Chapter 41: Beneath the Surface

  Zhon's voice crackled through the comms. "Good, you made it there. Roan and I are almost in place as well. What does the layout look like?"

  Ravine surveyed the massive mining facility sprawled before her. "I don't know... It's massive. It's like a whole operation is going down over here."

  "Operation? What do you mean?"

  "Well, it's not just miners here." She crouched, trying to find a clearer vantage point. "There are drones and even transportation vehicles. Which could be either used to our advantage or be a real pain in the ass."

  Zhon sighed through the comms. "Do you see a way for us to get in and grab one of them?"

  Ravine groaned as she scanned her surroundings. "The drones seem to have a set pattern of navigation. Hold on, let me transfer you the data."

  She pressed her temples. Her eyes illuminated for a few seconds as the data stream initiated.

  "Data transfer complete," her assistant announced.

  "Got it, I received it," Zhon confirmed. "Anything else you see we could use?"

  She hid behind large metallic crates and peeked out carefully. "There seem to be no physical guards in the zone. If we manage to bypass the drones and take out one of them undetected, I think we might have a chance for this mission to go smoothly. Although..." She trailed off.

  "Although what? Ravine?"

  She sighed. "I know you said we shouldn't move at night due to the temperatures, but I just don't see how this can work in broad daylight without us getting caught."

  Though she couldn't see him, she could tell Zhon was smirking. "You must have forgotten who you're talking to, huh? Am I not the one who created our cloaking devices? We can definitely sneak in there quite easily and get out with little to no problem—as long as we don't come into contact with any of them."

  Ravine gestured futilely in the empty air. "Exactly my point. We don't get a second try at this. If we get caught, we can be sure they're going to be after us. We need to be certain of what to do before we go in." She paused. "I'm not saying you're being reckless. I just don't want things to go sideways and have you get hurt in the process."

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  After a brief moment, Zhon said in a low voice, "Me neither, Ravine. Me neither."

  The silence stretched.

  "Fine. We'll talk about this further back at the ship. For now, head to the rendezvous point. Roan and I have a few things to figure out before joining you. We'll be in touch."

  Ravine's voice softened. "You two take care, okay?"

  Zhon inhaled. "Yeah." The transmission ended.

  As Ravine activated her slithering abilities to surf across the sand toward the rendezvous point, Mother Phoenix spoke for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.

  "Ravine, I don't know why, but this mining facility—it was faint, but when we were close, it was like I was on the Mother Ship again. I had this feeling as if more children were being made."

  Ravine thought back, What do you mean? Can you be more precise?

  "I could be wrong, but it could be that Razak isn't looking to bring his army here but to make it grow here from a distance, using the androids he brought from the Mother Ship."

  Ravine stopped. A trail of sand formed around her—slow but voluminous.

  Mother Phoenix continued, "Why would he continue to send androids here to Mars when he already has the numbers and no one to interfere with his plans? He can use the miners to give him even more resources than he already has and let the team already here do the rest—create beings adapted to this climate in large quantities, only to serve him."

  Ravine looked down. "Hmm, this might be worth talking about with the others, but why not say something sooner?"

  "This is only a strong hunch I have. Besides, right now the objective is to figure out how they function so we can free them. Investigating without this crucial part would be reckless and could get us wiped out. We are only four, remember, and they could be infinite. But if we can turn things around, we could even things out. That's why we came here, right?"

  Ravine nodded. "Yeah, got it. Let's do it your way then."

  She resumed her journey toward the meeting point.

  Meanwhile, on a high dune offering a clear view of the facility, Roan used his sniper scope to survey the environment they were about to infiltrate. Both crouched in the scorching sand.

  "Anything you see that Ravine might have missed?" Zhon asked.

  Roan pointed to the massive radar array atop the facility. "It seems they transfer information through this link. If we want to increase our success rate, we'll probably need to have it disabled while we go in."

  Zhon nodded. "Right. Doing it now might give them the opportunity to come after us, and if they do, we're done for sure."

  "For sure."

  Zhon gave a faint smile. "Anything else?"

  Roan's super hearing activated, making him wince. "Yeah. I mean, I don't see it, but I definitely hear something. It's not coming from inside but rather..." He paused.

  Zhon grabbed his shoulder. "Where?"

  Roan closed his eyes, concentrating. "That's weird—it's coming from under us. Heavy machinery, like they're making something or refining things. I'm not quite sure, but whatever it is, it's bigger than what this whole operation lets on."

  He slung his sniper onto his back. Zhon looked up at the Martian sky, its pale orange glow stretching endlessly above them.

  He spoke through the comms, his voice heavy with resignation: "Things just get better and better."