As he scolded himself for not thinking this through, he heard one of the upper doors bang open, followed by the sounds of boots rushing down the stairs.
This must be the investigating party, Sam thought. He drew his pistol as he ascended the half flight of steps to the mid-landing between the basement and the next level and crouched behind the wall listening. The sound of boots had stopped. Either it had simply been soldiers traveling between floors or it was an investigating party and they had paused.
Sam fortified himself with a deep breath, then quickly peeked his head around the corner and back, stealing a glance at the landing above.
He glimpsed what looked like a rifle barrel poking around the upper level wall. Which was instantly confirmed by chips of concrete ricocheting off the wall in front of him and the echoing sound of gunfire.
“Shit shit shit,” Sam said out loud. They had him pinned; he had to do something quickly.
He looked back toward the basement door and saw it was almost completely under water. Things were not going according to plan. Sam aimed at the bottom of the door and started shooting.
94
THE SOLDIERS AT EITHER END of the corridor watched in surprise as bullets started flying out from the stairwell door. They brought their rifles to bear on the water fountains sprouting from each new bullet hole, waiting for someone to come through.
95
IT WOULDN’T TAKE LONG FOR the soldiers above to realize the gunshots they heard were not coming their way, and Sam figured he did not have much time before they advanced. Digging deep into Jung’s mind, he started breaking down the problem into components using Jung’s engineering approach to problem solving.
What were the knowns: the weight of this amount of water against the door was going to be too heavy for him to counter. He also knew this already because he had tried. He had a pistol, a wrench and the few valves he had removed and tossed to this bottom level. The bullet holes were not going to allow the water to drain nearly fast enough, and he had already emptied one of his two magazines, each of which held nine bullets.
If he could somehow get the door cracked open, the water would start to drain very quickly. Okay, he had an idea that he thought might work, and if not, he would have to take his chances trying to infiltrate one of the men in the stairwell and take them out that way.
Sam replaced the spent clip with his last one. Snicking it into place, he aimed at the edge of the door near the handle and grouped all nine of his remaining bullets in a circle as best he could. The water was two-thirds of the way to the ceiling and Sam waded back in and ducked under to examine his work. The grouping was within a four inch circle, which he thought wasn’t bad for an untrained marksman in a mechanic’s body. Sam had worried the bullets would not have enough energy after passing through the water to penetrate the door, but his fears were allayed as he saw the water flowing through the holes and the lights beyond. Step one complete, he swam to the bottom of the stairwell and retrieved the wrench which felt like it had gotten heavier.
Wrench in hand, he swam to the surface for a large breath then dove immediately back to the edge of the door. Sam lined up the small handle end of the wrench with the somewhat circular grouping of bullets and brought it back like a battering ram. He swung the wrench forward as hard as he could in the water. The momentum of the heavy tool worked in his favor and he brought it crashing back into the grouping of holes in the door. A couple of the bullet holes joined together as the force of the impact deformed the door slightly and broke the small bridges between holes. Encouraged, Sam brought the wrench back three more times and was able to finally combine all the bullets holes into a tombstone shape three inches across. Well out of oxygen, he let go of the wrench and darted to the surface for another breath. The water was almost to the ceiling. If this didn’t work he would soon have to go around the corner of the stairs to find air. He would be a sitting duck at that point: it would be game over.
Now for the real test. Sam positioned the wrench with the small tip of the handle poking through the new hole into the corridor and rested it on the door jamb where the door no longer existed. Grabbing hold of the door handle he placed his feet on the business end of the tool on his side of the door. Now horizontal to the floor, he pulled against the door handle with his arms and pressed against the wrench with his legs. Jung knew that a lever such as this multiplied the force exerted on it by the ratio of the longer end from the fulcrum over the shorter end. So if Jung’s quick math was correct, Sam was now exerting more than 10 times the opening force on the door as before.
This had to work. He was out of options to get this door open and time was ticking. The soldiers on the stair might have advanced and have their guns trained on him through the water at this very second.
96
PULLING WITH ALL HIS STRENGTH, Sam felt the door give a tiny bit. Bolstered by his minuscule success, he ignored his depleting oxygen and redoubled his efforts. This time a subtle movement buoyed him and a sliver of light from the hallway peeked through the water. He could feel the pressure dynamics changing. Continuing to pull, muscles straining, lungs starting to burn, the door opened a bit more and he could feel the water rushing past him as it hungrily attacked the opening and began pouring out into the corridor along the entire height of the door. Momentum on his side, he continued to pull, his lungs screamed for air. The crack became a six inch opening and the water level started dropping quickly. Black coronas closed in from the edges of his vision as he began to lose consciousness. Six inches had become a foot, and above him he saw what looked like the shimmer of the waters surface getting closer. Stretching upwards now at the same time as pulling on the door, Sam broke the surface and sucked in a much needed breath of fresh air.
