Ash put his foot on the man’s neck and pointed his gun at the guy’s head.
“I will kill you.”
“He…he said he was going in back. To the holding rooms.”
Ash glanced at Winger. The orderly nodded once, confirming that’s where his children were.
“You here alone?” Ash asked the guard.
“Yes,” the man said quickly.
Ash immediately knew he was lying. He leaned down and put the SIG’s muzzle against the man’s forehead. “Those kids your Dr. Karp has back there? They are my kids.”
The man’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Don’t think for a second I won’t pull this trigger,” Ash continued. “How many other guards are there?”
“One.”
Ash pressed the gun into the man’s skin.
“I swear! Only one.”
“Where is he?”
“He…went with the doctor.”
Ash stood, then looked at Winger. “Which way?”
* * *
Montrose’s partner Wyle heard most of the conversation from just around the corner. Though only one person other than Montrose had done the talking, Wyle could tell there was another person with him.
“Where is he?” the voice said from the elevator lobby.
“He…went with the doctor,” Montrose said.
Wyle couldn’t help but smile. Montrose had held it together, and given him a chance to deal with the situation.
As quietly as possible, Wyle took several steps backward.
“Which way?” the voice said.
“Around and to the left.” This was a new voice, confirming that there was definitely more than one unfriendly.
Wyle raised his Beretta, his finger poised on the trigger.
* * *
Ash walked to the edge of the lobby. Just beyond was a corridor that went left and right. He listened, but the only thing he could hear was a steady hum of the ventilation system.
“How far down?” he asked Winger.
“About thirty feet. Then we take the hall on the right. That’ll get us all the way back.”
“Okay. Stay close behind me.” He glanced at Chloe. “Ready?”
She nodded.
Leading with his gun, Ash ran into the hallway.
He saw the other guard a split second before he heard the double tap of the man’s gun. Just as Ash pulled the trigger of his SIG, searing pain flashed up his arm as a bullet pierced his skin. The hit caused him to twist to the side, sending the shot from his gun well to the left of its intended target.
Not missing a beat, though, Ash pulled his trigger again, moving his arm in an arc and sending five quick shots in the direction of the guard. Chloe, kneeling around the corner from the lobby, fired several rounds at the same time.
The guard was only able to get a single wild shot off before he was caught in the barrage and tumbled back onto the floor.
Ash rushed forward, his gun ready if the man even twitched. But it was unnecessary. The man wasn’t going to move, not now, and not ever again.
Ash allowed himself to look at the wound on his left arm. The bullet had grooved his skin a couple inches below his shoulder. It was painful, but not debilitating. He turned back to the others.
Chloe was helping Winger off the floor. There was blood on the man’s shirt, concentrated mainly on the right side of his abdomen. A gut shot.
“I’m okay,” the man said once he was on his feet. But he clearly wasn’t. His breathing was labored, and he was doing a lousy job of keeping the pain off his face. “Let’s keep moving.”
“Maybe you should stay here,” Chloe suggested.
He shook his head, then locked eyes with Ash. “We need to get to your children. Now.”
Ash moved up next to him, draped Winger’s arm over his shoulder, then put his own carefully around the guy’s waist.
“That hall?” he asked.
“Yes.”
* * *
A series of airtight rooms led into the biosafe level-four lab. Each had a greater and greater negative airflow from the room before it, meaning air would always move toward the lab, not away from it. This would ensure that any accidentally released airborne pathogen would be unable to escape the lab.
It also meant that each door not only sealed the atmosphere in, but it also greatly reduced any noise from the other side. Dr. Karp and his technicians were already two rooms in out of the three. Though there was no need to take the extra precautions they would have had to take if a level-four pathogen had been present in the lab, they still had to close each door before the system would allow them to open the next. So when the gunfight near the elevator took place, they heard nothing.
As they finally entered the lab, Dr. Karp said, “Put them in number three.”
Chamber three was in the corner, and the most logical one to turn unusable.
Ramos wheeled the gurney carrying the Ash girl into the lab first, then Learner tried to follow with the boy. Unfortunately, doing so pretty much clogged up most of the usable space.
“Roll those back into the airlock,” the doctor said impatiently. “Just carry them in.”
As they did this, the doctor set the supplies he’d picked up earlier on the counter. There were two sealed and empty hypodermics, and two small glass bottles, each with more than enough Beta-Somnol to put a grown adult into a final sleep. The children would pass peacefully. Given what would happen in the world soon enough, the doctor couldn’t help but feel he was doing the humane thing, something most would be denied.
He opened one of the hypo kits, stuck the needle into the bottle, then started drawing the drug out.
Yes. Very humane.
* * *
“That door there,” Winger said, his voice weakening. “Those are the subject rooms. They’re in there.”
“I think it’s best if we leave you here,” Ash said. “Do you want to lean on the wall? Or sit on the ground?”
“I…don’t know if I can…stand on my own.”
“Okay, no problem.”
Ash tried to ease the man to the floor as gently as possible, but the orderly still sucked in his breath and winced.
“I’m sorry,” Ash said once the man was down.
“It’s okay.” Winger tried to smile. “Go get your kids.”
Ash gave him a pat on the shoulder, then he and Chloe moved down the hall to the door Winger had pointed out.
“What’s the plan?” she whispered.
“Play it by ear.”
“Oh, okay. So the same plan as before.”
Ash didn’t bother to respond.
He turned the knob until the latch was all the way out, then he inched the door open just enough so that he could see inside. The space appeared to be set up similarly to the wards back at the Palmer Psychiatric Hospital — central corridor and doors off to the sides.
He eased the door open some more. No shouts, no sounds of movement, nothing.
With a quick warning glance at Chloe, he pulled out the door wide enough to get through, then rushed inside. No one was there.
“Check the doors,” he whispered.
They worked from opposite sides, opening each door and looking in. Every room Ash checked had beds, but all the mattresses were bare and appeared unused.
“Ash!” Chloe called out.
She was standing in the doorway of a room near the back wall. He rushed over and looked in.
There were two beds inside. Both had blankets and sheets but were unmade. He moved in quickly, put a hand on one mattress, then the other. The bed on the left still had the warmth of a body.
He ran past Chloe out of the room, through the outer area and back into the hallway.
Winger’s eyes were closed as Ash reached him.
“They’re not there!”
“Wha… what?” Winger said, his eyelids barely peeling apart.
“They’re not there. No one is. Where are they?”
“Not there?” The order
ly looked confused. “I don’t…” He stopped, then his eyes opened wider. “No. Oh, God, no.”
“What?”
* * *
“Okay,” Ramos said as he stepped out of chamber three, where he’d just laid Brandon Ash next to the girl on the floor.
At that very moment, the indicator for the door to the first airlock switched from closed to open on the lab’s computer screen.
Dr. Karp almost missed it. He had just finished activating the controls for chamber three, and had turned away to retrieve the hypos of Beta-Somnol when one of his oldest habits, his need to double-check everything, caused him to look back.
Not for one second did he think whoever had entered was one of the project members there to help him.
This was it. The end. Unless there was some kind of miracle — something he didn’t believe in — his own life would soon be sacrificed.
Before it had been just a possibility. Now, the harsh reality was numbing.
Five seconds passed without him moving at all. Then he remembered his oath, his promise to the project. The job he still had to do.
He grabbed the needles, and was halfway to chamber three before he realized there wouldn’t be enough time. He’d have to start the sequence without administering the drug. Hopefully, the children would remain asleep and feel no pain as the intense heat quickly took their lives. Not quite as humane as he’d hoped, but still better than nothing.
When he got back to the monitor, the indicator for the door between the second and third airlocks was already in the open position. As soon as it closed, the door to the lab would open.
He started punching in the code.
49
Ash pulled the door between the second and third airlocks shut, then jammed down the handle that created the final seal. Already having positioned herself at the door to the lab, Chloe began pulling up its handle the second he finished. Ash got there just in time to grab the edge of the door as it released and yank it open.
“No one move!” he yelled as he and Chloe rushed into the room.
There were three men inside. Two were standing next to a wide window that looked into what appeared to be another room, while the third was at a counter along the right wall in front of a computer. Ash knew this third man. He’d seen a picture of him at the ranch. He was the man responsible for the hell Ash’s family had gone through.
“Dr. Karp, where are my children?”
The doctor’s head tilted slightly to the side, then his eyes narrowed. “Captain…Ash?”
“Where are my children?”
“I’m impressed, Captain. I didn’t know you were this resourceful. Unfortunately, I’m afraid you’re too late.”
“What do you mean?”
“They died in the outbreak at Barker Flats,” the doctor stated matter-of-factly. “You were told that before.”
“We both know that was a lie.”
Dr. Karp lowered his hand, his fingers now resting on the edge of the counter. “Why wouldn’t we have told you the truth?”
Ash took three quick steps forward, closing the gap between them to less than ten feet, and pointed the SIG at the center of the doctor’s face. “Where are they?”
“Seriously, Captain. They’re dead. There’s nothing you can do.”
Dr. Karp’s fingers tapped nervously against the counter.
Without looking at her, Ash signaled Chloe to check the rest of the room. As she moved past Dr. Karp, he eyed her nervously.
“Where are they?” Ash asked the doctor again.
The ends of Dr. Karp’s mouth went up and down in a quick smile. “It doesn’t really matter, you know. You’ll all be dead soon enough. Well, maybe not you, but everyone else. The whole world will be different then.”
“They’re in here!” Chloe yelled.
Ash turned to look. Chloe was standing next to an open door that appeared to lead into the room the window looked in on. Before Ash could react, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned back just in time to see the doctor hit one of the keys on the keyboard.
Ash wanted to run over to Chloe, but he sprinted to the doctor instead, grabbing the man by his collar.
“What did you do?” Ash demanded.
“It’s closing!” Chloe yelled.
