Operation Syria

— 21 —

Banks stood under the archway for several seconds, weapon trained on the exit off to his left, but the eyes of the spiders merely gazed implacably back at him, the beasts showing no sign of pressing an attack, content merely to block off the exits.

The sense of being herded got even stronger when Banks turned away and once again led the group down the worked tunnel. Hynd spoke in his helmet after twenty yards.

“They’re following us, Cap. Staying beyond our light. Should I let them have a volley?”

“Negative. Save your ammo. I’ve got a feeling we’re going to need every bullet before too long.”

The excited clacking of the spiders echoed around them as they went down farther into the tunnel. It descended in a gradual slope but there was little danger of falling as the path was dry and even underfoot. All they had to worry about was the spiders, which matched their pace, coming on at their back.

All of Banks’ instincts were telling him they were heading into trouble but he’d brought them all this far and at each stage had made what he’d thought to be the correct decision for their safety. He could only hope he’d get a chance to make another.

He was starting to worry about the descent — it had taken a turn westward and was surely taking them under rather than toward the town walls. Judging distances in his head, he was pretty sure they were at the outskirts of town already and going deeper into the hill hadn’t been on his agenda. But there were only spiders and death at their backs, so he kept them on their course.

They arrived at the foot of the slope when the tunnel opened out into a far larger cavern beyond where they stood on a rocky ledge. There was evidence here that there had been a cave-in and recently at that, for rubble and dirt lay strewn around the cavern and high above, some thirty yards up a rocky slope to their left, the last of the daylight showed at an open hole. It was the dim light that had caught Banks’ eye first, so he was only alerted to the rest when Wiggins spoke, too loudly, at his back.

“Fuck me.”

Banks dropped his gaze from the daylight above and took in the rest of the chamber.

It was as large and high-vaulted as a medieval cathedral but instead of stained glass and tapestries, this one was decorated in web, in traceries and rope bridges, vast flowing sheets as smooth as silk, and nets as geometrically perfect as any fisherman’s. And right in the center, some thirty yards below where the squad stood on a ledge, in the center of all the webbing, sat a spider from out of an arachnophobe’s worst nightmare.

It was all white, as white as the webbing in which it sat, the only color in it the deep, blood-red of the huge set of compound eyes and the twin jet-black fangs, each as long as a man’s leg. The thing’s legs, each more than fifteen feet long on their own, sat splayed on the web, monitoring the vibrations, while the bulk of the body lay in darkness beyond, a swollen, bulbous, fleshy thing, rounded like a globe and pulsing obscenely, as if ready to burst. The spider wasn’t paying them any attention; all of its effort was going into feeding, as it plucked a human-sized cocoon from a pile in front of it, put it to its mouth and sucked like a child with a drinking straw, an obscene sound that echoed around the cavern.

“Where’s Sigourney fucking Weaver when we need her?” Wiggins said at Banks’ back.

Now that Banks’ eyesight had adjusted to the light in the cavern, he saw that there were numerous other caves leading off down below them, passages from which the dog-sized spiders scurried to and fro. He realized with dismay what kept them so busy. They were retrieving football-sized white balls from the rear of the large spider and ferrying them off in their scores down into lower levels of the system.

Those are eggs. Hundreds of eggs.

He turned to Hynd and spoke softly.

“How many of those wee gas canisters do we have, Sarge?”

“Two, Cap. Want them?”

“Not yet. If we start a fire now, we’ll fry ourselves into the bargain.” He pointed up the rocky slope to where the light, fading fast to darkness, had come in.

“There’s our way out. We head up there, double time, and if we get a chance, take this big fucker out from up there. We have to stay alive long enough to get above ground. I can call in the chopper once we’re clear.”

As a plan, it had the benefit of simplicity. But he’d forgotten about Brock’s injury.

“I’m not sure Badger can make it up yon slope, Cap,” Wiggins said.

“I’m fine,” Brock replied but his skin had taken on a pale, greasy look and his eyes were sunk deep in their sockets. Every movement caused him a flare of pain.

“We’ll fucking carry him if we have to,” Banks replied. “But we’re going up and we’re going now before we get noticed.”

Getting off the ledge proved to be the first hurdle to cross. The access to the slope and their way out was eight feet below their current position and no easy way to get to it.

“Sarge, Wilkins, watch our backs,” Banks said. “We’re going to have to take this as a relay.”

Davies, as the tallest of them, went first, lowering himself off the edge then dropping lightly to his feet on a large slab of rock below.

“It’s stable, sir,” he said. “Send them down.”

Banks helped Wiggins drop Brock down next. Davies managed to take the weight off the other private’s bad ankle but Brock let out a yelp of pain on landing. The white spider paused in its feeding and its left front leg trembled, testing the web, but Banks was able to let out a slow breath when it went back to its feeding.

“Best hurry, Cap,” Hynd said. “We’re going to have company. Yon wee ones are coming up behind us in the tunnel.”

Wiggins went next, dropping down beside Davies. Brock wasn’t able to put his weight on the wounded ankle and could only sit on the edge of the rock while Banks lowered first Kim, then Maggie, to the waiting men.

“Time’s up, Cap,” Hynd said. “Here they come.”

The remaining three men all dropped at the same time. The slab of rock moved, tilting alarmingly and sending a tumble of loosened debris deeper into the cavern. This time it definitely got the white spider’s attention. It ceased feeding and looked up, the plate-sized red eyes directed straight at them.

“Move out,” Banks said. “Up that slope, right now. The sarge and I will cover you. Shift your arses.”

The first of the smaller spiders looked over the ledge above them as Wiggins led the others away as fast as the hobbling Brock would allow.

“I think we’ve lost the element of surprise, Cap,” Hynd said evenly as two more of the dog-sized beasts appeared at the ledge above their heads. The only thing stopping them attacking was the presence of an overhang that, momentarily at least, had them confused.

“Time for the gas?” Hynd added, waving towards the main mass of web. “It’s not like we’re short of fuel.”

“Not yet,” Banks said. “We need to give the others a chance to at least get some way up the slope. How much ammo do you have?”

“Half a mag and a clip in the pistol.”

“Same here,” Banks replied. “Let’s see how many of these buggers we can take down with the rifles. Save the pistols if we can and back off as slow as we can. We only make a run for it if that big white fucker looks like coming our way; we’d need a fucking cannon to make a dent in that.”

The six others were already down off the slab of rock and had made their way to the foot of the rocky slope. Brock was clearly struggling, some paces behind the others and was about to tackle the incline when Wilkins dropped back to lend him a shoulder.

Above Banks and Hynd, the first of the smaller spiders made a tentative attempt to negotiate the overhang, before losing its footing and falling, a thrashing tangle of legs, at Banks’ feet. He put a single bullet in its eyes and crushed its body under his heel.

The sound of the shot rang around the chamber and brought an answering rat-a-tat clacking from the white spider, three beats that echoed as loud as the gunfire and brought an immediate response. Spiders, varying in size from the small, dog-sized up to the ones as big as cattle or bigger, poured out of the cavern entrances on the far side of their queen and, as if coordinated by some invisible signal, came on at speed, heading straight for Banks and Hynd.