Free When Earth Reigned Supreme (The Human Chronicles Saga Book 12) by T.R. Harris

and hide the bodies. I figure we have about a five mile jog ahead of us. In this light gravity, we should be able to make good time. Bring the carts. They should be able to keep up. All right, let’s move out.”
    The adrenalin coursing through his body as a result of the light jog made Adam feel much better. The repetitiveness of his strides was slightly hypnotic—a runner’s high—and he felt a renewed confidence come to him. The episode in the truck had made him nervous, and feel trapped. Now he felt more in his element, with the M-91 assault rifle cradled in his hands and a team of highly-training special ops warriors around him.
    Occasionally, the team did encounter Sol-Kor service personnel. They would appear out of recesses in the corridor, or would already be working there, and stop to gawk at the strange cluster of creatures coming toward them at what appeared to be an unbelievable speed. In the lead, Connors and Harbison cut them down with pinpoint bursts from their rifles, long before the aliens could grasp what was happening. The men in the back of the squad would hustle the fallen bodies back among the many pipes and equipment blinds along the way, before rushing to rejoin the formation.
    All told, the team dispatched sixteen Sol-Kor during the half-an-hour jog. They made good time, aided by the light gravity of Kor.
    Then up ahead the corridor spread out into a vast cavern, and the wall to the right gave way to show the long line of trucks coming and going along the roadway. The two traffic directions separated. The line Adam had been in entered another tunnel, and he could see it began a slow climb along a huge circular path.
    The team fell back into the maze of air ducts and other assorted pipes and tubes.
    “So no elevator,” Adam said to Riyad, who in spite of the light gravity was still panting heavily.
    “Vosmin may have used a priority access. That’s all I can think of.”
    “Makes sense. It also probably took you directly into the Queen’s section of the pyramid. Do any of you see anything that looks like an elevator large enough to hold a truck?”
    Several negatives were heard through his visor, although the men pointed out the large bank of pedestrian elevators directly in front of them. Besides seeing where the line of traffic fed into the spiraling tunnels leading up and down the mountain, they also found where the passenger pod station was located. Dozens of the pods were being loaded and unloaded by what appeared to be thousands of Sol-Kor, along with quite a few of the Salifen slaves.
    The twelve Humans each now sported their rubber Sol-Kor masks—including big-head Mac MacTavish. The place was swarming with Sol-Kor, and with the flaw in the mask’s design having been revealed, it wouldn’t be possible for them to move from their hiding places without raising the alarm.
    “The service corridor must move up as well as along the traffic tunnel,” Adam noted. He looked up and saw the huge maze of electrical and environmental equipment disappear into the blackness above him. He’d noticed a slight incline during the drive into the mountain, so even though the ridgetop was estimated to be a thousand meters above the portal building, it couldn’t be more than three or four hundred from here.
    He looked around at the absurd sea of identical and expressionless Sol-Kor faces looking at him. “We’re climbing,” he said. “Each of you take what you can carry from the supply carts—they stay here. And hurry, the trail of bodies we’ve left behind won’t stay hidden forever.”
    With military efficiency, the team divided the contents of the two equipment carts among themselves. In the light gravity, the men were able to carry more than they could on Earth. But now they had a two thousand foot climb to navigate, up pipes, tubes, and conduits, all with extra weapons, rations, and ammo sacks dangling from every strap on their integrated black Sol-Kor armor MOLLE packs.
    As the men began