He had only half a clip left in his gun, and he knew he must wait until Sloan and the others came past the twist in the tube. He had to make sure.
He heard the slipping, scrambling sounds of their progress through the tube, and he felt Tark tauten beside him.
"Not yet!" Nelson told himself, sweating. "Not yet—"
The scuffling of feet was louder, much louder. They had surely come around the twist in the tube by now.
But he had to be sure! He waited seconds longer, waited when he felt sure they were but yards away from him in the dark tube.
Then Nelson emptied his pistol straight down the tube.
"Piet, hold on!" yelled a muffled voice in the tube as the thunderous echoes died.
Nelson had heard his bullets whining off metal. He knew then that he had failed, that the amplification of sound in the tube had tricked him into firing too soon.
A whisper came down the tube to him. "Give him—"
Then, a metallic something came bumping and rattling along the tube toward him.