第124页
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← ^ → CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE
1810 HOURS, NOVEMBER 3, 2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \ ZETA DORADUS SYSTEM, PLANET ONYX \ NEAR RESTRICTED REGION ZONE 67
Kurt had seen snipers zero their instruments before, but never for an extreme-range, near-vertical target.
Linda took the task as seriously as a surgeon preparing for a heart transplant. She cleared a patch of rocky ground and laid out a camo mat so dust wouldn't foul her SRS99C-S2 AM rifle. Next she opened a kit that contained tools, bottles of cleaner and lubricant, several magazines for her rifle, a box of 14.5x114mm ammunition, and a tiny datapad. She selected one of the magazines and inspected it; satisfied, she opened the box of ammo and removed one of the rounds: super-hardened red polymer petals surrounded a finned tungsten dart. She spun it around and looked at the cartridge base. Opposite the legend "51" it bore the winged hourglass headstamp flanked by double "X"s—signifying that it was hand-loaded match-grade ammo from Misrah Armories on Mars. She slid the magazine into the rifle.
Next she linked her Oracle scope to the datapad and made microcalibrations. She finally sat, butted the rifle to her shoulder, and then leaned back flat and sighted up at the sky.
"Ready," she said over single-beam COM. Her voice was detached and trancelike.
"Eyes sharp," Kurt told everyone.
The Spartans had moved from the rendezvous hollow to the
high ground among broken canyons and mesas where Team Saber had first encountered the Sentinels. Kurt had them spread out along both sides of the valley.
Kelly stood in a gravel wash in the center of the valley and scanned the horizon, waiting for the double Sentinel to spot her. The sun was high and her shadow was a wavering spot at her feet.
For someone who was bait, she looked perfectly at ease.
The tunnel where Dante had rigged the opening and exit with charges was a quarter kilometer away from her position. Just far enough.
The tricky part of this plan would be to get the Sentinel pair into the tunnel, instead of staying high and blasting Kelly while she was inside. Would they continue their "game" of cat and mouse, or was the data-collection phase of their operation over?
Either way, Kurt had placed his friend in grave danger.
Kelly looked up to Kurt's position and activated her single beam. "I see it," she said. "Two khcks away. I'm going to tap its shoulder."
"Go, Blue Two," he said. "Keep your head."
Kurt held up a hand, made a fist, and pumped it twice—the "get ready" signal for the rest of the team.
Kelly took a shot at the drone pair with her MAB5—an impossible target with an assault rifle, but it wasn't meant to hit, just to get the thing's attention.
The Sentinel turned to the report of gunfire and accelerated toward her.
Will reported over single beam: "Overwatch spotted, eleven o'clock, elevation twenty-four hundred meters. Wind is three knots from the northwest."