“How much of this stuff is in each suit?” Mildred said.
Gabhart opened his mouth to answer. His eyes suddenly widened, almost bulging out of their sockets. Then blood gushed from his mouth and nostrils. He choked and sputtered, spraying gore as he strangled on the lining of his own lungs. His heels drummed on the tunnel floor, while his arms thrashed.
“Hold him down!” Mildred said.
They grabbed his arms and legs and pinned him to the glass.
“Let it go, Colonel,” Mildred told the desperately struggling man. “Just let it go. It’s done. It’s over. You did good.”
With a last, bubbling wheeze, Gabhart relaxed, his eyes fixed and staring at the ceiling.
“Brave man,” Ryan said.
“Came a long way to die so hard,” Mildred replied.
She gently touched the colonel’s eyelids, closing them. “Did you get what you needed?”
“Thanks to Gabhart, I’ve got the start of a plan,” Ryan said. “It’s gonna take all seven of us to pull it off. We’re going to need a couple of empty battlesuits.”
“Is that all?” Mildred said.
“Let’s get the colonel buried and start loading the sledge. We’ll meet up with the others topside.”
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, Ryan, Mildred and Dean pushed and dragged their full cart out of the mine. After they had traded ore for water, they hung around the compound until the other companions showed up.
Seeing that Gabhart wasn’t with them, Doc said, “Did the colonel shed this mortal coil?”
“About thirty minutes ago,” Mildred told him.
“Did he talk?” J.B. asked.
Ryan filled them in on what the colonel had said before he died. Then he quickly sketched out his plan.
“Problem I see,” the Armorer said when he was done, “is the suit-to-suit communications. If one of the guards hears his pal in trouble, he’ll either come running himself, tribarrel blazing, or he’ll call in the others. Either way, we’re cooked meat.”
“It just means we’ve got to occupy them both at the same time,” Ryan said. “Occupy them so they don’t have a chance to think about calling for help.”
“Get one to leave his post,” Mildred said, “while we strip the other one.”
“Jak, you’re the fastest runner,” Ryan said. “Think you can make one of them chase you?”
“Which?”
“Take the guy guarding the right fork,” Ryan said. “The other one is more my size.”
“Take him and lose him?”
“No. Lead him back to the fork.”
Jak nodded, then headed toward the mine by himself.
The companions paused a moment to give the albino teenager a good head start, then pushed their empty sledges after him. When they reached the main tunnel’s fork and the klieg lights, there was only one guard in evidence and he had his back turned toward them. He was staring down the right-hand fork, with the muzzle of his pulse rifle pointed at the floor.
J.B. jumped in the front cart’s ore box, and Ryan, Dean, Mildred and Doc started pushing it as fast as they could. On the slick surface, it picked up speed in a hurry. They aimed the sledge at the trooper, who whirled at the last second and tried to step out of the way. Ryan countered, throwing his weight to the outside, which caused the sledge to veer sharply. Before the guard could get his pulse rifle up, the bow of the sledge crashed into him and carried him hard into the wall.
An instant after impact, J.B. jumped out and onto the trooper, pulling him headfirst into the cart’s box. This tipped the guard’s legs into the air. While the man fought to get free, wildly kicking his legs, J.B. sat on the back of his helmet, pinning him to the bottom and sides of the sledge. The Armorer used his boots to keep the trooper’s hands off his throat mike’s activator.
Mildred grabbed one flailing leg, and Doc the other. Ryan slipped between the two with Dean’s dagger in his fist. His fingers found the battlesuit’s fuel nipple fill, then the edge of the armor plate. He pried up the plate and thrust the point of the bone blade under it. The dagger point slipped in perfectly. Its serrated edge slashed deep into the fuel bladder. Ryan ripped it back out, splitting the bladder wide open.