by Jason Keizer
James looks at the screens, “I don't think help would be the right word. More like taking out the competition of killing us. How long has the power been on for and do you have any cameras inside the building?”
Jessica presses a button on a keyboard and all of the screens turn over to show different rooms from within the building. She says, “There is a big generator that keeps some of the place going but the lights, cameras, and some areas are run with solar panels. We try to keep everything off unless we need it, to conserve power since we aren't sure about how long that generator will keep going. The cameras show us most of the building except for the fifth floor down. We need some sort of security code for that which we can't figure out. Can't get in the place either since the security door and elevator access to it is blocked by a thick door we can't get through.”
Oliver looks at the cameras and asks, “What about the other floors? What are on them?”
Jessica replies, “Well, this is the only room you want to go in on this floor. The only other thing on this one is the waste treatment facility. I’m pretty sure the shit is leaking though. So if you really want to go in there, put a suit on. Not really sure how effective it will be. The other floors are safe. Just offices, a couple conference rooms, and a living quarters.”
Henry looks over to James and says, “If that door leads to a way out, we can probably blast it open. Shit, we have enough C4 left to level this building if placed in the right spots. Should be able to take down a door with it.”
James nods his head, “True. That could definitely be the way out. I have never seen a compound like this without a secret escape or two. So, me and you can go check it out. Oliver, see if you can find another way down there.”
Jessica cuts him off, “You need to take the stairwell. The elevator doesn't go to that level from what we can tell. The stairs are at the end of the hall and to the right.”
“Henry, come with me,” James says as he walks out the door.
As they are walking down the stairs James asks Henry, “So, you know Jessica, huh?”
Henry, trailing behind him, says, “Yeah, we met up a few times back home.”
They walk past a sign that says B1. “Met up huh? The way she said your name makes it seem like it was more than a meetup.”
Henry sighs, “Yeah, last time I saw her was a little bit before her team came out here. We went out a few times and things were going well. Then we took that rushed mission in Alabama and I kinda forgot to tell her. By the time we got back, she had already left.”
“You are an idiot. Why didn't you say anything earlier about her? You knew she was the one that sent that message.”
They pass a sign that is labeled B4. “I did tell you we should take the mission when they gave us the brief. Didn't really say anything about her though cause that shit isn't why we take a mission.”
James looks over his shoulder, “I understand that but why the hell didn’t I know you had a girlfriend.”
Henry smirks, “Shit, you know how it is. I wasn’t sure how serious things would be between us, so why get everyone else involved in that.”
They get to the door that says B5 on it. James puts his hand on Henry's shoulder and says, “Well, when we get back you can work shit out with her and figure out what you guys want to do. You know I am always here for you but I don't want to hear you two fighting or anything until we get back.” Henry just nods his head.
The men look at the door. There is no handle on it and no security pad next to it.
Henry asks, “How the hell did people even get in this thing? There isn't even a keypad.”
James points up to a camera, “I don't think it is supposed to be opened from the outside. Probably need to be buzzed in.”
Henry knocks on the door a couple of times and looks up to the spiraling staircases. “This door is way too thick to blow through from here. We would take down half the damn stairwell with it. We need to find another way in,”
James looks at the door for a little bit and starts to walk back up the stairwell. “I might have an idea. Let's see if they have blueprints for this place.”
In the security room, Oliver searches through files on the computer, while Captain Hammer rifles through a small cabinet. Sitting next to Oliver, Jessica cycles through the different camera angles on a couple of the screens.
Hammer slams one of the doors of the cabinet and says, “Sergeant Dunham and I have been through this shit like three times since being stuck here. What exactly am I looking for?”
Oliver keeps his eyes on the computer screen, “Anything that seems like it doesn't belong. A file with a strange name or a paper that shouldn't be in a certain file. It could have some sort of clue as to a passkey or something to help us out.”
Hammer flips through a couple of folders, “All of this shit looks strange once you get past the daily logs. These incident reports are all sorts of crazy. Downstairs I found one called gray matters. It talks about some experiment where they took brain matter from one person and put it into another, making them go crazy. Some really fucked up shit happened here.”
Jessica rolls her chair back from the table and gets up, “I'm gonna go get something to drink. Does anyone want anything?”
Both Oliver and the Captain shake their heads. As Jessica opens the door and before she can walk out, James and Henry step into the doorway.
James says, “Well, can't blow through the door without destroying the stairwell.” He looks over to Jessica and asks, “Do you know if there are blueprints or anything of this place? I have an idea of how to get down there and just want to see what the floor plans are like.”
Jessica nods her head, “Yeah. I think I saw something like that a couple days ago in one of the storage rooms. I don't remember which cabinet though. You mind if I borrow Henry here to come and help me look?”
James looks over at Henry, gives a short smile, and replies, “No, you can take him, just be gentle. He is a sensitive man you know.”
Jessica puts her hand on Henry's back and gives him a little push out of the room, “He sure is.”
James turns to the others and asks, “You guys find anything?” Oliver and the Captain both shake their heads.
