Read Fox Hunt (Fox Meridian Book 1) for Free Online

Hepburn asked.
    ‘Not rigged for zero atmosphere,’ Pierce replied, ‘but I’ve got a micromissile with an infrared camera. Won’t give us much flight time, but–’
    ‘Better than nothing.’
    There was a short pause and then a small projectile was flying out across the crater floor, invisible in the darkness and inaudible in the vacuum. Half a second after it fired, the image feed from the missile appeared in everyone’s vision field. Everything was pretty damn cold in the eternal darkness of the crater, so the fact that the habitation unit was far warmer was quite obvious, and the gunbot which hauled itself out of the regolith in response to the disturbance stood out well against the dust. It fired on the missile, missed, and then figured out that there were other heat sources there with it, further away. It was turning its weapon mount toward the team when Hepburn’s own micromissile blew it apart.
    ‘Anything else?’ the team leader asked. ‘Everyone remember to watch for heat build-up in your weapons. Heat dissipates poorly in a vacuum.’
    ‘Motor’s burned out on the shell,’ Pierce said, ‘and I didn’t see anything else warmer than the grit. They could be inside.’
    ‘Any sign that the mining robots have been used?’ Driscoll asked over their link.
    ‘No sign of them here,’ Pierce replied. ‘They should be sitting down here with the habitat and the trucks. I’d say that’s an indication that someone’s used them for something.’
    ‘You can’t see where they cut in?’
    ‘The crater floor is too big and all the same temperature. We could maybe find signs of where they cut in, but the company was digging down here before now. It’s likely they extended existing tunnels rather than cutting entirely new ones.’
    ‘There’s nothing down here that can extract them,’ Fox said. ‘We’re supposed to think they’re dead or buried in the archive vault. So they come out here, hole up in the habitat, keep quiet for a while until everyone’s busy trying to dig them out, and then a shuttle drops in here to exfil.’
    ‘So we set up in their cabin and ambush them?’ Hepburn suggested.
    ‘If our expert agrees, I think that’s a damn good plan,’ Driscoll replied.
    ‘No such thing as an expert in this,’ Fox said. ‘The paid consultant thinks it’s better than an open position with no idea which direction they’ll come from.’
    ‘Do it.’
    ~~~
    There was a slight hiss as the airlock door pushed out and then slid off to one side. The locks on prefabbed units rarely, if ever, managed to get a perfect balance before they opened and there was generally some equalisation. The interior lights sprang to life, bright blue-white LED bulbs which turned the darkness into almost uncomfortable incandescence. Kriel stepped out into the habitat proper and came to a grinding halt.
    ‘Luna City Security Services,’ Hepburn said through the speaker in his helmet. ‘Move into the structure slowly and divest yourselves of all weaponry.’ Flanking him were Pierce and Fox; the other end of the semi-cylindrical room was held by the other two members of the team.
    Kriel was surrounded, and he knew it, and that worried Fox more than anything. ‘Looks like the bastard wants it all for himself,’ Kriel growled. ‘There’s four of us and five of you, but we have hardsuits and you don’t.’
    ‘And you’re surrounded by people with armour-piercing bullets in their guns,’ Hepburn replied. ‘You give it up now, no one has to get hurt.’
    ‘Huh… Steyn.’
    Something shot out of the airlock, hit the wall opposite, and erupted into brilliant, white light. Flare protection cut in on everyone’s visors, but there was a moment of blindness and disorientation. Kriel had been ready for it. Fox had reacted to the name being called instead of the flash, but when she could see properly Hepburn was lying on his back with Kriel’s armoured boot on his faceplate and Kriel was holding Pierce off the ground