by Adam Steel
Ellie caught on.
‘The labs! You’re going to kill the Doctors aren’t you? The Coney Twins? That’s why Drago gave you his gun…didn’t he?’ she insisted, nodding at the gun handle in Jon Li’s belt.
Jon Li nodded.
He remembered clearly how he got Drago’s gun. Drago had kept Lucian and Jon Li behind after he had explained the plan to the others. That is when he had given them their true orders. Drago’s voice carried back in Jon Li’s mind.
“You’ll never be accepted here Mr Li. Everyone saw that key around your neck when you came in. No matter what anyone says, sooner or later, someone here is gonna shiv you in the dark. If this plan works. If we do blow the generator. How long before those twin freaks rebuild it?”
Drago had paced the room, smoking on a fat cigar, while Lucian had listened. Lucian seemed to have known what was coming.
“This is Personal Mr Li. You’ve done terrible things - spent your whole life living off the blood of my people. Those murdering twin fucks must die”
Drago had handed Jon Li one of his pistols.
“I swore a long time ago that I wouldn’t rest until they’re dead. I want you to go with your friends, get inside that hellhole, find those freaks, and blow their fucking heads off”
Jon Li had taken the gun. It was Mary, Drago’s favourite.
“You and Lucian are going to find them and make sure they are dead. This won’t end while one of those freaks still breathes”
Jon Li had turned the gun over in his hand and examined it, while Drago had spoken.
“You want your life to mean something Mr. Li? Kill the Coney Twins”
Drago’s voice faded and Jon Li was back and standing in front of Ellie.
‘I’m going to end this once and for all,’ he said defiantly. ‘We can’t allow them to just do this all over again. I’m going to kill the Coney Twins.’
Jon Li turned to Lucian and said sternly, ‘…and you’re not going with me.’
Lucian started to protest, but Jon Li stopped him.
‘The generator is more important. The others need your help. This is something I must do.’
Max looked stunned.
Ellie sprang to her feet with tears in her eyes.
‘Jon. Don’t go!. Please stay with me. Don’t leave me. Please!’ she begged.
‘I have to do this. Don’t you understand? I have to,’ he replied.
‘Then I’m going with you! You’re not going anywhere without me, not ever again. I can help. Otherwise I’m going to scream this place down, here and now.’
She embraced him and kissed him hard on the lips and he winced in pain.
Max walked over and gripped Jon Li’s hand tightly in a military shake.
‘I was wrong about you Li. Go get 'em – for me.’
Jon Li gave a curt nod.
‘How are we going to find the generator without her reading the map?’ Irish queried.
Max nodded to the pulsing power lines on the wall.
‘We follow the conduits right back to it. Can’t be hard.’
Red moved forward to join them.
‘Lucian, man I should go too. This guys' never fired a gun in his life. It should be one of us that pops 'em. You know that,’ Red advised, holding up his pistol.
Max eyed him suspiciously, but Lucian nodded in agreement.
‘Fair enough. Do it.’
He ignored Ellie’s look of distaste when Red moved to join them.
Lucian took out the portable radio from his belt and switched it ‘on.’ A brief burst of static erupted from it.
‘We can’t wait any longer. Someone could be here any minute. We’ll keep in touch by these,’ Lucian said, indicating the radio.
Lucian leaned forward to shake Jon Li’s hand and said, ‘Good luck you two…For all our sakes.’
Lucian’s smile was sincere and honest.
He nodded to Red, ‘Watch their backs close man.’
Red smiled in return.
‘No problem,’ he answered.
Ellie’s tears were still running down her cheeks when she flicked the radio on her own belt to ‘on’. She opened the door to the labs, and walked through side by side with Jon Li.
Red followed closely behind.
Irish watched them walk away and then he turned to Max.
‘Now to our job. Let’s cause some fuckin' fireworks!’
Max and Lucian nodded in agreement.
‘You got that right,’ Max replied.
The three men turned and started to follow the power conduits down the passage.
