“I’m leaning toward the good doctor Pollock’s theory and the young lady’s guesswork,” Farbeaux said as he stood next to Mendenhall. “Lieutenant, I know I’m not a citizen of your country, at least legally speaking, but I vote we get the hell out of here, and I would prefer to be armed as we run like hell for the surface of this menagerie.”
Will looked at Henri and nodded his head. “You don’t have to convince the U.S. Army, Colonel—everyone to the stairwell. Sergeant, give me the weapon and go with them. I’ll draw that thing’s attention.”
Gloria reacted first as the second, much larger dent appeared in the double elevator doors, creating a small separation between them. She reached out and grabbed Will and just shook her head. “No, please don’t,” she said with pleading eyes.
“You go with Dr. Pollock and the others. Sarah and the colonel are too weak, they need a hand.”
“We all go, Will,” Virginia announced loudly. “For once in my life, with Niles out of the complex, someone is going to damn well follow my orders.”
“Perhaps we can discuss this when we’re headed upward in the unaffected stairwell?” Henri said as he pulled Sarah to the left, heading for the opposite set of stairs just as eight very large and grotesque fingers pushed through the opening.
“Jesus,” the airman said as he pushed everyone in the direction Farbeaux had taken with Sarah trailing. “Lieutenant, go!” he shouted at Mendenhall and the others.
Suddenly the doors separated and in the dark they saw the glowing eyes. The impossibility of it struck everyone as the eyes were radiating like those of a night-hunting animal. The brain of the affected was altering the way humans were seeing—Perdition’s Fire was adapting to its situation.
As everyone turned and ran, the airman who was responsible, at least in his mind, for this level opened fire, catching the retreating Mendenhall off-guard. The lieutenant shoved Gloria forward toward the far exit door and turned as the airman emptied his nine millimeter into the creature that was even now balancing itself in the right half of the empty elevator doorframe. It was too large to squeeze through such a small opening so it angrily started battering the left section of steel door, warping and bending it even as the powerful nine-millimeter rounds struck and penetrated its upper body. As each round hit, it would yell and roar in pain as it continued to battle with the steel of the remaining door.
Just as Mendenhall reached out to grab the young security man, the beast had a similar thought as it leaned as far into the clinic as it could, bending the remaining door even further until it caught the airman while he was reloading. The beast’s grip was wrapped so powerfully around his neck that he dropped the Beretta with the clip still only partially inserted. Will reacted fast as the man was pulled toward the towering beast. As his struggles continued, Will retrieved the weapon and finished inserting the clip. He quickly took aim at the monstrosity still struggling in the elevator opening. When he saw he couldn’t get a shot in without hitting the terrified security man, Will placed the gun in his waistband and attacked.
The beast was caught off-guard by the blows raining into its face delivered by Mendenhall. It reacted by squeezing his grip even harder on the airman. The beast roared with insult as Will continued to fight for the young security man’s life. Then, even through the screams of outrage from the creature, Will heard the airman’s neck snap. It was a sound the lieutenant would never forget. The struggles of the giant and the security man ceased at once. The beast let the boy slip through its grip as the large, unnatural eyes fell on Will. The giant brows rose and the creature smiled. With its bare chest almost through the door it reached out with lightning-quick speed and grabbed Mendenhall around the neck. The lieutenant knew that he hadn’t moved fast enough just as his life force was being squeezed from his body.
Suddenly the grip was released and a roar of pain sounded that actually shook the pictures from the clinic’s walls. As Will fell to the floor he looked up in time to see Henri Farbeaux step away from the flailing, infuriated giant. Then Mendenhall finally saw why the beast had let go as it pulled the ballpoint pen from its right eye. Farbeaux and Sarah were there to pull him up and out of the creature’s flailing arms.
“Thanks!” he screamed.
As they ran for the stairwell door being held open by Virginia and Dr. Gilliam, Farbeaux looked back as the creature now began to concentrate on the only remaining obstacle trapping it, the second door.
“This is the second time I’ve been here, and I must say you people go out of your way to make my stay vigorous and exciting,” Henri said.
A choking Mendenhall reached the door and allowed Henri and Sarah to go through first just as the beast bent over the remaining door.
“That’s what we’re here for Colonel, to make sure your days are filled with wonder and awe.”
Virginia cursed and pulled Will into the complete darkness of the stairwell.
* * *
For the first time in Compton’s fifteen years and Pete Golding’s ten at the Event Group, they saw the computer center go dark. With Europa being down for the first time ever, the sight was surreal for both men. As Pete pushed the large bulletproof glass security door open, he realized with the only lighting coming from the battery-powered floods in the corners and center of the large room, that the cavernous area with its empty theater-style seating and main-floor desks looked ghostly. The fifty-foot main computer screen with the flashing red light at its base was a reminder just how vulnerable the complex was without Europa running things.
“How long to reboot the system, Pete?” Niles asked as he walked down the main aisle of seating while looking through the glass walls out into the main hallway. He felt like they were being watched. He knew that was probably a wrong sensory input due to the stress of the situation.