Oliver says, “Well, maybe. I found some emails saved in a folder about that bottom floor. Apparently to most of the workers here, it was just an unfinished floor. No one ever saw anyone go in or out of that door. A couple of people from B4 said they could hear loud noises under them from time to time. Whenever anyone asked about it, they were just told it was construction to get the floor up and running.”
James hunches over Oliver's shoulder at the computer. “Well, if no one saw anyone go in or out that door, there must be another way in from the outside. We should be able to escape from there. So that is good news.”
James stands back up and asks the Captain, “Hey, how did you guys send that message out before, and can we set up communications again?”
The Captain answers, “We were able to somewhat rig one of the radio consoles, but it shorted out. That thing is all ate up and I don't know how to fix any of it.”
Oliver gets up, “I can take a look at it. Since there isn’t anything of use in here, I’ll see what I can do.”
The Captain nods his head and starts to walk out of the room. As the two men are walking out, James says, “I'll go check on Jessica and Henry and see where they are at with finding the blueprints. Where do I need to go for that?”
The Captain points down the hall. “Down two floors, take first right, and it's the door on the end.”
James says, “Thank you,” as he follows the men out of the room.
He slowly makes his way down the stairs and towards the records room. As he opens the door, he sees Henry and Jessica on a desk. Henry is laying on top of her with his bare ass in the air, moving up and down.
James steps in the room and says, “I hope you two aren't fucking on the blueprints.”
Henry and Jessica quickly jump up and st
art to pull their pants back up. Jessica buttons her pants. “Shit. I'm so sorry. I-”
“Man, why you have to interrupt us for? You couldn't just wait a little bit outside?”
James smiles. “I could have, but then I wouldn't be able to give you as much shit about it. Now put your dick away and look for the blueprints.”
Jessica tucks her shirt into her waistband. “They are right over there.” She stumbles to a cabinet as she finishes fixing her uniform.
James walks over to a couple large rolled up sheets of paper sitting on top of a file cabinet. He says, “That didn't take long for you two to find, did it? But then again, from the looks of things, long isn’t something you work with. Is it Henry?” James starts to chuckle a little bit.
Henry throws up his middle finger and boastfully says, “Pshh, don't try to deny what you just saw.”
James opens up one of the rolls of paper and sees a floor plan. “This should work. I will let you two finish up here if you want before we start our meeting. We can meet up in the communications room. That's where the others are.”
Henry looks over at Jessica and tilts his head a little bit and gives a shrug of his shoulders. She gives him a piercing glare, turns to James. “No. We can come up with you.”
Henry turns to James and jokingly says, “Oh how I hate you sometimes. Can never have anything nice with your ass around.”
When the team makes it into the communications room on B3, they see Oliver laying on the floor, his head inside the lower end of a communications console. A couple of desks with computers fill the middle of the room. On the right and left side, there is a screen and a couple of large computer consoles. To the front, there is another console with a pair of lights flickering on it. Oliver lets out a loud grunt as he shakes his hand back and forth.
The Captain says, “Shocked again? You really should turn off the electricity to that thing.”
Tinkering under the console, Oliver says, “Well, without a multimeter, it is very difficult to tell where the power stops? There isn't enough power in this thing to kill me right now anyways.”
James puts the rolled up papers on a desk and tells everyone to gather around. He unrolls a couple just enough to see what floor it is, until he finds the one for B4. It shows a layout of a lab at the bottom left, a decontamination room connects it to a locker room just above it. To the right of the locker room is a closet and then a conference room. There is a small room in the top right corner that isn't marked. Across the conference room are the elevators and stairwell leading into a large lobby that takes up most of the floor space.
“We can't get through the door and we sure as hell can't wander around outside looking for some sort of secret entrance. So, I think the best way to get down there is to blow a hole in the floor and jump down.”
James moves his fingers to the center. “In front of the conference room, in the lobby, looks like the best spot. Henry, you will need to double check though since this is kinda your thing. Pretty sure, if we roll a block or two of C4, we should be able to blast a hole right through the floor.”
Captain Hammer asks, “If the door is so thick, wouldn't all of the walls and ceiling be as well?”
James moves his attention to the Captain. “I doubt it. Who would ever expect the ceiling of a basement to ever be breached? No one. I expect it to be as thick as any other floor in this place. At the most, I could see a little bit extra insulation or something, but nothing major. Should be simple enough to break through.”
Henry asks, “When you thinking of doing this? It is getting kind of late so tomorrow could be the best option.”
James rolls the blueprint back up. “I agree. Tonight we can focus on prep and hopefully some way of communication. If Oliver can't get that terminal working, we will have to go a more primitive approach.”
Still under the terminal, Oliver says, “We can always make a fire on the roof. The sats should be able to pick it up. They might think that something went wrong, but I don’t think that really-” Oliver lets out a grunt and shakes his hand again.
James moves back from his chair and walks over to Oliver. “You think you will be able to get this thing working or should we start taking shit up to the roof?”
