Fast

by Shane M Brown

  It’s possible, Coleman half wished to himself. He could overlook the cavity.

  The boots paused on the last flight of stairs, right at Coleman’s eye-level.

  Coleman suppressed a curse as the man clicked on a flashlight. He aimed the beam through the steps. Coleman willed the beam away from the cavity.

  The beam crept across the bottom edge of the far wall towards the cavity. Coleman held his breath. He felt the next few seconds stretching every nerve in his body. If that light beam moved just a few inches more, the entire stairwell was going to erupt in gunfire. They would have to make a desperate break for the basement door. He sensed the others tensing, anticipating the inevitable firefight about to erupt.

  ‘All clear,’ reported the gunman. He clicked off his flashlight and headed back up the stairs.

  #

  Bora watched his man come back up the stairs.

  This doesn’t feel right.

  He had definitely sensed someone in the stairwell. He had a clean line of sight of all the stairwell doors, so they couldn’t have escaped. It was possible that they had exited the stairwell before Bora’s force arrived, but it certainly hadn’t felt that way.

  Reaching down, he stroked the blond hair of a dead woman hanging with her arm caught through the handrail. He gently moved aside the hair to see her face. She certainly hadn’t been the one moving. She wore a yellow dress, although most of it was torn away and what little remained was blood-soaked from the terrible wounds to her face and neck. A gold pendant around her neck had fallen open and showed a picture of a man and a child. Probably her husband and son.

  Maybe this place is getting to me. All this death.

  He nodded at the north security antechamber door. His men stormed the antechamber, yanking open the door and rushing through.

  Striding into the antechamber, Bora found a fresh skirmish scene.

  What the…?

  The Marines had been here, and not very long ago judging by the still drying-boot prints.

  #

  ‘Go, go, go,’ whispered Coleman as the stairwell door swung shut behind Bora.

  Forest, Marlin, and then King headed up the stairs toward the sublevel hatch. Vanessa followed right behind them. Coleman knew they had narrowly missed discovery by Bora. He also knew Bora would assess the antechamber’s skirmish scene in seconds.

  But there dwelled some hope among Coleman’s anxiety that Bora might any second burst in with guns blazing.

  If the terrorists are still in the Complex, then they haven’t reached the templates yet.

  Third Unit were still in the race.

  #

  In the security antechamber, Bora found one of Gould’s creatures riddled with gunfire.

  He examined the trail of the creature’s bodily fluids.

  It died on the move. From the trajectory of its sliding corpse, it came from inside the research level and been shot to pieces in the antechamber.

  Bora glanced up at the containment door. Bullet scars confirmed his assessment. He noticed something else.

  Shoe prints.

  Not boot prints like the Marines would leave, but the shoe prints of a civilian.

  The creature was chasing someone. The person ran this way and ducked under the containment door just in time for the Marines to take out the creature. That’s one lucky son of a bitch.

  Bora last spotted the Marines descending in the elevator, so the bullet trajectory made sense. Drawing aside his rifle, he squatted beside the creature.

  Someone’s done an autopsy on this.

  The dissection gave a distinctly professional impression. Someone who knew what they were doing had taken the time to learn more about the creature. The shoe prints suggested the civilian performed the dissection. From the shoe size, probably a woman. Bora saw scuff marks where the civilian labored to slice the large incisions. The person then walked around the creature, probably explaining about what they had learned from the autopsy, and then headed towards the…

  Stairwell

  ‘Stairwell!’ yelled Bora as he dashed for the door. ‘They’re in the stairwell!’

  As he kicked open the door he heard a noise below.

  Click. It was the sound of a hatch closing.

  #

  Click. Coleman closed the hatch.

  ‘That was close,’ he said, joining the others. ‘Bora just came back into the stairwell. He must have heard the hatch. He knows we’re in here. We have to move fast.’

