‘But there are families,’ said Pan. ‘Kids, pets . . .’
‘Some people brought their families, though we aimed to recruit single people with few ties. But we needed the best, and the best occasionally came with baggage. So we relocated them all. Believe me, the contracts offered were difficult to turn down. The remuneration is . . . significant. Plenty of bonuses. Recruitment wasn’t hard.’
Jen shook her head. ‘And they know what they’re doing? That the virus they’re working with will wipe out the world?’
‘Some do,’ said Dr Morgan. ‘But most don’t. As far as they know, it’s simply a research facility. They do their jobs, they take the money and they don’t ask questions.’
‘What will happen to them when the virus breaks?’ asked Sam.
Dr Morgan shrugged. ‘The ones in the know, they’ve got the antivirus. They’ll survive, like the rest of us. The other workers . . . well.’
‘You’re going to let them die?’
Dr Morgan scowled.
Don’t show that irritation, thought Pan. Jen would be happy to slit your throat and wouldn’t think twice about it. And Pan wasn’t sure she wouldn’t be the one holding his head back.
‘You don’t understand the selection process for potential survivors,’ said Dr Morgan. ‘Massively complicated, involving sociological and psychological profiling that has taken decades to develop. This is not an amateur project. We can’t just let people survive for emotional reasons. It would skew the survivor pool and introduce variables that could have catastrophic consequences.’
Jen pulled out her knife and her face was dark with barely suppressed anger. ‘You talk about catastrophe, you son of a bitch,’ she said. ‘I should kill you right now and do everyone a favour.’
‘Wait, wait,’ said Nate. He knelt in front of Dr Morgan. ‘You say the staff go home at the end of their shifts. So there is a way to get from down here to the village, is that right?’
‘Sure,’ said Morgan. ‘A tunnel that goes under The School. There’s a little train that shuttles the staff back and forth. But you won’t be able to use it, if that’s what you’re thinking. Obviously, the train needs electricity and that’s been cut. And as soon as the alarm sounded the entrance to the village would have been sealed. Heavy steel doors. You’re trapped in here. That’s why I said you should just give up. There’s no way out.’
‘Okay,’ said Pan. ‘A few more questions. How does the antivirus work? Are there vials or something stored in the labs?’
‘No idea,’ said Dr Morgan. ‘Seriously. I’m not that kind of a scientist and that’s not my area of expertise.’
‘Who’s the boss?’ Wei-Lin had strolled behind Dr Morgan’s chair and she leaned forward to his ear. ‘Is it you, Morgan?’ she whispered.
He laughed. ‘Me? Oh, no. I’m a small fish in this particular pond. And you forget: The School is just one of a number around the world. The person in charge here is like an area manager. The ones with real power are out there in the world, going about their business. And waiting.’
‘It’s Professor Goldberg, isn’t it?’ said Pan. ‘He’s the “area manager”.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Dr Morgan. ‘I don’t need to know, and if you don’t need to know, they don’t tell you.’
Nate leaned forward and grabbed the doctor’s arm, twisted it so he could read Dr Morgan’s watch.
‘Just after midnight,’ he said. ‘We should get going. One last question, Doc. Will there be anyone waiting for us in the labs? Some of the military personnel you mentioned earlier?’
‘Again, no idea. That’s an operational matter. But I suspect not. I think they’ll have evacuated the labs and sealed the doors. Then they’ll probably wait for reinforcements. You’re locked in, you can’t escape, so time isn’t pressing.’
‘Reinforcements for us?’ said Jen. ‘We’re flattered.’
Dr Morgan smiled.
‘I can’t imagine they’ll take any chances,’ he said. ‘Why should they at this point, when they’re so close to success?’
The team crept down the dark stairwell, paused at the entrance to the next level and listened. No sound. Jen carefully pushed open the door and looked in. Then she went through, Wei-Lin at her shoulder.
The floor wasn’t so much a laboratory as a series of labs connected by short passageways. In most cases it was possible to see in, as the walls were glass. Every lab was locked, dark and deserted. There were handprint panels on each door, but Dr Morgan’s hand didn’t activate them. Jen tried tapping on the glass walls with her knife.
