"Looks like they never got around to repairing it."
The shaft reverberated with the sharp explosions of gunfire from somewhere within the bowels of the mine. Pitt hoisted O'Bannion's still limp body onto the shoulder of a big, muscular commando and set off at a run down the shaft in the direction of the cavern holding the prisoners.
They reached the central chamber without meeting resistance and met up with members of unit two that were in the act of disarming a group of O'Bannion's guards who stood fearfully with hands clutched behind their necks. Giordino and two of the tactical team had shot off the lock and were leaning against the great iron gate to the slave laborers' dungeon cavern. Pembroke-Smythe spotted Levant, hurried over, and reported.
"Sixteen guards have been rounded up, Colonel. One or two escaped into the mine shafts. Seven made the mistake of resisting and are dead. We only have two men wounded, neither seriously."
"We have to speed things up a bit," said Levant. "I fear they transmitted an alert before we could cut off communications."
Pitt stepped beside Giordino and added his muscle into heaving open the gate. Giordino turned and looked at him.
"Well, it's about time you made an appearance."
"I paused for a brief chat with O'Bannion."
"Does he need a doctor or a mortician?"
"A dentist actually," Pitt answered.
"Have you seen Melika?"
"No sign of her in the engineering offices."
"I'll find her," said Giordino, a biting fierceness in his voice. "She's mine."
The gate was manhandled against its stops, and the tactical team stepped into the cavern. Through firsthand experience Pitt and Giordino knew what to expect, but they were still sickened at the sight. The commandos froze, their faces gone white at the overpowering stench and the incredible degree of suffering before their eyes. Even Levant and Pembroke-Smythe stood shocked before mustering up the effort to enter.
"Good lord," Smythe mumbled, "this looks as bad as Auschwitz and Dachau."
Pitt rushed through the mass of packed captives who were numbed beyond desperation by the monotonous existence and starved into barely walking skeletons. He found Dr. Hopper sitting on a bunk staring blankly through dazed eyes, his filthy clothes hanging loosely on a body decimated by overwork and lack of food. He broke into a broad smile, lifted himself weakly to his feet, and embraced Pitt.
"Thank God, you and AI made it. It's a miracle."
"I'm sorry we took so long," said Pitt.
"Eva never gave up` on you," said Hopper, his voice choking. "She knew you'd come through."
Pitt looked around. "Where is she?"
Hopper nodded toward a bunk. "You didn't get here a minute too soon. She's in a bad way."
Pitt walked over and knelt beside a statue-like form in a lower bunk. Sadness showed in every line of his face. He couldn't believe how wasted she had become in a week's time. He gently took hold of her shoulders and gave her a light shake. "Eva, I've come back for you."
Slowly she stirred, her eyes fluttered open, and she vaguely stared up at him. "Please let me sleep a little longer," she murmured.
"You're safe now. I'm taking you out of this place."
She recognized him then and her vision became blurred with tears. "I knew you would come for me. . . for us all."
"We came within a hair of not making it:"
She looked into his eyes and smiled gamely. "I never doubted for a moment."
Then he kissed her, long, soft, and tenderly.
Levant's medical team went to work immediately, treating the captives while the combat units began evacuating those who could walk to the upper level where they were loaded aboard the personnel carriers. Initial fears proved true as the operation went slowly because many were too weak to move on their own and had to be carried out.
After seeing that Eva and the other women and children were cared for and on their way to the surface, Pitt borrowed a satchel of plastic explosives from Levant's demolition expert and then returned to a now conscious O'Bannion who sat beside an ore car under the watchful eye of a tough lady commando.