“You got it,” Will replied.
She glanced at the overhead map, and watched the blue dots representing the drones advance. The airborne machines spread out, and swooped down, moving among the hills. Gizmo held its current altitude, maintaining the “eye in the sky” position.
A flashing waypoint appeared on the map.
“We’ve got a cave entrance,” Will announced. A moment later he added: “Another.”
Over the next several minutes, the drones marked off another three entrances, for a total of five.
“There’s no others in the immediate vicinity,” Will said. “I’m sending three scouts forward to continue the search.”
Three of the drone scouts buzzed over the horizon, while the others ascended to join Gizmo.
The SUVs and their autonomous escorts reached the highlands shortly thereafter. The latter machines broke away, racing ahead to assume guard positions in front of each of the five entrances.
“Caves are secured,” Will announced. “The autos aren’t picking up any targets inside.”
“Bring us to within fifty meters of the closest cave,” Rhea ordered.
The two SUVs halted the aforementioned distance from the first cave. Three technicals stood guard in a semicircle before it, plasma turrets pointing into the darkness. She tapped into the LIDAR feed from one of the technicals, and the murk beyond the entrance became overlaid with white polygons, silhouetting the walls, ceiling and floor of the tunnel. She quickly realized that it wasn’t big enough to fit the pickup trucks, nor the SUVs.
She similarly tapped into the LIDAR feeds of technicals placed before the other caves and came to the same conclusions on each of them. If she wanted to explore any of these tunnels, she and her companions would have to leave the vehicles behind.
After five minutes the drone scouts returned.
“There are no obvious cave entrances for the next seven kilometers,” Will said. “However, the foothills extend for another fifteen kilometers beyond that. There could very well be more tunnels further north.”
“Send one of the drones further north,” Rhea said. “I want a map of the entire highlands. In the meantime, have the rest explore these five caves. Starting with the first.”
Will nodded. “One drone north, and the remainder to the first cave.”
Gizmo maintained its holding pattern overhead as the remaining drones swooped downward. In moments they were piling into the entrance beside her.
When they vanished from view, Rhea glanced at the overhead map, and watched as the cave was mapped out in realtime. So far, there was nothing in that tunnel except bare rock.
One of the drones halted as it neared the maximum extents of signal range. Meanwhile, the others pressed on. They occasionally sidetracked to explore smaller side passages, only to return to the main tunnel when the aforementioned passage ended.
Meanwhile, drones continued to drop out, one at a time, stringing out in a long line as the maximum range of each was attained. They did this so as to act as repeaters, allowing the party waiting on the surface to watch in realtime.
Eventually, though, there weren’t enough drones to act as repeaters, and the lead scout proceeded alone. Its indicator froze as it passed beyond maximum range, and the map stopped updating.
After a tense ten minutes, the unmapped sections abruptly filled out—the drone had returned.
“Look at that,” Miles said. “There was definitely some sort of a camp in that one. Recently abandoned. Seems almost like they just got up and left everything.”
Rhea zoomed in on the newly mapped section, which harbored an extensive cavern. Near the entrance to that chamber, several supply crates were stacked in one corner. Further on were alcoves, partitioned off from one another by 3D-printed walls. Some of these alcoves contained articles of clothing and other personal belongings.
There was a fire pit in the center of the cavern, with a high-tech air filter squatting next to it. On the chamber’s far side was yet another 3D-printed alcove, though this one was filled with a suspicious looking liquid—the drone had marked it as exuding high concentrations of methane. Likely the communal latrine.
“Guess we scared them off,” Will said. “And to think, you were worried the mayor’s strike force would have that effect. They probably hightailed it as soon as they detected our drones. I’ve dealt with a few of these Black Hands before… not the most courageous people you’ll meet.”
“Yes, but there are still four more caves,” Rhea patiently told her friend.
The drones proceeded to map the second and third caves in a similar manner, and while harboring extensive tunnel systems in their own right, these caves otherwise proved empty. There were no signs of habitation.
At the fourth cave, the drones spread out as usual to act as repeaters. The lead drone passed beyond the maximum range, and stopped transmitting, as expected, with its icon freezing on the overhead map.
Rhea waited expectantly for the map to update.
Ten minutes passed. No update.
Twenty. Still nothing.
A half hour.
“You think this cave is really big enough to warrant such a delay?” Will asked impatiently. “Or something else happened?”
“I’m leaning toward the latter,” Rhea said.
“Up until the time the lead drone stopped transmitting, no signs of habitation were found,” Horatio said. “This tends to imply no bioweapons reside within.”
“I agree,” Rhea said. “But it doesn’t rule out Veil or the Black Hands.” She paused, then made up her mind: “Let’s recall the remaining drones and get the fifth cave mapped out. If the missing drone emerges from the fourth within that time, great. If not, we’re going to have to go in and check it ourselves.” She paused. “By the way, has the drone we sent north reported back yet?”
“Nope,” Will replied.
He sent the drones into the fifth tunnel, however it proved just as empty as caves two and three.
“Well then, that’s that,” Rhea said. “Take us to the fourth cave.”
Will took control of the SUV and drove it toward the fourth cave, where four technicals stood watch. The other SUV joined them.
“You really want to do this?” Will asked. “It’s obviously
