He woke up with his face against the vinyl floor to the sound of Shepard’s voice in his ear saying, “Come in . . . Bishop, Cobra, Spartan, Diesel, Rogue. Come in, Zeta.” Slowly, Morgan caught his breath, and his mind cleared. Alive. He was alive. The others, Bishop, Spartan, and Rogue, were standing, but still not entirely aware. He heard footsteps coming from behind him. He stumbled to his feet, and saw that Diesel had come out of the mainframe room, his steps still shaky and uncertain. “Diesel here,” he said.
“Report in, Diesel,” said Bloch. “What’s happening””
“They’re here,” came Diesel’s groggy voice. “Cobra’s down, I don’t know, he’s—”
“I’m alive,” said Morgan, his voice husky and slow.
“We’re all alive,” said Bishop. His voice seemed to be clearer than the others’. He extended a hand to Morgan, and helped him to his feet. His legs felt wobbly and still a little numb, but Morgan found that he could stand on his own.
“I’m glad you all made it,” said Bloch, “but now you need to keep moving. You don’t have a lot of time.”
Morgan just wanted to curse at her, but he knew she was right. “Let’s get going. Shepard, what’ve we got? Are you getting that door open for us?”
“Okay, security systems online,” said Shepard. “Getting video feeds. Okay. Looks like they just reached level five. There are four of them. That includes Novokoff. God, they killed everyone in the entire facility. There’s bodies everywhere, I think—wait! It’s not everyone. There’s one still alive! Man in a lab coat. Can’t miss him.”
“Your priority is to get him out alive,” said Bloch. “Do you copy? We need him alive.”
“Do they know we’re here?” asked Bishop.
“Doesn’t look like it,” said Shepard. “They’re moving full steam ahead.”
“You heard Bloch,” said Bishop. “We’re going down. We get the scientist out alive.”
They went through the previously impassable door, which led them past several other doors, marked with different administrative functions, and finally to a stairwell as curved as the corridor they had traversed. They went down, their submachine guns at the ready. They had to walk over dead bodies of guards and scientists that had been mowed down by Novokoff and his men. The air got colder and colder as they went down, flight after flight. This stairwell apparently led all the way down. They passed a door on each level, labeled with a number, until they reached level five. This one was marked again with a biohazard symbol. The door opened for them as they approached.
“They’re all the way around the facility from where you are,” said Shepard. “If you split up here, you can come at them from both sides.”
Bishop signed for Morgan and Rogue to go down a corridor on their left. Then, he motioned for Diesel and Spartan to follow him on the right.
Morgan took the lead with Rogue behind him. “All right, Cobra and Rogue, go down the hall. It’ll be about three hundred yards.” They ran down the corridor, passing the dead body of a guard and at least a dozen staff as they went. To their left and right were doors with signs that said things like DNA LAB, X-RAY CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, and ELECTRON MICROSCOPY. They heard the echoes of their boots as they ran. They heard something else too—the unearthly screaming, much louder now. It wasn’t human, Morgan could tell, and it was several voices shrieking over each other. They were running toward the source of the sound.
They were three quarters of the way through the corridor when Morgan heard gunfire. “They’ve engaged the enemy!” said Shepard. “Cobra, Rogue, get behind them! You can flank them and cut off their retreat! Here, go right on this next door.”
The door was marked with a sign that read LIVE SPECIMEN LAB. “Let me open that for you,” said Shepard, and the door slid open. The screaming, which had been muffled and distant, suddenly grew sharp, loud, and close. This room was some kind of changing room for hazmat suits, with another door to their left. Beside it was a sign that read, in large, bold letters, HAZMAT SUITS ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT. The door led into an airlock, with a second door leading somewhere unseen. Both doors to the airlock opened simultaneously.
“I’m really not liking all this stepping through airlocks,” said Morgan. “There’s got to be a damn good reason why this is here.”
“Sorry, Cobra, but we can’t afford to take those kinds of precautions now,” said Bloch. “Bishop and the others need your help.”
