As Walter hoped, when the top executives of the operation deserted the ship, the other rats followed. Nobody was manning the front security gate. A long row of speeding police cars sped past the deserted security gate and into the compound coming to a grinding halt unimpeded. As laid out by Walter in the strategy meeting, his and two other cars proceeded to the large steel door, the main entrance into the Factory. If all worked out, the massive doors would be left open. As it turned out, they were and Walter sped inside the Factory.
Edith, as promised she would, slammed on the brakes and remained behind to block the gate and stay on the radio. Through slapping windshield wipers, she watched as chaos and panic spread like wildfire through the remaining scientists and workers. Caught in a net, they didn’t know which way to run.
Inside the Factory, Walter pointed and yelled demands to capture a few of the scientists and herd them back inside the main hall for interrogation. With eyes peering through the heavy rain at the activity inside the Factory, Edith did not see two small dark figures jump out from the back of her pickup truck and run toward a Factory side door.
Because Edith’s job was to block the gate, no more cars could get out of the compound. Soon the Copper Mountain Road was once again hidden in the darkness of the forest. Although some scientists frantically beeped their horns at her to get out of the way, she remained steadfast in her duty. After a few minutes of watching some scientists frantically trying to escape on foot, most gave up and walked into the shelter of the Factory and Walter’s waiting arms. She said to herself,
“That’s right. You knew you were doing illegal experimentation on children. Now go and meet your nemesis.”
Edith was not a cop but being married to one all these years she managed to pick up a few ‘cop traits’. One was that while on surveillance always check your back. She was facing the compound but when turning in the driver’s seat and looking back, she was shocked to see what was speeding up the Copper Mine Road. Through the night and heavy rain, a long line of cars was racing up the road toward the Factory. There was no doubt in her mind that a mad crowd of frenzied citizens was storming the castle. Headlights were burning like torches and all were determined to save their children from the evil monster in the castle.
She picked up the mike and called Walter.
“Looks like Lou managed to stir up trouble again. A mad mob of villagers is up in arms and attacking the Factory. There are maybe ten to fifteen cars coming up the hill fast.”
Walter did not want enthusiastic citizens running madly through the tunnels looking for the children. He believed the reports of Gary, Sam and her dad about the strange and deadly things happening down there. Knowing that he could not stop them from entering the Factory grounds he called her back.
“I don’t want you trying to stop them at the gate, it could get ugly. Move the truck out of the way and we will deal with them in here.”
Walter then walked over to Deputy Collin Ellsworth and said,
“The townspeople will be here soon. Call Dean over and you two guard the elevator. I don’t want anybody running helter-skelter through the tunnels looking for the children. There are enough lost souls down there as it is. They can run around up here all they want but not down there.”
As Walter walked away, Collin called Dean over and relayed the orders.
Ed and Derek had rounded up five scientists and one security guard who were too slow to escape and pressed them into a corner near the elevator. The security guard stood defiant while the scientists were scared and talking among themselves. When Walter approached and they saw that he was the sheriff, they thought they were going to be cuffed and read their Miranda rights.
Looking at the captured group, Walter spotted the one looking the most scared and susceptible to what he was about to say. He addressed his remarks to him.
“I don’t care about justice right now. I only care that there are three children here and I want them back. Tell me where they are and I’ll let you run out of here.”
He sheepishly said,
“We don’t know where they are. Security was controlled and restricted by individual levels. We only know what was on our level and there are no children there.”
The security guard lost his fake composure and fell to what Walter was offering.
“The CEO has a private office on level four and the laboratory is on level five. If there are children here, they might be on one of those levels.”
Believing him, Sherriff Cornwall turned his back on the group and they ran out into the rain.
Meanwhile, two wet children were on the other side of the elevator cage squeezed hard against the stone wall and the cage. Sam whispered to Gary,
“Did you hear that? We have to get to level five.”
He heard it but didn’t want to. By his feet was a steel ladder and he knew what Sam had in mind. After a gulp to summon the courage he was pretending he had, he whispered,
“Yea, I heard it.”
It was too late to discuss the danger of climbing down to level five. She was already well on her way down the shaft. Remembering the last time they were on a steel ladder attached to a vertical cliff, he felt inclined to test this structure with a tug and a push. He didn’t want to be on it when it tore away and plummeted to level five.
Walter now had a fair idea where to search for the children. He called Isaac to his side and said,
“Let’s start with level four first.”
Just then, the first of the mad mob racing up the mountain in cars sped into the compound and slammed on the brakes. The first ones out of the car were the Grahams who were missing Alexander. Not understanding that the children were deep in the tunnels, they started running around calling out their son’s name. The Ellsworth couple looking for Robert drove the next car. An old Chevy driven by Lou slammed on its brakes over by a pile of girders. Jumping out of the back of the Chevy were the Greens looking for Amina.
