Mazer boarded the C-200 moments before takeoff and found five new HERCs strapped down in the cargo bay, each of them adorned with Chinese characters and the red-and-gold starred emblem of the People's Liberation Army. Apparently he and his team were not only tasked with training the Chinese, but they were also to hand deliver the HERCs as well. It annoyed Mazer. It meant the deal with Juke and the Chinese had been in the works for some time and that the SAS could have told him sooner that he was likely shipping out.
Not that it would have made much difference, he admitted. He still would have felt the need to cut ties with Kim, and having more time to do so would have only prolonged the inevitable. Either that or his courage would have failed him, and he would have convinced himself yet again that they could make it work. This way was best for her. Harsh and fast and then he was gone and she could get on with her life.
He moved through the cargo bay and saw that the rest of his team was already aboard, each of them asleep in one of the bunks recessed into the walls. Mazer stowed his bags in one of the lockers and climbed into an empty bunk. His whole body felt heavy and fatigued and ready for sleep, but thoughts of Kim kept him awake long after takeoff. He kept replaying the scene with her in his mind, thinking of all the things he should have said differently. He took out the Med-Assist she had given him and clicked through it randomly until he came upon a tutorial on how to give rescue breaths. He hit play, laid the Med-Assist on his chest, and listened to the sound of her voice.
He woke six hours later. His team was still asleep. He took the data cube Colonel Napatu had given him and attached it to his wrist pad. The computer read him the entire mission file as he prepared a large pot of chicken pasta in the aircraft's kitchen area, using ingredients he found in the supply closet.
When he was done, he woke the others, and they gathered around a table in a small room near the cockpit where the engine noise was less.
"The mission's a true JCET," said Mazer. "Usually it's just us training the host nation. This time, the Chinese will be training us, as well."
"On what?" asked Fatani. "How to use chopsticks?"
"Oh, you're real classy," said Patu.
"We'll be trained on a digging vehicle they've developed," said Mazer.
Reinhardt made a face. "Digging vehicle? We're giving them the world's first antigrav bird, an aircraft that will revolutionize flight, and they're giving us a bulldozer? Lame."
"Double lame," Patu agreed.
"We don't know it's a dozer," said Mazer. "We don't know anything about it, in fact. There was next to nothing on it in the cube."
"A digging machine," Reinhardt repeated. "Six months away from home to learn how to dig with a fancy Chinese shovel. I hate this mission already."
They landed a little over an hour later at a military airfield northeast of Qingyuan. Two lines of Chinese soldiers in full-parade dress faced each other at attention at the end of the plane's cargo ramp. Captain Shenzu, the Chinese officer from the HERC mission, stood at the bottom of the ramp and saluted. "Welcome to China, Captain Rackham."
"You beat us here," said Mazer.
"You'll forgive me for taking more comfortable accommodations. The Chinese government would have granted you the same convenience, but we would much rather have you guarding our precious cargo."
Mazer gestured back to the HERCs. "There they are. All dolled up and ready for action. When it's convenient for you and your commanding officer, I'd like to discuss our training regimen."
Captain Shenzu smiled and waved the suggestion aside. "All in good time, Captain. Come." He motioned to a skimmer parked to their right. "The drill sledges are about to surface. Your timing could not have been better."
They flew northeast out of the airfield, cut across open country, and pulled up to an aboveground concrete bunker on the crest of a shallow, barren valley. The valley floor was riddled with deep gaping holes, each big enough to fly the skimmer into. Shenzu parked, hopped out, and escorted them around the bunker to the opposite side overlooking the valley floor.
"You said 'drill sledges,'" Mazer said in Chinese. "Are these the drilling machines you'll train us to operate?"
"Your pronunciation is quite good," said Shenzu.
"We all speak Chinese," said Mazer. "Part of our training."
Shenzu seemed pleased. "China is flattered that you would think our language important enough to learn, Captain."
"You are the largest country in the world," said Reinhardt.
"The largest, yes," said Shenzu, "but sadly not the most technologically advanced. The U.S. and a few countries in Europe have us beat on that front. As well as the Russians, though they don't have the economic stability that we do. It's only a matter of time before we leave them all behind."
"You sound rather confident," said Mazer.
Shenzu was looking at something on his holopad. "In three seconds, Captain, I think you'll see why."
Mazer felt slight tremors in the earth beneath him and heard a muffled rumbling noise. He turned and scanned the valley but saw nothing. Then a massive spinning drill bit burst through the surface, slinging dirt and detritus in every direction in a violent shower of debris. The drill shot upward in a blur of motion, and Mazer saw that it was the front half of a massive tunneling vehicle, rocketing upward from the ground. The engines screamed, and red hot ejecta erupted from the rear of the vehicle as it soared three meters in the air and then slammed back down to the surface. The lavalike spew from the rear continued to bubble out and drip to the ground as the engines whined down and the drill began to slow. Smoke rose from the spew, and Mazer heard the sizzling heat of it even from this distance. A felled tree that had caught a shot of the spew crackled and began to burn.
Mazer opened his mouth to speak just as two more of the tunneling vehicles burst from the ground elsewhere in the valley, one of them getting a little more elevation on its exit than the first one had.
After the sledges landed and began to quiet, Shenzu smiled and said, "You'll have to excuse them. They're showing off. They know they have an audience."