They nodded.
“Get in the car.”
Chapter Thirty
They arrived at their next destination in the afternoon. The Captain was out of the car almost before Lieutenant Wong pulled to a complete stop. Lieutenant Wong ushered the others out and hustled them into the building after the Captain. As Sarah disappeared into the building she thought she understood why no one had bothered to look there for the hidden scientists. The place looked like it had half-collapsed. A large concrete column leaned dangerously across the gaping front door, so that they all had to crouch down and shuffled forward to get in. The roof at the building’s entrance had also caved it. It looked like it had been deserted for fifty years, not merely twenty or so. There were blast marks everywhere. It was likely that the building had been attacked by a bomb. Any sane person would have taken one look at the crumbling cement and exposed, rusted metal and decided that going in wasn’t worth the risk. They had to clamber awkwardly over large metallic beams and cement pillars before they could squeeze through a small gap and get through to the second half of the building. To Sarah’s surprise, the second half of the building looked almost untouched.
It was also empty.
It looked like no one had stepped a foot in there for a number of years. Lieutenant Wong bounded over to a machine that looked like an older version of the one he had found in the last lab.
“It’s been picked over for parts,” he said. “They couldn’t move the whole thing so they took what they could.”
“Do you see anything else?” asked the Captain.
Lieutenant Wong walked around the room, his eyes darting everywhere. He started peering in shelves.
“Nothing. This was a cleaner job. They must have prepared their evacuation in advance.”
“Then it’s down to Sarah,” said the Captain.
Sarah felt her heart sink.
“I can’t,” she said faintly. “I just can’t…” she stopped as the Captain pulled his revolver out, pointing it at her.
“If you can’t, then there is no point in having you here, is there?” he asked coldly. He took a deep breath and then spoke in a measured tone. “You’ve had flashes before,” he said, his voice forcibly paced, “images of a man in a lab coat. Think back. Concentrate.”
But Sarah couldn’t think. How could he expect her to do that when he had a gun pointed at her face? “I don’t-” began Sarah, but she stopped as the Captain suddenly strode three steps forward and grabbed Finn by the hair, shoving the revolver in his face.
Sarah’s words choked in her throat. She felt tears threaten to stream down her face but blinked them back, knowing she had to stay focused. Finn was staying still, his position awkward as he tried not to do anything sudden. His breaths came quick and fast.
“Please,” whispered Sarah.
“Then think!” yelled the Captain, spittle flying out of his mouth. “Think about the man in the lab coat!”
Sarah thought back to her image. She couldn’t remember anything more. This was it. Desperately her eyes roamed the room, hoping for something, anything that would help. The lab setting was so familiar, but at the same time she could never recall being in a lab. It was the weirdest feeling. She looked back at Finn. He had his eyes closed now and was trying to pace his breathing. She turned back frantically to the room. Her heart hammering in her ears, so loud it nearly blocked out all the noise in the room.
“I can’t…” she whispered, and then she stopped.
Standing in the corner of the lab was a metal drum. It was coated in a layer of dust, but she could still see that the inside of it was burnt black. Her breath caught in her throat. The image of the man in the lab coat flashed back in front of her eyes, only this time his back wasn’t turned to her. He was facing her. He had soft brown eyes and large, comforting hands. He was looking at her sadly. A couple just out of eye-sight were muttering to each other quietly. She heard the name Scarlyle, but her attention was brought back to the man with the large hands as he spoke to her.
“I’m sorry, sweetie,” he was saying. He came closer and held her in a tight hug, pulling down the back of her shirt to expose her shoulder, “but it’s the only way we’ll ever find each other again.” She remembered smiling back up at him nervously, but her eyes kept on flickering to a man in the background. He was poking at a fire going in a big metal drum. He pulled out his stick, but it wasn’t a stick. It had a symbol shaped into the side that had been in the fire. A brand. Her eyes had gone wide and she had looked back at the man with the sad, kind face. He pulled up the sleeve of his lab coat to show the same Hourglass icon tattooed into his forearm. “See? We’ll be the same. And when you’re old enough, and if you want to find out about the mark, you’ll come find me. I’ll wait for you sweetie, I promise.” Sarah remembered crying. “You’re going to go to sleep now sweetie,” said the man, “I promise, you won’t feel a thing.” And then her tear-blurred vision was obscured even more as a mask was pulled over her head, and she blacked out.
