by Nick Thacker
And then she fell.
CHAPTER THIRTY-six
Reggie heard Julie scream, then Ben yelling, and then the sound of a hand banging against a metal wall. All of this happened in the inky blackness of the vertical shaft they were in, himself just behind Ben and Mrs. E.
They had both crawled past Hendricks in the horizontal section as he waited for the remainder of the group, and by the time he climbed down into the vertical section after Mrs. E, Julie fell.
Reggie’s heart began to race, but his ears naturally pricked up. He was waiting — hoping — that he’d hear another, louder crash, and a moment later he did. Julie’s body hit the metal floor of the duct with a thud, followed immediately by a small yelp. She groaned, then called back up to the rest of them.
“I — I’m okay,” she said, her voice shaky. “I think. Just landed on my heels, but the metal was thin enough to have some give. It’s only about ten feet. Must be the next level down — it’s another horizontal shaft.”
Hendricks shouted down to her. “These levels were probably built one at a time, using the natural contours of the cliff right outside, so the vents and ducting have to have some stair-step movements.”
“Well then I’d rather not fall down the ‘stairs’ anymore if I can help it,” Julie shot back.
“Can you see anything?”
“There’s a tiny bit of light drifting in through the cracks in some vents farther down, coming in from the lights on this level, but that’s it. It’s hard to see any of the rest of the path.”
Reggie continued making his way downward, steadying his hands and knees in case Julie had fallen because of a slippery spot he was about to discover. Ben and Mrs. E had to almost be at Julie’s location, but he couldn’t see anything.
“We need to keep going down,” Hendricks said. “Is there another vertical section close?”
Julie didn’t answer at first, and Reggie heard a shuffling sound as she crawled forward into the horizontal section to find out the answer. “Yes, I think this is it,” she said. “It’s dark, but feels like the same size tunnel we just came down.”
“That’s our ride, then. Go ahead — we’re right behind you.”
Reggie made it to the bottom of their vertical shaft and saw the light source Julie had been referring to. There was just enough of it to make out Mrs. E’s silhouette, already preparing to head down into the vertical section about five feet away. He didn’t see Ben or Julie, which meant they were already moving down the next of the vertical sections.
He wondered how long this would take. If there was in fact a ‘stair-step’ style to the ductwork, they could even try jumping down the vertical sections to save energy and time. But he knew that was a risky move — falling down one section of vertical ducting longer than twenty feet and they’d have a major injury on their hands.
It would likely exhaust them to move floor-by-floor in this way, but it was the only option. He felt his wrists, already tightening from the exertion of clenching his fists and pushing them back hard against the metal walls to lock in his position. Gravity had helped him descend the shaft, but he had to use all of his strength to keep from plummeting down onto the shoulders of Mrs. E.
When he started the next leg of the journey, he heard Julie confirm from below that there was, in fact, another horizontal section. They would be tired, but they would at least have an opportunity to rest between sections.
“What level you think we’re on now?” Julie asked Ben when they had all reached the next section.
“Probably 4?” Reggie said. “We started on 2, and we’ve gone by at least two floors by now.”
“This is going to take forever.”
“But at the moment we’re invisible. They don’t know we’re in here, and if we can keep it that way, we’re home free.”
Hendricks barked down at them. “Keep your voices down, they’ll carry through the ducts.” He paused, then added in a lower voice, “and we don’t have all day — that Chinese army wants something from this place also, and I have a feeling it’ll look a lot like what we’re after.”
“How did they know about this place?” Julie asked.
“Same way Mr. and Mrs. E did, I’d guess,” Reggie said. “They’ve always been on the cutting edge of tech, even though they play the naive third-world-country role pretty well. They’ve got spies spying on their spies, so finding an electronic signal spike from a communications array down here wouldn’t have been hard to do.”
“Any country could have seen it,” Mrs. E whispered. “But you would have had to know where to look. That is why I am nervous about their involvement here.”
“That’s why?” Reggie asked. “Not because there are a million of them, all armed to the teeth and shooting at anything that moves?”
“I mean they must have been looking, just as we were. Trying to find this station. But we did not know what they were doing here, so we sent a small team to look around.”
Reggie nodded in the dark. “But they didn’t send a ‘small team.’ On the contrary, they knew what they were getting into, and they were prepared for it. You think they knew what’s here?”
“I am almost certain of it,” Mrs. E said.
Their conversation was staggered, spaced out between difficult sections of ducting that required focus to maneuver. Reggie had a hard time talking while he was shuffling down the rectangular metal tube to each horizontal section, and by the time they had finished sharing their thoughts on the Chinese team’s presence they had traveled down two more vertical sections.
It took another thirty minutes to descend the last one, and Reggie knew the strenuous activity was taking its toll. They needed some extended rest, but he was worried about their situation. The two enemy forces would be fighting one another wherever they were in the station, but as soon as Reggie and his group made their presence known, both the Chinese and the security team would turn their attention toward them.
They were safe in the vents, unseen by anyone coming or going, but they were equally useless there.
