POD (The Pattern Universe) by Roote Tobias

Author:Roote, Tobias [Roote, Tobias]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: POD, book 2 in The Pattern Universe series.
Publisher: Roote Publishing
Published: 2014-03-23T00:00:00+00:00

- 13 -

As he looked down, nervously contemplating the consequences of jumping to his death if his shield failed, he felt the rope slip a little. Glancing up in a moment of pure terror, he saw Phelps straining to hold the thin cord in his hands. Now very glad he hadn’t let go, he had no time to wonder just how he had managed to avoid being thrown out over the mountain cliff. He must ask him sometime, if he got out of this in one piece.

Relieved at seeing his comrade, Baxter smiled, calling out to him in a forced jovial tone, “Move your backside, Phelps. It's damned cold out here.” As he said it he realised the truth of it; the cold wind was biting through his clothing, his hands fast becoming numb.

He didn’t hear Phelp’s reply, which was probably just as well.

As soon as Baxter got level with the sled he pulled himself onto it giving Phelps an opportunity to get himself off the cliff-side and onto a parked sled. The water no longer coming out of the side of the cliff imparted a totally different image of the place, cold, dark, forbidding and empty. With what they knew was being held back by the shield, they wanted to be long gone when it was released.

They didn’t have long and knew it. Each sled could be set in tandem; Phelps immediately took two sleds, and Baxter took one with two trailing him.

As they released the tractor beams on all the sleds, they drifted down and away from the cliff. As the lead sled, Baxter reset the GPS, his cold fingers barely registering the contact with the touch-screen His visor couldn’t be relied upon since the grenades had blasted the sensors on the outside so it would be a case of pointing the sleds and let the GPS take the strain.

They hugged the mountainside as close as they could manoeuvre without creating a flurry of snow in their wake. They had cut it fine as their sensitive sled sensors indicated hostiles coming into range headed directly for the waterfall, just as they curved around a mountain peak out of range of the enemy reception committee’s own sensors.

They had scouted out a location on the way in that would give them some cover, which they reached within an hour. Hidden under an outcrop of rock that would deflect most sensors, they waited there, slowly freezing as the temperature, considerably colder out of the sun, froze the water in their uniforms. They waited until it was deemed safe to continue, then made their way to the arranged rendezvous point, and the waiting ship.

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