  They were in the underlab. More precisely, in a network of long corridors that branched under the peripheral labs in a way that confused the Marines, but seemed to be second nature to Vanessa as they ran.

  ‘Only one of these leads to the galleries under the core labs,’ puffed Vanessa as they jogged through the corridors. ‘We’re coming at the labs from the east now. This is it here.’

  At the end of the next corridor stood a hatch identical to the one in the northern stairwell. Through this second hatch waited a small chamber.

  From somewhere in the chamber, a feminine voice was repeating:

  Warning - level three containment infringement in progress.

  Warning - level three containment infringement in progress.

  The voice came from a computer recessed into the right wall. Apart from the computer and identical hatches at either end, the chamber was bare and just large enough for the five of them.

  ‘The laboratory has detected Cairns breaking into the research level,’ explained Vanessa, standing at the computer.

  The robust computer terminal reminded Coleman of equipment designed to resist high pressure or sudden impact.

  Vanessa touched the screen rapidly. ‘Cairns is controlling the administration hub, just like you thought. That gives him control of most of our systems.’

  ‘What doesn’t he control?’ asked Coleman.

  ‘This level and the Evacuation Center.’ She pointed on the screen. ‘See? They’re both independent during a containment emergency.’

  ‘Well that’s something, at least. So what’s he doing?’

  Vanessa touched the screen twice and raised a detailed map with red flashing panels. ‘He’s activated all the aquifer pumps. Full power. The creatures are tearing the pumps apart.’

  ‘Clever bastard,’ conceded Coleman. ‘He’s distracting the creatures with the pumps while he breaks into the research level. That’s where all the creatures have gone.’

  ‘Why so many industrial-grade pumps?’ asked King, looking over Vanessa’s shoulder.

  ‘We’re sitting in an aquifer, right?’ she explained. ‘We have pumps to storage tanks on every level in case the big sucker fails and the basement floods. Pumps four and six are already destroyed. They’re venting their water back to the basement.’

  ‘How much longer before all the pumps fail?’ asked Coleman.

  ‘Fifteen minutes tops,’ estimated Vanessa. ‘Maybe a few minutes longer. After that, the creatures will come sweeping back through the Complex and kill everything with a heartbeat.’

  Marlin and Forest exchanged glances. A tide of creatures sweeping through the Complex was not a cheerful image.

  ‘Fifteen minutes,’ said Coleman. ‘This is going to be very tight.’

  ‘More so than you think,’ she added. ‘I haven’t explained the underlab yet.’

  ‘Explain as we run,’ said Coleman, moving to the second hatch.

  ‘There won’t be any running,’ warned Vanessa. ‘That’s my entire point. We have to swim.’

  Coleman turned from the hatch. ‘Swim?’

  ‘The underlab isn’t just for moving beneath the labs,’ said Vanessa. ‘The underlab is a multi-purpose security, decontamination and structural integrity measure. It’s called an FCP, a fluid containment protocol. The underlab floods in a containment emergency. Liquid increases the structural integrity of the core labs and stops cross-lab contamination.’

  She tapped the hatch. A deep sound reverberated back. ‘The other side of this hatch is now
filled with liquid.’

  ‘Water?’ asked Forest.

  ‘Water-soluble bio-corrosives,’ answered Coleman. He knew all about FCPs in theory, but he hadn’t thought that any existed. Yet.

  Vanessa nodded. ‘Solids walls and doors can buckle and crack, so liquid is the perfect solution.’

  King didn’t look impressed. ‘Can’t we drain the underlab?’

  ‘Not during the containment emergency. We have to swim through the underlab and emerge in the labs along the way to breath. There are large sliding ceiling hatches to access the labs above. When we open a ceiling hatch in the underlab, it forms a pool in the center of the lab above. We’ll have to flood this room before I can open the hatch so we can start swimming.’

  ‘That all sounds easy enough,’ tested Coleman suspiciously. He knew from personal experience that Vanessa was holding something back. He detected serious misgivings in her voice. ‘So tell me why I’m wrong.’