Morgan signaled for Rogue to follow and cover him. They passed through the now-open airlock together into an anteroom and into the clean area.
The barrage of bullets came hard and fast, from a door straight ahead. It was one of Novokoff’s men, clad in grey. Morgan didn’t have time to see anything other than the barrel of his gun before pivoting out of his line of fire.
“Shepard, get this door closed!”
The door slid shut, and the light on the handprint panel turned red. It was a heavy, solid door, and it would hold the man on the other side. Morgan turned to face Rogue.
He was on the ground. Blood, looking black on his black gear and bright red on the white floor, seeped from a wound from his neck.
“Agent down,” said Morgan. “Repeat, agent down. Rogue is down.”
“Shit, Cobra,” he said, dazed. “I got hit. They got me.”
Morgan knelt down and looked at the wound. It looked bad, like it had gone deep into his chest cavity. He pressed on the wound with his hands, and blood bubbled up around his fingers. Rogue’s breath was coming in ragged wheezes. “Aw, this is nothing, Rogue,” he told him.
“I’m gonna die, Cobra. Don’t lie to me. This”—he indicated the wound with his eyes—“people don’t survive this.”
Morgan didn’t have anything to say to that. Rogue was right. He was going to die.
“I remember you saving me,” he said. “Up there. I would have suffocated if you hadn’t gotten me up. Guess it didn’t do much good, did it?”
There was gunfire off behind them.
“Go,” said Rogue. “They need you.”
“I’ll come back for you,” said Morgan. “We don’t leave a man behind.”
He nodded. “My name,” said Rogue. “I want you to know it. My name is Ryan Sanford. I’m from Lebanon, Missouri.”
“I’ll remember, Ryan Sanford from Lebanon, Missouri.”
Morgan stood up and clutched his submachine gun.
“Rogue’s down,” he said. “I need another way into that room.”
The answer came in a door opening to his right. “Take that way,” said Shepard. “It’ll take you through the monkey lab, and you can get the drop on them.”
“Monkey lab?” asked Morgan. There was no answer, and he set off.
Morgan walked through a room that contained an examination table with leather hand and foot restraints, about right for a chimpanzee, as well as a large Plexiglas cage. The next room, through the door on his left, had to be the monkey lab.
So this was the source of the screaming. In the room, there was a row of cages containing chimpanzees, twelve in all. Their shrieking just grew louder and more frantic when Morgan entered the room, and some began throwing themselves against the Plexiglas doors to their cages, leaving blood smeared on the clear surface. One door led to a small supply closet, which seemed to hold food, syringes, other supplies, and a refrigerator full of tiny vials of medication.
Novokoff burst suddenly into the room, holding a small steel case by its handle, along with another man in grey and another in a lab coat, whom Morgan presumed was the scientist Shepard had talked about. Not a fight he could win on his own, especially without harming the scientist. Morgan spun into the supply closet. He reached for his flash grenade, and then remembered that he’d already used it.
“I need help here!” he said.
“He’s locked us out, Cobra!” said Bishop. “We’ll go around, but it’ll take us a minute. You’re on your own for now.”
Great.
“Drop your gun and come out or we kill the sci
entist,” said Novokoff.
“Do not let him die, Cobra!” said Bloch.
The chimps were screaming bloody murder.
“You need him too,” Morgan yelled to Novokoff.
“Toss it now!” came the answer.
“Shepard,” he said in a low voice, “do you have video on them?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“Good. I’m going to need you to tell me exactly what they do in the next few seconds, understand? If they move at all, you tell me.” Morgan unslung his submachine gun and pushed it out into the middle of the room, where it slid to a stop.
“The handgun too!”
He cursed to himself and did the same to his Walther.
“They’re coming your way!” said Shepard.
Morgan took his combat knife from his boot and twisted out from the closet. Novokoff’s man, surprised, tensed up and began to raise his gun to shoot, but before he managed to get a bullet out, Morgan threw his knife, which buried itself deep into the man’s chest. He rolled out of the way before Novokoff could take aim, then kicked his left leg sharply. Novokoff buckled and fell.
