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            ‘That was my first thought,’ agreed Vanessa. ‘But we don’t know how much Gould learned from the first batch of stolen templates.
These
templates could be our only weapon to defend ourselves.’

            Coleman had another thought. ‘Where’s Gould’s lab?’

            Vanessa pointed over his shoulder. ‘North-west peripheral labs. That way. But they’re clean. Gould was very careful in covering his tracks. You won’t find anything. In fact, I have been wondering what your weapons inspectors expected to find?’

            Coleman shrugged. ‘Bio-toxins. Aerosol or water-soluble. Plants have been waging chemical warfare against herbivores and other plants for hundreds and thousands of years. If anywhere in the world has the ability to harness those bio-toxins, it was this research Complex. These very labs.’

            Vanessa shook her head, a little surprised. ‘Bio-toxins? Really? Logical guess I suppose, but far too obvious for Gould.’

            Coleman spent a moment watching Vanessa. Talking about this kind of stuff took him back to when they had met. They had seemed to be on the same page then, but now they were reading from completely different books. At least they weren’t arguing. In a way it was good to be working with her on something removed from their normal conflict over what was best for David. ‘There’s more,’ Coleman continued. ‘Our intelligence suggests Gould was delivering
two
new forms of biological weapons. We’ve only seen one weapon – the creatures. So where’s the other weapon?’

            Vanessa stopped dead still at hearing Coleman’s information. After a thoughtful moment she said, ‘I don’t think the second weapon can be a bio-toxin. If Gould was using these facilities to develop bio-toxins, we would already be dead. When it comes to chemical warfare, we don’t hold a candle to what plants can do.’

            The second and third green light appeared.

            Vanessa unclipped her notebook and started climbing into the wreckage where the creature had smashed into the work bench.

            ‘What are you doing?’ asked Coleman.

            ‘I’m going to sample the creatures’ genetic code,’ she replied matter of factly. ‘These labs can produce a genetic map in seconds. A detailed list of the creatures’ traits might just help us all to survive this mess, don’t you agree?’

            ‘We might not have time or that,’ warned Coleman. ‘I’ve got four green lights now. I want to leave these labs as soon as we have the templates. Cairns won’t be far behind us. We’ll take these and then retreat to the Evac Center and find David.’

            Vanessa nodded and pointed. ‘See the handle sticking up on the left?’
            ‘Got it.’

            ‘Turn it ninety degrees anticlockwise.’

            ‘Okay. Done. I’ve got six green lights now.’

            ‘Now pull it out.’

            Coleman pulled smoothly. A ring of six canisters rose from the chest. The canisters were grouped like a six-shot revolver drum. Extracting the device, Coleman found it lighter than it looked, no more than two or three kilograms, and no larger than a car battery. It was clearly designed for transporting the templates.

            Vanessa said, ‘Start loading the templates into the canister. That canister is temperature and shock resistant. The templates will be safe in there. I’ll be right back.’

            ‘You what?’

            SPLASH!

            Coleman spun around, but it was too late.

            Vanessa had just dove into the pool.

            All Coleman saw was the splash from her dive, then her sneakers disappearing into the underlab gallery.

            Where is she going!

            Coleman ran across the main lab and peered through the plexiglass into the north-east lab.

After a tense wait he spotted her head break the surface in the next lab’s pool.
There she is.

It was C-lab. Vanessa looked warily around the pool before climbing the ladder and stepping out.

            ‘What is she doing?’ murmured Coleman, chastising himself for not keeping a closer eye on her. She was putting herself in serious danger. The second creature was in one of these sub-labs. Vanessa was unarmed. She wouldn’t stand a chance in the confined space.

Vanessa glanced at Coleman. She walked very carefully across the lab towards a large computer station.

           
That’s too far
, decided Coleman.
She’s got no chance away from the pool. That’s it -  I’m going in.
Coleman hit the button to raise the plexiglass.

            Nothing happened.

            Vanessa glanced at him again, but then she reached the computer station.

            Coleman tried to raise the plexiglass again, but got no response. Apparently the security system wasn’t opening for Coleman because Vanessa didn’t
want
him entering. Coleman scanned the lab behind her, preparing to fire his weapon to alert her if he saw any sign of the second creature.

            Vanessa unclipped her tablet. She attached the device to the computer and then turned to scan the lab again.

            ‘She’s downloading something,’ murmured Coleman, standing so close to the plexiglass that his breath left a condensation mark.

