attack incoming right now. There would be no defensive action possible other than trying to lift our five hundred bricks and run, and we couldn’t outrun them in that case, not even on the surface.
“I want you right here, running this big board. You are good at the big picture, Major,” I said, blowing praise at him in hopes it would stick.
“Better than you, sir?” he asked.
“Don’t push, Major.”
“Sorry sir. How many of our troops do you plan on taking on this safari?”
I glanced at him sharply. “Do we have a problem, Major?”
“I just want to set up the duty roster, Colonel.”
“I’ll take three companies. There are three spots the Worms can breach into, allowing them the use of their existing tunnels to speed up their approach. I’ll lead the middle group, where I think these unsubtle invertebrates are most likely to come up.”
Major Robinson studied his portion of the big table, tapping at it and making swirling motions with his fingers to alter the orders for three companies of marines. “Anything else?”
“Yeah. We’ll go in silent and dark. We’ll have suit lights and receivers on, but I want the transmitters switched off. I don’t want the Worms to know what they are digging into.”
Robinson continued to slap at the table. I could tell he was irritated.
“Major, come to my office for a chat, will you?” I asked.
“Certainly, sir,” he said, straightening and walking past me. He never met my eyes as he did it. He didn’t look surprised.
I followed him to my office. Sandra greeted us like a girl exploding out of a cake. Fortunately, she was fully dressed. She popped up out of her seat, lips formed into a wild greeting. She stopped short, seeing Robinson was with me.
“Sandra, could you excuse us for a second?” I asked.
Sandra nodded and slid by me, running her fingers across my chest as she did it. I marveled, watching her slink by. She could turn me on with the slightest touch. She had a gift for it.
I turned back to Robinson, who watched me smugly.
“Shouldn’t you be heading out, sir?” he said.
“What’s your problem, Robinson?”
“No problem, sir. Sorry if I-stepped on your cape, so to speak.”
I stiffened. “Superman wears a cape, Major, not me.”
“Exactly, sir.”
I glared at him for several seconds. “You really want to do this, Robinson? This will be your first field combat assignment.”
“Not so, sir. I fought in North Africa-”
“Cut the crap, man!” I barked. “We aren’t talking about a bunch of half-starved militia with Kalashnikovs, here. We are talking about fifteen to twenty foot long Worms in a dark tunnel. Worms with bad attitudes.”
Robinson shrugged and headed for the door.
“You aren’t dismissed yet, Major.”
“Request permission to return to duty, sir,” he said, standing there, still not looking at me.
I frowned, sucked in a huge breath, then let it out. “You take the men down. But don’t screw the pooch, Major.”
He looked at me in honest surprise. “I didn’t think you’d give it to me.”
“So, the spoiled brat routine was all a show?”
“No sir. I’ll take the mission.”
“Get out of here. And make sure you come back.”
I watched him trot to the airlock, a changed man. He hadn’t fought the Macros. He hadn’t fought the Worms-not up close and personally. He was excited and happy. I stared after him like a worried father. I felt like I’d just given a teenager the keys to my Ferrari.
— 46-
I went back to the command post and leaned on the screens. I told myself there were plenty of good reasons to send Major Robinson. For one, I needed the time to work on new programming for our factories. We’d just set them up and they were churning out fresh nanites to make thicker, wider pads underneath our base to keep the Worms at bay. I knew there were a dozen other, better uses for the factories, which were in many ways our most powerful asset. One plan was to keep producing nanites, enough to weave a tough net of soil deep beneath the baked surface of Helios. I didn’t have much hope for that one. The Worms could break through any such net, given time. Besides, the underground net would have to be huge. If they began using nuclear mines, they didn’t have to get very close to wipe us out.
I had a better idea. I needed a new type of vehicle. One designed to tunnel into the heart of an eighty thousand foot high mountain. The trouble was, I couldn’t be sure the enemy was going to give me the time I needed to design and build these new machines. The Worms clearly had an agenda of their own, and they weren’t out of ideas yet.
I watched via base cameras as Robinson gathered his three companies and equipped them sparsely for light, fast maneuvers. When dawn broke with alarming suddenness, sending the surface temperatures upward ten degrees in ten minutes, he led his troops out of our base of steel bricks and marched them toward the black, hulking mountains. His three companies didn’t have to go far to enter the Worm tunnels. The nearest mouth was only fifty feet from the camp perimeter.
Each of the three targeted tunnels quickly swallowed an entire company of my marines. I watched them go, flicking my fingers one against another. I cracked my knuckles. Each one individually. Captain Sarin winced at the popping sounds, but I kept going until two joints on every finger had clicked. After that, I noticed the men had vanished as if I’d already buried them. Oddly, I felt better.
“Pull in the hovertanks,” I ordered. “We’ll let the enemy think we are withdrawing to await another assault here in our base. Leave only two out there. Turn off the active pinging, have the last two sit and listen passively. Tell them to be quiet, too. I’m sure these bastard Worms have good hearing.”
After that, we waited. There were no transmissions coming from the three companies of marines. We didn’t want the Worms to know they were there, waiting in ambush.
“The Worms are still coming, sir,” Captain Sarin murmured.
I smiled at her. “Don’t worry, they can’t hear us in here.”
“Sorry, sir,” she said.
“How long have we got?”
“Robinson and his men will be in position in eight minutes.”
I looked toward the door. Beyond it was the corridor, my office, and Sandra. I didn’t really have time to go in there and tell her I’d sent Robinson rather than risking my own skin this time. I pulled up an app and sent her a private text.
A moment later, the answer came with a tiny ding.
Frowning, I checked my person for a new bell. I found it in my suit. She had planted a little transmitter in my back pocket while she had patched me up after the last fight. I flicked it off and put it back in my pocket. I eyed the thing, shaking my head.
The app dinged again.
“Sir, something’s happening,” said Captain Sarin. “The contact is turning. They are coming up toward tunnel three.”
Robinson himself was waiting in tunnel two, the central tunnel. His company formed a cool green glow of massed contacts, waiting underground for the digging machines to arrive. I studied the screen.