Chapter 45: Where Dreams and Nightmares Mingle
Genie service tunnel: South of Coney City
11:19. p.m.
Behind the door, a stone passageway stretched away in front of Ellie, Jon Li and Red. It was dimly lit by service lights and the walls were stained. It was a stark contrast from the white and glowing blue, sanitised area which they had just left. The walls were a flat, dull grey colour; split by the occasional crack. Jon Li and Ellie started off down the service corridor towards the laboratory complex. Red trailed along behind them.
‘Why didn’t you tell me Jon?’ Ellie persisted. ‘We could have talked it through,’ she harried.
Jon Li sighed and shook his head.
‘Because you wouldn’t have let me go would you? We’ve already talked everything through. I didn’t want you to find out this way. I’m sorry, but you must have known that destroying the generator won’t be enough. Drago was right.’
Ellie fell silent. It was true and she knew it.
She leaned in close to him out of Red’s earshot.
‘How is it?…Can you make it?’ she whispered, placing her hand on his chest.
Jon Li winced slightly and then continued to march ahead.
‘It’s fine. Let’s just keep moving,’ he said, dismissing the obvious pain that he was in.
The passageway to the laboratory complex was long, but unoccupied and they were both relieved that for now that their luck was holding.
‘According to the blue-prints, this tunnel connects into sub-level six of the labs. They seem to be built up in a pyramid structure: getting smaller as they go up...’ Ellie commentated, as they walked. ‘The Coney Twins were up on sub-level three. Remember?’ Ellie queried.
Jon Li remembered just fine. The vacuous stares of the strange twins had stayed with him ever since he had seen them on the tour. He remembered all too well, their cold, clinical appearance, and the strange way that they had moved around their tiny laboratory warren. Ellie shivered when she recalled the twin’s inscrutable stares. She thought that she would have been happy never to have seen those eyes again.
The tunnel came to end at a large set of double doors.
Jon Li drew Mary carefully, and pushed on one experimentally. It swung open helpfully and they were greeted by two steel doors of the lift. Off to one side, there was the beginnings of a steel staircase leading upwards. Between the steel doors and the stairwell there was a sign painted in large red letters.
It read: “Sub level 6”
‘The lift moves between the different laboratory levels,’ Ellie said.
‘What are we waiting for then?’ Red spoke up from behind them and moved towards the lift call switch.
Jon Li’s outstretched hand stopped him mid-walk.
‘Can’t. The lift will have cameras. We’d be sitting ducks in there,’ he looked towards Ellie.
Ellie nodded in response and said, ‘That’s right. We’ll have to take the stairs.’
Red snorted, looked disappointed and headed for the stairs instead.
The three of them assembled at the bottom of the stairs and looked upwards. The stairwell appeared to stretch for miles. The stairs coiled around the side of the wall, like a huge, metal vine.
‘You have got to be kidding me,’ Red said, in a disgusted voice. ‘Must be thirty fuckin' floors!’ he continued to complain.
Jon Li ignored him, and began to climb t
he metal monolith. The journey up the stairs was long and arduous. He stopped to check the next section was clear at each turning. Each flight of steps weakened him further and he fell to his knees on the metal platform that led into sub-level five.
Ellie stooped down next to him and asked, ‘Jon. Jon are you okay?’
Jon Li grasped his chest and wheezed slightly: his breathing forced. Red finished climbing the last staircase, and looked at the pair.
‘What’s the matter with him? Stitch?’ he enquired sarcastically.
Ellie ignored him and pulled Jon Li back to his feet. She was about to answer Red, when the sound of voices and footsteps ringing on metal from above, stopped her. The trio froze. They backed up against the wall with their pistols drawn and listened with baited breath. Two men were coming down the stairs towards them. They were having a quiet conversation. Ellie thought that she recognised one of the voices, but she couldn’t be sure. Jon Li held a single finger to his lips and readied his pistol in the direction of the stairs. The light above glinted off the end of Mary’s barrel.
The voices came closer.
‘How’s it going with the bullshit upstairs?’ one of the voices asked.