“She should come right up,” Pete said as he practically ran down the steps to his large desk on the main floor. He immediately checked his personal system and then paused as his security code challenge came up on the monitor. He entered Golding-Hercules—Marilyn 11900-A-1.
“You better not let Jack see the Marilyn part of the code—he’ll kill you.”
“Ah, what the colonel doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
Even through the terrifying situation they were now locked into, Niles Compton had to smile and shake his head. After all of this time he just learned that it had been Pete Golding all along who had programmed Europa’s voice synthesizer to mimic the sex symbol Marilyn Monroe’s voice. Collins had been looking for the culprit from the first day he started at the Group.
“Come on old girl, come on,” Pete urged. “I’m feeling mighty exposed here.”
Suddenly the main screen flashed a bright white. Then it did it again. Finally it went to a solid blue and the code Pete had entered started flashing at the top minus the numbers in case Pete wasn’t alone. This was a very good indication that Europa was regaining her programming. Golding lowered the microphone on his desktop and leaned in. He swallowed and closed his eyes.
“Europa, are you online?”
Silence filled the giant room. Then: “Good evening Dr. Golding. With my systems down, can you tell me if the emergency on level seventeen has been resolved?”
“We need you to help with that assessment.”
“I will need five minutes, thirty-seven seconds to regain sensory input from that section.”
“Hurry, please hurry,” Pete said as he pushed the microphone away from him and looked at Niles who was looking up through the bulletproof wall upstairs. As Pete started to inform Niles of the delay in case he hadn’t heard, the lights flickered overhead and Golding breathed a sigh of relief. He waited, but the lights didn’t come back on. He grabbed for the microphone once more. “Europa, is that you getting the power grid back up? Is that the first protocol?” Pete asked as he tried his hardest to remember the sequence of her reboot program.
“Dr. Golding, the power has been severed at the source. With my surveillance systems still d
own, that is my best estimation.”
Niles heard that. He turned and faced Pete who lost all the feeling in his legs and had to sit. Then he caught himself and sat back up.
“Europa, do you have a status report on nuclear reactors one and two?”
“I must source query by utilizing the programs that are currently available, Doctor. Standby.”
“Pete, what are the odds that one of those soldiers could access the reactor area on eighty-four?” Niles asked, no longer concerned about the boogeymen in the darkness outside the walls.
Pete shook his head. “Niles, with her systems down, the area could have been unsecured to allow our reactor technicians to get to the evacuation point. God only knows, but if Europa shut down her systems for a security breach, resecuring that area may have come too late.”
“Doctor, by accessing the main water systems and the sublevel systems such as distilled water storage, I have calculated that the hard-water levels in all four reactor pumping stations are down 46 percent,” Europa said.
“Is this an occurrence due to the emergency shutdown procedure?” Pete asked, doubting his own question.
“Negative, Dr. Golding. The pumps have been shut down at the source and both reactors have scrammed.”
“They can’t be capable of that!” Niles said as he ran over to Pete’s desk. “Europa, we need you to bypass normal start-up procedures and go directly to your surveillance systems. Reboot now!”
Before she could react, the red flashing of her warning systems started back up with the irritating buzz of the alarm.
“Doctor, we have a biohazard warning on level seventeen and a security breach on levels one, four, eight, eighteen, and eighty-four. Untagged persons are inside the complex.”
By untagged Europa meant that all Event Group members had a microscopic bug placed in their thigh area just under their skin that told Europa where every member of the Group was currently located. Event guests like Gloria Bannister and Henri Farbeaux had been tagged on a temporary basis. The untagged people she was currently picking up on her security scan were obviously the intruder element inside the complex.
“God, they made it into the reactor section and shut down the cooling pumps and water,” Niles said as he reached for the phone on an empty desk. “Europa, I need communications ASAP!”
“Estimate two minutes until program reboot on communications, Dr. Compton. I am now receiving security video from level eighty-four. Low-quality night vision has been achieved.”
As the two men watched, a hazy and greenish picture came on the main screen. At first they saw nothing out of the ordinary except for the flashing red and yellow lights indicating that the reactors, both one and two, had scrammed automatically or had shut down as per fail-safe protocol when they started being starved of coolant.
“Location of Colonel Collins?” Pete said into the microphone.
“Colonel Collins is currently on level eight, south stairwell.”
Pete realized that they had to get people down to the very bottom level of the complex to restart the distilled water pumps and get the reactors to start their cooldown. Without getting them up again, the reactors would blow, taking all of Nellis and Las Vegas along with the complex, and also leave a radioactive hole in the ground half the size of Lake Mead.
“Niles, you have to leave here, get to some radios, and pray that the colonel pops out someplace where he can receive.”
Compton didn’t hesitate as he knew where there were at least a dozen radios—his own office. He ran up the stairs knowing that if they didn’t get this stopped, growing giants would be the least of the problems for his Group.
“Dr. Golding, security cameras on thirty-four have picked up nine members of Department 5656 that have not achieved egress from the complex.”