Walter knew this was not good. He pointed to the elevator cage and indicated for Isaac to hurry up.
“Let’s get down there before they realize there is nothing up here.”
However, the few remaining scientists greatly interested Lou and the parents. Two were captured by the angry mob and questioned in a manner that Walter wanted to stop but didn’t have the time and manpower for. Angry and desperate parents punched and kicked them while screaming,
“Where are the children?”
Walter yelled over to Derek,
“Keep an eye on that. If it gets really ugly, interfere but your main priority is to guard the elevator.”
Suddenly Derek was not sure he had such a soft assignment after all. After pulling down the iron gate and pushing the ‘four’ button, Isaac commented on the mob attacking the scientists.
“I guess they’ll suffer a little bit of justice after all.”
As the elevator started with a jerk, Walter added,
“Well at least the angry mob is not throwing them from the castle tower.”
It was an elevator with only screens for walls and safety rails to keep arms and fingers intact. Because both Walter and Isaac did what all people do in an elevator, they stood facing the door. Doing what came naturally, they did not see what was behind them. Sam and Gary were still climbing down the steel ladder desperately clinging to each rung when the cage passed them. It was not a tight squeeze although Gary thought it was. All the two men had to do was turn around and they would have been discovered.
When the door opened and Walter stepped out into tunnel number four, he almost tripped on a body sprawled face down on the floor. Isaac bent down, turned it over, and saw a bullet hole in the forehead. He looked up at Walter and said,
“It’s Demetri Warric and he was shot at close range. There are powder burns on his forehead. He might have known his killer.”
Walter had a different thought.
“Or he was standing there waiting for this elevator. When the door opened, he came face to face with the killer.
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Looking farther down the dimly lit tunnel, Walter saw the light of Warric’s office and commented,
“Looks like he was trying to escape like all the others.”
He then saw another body on the ground just a few feet away. It was a female sprawled out on her back looking up through open but dead eyes. Blood from a bullet hole in the forehead trickled through blond hair and orange bangs. Walter said,
“Be on alert, somebody down here has a gun and means business.”
It was strange for them to walk through a dirty mine tunnel and suddenly step into the light of a posh office. Understanding that it must be Warric’s, both started to search it. Isaac inspected the empty wall safe and said,
“It looks like the safe has been cleaned out. He probably tried to escape with a lot of incriminating documents and money.”
Walter was at the desk going through the drawers when he commented,
“Did you see a bag of money or documents on either body?”
“Nope. Somebody else must have gotten to it.”
“The one with the gun no doubt.”
“Yup.”
When Isaac walked over to Walter, he was thumbing through a small black ledger book. Isaac asked,
“What have you found there?”
It was a cryptic reply.
“It’s a guarantee that I’ll get my pension after all.”
He then handed the book to Isaac and after a scan he smiled and said,
“The fool. He kept track of the payments made to the influential people protecting this illegal facility.”
Walter too smiled and nodded. He probably never saw it as blackmail so much as old age security. Isaac was stunned to see Judge Roy Clemens’ name as well as a District Attorney and a Senator. One name hit him hard right between the eyes. Stunned, he looked to Walter and asked,
“Can this be true?”
“Yes, I dismissed him this afternoon.”
Chapter 59
After a long climb down the steel ladder, Sam and Gary finally reached Level Five. As in shafts of most mines, the tunnels are indistinct from one to the other. The string of overhead lights down here cast long shadows and created scary shapes in Gary’s mind. Not knowing which way to turn, Sam stood lost looking left and right. Hoping that her dad was down here, or at least part of him was, she pleaded,
“Which way dad?”
After a long minute of silence, she sadly understood that they were on their own. For the only reason that one of the lightbulbs far down one of the tunnel flickered, Gary pointed and said,
“This way.”
He started in that direction with Sam close behind.
It was one of the few times that fate was kind to them, at least this close to hell. Far ahead in the tunnel, both saw a dim light that was not the result of the string of overhead bulbs. This light was different, brighter. Hoping that something was ahead, anything, they hurried to the light. Rounding a corner, suddenly a bright light filled the tunnel and they came to a grinding halt.
The wall of the tunnel was glass and on the other side both saw a large laboratory filled with computers. A lone female scientist was at a desk with her back to them and frantically pounding on computer keys. The door was open and so both took cautious steps into the lab. The woman was haggard, hair in a mess and bore the appearance of panic. When Sam came into her view she looked up and frantically yelled at them,
“Get out of her kids, it’s dangerous.”
She then snapped her attention back to the keyboard and continued pounding the keys.
