RECCE II (The Union Series Book 5) by Phillip Richards

though the
rogue Guardsmen were twisted, monstrous people, the sound of their torment was
almost too much to bear.
    Yulia looked through the chamber entrance, toward
the source of the screaming. ‘What are the FEA trying to do?’
    I explained how the seizure of the underground headquarters
had successfully caused chaos amongst the two battalions of FEA and single
Guard battalion defending Hill Kilo, and how the FEA were trying to restore the
communication network so that they could fight back against the Militia.
    ‘Bhasin and Helstrom are using the Militia as a veil
to distract you,’ Yulia said. ‘They are hiding the extraction of the missiles.
It is unlikely the Militia will attempt to capture the warren itself.’
    ‘They tried . . .’ I said. Several of our troopers
had been injured attempting to stop the Militia from taking control of Hill
Kilo, and my section had fought a bitter battle to push them out of the upper
warren tunnels.
    ‘Only to stop the FEA regrouping,’ she argued. ‘They
have drawn all our eyes away from the tunnels at the bottom of the warren, which
is where Bhasin and his men are escaping, along with your friends.’
    I raised an eyebrow. ‘There’s a way out from the
bottom of the warren?’
    ‘Of course.’
    ‘Come on,’ I said, placing a hand on her shoulder to
guide her through the dark. ‘We need to talk to the sergeant major, before it’s
too late . . .’
     
    We found the sergeant major and his signaller waiting
outside the storage chamber where the prisoners were being tortured, like
relatives waiting outside some hellish operating theatre from the dark ages. He
didn’t even flinch as desperate voices pleaded and begged for mercy somewhere
behind him, but as I shared Yulia’s information, his face contorted into a
cynical scowl.
    ‘So what exactly do you propose we do, Corporal
Moralee?’ he asked scornfully. ‘Shall we take the platoon right to the bottom
of the warren, with no comms or support, all on the hunch of some woman we
barely know?’ He nodded toward Yulia, who I had left with Myers in the middle
of the command chamber. ‘We have no idea who she works for, or what she’s
capable of.’
    ‘If she’s right, we don’t have long before Bhasin
gets away,’ I warned.
    ‘If she’s wrong,’ he countered, ‘we’ll risk the
lives of all our men for nothing. Are you willing to put these troopers’ lives
on the table?’
    I swept my arm across the chamber, taking in the
troopers scattered amongst the wrecked computer equipment. ‘Don’t you think
they would want to know you would come for them if they were captured?’
    His eyes blazed. ‘I will, so long as I don’t end up
condemning the rest of the platoon in the process. I’m not happy trusting this
woman until–’
    I cut in. ‘I wouldn’t be either, if I was the one
who’d condemned her to death . . .’
    He exploded, causing his signaller to jump as he
swung his rifle to his side and stepped toward me with fists clenched. ‘Who the
hell do you think you are, you little shit?’
    ‘Who am I?’ I pointed at Yulia. ‘I’m the only one
here with a solution to finding the boss, and the missiles! You may not trust
her, but I do!’
    ‘What part of you trusts her? Your head, or your pipe?’
the sergeant major spat. ‘You dare gob off at me again, Moralee, and I will
burst your fucking bubble - do you understand me?’
    The commotion of the chamber seemed to freeze for a
moment as everyone stopped to witness our standoff. Even the screaming of the
tortured Guardsmen seemed to subside for a moment. The sergeant major’s eyes
burned into mine with furious intensity.
    ‘Listen, Moralee,’ he said suddenly, his voice
lowering. ‘I want to find our boss as much as you do. If the FEA manage to get
the comms network going, and we can use it to speak with B Company on
the surface, then I will consider all options, but I will not take this platoon
deeper underground until I have comms. That’s final.