Fast (33 page)

            He stopped.

            Something’s wrong.

            Gunmen weaved around him and peeled off down every corridor, kicking open office doors and checking every room.

            There’s nowhere to hide. Half this place is glass. So where are they?

            ‘Clear. Clear. Clear,’ came the repeated shouts as Bora’s men checked each room.

            Any second now would be the gunshots.

            Then no one was moving. There was no more shouting or door kicking. The entire area was secure. All Bora’s men turned and looked at Bora though the glass.

            No Marines.

            No Sharp.

            No templates.

            He stood surrounded by twenty gunmen standing in glass-walled rooms. Nothing more.

            ‘They’re here somewhere!’ he roared, turning in a circle. He’d seen them come in here. ‘They’re hiding somewhere. Keep looking. Find them!’

            His men had nowhere else to look, but they tried anyway.

            Cairns strode into the office. He keyed his radio.

            ‘Gould, are you following our little game of hide and seek?’

            ‘Yes…I’m listening,’ came Gould’s careful reply over everyone’s headset. ‘The creatures have just destroyed the last elevator plant room. They’re heading your way.’

            The gunmen stirred.

            Bora raised his hand for everyone to keep quiet. He felt the vibrations of the approaching creatures coming through the floor. Reaching out, he touched a beige filing cabinet. The barely perceptible tremors butterfly-kissed his fingertips. Gould was right. The creatures were coming. They would be here in seconds.

            Just seconds.

            Cairns was smiling.

            ‘Gould,’ radioed Cairns calmly. ‘Activate the engineering level ventilation fans, full power.’

            Their radios were quiet for a moment. Bora felt a steady background vibration come online.
The fans are starting.

            ‘Okay,’ Gould confirmed eventually. ‘Done that. The fans are operating.’

            Bora looked up to the ceiling where the creatures were now being attracted to the fans’ vibrations. He noticed a wide open ventilation hatch. Under the ceiling hatch was a desk and cupboard.

            They climbed up there. Cairns flushed them up into the ceiling on purpose.

            Cairns had forced the Marines into the labyrinth of ventilation shafts that covered the entire level. Then he ordered Gould to divert the creatures into the same shafts.

            Cairns had planned for Bora to fail.

            Bora had been tricked. Cairns never meant for him to catch the Marines in the offices.

            It hadn’t been a simple plan after all. It just seemed simple because Cairns treated Bora like a simpleton. Bora looked slowly back down from the vent.

            His dark eyes stopped on Cairns.

            The surrounding gunmen watched through the glass walls. All their eyes were on Bora, not Cairns.

Coleman crouched in the ventilation shaft intersection.

            The Marines just barely escaped in time.

            The freight lift almost reached the engineering level before Coleman recognized the trap. Cairns knew Third Unit’s location. The forklifts acted as a distraction. A distraction that very nearly worked. Marlin had been the last person climbing into the vent when the gunmen stormed the offices. He had yanked his legs up into the vent barely in time.

            As the terrorists kicked open office doors, Third Unit and Vanessa scrambled single file through the ventilation shafts above their heads. The shafts proved just large enough for the Marines to crawl on their hands and knees while keeping their heads up.

            Now they were stopped at a four-way intersection. In every direction Coleman saw more intersections. The ventilation network covered the entire level in a grid.

            The problem was the fans.

            Another fan blocked their path, a square unit with a hinge on the left and a locking pin on the right so the fan could swing aside for maintenance.

            Coleman stopped with his hand on the locking pin, listening. The shafts echoed and distorted the noise of Third Unit crouching uncomfortably behind him.

            ‘I don’t think they’re coming after us,’ said Forest quietly. ‘We’d be able to hear them by now.’

            Coleman felt less sure. ‘Cairns must realize we’re up here. Why aren’t they following?’

            Every intersection had a slotted vent underfoot. Coleman looked through the slots between his knees. He couldn’t see anything. Just a small patch of the engineering level floor. He repositioned, pressing his cheek to the slots so he could peer through sideways. Now he could see more.

            ‘Oh, crap,’ he said. ‘That can’t be good.’

            ‘What?’ asked Vanessa. ‘What is it?’

            The first forklift was raising a massive gas canister to the ceiling. Coleman tried to identify the large red ‘Hazardous Substance’ symbol on the canister’s curved side. The symbol looked unfamiliar, three red squares inside each other.

            He looked up from the vent. ‘They’re pumping gas in here. They’re filling the shafts.’

            ‘Let me see,’ Vanessa insisted, scrambling forward to cram her face against the slots.

