He was almost in front of it before I saw it was a door. It was old and dirty with age, nearly black with grime.
We’d made it. And we were early.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Stand back. This might blow,” Lockland commanded as he pulled a weighted hook out of his pocket. Once we were all back, he expertly tossed it onto the handle of the door. It caught the edge, forcing the lever down.
The door didn’t blow, but it stayed latched.
“It’s locked,” Bender said.
“Yeah,” Lockland said, moving forward to retrieve the hook. “Not surprising. But we didn’t know if the handle was rigged. Now we know.”
I said, “Maisie told us she didn’t detect any hydrogen behind it.”
“Hydrogen isn’t the only way to trigger an explosion,” Lockland replied.
“That’s true,” I said. “And Maisie’s not infallible.” For us to put our unfettered trust in the egg would be silly. Maisie hadn’t made a mistake yet, but she certainly could. Her database was at least sixty years old. Eventually, she would come across something she didn’t understand.
Darby and Case wandered down the tunnel a little farther, inspecting the area around the door.
“According to the hologram map,” Darby called, “this entire expanse leads into the smaller tunnel that connects to the Bureau of Truth building. It was a branch off of the main zoom tunnels, meant specifically for commuters who worked in these buildings. I’m thinking we shouldn’t enter through any door, just because we could encounter something unexpected. But we can enter anywhere along here.” He gestured in front of him.
I said, somewhat skeptically, “You want us to blast our way through now? Right when we’re outside the building? You told us noise would put us at risk.” I gestured upward to where I thought the building would be located. “We’re too close.”
Darby quirked a brow at me. “The barrel laser itself isn’t loud. It’s the unstable debris crashing down, like I told you before. If Lockland shoots a clean line through here”—he patted the relatively smooth wall—“it will produce a hole, but the wall won’t come down around it, because it’s not made of rubble. It’s solid concrete. He’ll have to do it a few times to make the gap wide enough for us to get through, but the rest of the wall should hold. These walls were constructed out of concrete forms reinforced by steel. They’re sturdy, which is why they’re still standing.”
“Sounds good to me,” Bender said.
Lockland unstrapped the laser from his back, maneuvering so he was in front of where Darby had indicated. “Are you sure this is the right spot?” Lockland asked.
“I did a rough calculation, and we should be about four meters from the interior door, according to my memory. If you hit something through the tunnel on the other side, it shouldn’t do any damage to the building,” Darby answered. “It’s ten to fifteen meters farther to the left once we’re inside.”
“Move back,” Lockland instructed. “The area inside might be rigged.”
“If you hit a bomb with your laser, we’re all done for, no matter where we stand,” Bender grumbled, but moved back anyway.
Lockland grunted as he positioned the laser, locked between his arms and braced against his abdomen. “That all depends on how big the bomb is.” He shot a clean line through the wall, then slid half a meter to the right and did it again. The third blast was aimed at the bottom, centered between the other two.
When he was done, there was a clean triangle big enough for us to fit through.
We all waited, listening.
The rest of us had drawn our weapons, including Darby. After a full minute, Lockland poked his head through to take a look.
“What do you see?” I asked, coming up behind him.
He pulled back, staying on his haunches. “Nothing. It’s dark. We need another ultra-light.”
Bender’s light was working for us in here, so I drew mine out, flicked it on, and tossed it inside. Lockland put his head back through. “It smells dank and musty,” he said. “This tunnel has been sealed up for a while.”
“Have Maisie do another scan,” Darby said, “while I check it out with my chromes.” Lockland nodded and stepped back as Darby took his place.
The status reader was in my palm. “Maisie, check for any traps and human activity,” I said. “I want to know specifically if there are any humans, other than us, within a twenty-meter radius.”
“I detect no hydrogen or frequency units nearby. I detect four humans within twenty meters.”
“Are they above us?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied.
“So, maybe four stayed behind?” I tucked the status reader back in my pocket. “We won’t know until we’re closer and Maisie can give us a more specific distance.”
Darby did a visual scan. After he gave us the okay, we all climbed through the opening, entering a narrow hallway. We were all extremely cognizant that there could be surprises waiting for us along the way. But judging by the musty smell, Lockland was right that this space had been entombed for a long time, which likely meant that even if there were traps, nobody had maintained them for a while.
The area was more like a corridor than a tunnel.
In less than twenty paces, we saw a door that most likely led between the two buildings. This was where commuters would’ve entered to head to work, back when these structures were office buildings of some kind. Once inside, there would be a door to the right, leading into the basement of the bureau headquarters, where the medi-pod should be located. To the left would be a door that led to a short tunnel and the secret staircase in the old housing building. All according to the hologram map anyway. Then, from the medi-pod room, there were two other doors that accessed the interior of the bureau building.
We gathered around the entry point.
Lockland pressed his back against the wall next to the door, the barrel laser under one arm. “Once we breach this, there’s no going back.”
I nodded. “If we can avoid setting off any alarms on the way in, we’ll certainly get farther without interference.”
“Once inside the medi-pod room,” Bender said, “Lockland and I go left. Holly, Case, and Darby go up the stairs. I’ll rig the door we go through with a hydro-bomb, so anybody coming in behind us gets blasted.”
