The Deep Beneath (26 page)

Erika’s mind was plagued with regrets and might-have-beens.
I haven’t even started to live yet
. The heat of salty tears came to her eyes, but she forced them back inside.
What are you crying about? You don’t even know where they’re taking you. Stop psyching yourself out.

They passed through two sets of doors opened only by magnetic key. Before long they were back in the heart of the A.H.D.N.A. facility. They passed door after closed door. She could have passed right by Tex’s room and not even known it.

They walked past the room where they had met with Sturgis. Erika didn’t know whether that was a good sign or a bad one.
Are we being taken to the elevators? Or a firing squad?

When they came to a junction of three hallways, the guards led them through doors to the left. It was not the way they had come when they entered the facility.
So much for going to the elevators
. Erika’s stomach flip-flopped and churned.

Freeman used his card then his thumbprint to open the large, double metal doors. They were nudged into a long, wide dimly lit hallway that felt like a sauna.

Tex
. They were being led into the wing that housed Tex.
But why?

They walked down the hallway about fifty yards, and the guards stopped in front of a nondescript door that looked like all the others in the hall. It had only a number, H-OP-100 on a metal plate above the door. Freeman again had to use his magnetic card to gain entry.

The door opened and they were ushered into what looked like a hospital operating room. There was no one inside. There was an operating table with a very bright light overhead and a smaller table on wheels next to it containing cotton balls, three vials of liquid and hypodermic needles. Three vials. Three needles. And three of them.

Were they going to be experimented on?
Now you’re thinking like Jack, paranoid from too many sci-fi movies
. Or were they going to be knocked out so they would not be able to see the location of the facility in the daylight?
No, they could just blindfold us like they did before.

A side door opened that led to a small office. A man came through the door dressed in a white lab coat over his street clothes. He was an older man, at least sixty. His dark hair was heavily peppered with grey and needed to be cut. It was scraggly and hung down to his collar though he was mostly bald in front. He hadn’t shaved for days, but the man did not wear the look well like Ian did. The dark hair on his chin was patchy and sprinkled with white. Even from across the room Erika could see that his thick glasses were smudged. And she could smell him from across the room too.
Dude smells like he hasn’t showered since 1990.
If the man in the lab coat was the doctor that Jack had seen, then she could see why Jack had said it was more like going to the vet’s office.

“Where’s Sturgis?” the man asked. His tone was impatient.

“She said she’s got more important things to attend to. Said you’ve got your orders, Dr. Dolan. And she wants us here to make sure you do what needs to be done.”

“Typical. It’s easy to sign death orders when you’re not the one who has to carry them out. More important things? She’s probably hiding in her office filing her nails. God forbid she’d soil herself with the dirty work.”

Erika’s hope sank to the bottom of her feet like the
Titanic
sinking in the cold ocean waters. All remaining heat drained from her face and bile rose in her gullet. She looked over at Jack and his face was pale, his eyes wide. Ian looked grim, just as you’d expect a man to look who’d been sentenced to death.

“Sir, I would take care with my mouth if I were you,” said Freeman.

“Why? Oh, are you warning me that the place is bugged? So what if it is. She won’t get rid of me like she did Randall. Then she’d have nobody left to take care of her untidy business.” Dr. Dolan stood between Erika and Freeman. “Let her fire me. I don’t know why I stay anyway.”

“Why do you stay?” Erika said. She hadn’t intended to say it out loud, but the question came blurting out.
I’m already going to die. What do I have to lose
? “You don’t have to do this. You can make a decision to do the right thing instead of the wrong thing.”

“Look, shut it, okay. Orders are orders, and the doc here don’t got no say in this,” said Freeman. He sounded as though he was losing any patience he had.

“Erika,” Ian said. His voice was full of warning.

“What? He says he’s got nothing to lose by speaking up. Well, the way I see it, I have even less to lose. What are they going to do if they don’t like what I say? Kill me?”

“Erika! Shut up,” Ian hissed. He shot a glare at her.

