Thieves of Light

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

With a mouth large enough to engulf a human head, jaws strong enough to snap a femur like a matchstick, and a spiked tail that would have been at home on a stegosaurus, a Dog was never a welcome sight. To have one spring at you without warning out of the darkness, snarling and clawing, was almost too much to bear.

Only the speed of Pike's reflexes prevented the surprise from being a fatal one. He had been standing a step behind and just to the right of Li-hon as the sergeant made the sign of the Light and entered the Guard's special override code into the vault controller. When the door began to slide open, Pike was the first to glimpse movement inside the vault.

The possibility that some of Majestic's complement had taken refuge in the vault kept Pike from firing blindly through the gap between the moving door and the jamb. But he was on alert, and when the stale-cooking-grease smell of Dog reached the olfactory sensors in the roof of his mouth, his fingers squeezed down on the trigger of his Allison without conscious thought.

As the first Dog lunged through the doorway, Li-hon started backpedaling in search of fighting room, barking out a warning to the rest of the platoon. His scope-sighted pulse cannon was slung on his back, out of reach but useless anyway in close quarters.

With a clear target at last, Pike fired into the Dog's gaping mouth, and a smell like burnt cinnamon flooded the room. The Dog screamed, shook its head violently, and prepared to launch itself at Pike. But Pike's next shot seared the Dog's eyes, unprotected under the rim of the ornate helmet. Its snarl turned into a squeal of pain, and the creature shied and rocked back on its tail, clawing at its face.

But by then a second Dog had burst through the opening and past Pike in pursuit of Li-hon. Pike finished off the first Dog with a long shot that burned down through its flat forehead and into its braincase, then he turned to see what he could do for his commander.

Vibrablade gripped in his right hand, Li-hon had stopped his retreat and was keeping the Dog at bay with powerful kicks from his booted right foot. But instead of ducking or flinching from the kicks, the Dog was perversely turning its head towards each blow, enduring the battering for a chance to snap at-and maybe snap off-Li-hon's foot.

So far Li-hon had been quicker, but his sledgehammer blows did not seem to be having any effect. The close calls with the Dog's jaws had already left deep gouges in the thick boot material, and the surface of the boot was coated with the Dog's acidic saliva.

Pike targeted the sensitive area near the base of the Arrian's tail and squeezed the trigger. It was not a potentially killing shot, but he expected the Dog to turn on him, giving Li-hon a chance to use the blade.

But instead, the Dog yelped and lunged forward toward the enemy in its eyes, seizing Li-hon's left leg above the knee and tearing away a dinner-plate-sized swatch of the reinforced fighting suit and a huge gobbet of the leathery flesh underneath.

The vibrablade came down and carved a canyon through the Dog's massive neck, and the beast's legs buckled. It fell slack-jawed at Li-hon's feet, the end of its tail twitching three times before the light in its black eyes died. Blood was everywhere, both the thick deep cherry-red variety coursing from Li-hon's wound and the Dog's thin ocher slime.

Li-hon rocked back on his heels, the tension draining from his limbs. He slipped the vibrablade into the half-shredded sheath on his left boot and looked toward Pike.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," he said. "I always feel like I'm trespassing when I go into a vault without a crystal handler there. I never stopped to think that an Arrian might actually consider hiding inside. As if they would respect the place and what it means. Stupid."

"Don't kick yourself too hard. It's a new trick," Pike said. "Almost more creative than I thought they were capable of. You all right?"

Li-hon glanced down at his thigh. The concave wound was deep, raw and ugly, but the thick blood was already congealing into a rubbery jelly. "For now," he said. "Let's finish this."

They picked their way past the bodies of their attackers and into the vault. There were eight crystal receptacles in the arch-ceilinged chamber, four on each side. Li-hon was not surprised to see that they were all empty, the locking bars burned through and bent back by brute force.

"They got the crystals," Li-hon announced tautly on the command circuit. "Bhodi? Parcival? Report. What's going on out there?"

Bhodi and Parcival had their own problems. Li-hon's alert had brought Bhodi running, but also brought Parcival scampering back around to the near side of Majestic and the entry point the others had used. The moment Parcival saw Bhodi coming across the valley floor, he went wild.

"Get back to your post!" Parcival screamed. "Get back to your post!"

Uncertainty prompted by Parcival's words caused Bhodi to slow his steps. Just as he did, a high-powered phaser blast blackened the sand just in front of him, exactly where he would have been had he kept stride.

He stumbled into a dive roll and came up running once more. Since he was more than halfway to Majestic, he kept going in that direction, zigzagging as sharply as the footing would allow. His chest was tight with terror. His skin prickled with anticipation of the fiery heat that would take his legs out from under him and drop him in the open to die. Ahead, Parcival ducked into the shelter of Majestic's hatchway.