When Colson announced that they had reached Level 7, Julie and Mrs. E gathered around the vent grate while Ben used the pliers on his pocketknife to painstakingly unscrew the bolts from each corner.
“I can’t go any farther with them,” he said after some time working on the screws. “They’re down as far as they’ll go from this side — I can’t get any grip on the ends since they’re down into their guides.”
“So what’s the plan?” Julie asked.
“We’ll have to do it the loud way,” Ben said.
Reggie couldn’t see Julie’s face, but he had a feeling he knew what her expression was communicating.
“And if there are soldiers waiting for us on this level?” She whispered. The whisper didn’t do much to hide her snappy tone.
Reggie smiled.
“Well, we’ll just have to take our chances,” Ben said. “Look — down that way. More light’s coming through, so I’d bet there is another grate or two. If we can get a few of us at each opening, we can coordinate our attack.”
“Use the ‘element of surprise,’ and all that?” Julie asked.
“You got a better idea?”
“We should have stayed in Alaska.”
“I like it better here,” Ben said. “It’s colder.”
“I can get one of those body-drawers for you to sleep in then,” Julie said. “You’re going to get us all killed —“
“He’s right,” Hendricks whispered from behind Reggie. “We need to move quickly, and there’s no way we’re going to get these grates off by unscrewing them. Move back as far as you can, and let’s get an idea for how many of these openings there are on this level. Colson, I don’t suppose you’ve counted them at some point while you were zoning out?”
“Sorry, no.”
“Okay then, let’s —“
The distinct sound of Chinese, staccato as two men argued about something, reached Reggie’s ears. Hendricks cut himself off, choo
sing to listen to the exchange.
“Anyone speak Chinese?” he whispered.
“Negative.”
The men’s voices grew louder as they reached the center of the level, near Colson’s workstation. They argued for another minute, until their walkie-talkies buzzed an order. Both men stopped, listening, then began arguing again.
“Any ideas as to what they’re arguing about?” Hendricks asked.
“Dinner plans?” Reggie said.
No one chuckled, but no one offered any other suggestions.
“We need to make a move,” Joshua said. “They’re distracted, and if there are more vents, we can drop down and surround them pretty easily.”
“Move out,” Hendricks said. “Get to the next vent and see if you see another one farther down the line. Call it back, but keep your voice as low as possible. I’ll wait at this one, and call the attack. No counting — I’ll just drop first, so please don’t make me wait down there by myself for too long.”
“Got it,” Joshua and Kyle said. Reggie nodded.
Julie and Mrs. E, at the front of the line, shuffled forward, barely making a sound as they slid through the duct to the next vent. They waited for them to reach the grate, then Julie called back quietly.
“There’s at least one more — I’m going down.”
Again, more sliding as Reggie and Ben headed to the grate Julie and Mrs. E had just left, and the men behind Reggie took his place at the first vent.
When they were all in position, Julie confirming that there were only the three openings, Reggie prepared himself to drop in on their unsuspecting victims.
“Ready,” Hendricks whispered. The sound barely reached his own ears, so he repeated the word toward Julie and Mrs. E. The duct was dark, and only a bit of bleeding light rays made it through the cracks in the vents from each section, casting an ominous striped pattern onto the faces of Ben and Colson, who were closest to him now.
He couldn’t see Julie or Mrs. E, nor could he make out the faces of Hendricks, Joshua, and Ryan Kyle the opposite direction, but he knew they were all thinking and feeling the same thing.
Is this going to work?
He tried to force the thought out of his mind, but it was replaced by an even more discouraging one: what happens after we take out these guys? We don’t even know what we’re looking for, or how to find it.
Reggie felt trapped, a feeling he wasn’t comfortable with. He wanted to be moving, to be taking action. He didn’t like waiting around, anticipating. He wasn’t claustrophobic, as long as he was moving forward. He liked control, and he liked to feel like he understood any situation he found himself in. He smiled a lot and joked around because he didn’t want to take himself too seriously — a trait he had developed out of necessity — but he did take his job seriously, and the protection of the people he cared for.
Right now, those people were in a metal tube directly above an enemy looking to kill them, in the depths of a top-secret station on the continent of Antarctica. He thought the Amazon Rainforest had been an unlikely place to find himself running for his life, but down here — where the average per square foot population hovered around zero for most of the year — was far more unlikely.
Yet here he was, about to fall on top of two Chinese soldiers and hopefully kill them before they tried to return the favor, and all he could think about was why he was doing this.
He knew it was for Ben and Julie, the couple he’d met only months ago through a mutual acquaintance, their lives forever entangled together. It was for Joshua Jefferson as well, a man he had come to respect immensely, and for Hendricks and Ryan Kyle and Mrs. E, the enigmatic trio who still had secrets he wanted to know, and even for Jonathan Colson, a man who didn’t seem to know his right foot from his left.
It was for all of them, but it was for himself as much. He needed this, but he wasn’t sure why. He hadn’t hesitated when Mr. E made the pitch to him after leaving the jungle. He had even traveled to Alaska to retrieve Ben and Julie, selling them on a mission he didn’t yet understand. He needed to feel worth once again, to know that he was wanted. He carried baggage like anyone else, but his was the kind that couldn’t be taken away after a few months in counseling. He had tried, but it only led to anger and resentment.
