held up a hand, and the watching soldiers immediately quietened. He closed his eyes, and after a few seconds he half turned.
“Doctor Shenjung, come here, please.”
Shenjung approached and crouched beside him.
“Listen,” Yang said without turning.
Shenjung stared down into the depths, slowed his breathing, and concentrated. Then, there it was, the constant movement of liquid far down below them.
“Perhaps an underground river.”
Yang grunted. “This is good news. Water comes from somewhere and goes somewhere.” He stood. “Now we have two options — follow its source, or its destination. Either could be a way out. And a way to the sub.”
“Maybe not,” Shenjung said. “Its origination point might not be a place, but instead could be a thousand hairline cracks in the deep rock that allows seepage.” He also got to his feet.
“Then we have an easy choice — its destination will be our goal.” Yang put his hands on his hips, his chest out. “Following a river is easier than trying to push upstream anyway.”
Shenjung sighed. “Its destination could be nothing more than a buried sea, and we…”
Yang quickly held a hand up to his face, then leaned closer. “Comrade Shenjung Xing, we need to keep the men’s spirits high. Do you not agree?”
The man’s sudden movement made Shenjung momentarily jerk backwards. But Shenjung knew that hopelessness and fear would be a bigger threat to them than falling into a hole.
“Yes, yes, you are probably right. Perhaps it will lead to the surface somewhere.”
Shenjung looked back down into the shadowy depths. We are heading ever downward, he thought. And far away from the light. He turned to look up at the roof of the cave above him, feeling the oppressive weight of the millions upon millions of tons of stone. He hoped Soong made it out.
“Yes,” he said at last. “Water moving that fast will be a powerful erosion factor — and water usually finds its way out.”
Yang grunted. “Then let us find that river. Our mission depends on it.”
And perhaps all our lives, thought Shenjung.
CHAPTER 30
“Take five.” Casey Franks used a forearm to wipe her brow, and then motioned for Aimee to follow her.
The cavern they were now in was dust-dry and the size of a football field. The HAWCs immediately sat and sipped water, sparingly, but no one ate — all resources were finite now. Casey continued to walk Aimee a few paces away, and Soong stood watching with arms folded, looking edgy around the McMurdo soldiers and the HAWCs.
Casey blew air through compressed lips and stepped in closer to Aimee. “I’m flying blind here. We keep tracking the sub, and blow the shit out of anything that gets in front of us. But then what? I have no idea how to climb us back out.” She grimaced. “I can incapacitate an armed combatant in three seconds, can pilot a chopper, a tank, and even disable a nuke if I have to, but down here, that asshole Hagel is right; I’m outta my depth.” She raised her eyebrows. “Your report — you’ve been down here. You made it out. What am I supposed to do?”
Aimee ran one hand up through her slick hair. “What we do is survive.” She knew that their options were to wander around in the caves until their food, water, and lights ran out, and then just sit down and wait to die. Or maybe die horribly, but quickly, somewhere lower down. She looked past Casey to the lounging HAWCs, all armed and formidable. Casey was the same. If she gave them a choice, it’d be to face the horrors, to fight, and then perhaps prevail. None would choose lying down and dying in the darkness.
“We found a way out before. It’s sealed now, but only by ice and snow. Hammerson knows where that is.” She exhaled. “First we need to find our way down to the sea.” She worked at sounding confident. “You’ve read the reports, you know what to expect. But we can make it.”
“Yeah, I’ve read the reports. I didn’t believe them.” Franks raised an eyebrow. “The monster under the ice, huh?”
“You guys better wise up.” Aimee sighed. “I’ve been there, and I’ve survived. You like to fight. Well, you’ll damn well get your chance.” She gave Casey a crooked half smile. “High risk of death, for the chance at life. Good deal, huh?”
Franks smiled back, the scar on her cheek making it look like a permanent sneer. “Fight or die. Yeah, I’ll take that.”
Aimee looked over Casey’s shoulder. “The caves are still sloping downwards. That’s where we need to go. Once we find the sea, if we’re anywhere near where I last was, I can find our way to the tunnels that lead close to the surface. Then we need to get a message out for them to dig down to us.”
Casey put a thumb in her belt. “Hey, on the bright side, if those warships face off up there, this may be the safest place to be.”