“Run!” said Morgan to the scientist. “Get out of here.”
Novokoff was reaching for his gun. Morgan rushed and tackled him. They grappled on the ground, then rolled, so that Novokoff was on top. Morgan put his feet on Novokoff’s chest and pushed him away. Novokoff tumbled backwards and landed near Morgan’s Walther. He picked it up, and Morgan retreated back into the supply closet.
“Shepard, open cage 6G!” said Morgan.
“What?” asked Shepard.
“Now!”
There was a harsh buzz, and the Plexiglas door swung open. The chimp went straight for Novokoff, lightning quick. Novokoff fired once, twice, hitting home and sending blood flying, but the animal did not stop. It knocked into him, causing him to fall back, then swiped savagely at his face. Blood spattered on the wall. With the ape on top of him, Novokoff was able to fire one more shot into its torso. A throb pulsed through the body of the vicious creature, and it fell limp and rolled off Novokoff, now croaking a guttural sound and drenched with blood. Novokoff roared in pain, bringing his hands to his face. He was firing wildly, blinded by the blood on his face, and Morgan couldn’t get out in the open and grab his gun. Novokoff managed to get up, take the steel case, and run out through the door Morgan had used to get in.
“He’s moving toward you, Bishop!” said Morgan. He grabbed his Uzi on the ground and ran after Novokoff. He was out the door of the lab when an explosion and a shockwave made him lose his footing. “What the hell just happened?”
“Grenade!” said Bishop. “Shepard, get the door! Close him in!”
“I can’t!” said Shepard. “The door systems aren’t responding. Nothing is.”
“Get him!” said Bloch. “You can’t let him escape!”
Morgan ran back where he’d come from, and caught sight of the rest of the team running ahead of him on the long hallway, with the scientist trying to keep up. Morgan caught up to him first.
“Come with me,” he said.
“Who are you people?” the scientist asked.
“We’re the good guys!” said Morgan. “And we’re going to get you out of here alive. Run! After them!”
Morgan watched as each of the members of the tac team, minus Rogue, got through to the stairwell. Morgan and the scientist were about a dozen yards from the door when it began to descend from the ceiling. It happened too fast for Morgan to think. He pushed the scientist, who tumbled through the door to the stairwell. By the time Morgan recovered his momentum, the door was below his knees. It reached the ground with a deep final clang. It was solid metal.
“What the hell just happened?” said Morgan.
“Self-destruct sequence!” said Shepard.
“What do you mean, self-destruct sequence?” Suddenly the hallway he was standing in seemed very cramped and confining.
“Looks like Novokoff’s grenade tripped it, and the security door closed automatically.”
“Well, cancel it!” Morgan cried, exasperated. “Get that door open and get me out of here!”
There was a pause. Then, Shepard said, “I can’t.”
“What do you mean, you can’t?”
“The self-destruct sequence is on a fully local system. It’s meant to work autonomously, so that there’s no way to stop it once it’s started. It was designed that way. That’s probably why I couldn’t access the doors before. Now I can’t get it open.”
Morgan stood and stared at the door for half a moment. Then he asked, “How do I brute-force it then?”
“There’s no way,” said Shepard. “There’s no access to the blast door controls anywhere. I can’t get you out from here.”
“Diesel,” came Bishop’s voice over the comm, “get back down there and get Cobra out!”
Morgan examined the outline of the door, somewhere where he might be able to get some leverage, but the door was sunken in a ridge along the walls and floor. There weren’t any controls that he could see.
“How much time do I have?” he asked Shepard.
“Seven minutes.”
“I’m here!” said Diesel. “What do I do?
“You blast it!” said Morgan. “Like you did the others.” There was a pause. “I could try,” he said. “It’s a pretty goddamn thick door.”
“Shit!” came Spartan’s voice.
