Astronomicon: Behemoth

Chapter 43 - Company

His suit lights revealed an E.V.A-suited figure in the driver's seat, slumped over the compact steering wheel. While Ekono efficiently checked that the rest of the room was clear, Aron edged closer to the buggy, holding his handgun ready.

"Is the buggy driveable?" came Ekono's voice over the radio.

"Too early to tell," Aron replied. "Someone's still in it."

"I noticed that. This room's clear."

"It's L.E.O. Cohen!" announced Aron as soon as his suit lights illuminated the visor on the stationary figure.

Ekono attached his handgun to his suit's belt as he jogged closer to the damaged buggy. Aron's visor display still showed that no medical information was being received from L.E.O. Cohen's suit. Now standing directly beside the driver's seat, he looked up at the L.E.O.'s visor and did not like what he saw.

L.E.O. Cohen was leaning forwards onto the steering wheel, staring blankly ahead. His face was sunken and pale under the dim illumination inside his helmet. A blackened area near the centre of his chest turned out, on closer inspection, to be a charred hole right through his E.V.A. suit.

"He's gone and there's no trace of anyone else in the room," reported Ekono as he arrived at the damaged buggy.

"Where are Margaux and Isa?" Aron asked, looking briefly around the large room even though Ekono had just told him there was no-one there.

"There are a couple of crystals on the floor, but no damage to the room that I can see."

"Nothing seems to damage whatever this place is made from," replied Aron.

"I know you outrank me, Aron, but I strongly advise that we find out if this buggy is driveable and get out of here. There is clearly a hostile party in this area and we know nothing about their location or strength."

"They could come back," Aron replied.

"Exactly."

Aron walked quickly around the buggy to get a better impression of the damage. The front was in reasonable shape, needing little more than a new wing and a headlamp assembly, but the rear was a different matter. Both rear tyres had large holes scorched right through them, badly damaging the wheel hub in one case. The driver's side rear seat had two similar scorched holes through it, at least one of which had travelled on through the front seat and right through L.E.O. Cohen, E.V.A suit and all before punching a hole through the buggy's windscreen.

Ekono heaved the L.E.O.s lifeless form carefully onto the floor beside the buggy while Aron checked out the electrical systems on the buggy. Aron soon found that the motor in the damaged wheel hub was seized up and another seemed to have no power. The front wheel on the passenger side had sheared its steering linkage. He leant into the buggy from the passenger side and unclipped the tablet computer from the dashboard.

When they got back to the Arcadian, he should be able to pull enough data from the buggy's tablet computer to establish what had happened. For now, he decided it would be best to press the large, red button on the dashboard that would power-down the buggy, preserving its battery.

"Is it driveable?" asked Ekono as he dragged the L.E.O.'s body closer to the room's open doorway.

"No. You can only steer one wheel and one of the back wheels isn't going to turn at all. I can repair it but it's going to need parts and time."

"We might not have time," Ekono replied calmly. "Let's salvage what we can and get Officer Cohen back to the ship. Check the boot."

"What about Margaux and Isa?"