            ‘This is bad,’ she agreed.

            She watched for a few more seconds before lifting her head. Red lines marked where her cheek pressed against the slots.

            ‘This is
very, very
bad,’ she repeated. ‘That’s inflammable surfactant. I recognize the markings. We use the surfactant to fire-stress new building materials. It replicates intense fire conditions. It sticks to everything - walls, ceilings, floors, clothes. Once ignited it rolls over everything like a blanket of fire.’

            ‘Is that enough surfactant to fill the shafts?’ asked Coleman.

            ‘Easily,’ she answered. ‘It’s going to coat everything. Even our skin. If Cairns ignites the shafts, we’ll light up like everything else. If we breathe enough of it, even our lungs will burn.’

            ‘We’ll be crawling candlewicks,’ growled King.

            ‘The gas still has to disperse,’ reasoned Coleman. ‘Maybe we can avoid it if we don’t stay in the shafts too long.’

            ‘Look,’ said Forest, pointing past Coleman’s shoulder. ‘The fans.’

            Coleman heard a low hum. A cool air current touched his neck. He looked over his shoulder. The fan blades were a blur.

            ‘They’re spreading the gas,’ said Marlin. ‘We gotta get out of here.’

            Vanessa pressed her fingertips to the shaft and shook her head. ‘The fans are dispersing the surfactant, but that’s not why Cairns turned them on.’

            ‘Then why -’ Coleman took a moment to interpret her worried expression. Then he felt the vibrations under his knees.

            ‘The creatures….’

            The fans vibrated through the entire ventilation network.

            ‘They’re gunna swarm through here like an ant farm!’ said King. ‘We’re totally screwed if we stay up here.’

            Coleman knew Third Unit couldn’t outrun the creatures through the shafts. ‘Vanessa, how long before the creatures reach us?’

            She stared quietly back at him. ‘They’re already here.’

            Coleman heard it too.

            The first creature crashed into a fan unit twenty meters behind Marlin. In seconds, the same sound came from every direction. The entire shaft shook under Coleman’s knees.

            ‘Holy shit!’ shouted Marlin as the creature ripped out the fan unit. ‘Move-move-move! It’s right behind me. GO!’

            Third Unit crowded across the tight intersection towards Coleman.

            Behind Marlin, sparks showered over the creature from the fan unit. Sparks illuminating a ghastly picture of thrashing thorn-lined tentacles.

            ‘They’re after the fans!’ yelled Vanessa desperately.

            Third Unit were between the creature and the next fan. More creatures already blocked the passages east and west.

            That just left north.

            Coleman spun and jerked up the fan’s locking pin.

            In one movement, he rammed aside the fan with his shoulder and scrambled through. Vanessa and Third Unit crowded through after him.

            ‘The pin! Put back the pin!’ yelled Forest as Marlin squirmed last past the fan.

            The creature barreled down the shaft towards Marlin. Its body nearly filled the shaft. Marlin slammed the fan unit shut right in the creature’s mouth. He stabbed the pin down through the boxy locking mechanism, jerking his hands clear as the creature’s mouth smashed into the fan.

            ‘Go! Go! Go!’ yelled Marlin, throwing himself backwards. The fan
screeeeched
in its metal fixtures.

            Coleman raced through the shaft on his hands and knees. Boots, knees, shoulders, helmets - everything bashed and crashed as they scrambled madly for the next intersection. Coleman prayed the fans dulled the creatures’ senses, because Third Unit made a tremendous racket fleeing headlong down the shaft.

            ‘It’s past the fan,’ yelled Marlin from the back. ‘It’s coming!’

            Still crawling full speed, Coleman glanced back at the creature behind Marlin.

            It’s too fast.

            The next intersection lay ten meters away. They needed to pass that intersection before another creature headed them off. Getting trapped between two creatures promised certain death.

            Reaching the intersection, Coleman didn’t stop. He heard another creature approaching from the west. Another fan blocked their path north.

            Instead of jerking up the locking pin and slamming aside the fan, he turned in the intersection and crawled east.

            ‘Leave the fan,’ he yelled, racing wildly down the east shaft.

            Third Unit all cut to the right behind Coleman, a crazy centipede with Coleman at the head.

            Marlin was the unfortunate tail. ‘It’s at the fan!’ he shouted. ‘Hurry up, keep going!’
            The creature began demolishing the fan. Coleman heard the screech of metal fixtures being torn apart.
That should buy us a few seconds.

But they couldn’t stop moving. After the fans, Third Unit was the next loudest source of vibrations.