Sarah blinked, finding herself back in the room with the Captain. Tears were running down her face.
“Scarlyle,” she gasped. She looked up, urgently brushing away the remaining tears. Finn was still unhurt. She could still save him. “Scarlyle,” she repeated a little louder. “They went to Scarlyle.”
The Captain pushed Finn away and strode towards her. “Are you sure? What did you see?”
Sarah nodded. “I remember the man, the one in the lab coat. He was getting ready to…” she gulped, “to give me my scar,” she finally said. “There were some people in the background. They were talking about evacuating to Scarlyle.”
The Captain’s face was flushed, excited. “Why did they brand you?” he asked, not bothering to soften his words.
“He said it was so I could find him again. I don’t know why,” she added hurriedly, pre-empting his next question.
“Well then,” said the Captain, “we’re off to Scarlyle.”
The Captain rushed them back to the car, his excitement palpable.
“Scarlyle… Scarlyle… Scarlyle…” he muttered under his breath. “I know that name… How do I know that name?” He dived into the front seat and pulled out a small device from the glove compartment. “Here we are,” he muttered after executing a few commands. “The town of Scarlyle, destroyed… ten years ago in an attack by the Covenant. Whole town was completely demolished.” He scanned down the page hungrily. “Here! This says it was the home to one of the largest Hourglass facilities in the area.”
“The posterior walls of this lab were reinforced with steel,” said Lieutenant Wong. “It could be that all the Hourglass labs out there are too. The Scarlyle lab might turn out to be the same,” he suggested.
“Might be?” repeated the Captain. He smiled. “I think we’ll find that is exactly the case.”
Chapter Thirty-One
That night the Captain chained Sarah, Finn and Boulder to a metal pole jutting out of the wall of the abandoned building they were staying in. It was impossible to get comfortable to sleep. When he saw them struggling the Captain reminded them that they shouldn’t have run. Somehow that didn’t make things any better. After a lot of squirming and repositioning Finn finally got sick of Sarah moving around and wrapped his free arm around her, pulling her in close. Sarah settled against his chest. Maybe, she thought, tonight wasn’t going to be too bad after all.
She was wrong.
She dreamt she was back fighting with Gillie, Bettina, Hutch and Jaz. She dreamt of them most nights now. It was getting so bad she was starting to fear falling asleep. She saw Gillie and Bettina grow huge with the Berserker drug, their eyes bloodshot as they ran to their death. And although she never saw it in real life, she watched as Jaz got blown up by a planted mine. It happened again, and again, and again. And then her dreams would change. She would be in the Hourglass facility. Only this time she wasn’t breaking the others out. She was inside, strapped to a table. There was a man there, wearing a surgical g
own and holding a scalpel. He told her not to worry but she knew he was lying. He was going to hurt her. She turned her head and saw the other strapped to tables as well. Not just Finn, Boulder and Marland, but Gillie, Bettina, Hutch and Jaz too. He was going to hurt all of them.
She woke screaming with tears running down her face. Finn tried to sooth her and held her close for the rest of the night, patting her hair, trying to keep her calm.
He didn’t ask her what her dream was about.
He knew.
He had them too.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The town of Scarlyle was dead. It looked like it belonged in a horror movie. Nearly every third building was completely destroyed, but the rest of it was untouched. It looked like it was waiting for its inhabitants to return at any moment. There were signs hanging in shops, market carts lining the streets and kids toys littered haphazardly along the ground. Sarah could picture it. People going about their everyday lives, and then the bombs had started to fall and they just dropped everything and fled. It was incredibly depressing. And creepy.
“This is creepy as hell,” said Boulder, unintentionally voicing her thoughts out loud.
Their car seemed to make an inordinate amount of noise as it trundled along the deserted street.
