Fast (25 page)

            They ran straight into Marlin’s gunfire.

            As the two gunmen were blasted from their feet, the full and totally screwed-up nature of the situation hit Marlin.

            The lab had one exit. Marlin had three seconds to reach the exit. He already saw movement through the gaping hole where the terrorists were storming inside.

            Leaving King wasn’t an option. They would leave together or not at all.

            Spraying the hole in the wall with gunfire, Marlin grabbed the collar of King’s body armor. He sucked a deep breath and hauled King’s limp form through the mangled lab towards the exit. He committed his entire body to the effort of dragging his giant friend.

            They moved in clear sight of the gunmen, but he didn’t have a choice. This room wasn’t about to get any friendlier.

            Marlin glanced up.

            Gunmen poured through the blasted hole into the room, charging left and right as they jumped over the wall fragments to secure the area.

            Three different terrorists lifted their rifles and took aim.

            He was fucked.

            Marlin gave King’s body one last almighty heave and then bashed the plexiglass control panel with his fist. The transparent barrier began sliding down as Marlin heard the first shots. He tensed his body, expecting the bullets to cut him to pieces.

They didn’t.

He was still alive.

            The plexiglass had dropped just in time. The barrier instantly peppered with bullet scars.

            King started moaning and struggling to rise.

            Marlin shook the front of King’s body armor. ‘Come on, King. Shake it off, big guy. We gotta move!’

            Looking up, Marlin saw a terrorist standing two feet away, right at the plexiglass barrier. ‘Come on! Let’s go! Come on!’

            ‘I’m good,’ warbled King, sounding anything but good. ‘Just winded me.’

            The terrorist opened fire.

            That brought King fully awake.

            Bullets smashed into the barrier. White impact scares bloomed over the barrier as the terrorists tried to blast
right through
it.

            Marlin had no idea if the barrier would hold. It wasn’t looking good. An area the size of a dinner plate was already completely white from impact damage.

            Suddenly the terrorist stopped firing and backed away.

            Marlin saw him pull something from his vest and roll it towards the plexiglass.

            ‘Grenade!’ yelled Marlin, diving towards the corner of the room. King was right beside him.

           
BOOM
!

            The entire plexiglass barrier ripped from the wall like a
windshield
rocketing from a car wreck.

#

‘It
was
important,’ insisted Vanessa, climbing from the pool ten seconds earlier. ‘That’s the lab for genetic mapping. I need to learn how the creatures work.’

            ‘Why didn’t you just raise the barrier?’ challenged Coleman.

            ‘I couldn’t risk it with the template cabinet open. The templates are more important than I am.’

            ‘Okay. Let’s get out of here.’ Coleman reached to his radio, about to retrieve King and Marlin, but he never got the chance.

            First he heard a
huge
explosion, then gunfire, then another explosion and a plexiglass barrier came
rocketing
into the main lab.

            The crumpled plexiglass
just
missed Vanessa’s head as it splashed into the pool.

            Coleman sprinted towards H-lab. He hit the wall with his back beside the raised barrier. One glance around the corner was enough.

            The next lab was a scaled down version of the main lab. Two fixed benches framed the pool. Research equipment occupied the walls. Marlin and King lay pinned down behind the south bench. A sealed barrier stood behind them. Gunmen were rapidly taking offensive positions against the trapped Marines.

            ‘They’re pinned down in there,’ Coleman hissed to Vanessa. ‘When I say ‘now’, I need you to raise the barrier behind them for three seconds.’

            Vanessa darted from the pool to access the security terminal. ‘The corridor behind them leads to G-lab. That’s a dead end.’

            ‘I know. Get ready.’

            Coleman keyed his radio. ‘Marlin. King. Can you reach that exit behind you if I provide a distraction?’

            ‘We’ll try,’ came Marlin’s fast reply.

            ‘Okay. Get ready to move in three…two…one…,’ Coleman took a deep breath and nodded to Vanessa. ‘Now.’

            He swung around the exit and leveled H-lab with gunfire. The gunman in the exit on the opposite side of the lab hadn’t expected Coleman’s attack angle. He tried to swing his weapon around, but it was too late – Coleman drilled him where he stood. Before the man crumbled, Coleman hosed bullets towards where the five other gunmen sheltered.

            They returned fire immediately. Coleman jerked back into cover. He prayed Marlin and King reacted in time. There was no second chance.

#

Marlin and King scrambled towards the barrier.

            Marlin heard Coleman open fire.

            The barrier opened ten feet away.

