Gurminder chortled at that. The Hole was actually pretty nice when it came to the old bases that the first wave had left behind for the bornehere’s to spread out and occupy. He wondered what would she have thought about The Shiv or Home of the Brave. He decided not to go into a description of those worse places he’d been on Mars, he could name at least three more than even those two. The Hole was the CU by comparison.

“Good,” he told her, then to test her memory added, “Now go over your route again, I’m still not getting a couple things about it.”

Tory pulled out the spreader.

“I knew you’d do it,” she told him, and started going over their route. “Okay, here goes...”

An hour later they both were sneaking down a dark passage in the complex, all lights on their suits down, a spray on cover of infra-red reflective to hide their signatures. It had been a quiet drive to the nearest outpost, a quick drop in, and the girl new her stuff when it came free climbing in caves and entering the complex codes.

Again he wondered how the hell she was so good? Was Earth so much more advanced than he’d ever had been told or seen? The girl though claimed to have no idea that her talents were so bizarre. She just said that her parents were coding experts, specializing in artificial intelligence. A lot of the must have rubbed off on her, he decided.

Tory led the way without even having to refer to the spreader. He was starting to think she might be an asset to the cause going forwards, maybe as a spy inside the Marscorp complex, well, except for that creepy smile of hers and those she’d offered him. He doubted the Chin would have been as adept at determining the best route. Then again, they’d been chosen to be sacrificed, and clearly had decided it wouldn’t be worth it.

The further they got into this maze, the more he wondered if they weren’t right.

“All right, we’ve passed through the outer security ring,” Tory told him, pointed ahead to the entrance they’d reached. “I’ve played so many games like this back home. That’s the hatch on the map, your turn to enter the code. I’ll check if it activates a flag.”

Although maybe she was getting a bit full of herself. In reality, if they got caught, Tory would probably swim through, being a daughter of Green level parents, or so she said. That had to be why she seemed so calm. Him not so much. He’d probably be told to take a walk without a p-suit if he was lucky.

“Take it down a notch,” Gurminder warned her. “We’ve barely gotten started here.”

He entered the code on the hatch. The lights turned from red to green.

“Yes,” he whispered as it opened, adding, maybe this is going to work! “Come on.”

Through the hatch was another set of curving corridors, Tory lead the way again, talked about some of the tunnels beneath the New Angels rebuild and the amazing old things she and her Team would find there, weird artifacts from the old days that he’s never even heard of and had no idea what they were.

Was this really just a game to her? He wondered if she even grasped the ramifications of what would change on the planet if they succeeded. Probably not. She was a kid, with total tunnel vision, and no interest in anything else that might get in her way or slow her down. Best not to distract her then. Change the world by all means, little newer. Maybe they’ll even build a statue of you.

And then blow it up.

He kept up with her loping stride, but the both of them suddenly skidded to a stop and his heart started pounding like a bedrock hammer.

A pair of armored soldiers were standing no more than ten meters down the corridor. Upon seeing the pair, the two turned, stared right towards them, raised and pointed their rocket rifles.

He let out a breath. It had been fun while it lasted.

“What do we do?” Tory asked her voice turning terrified. “Gurminder, what do we do?!”

“Hope their orders aren’t shoot to kill,” he told her.