“What? We still have more people down there?”
“Correct, Doctor, they are trapped.”
“Can you get any kind of emergency power to the main cargo lift and get them out of there?”
“It may be possible to reroute my battery power to the cargo lift.”
“How will that affect your backup power system?”
“Total drainage in seven minutes, ten seconds, Doctor,” Europa replied.
“And how long to get the lift to level one?”
“Five minutes, thirty-seven seconds.”
Pete felt the knot in his stomach grow larger. If he ordered Europa to assist the trapped men and women in the gymnasium and sports complex, she wouldn’t have but one minute and thirty-three seconds of power to either get the men and women help or go up with the reactors.
“Europa, reroute your power to the cargo lift and get those people out!”
* * *
Jack placed his hand on the chest of Charlie Ellenshaw when he not only felt something below them on level eight but smelled it. It was an odor he had smelled on every battlefield he had ever served on. It was the smell of blood—a lot of it.
“Stay here Doc,” he said just above a whisper, knowing that Crazy Charlie didn’t understand military hand signals.
“What is it?” Charlie asked gripping the M-14 as tightly as he could. He looked up at the weak lighting of the floodlight and then cursed that he couldn’t see the landing on the next level down.
Jack took the steps one at a time without any weapon at all. He was only ten steps away from the sharp curve in the stairwell when he saw an arm stretched across the landing. Jack cursed as he took another step and then suddenly felt a presence behind him. He turned as fast as he could and almost gave Charlie a coronary as well as himself.
“Damn it, Doc!” Jack hissed, “I told you to hang back and cover me.”
“Colonel, from that angle, the trajectory of any form of cover fire would not have accomplished what I was asked to do, if—” In the darkness Ellenshaw saw Collins and knew that he better not continue his geometry lesson at that time. “Sorry,” he said as a way of completing his sentence.
Jack took another step, and another, and then was at the next level. His jaw set when he saw the six men sprawled on the large grate leading to level eight. They were torn to pieces. Jack had to grab the handrail as Charlie moaned behind him. The worst thing they saw was the head of Sergeant Sanchez placed directly on top of his own chest. Collins knew it was meant to frighten. That was the only statement the killer of his reaction team could have meant, to send fear down the spines of anyone who saw the decapitation. Instead of shaking in his boots as the beast who did this foul act intended, Jack simply reached down and grabbed three of the assault packages that were scattered on the landing. As he passed his men, stepping over them with care, he stopped and waved Charlie over.
“Take two more of these, Doc—we’re going to need them.”
“There is no sign of Captain Everett and his men, Colonel. The last we heard, he was off to find,” he hesitated as if saying the sergeant’s name would bring on more bad luck, “Sergeant Sanchez.”
“Remember that the captain is not only good, he’s the best at evasion, even from these assholes.”
“Yeah, the captain can be on my team any day,” Charlie said with as much bravado as he could muster.
Collins came to the thick steel door and paused. He tilted his head and listened for anything coming from the far side. Then he placed a hand over the door and felt the cold steel. He looked back at Ellenshaw and shook his head.
“Pete and Niles should have had the power up by now. Where in the hell is Europa? That expensive bitch better not have bailed out on us.”
Collins reached into one of the bags and brought out a small box. He felt better just seeing what was inside. Six hand grenades were packed in foam and looked like diamonds in the rough to him. He started filling his pockets.
Above Jack, Charlie’s eyes widened. “Can I have—”
“No,” Collins answered before the stupid question could be voiced. Jack turned and tossed Ellenshaw three new magazines one at a time. Charlie fumbled but managed to catch
them all. He then reached inside the canvas bag and brought out a sawed-off twelve-gauge shotgun. He quickly loaded it with the blue plastic-cased solid-shot shells, adjusting the strap and then placing the shotgun over his shoulder. Next came the Ingram submachine gun. He quickly taped two of the long clips together, both facing in opposite directions, and then slammed the magazine home. “There, that feels better,” Jack said.
“I must admit it, you look better, Colonel,” Charlie said, happy that Collins was happy.
Collins brought the Ingram up and slowly reached out in the light of the floods above him and cracked the door open. He looked inside the dimly lit corridor and into the clinic. He saw that a bed had been pushed up close to the heavily damaged elevator doors, which lay bent and crumpled on the tiled floor. The colonel then opened the stairwell door wide enough to get his head through.
Charlie Ellenshaw winced as Jack’s head disappeared through the opening, wanting to say that that’s how teenagers get killed in all the slasher movies—by sticking their heads into dark rooms. He managed not to warn Jack of the danger.
Collins quickly saw that the clinic was empty. He let the door close and then turned to face Charlie.
“It looks like they managed to evacuate Colonel Farbeaux.”
“Oh, joy,” Ellenshaw said.
“Okay, we know the only ones above us are Pete and Niles in the computer center, so it looks like we’re headed down, Doc.”
Charlie had his throat catch in midswallow but managed to nod his head.
“Don’t worry, Doc, it’s all downhill.”
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Ripper (Event Group Thrillers) Page 37