by Cliff Ryder
It was likely they knew at least a little of what was going on, and may have even known that he was being tortured nearby only a few short hours ago.
He felt no sympathy for their deaths—it was an emotion he couldn’t afford.
“Ready?” Liang asked, backing away from the prone bodies and stepping to the door to check the passageway beyond.
“Just about,” Alex replied. He scanned the room quickly. On a desk he found folders and papers next to a high-speed laser printer. He glanced through them and stopped on the third folder down. He dropped the others and opened it.
“What are you doing?” Liang urged. “We have to get the hell out of here.”
Alex ignored him and read. What had caught his eye was a scribbled note in English on the side of a folder. It read “Prototype transfer to U.S.
facility.”
He read as quickly as he could, and as he did the pain melted away to pure, adrenaline-fueled anger.
A prototype of the nanoagent technology had been packaged and delivered to the MRIS offices states-side. To Brin’s boss—Hershel Rand. Was Brin somehow involved in this? Did she know what she had? Had she been in on it from the start? Alex’s heart pounded.
“What is it?” Liang asked, stepping closer.
“Vance, we’ve got to go. ”
Alex slapped the folder shut, folded it, and tucked it into a long pocket in his pants.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Liang checked the hall, then slipped out. Alex followed. When the big man headed for the elevators, Alex called to him.
“No, this way.” He led Liang to the break room and through to the chute in back. As he’d expected, there was an access panel in the wall. When he’d made his descent, he hadn’t seen this one, so there was no way to be certain it existed. It was sealed, and the only way to open it was from the outside.
He gripped the handle and tugged it free. The panel opened, and he reached inside, found the switches to call the dumbwaiter and set it in action.
“We don’t have much time,” Liang said.
“Someone is going to notice you are gone, or call for those two in the lab.”
“We have exactly fifteen minutes,” Alex responded. “That’s when the charge I set is going to blow those computers into the next galaxy. We need to be outside the building. I think they’ll have plenty to worry about inside once the charge blows. We should be able to slip off in the chaos.
The hole I cut the other day is still in the fence.
Once we’re out, they might try to follow, but I think it will take time to organize anything solid.”
“If you get us out, I’ll get us to safety,” Liang assured him. “This is my city. When we are in the streets, I have a lot of places to turn for help.”
The dumbwaiter clanged to a halt and the two men slid through the small gap. Liang pulled the access panel closed behind them. The cables groaned and creaked, and Alex prayed they were rated for this much of a burden. The two of them together weighed nearly four hundred pounds.
When he hit the up button, the car swayed slightly, then righted itself and began the slow ascent.
“We’re going all the way to the top,” Alex whispered. “When this opens, we’ll be coming out into the main break room. I don’t know who might be there, or how they might be armed. They put on a good show of normalcy topside, so it will likely be just the regular guards—and they should be patrolling. If we are lucky, we’ll hit the parking lot before they really spot us.”
“Can you run?” Liang asked.
Alex started to say of course he could run. He’d been pushing his body to the limit for so many years, it was difficult to keep his current situation in perspective. He knew that if the MS left him alone, he could run. He knew that if he hadn’t lost too much blood, or pushed his adrenal glands beyond their limits, he could run. He knew there were a lot of ifs involved.
“I think so. I’ll get by somehow,” he said.
“You go first, then,” Liang said. “I’ll follow and that way if something goes wrong, I’ll back you up however I can.”
“If not, you get out,” Alex said softly. “The folder I have is a transfer report. They sent some of this crap to an MRIS facility in the States. If it arrived safely, and if they sent files along with it, then we’ve only wiped out half of the threat. Once they know for sure we’re after them, they’ll guard that a lot more carefully.”
“We’re both getting out,” Liang stated. “When the company says I’m supposed to get your sorry ass home, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Alex grinned tightly. He knew Denny wasn’t going to be happy with him at all. He wouldn’t be surprised if both he and Brin had become targets.
He knew they’d work it out—they had to. He also knew, despite his momentary questioning of it, that Brin would never support something like what MRIS planned for those microbes. If she was involved in the research, she thought they were going to put it to beneficial use. That put her in even more danger. If she found out, he knew she wouldn’t take it lying down.
They passed an access panel door for each level. As they neared the final door, Alex whispered, “Ready?”
He brought the car to a shuddering halt.
“On three,” Alex said. He counted one and Liang kicked the access panel off its hinges, rolling forward and dropping out of the chute. He came up quickly. Alex followed.
The laundry room was empty.
“Wait a minute!” Alex said, before Liang could move on into the next room.
“What?” Liang said. “We’ve got to keep moving!”
Alex pointed to the corner of the ceiling, where a small strobe light was flashing in red. “They know I’m loose,” he said. “Or that you’re here.” He shook his head. “Either way, that’s got to be a security alert and if we continue to rely on timing and luck, we’re both going to die. We need a new plan.”
Liang nodded. “What have you got in mind?”
he asked.
Alex’s mind raced, then he moved across the room and climbed into an empty laundry cart.