“I told you,” the doctor said. “There’s nothing you can—”
Chloe screamed out in pain. “Stop it! Stop it!”
Ash looked over. She’d put her leg between the door and the jamb, preventing it from sealing shut. But whatever was closing it was keeping the pressure on her.
“Help her!” Ash yelled at the two men cowering by the window. They hesitated a moment, then jumped up when Ash pointed his gun at them, and moved quickly over to Chloe.
“I’m not sure you want them to do that,” the doctor said.
“What are you talking about?”
“Look for yourself.” Dr. Karp nodded toward the window.
Ash wasn’t about to leave the doctor behind, so he manhandled him across the room, then looked through the window. Josie and Brandon were on the floor. While his son looked like he was asleep, Josie was sitting up, her eyelids only half open.
“Oh, that’s too bad,” the doctor said. “The sound must have woken her. I was hoping they’d both just sleep through it.”
Ash turned on him, and leaned in so that their faces were only inches apart. “What did you do?”
“Once that door seals shut, they die. Moving your friend’s leg will make that happen all the sooner.”
“Open it!”
“Sorry.”
Ash jammed the gun into the side of the doctor’s head. “Open it!”
“If you’re going to shoot me, then shoot. It doesn’t change the fact that once the sequence is initiated, I can’t undo it.” He grinned. “Oh, and if the door remains jammed for more than three minutes, this entire lab will be sterilized at a nice toasty 3000 degrees.”
“Three minutes?”
The doctor shrugged. “Sorry I can’t be of more help.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.”
Ash moved the gun from the doctor’s head, and shot the man in the hip. The doctor’s face went slack in surprise. Before he could fall to the ground, Ash caught him and dragged him around to the doorway.
The two men had made no progress in getting Chloe free. The moment they saw Ash they started to back away.
“You’re going to help me, or I swear to God I will shoot both of you, but not kill you. Do you understand what I mean?”
Apparently, they did.
Ash directed them to grab the edge of the door and pull back as hard as they could.
“More!” he said, as he watched the gap.
At first it didn’t grow at all, then suddenly it moved a quarter inch, a half. When it reached three-quarters of an inch wider, instead of pulling Chloe’s leg out, Ash shoved the doctor’s injured leg in.
Dr. Karp screamed in pain, then yelled, “What are you doing?”
Ash felt no need to answer as he then eased Chloe’s leg out. Once it was free, he said to the two other men, “All right. Let go.”
The doctor screamed out again as the door smashed against him.
“You going to be okay?” Ash asked Chloe.
She clenched her teeth, fighting off the pain. “Don’t worry about me.”
He knew her leg was probably broken, the bone perhaps even crushed. But she seemed to be in control. “Cover them,” he said.
“My pleasure.” She pointed her gun at the two men. “Sit down. Both of you.”
Ash didn’t stay to see if they cooperated. He knew if they didn’t, she’d shoot them. He moved back around to the window. It was the only other way in, but it wasn’t something he could just break through with a chair.
He pulled out the little bangs, choosing the four special white squares. These were the ones Pax said did more than just cause noise. He quickly removed the projection sheets off the adhesive backs, and placed the c
rackers near each corner of the window. He thought about adding a couple of the noisemakers just in case they might help, but decided against it. He pulled out the controller, then moved back around to the side where the door was. As expected, Chloe’s two friends were sitting on the floor.
Ash stepped over the doctor, then said into the gap, “Josie! Josie, can you hear me?”
“D…dad?”
“Yes, sweetie, it’s me.”
“Dad? But…but…they told us—”
“Josie, I don’t care what they told you. I’m here and I’m going to get you out.”
“Dad!” She crawled toward the door. “Dad! Oh, my God!”
“Sweetie, you need to listen to me. This is very important. We don’t have any time, okay?”
“Dad. Please get us out of here.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do. Now, listen, I need you to grab your brother and take him against the wall that the window’s on. But in the corner, off to the side. Not in front of the window. Do you understand?”
“Um…uh…I think so.”
“Please, baby. If you don’t do it, none of us are getting out.”
“Okay, Dad. I can do it.”
“Excellent. Do it now. And be ready. There’s going to be a loud bang.”
He moved back around, and watched Josie through the window as she pulled Brandon into the front corner. Once they were there, he returned to the door.
“Cover your head,” he said.
He didn’t look to see if Chloe and the others did the same; he just hit the button.
* * *
The two security men who’d been sent out to check for the missing car came back after fifteen minutes. They’d found the car ten minutes earlier, abandoned at the side of the highway not far from the road to NB7, but when they called it in, no one had answered. After being unable to reach anyone for five minutes, they decided to come back.
Everything looked the same out front as it had when they’d left, so they were starting to think their boss had just gone on a bathroom break without feeling the need to have anyone fill in for him. That was, until Collins, the younger of the two, opened the front door.
“Oh, Jesus,” he said.
His partner, Edwards, started to push by him, but pulled up short when he caught sight of the scene inside. “What the hell?”
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