Fast (21 page)

            Warning - level three containment infringement in progress.

            The voice came from a computer recessed into the right wall. Apart from the computer and identical hatches at either end, the chamber was bare and just large enough for the five of them.

            ‘The laboratory has detected Cairns breaking into the research level,’ explained Vanessa, standing at the computer.

            The robust computer terminal reminded Coleman of equipment designed to resist high pressure or sudden impact.

            Vanessa touched the screen rapidly. ‘Cairns is controlling the administration hub, just like you thought. That gives him control of most of our systems.’

            ‘What doesn’t he control?’ asked Coleman.

            ‘This level and the Evacuation Center.’ She pointed on the screen. ‘See? They’re both independent during a containment emergency.’

            ‘Well that’s something, at least. So what’s he doing?’

            Vanessa touched the screen twice and raised a detailed map with red flashing panels. ‘He’s activated all the aquifer pumps. Full power. The creatures are tearing the pumps apart.’

            ‘Clever bastard,’ conceded Coleman. ‘He’s distracting the creatures with the pumps while he breaks into the research level. That’s where all the creatures have gone.’

            ‘Why so many industrial-grade pumps?’ asked King, looking over Vanessa’s shoulder.

            ‘We’re sitting in an aquifer, right?’ she explained. ‘We have pumps to storage tanks on every level in case the big sucker fails and the basement floods. Pumps four and six are already destroyed. They’re venting their water back to the basement.’

            ‘How much longer before all the pumps fail?’ asked Coleman.

            ‘Fifteen minutes tops,’ estimated Vanessa. ‘Maybe a few minutes longer. After that, the creatures will come sweeping back through the Complex and kill everything with a heartbeat.’

            Marlin and Forest exchanged glances. A tide of creatures sweeping through the Complex was not a cheerful image.

            ‘Fifteen minutes,’ said Coleman. ‘This is going to be very tight.’

            ‘More so than you think,’ she added. ‘I haven’t explained the underlab yet.’

            ‘Explain as we run,’ said Coleman, moving to the second hatch.

            ‘There won’t be any running,’ warned Vanessa. ‘That’s my entire point. We have to swim.’

            Coleman turned from the hatch. ‘Swim?’

            ‘The underlab isn’t just for moving beneath the labs,’ said Vanessa. ‘The underlab is a multi-purpose security, decontamination and structural integrity measure. It’s called an FCP, a fluid containment protocol. The underlab floods in a containment emergency. Liquid increases the structural integrity of the core labs and stops cross-lab contamination.’

            She tapped the hatch. A deep sound reverberated back. ‘The other side of this hatch is now filled with liquid.’

            ‘Water?’ asked Forest.

            ‘Water-soluble bio-corrosives,’ answered Coleman. He knew all about FCPs in theory, but he hadn’t thought that any existed. Yet.

            Vanessa nodded. ‘Solids walls and doors can buckle and crack, so liquid is the perfect solution.’

            King didn’t look impressed. ‘Can’t we drain the underlab?’

            ‘Not during the containment emergency. We have to swim through the underlab and emerge in the labs along the way to breath. There are large sliding ceiling hatches to access the labs above. When we open a ceiling hatch in the underlab, it forms a pool in the center of the lab above. We’ll have to flood this room before I can open the hatch so we can start swimming.’

            ‘That all sounds easy enough,’ tested Coleman suspiciously. He knew from personal experience that Vanessa was holding something back. He detected serious misgivings in her voice. ‘So tell me why I’m wrong.’

            Vanessa bit her lip and turned to the door. ‘Because I don’t know if the security system will recognize me underwater. It’s never been used this way. It could lock me out. If that happens, I won’t be able to open
any
of the
hatches. We’ll all drown right here.’

            Coleman anticipated another problem. ‘Won’t our presence lock-out the controls? The security system won’t recognize any of us.’

            ‘That won’t be a problem if it recognizes me.’ Vanessa formed her next sentence carefully, obviously anticipating Coleman’s reaction. ‘The system will know what I want.’

            Coleman was shocked again. ‘What? Are you saying this security system knows if you
want
someone to enter with you or not?’

            ‘That’s right,’ she admitted reluctantly. ‘The system will open if I want it to, but stay closed if I was taken hostage and forced against my will.’

            Now Coleman was starting to seriously worry about Vanessa’s mental health. Was the shock or stress affecting her reasoning? They were about to risk drowning using her plan to access the labs. Coleman watched her face carefully for the telltale signs of posttraumatic shock. ‘That’s just not possible, Vanessa. You’re saying this security system can read your mind.’

            ‘It can. I know it sounds crazy, and there must be a technical explanation, but I haven’t discovered it yet.’

            Coleman was in turmoil. They should be charging towards the templates already. He could only think of one way to establish how much of Vanessa’s information was based on real observations and how much was her imagination.