“She’s right, you know, on all accounts,” Dr. Dolan said. “Why do I stay? Maybe because I’ve done so many wrong things that I don’t know how to do the right thing anymore. After all I’ve seen and done, I don’t belong up there.” The doctor pointed up to the ceiling with his finger. “I’m a real life Dr. Frankenstein. Like him, I’ve helped to create monsters down here. And I’ve killed monsters too, when asked to. I belong in hell, Miss Holt, so I stay down here, in a hell on earth. My soul, I fear, is already given to the devil.”

“Dr. Dolan, I can’t believe you’re going through with this,” said Jack. His face was full of astonishment.

Dr. Dolan looked at him sternly. It seemed to Erika that something passed between them, but she didn’t know what. Maybe Jack felt betrayed by the doctor since only a few days ago the man had removed a bullet from his shoulder and stitched him up.

“As sorry of a soul as I am, like all men, I have in me an incurable instinct for survival. It is, without a doubt, an imperative that I must follow through with this task to which I have been assigned or I, too, shall be eliminated like my good friend Dr. William Randall. Here one day, gone the next.” He said the last almost wistfully, and his eyes misted for a moment. He took his glasses off, wiped his bloodshot eyes, put his glasses back on and smoothed back his thin, greasy hair.

As Dr. Dolan spoke, Erika slowly and gingerly felt behind her. There was the table filled with the supplies for the doctor’s death operation. She leaned her body backward ever so slightly, all the while keeping her eyes on Freeman and Dr. Dolan. Her fingers touched something sharp and she nearly pricked her finger.
The syringe
.

Freeman moved forward and waved his gun at Dr. Dolan. “Come on, Doc. Get on with it. We got better things to do.” The other two guards stood behind him, their bodies nearly blocked from sight by Freeman’s hulking frame.

“I’m sure you do,” Dr. Dolan said. The doctor coughed to clear his throat. “I apologize to each of you. I’m sure that you all had promising futures. But let’s not make this more difficult for any of us than it has to be. I promise it will not hurt. You will drift off to sleep only you will never awake. Perhaps you’ll go on to a beautiful place filled with angels and the sweet music of a harp.”

“I hate harp music,” said Erika. She wrapped the finger of her right hand around the hypodermic needle filled with the deadly fluid intended for one of them.

Dr. Dolan moved closer to Erika, now just a few feet from her. His body blocked her view of Freeman and the other guards. “Please do not fight this,” he said, but he nodded his head as he said it.

He’s telling me to fight him.
Erika had been unsure about what to do with the needle in her hand, and fear had immobilized her. But maybe Dolan was on their side. The adrenalin was back and it kicked her fear to the curb. Erika kneed the doctor in the groin, doubling him over. “Hold him, Jack,” she yelled.

Jack didn’t ask questions and grabbed for the doctor from behind. The aging doctor scuffled with Jack only enough to look as though he tried to break free. Jack was easily able to hold the doctor’s arms behind him.

Erika brandished the full needle so that the guards could see her holding it against the doctor’s neck. “Listen up, turd blossoms. This liquid death is going into the good doctor’s veins unless you cooperate.”

The three soldiers stood motionless, but their guns were still trained on them. Freeman’s mouth worked itself into a condescending smile.

“We just want to leave here and never have anything to do with you or this place ever again. I don’t want to kill anybody to do it, but I will if I have to. And I don’t really think that you want the deaths of three innocent kids on your conscience.”

They didn’t lower their weapons, but Erika thought their eyes softened a bit.

Freeman’s smug smile was gone. “We may not like it, but we’ve got orders.”

“Screw orders! Look around you. You know this is wrong and it’s not what you signed up for.”

“Orders are orders,” said Freeman. “We’ve done worse.”

Erika tried to ignore him. She may die yet, but she wasn’t going to willingly lie down like a lamb goes to slaughter. “Doc, do you keep a sedative here?” asked Erika.

“Yes.”

“Tell my friend Ian here where it is.”

The doctor did not immediately answer. Erika pressed the needle to the skin of his neck. A small droplet of blood instantly bloomed there.

“Patience! I’m thinking. I do not frequently have need of a sedative for humans.”

“Think faster,” Erika said.

“Look over there, in the refrigerator. There should be a small bottle that looks like milk. It says Diprivan.”

Ian ran to the small refrigerator under the counter. Bottles clanked against each other as he searched for the right one. “Got it.” He held the bottle out for Erika to take.

“No, you’ve got to do it. I’ve got my hands full.”

