T. Harris - The Tactics of Revenge

“I guess they never figured we’d climb to the roof the building,” he said.

Adam noticed something off to his right. He looked up and saw a long cable running above him; he followed it behind him until he saw that it connected with the antenna at the central spire. McCarthy followed Adam’s gaze as well. In unison, they both turned and followed the cable with their eyes, off the roof and toward the lake. There was a tower located near the lake’s edge where the cable ran, along with several others that came up from the ground, as well as others from along of the roof. The two men looked at each other.

“It’s worth a shot,” Adam said. McCarthy simply nodded. They ran for the antenna.

They climbed to the top of the antenna array and Adam took a closer look at the cable. It was about three inches in diameter and made of spun metal. It didn’t appear to carry an electrical charge, at least not on its exterior. It appeared to be more for support.

“Do you think it will hold us?” McCarthy asked.

Adam grabbed hold the cable and tested it with his weight. “Looks like it. But what I’m worried about is whether it will break loose when the charges go off.”

“What choice do we have?”

“We could have just left the damn antenna alone and gone with the others — that was a choice!” Adam said pointedly.

McCarthy grinned. “Like they say in America — my bad!”

Adam grabbed onto the cable and swung his legs up to wrap around it. He then began to caterpillar his way along the wire. Soon McCarthy was doing the same.

Navigating a cable such as this was all part of routine training for SEALs, as well as other military personnel, even though Adam had often wondered when such a skill would come in handy. Now he knew. However, Adam had not done anything like this for years, so even in the light gravity of the planet, it wasn’t long before his arms began to ache and his shoulders burned.

They were now off the roof, crawling along the cable a good fifty meters above the ground. Adam chanced a look over his shoulder and for the first time realized just how high up he was. And all it would take is for one of the aliens below to look up and then they’d be sitting ducks-

A yell rose up from below and Adam once more glanced over his throbbing shoulder. Several of the aliens were now pointing at them and yelling, as more of them came over to join in, these carrying flash rifles. Xan-Fi’s were accurate up to about a hundred meters, yet their charge dropped off dramatically after only about thirty. Even still, with the two of them dangling so high off the ground, suspended on a three-inch diameter cable, it wouldn’t take much to knock them off.

Soon the flash of bolts began to ping past them; once a targeting computer locked on, that could be all she wrote.

Adam wrapped his legs tightly around the cable and let go with his hands. As he dangled there upside down, he quickly removed his shirt, and then using all the abdominal strength he could muster, he bent back up until his hands gripped the cable once more. Next he draped the shirt over the cable and began to tie the ends together, forming a loop. McCarthy saw what Adam was doing and understood immediately; he mirrored the maneuver.

Adam began to twist the cloth, wrapping it tighter around the cable, yet leaving a loop at the end. Once it was about as tight as he could make it, he placed his right arm into the loop and gripped it with his left. McCarthy did the same with his own arm.

“Blow it!” Adam cried out.

McCarthy reached inside his pocket and pulled out the small detonator. He flicked the device on with his thumb and then, without hesitation, depressed the trigger.

The explosion was extremely powerful, hot and loud; the concussion and heat hit them almost instantly, causing them both to lose their grips on the cable with their legs. Now they hung there, held only by the loops in their shirts. And then, much to their surprise, the antenna array did not topple over. Instead, the roof supports surrounding it gave way, and the entire structure simply disappeared into the bowls of the building, crashing in to what would have been the office of the Pleabaen.

The cable the two Humans dangled from suddenly sprang upward, becoming incredibly taut. Both Adam and McCarthy were tossed upward above the cable, yet their arms, looped within their shirts, kept them from flying off into the air. And then they dropped back down again, Adam crying out in pain as it felt as if his whole arm was being ripped out of its socket.

And then the cable finally snapped.

Suddenly, they were both hurtling toward the ground, traveling in a wide arc in the direction of the tower near the lake. At an incredible speed, the two Humans swept over the parking lot about ten meters, with dozens of aliens scrambling to get out of the way. But the arc continued, and they soon found themselves flying back up into the air.

At the apogee of the arc, Adam found that they were now over the lake and about twenty meters up. Adam released his grip on his right arm and let it slip through the loop in his shirt, setting him free. He tumbled through the air and impacted the surface of the lake with such a force that it momentarily stunned him. The unexpectedly cold water of the lake soon jolted him back to his senses, however, and he sank deep into the icy water until his buoyancy stopped him. He kicked for the surface.

Adam emerged about ten meters from the shoreline and quite a ways down from the parking lot. A dozen aliens were running across the grass toward him.

McCarthy suddenly surfaced next to him, a wide grin on his face. “Whoa! That was exciting!”

Adam didn’t say anything, but instead kicked strongly for the shore. They reached it in a few seconds and stepped up onto a firm mud bank. A car had passed the aliens who were running toward them; it was only second away.

“I don’t know what good all that did,” Adam said as both he and McCarthy bent over, panting, shirtless and shivering from the cold water dripping from their bodies. The car was just about upon them.

As the vehicles skidded to a stop, the two Human soldiers spread their legs and brought their arms up in a defensive stance, ready for a fight. They had a pretty good idea that they could overpower anyone in the car; what they had to guard for were the weapons.

The door to the transport flew open. “Get in!” a female voice yelled from inside — and then Sherri’s frowning face appeared in the doorway. Without hesitation, Adam and McCarthy jumped for the car, diving head first into the rear compartment. Riyad Tarazi, seated in the driver’s seat, then shoved the central joystick forward and the car sped off, just as streaks from flash-bolts zoomed past.

Adam found himself lying face down between Sherri’s legs; he lifted his wet head up and looked into her eyes. “Later, stud,” Sherri said with a smile. “Right now we have to get off this fucking planet.”

Both he and McCarthy sat up to find themselves crushed into the back seat of the transport with Sherri, with the massive Carter Thomas in the front passenger seat and Riyad driving.

“Why aren’t you with the others?” Adam scolded, looking around at the others in the car.

“We thought you might need a lift,” Riyad said.

Thomas looked at his boss. “I sent Mitchell along with the others. They’re about ten minutes ahead of us.”

Riyad steered the car across the grass and around the main building. The antenna had apparently crashed all the way down through the structure, igniting fires as it went, with flames that now engulfing nearly half the building. There were hundreds of aliens streaming from the building now; many covered in blood with vacant looks on their faces. Others still rushed out covered in flames, only to collapse to the ground, writhing in agony.