“Up here on the left,” directed the Captain.
Lieutenant Wong slowly drove the next thirty metres and then stopped outside the Hourglass Group building. Its neighbour had been completely obliterated by either a bomb or fire, it was hard to tell, and the Hourglass building’s front had half-caved in as it too suffered from the damage. Unlike the facility in the last town, they didn’t have to go through the front door. Instead they could just walk through the giant gap in the wall to access the office area prior to the lab.
“See any sign of anyone?” asked the Captain.
“No Sir,” replied Lieutenant Wong. Both Lieutenant Wong and the Captain had drawn their firearms, keeping them lowered but ready. Lieutenant Wong went first, again peering into each of the offices before approaching the door at the end. The Hourglass Group may have been great at weapons, Sarah thought inanely as they proceeded through, but their building designs left a lot to the imagination.
“Empty,” reported Lieutenant Wong. He gripped the far door leading into the lab area and pushed before letting go and standing back, his handgun raised. The door kicked up a small cloud of dust. Lieutenant Wong strode through into the dark room. After a moment he lowered his gun.
“Nothing, Sir,” he called back. “There’s no one here.”
The Captain frowned, rushing in after him, pulling Sarah along by her shoulder. The room was almost a carbon copy of the last lab they were in. It had also obviously been deserted a long time ago.
“Search it,” ordered the Captain. “All of you,” he added, gesturing for everyone else to join in the hunt. They jumped slightly and joined in. They returned after three minutes, empty handed.
The Captain turned to Sarah.
“You said they went to Scarlyle,” he said, his gun-hand twitching in a way that Sarah did not find comforting at all.
“I only told you what I remembered. It’s not like I have them on a tracker.”
The hand twitched again and Sarah stopped talking.
“Search it again,” ordered the Captain. His voice was deadly now. They all could have told him it was pointless, but no one wanted to get shot, so they did it anyway.
Unsurprisingly, the result was the same.
“There’s nothing here, Sir.”
The Captain roared, making them all jump back. He kicked at a loose pile of rubble, sending it skidding across the floor, leaving a clear trail in the dust. He was breathing heavily, his chest heaving. The rest of them just stood there, uncertain what to do and not wanting to draw any attention to themselves in case they became his next outlet for his anger. Even Lieutenant Wong was hanging back. The Captain swung back around, facing them.
“I suppose,” he said, his voice unnaturally level, “that there’s no longer any use for you three.”
Finn, Boulder and Sarah all took a simultaneous step back.
“We can still be useful,” said Boulder.
The Captain’s face swung towards him. “Shut up!”
“Ah, Sir…” interrupted Lieutenant Wong.
“I said shut up!” screamed the Captain maniacally. He raised his gun at Boulder.
“No, Sir, seriously,” said Lieutenant Wong again, stepping forward, but he wasn’t looking at the Captain or Boulder. He was looking above the Captain’s head. Finally the Captain seemed to realise that something else was up, because he turned to look at Lieutenant Wong.
“What is it?” he spat.
“Sir, look.” Lieutenant Wong raised his arm and pointed at what had grabbed his attention. The Captain turned his head awkwardly, gun still aimed at Boulder. Sarah risked a glance up at what had so mesmerised Lieutenant Wong as well.
Situated just over the door frame, looking out over all of them, was a camera.
“There’s no dust on it,” said Finn, also looking up.
The Captain lowered the gun and Sarah saw Boulder take in a deep gulp of air. “It’s a later model as well,” he said, his voice much more normal sounding. “You,” he ordered Boulder, “grab me a chair.”
Boulder grabbed the nearest chair to him and dragged it over to the Captain, before positioning himself so that he was out of the Captain’s line of sight. It was a smart move, Sarah thought. The Captain grabbed the chair by its back, manoeuvred it into a more favourable position, and then stood up on it, getting as close to the camera as he could. He reached out and plucked it off the door frame. After a second of examining it he made a sudden jerky movement, nearly dropping the camera.
“It’s recording,” he said, his voice both surprised and excited. “This is recording.”
“Why would someone watch an empty lab?” asked Clara, confused.
