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of us, his tail swaying back and forth, so I eased off the power. We came to a stop as he made for a strangely shaped rock in the desert.

Actually, it was more out of place than strange. The rock looked as if it were shaped in the form of a kind of twisted cylinder.

Sulk knelt beside it and pressed his hands in a specific pattern on the rock. A moment later, the thing beeped.

Sulk motioned for us to follow, clicking away nonstop in his alien dialect. The sandy ground to his right began to part as a hidden entrance was revealed.

“I don’t speak their language, but I think we’re here,” Stacy said.

I had to agree, but where was “here?”

10

The hidden entrance was one I was sure to never have found, nor did I think I could ever find it again. I could have passed by the rock a dozen times and not given it a second glance.

The ground beside Sulk parted with a slight rumble and a small cloud of dust, clearing the sandy floor as two hidden pieces separated. A step down revealed a metal platform large enough for the predator to sit on.

“He says we must hurry,” Tong said. “It seems Legion has not found this hidden entrance, but if he sees us here, it will be obvious.”

“Let’s go,” I said, easing the predator forward. I moved onto the steel elevator.

Sulk stood on the platform, going to his hands and knees. Once more, he pressed the ground in a specific series of motions.

A second later, the elevator hummed to life and began to lower us underground. The walls on either side of our circular elevator were lined with bright blue lights.

The sky overhead was soon blocked out altogether as the entrance closed silently.

“Well, if this was a trap,” John said from his spot in the rear, “they have really got us now.” It appeared John’s shock was fading from the accident and I was gratified to see that he most likely was not suffering from a brain injury.

“To escape Legion only to be caught with our pants up amongst the Rung.” Tong nodded in agreement. “It would be a sad way to end this story indeed.”

“I think you mean ‘pants down,’” I corrected Tong.

“What?” Tong asked in confusion.

“The saying is ‘caught with your pants down,’ not up,” I said.

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Tong shook his head with a raised hairless eyebrow. “Why would my pants be down?”

“Who taught you that anyway?” Stacy asked, her head on a swivel.

“I heard it from a colonist,” Tong said, blinking rapidly. “I shall ask Iris when we get back.”

I let Tong work out his game plan for getting to the bottom of the saying. We had no time for semantics at the moment. The elevator’s smooth motion began to slow and I wondered what was down here. We had to be ten maybe twelve stories underground by now.

The Rung didn’t mess around when it came to building their bunkers. If Legion didn’t know where this place was or how to find the entrance, there would never be a way for him to dig this deep, no matter how many infected with shovels he had.

The platform came to a halt in front of a pair of massive double doors.

Sulk clicked and hissed off another series of sounds that sounded like he was insulting us, if I didn’t know better.

“He will do the talking,” Tong translated. “Do not lift your weapons or show aggression. Let him explain everything to his people. They will welcome us.”

“Weapons down but at the ready,” Stacy ordered.

I took my Judge from its holster. Holding the grip of the weapon, I hid it below the dash. From their vantage point, the Rung would only be able to see me from the chest up and not the weapon I held.

The doors in front of us hissed and slid open from the middle. Bright white light illuminated the chamber, nearly blinding us. A small army of Rung with weapons of their own formed two rows, one kneeling and the other standing right behind them. All of their weapons were trained on us.

I was surprised to see so much coordination amongst their weapons and uniforms. Their rifles were long with a curved piece of steel on the bottom like a half moon bayonet.

Though each of the Rung sported black uniforms with high collars, they varied in appearance. Some had enhanced goggles, which made their eyes appear bulged behind them, or metal hands or feet or both. Others wore metal helmets. I couldn’t tell if they were connected to their head or they wore them on their skull. Even a few metallic tails swung back and forth. I knew from experience that when this extra appendage was used to maximum effect it hurt like hell.

There had to be forty of the Rung, maybe more, that greeted us.

Sulk didn’t waste any time with pleasantries or formal introductions. He threw out his hands, going to work on communicating with his people.

“Tell them to lower their weapons,” John growled. “I didn’t come all this way to see Lou die and have our supposed allies shoot us down.” I seconded that sentiment by nodding along with his words.

“Easy, John,” Stacy warned. “Give him a second.”

Sulk rattled off another sentence to his fellow aliens.

A husky female voice from somewhere in the room answered him then gave what sounded like a command of her own.

Immediately, the Rung pointing their weapons at us lowered their rifles. Those who had been kneeling stood up, and as one parted their ranks to let someone through.

A rather tall Rung walked into view. Long eyelashes and dark purple hair on her head made her easily identifiable as female. I didn’t even know Rung were capable of growing hair until now, upgrades and augmentation to their DNA no doubt.

She studied us up and down before nodding in greeting to Sulk. Around her neck was a thick necklace, and some kind