Oliver taps on something. “I'm not sure. Even with getting shocked so much, it is hard to tell if the right wires are getting power. Without a multimeter and a schematic, I am kinda just shooting in the dark.” He grunts and shakes his hands again.
A light on the control panel lights up. James kicks Oliver and says, “Hey, that last shock must have really done something. We got power up here.”
Oliver slides out from under the terminal and sits up. James extends out a hand, which Oliver grabs, and helps Oliver to his feet.
He presses the newly lit up button, and the terminal turns on. After flipping a couple switches and slowly turning a dial, he grabs the microphone.
“Serra City. This is Oliver Crowley. ID 452078 Can anyone hear me?”
They wait a couple seconds. No sound comes back to them. Oliver turns his head to James and says, “Think you could check the wires connected to the speaker.”
As James wiggles the wires a little, a voice comes from the speaker. “This is Serra City. Mr. Crowley, are you still there?” Everyone in the room jumps up and cheers when they hear the voice.
“Yes, I am still here. I need to talk to Dr. Stone. My authorization code is India, Delta, Delta, Quebec, Delta,” Oliver says.
A man on the other side replies, “Thank you, Mr. Crowley. You will be transferred immediately.” The line falls silent.
Captain Hammer throws a fist in the air to cheer. “I can’t believe you actually did it.”
Oliver turns to him. “It’s no problem. All I did was…” He gets cut off by Inara’s voice.
“Oliver? Holy shit. Are you all ok? We lost visual of you guys this morning. Please tell me you are all ok.”
“We are good Doctor. Everyone made it, and both teams are safe at the moment.”
“Is James there with you?”
James replies, “Yes Inara, I am here. How are you doing?”
“Everything is wonderful. I’m just so glad to hear all of you are safe.”
James bends down and whispers in Oliver’s ear. Oliver quickly puts the microphone on mute.
As James turns to the rest of the team he says, “If you talk, be careful what you say. This line isn’t secure, and something is going on over there that isn’t very kosher for us to be openly talking. We used to say something was wonderful as a code before the revolution when we thought someone was listening in on us.”
James turns back around and taps Oliver on the shoulder. He flips the switch to unmute the microphone.
James says, “We have the ADS system and will be heading back in the morning. Should be back in three or four days, most likely on Tuesday.”
“That is good. Captain Hammer and Sergeant Dunham, thank you for getting the system, and I commend you both on being able to stay safe in the conditions you were in.”
Jessica leans over and whispers to Henry, “I could be wrong, but isn’t today Tuesday?”
Henry shakes his head and whispers back, “Every day is Tuesday when it comes to James. So make sure you always ask for a specific time or date.”
Captain Hammer says, “Thank you Doctor, and thank you for sending in a team to come and get us. The package is still safe and secure. We will be-”
Oliver cuts him off. “We have a few new findings I would like to go over with you Inara. The Skullniks have tech that is in some ways superior to ours.”
Inara, “I was worried you would say something like that. We have intel that they have brought the power grid back up.”
Oliver, “I didn’t know about that. I am talking about how they are able to control the Arctics.”
Inara tries to reply, “Control wha… Hel… Oli…”
The transmission turns to static. James looks at Oliver, who is already turning the dial and fl
ipping switches and says, “Think you can get this thing back up and running?”
Oliver keeps frantically moving switches and knobs on the terminal. “Yeah hopefully, it might take a while since I don’t know how we lost or even got communication. Our signal strength during transmission looked strong and steady.”
James pats him on the back and turns to the table. “Well, at least they know we are here. That is what is important. We can keep trying to get a new connection, but if we don’t, we can debrief when we get back. Guess that means no bonfire tonight guys.”
James sits down at the table and adds, “While you work on that, we need to think of what to do about this building after our escape. We can’t leave it here just in case there are more things here that someone could use.”
Jessica asks, “What are we going to do about all the Arctics outside though? We have a chance of killing hundreds of these things. We should consider taking it.”
Everyone stares blankly as they think before Henry says, “Well if we find a way out. We might be able to blow this place up. If we use one block of C4 on the floor, we will have 3 left for the building. I can find a way to set them, so they cause both a good amount of blast and structural damage.”
Captain Hammer grabs one of the other blueprint pages from the rolls. “I am not sure, but I think that those three silos are for fuel or something. Shit could even be nuke waste. They sure as hell aren't filled with grains or anything like that. If we got those to blow up, it could do some damage.”
Henry quickly says, “Yeah, or they could all be empty, and we just lost some C4. I can't waste a brick on a hunch like that.”
The Captain argues, “We don't need a whole block. Just enough to make a blast into the silo. If it is filled with fuel, they should all blow up anyways. If not, then you lost what, a third of a brick?”
Henry scratches the back of his head. “Fine. We can do that. Getting the C4 over there is going to be the issue. Who has the best throwing arm here?”
Captain Hammer quickly replies, “Oh that would be me. I was the quarterback for our company team back in the old Army. Took first place in our post tournament two years in a row. Just tell me where to toss it, and I will get it there.”