            Finished, she clipped the tiny machine back on her pants and crossed to the pool. Twenty seconds later she emerged in the main lab again.

            Coleman was waiting at the pool’s edge with the genetic templates loaded into the carry case.

Cairns inspected the wall.

            He nodded his approval to the drill operator. ‘Back it up. These are ready to go.’

            With the sound of the drill winding down, Cairns keyed his radio.

            ‘Bora, I heard gunfire. Was it you?’

            ‘No,’ Bora replied. ‘It wasn’t us. I’ll check the other teams.’

            A moment passed while Bora checked. ‘Negative. None of our teams have made contact in the last few minutes.’

            ‘I heard firing.’

            ‘It wasn’t us.’

            Cairns motioned forward a gunman wearing a large backpack. Inside the backpack were carefully packed explosives. The liquid explosives had been decanted into white ceramic cylinders. The man started unloading the backpack and passing the cylinders to the drill operator, who in turn slid them into the wall. Cairns vigilantly monitored the process.

            ‘Any sign of the rogue unit?’ he radioed.

            ‘Yes. We found where they conducted an autopsy on a creature in the north security antechamber.’ Bora sounded frustrated. ‘I nearly had them in the stairwell. They’re moving with a civilian, so that should slow them down. We’re sweeping the basement now. We’ll flush them from wherever they’re hiding.’

            ‘Don’t assume they’re hiding,’ snapped Cairns. ‘These are Special Forces, and now they’ve had time to organize themselves. Every second they remain alive they become more dangerous.’

            ‘We’ll have them soon,’ said Bora. ‘If we don’t find them, the creatures will.’

            This news bothered Cairns. If the Special Forces had rallied enough to start gathering information on the creatures, then what else were they up to?

            The man inserting Cairns’s explosives stepped back from the wall. ‘Ready, sir.’

            Cairns examined the arrangement. The drill had made eight perfect holes in the wall. The holes were spaced equidistant in a perfect three meter diameter circle. The tubular explosives were all attached to a remote detonator.

            It was a beautiful sight.

            Cairns loved chemistry.

            And explosives were the purest form of chemistry. Biology was unpredictable. Like Gould’s creatures. But chemistry played by the rules.

            Cairns thumbed the lid off the remote detonator.

            He hovered his thumb over the red detonation button.

            ‘Everyone into the stairwell.’

#

King pressed his ear to the other side of the wall packed with explosives.

            ‘Anything?’ whispered Marlin.

            ‘Shhhh…I hear them.’ King held his finger to his lips then pointed at the wall. ‘They’re right here. Check the map.’

            He and Marlin had tracked the noise into the sub-lab that normally joined the western decontamination corridor. The heavy containment door had isolated the core labs from the corridor, but the terrorists seemed to be ignoring the door.

            The terrorists were right on the other side of the wall
adjacent
to the door.

            King could still hear them, even though the drilling had ceased.

            He heard objects being pushed into the wall.
Tools perhaps? No.
Tools didn’t make sense if there was no information available on the security system. Cairns wouldn’t know where to drill the holes to bypass the security arrangements. So if not tools, then why else were they drilling….

            King’s eyes widened.

            In a moment of pure clarity, all the noises made sense.

            He was seconds away from being blasted to smithereens. Cairns wasn’t overriding the security system; he was blasting through the wall right where King and Marlin stood!

            ‘Fire in the hole!’ yelled King, tackling Marlin away from the wall and behind a solid bench unit.

            The wall exploded.

#

Marlin fell backwards under King’s tackle.

            As they hit the deck, the entire room flew apart. Everything became airborne. Ceiling lights, wall cabinets, bookshelves - everything hurled away from the blast in a blur of violent energy. The bench they sheltered behind tore from the floor and crashed onto King.

            Marlin felt the jarring impact come right through his friend.

            Stunned, he struggled from under King’s limp body. The bench pinned his friend to the floor.

            ‘King’s down!’ Marlin yelled into his radio. ‘King is down!’

            He heaved the bench off King’s body.

            King was unconscious, maybe dead. Marlin shoved the bench away. The lab was torn apart by the explosion. If King hadn’t reacted so quickly, they both would have been shredded.

            Marlin’s ears were ringing. He couldn’t hear anything over the sound. He couldn’t hear any response over his radio headset.

            At that moment, the first two terrorists jumped through the large hole blown in the wall.