Now two feet open, the water level had receded below his body. The wrench had done its job and was no longer useful, so he adjusted his feet to let it fall to the floor where it came to rest with a muffled clang, slowed by the remaining water. Without the water holding him up, Sam had to move one foot from the door jamb to the floor to support his weight. He strained to hold the door open with his one leg on the jamb as the water continued to pour into the corridor.
Sam glanced up the stairs, relieved the soldiers had not advanced on him yet. He knew it would be any moment now.
The water level was nearing an equilibrium between stairwell and corridor and Sam almost had the door all the way open when he felt a sudden pressure on his ankle dislodge it from the door jamb and knock him off balance. Sam felt a searing pain in his ankle as he collapsed to the floor, splashing down into the remaining foot of water.
A cascade of water still poured down the stairs from the open valves on the floors above and crashed into the now open door working in Sam’s favor, helping to keep it open. Trying to ignore the pain in his ankle, he stretched from his seated position to grab two of the valves he had previously discarded and pulled them over in front of the door as a doorstop.
There was blood in the water and Sam looked down to see it streaming out of both sides of his ankle. He must have taken a bullet from a shooter in the corridor as he hadn’t seen anyone above him in the stairwell. Legs out in front of him, knees bent and protruding above the surface of the water, Sam plunged his hands in the remaining foot of water, searching for the signature mental energy of others.
Would this work? His plan had been to use the water to extend his reach, but if he couldn't reach far enough, or if water didn’t work like metal, he faced a bullet riddled death from both the stairwell and basement soldiers. Then, as if a light switch was turned on, multiple blips entered his mental radar. The blips were coming and going as the water level had just risen enough to lap over the height of the soldiers’ insulating boots, finding their skin and allowing electrical connections. Sam now knew transfer by any electrically conducting material should work.
Multiple soldiers came crashing around the corner with their rifles pointed directly at him. Out of time, Sam transferred to one of the blip
s and was simultaneously struck by the funny thought of how he must have looked to them, sitting on the floor like a frog in water. As quickly as it came, the levity was interrupted by Jung’s screams and the continuous gunfire he heard from his new ears down the hall from the stair where he had just been.
97
THE SCREAMING STOPPED FIRST, THE gunfire a few seconds later. Looking around, Sam could see he was behind a fortified sandbagged wall at an end of the corridor with four other soldiers. At the other end of the hall approximately 200 feet away were another five soldiers behind a similar fortification watching the other stairwell.
The space remained silent after the gunfire in the stairwell ceased. Sam took the opportunity to survey his surroundings. The water was at mid-calf throughout the corridor now and still rising. There was a closed door to the data center next to him which seemed to be doing a decent job of keeping the water from passing.
Sam jumped when all the soldiers started firing at the stairway door. They had caught glimpses of the men inside and were clearly following their orders explicitly.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Sam used the card key on his new host’s belt to open the data center door. The water took immediate action swelling towards the new unexplored area. Sam grabbed a sandbag from the fortification and threw it on the floor to keep the door open. He then felt for the energy blips and transferred to one of the soldiers at the other end of the hall.
The abandoned host back in control of his own body looked at his hands unsure what had just transpired. A volley of gunfire snapped him from his reverie and he took cover with the other soldiers.
There was a lot of yelling, mostly from the men in the stairwell as they tried to make their colleagues understand they were on the same side. Unaware of the orders being followed by the basement soldiers, it wasn't until after two of them lay dead in the stairwell that they gave up and retreated back up the stairs enough to avoid the bullets.
98
COMMANDER LI RECEIVED THE RADIOED report from the senior officer in the stairwell that the target had been taken down. Without reacting, Li cutoff his underlings cheers, ordering them to keep a sharp eye on the camera feeds from the two sides of the corridor.
Li was not going to make the same mistake as just earlier that day when he thought the demon had been killed but then somehow had escaped.
Li mumbled to himself, but not quietly enough to escape the ears of the other security personnel in the room, “Fuck this guy…I’ll kill everyone if that’s what it takes…thinks he can get away from ME…”
Li’s first priority was to kill or apprehend the demon. Protecting the data center, his second priority. Although in direct contradiction to the President’s orders, Li could not tolerate any kind of defeat. The thought that this thing, this demon, could thwart him and avoid capture or death drove Commander Kung’s mind out of his control.
The two officers sitting next to Li cheered at first, excited that the mission was complete. But Li’s continued intensity and focus cut their celebration short as he shouted at them to watch the screens and pull up more cameras.
“Zoom in on these men and the other group,” Li barked pointing at the bunker areas at either end of the corridor.
“We cannot zoom these cameras, sir, none of these cameras can zoom,” the officers replied nervously, feeling a charge in the air from Li’s manic actions.
Cursing under his breath and frustrated by the antiquity of the technology at this installation, Li squinted, watching for the slightest sign that the demon had taken a new host.
Soldiers in the corridor suddenly opened fire on the security men in the stairwell. Li ignored the firefight, his focus unflinching in his inspection of the cameras. Confused by their commander’s disinterest in the shooting, the two officers jumped on the radio yelling at everyone to stop firing, but their radio transmissions were lost in the loud gunfire.