“Sounds good,” I said, holding Maisie up a few centimeters in front of the door. “Maisie, do a scan. We’re looking for anything that might harm us. We’re also looking for any humans in extremely close proximity, anywhere from a few meters away to a few stories directly above our heads.”
“I detect no explosives in any form. One titanium bolt detected one-meter east. There are two humans, one located seven meters above you and one located eighteen-point-three meters above you.”
“How thick is the titanium bolt?” I asked.
“Ten centimeters in diameter,” she answered.
“That’s a big-ass bolt,” I said.
“It exceeds residential standards,” she replied. “According to my database, these types of locking mechanisms were used in bank vaults.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Should we risk lasering through something that big? Taking that thing out is bound to make some noise.”
“Hand me the status reader,” Darby said. I dropped Maisie into his hand, and he walked back down the corridor approximately three meters. “Maisie, scan for medical apparatuses, particularly a working medi-pod. Key features include diagnostic scopes in the form of glass magnifiers, molecule sensitivity components, magnetic laser interferometers, and critical reforming disks.”
Maisie got to work.
“Damn,” I muttered. “He’s so much better about ordering her around than I am.”
Case chuckled. “He should be. He speaks her language.”
“He should be in charge of her from now on,” I said as we waited for Maisie to formulate her response. But even if the medi-pod wasn’t there, we were going in. This entire mission had become somet
hing so much larger than saving Mary and other seekers.
Maisie came back a moment later with, “Medi-pod detected.”
I exhaled, refraining from joyous excitement until we saw the thing in one piece.
“Precise location required. Use distance measurements from this exact point, coupled with directional locators,” Darby commanded. “Relay in meters rounded to one decimal.”
It didn’t take her long. “Medi-pod is located two-point-two meters to the south and nine-point-one meters east.”
“Please supply interior north wall location from this position,” Darby said. “Wall definition: Material used may be wood or metal, insulation unknown, but likely polymer fibers, not more than six centimeters thick.”
“Wall detected to the north,” Maisie said. “One-point-three meters from this position.”
Darby turned to us. “Okay, according to Maisie, we have roughly a two-meter area to play with right around here.” He indicated a meter to the right, extending his arms. “If we laser through here, we won’t hit the medi-pod.”
I hesitated. “I don’t know about going through the wall. There could be tons of stuff in that room. It’s probably a lab, like all the other locations. If we go through the door, at least we know there’s nothing behind it. Or there shouldn’t be.”
“You might be right,” Darby said, “but luckily we can ask.” He lofted the egg up, even though it wasn’t necessary. I’d done it, too. It was like we thought the status reader had actual eyeballs. “Maisie, identify objects no more than two meters in front of this location.”
“Identifying shelving, glass vials, medical tools, implements—”
“Stop,” I commanded. “It’s definitely a lab. I say we go through the door. Unless someone has a better idea.”
Darby asked Maisie, “Relay tactical entry to breach room in front of us with lowest percentage of being discovered.” Darby shrugged his shoulders at our surprised expressions. “She’s military grade. It’s worth a try. Whoever programmed her would’ve included tactical scenarios for her to access.”
“In order to perform request, I require a list of resources,” she replied.
“Barrel laser, Gem laser, Blaster, HydroSol, Pulse, taser.” Darby paused in clicking through our arsenal. “What weapon do you use again?” he asked Bender.
“I have a Web laser and a Pulse,” he answered.
I glanced at Bender. “Since when do you carry a Pulse?”
“I’ve always had it.” He shrugged. “I’ve only started carrying it around recently.”
“Huh,” I said. I guessed it made sense. Recently was when things had taken a turn in our lives. “Maisie, I have a few blades on me, not to mention Case has a hot-laser key, and I’ve a frequency key, among the supplies in my vest, including my magic cord.”
Darby nodded. “Maisie, if necessary, scan each of us for compatibility needs.”
Maisie’s lights flickered on and off for at least a minute as she calculated an entry plan. I was beginning to wonder how we’d ever survived without her. Going in blind, versus going in with critical information, was no contest.
She finally said, “Entry through wall advisable. Barrel laser engaged. Calculated risk of detection: four percent. Human-hearing range and thickness of the walls prevent detection. For all other entry points, risk is elevated.”
“State precise location of entry from fixed position,” Darby said.
“One-point-six meters south, one-point-two meters up from ground level. Three blasts required.”
Impressive. “I guess going through the wall it is,” I said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Did Maisie really just take us through cabinets?” I whispered as I crawled out of what used to be some sort of built-in storage unit.
Spotting what was sitting in the corner, I forgot my question almost immediately. The medi-pod was completely intact.
I made my way over and set a gloved hand, the one that wasn’t holding my Gem at attention, on top of it and walked along the side, taking it all in.
Darby’s hushed voice came from behind me. “You were right. They didn’t destroy it.”
I glanced at him. “I’ve never been so happy to be right about something in my entire life.” My voice was extremely low. No one had come running, but there was still time. If this truly was the medi-pod that Roman had worked on, everything in our world had just shifted. Thousands of lives could be recovered. The stakes in winning this battle with the Bureau of Truth were even higher now.
