Chapter 9

We had no idea how many men were hiding in the mine. All we knew of for sure was the one who had shot at me earlier. Considering how many men we had encountered outside, I guessed that there would be no more than four men still inside. Hell, it only took one to pull that fatal trigger, so we were as careful as we could be as we approached the mine entrance.

I fired a short burst of five rounds into the mine before we stepped through the opening. I doubted that I hit anybody, but that ought to keep their heads down until we were safely inside. This mine was laid out the same as all of the other Hudson mines we had seen. We soon came to the living quarters, and we counted 14 bunks, so there could be as many as seven men hiding inside and trying to kill us. Well, to paraphrase an ancient saying, "careful is as careful does."

We hurried through the living quarters and came to the dimly lit section of the mine tunnel. I always hated this part because of the way we were silhouetted against the brighter light. To hell with it! I sprayed another string of five shots into the gloom, and this time I heard some cursing at the other end, so I guessed I must have accomplished something, though I didn't know what.

I was sure that there must be a booby trap nearby, since there always had been one before, so I cranked up the gain on my night vision glasses and moved out on mincing footsteps. Dammit, I should have found it by now! I had not yet found a tripwire, and I was wondering what could be the reason. Suddenly, I tripped on a rough place in the floor and fell forward. That's when I found the tripwire. I was lying flat on the floor as the shotgun blast went off over my head. Man, was I lucky! I was so close to the shotgun muzzle that all of the buckshot passed clean over me without a single one striking me.

I was stunned by the combination of the fall and the blast, so the next thing I remembered was Abi beating out the little fires started on my shirt by the still-burning black powder from the shotgun. She was also laughing like hell, but I didn't think any of this was funny! I couldn't say much because I was still trying to get my breath back from the impact of the fall. That was just as well, because, as soon as the little fires were all out, Abi stopped laughing and leaned over to give me a scorching kiss. That almost made the whole stupid accident worth it.

We both looked carefully, but could not find any more tripwires, so Abi helped me to my feet. Abi looked at me and grinned, but didn't say anything, for which I was grateful. We kept on the lookout for more booby traps, but that was the only one we found.

Just at the last possible moment when they could see us against the light from the living area, a rattle of rifle fire was heard, and we both were hit in the armor by the bullets. The muzzle flash from the black powder temporarily blinded our glasses so that we could see no better than our opponents. From the sound, five men had shot at us, but that didn't prove much since there could be two more potential shooters unaccounted for.

I was really pissed off, so I emptied my clip, 19-20 bullets, into the area where the rifle fire had come from. This produced a positive result. There were at least two screams of pain and possibly more. We also heard the sound of men running away, so Abi and I figured that it was safe enough to continue. I swapped clips, and we moved out.

We found two men lying in pools of blood where the shots had come from. There may have been some more wounded men in the fleeing bunch, but we couldn't tell. It didn't really make much difference, since any man who could run that hard was still in good enough condition to fight, even if he had to have a friend load his weapon for him. These men had pistols as well as rifles, so we were still in considerable danger.

We came to a branch in the tunnel about 20 yards farther on. Now I was really on the horns of a dilemma. The best solution would be for me to take one route and for Abi to take the other. But I was very reluctant to send her out alone. Shit, I wasn't sure what to do.

She solved the problem by saying, "Mike, I know what you are thinking. I am perfectly able to operate on my own. I will take this branch and you go straight ahead. If I find something I can't handle, I will not press my luck, but will wait for you to join me. I hope that you will do the same."

"OK, Honey. You are right. All I ask is that you don't take any unnecessary chances. I'll see you soon."

We split up, and Abi took the branch while I continued down the main tunnel. I just hoped that neither one of us ran into another split in the tunnel.

Abi's report:

I was not as confident as I thought I would be as soon as I was out of sight of Mike, but I sure was not going to back off now. I had my night vision glasses in place and the gain turned nearly to maximum. I had switched the detection system to IR (Infra Red) in hope that it would show me body heat, even if the bastard was out of direct sight.

I had gone about 20 feet when I came to a pile of 10 kegs of blasting powder. Shit, I didn't want to be close to that if somebody took a shot at me. One of my classes back at the training camp said that a musket ball could not hit the powder hard enough to set it off, though one of my bullets could do so if the range was short enough. Well, hell, I had just as soon not take that chance—there was always the possibility that the teacher was wrong about muskets.

I had gotten passed the powder without drawing a bullet, and that made me breathe a little easier, but I wasn't home free. Dammit, this tunnel was a dead end. I came to the end of the tunnel without finding anything else of note, so I turned around to rejoin Mike.

Mike's report:

I was really worried about what Abi might find, but I had to pay attention to my own job if I didn't want to wind up as one of those fatality statistics. This section of tunnel was just well enough lit by torches that I didn't need my night vision glasses, so I pushed them to my forehead.

Dammit, I'd come to a very rough section of tunnel. It must be where they were currently mining and hadn't gotten the floor smoothed out yet. I'm had to sling my rifle and depend on my pistol until I could find a smoother floor to walk on. I drew the pistol for my right hand and turned on the laser targeting dot.

I caught sight of one of the men I was hunting partially concealed by a clump of rock jutting out from the tunnel wall. He was trying to draw a bead on me with his rifle, so I didn't have much time to act. I couldn't get a good shot at his upper body, but his legs were completely exposed. I was in a crunch for time, so I didn't fool around. I put the laser dot on his kneecap and fired. Anybody who knows what he is doing and has had Time Patrol training could not possibly miss that shot.

The bullet cut the man's leg in two at the knee, and he fell with a scream of total pain. As soon as he hit the floor and was adequately exposed, I put a bullet into his chest. That shut him up.

I wish I knew how many more men I had to face—I hoped that it was four. That way, Abi would not have to face an enemy. My ears were still ringing from the noise of those two shots, so I was completely startled when Abi suddenly appeared at my side. I was looking at her, and she said something to me, but I could not hear her through the ringing in my ears. I said to her, "Sorry, Honey, but I can't hear you. Those damned gunshots are still ringing in my head."

Abi nodded, and I knew right then that we needed ear protection. Hardly had I thought that than two sets of ear protection fell to the floor at Abi's feet. Shit, I love time travel! We each donned a set, and I was beginning to hear by now. These ear devices were especially good because they would dampen the noise from the gunshots, yet we could still hear each other talk. I guess that I should kick myself for not thinking of them sooner.