The headlights drew closer as the truck neared their position. There were three aboard including the driver, all KzSha. As for what if anything was being carried in the back, Taylor couldn’t tell. The entire cargo hold was covered by a tarp.
Please be empty. Taylor prepared to move. “Get ready, Aysep… And go!”
The little Caroon darted out into the open and began waving his arms, bringing the truck to a scratching halt in the middle of the pavement. The hauler doors swung open, and two of the KzSha jumped out.
“What is the—” A deluge of blue blood sprayed the pavement when the wasp’s head was ripped free of its body courtesy of two massive Sumatozou hands.
Well, that answers that.
Before guard two could react, Taylor split the wasp’s skull with his ripper chisel, then bashed its head against the truck fender, while Aysep impaled the driver on one of his claws.
Not a single scream was heard.
“Haju, quick. Help me with these.” Taylor grabbed one of the corpses by what passed for ankles and dragged it into hiding behind a nearby pile of rocks, while Haju did the same with the others. Once the street had been cleared, the duo scrambled back to the cargo hold and threw back the tarp, finding the bay empty, as expected.
“Aysep, you’re on driver duty,” Taylor said, jumping in. “Haju, you’re with me in the back. Let’s roll.”
Haju gave a quick side to side glance at the street before joining Taylor under the tarp. A few seconds later, the truck’s engines fired up to move out.
“I understand chauffer plan,” Aysep said from the cab. “Which zone, your friends?”
“I’ve got no idea,” Taylor said. “I just know it ain’t far underground from the warehouse we were just hidin’ behind.”
The Caroon made a chittering sound as he ground the truck into gear. After that, the group was on their way.
“I take that to mean he knows where we’re going?” Haju asked.
“Just for grins and giggles, let’s play optimist and say yeah,” Taylor answered.
A strange object rolled across the floorboard and thumped to a stop against Taylor’s boot.
“Is that what I think it is?” Haju asked.
Taylor leaned down and scooped the tiny piece of ore, inspecting it in his palm. “I’d say that’s a yes, too. The real question is, what’s so important about a bunch of weird alien rocks that Akoya’s benefactors would go to this much trouble to dig them out of a frozen ice planet?”
“Rocks not important,” Aysep said. “Important inside.”
Taylor arched an eyebrow. “What’s inside the rocks?”
The Caroon reached into the pouch he’d been wearing on his side and produced a small object the size of a peanut. He held it up to show the others.
“Oh, my…” Haju trailed off before he could finish his statement.
The red diamond in Aysep’s grasp sparkled in the dashboard lights as if it were on fire.
“Caroon brought to Droxis like everyone else,” Aysep explained. “We told, ‘rip mines, harvest ore, keep diamond secret. Then be free when project finished. Or be sold as slaves.’ Most choose to dig, stay quiet. I take diamond when mate, me try escape. KzSha caught mate. Did not find diamond. Now, is my future on new world.”
Taylor’s thoughts spun like a cyclone in his head over the magnitude of what this could mean. “Just out of curiosity, how many red diamonds do y’all net from every bin of ore your ripper teams extract from that mine?”
“Roughly one diamond per fifty kilograms,” Aysep said. “Sometimes more, others less.”
Taylor aimed a wide-eyed stare at Haju. “Somebody’s makin’ a shitload of credits off this place. We’re talkin’ about the kind of coin that allows a man to ride off into the sunset to his own private island, never to be heard from again.”
“You have no idea.” Haju’s expression was stone serious. “If what the Caroon says about the ore’s yield rate is true—and considering how much kambersite has already been excavated—then the wealth accrued from this operation goes far beyond someone’s dreams of a flush retirement. That’s the sort of affluence that overthrows governments and turns the tides of wars.”
Taylor felt a chill. But whose war?
The light from a string of distant buildings vanished through the cracks in the tarp as the truck began its descent into the facility’s underground. The vehicle made a series of turns afterward before eventually slowing to another stop.
“I talk,” Aysep said.
Taylor didn’t argue. A moment later, the brakes squelched, and a synthesized voice was heard outside.
“You are early,” the KzSha guard said.
“Dragline malfunctioned,” Aysep said. “Repairs now, but kambersite bins backing up. Need more workers, finish shift.”
Taylor tensed on his seat. Dammit, Aysep. They’re gonna put in a call to check that! Then it hit him. The KzSha didn’t have comms underground, either. That meant they’d have to send someone to the mine cavern to verify the dragline story, if they even saw fit to take things that far.
“Proceed,” the guard said after what felt like an eternity.
Aysep fired up the engine and eased on the accelerator.
Whew. Taylor watched from under the tarp as the cargo truck navigated the maze of caging areas toward the confinement zone’s right-side perimeter, where it eased to another stop with the engine running. After that, a door creaked open and footfalls touched the rocky ground outside ahead of jingling cage wire.
“Out,” Aysep said. “Into truck. Now.”
More footfalls