“What’s going on?” asked Morgan.
“Hold on,” said Bishop. “We’ve got a problem.”
“What is it?” asked Bloch. “Did Novokoff get away?”
“A little worse than that,” said Bishop. “He locked us in. We’re going to need you to open this up for us, Diesel.”
“I’ve got explosives enough for one door,” came Diesel’s voice.
“We’re not leaving Cobra!” said Spartan.
“There’s nothing you can do!” said Morgan. “Even if you get me out of here, you won’t be able to open that door, which means that even if you get me out, I’m still dead, and so are both of you! Just get the hell out of here! Go!”
“You’re a good man, Cobra,” said Spartan through the comm. Morgan heard the sound of boots on the floor as they ran away from the door and up the stairs.
“Shep, is there any other way out of here?”
“Hold on, let me examine the specs on the self-destruct sequence,” said Shepard.
“I’d really appreciate it if you focused on—”
“This can save you. You won’t have another way out, but I can buy us time. Just let me work.”
Morgan stared down the hall nervously on both sides, then the ceiling. There was nothing there that suggested itself as any kind of solution. He felt like a trapped animal.
“Anything?” Morgan demanded.
“Good news,” said Shepard. “The bombs are primarily incendiary. White phosphorus. They’re meant to cleanse the facility of all biological matter—”
“Last I checked, I’m all biological matter,” said Morgan. “How is that good news?”
“That should keep structural damage to a minimum.”
“So I’ll die, but the facility will be fine?”
“So, the facility won’t come crashing down on you when the bombs go off. If you deactivate the bombs on your level, you can survive the self-destruct.”
“Oh,” said Morgan. “Is there any way we can do that?”
“Okay,” said Shepard. “Let me see. The electric systems for all the bombs on your level go through a single relay. If you cut through that, you can stop the detonations where you are.”
“Okay,” said Morgan. “Tell me how to do that.”
“First, I need you to get to the access door for the upper level.”
“I’m there,” he said.
“Okay, looking at the door, go down the hall to your right, about thirty yards. There should be a panel on your right, at about waist level.”
“Got it.”
“There should b
e a rubber conduit running through there, about one inch and a half across. Do you see it?”
“Yeah, I see it,” Morgan said.
“Okay, cut through that.”
Morgan reached for his combat knife, and then realized that it was embedded in the chest of a man at the monkey lab. He ran down the hall as fast as he could.
“Cobra, what the hell are you doing?” said Shepard.
“You’ve got just under two minutes to cut that line, or you’re toast! And I mean that a little more literally than I’d like!”
“Got nothing to cut it with!” he said. It took him a full minute to reach the door to the anteroom that he and Rogue had walked through. He went in, and through the airlock, where he found Rogue, lying dead in a pool of his own blood. Morgan saw Rogue’s knife in a holster in his boot, and drew it. Then he turned back and ran.
“Forty seconds, Cobra!” said Shepard. “Get your ass back and cut that line!”
Morgan pushed himself harder than he had ever before. His right knee screamed in pain, and all his muscles burned as he dashed down the corridor.
“Ten seconds!”
He caught sight of the panel ahead. In leaps and bounds and with ragged breath, he reached it, pulled the conduit out enough to get the knife on the other side of it, then sliced through the it and all the wires that ran through it. It was hardly two seconds before the walls, ground, and ceiling shook as something exploded violently above. The lights went out, and the emergency lights came on. The apes in the lab began to screech and wail madly.
“Cobra, Cobra, are you there?” came Shepard’s voice. “Come in, Cobra.”
Morgan dragged the body of the security guard that had been dead near the door and put his hand against the reader next the door. The device gave him clearance, but the door did not open. Instead, there was a low groaning of machinery tugging at a door that would not budge, two sides that refused to separate. The explosion had fused the metal together, making the door as impassable as a wall.
“Cobra, come in, are you there?”
Morgan was stuck. Trapped. Buried. This was a tomb, and he was going to die here.
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