He thought about that anger now, remembering how effective it had been as a tool in a sticky situation only an hour ago, and how useful it would be to muster some of it and channel it downward onto these men below him. But it was a useless thought; he had never really been able to control it more than prevent it from manifesting. It was either there or not, with or without his own desire for it, and the only control he really had over it was to choose whether or not he would use it the moment it came upon him.
Reggie, or Gareth Red, as Hendricks insisted on calling him, was a man for whom anger was no stranger. He could direct it as needed, or push it back down, but it had no real control over him. The stranger, instead, was his fear. Fear of his past, as if someone would step forward and call him out on it, or that there was an ultimate judge who might condemn him for what he had done.
Or not done.
He swallowed, alone in the dark once again, the entire situation unfolding around him only a flicker of his reality. He fought through the emotion, and tried to force his mind back to the present. This, he knew, was the real stranger, the wraith he had no control over. Anger could be funneled toward a goal, but this fear was a cloud that hung over him, watching him.
Like she was watching him.
He knew she wasn’t there — she had never been there — but she could still see him, even in the dark. Especially in the dark.
She wasn’t real, but he had made her real. He brought her to life, just as she had never experienced.
He suddenly wanted to go there, to find her, to bring her back and comfort her, to tell her —
Crash!
CHAPTER THIRTY-seven
Hendricks’ body smashed through the metal vent grate and Reggie’s mind immediately snapped back to reality, pulling him toward action. He reacted on instinct, his body urging itself forward to ensure that he was the second man on the ground. He pressed out with his feet, cracking the screws and thin metal strapping around the grate, and began to fall.
He heard Hendricks’ gun firing already, and from his other side of the room heard Mrs. E or Julie also breaking out into the room. He brought his rifle around and toward the threat, the back of the two men he had already pinpointed a split-second after clearing the duct.
He landed on his feet, slid sideways to allow Ben to fall in next to him, and then down into a crouching position with one knee on the floor. He brought the gun up and aimed down the end of the barrel — a natural habit after years training as a sniper. He wouldn’t need the sights for a shot this close, so he fired quickly, two bursts. Hendricks’ first shot had hit, and the man on the right fell sideways at the impact. Reggie had chosen his target well, guessing which man Hendricks would aim for first and choosing the opposite.
The headshot snapped the man’s head forward abruptly, and he crumpled.
He saw Julie out of the corner of his eye collecting herself from the eight-foot fall, lifting her rifle up just as he had shown her. He flicked a small grin her way, then his eyes widened.
“Julie!” he shouted. “Get down!”
The bullets from a third and fourth gun ripped into Level 7. Reggie was already turning to fire into the stairwell, but it was too late.
A burst of red exploded around Mrs. E’s leg, mid-fall, and she landed on it and screamed in agony. Julie fell to the floor, her head frantically darting back and forth as she tried to understand where the attack was coming from.
“Three more, in the stairwell!” Reggie yelled. Hendricks and Kyle opened fire, and the three Chinese men Reggie had seen danced back safely away from the edge.
“Make it four,” Hendricks growled. Reggie saw the fourth — actually coming down from above on the stairs, instead of below. The group must have b
een on the stairs traveling upward when they’d made their entrance from the air vents, and checked in to see what the commotion was about.
Good timing, Reggie thought. He fired two more bursts to cover their retreat, then he ran to Julie’s location.
“You need to move to the edge of the room,” he said, trying to keep his voice calm. They were in the direct line-of-fire here, and at any moment…
“Incoming!” He heard Joshua yell.
The unmistakable sound of metal bouncing on a hard surface triggered something in Reggie’s mind. He lurched forward, convinced that the grenade was heading directly toward Julie and Mrs. E, and tried to find it.
It had bounced over their heads, however, and came to a rest underneath one of the standing desks along the wall. Reggie tried to warn then others, but the sound of his voice was completely drowned out by the explosion.
The grenade’s detonation ripped a hole in the air, sucking out all the sound and light and replacing it with its own fiery devastation. The unlucky desk it had chosen flew directly upward, coming apart as it hit the concrete ceiling and smashing into a hundred pieces, each of the sharp sections of wood aiming for a new target as they bounced and rattled back to the ground.
The power of the explosion lifted other objects nearby off the floor and sent them cascading outward in an volcano of office supplies, and Reggie watched a rolling janitor’s cart toppling end-over-end away from the scene.
He looked around, trying to see through the dust and clutter that filled the air, hoping to see whether anyone else was hurt.
He heard Colson’s voice, muffled and tired, near the side of the room.
“Colson, that you buddy?” he shouted.
“Y — yes. I’m hit, I think.”
Reggie rolled over onto his back and brought his head up a bit. The Chinese soldiers in the stairwell would have ducked for cover after throwing the grenade, but they wouldn’t have left the area completely. He lifted his gun up and aimed for where he had last seen the man descending the stairs. After a second, he saw his foot take one slow, precarious step downward.