  Vanessa bit her lip and turned to the door. ‘Because I don’t know if the security system will recognize me underwater. It’s never been used this way. It could lock me out. If that happens, I won’t be able to open any of the hatches. We’ll all drown right here.’

  Coleman anticipated another problem. ‘Won’t our presence lock-out the controls? The security system won’t recognize any of us.’

  ‘That won’t be a problem if it recognizes me.’ Vanessa formed her next sentence carefully, obviously anticipating Coleman’s reaction. ‘The system will know what I want.’

  Coleman was shocked again. ‘What? Are you saying this security system knows if you want someone to enter with you or not?’

  ‘That’s right,’ she admitted reluctantly. ‘The system will open if I want it to, but stay closed if I was taken hostage and forced against my will.’

  Now Coleman was starting to seriously worry about Vanessa’s mental health. Was the shock or stress affecting her reasoning? They were about to risk drowning using her plan to access the labs. Coleman watched her face carefully for the telltale signs of posttraumatic shock. ‘That’s just not possible, Vanessa. You’re saying this security system can read your mind.’

  ‘It can. I know it sounds crazy, and there must be a technical explanation, but I haven’t discovered it yet.’

  Coleman was in turmoil. They should be charging towards the templates already. He could only think of one way to establish how much of Vanessa’s information was based on real observations and how much was her imagination.

  Coleman took the gamble that he knew her better than anyone else working here in the complex.

  ‘You’ve found something, haven’t you? You know how the security system senses us. There is no way that you of all people are going to curb your curiosity and not look for the sensors. This security system is guarding your life’s work. You must have a theory.’

  Vanessa slowly ran her hands over the wall like she was carefully feeling for brail. ‘I think the sensors are hard to spot because they are everywhere. They look like part of the wall. If you let your eyes unfocus, you can pick up a very slight distortion in the walls’ surfaces.’

  She stopped and touched the wall with her fingertip. ‘Here. Here’s one.’

  Coleman examined the tiny concave bump on the wall. It was only two millimeters across. Vanessa waved Marlin over for a look.

  ‘These are the right size for micro fiber optics,’ observed Marlin.

  Coleman remembered how the elevator had been mysteriously summoned to Vanessa’s floor when she was running for her life. Could the security system have known she wanted the elevator? Coleman thought for a moment then waved Forest over to the computer. ‘Forest, you’re on the controls. We’re going to need Vanessa inside.’

  Vanessa quickly explained the controls, and then went to stand with Coleman.

  Forest’s right hand hovered over the control to flood the chamber. His grasped a handle beside the computer. ‘Ready?’

  ‘One second,’ said Coleman. ‘We need to get in and out under their noses before they know what’s happening. We are seriously outgunned and outnumbered, so we go in hard and fast once we reach the labs. The last thing we want is to be trapped in there.’

  No one asked the obvious question. What if the terrorists were already inside? No one asked, because the answer was obvious. If the terrorists were already inside the laboratory, Third Unit would probably be shot to pieces as they tried to exit the underlab via the pools. It would literally be like shooting fish in a barrel. But with submachine guns. They all knew the risks.

  ‘We need to get in, take care of business, and then get out,’ repeated Coleman. ‘The clock’s ticking. We can’t go head-to-head with these guys, so we keep moving. Don’t get pinned down. If they stop us moving, they’ll finish us. We need to stay mobile at any cost.’

  Coleman tightened his CMAR-17 against his chest so he could swim. ‘Any questions?’

  The others strapped their assault rifles likewise. Marlin checked his weapon was secure then asked, ‘How many creatures are in there?’

  ‘At least two, maybe more,’ answered Vanessa.

  Marlin looked at the hatch. ‘So either way, terrorists or creatures, we’re emerging into a hot-zone.’

  ‘That’s right.’ Coleman nodded to Forest. ‘Flood the chamber.’