‘Solid,’ she said. ‘Reinforced. Possibly bulletproof. I don’t think we could break our way in.’
There didn’t seem much point anyway. They could see various items of equipment, but none made sense to their inexpert eyes. There were microscopes and test tubes and computers and large unidentifiable machines. So they moved on to explore the lowest level.
‘Doubly vigilant, guys,’ said Jen as they assembled at the last stairwell. ‘If we’re gonna encounter any opposition, this is where it’ll be. Take it slow. No unnecessary risks.’
As they crept down the darkened stairs, Pan was aware of the sound of her own heartbeat. And something else, almost on the margins of hearing. A distant shushing sound, as if the building had lungs and was breathing slowly and quietly. The ventilation system, she thought. Exhaling air into this mausoleum.
They entered the last level at a short corridor that ended a few metres ahead in a T-junction. Jen held up her hand for quiet. She gestured to Wei-Lin and indicated to the right. Wei-Lin nodded and pressed herself up against the wall, her bow pointing down, but an arrow engaged. Jen positioned herself on the opposite wall and both girls edged towards the junction. At the same moment, they darted their heads out into the unseen corridor and then back again. Nothing. Jen motioned the others to follow.
To the right was a closed door. On the left the corridor opened up into a room, but it was difficult to see it clearly from their distance. Jen nodded again to Wei-Lin and edged up to the door to their right. Wei-Lin planted her feet, drew a deep breath and pulled back her bow just as Jen yanked open the door. It was another small storage room, with shelves of clinical equipment and a rack of lab coats. It was otherwise empty. Jen closed the door and Wei-Lin relaxed. Slightly.
The team crept towards the final room, Wei-Lin taking the lead. Pan was pleased the team was operating so efficiently. Jen was doing a good job as leader, but they all seemed to instinctively know what to do. The School has done one thing for us, she thought. It’s made us tough and resourceful. Pity the price for that gift was so astronomical.
When Pan entered the room she was overcome with deja vu. It appeared so familiar that confusion clouded her thoughts. She had never been here. How could she possibly have been here? And then she remembered. There was a trolley bed in the centre of the room and a machine next to it. The windowless room, the fluorescent lights, now dark, the clinical atmosphere. Seen through the glasses of the man whose mind she had occupied when she was doing that stupid experiment with Dr Morgan. The man who had implanted the microchip in her shoulder. The one implanting memories into Nate as she watched. Pan shuddered. She knew at one point she had lain on that bed while someone manipulated her mind and fed in images of a holocaust that existed only in some computer’s databank. Death in binary code. They’d all been here at some point. Every student in The School.
Pan was consumed by the urge to smash the machine to pieces. But she resisted, though her hands were clenched to the point where she felt pain along her arms and up to her shoulders. Now was not the time, not when silence was paramount.
‘Are you okay, Pan?’ Nate put a hand on her shoulder.
Pan wiped her forehead and her palm came away clammy. She took a deep breath.
‘Fine, Nate,’ she replied, though her voice was shaky. ‘It’s nothing.’
Nonetheless, she stayed where she was while the rest of the team explored. The room was large, an
d at one end there was a row of cubicles with an elaborate system of screens, each barrier marked with a skull and crossbones. Decontamination suits hung in the first cubicle and there were large vaults with long pairs of gloves embedded in the glass. Fumigation units, she thought. A bank of computers ranged along the far wall, and Sanjit approached them warily.
‘I think we’ve reached the pointy end of this operation,’ said Jen, her tone hushed. ‘Any ideas, guys?’
‘Only this,’ said Nate. Everyone turned. He had opened a massive set of doors that took up most of the wall space to the left of where they had come in. But all that lay beyond them was darkness. The group joined Nate and looked into the opening, but even then it was virtually impossible to see anything.
‘The tunnel to the village, I’m guessing,’ said Nate. ‘That right, Doc?’
Dr Morgan nodded.
‘Must be a long tunnel,’ said Karl. ‘It’s a considerable distance from the Infirmary to the village.’
