by Nick Thacker
Ben spoke up again. “So your father was possibly working with the man we just met?”
“Possibly.”
“So should we be looking for him?” Mrs. E asked.
Ben shook his head. “No, that’s what I was trying to say. We need to stay the course, I think. Figure out what it is that Mr. E wants us to retrieve, then get out. And if we have a chance to take out this company once and for all, I’d love to give that a shot.”
“You and me both,” Julie said.
“Well, we don’t have time to mess around with both of those goals,” Reggie said. “The Chinese are bearing down on us, and it’s probably only due to those ‘hell drones’ that we’re not being shot at right now.”
“So we need to get to the server room,” