Free Kraken Rising: Alex Hunter 6 by Greig Beck Page B

soldiers pushed past. Shenjung bristled, but knew that he was in charge on paper only. Until they determined what happened to Zhang Li, and the other workers and security force, he was to follow Captain Wu Yang’s instructions like everyone else. The man’s face alone didn’t invite disagreement. And he tried hard to ignore that ogre, Mungoi, he had with him.
    When the scientists and engineers finally got to enter the base, they moved along the corridor, and then into the main briefing rooms. Off to one side was the communication center, next were the dining facilities, and then some of the sleeping quarters and lavatories. The rooms were Spartan, and were as much used for storage as human habitation. It was below ground where most of the action took place.
    The facilities constructed on the surface were little more than a cap over many levels of industrious activity below. Access was via an elevator that descended hundreds of feet to the mining platforms and miles of tunnel work.
    Sublevels contained laboratories that used sophisticated processes of oxidization, acid baths, and crystallization to remove the valuable minerals, so the few tons of finished produce could be easily, and secretly, transported. Gadolinium, the soft and strange metal, was used in lasers, computer memory, and fluorescent tubes. Already global demand had outstripped supply, and China’s appetite for that metal, and other RREs such as terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, and dozens more, needed to be constantly fed.
    “Comrade.” Wu Yang reappeared, pointed at Shenjung Xing’s chest, and then clicked his fingers.
    Shenjung hated that, but swallowed it down for the good of the party. He turned to Soong, who had unzipped her coat. “Come with me.”
    Together they hurried after the PLA leader. Shenjung’s feet skidded in something jelly-like. He ignored it, trying to keep up with the longer legs of Wu Yang. At the shaft room he stopped. Several of Yang’s men were standing around the elevator shaft – the only thing in the center of the room.
    Beside him Soong crinkled her nose. It was here that the source of the smell was emanating from. The cage elevator that sat on top of the shaft was flattened open, its walls now like the petals of a flower. It was as if something had exploded within it and blown all four sides out each way. The heavy, metal roof of the elevator box was lying against the wall, with a huge dent in its center.
    “Gas explosion?” Yang asked.
    Shenjung approached the twisted metal of one of the cage sides, and crouched to look at the thick bars, twisted like softened rubber. They were coated in something that he dabbed at with his finger and brought to his nose. He recoiled as Soong crouched beside him. He offered his fingers to her. She sniffed at the residue.
    “ Phew , ammonia?” she asked softly.
    “Maybe firedamp,” Shenjung said. He motioned to the peeled cage. Firedamp was a term used by miners as a catchall name for the myriad pockets of flammable gas found, especially in ancient strata. It was usually highly pressurized, easily ignited, and exploded with lethal force.
    Shenjung rested his hands on his knees. “Maybe a vent that was ignited by the drilling …” He looked at the ceiling; there was a glistening hue as if the mucus was up there as well. “There are no scorch marks anywhere.”
    He leaned forward and peered down into the shaft. The mechanisms and railings were all still in place, just the capping cage at the top had been obliterated. It was as if something had boiled up from below, refused to be contained, and like a massive fist, had punched upwards, and then reached on into the base. He shook his head, staring down into the darkness that stretched away, well beyond his vision. He knew the first shaft landing was a good five hundred feet down, and that there were lower horizontal shafts beyond that. Even more, before they reached the floor tunnels where the last