The room was filled with the sound of clicking terminals and the smell of burnt out computers. Not taking her eyes off the keyboard or stopping frantic fingers, she again yelled at them,
“Run! The computers can’t maintain the modulating frequencies much longer. I am losing the phase shift barriers.”
To innocent minds of science and what was really happening, it didn’t sound too dangerous. Gary turned away and saw another glass wall across the room. Curious, he wondered over to it. Looking into a chamber, he got excited and called Sam over.
“I found them. Here they are.”
Looking down into the plasma room both saw Amina and the two boys wildly dangling from wires attached to their skulls. Not even a nightmare could conjure up such contortions of wild dancing. Sparks were shooting out of their bodies and all bore twisted looks of pain in their face. It was a horrible sight for both. Sam snapped back to the lady and demanded,
“Turn it off!”
Still in a wild panic she yelled back,
“I’m trying to but the computer keeps bypassing the shutdown program. Somehow it has taken control of the phase shifting and won’t let me shut it down.”
That was not good enough for Sam, she screamed,
“But you are killing them!”
The woman yelled back,
“We will all die if I can’t shut this thing down. It’s going to create a warp bubble sending this whole mine and everybody in it to hell!”
When it was clear that she could not shut it down, she jumped up and as she ran to the exit door, yelled,
“Run for your lives!”
Although Sam saw the woman’s panic there was still only one thing on her mind, she had to save Amina. As Sam looked helplessly through the glass at her friend contorting and twisting in pain and feet squirming as if a dead man on a gallows, she lost all sense of personal safety. With the intention of come hell or high water, she opened the door and ran into the Plasma room.
Meanwhile, Gary was held spellbound by the wild terminals and flashing lights so didn’t see Sam’s suicidal dash into the plasma room. As he turned away from the smoke and sparks, he finally noticed that she was missing. He wandered over to the glass wall and to his horror saw Sam bounced around as if the fingers of electricity were playing handball with her. Although written in her face, he didn’t hear her screaming in pain.
He knew he had to do something that the fleeing woman was not able to do, turn the computers off. As far he was concerned there was only one way to turn off a renegade computer. He grabbed the chair and although it was heavy, managed to swing it above his head and smash it into the computer terminal. Sparks flew and smoke spewed but still a persistent program would not release Sam from her agony. He did it again and again until all that was left was smoldering pieces of what was once a computer. Dropping the chair, he ran to the window and saw Sam face down on the floor. Still attached by wires to their heads, Amanda and the two boys were slowly swaying back and forth.
Running into the disarmed plasma room, he went to Sam first. On his knees he turned her over and asked,
“Are you okay?”
She opened her eyes and in a cantankerous manner asked,
“Do I look okay?”
Gary shook his head and softly replied,
“No.”
“Damn that hurt.”
Then came a question meant to preserve dignity. She asked,
“Did you hear me crying and screaming?”
In fact he could not hear anything over the crackling of computer terminals and the thick glass and so shook his head. She said,
“Good, because I didn’t you know.”
As he helped her stand, all the while she claimed she was okay and didn’t need help. However, weak knees and painful muscles all through her body said that she needed all the help she could get. Although wobbly of body, she had enough sense left in a stunned mind to ask,
“How did you stop it?”
He seemed proud to say,
“I hit it with a chair.”
The next order of business was to save Amina and the two boys. It seemed like an easy solution but the only course of action was to pull on their legs and hope whatever was attached to their heads would let go. Sam gently pulled down on Amina’s legs and like pulling a bed sheet off a clothes line the wires snapped away from her bald head and she fell to the ground in a heap. Seeing the success of the rescue, Gary did the s
ame with the two boys. Sam was on the floor yelling at Amina to wake up. Slowly her eyes opened, focused and asked,
“Sam? Is that you Sam?”
It was the first time Sam had ever experienced tears of joy. Amina softly asked,
“Are you dead too?”
Chapter 60
Because the tunnel lights were still on there was no need for Walter and Isaac to use flashlights. What was needed was more boots on the ground. There were too many branches in the tunnels and too many directions to conduct a proper search. Realizing the ineffectiveness of it all, Isaac thought he might have a solution.
“We should split up.”
Walter was not in favor of that strategy but understood the efficiency of the suggestion. After a thought, he said,
“Okay. You take this tunnel but after exactly two minutes turn around and come back here. I’ll do the same after checking this one out.”
Walter stayed for a minute and watched as Isaac disappeared through a winding tunnel.
After two minutes of finding nothing in his section of the tunnel, Walter turned around and prepared to meet Isaac at the starting point. After three minutes of retracing his steps, he still had not arrived at the junction where they were supposed to meet. Confused, he started back and to his surprise saw a cavern in the distance glowing in colors of the rainbow. As conspicuous as it was, he thought it odd that he had not seen it before.
The Factory Page 31