Orson Card - Empire

“I think I’m going for a swim,” said Cole.

“I was having the same thought,” said Cat.

Cole switched on his transmitter. “We’re on the west shore of Chinnereth, just west of the cabin. Cat and I are going to swim across to see if there’s an entrance there.”

“Water’s gonna be cold, abun,” said Babe. “You two gonna have little tiny dicks when you get there.”

“Least I’ll still have one,” said Cat.

“We won’t go for another half hour,” said Cole. “Drew and Babe, bring the SMAW down near the waterline in case we need some backup. Load and Arty, you get to Chinnereth shoreline nearest to the cabin. Benny and Mingo, you can’t get here in time to be useful. So go north, get to Highway 12, but stay in infra range. If we confirm that this is the place, get to where you can make contact with Torrent so he can send in a strike force.”

“I don’t know what you just figured out,” said Babe.

“That’s because you’re in public relations,” said Mingo, “and I’m an engineer.”

“Thought that meant you drove trains,” said Babe.

“There are standpipes in the tall grass under the observation tower,” said Cole. “There’s machinery operating underground.”

“And the water,” said Mingo. “Only place where it could go is from one lake into the other. Anything else would be too obvious. They must pump it out of Chinnereth, uphill, into Genesseret, using all that electricity they’ve stored up. Genesseret rises, Chinnereth falls. Exposing their doorway. They go in or out, whatever, and when they’re done, they seal the watertight entrance and let the water flood back downhill to fill it back up. Genesseret drops back to normal, Chinnereth rises.”

“You can’t know that,” said Babe.

“No other possibility,” said Mingo. “Word, man.”

“The ultimate moat,” said Drew.

“That’s a lot of water to move,” said Babe.

“The federal government paid for the whole thing,” said Benny. “Your tax dollars at work.”

“So why are you going out to the island?” asked Arty.

“We’re almost sure,” said Cole. “But are we sure enough to call in a strike force yet?”

“They got to have a back door,” said Mingo. “Can’t drain the lake every time somebody’s got to go outside to smoke.”

“Boat,” said Cat.

They switched their transmitters off.

A small motorboat was coming up the lake from the area of the dam. Heading for them or for the island? Had their chatter been detected? Even if they couldn’t decode the scrambled signal, they’d know somebody was there.

But the boat pulled up to the little dock on the island.

And waited.

And waited. The driver of the boat didn’t seem particularly alert. Like a cabdriver waiting for a fare.

The door of the cabin opened. Four men came out.

“Is any of them Verus?” asked Cole.

Cat looked through his binoculars. “No,” he said. “You recognize any of them?”

Cole took the binoculars. The men wore suits. He thought he might have seen one of them on television. The news, probably, since he didn’t look like an actor. But he didn’t remember who or when.

The men got into the boat and it pulled away from the dock. The boat headed on down the lake.

Cole took off his pack. He quickly inflated the floats on it and attached his weapons and boots to the top. The floats were widely spaced enough for it to be stable, at least on smooth water. Top-heavy, but it wouldn’t tip. He attached the towline to it and shrugged on the harness. Cat was doing the same.

“Never much call to use these in Afghanistan or Sudan,” Cat said.

“Nice to get a chance to test out all the equipment,” said Cole.

“Glad you’re so white,” said Cat. “Easier target on the water.”

Cole just grinned at him.

Then he moved swiftly down the slope and into the water. It was cold, but he didn’t hesitate. His body went into that momentary shock and he trembled a little, but as soon as he had laid the miniraft of his pack down on the water, he immersed himself and began swimming in long, steady strokes, dragging the pack behind him. He broke water as gently as possible. But if someone was watching, there’s no way he wouldn’t be visible on the calm surface of the water.

Having their main entrance hidden under water explained why they didn’t have a lot of patrols. Patrols would be seen. Encounters with civilians would leave memories.

Of course, so would letting a civilian see the lakes drain. It was so easy to get here. Hikers might do it at any time.

Easy? Not so easy. They had moved very cautiously. They had made little noise and made sure to stay out of sight. Maybe regular hikers were detected, and either they didn’t drain the lake until they had passed or they’d send somebody out dressed in a ranger uniform to send them on their way.

It was so cold. He could feel his body reacting to it, struggling to stay warm. But they were most of the way to the island now. Not much longer. He glanced around to see Cat was only a little bit behind him.

Cat pointed toward the island and started swimming faster.

The island was rising.

Which meant the water level was falling.

Just a little way below the waterline, the island stopped being a hill. It was a thick pillar, solid concrete. Of course. There wouldn’t be an island here. They had built it.

The dock was now hanging in midair; the pillars of the dock were actually resting on steel beams jutting out from the concrete wall of the island. Under the dock, there was a ladder rising up to the level of the beams. From there, it looked easy enough to get to the short wooden swimmer’s ladder.

What was going to be hard was climbing that ladder without being seen.

Cole and Cat got to the base of the ladder at about the same time. The water was still sinking. But it wasn’t getting warmer.

“Can’t stay in this,” said Cat.

“Can’t climb,” said Cole. “They’ll see us.”

Back on the shore they had come from, only about a hundred yards closer to the dam, a heavy concrete wall was being revealed. Huge steel doors looked like they could withstand the water pressure just fine. But once the water sank low enough, and those doors opened, anybody coming out of them would have a clear shot at anybody climbing the ladder.

Cole clung to the ladder with his legs as he worked the pack back onto his shoulders. It was hard—his fingers were numb and he was shivering. Cat was having the same amount of trouble.

“Just leave the packs?” asked Cat, shivering.

“We’ll want our weapons if we make it up top.”

“Big if,” said Cat.

In answer, Cole started to climb. It was hard to keep his grip. And cold numb wet bare feet weren’t as stable to climb with as well-fitting boots. But he had to keep moving. Maybe he could still get to the top before the doors opened.

Cat was keeping up with him, nice steady progress up the ladder.

The big steel door started opening. A couple of men in rebel body armor came out and scanned the area. It didn’t take them two seconds to see Cole and Cat, and another two seconds to start shooting.

They missed.

“Their marksman training not as good as our marksman training,” said Cat.

“Fine with me,” said Cole.

A bullet came much closer.

“Getting the range now,” said Cat.

“I’m nearly there.”

Cole noticed the whooshing sound behind him and to the right. A moment later, the entrance of the tunnel erupted in flames.

“Good shot with the SMAW,” said Cat.

“Inappropriate weapon,” said Cole. “Rifles would have been enough.”

“Either way, I think we lost our element of surprise, abun.”