“Why indeed?” repeated the Captain, his interest piqued.
“They’re here,” said Lieutenant Wong, his voice certain.
“What?” demanded the Captain.
“Sir, they’re here. They’re here somewhere. Why else would they be watching the lab? They knew we would search here first. It’s their early warning system. They’re somewhere here.”
“How close would they have to be?” asked the Captain sharply.
“Show me the camera,” said Lieutenant Wong.
The Captain lobbed the camera at his Lieutenant, who caught it deftly. He examined the little piece efficiently.
“They can’t be too far. They would have to re-charge and change the batteries every few days. It can’t have a very strong signal either. I doubt they have another device which they could use to ping the signal. Nah,” Lieutenant Wong weighed the little camera in his fist, as if it held all the answers, “they’re really close.” His fist suddenly stilled in mid-movement. “A basement,” he added suddenly. “Some of the Hourglass facilities used to talk about getting spare parts out of the basement.” He looked up at the Captain. “We need to find the door to the basement.”
“Alright!” roared the Captain, “everybody get to it!”
They fanned out again, scanning the area.
Sarah didn’t want to admit it, but even she was getting excited about finding this elusive group.
“Here!” called out Clara after a couple of minutes. She had disappeared into one of the offices and now reappeared back at the doorway to the lab. They all followed her back into the second office on the left. “This room’s smaller than its counterpart on the other side of the corridor,” she said. “So I started banging on the walls. This one’s hollow. There’s probably a secret switch of something somewhere…” she said, starting to run her hands along the grating. Lieutenant Wong left the room and came back a moment later with an axe.
“Bloody hell,” said Boulder, startled, “where did that come from?”
Lieutenant Wong ignored him. He ordered them to st
and back and they scrambled out of his way as he lodged the blade into the wall. It sunk in easily and as he pulled back a hole opened up. “Give me a light.” Clara thrust a torch into his hand and he poked it through the hole, peering in.
“Stairs,” he said, handing back the torch and rearing back for another strike with the axe. “There’s a way down.” He hit the wall again. Two minutes later the hole was now big enough for a person to clamber through. The Captain grabbed the torch off Clara and went in first.
“Make sure they don’t slip away,” he ordered Lieutenant Wong as he disappeared through the hole. Lieutenant Wong nodded and motioned for the others to go in after the Captain. They did so, a fair bit more warily than the Captain had. Despite knowing that the stairs were in use, it didn’t stop them from looking old and faulty. Also as the Captain had the only torch, and he was rapidly disappearing, it was getting extremely hard to see. After descending ten steps their view lightened again as an open doorway appeared in front of them. A bright, sterile white light shone through it. Sarah had to blink several times as she passed through it, the glare almost blinding. Finally her eyes adjusted and she gasped.
They had walked into a pristine looking lab. The halogen lights shone down on the room strong and unflickering, bathing everything in a bright, unfiltered light. There was also evidence of recent occupation. A sandwich sat on the bench closest to her, half-eaten. Most of the equipment remained where it was, a lot of it still turned on and humming softly. In the corner, the ashes of what had been a small fire still contained the red glow of heat. The occupants had clearly tried to burn away any loose work. It looked like they had only missed them by minutes.
It was only then that Sarah realised the Captain wasn’t down there. A door at the other end of the lab was ajar, revealing another set of stairs. He must have gone up through there.
A gunshot rang throughout the room, loud and reverberating. Sarah jumped, glancing around quickly, but everyone there was unharmed. It must have been the Captain or one of the scientists. Maybe they had been even closer to the scientists than she had thought. Maybe it had been mere seconds. The only question now was who had fired the gun. She didn’t have to wonder for much longer. The sound of someone dragging something heavy echoed down the far staircase. Lieutenant Wong raised his gun, in case the intruder wasn’t the Captain. A form darkened the gap between the door and the staircase, and then the door was shoved open as the Captain walked in backwards. He was dragging a woman along with him. She was unconscious, and there was a bullet-hole in her leg.
The Weapon (The Hourglass Series Book 2) Page 14