‘There won’t be any more tours for a while. Not until we can lock the security back down,’ the other voice replied.
‘Some kind of shift you’re on now, huh’? What is it? Almost midnight?’ the first voice continued.
The footsteps of the men rang across the metal. They were above the waiting trio. It was only a matter of seconds before the two men would appear around the corner.
Jon Li steadied his aim, but Ellie caught his arm and whispered desperately, ‘Jon! We can’t fire. We’ll be heard!’
Jon Li looked at her, and swallowed hard. The men were only a few steps away and he also thought that one of them seemed very familiar. His mind raced and he prepared the pistol butt, to strike the first man. This had better work, he thought. He’d seen Lucian do something similar. How hard can it be? He asked himself. The men turned the corner and for a second they looked entirely confused. Jon Li raised Mary to strike, and then paused.
‘You!’ one of the men exclaimed.
He was wearing a tight-fitting red, uniform and his hair looked immaculate. Ellie recognised Nathan immediately. He looked exactly the same as he had done when she had seen him on the tour. The man with Nathan, was dressed in the same laboratory over-coats that all the technicians wore. He had a pair of thin-rimmed spectacles which sat upon his shocked face. Jon Li hesitated for a split second at his recognition of Nathan’s features. The surprise of seeing Nathan had caught him off balance. Suddenly the silence between the two groups was broken by a deafening ‘crack’. It came from behind Ellie and Jon Li. The gun-shot reverberated all the way up the narrow stairwell shaft. The spectacled technician staggered backwards. A perfect hole had penetrated his head, and a red explosion of blood had splattered the wall behind him. His body tumbled down the stairs towards them and his glasses fell off and landed at Jon Li’s feet. Ellie looked behind her in shock. Red was grinning and he had a smoking pistol in his hand.
‘You fool!’ she shrieked. ‘What have you done?’
Nathan came to his senses and started to ready himself to run, but Jon Li saw him preparing to bolt, and raced up the stairs after him. The two men pounded up the stairway, each of them, desperately running for their lives. Their footsteps rang out up the metal tower.
Ellie screamed hysterically after them, ‘Jon! Jon! Come back!’
The men charged past the sub-level four platform. Nathan almost made it to the laboratory door. He was inches from it when Jon Li leapt and crashed down on top of him, grabbing at his legs and climbing up the floored man. Nathan rolled over, pushing Jon Li off him, and brought his fist smashing down into Jon Li’s scarred face.
‘Fuck off! Get the fuck off me man! HELP!’ Nathan yelled, as he smashed his fist repeatedly into Jon Li’s face.
Jon Li felt his nose break for the second time.
Ellie and Red raced up the stairway towards them to find Nathan pummelling Jon Li. Jon Li cried out in pain when he was punched in the chest. Ellie was first up the stairs and she launched herself at Nathan.
‘Stop! Stop!’ she screamed, and pulled at Nathan’s hair from behind.
Nathan turned his attention from Jon Li and punched Ellie hard in the face.
‘Fuck you, you crazy bitch!’ he spat viciously.
Red hesitated at the scene. He stood back and watched. He seemed unsure of what to do next. Ellie fell backwards. Her lip was oozing blood. Jon Li came to his senses beside Nathan. His face was a red ruin, and blood was pouring from his twice-shattered nose. Nathan did not see what was coming until it was too late. Jon Li clamped his hands on both sides of Nathan’s head. Nathan blinked when Jon Li spat a tooth in his face. Without a moment’s hesitation, Jon Li smashed Nathan’s head against the stair railings. His action was quick and decisive. The noise of bone on metal rang out, again and again. It echoed up the stairwell shaft. Ellie heard the crack of bone breaking when Nathan’s head hit the metal railings. She watched with dazed vision, as Jon Li smashed Nathan’s head, over and over again. Nathan had gone limp, and blood had matted his hair. She watched opened-mouthed and unable to move while Jon Li heaved Nathan’s body up onto the railings.