Case emerged from the hole, his gaze locked on the medi-pod. “It’s here. That means we have to succeed.”
“I was just thinking the same thing,” I murmured. “A loss is unacceptable.”
Lockland came next and immediately paced to the door on the left that led to the interior of the building, placing his head close, listening. Bender moved toward the door that faced the housing building, drawing a hydro-bomb out of his pocket, rigging it on the handle.
The other door that accessed the building was situated to my right and up a set of steep metal steps. Darby pulled Maisie out and whispered, “Engage reply at ten decibels. Locate humans within this building. Instead of distance measurements, use floor diagrams relating to internal database map.”
I raised an eyebrow. “If she has a map of this building, it’s over sixty years old.”
Darby shrugged. “It’s better than nothing. Giving us a distance is not strategic enough. If she can’t do it, she’ll let us know.”
After a moment, Maisie replied at a low volume that sounded strange because it wasn’t really a whisper. “Two unknown humans located inside four-story building. One human located at street level. Room coordinates from this location are northeast. One human located on level four. Room coordinates from this location southwest.”
“Do you detect any movement?” Darby asked.
“No. Humans are stable,” she said.
“That’s good news,” I whispered. “We go in through the door above us.” I gestured to the stairs. “Then converge on the room located to the northeast. Then move to the fourth floor.” I patted my vest pocket. “As per the plan, I have the Babble on me, with two darts ready to go. We take one of them alive, inject them, and figure out what their orders are.” I nodded at Darby. “I designate you as Maisie’s official correspondent. You get the most out of her with the least amount of effort. Please ask her to search that door up there for any threats and have her look for any live video feed that might be set up in the building.”
Darby nodded, heading up the stairs, conferring with Maisie.
“I don’t like it,” Bender grumbled as he came to stand next to me. “It’s too easy. Something’s off.”
“Agreed,” Lockland said, joining us. “Not having any traps rigged anywhere is suspicious. There’s a possibility they know of Claire’s involvement with us and know we’d arrive here at some point. Maybe they’re not expecting us to show up in the basement, as they don’t know we know about the medi-pod, but they are expecting us.”
“That’s a fair assumption,” I said. “I figured by now we’d be engaged in some sort of firefight. It’s too quiet for my liking. But we’re here, and we have to continue on. There’s no way they know we have a status reader, but we have to move quickly. Once the others are back from Claire’s fake meeting, the situation will reverse. We have to be ready.”
Lockland met my gaze, nodding once. “Let’s go.”
From the top of the stairs, Darby was gesturing wildly, his face animated. We hurried up to him. In a barely audible voice, he said, “Maisie detects an electromagnetic field behind here.” He pointed at the door in front of us. “I’m not familiar with how it works, but the way she describes it, if anyone walks through it, they’ll be electrocuted. All of the molecules in their body will be zapped instantaneously.”
“That’s not good,” I said. “Did she offer up a plan?”
He glanced around sheepishly. “I didn’t ask.” He broug
ht the status reader up to his lips. “Please state an alternative way of entry, or a way to deactivate electromagnetic field. Answer at lowest decibel setting for human hearing.”
Maisie’s reply was so faint, Darby had to practically smash the egg to his ear. I cocked my head closer to listen, barely able to make out her words. “Electromagnetic field can be grounded by copper wire located below in cabinet near medi-pod. Peel back protective coating on each end. Insert one end under the door on the right. Insert the other to the left. Step back to avoid further contact. Current will exceed capacity. Coating will melt. Fire probable. Time allotted for entry is one minute, twelve seconds.”
Without a word, I headed down the stairs in search of the wire. The cabinets were mounted along one wall. I started from the left and made my way right, finding the wire in the third storage bin. Unraveling three meters, I cut it with my blade, hurrying back up the steps as I peeled back the coating on one end.
Once I was done, I handed it to Darby. He looked aghast, glancing at the copper wire like it would bite him. “You want me…to do it? The voltage is crazy high. One mistake and my insides sizzle.”
“Darb, you’re our science engineer. We have to be ready with our weapons once we open that door.”
“I’ll do it,” Lockland whispered, reaching for the wire.
“No.” Darby shook his head. “Holly’s right. I can.” He stuffed Maisie in his pocket and got down on his knees. The crack under the door was only three centimeters. He angled his head to the floor so he could see better.
I nudged his shoulder, handing him my macro-glasses. “I know you can do this.”
He donned the glasses and peered under the door again. “I think I see the rod that’s producing the energy field. It’s mounted just above the floor.” He began threading one end of the copper wire underneath the door on the right. Once he was done with that side, he shuffled his body to the left, staying on his knees. “This is the tricky part,” he whispered. “I only have one chance to secure it, then I let go, or I risk getting fried.” His hands began to work, and almost immediately, there was a popping sound. Darby flung himself back like he’d been hit by a bullet. The wire began to hiss and smoke. Angry buzzing noises came from inside the door as Darby stumbled to his feet. “Do not step on that wire if you value your life.”
Danger's Cure: (Holly Danger Book 4) Page 18