            Coleman took the gamble that he knew her better than anyone else working here in the complex.

            ‘You’ve found something, haven’t you? You know how the security system senses us. There is no way that
you
of all people are going to curb your curiosity and not look for the sensors. This security system is guarding your life’s work. You must have a theory.’

Vanessa slowly ran her hands over the wall like she was carefully feeling for brail. ‘I think the sensors are hard to spot because they are
everywhere
. They look like part of the wall. If you let your eyes unfocus, you can pick up a very slight distortion in the walls’ surfaces.’

            She stopped and touched the wall with her fingertip. ‘Here. Here’s one.’

            Coleman examined the tiny concave bump on the wall. It was only two millimeters across. Vanessa waved Marlin over for a look.

            ‘These are the right size for micro fiber optics,’ observed Marlin.

            Coleman remembered how the elevator had been mysteriously summoned to Vanessa’s floor when she was running for her life. Could the security system have
known
she wanted
the elevator? Coleman thought for a moment then waved Forest over to the computer. ‘Forest, you’re on the controls. We’re going to need Vanessa inside.’

            Vanessa quickly explained the controls, and then went to stand with Coleman.

            Forest’s right hand hovered over the control to flood the chamber. His grasped a handle beside the computer. ‘Ready?’

            ‘One second,’ said Coleman. ‘We need to get in and out under their noses before they know what’s happening. We are seriously outgunned and outnumbered, so we go in hard and fast once we reach the labs. The last thing we want is to be trapped in there.’

            No one asked the obvious question. What if the terrorists were already inside? No one asked, because the answer was obvious. If the terrorists were already inside the laboratory, Third Unit would probably be shot to pieces as they tried to exit the underlab via the pools. It would
literally
be like shooting fish in a barrel. But with submachine guns. They all knew the risks.

            ‘We need to get in, take care of business, and then get out,’ repeated Coleman. ‘The clock’s ticking. We can’t go head-to-head with these guys, so we keep moving. Don’t get pinned down. If they stop us moving, they’ll finish us. We need to stay mobile at any cost.’

            Coleman tightened his CMAR-17 against his chest so he could swim. ‘Any questions?’

            The others strapped their assault rifles likewise. Marlin checked his weapon was secure then asked, ‘How many creatures are in there?’

            ‘At least two, maybe more,’ answered Vanessa.

            Marlin looked at the hatch. ‘So either way, terrorists or creatures, we’re emerging into a hot-zone.’

            ‘That’s right.’ Coleman nodded to Forest. ‘Flood the chamber.’

            Forest touched the controls and liquid blasted around their legs.

            The surging water knocked Marlin from his feet. He tumbled backwards and smashed down into the water which flowed over his face in a second.

            ‘Shit,’ bellowed King, alarmed by the powerful surge. ‘Marlin!’

            Reaching underwater, King dragged Marlin to his feet, struggling to keep his own footing as the water level rose over his hips.

            Vanessa yelled over the roar of the water entering the chamber. ‘The hatch won’t open until this chamber is completely full.’

            That wouldn’t be long.

            The room was filling
very
fast.

            Coleman was treading water in seconds, and then his hands touched the chamber ceiling. Faces turned upwards, everyone took a last gasped breath as their air pocket disappeared.

            For a second Coleman’s world was bubbles and turbulent water, then the chamber stabilized.

            He saw Vanessa diving towards the hatch. Underwater, the hatch controls glowed an eerie green. The light played over her features as she entered her access code and then turned the circular handle.

            Nothing happened.

            For one sickening moment the mission stopped; they were all going to drown because the security system hadn’t recognized Vanessa, but then a crack appeared around the hatch.

            Coleman realized it was the water pressure sealing the door, not the security system. Swimming down, he hooked his fingers through the crack. He curled his body and pushed off the wall with his boots.

            The hatch swung inwards. Vanessa pulled herself through.

            Coleman followed her into a corridor the same width as the flooded saturation chamber. Submerged ceiling lights stretched away every ten feet. Vanessa stroked ahead down the center of the corridor, her trainers kicking and her arms making large sideways sweeps as her clothes jerked around her.

            Marlin and then King pulled themselves through the hatchway and began stroking behind Coleman.

#

Cairns stepped from the lift with his entourage of gunmen onto level three.

            The west antechamber was a mirror copy of the north antechamber: a six by six meter space adjoining the lift, the stairwell, and the large containment door. The only difference was that this containment door stood wide open, compliments of Gould in the admin hub. Cairns strode down the decontamination corridor until he reached the second heavy door. This one was sealed shut. It couldn’t be opened from the admin hub. Beyond the door waited the core labs.

            Cairns’s men had transformed this end of the corridor into a makeshift workshop. Black nylon webbing covered with silver tools lay unrolled all over the floor. Two men worked on their knees among the webbing.