  Forest touched the controls and liquid blasted around their legs.

  The surging water knocked Marlin from his feet. He tumbled backwards and smashed down into the water which flowed over his face in a second.

  ‘Shit,’ bellowed King, alarmed by the powerful surge. ‘Marlin!’

  Reaching underwater, King dragged Marlin to his feet, struggling to keep his own footing as the water level rose over his hips.

  Vanessa yelled over the roar of the water entering the chamber. ‘The hatch won’t open until this chamber is completely full.’

  That wouldn’t be long.

  The room was filling very fast.

  Coleman was treading water in seconds, and then his hands touched the chamber ceiling. Faces turned upwards, everyone took a last gasped breath as their air pocket disappeared.

  For a second Coleman’s world was bubbles and turbulent water, then the chamber stabilized.

  He saw Vanessa diving towards the hatch. Underwater, the hatch controls glowed an eerie green. The light played over her features as she entered her access code and then turned the circular handle.

  Nothing happened.

  For one sickening moment the mission stopped; they were all going to drown because the security system hadn’t recognized Vanessa, but then a crack appeared around the hatch.

  Coleman realized it was the water pressure sealing the door, not the security system. Swimming down, he hooked his fingers through the crack. He curled his body and pushed off the wall with his boots.

  The hatch swung inwards. Vanessa pulled herself through.

  Coleman followed her into a corridor the same width as the flooded saturation chamber. Submerged ceiling lights stretched away every ten feet. Vanessa stroked ahead down the center of the corridor, her trainers kicking and her arms making large sideways sweeps as her clothes jerked around her.

  Marlin and then King pulled themselves through the hatchway and began stroking behind Coleman.

  #

  Cairns stepped from the lift with his entourage of gunmen onto level three.

  The west antechamber was a mirror copy of the north antechamber: a six by six meter space adjoining the lift, the stairwell, and the large containment door. The only difference was that this containment door stood wide open, compliments of Gould in the admin hub. Cairns strode down the decontamination corridor until he reached the second heavy door. This one was sealed shut. It couldn’t be opened from the admin hub. Beyond the door waited the core labs.

  Cairns’s men had transformed this end of the corridor into a makeshift workshop. Black nylon webbing covered with silver tools lay unrolled all over the floor. Two men worked on their knees among the webb
ing.

  Of all the strategic points Cairns now controlled, this was his most heavily guarded. Two gunmen covered the stairwell. Two gunmen covered the lift. The six gunmen accompanying Cairns now moved to guard the two men working on their knees.

  These last two men were assembling Cairns’s special equipment.

  The Belington drill.

  The only one of its kind in the world. All Belington drills were uniquely designed to the client’s specifications.

  This drill was modeled on the portable Belington ‘K’ Series Safecracker – the same type of drill that penetrated the infamous Boustead Estate safe room in 2005. That drill had been used to gain access to the family’s self-contained bunker where they had hidden when the estate came under siege.

  Cairns’s drill made the Boustead Estate machine look like a portable hand-drill. Computer software had been designed for this one and only task. Built into the drill’s supporting struts were three levels of vibration-dampeners. The dampeners would erode internally as they absorbed the drill’s energy. After today, the Belington would probably never leave the Complex.

  The Belington had been one of Cairns’s most difficult covert acquisition. It also took up valuable space in the freight capsule. Without it, however, the mission would have been impossible. The security system before Cairns was a complete mystery. There was no information available at any price on the black market. No blue-prints. No construction material specifications. They couldn’t even discover the name of the company who had installed the mysterious system. What little information they had to use was stolen by Gould from the engineering workshops where they stress-tested the new building materials.

  That had been the key in the end. This Complex, these very scientists, had provided Cairns the details he needed to breach the lab’s security. It was ironic, but somehow perfectly fitting.

  Cairns walked across the antechamber and ran his hand over the containment door. This represented the last obstacle between himself and Sharp’s templates.