Free Sunshine by T.C. McCarthy Page B

from her leg sections. This couldn’t be good, thought Kyung, too scared to look for herself.
    “What about biological damage?” she asked.
    “Compound fracture to left tibia and fibula, spiral fracture to left femur. It also appears that although bones in your right leg show no structural abnormalities, soft tissue may have experienced significant trauma. You’ve suffered blood loss from both limbs. Suit systems have administered plasma, coagulants, and pain relievers to minimize further damage, but I estimate that combat drugs will be spent in less than twenty-four hours. I’m sorry, Miss Kyung, but according to my estimates, the odds of making it back to friendly forces are now at two million to one, against. If you can remove yourself from our present location, these odds will improve.”
    “Why?” Kyung asked; she didn’t trust the suit’s medical system completely, but for now drugs had taken the edge off, and she could look at her legs later. Maybe much later. “Where am I? It looks like some kind of underground town.”
    The computer replaced her outline with a map of the surface. “Affirmative, Miss Kyung. You are approximately one hundred meters below grade, immediately under your previous position on hill seven-seven-three. Communications—even in the absence of enemy jamming—are currently impossible due to rock interference. My records indicate that the first Samsung colony was located here, where cobalt mining operations began over forty years ago, and you appear to have fallen down a mine shaft. It’s lucky that you were wearing a combat suit, Miss Kyung. Without it, you surely would have perished.”
    Kyung snorted. She wouldn’t feel so lucky once her drugs were gone, but the first Samsung colony? Her fear returned, and Kyung couldn’t explain it, only that she knew this would have been an ideal testing spot for the suit’s underground combat features and that John must have known about this; he’d worked at Samsung for over three decades.
    “Tell me about the settlement. I want maps with a trace to the nearest exit in the direction of Pak Chong Hui.”
    “Hold please…” It only took a moment for the computer to respond. “This is unusual, Miss Kyung.”
    “What?”
    “Other than cobalt mining,” it said, “I have no further records on this settlement; they’ve been removed from memory, and I was specifically ordered not to mention the site under any circumstances. Your presence here, however, overrides this command.”
    Kyung shivered. She didn’t like unusual. Unusual in the Samsung Corporation and in the context of a buried underground facility, an abandoned one, meant someone had screwed up and didn’t want his or her mistake discovered. And whoever had screwed up was powerful enough to have all traces erased. Someone like John. Even if she came out of this, she’d have to figure out a way to hide the fact that she’d been here, would have to smile and describe her accident in some way that wouldn’t get him thinking. But of course, all that would be impossible. The suit recorded everything.
    “This keeps getting better and better,” Kyung said. “Well, if you can’t show me an actual map, make a guess. What’s my best bet if I want to head in the direction of Pak?”
    A blinking indicator arrow appeared on her display. “That way, Miss Kyung. But be careful. Even with sedatives, movement of your lower limbs is occasionally going to be painful. If you make it out, you really should consider the latest Samsung bioupgrades; one of our combat soldiers would have survived that fall with no damage.”
    “I’ll keep it in mind,” said Kyung, gritting her teeth as she prepared to move.
    She passed out within thirty seconds, the agony washing up from her legs. Kyung had managed just a few feet. When she woke, she sipped some water from the tube near her mouth and then clenched it between her teeth, grunting as she pulled herself forward. Soon Kyung got a rhythm. A few