But it did not seem as though Bhodi were fired at again. When he joined Parcival in the hatchway, Bhodi could finally afford to look back and see why. The gunner had turned his attention to the pod, and with devastating effect, showing the power of the weapon he was using. There were two scorched holes in the hull already, and a flickering light inside showed that the pod was starting to burn.

"You were saying?" Bhodi said tersely.

Parcival ignored him. "I notified Captain Yier that we've got snipers and had him recall the Regulars. No sense bringing them down into the middle of this."

Bhodi peeked out the doorway again. "Awfully considerate, considering you didn't even bother to give me any covering fire. They're right up there on that high ridge, along the south rim-"

"Forget it. We can't do anything from here except get ourselves in more trouble," Parcival said. "Which is why you didn't get any cover fire."

"Why can't we do anything?"

"Too far." He glanced at his right wrist, checking the rangemeter. "They're 430 meters away."

"I can hit them-"

"But you can't hurt them. Inverse-square rule-distance costs power. You can't light up the new moon with a flashlight. And phasers are nothing but fancy flashlights."

With a whump that echoed off the rock faces of the valley, what was left of the pod exploded. Fragments large and small scattered in a circle around it.

"Then we'll have to go up and get them," Bhodi said.

"How? Charge the ridge? Face facts, Bhodi. We're outgunned. Let's be glad Majestic's got a thick skin and go see if we can help the Sarge."

That was when both heard the welcome sound of Li-hon's voice demanding their report. Parcival quickly summarized the situation for Li-hon, courteously leaving out any mention of Bhodi abandoning his post.

"Stay put," Li-hon said. "We'll be there in a moment."

Four made a crowd in the entry way. Li-hon took the spot nearest the open hatch, with Parcival pressed into a corner beside him. Pike filled the middle of the chamber, and Bhodi found himself pushed nearly out of the compartment and completely out of the conversation.

"How many do you think?" Li-hon asked Parcival.

"There's only a single fire point. I'd say one, with a C-class laser cannon."

"Another Dog?" Pike wondered.

"No," Li-hon said. "They don't have the discipline to work as snipers. A Dog would've come charging down out of the rocks the minute we stepped out of the pod."

"A Destructor, then."

"That's my guess," Parcival said.

Li-hon nodded. "He's there to pick off anyone that gets away from the Dogs. Except he should have left the pod alone, so we'd have a reason to come out. Not too smart."

"Like I said, a Destructor," Pike said with a crooked grin. "What do you say?"

"Whatever we do, we have to do fast."

"Why?" Bhodi said from the rear.

Li-hon twisted his head to look back at Bhodi. "Because the Arrians can't support a nest this deep in our territory, and they wouldn't just abandon a team here, even for a clever ambush."

Bhodi suddenly understood. "Which means that there's an Arr ship somewhere upstairs playing hide and seek with Zephyr and a warren somewhere down here with the crystals inside."

"Exactly so. And if we want to get them back and save this planet for the Light, we've got to get moving."

"Not to mention if we want to get out of this valley alive."

"That, too."

Pike edged forward to steal a peek out the door. "Quiet out there now. Do you have the spot?"

"Yes," Li-hon said. "If he hasn't moved."

"I'll bet he is moving. He's got his choice of a thousand meters of ridge."

"Ideas, anyone?" Li-hon asked.

Pike shook his head. "There isn't going to be much we can do if our friend keeps his head down. Gonna be hard to get above him. What about a little air support? Let Mlas bring the other pod down and have a shot at him."

"No," Li-hon said. "He may have friends elsewhere in the rocks. We can't risk the second pod."

Bhodi suggested, "What about the chances of cutting the cliff out from under his feet? Parcival?"

"I was thinking about that myself and ran a couple quick calculations. That's solid granite. I don't think we could cut it faster than he could move."

Pike looked to Li-hon and eyed the pair of club-handled grenades tucked into the Qeth's utility belt. "Think you can reach the top with a tin can?"

"If I have time to get out the door and get my feet planted solidly, and if we can keep him from burning it on the way down."

"And if we know where he is."

"I'll draw," Parcival said, edging toward the door.

"I'll cover," Pike said. "Give me the pipe."

Li-hon unsnapped the sling on the pulse cannon and passed it to Pike.

"What do you want me to do?" Bhodi asked.

"Stay put."

"No," Bhodi said. "Not again. I'll draw. Not Parcival."

"Don't treat me like a kid, Bhodi," Parcival said. "It's my job."

"It's not that," Bhodi said, shaking his head. "I'm faster than you are, so I've got a better chance of not getting hit. And I'm less valuable than you, so if I do get hit, it doesn't matter."

Parcival looked to Li-hon, asking for his adjudication.

"Right on both counts," Li-hon pronounced. "Come up here, Bhodi. You're first out the door."

Bhodi did not quite understand why he had volunteered to offer himself as a target to the Arrian gunner high in the rocks. But as he crouched in the doorway, tensing in anticipation of Li-hon's signal, he knew that it was the right thing to do.