‘Why they need the train, I imagine,’ Nate replied. ‘Speaking of which, where is it?’ He took a few paces into the darkness, but the tunnel was featureless. ‘Okay, so, the alarm went off and the labs were evacuated via the tunnel and then the electricity was cut. If I’m right, we’ll find the train at the other end of this tunnel. Anyone want to join me for a stroll in the pitch dark?’
‘You stay here,’ said Jen. ‘Wei-Lin and I’ll go.’ She held up her knife. ‘Weapons, remember?’
‘Send us a postcard,’ said Nate and grinned.
Jen didn’t respond. She and Wei-Lin glanced once at each other and then stepped into the tunnel. In less than five seconds the blackness had swallowed them. Their footsteps echoed and then faded. Nate turned back to the lab.
‘Okay,’ he said. ‘There’s nowhere else to go and nowhere else to search. I reckon we should take some rest while we can. What you up to there, Sanjit, old buddy?’
Sanjit was the only one who had not joined them at the entrance to the tunnel. He was still peering at the computers, though it seemed he hadn’t yet attempted to turn one on.
‘These are state-of-the-art computers,’ he replied. ‘Never seen anything like them before.’
Karl whistled. ‘Me neither. I wonder what they’re capable of?’
Sanjit ran a hand over the casing of one. ‘Impossible to tell without booting one up.’
‘No electricity.’
‘I think these will have backup power sources,’ said Sanjit. ‘Standard practice for data-protection. Power goes off, data is saved, and backed up to a server.’
‘So try it.’
Sanjit cocked his head to one side, thinking. ‘Not at the moment,’ he said. ‘Maybe later.’
Karl reached out his hand. ‘Well, I’m prepared to give it a go.’
Sanjit grabbed his wrist before he could do anything. His grip, it seemed, was surprisingly strong, because Karl’s eyes widened. ‘Later,’ Sanjit said.
Karl seemed shocked. He met Sanjit’s eyes and obviously read determination there. ‘Okay,’ he said, rubbing his wrist. ‘Whatever you say.’
Sanjit sat on one of the stools and stared at the computers, as if assessing them.
His time is coming, thought Pan. Sanjit could be the key.
Karl joined Sam. They sat on the floor and she rested her head against his chest while he stroked her hair. Everyone looked exhausted.
Pan felt as though she were running on empty. Not the lack of sleep so much as the draining effects of constant adrenaline. She envied Sam. At least Sam had someone to stroke her hair and murmur words of comfort.
Pan sighed and found a place against the wall opposite Sam and Karl. She wanted to lie down but decided against it. The trolley bed was the obvious place, but she couldn’t bear to stretch out on there. It was interesting that the others avoided it also. Stay alert, she reminded herself. Anything can happen, at any time.
Dr Morgan took a stool at the far end of the bench that Sanjit occupied, but the boy paid no attention. Nate strolled over and sank down next to Pan.
‘How’s it goin’?’ he said.
‘I’m amazed we got so far,’ she replied. ‘But I’ve got no idea what to do next. Assuming Dr Morgan is right and the way out to the village is blocked, then it seems we’re stuffed.’ She waved a hand towards the labs.
Nate nodded.
‘So, there’s no way to get the antivirus out of here, even if we knew where it was,’ Pan continued.
‘Don’t give up yet,’ said Nate. ‘You’re right. It’s amazing we’ve come so far. Who knows what happens next?’
Pan was aware of Nate’s proximity; she could smell him and almost feel his body heat.
‘You know that everything I did, Pan,’ said Nate, ‘I did because I had no choice. You know that, don’t you?’
‘I think so.’
‘I would never willingly betray you.’ Nate reached out and touched Pan’s cheek. She flinched.
‘Sorry,’ he said. He locked his fingers together. ‘My feelings for you . . . they are . . . Sorry. But I need you to know I’ll do anything for you. I’d . . .’
‘Nate, I don’t want to discuss this. Not here, not now. If we ever get out of here . . . maybe . . .’ Pan allowed her voice to trail off. Maybe this is the time to talk about it, she thought. Maybe it’s the last chance we’ll ever get. But her mind was too tired and there was danger in allowing anything in that might dull her determination and focus. Another time. Just do your best to create the possibility of another time.