Nathan was still alive. She could hear him burbling something. She caught his last faint words as Jon Li shoved him over the railings. Nathan’s body fell down the long winding shaft. They heard the cracks when it bounced off the metal railings on its rapid descent. They also heard the sickening crunch when it hit the bottom. Red peered over the edge and saw Nathan’s body lying in pool of blood with his head stuck at an awkward right angle. The sightless eyes were just visible. They were staring back up at him.
‘Nice,’ Red commented, sounding as though he had enjoyed the whole, gruesome incident.
Ellie stopped tending to Jon Li who had sat back on the floor, taking exhausted breaths. Then she turned on Red furiously.
‘You idiot! What were you doing?’ she challenged, trying to keep her voice low.
Red spat on the floor and said. ‘What’s your problem? They’re dead now.’
Ellie leapt at him, and beat her hands against his chest yelling in his face.
‘We weren’t supposed to shoot! Are you trying to get us caught? You just stood there and did nothing! You let that man beat Jon Li almost to death! What’s with you?!’
Red pushed her off.
‘What else could I do? Besides you wouldn’t want me to have missed and shoot lover boy by mistake would you?’ he snorted.
Jon Li staggered to his feet and interposed himself between them. He was holding his nose to stem the flow of blood. He had one hand over his chest. A thin trickle of blood ran down through his fingers.
‘Quiet!’ he said breathlessly. ‘It’s done. Shut up and be quiet.’
The small group listened. They could hear nothing but the distant hum of the far off generator. There were no guards: no pounding footsteps: no alarms: Nothing.
Jon Li breathed a sigh of relief and said, ‘We can’t stay on this stairway any longer. We’ll just have to cut through sub-level four and hope there’s another way up.’
He gestured towards the laboratory door when a burst of static caused them all to jump. Lucian’s voice came through on Ellie’s radio. It was distant, but they could all hear the hum of the generator over the static.
‘Ellie…Come in…You there? – Over.’
Ellie unclipped the portable radio from her belt and clicked it on. It shook wildly in her trembling hands.
‘We’re here. We’re moving into sub-level four of the labs. The Coney Twins should be close,’ she reported.
Lucian’s voice came through again, ‘We’re almost at the generator…Minimal resistance…Nobody’s made us yet…Any problems? Over.’
Ellie glared at Red and clicked the radio on.
‘Some. We’re okay. We might have made some noi
se.’
After a brief pause they could hear Irish speaking over the radio.
‘They should have taken the axe. That makes people real quiet.’
Lucian’s voice came back, ‘They don’t seem to have caught on yet. Just don’t go starting any brass bands up there. The generator will be history in twenty minutes. Over and out.’
Ellie dropped the radio back into her belt, wiping off the blood that had trickled from her lips with her sleeve.
‘Twenty minutes they said.’
She paused, looking at the floor, and considering what had just happened.
‘With all that noise – and nobody stopping us – you feel like this is too easy?’ she said reluctantly to Jon Li.
Jon Li spat out another tooth, and looked at her with his blood stained face.
‘No,’ was all he could manage.
He pulled her close to him.
‘We have to hurry. We don’t have long,’ he whispered urgently.
She eyed the hand on his chest with deep concern in her eyes.
They moved towards the entrance of the sub-level four laboratories. They looked at the key-card slot which was by the side of the reinforced door. It was shining out in an emerald green hue. Ellie looked at it with a puzzled expression, and then back to Jon Li.
‘That means its unlocked…Right?’ Jon Li said, staring at it, and licking his lips.
Why would it be unlocked? Ellie thought.
‘That doesn’t make any sense,’ she queried.
Red pushed past her, and opened the door into the labs. It swung open without resistance.
‘Why do you have to be so fuckin' difficult?’ he retorted. ‘Finally some good luck our way,’ he reiterated, before moving into the lab complex.
Ellie had an uneasy feeling when she stepped in after him. She recalled Nathan’s last burbling words: before his ill-fated ‘flying’ lesson: “You’re dead,” they echoed. She followed Red tentatively into the laboratory.
Genie Annex