            The terrorists had a view of the top of the barrier, so they knew the Marines were trying to escape into the rear lab.

            Marlin shoved King ahead. They wouldn’t fit side-by side through the exit. Standing would sacrifice their cover, so it was hands and knees for the ten feet of open space between the bench and the barrier.

            They needed to cover as much distance as possible before the terrorists suppressed Coleman’s surprise attack and swarmed around the bench.

            King passed directly under the plexiglass when it started descending. Marlin heard the gunmen suppress Coleman’s attack. Right now at least two gunmen would be sprinting across the lab towards the bench, preparing to cut down the Marines before they reached the barrier.

            Marlin was right. He heard heavy boots rounding the bench. The barrier was only halfway down.

            Thrusting himself under the barrier, Marlin rolled over onto his back. As the gunmen rounded the bench, Marlin fired from ground level.

            The terrorists’ bullets hit the barrier.

            Marlin’s bullets went
under
the barrier.

            Knees and ankles exploded in red mist and chunks of white flying bone. Gunmen dropped screaming to the floor as the barrier sealed.

            In seconds they were dragged away. Two more gunmen appeared at the plexiglass. Shouldering their weapons, they quickly unrolled a large sheet of grey material over the barrier. The thick edge of the material stuck directly onto the plexiglass.

            Marlin recognized the material.

            Demex 2000 cutting charge. Strips of explosive tape that Special Forces used for controlled demolition of vital infrastructure. The terrorists had brought in cutting charge already shaped into long rectangles to cut through the barriers.

            Marlin scanned the room. It was just like the other labs, except there was no second exit.

            He keyed his radio. ‘Captain, we’re about to get some company in here.’

#

‘I see them, Marlin,’ responded Coleman. ‘They’re pushing us apart. Vanessa has sealed us in the main lab, but we’ll be forced into C-lab any second.’

            The terrorists were already fitting cutting charge over the barrier separating H-lab from Vanessa and Coleman.

            Behind Coleman, Vanessa directed a flashlight beam through the plexiglass into C-lab.

            ‘Still looks clear in there,’ she reported. ‘No creatures.’

            She raised the plexiglass, but didn’t go through. She banged her flashlight on the wall, hovering her hand over the controls. If any creature in the next lab responded to the vibrations, she would drop the plexiglass again.

           
Smart
, thought Coleman.

            He checked his skirmish maps.

            ‘Okay, gentlemen,’ he radioed to his trapped Marines. ‘Listen very carefully. In about twelve seconds both of our labs are going to be compromised. It looks like Cairns packed enough DEMEX to cut through this entire level. Vanessa and I have about three more labs we can retreat through, but you’re in a dead end. There’s an underlab hatch in there with you. You’ll have to swim out. You need to swim in a big semicircle through the next two labs to your east, under the main lab to D-lab, and then do one last dive back to the saturation chamber. You won’t be able to come up for a breath in the main lab. You can only come up to breathe in labs F, D and E.’

            Coleman motioned Vanessa to open the corresponding underlab hatches in those labs.

            ‘That’s a long swim, sir,’ radioed King.

            Coleman saw the terrorists evacuating to H-lab. They were about to blow both barriers.

            ‘I know, but you can make it. Go now.’

            The radio signal died as the Marines dove into the water. At the same time, Coleman turned and ran for C- lab. An ear-piercing
CRACK
sounded behind him. Plexiglass clattered to the main lab floor.

            Coleman lowered the C-lab barrier behind him, saying to Vanessa, ‘Open the underlab hatches in all the east labs. Marlin and King are swimming a long circuit back to the saturation chamber.’

            ‘Already done,’ she said. ‘But the hatch to the saturation chamber can only be opened by me. Marlin and King will be trapped outside the chamber. They’ll drown if we don’t get there, and right now we’re moving
further away
.’

            ‘I know,’ admitted Coleman, looking back into the main lab. The terrorists rushed over to the template storage chest. ‘I’m working on it. Just do
exactly
what I say,
exactly
when I tell you. Clear?’

            ‘Crystal clear.’

            Coleman shouldered his assault rifle and drew his colt. Now he had the colt in one hand and the templates in the other. He stood right at the barrier, holding the templates in clear view of the gunmen in the main lab.

            A terrorist approached the barrier and fired at Coleman. From near point-blank range, the terrorist unloaded his entire ammunition clip straight into the plexiglass.

            Coleman didn’t even blink. He just watched the pattern of bullet-damage blossom over the barrier before him. The plexiglass was
just
stopping the 5.7 mm submachine gun rounds.