“Okay. Wait, do what?” asked Ian.

“You’re going to give some of that to our friends in black here so they can take a little nap,” said Erika.

“We are not takin’ a nap,” said Freeman.

“Yes, you are, or so help me, I’m going to plunge this needle into his neck and push down on the plunger,” said Erika. Sweat dripped down the sides of her face and her hand shook from the effort of holding the needle steady against the doctor’s skin.

“I would listen to her,” Dr. Dolan said. “She has been held against her will and sentenced to death. She’s quite unstable at this time and sees no way out. I implore you to cooperate with her for now. You may sleep, but I am sure that they won’t make it far before Commander Sturgis takes care of them.”

“Can’t do that, Doc. If we fail, Commander Sturgis will terminate us,” Freeman said.

“I’ll cover for you,” Dr. Dolan pled. His voice came out squeaky and trembling slightly. “I’ll take the blame. Please, just do as she asks. Look at her eyes. They’re crazed. She’s going to do this. If she gets even a small amount of that poison in my system …”

It was like a stalemate at the OK Corral. Silence fell over the room as Erika, Ian, Jack and the doctor stared at the soldiers. Erika’s hand cramped, and she feared she’d drop the needle and the whole effort would be for nothing. She took a deep breath and focused on steadying her hand.

“Young man, go. Grab three needles from the first drawer to the right,” the doctor said.

Ian did as he was told.

“Doc, we can’t let you knock us out and screw this up,” said Freeman.

“Sergeant Freeman, consider the alternative. You make a move to restrain them and this young lady administers a lethal injection and I die. Then it will be your fault that the only doctor left for this project is dead. With Dr. Randall gone, I’m the only one qualified to keep Commander Sturgis’ project going. How will you explain my death
and
your failure to terminate them in the manner she ordered?”

Erika wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep up the façade of courage that she’d mustered when what she really wanted to do was fall into a heap on the floor. She had to hold her right arm steady with her left hand to keep herself from either accidentally poking Dr. Dolan or from dropping the needle.

Erika looked up into Freeman’s eyes. A bead of sweat rolled from his temple down his cheek. One of the soldiers behind him wiped his brow with his left hand while his right still held the rifle pointed at Jack.

It was that soldier that spoke. “Sergeant Freeman, maybe we oughta do what the doc said. I mean, he’s the only doc left down here to take care of the H.A.L.F.s. And if we’re responsible for her killing him –”

“I know,” Freeman barked.

Erika looked directly into Freeman’s eyes and did the best she could to plead with him. She remembered the way she could tug on her dad’s emotions with a wide-eyed sad look. As she thought of her dad, it took little effort to conjure forth a fat tear to fall from her lid onto her cheek.

Freeman’s face softened. His shoulders fell and his body relaxed.

“Dammit,” he said. “Damn it all. You win, Dolan. But, Doc, if you don’t take 100% of the blame for this, so help me I’ll kill you myself. And it won’t be by needle either.”

Erika let out a sigh of relief but didn’t let up on the needle she had pressed against Dr. Dolan’s neck.

“Understood,” Dr. Dolan said. “You’ll have to loose my arms so I can administer the sedative.”

Jack nodded and was about to release the doctor, but Erika stopped him.

“Nope, Ian can do it,” Erika said.

“But, Erika, I don’t know how –”

“Just poke the needle into the bottle, suck up the medicine and then jab it into their ass.”

“That’s not how it’s done,” said Dr. Dolan.

“Then tell him,” said Erika.

“Well, you need to find a vein and inject it intravenously,” said Dr. Dolan. “Really, you can trust me. Release me and I’ll administer the sedative.”

“No can do, Doc. This needle against your neck is our insurance policy. Ian, do it already.”

Ian still held the needle in one hand and the bottle of sedative in the other. He stared blankly at the doctor.

Dr. Dolan nodded. “Do what she said, then. Jab him with the needle and inject it. Just make sure you only fill it to the line that says thirty on the syringe.”

“Thirty. Got it,” said Ian. He thrust the needle into the bottle, his hands shaking, and watched the syringe as it filled with liquid. He went to Freeman first. Freeman’s wide shoulders made Ian look puny. “Where do you want it?” Ian asked.