“Take some of those linens and pile them on top of me,” he said. “They’re most likely looking for me, and you’ve got on a maintenance uniform.
Maybe we can make it to the doors before anyone thinks to question you.”
Liang agreed and started piling uniforms and towels on top of Alex, who was kneeling at the bottom of the cart, his gun held at the ready. If the worst happened, he’d at least have the advantage of surprise springing out of the cart.
“Just keep calm and act like you should be here,” Alex said. “There’s no helping it, but the front doors are closer and we’re running out of time.”
“Got it,” Liang said, adding the last of the laundry to the cart. “Now, if you please, shut up.”
Alex felt the cart lurch into motion and heard the voices of men and women. He tried to control his ragged breathing and ignore the excruciating pain in his legs—his position in the cart was almost in-tolerable. He listened carefully and it sounded as if they were in a break room of some kind. By now, there were at least two interior squads on patrol, maybe more with the alert.
Over the faint squeak of the carts wheels, he heard several people talking. One of them said,
“Another security problem? How long do you think we’ll be locked down this time?”
Liang didn’t hesitate, but kept right on going.
In a barely audible whisper he stated, “We’re in the lobby.”
Alex looked at his watch. “Four minutes,” he whispered.
“Uh-oh,” he heard Liang say. “Get ready!”
“You!” a voice cried out. “You there! Stop!”
The cart lurched into motion as Liang shoved it forward, running for all he was worth. “They’re on us!” he cried just before the cart slammed into the front doors, jarring Alex’s shoulder hard enough to make him bite his lip to keep from crying out.
The sound of guns cocking e
choed throughout the lobby and Alex whispered, “How many?”
“Five,” Liang said. “The doors are locked.”
“Stall them,” Alex replied. “Get them closer.”
He peered up through the linens to see Liang raise his hands. “Don’t shoot,” he said. “Please.”
“What do you think you’re doing?” one of the guards asked. “We’re in lockdown.”
“I’m new,” Liang said. “I just work maintenance and they asked me to take this cart out.”
Footsteps drew closer and Alex tensed, waiting to spring.
“Outside?” the guard asked. “Are you stupid or something?”
Alex jumped up. “No, but you are,” he said, firing even as he spoke. The squad leader took two rounds in the chest, flying backward and knocking down a second man in his death throes.
The guards already had their weapons out. Alex lurched out of the cart and shoved it toward them, forcing them to pause, while Liang opened fire with his own weapon. Another guard went down, screaming as the bullet took him in the stomach.
“Get that door open!” Alex cried, diving and rolling over the hard marble floor. He came up shooting, taking down the fourth guard with a center-mass shot that knocked him on his heels.
Liang went to work behind him, and Alex knew that it was him against the remaining two guards.
In seconds, the whole lobby would be swarming with armed men and they would both be dead.
He picked himself up and dived forward again, smashing into the guard who’d been knocked down earlier. Alex drove his knees hard into the man’s sternum and heard the ribs crack, even as more guards began swarming into the main lobby.
He picked up the fallen man’s rifle, a standard-issue M-16, flicked the selector switch to full-auto and opened up. Guards dived in all directions, trying to avoid the spray of bullets.
“Get that damned door open!” Alex yelled, even as he fired a quick 3-round burst into the closest guard, dropping him like a ton of rock.
“I’ve got it!” Liang shouted.
“Go!” Alex said, firing another burst to keep the guards under cover and running for the doors as low as he could.
Bullets whined and screamed around them, shattering glass and sending splinters in all directions. He dumped the last few rounds from the clip and dropped it even as he burst through the doors, the impact jarring his good shoulder and sending waves of pain through his chest. Blood rushed to his head and the roaring nearly wiped out his vision. Then he staggered, righted himself and kept moving. Liang was right in front of him. A moment later his balance evened and he risked a glance back.
The guard units left inside were rushing toward the doors, firing as they ran. The exterior guard units were rushing across the parking lot, straight for them. Liang half turned and fired into the group. They scattered, diving behind parked cars.
There was a shout from near the building, and Alex knew the second squad was joining the chase. He risked a quick glance at his watch.
“Liang!” he shouted, “Get down. Now!”
Alex dived toward the fence, covering his head and hitting hard. He felt skin scrape from his forearms and palms and his shoulder screamed in pain. He didn’t want to risk anything, so he pulled the minitransmitter out of his utility belt and pulled himself to his knees, despite the pain shooting through his legs. Alex ignored it all. He waited for the telltale sound and a second later, the first blast sounded in the building. The building shook slightly and Alex triggered the transmitter, rolled to the fence and covered his face. A second later, the earth opened up with a huge flash of fire. The MRIS complex went up in a huge ball of flame, shooting debris into the air, shattering glass and stone. Alex stayed down, then, the moment he could move, he rose and hit the fence, looking for the break. Liang was beside him. All around them debris began to rain down. Dust choked them, and they were in danger from rocks and falling glass.