After that, no one spoke. The lab was quiet apart from the almost imperceptible hum of the air ducts. Pan closed her eyes and tried to empty her mind, conserve what little energy she had left. Time passed.
The sound of footsteps coming from the tunnel was so loud that everyone scrambled to their feet at the same time. Voices. No attempt at keeping the conversation muted. Pan watched the yawning gap of blackness and fear rose, a solid lump, in her chest.
Wei-Lin and Jen burst into the relative brightness of the lab. They each had a hand on the shoulders of a young woman in a white coat. The woman’s eyes were wide with fear.
Jen thrust her forward into the empty space. ‘Look what we found,’ she said.
Chapter 17
‘Don’t hurt me,’ said the woman. On closer examination, Pan realised she was little more than a girl, probably only a year or two older than her.
Jen pointed her knife. ‘Sit,’ she said. ‘Keep your hands on the bench at all times.’
The girl obeyed without question. She put the palms of her hands flat on the bench and sat, her back straight, eyes wide and fixed on the team. Jen returned the knife to her waistband.
‘Found the train, found the door,’ she said. ‘One deserted, the other closed. Looks like the doc here was right. No way out. Those doors must weigh a ton.’
She recounted the rest of the story. It was pitch black at the end of the tunnel – it was pitch black all the way along; the emergency lights didn’t extend to the tunnel – and they had to do their exploring purely through touch. It didn’t take long, since the tunnel wasn’t much wider than the girth of the train. The train itself was small, and she and Wei-Lin had felt around the door in front of the train, but could find no way through. They’d even banged against the metal a few times, but the resultant dull thud indicated it was solid and well-sealed.
‘We pushed,’ said Wei-Lin, ‘but it didn’t give a millimetre.’
They’d decided to retrace their steps when Jen heard a scuffle coming from one of the train’s carriages.
‘We found her hiding under one of the bench seats in the third carriage,’ said Jen. ‘She was sleeping when the alarm went off. Ran down the stairs from the second floor, but the train had gone when she got here. So she ran after it, but there was no chance of catching up. Found the train deserted and all her colleagues safely locked away behind steel doors.’ Jen smiled at the girl, but her expression didn’t change. ‘So she decides there’s safety in the da
rk, curls herself up under a seat and waits. Must have crapped herself when she heard us approaching.’
There was a full minute’s silence while the group digested this information. Then Pan approached the girl, whose muscles tensed perceptibly the closer she got.
‘No one’s going to hurt you,’ said Pan. ‘But we need to ask some questions. That’s all we want. Information.’
The girl swallowed hard and nodded, but her back straightened even more.
‘I don’t know much,’ she said.
‘Do you have access to these labs?’ asked Pan.
‘Yes. Well, some of them. Each cubicle has a handpad. I have authority to get into some, but not all.’
Pan nodded.
‘Excellent,’ she said. ‘Do you have clearance to get to where the vials of vaccine are kept?’
The girl’s brow furrowed and she tilted her head to one side.
‘Vials of vaccine?’ she said. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
The arrow passed so close to the girl’s head that her hair swayed in its wake. The arrowhead embedded into the wall, the feathers quivering slightly. For a moment no one understood what had happened, but then Wei-Lin screamed at the girl.
‘You tell us what you know,’ she yelled, her face bulging and dark, ‘or I swear to God, the next arrow will be through your throat. You understand? You get my meaning?’
The girl’s face turned deathly pale and tears spilled down her cheeks. She still didn’t budge a millimetre.
‘Don’t hurt me,’ she whispered. ‘Please don’t hurt me. I’ll tell you what I know. But I have no idea about any vaccine. I swear. It’s the truth. Please believe me.’
Pan put one hand on Wei-Lin’s arm, but her friend shook it off and stormed to the wall, plucked the arrow free. Pan turned back to the girl.
‘I apologise,’ she said. ‘But we’re are all on edge.’ She dragged out a stool and sat opposite the girl. ‘What’s your name?’ she asked.
‘Ruby. My name’s Ruby.’
‘Okay, Ruby. I’m Pandora. Let’s all keep calm and have a chat, okay?’ Ruby nodded. ‘This place,’ Pan continued. ‘What’s your job here?’
Pandora Jones: Reckoning Page 15