While this was going on, Li noticed one of the soldiers in the corridor stood back and did not join the firefight. Li watched as the soldier instead opened the door to the data center.
“TURN ON THE FIRE PROTECTION SYSTEM! NOW!” Li yelled at his subordinates.
“But, sir, that will suffocate everyone on that level.”
Li unholstered his side arm and very calmly looked at the officer who had spoken. Li stared at the man, blood trickled down his teeth from his missing upper lip as he said, “Turn on the fire protection system now or I'll shoot you in the head.”
The fire protection system was Li’s ace in the hole. Upon inquiring why his men appeared woozy after the events at Tsinghua University, he had learned about the suppression system and the resulting oxygen deprivation. When he arrived at Zhangjiakou, he had instructed the security personnel to be ready to activate the system in the data center upon his order. This was his last line of defense. The underlings had explained that the Zhangjiakou facility had an antiquated CO2 system which simply flooded the data center with carbon dioxide, completely displacing the oxygen in the room. Although very effective for fighting fires, unlike the modern Inergen system at Tsinghua, it made it impossible to breath once discharged. Even better, Li had thought.
99
NOW ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE of the corridor, Sam saw another data center access door and an additional door across from it marked with a lightning bolt. Cracking the lightning door, sam peeked inside of what at first appeared to be a storage closet. Partially submerged cardboard boxes lined the far wall next to an aluminum ladder, mop and bucket. The near wall was covered by various metal cabinets which his host recognized as the incoming electrical service providing power to this floor. “380 Volts” was indicated on the largest panel below which was the image of a skull and crossbones.
With a new idea percolating, Sam closed the electrical closet and quickly duplicated his previous effort, propping the data center door open to allow water to flow into the room. The gunfire had paused briefly, and one of the soldiers noticed Sam propping open the door and asked why he was allowing water into the equipment room. Sam pointed to the electrical closet, and said “Electricity!” as if it was obvious water in the electrical closet would be more dangerous than in the data center. The soldier nodded and returned his focus to the stairwell as gunfire erupted again.
Sam needed to work quickly, because once the gunfight ended, all the soldiers would be wondering what he was doing. He returned to the electrical closet, grabbing a sandbag on the way and threw it inside the room. Sam quickly grabbed a second, third and fourth throwing them into the electrical closet as well. Two more curious soldiers watched him remove pieces of their bunker, and Sam explained he needed to quickly block the water from entering the room to avoid an electrical power short or fire. The soldiers accepted the explanation and returned to the ongoing attack of the men in the stairwell. Sam slipped into the closet and closed the door behind him.
Sam stacked the sandbags until they were six inches above the waterline. Climbing on top, he opened the skull and cross bones panel. Inside were exposed copper wires, the “hot” side connected to a main breaker which was the last line of defense to shut off power if the other panel breakers failed. There would be another larger breaker upstream of all these panels, on another floor probably, associated with the overall incoming service for the entire military base.
From his hosts knowledge, Sam understood that 380 volts was much more dangerous than your typical wall outlet and if he could divert the main power to the standing water, he would short out all the equipment and kill or seriously injure all the men standing in the water.
Sam was above the water line and safely insulated with his rubber shoes…hopefully. He had to make sure not to slip into the water during the next step or he would be killed instantly.
Sam’s sandbag pile was in the middle of the small room and he moved the ladder over next to him, positioning it in the water and aiming it so that when he let go, the ladder would fall forward and hit the exposed copper wire on the “hot” side of the
breaker. The goal was to divert the current through the ladder, into the water and out of the room.
What he wasn't sure about, and his host didn't seem to be sure about either, was whether he would be safe during this process. The ladder would provide the path of least resistance for the electricity to follow. Sam was wearing rubber shoes and he was not standing in the water which should theoretically keep him safe. However, the sandbags were soaked with water and electricity was inherently unpredictable. There were plenty of examples of lightning strikes on buildings where circuitous paths were taken through a structure to get to the ground, seemingly at odds with following the path of least resistance. Despite the risks, this was probably the best, and more importantly, only option available at the moment. Sam did a final check on the alignment of the ladder and then let go.
100
LI WATCHED AS A SOLDIER propped open the data center door at the opposite end of the corridor and then entered an electrical closet. His teeth clenched — it had to be the demon.
“He’s going to electrify the water!” Li shouted then quickly grabbed his radio and fumbled the dial to the soldiers’ channel. “You are about to be electrocuted by someone in the electrical closet! Direct your fire at the electrical closet door!” Li’s warning was meant to motivate the men, he wasn’t interested in their safety.
The confusion was apparent even on the small monitor Li was watching. A few of the men pointed their rifles at the door while two of the soldiers who had seen Sam enter the room waved them off, telling them not to shoot, probably indicating that it was one of their own in the room.
The Slip Page 21