“Here!” Liang called out. He kicked loose the clips Alex had left holding the wire tight, and they rolled through. Then they were up and running, making their way up the hill to where they’d first watched the parking lot through the binoculars days before.
The crest of the hill was nearly a hundred yards away. Alex’s legs were burning, his shoulder had gone numb, but still managed to pour liquid fire down his arm every time he tried to use it.
Branches lashed out at his face and he managed to fend them off with his good arm, but still he thought he could hear fast footsteps behind him.
He had no idea what Liang intended to do at the top of the hill. They had mere minutes before Dayne and his men, whatever was left of them, figured out that they were gone. The parking lot patrol had seen the two of them running away from the blast, and even if no one inside the facility was left alive, there were still off-duty guards, those in charge who never even set foot inside the facility.
Alex knew he was a white-hot commodity now and needed to get out of Beijing.
Liang pulled at Alex’s sleeve. “This way!”
Alex followed, forcing his tortured legs into a sprint. Then he saw what Liang was headed for, and he almost grinned. The big man had stashed his car behind a large stand of thick bushes and covered it with a pile of branches. It might have looked odd from the road, but from below it could have been a hedge.
They tore away the branches and cleared the car.
Within moments they were in, and Liang fired the engine. They left in a cloud of dirt, branches and leaves, careening into the street, straightening and rocketing away from the hill and the destruction below. Liang swung them into yet another of his alleys, and turned toward the city.
The road was no less rocky and winding going down than it had been going up. The small car bobbed and shuddered as the wheels battled for traction. Liang couldn’t keep the speed as high as he would have liked. It was too risky. One wrong turn and the car would tumble down the hill.
“We’ve got to get you to the airport and out of here. How are you doing?”
Alex looked down at his shoulder and grimaced.
“I’m hanging in there. I’ve been worse.”
“No, you haven’t.” Liang’s face was somber, hard.
“No, I haven’t,” Alex agreed.
“Do you think we got them all?”
Alex looked into the mirror, watched the cloud of dust behind them for signs of life. Then his gaze swung toward the compound where smoke had all but blocked out the pile of rubble that had once been the facility. He started to say something hopeful, then bit off his words.
“We definitely did not get them all.”
Behind them, the cloud parted and a long, black sedan roared after them, shooting gravel and careening wildly from side to side.
Liang looked frantically into the mirror, eyes darting between mirror and road. “Damn it!”
“Any suggestions?” Alex asked.
Liang pressed the accelerator down, taking a bit more risk for the sake of putting distance between them and their pursuers. “We’ll try to lose them in the city.”
“Really?”
“Sure.”
“You don’t sound convinced,” Alex said.
Liang shot him a lopsided smile. “I’m not.”
The path down the hill eventually intersected with the main road into the city. Liang barely slowed as he made that transition. One glance in the rearview mirror told Liang that the other car was still on their trail. He took the first left, then the next right, pushing the speed as hard as he could.
“Hang on,” he yelled. “And maybe close your eyes.”
The other car was maybe six car lengths back, and Liang took a chance. At the next intersection, he jerked the wheel to the left, at the same time yanking up on the parking brake. The small hybrid went into a skid, the rear tires sliding and at the last moment, he released the brake and gunned it. They shot down the road on the left like a rocket, scraping the curb on the right and then evening out.
Alex felt his shoulder slam aga
inst the car door and struggled to right himself as he glanced behind them. “We gained a little distance but I don’t think we’re gonna lose them.”
“Time for reinforcements.” Liang flipped open his cell phone and shouted at it. “Han Po!”
Alex watched the man’s face, wondering what he had up his sleeve. Then the car skidded to the right and rounded the next corner. Their pursuers followed close behind, but Liang slowed slightly, as if leading them.
“Hey!” Liang yelled into the phone. “I need a little roadblock. You know where the Than Tan Warehouse is? Open bay three, make sure there’s a truck in two, three and four. Drop the lifts.”
Alex looked askance at him, eyebrows rocketed nearly to his hairline.
Liang smiled in return and made another turn.
“Keep ’em running. We’ve got an ETA of fifteen minutes.”
With that, Liang slapped shut the cell phone and shoved it into his pocket. “I’ve got to get farther ahead to pull this off. Hold on tight.”
With that, he raced down the straightaway, running a light and scaring a crowd of pedestrians, who had just stepped off the curb. Alex watched them scatter, half-running toward the opposite curb, half-scuttling back over the nearest curb.
The larger car followed, hampered by the thick-ening crowd and a badly timed car in the intersection. Liang made a hard right and gunned the engine, gaining some distance and heading back toward the more industrialized section of Beijing.
They gained a bit more distance when Liang managed to jump a curb, cut around a bus stop and force the larger car to stop and turn around before they could complete their turn. Pedestrians dived in all directions, and Alex saw the very frightened face of an old woman pass way too close to his window as they rushed past.
A large warehouse sat dead ahead. A series of recessed loading bays opened from one side, stretching from one end of the street to the other.