It was more than rebellion against being sheltered from danger, more than his inability to forget that Parcival was the same age as Ralphie-next-door, who still cried over skinned knees. It was more even than pride and ego driving him to show that he wasn't afraid.

It was, he thought, linked somehow to the sudden insight that, in this moment at least, the platoon was better with him than without him-that with his contribution, more of them might make it back to Zephyr, even if he himself did not.

That seemed to be the reason, but it did not make sense. He owed them nothing, least of all his own life. He hadn't accepted their fight as his own, hadn't acknowledged any responsibility for anyone's survival but his own. But here he was, about to tempt fate twice, and perversely happy about it.

He locked his gaze on the burned-out shell of the pod. If I can reach there, I'll have cover, he told himself. What's the world record time for 200 meters? Twenty seconds? I could sure hit me with that much time Li-hon touched Bhodi's shoulder. "We're ready. Remember-evasive. You can't outrun a phaser bolt."

"Fine last words for me to hear," Bhodi said and leaped out onto the sand.

There was no place for Parcival in the queue that was forming at the door, so he maneuvered himself into a place where he and the combat recorder built into the chest pod would have a clear view of the action.

Bhodi was the first out, lighting down smoothly and sprinting toward the pod. His long strides ate up the open ground quickly-ten meters, twenty, thirty. Parcival caught himself whispering under his breath: Run, Bhodi, run like you never have.

Then the Arrian sniper opened up, and things started happening. Bhodi ran through the fringe of the sniper's ranging shot, stumbled and broke stride. Parcival feared for a moment that Bhodi was going to fall down, which would almost certainly be fatal. But he caught himself and angled sharply right, limping slightly.

An eye blink later, Li-hon jumped down to the ground, his gaze locked on the sniper's new location. After a two-step windup that reminded Parcival of an outfielder cranking up for a throw from right field to home, Li-hon let fly with the grenade in his right hand.

At the same time, Pike stood up in the entry way and opened fire, raking the cliff's edge with the pulse cannon. His efforts created a cascade of rock litter down the near-vertical slope and drew the sniper's attention away from Bhodi.

The grenade arched high in the air, propelled by Li-hon's muscular explosion. But either his estimate of the distance was wrong or his injured left leg did not give him the thrust he needed. The grenade bounced harmlessly against the granite wall a bare meter or two from the top, skittered down the face, and exploded harmlessly in midair.

Head turned to the side as he ran, Bhodi saw the grenade fall short, and Parcival could almost feel Bhodi's anxiety surge to new heights in the instant following. His gait noticeably slowed by the hit he had taken, Bhodi lowered his head and cut back to the left.

But Bhodi was no longer the most important target for the Arrian. Following typical Destructor priorities, the sniper Fixed his attention on the largest "enemy" at hand. Majestic's hull sizzled as the sniper poured energy onto it. Pike answered back shot for shot, trying to force the sniper to cover.

Li-hon stood calmly in the open, seemingly oblivious to the thousands of watts of energy pouring down in his direction from the cliff. He armed the second grenade, took it in his left hand this time, and hurled it toward the rocks with a Herculean effort. His left leg buckled and he went to one knee to watch the flight of the clublike bomb, making no effort to retreat into the wreck.

Higher, higher, the grenade flew, spinning gracefully end for end, until it reached the apogee of its arc and started downward. Too late the sniper saw it, and redirected his fire upward. But the phaser cannon was a poor weapon against a small, fast-moving object, and the grenade fell untouched on the high plateau just a few meters to the east of the sniper's position.

An instant later that entire section of the cliffs edge lit up with an eerie light like a massive lightning strike, and a sound like thunder rumbled through the valley. Lowering the pulse cannon from his shoulder, Pike slipped down from the entry way and went to Li-hon's side. A hundred meters away on the valley floor, Bhodi came to a stop and started walking back.

"What the hell was that?" Pike asked.

"An enhanced-yield grenade," Parcival said, coming forward out of the ship. "I've been working on them for the Sarge."

"Correction," Li-hon said. "That was the end of one sniper." He reached for his chest pod and signaled the ship. "Captain Yier. Send the pod down, all possible speed. The Regulars have a lot of work to do down here, and we've got an Arrian warren to find."

It was all over, and yet not quite. Bhodi found himself waiting for someone to recognize him for what he had done, for Li-hon to amend his estimation of Bhodi's worth to the platoon.

But beyond asking about Bhodi's condition-a hamstring had suddenly tightened up when he stutter-stepped at full speed-Li-hon said nothing to Bhodi while they waited for the pod's arrival. Bhodi was not sure what he expected or even deserved-do you thank someone for doing their job? Or their duty?

But a short time later, as they left the pod after docking with Zephyr, Bhodi overheard a brief exchange between Yier and Li-hon that gave him everything that he could have asked for.

"How did the kid do?" Yier asked.

"I didn't bring any kids with me," Li-hon said as he brushed by. "But Bhodi did all right."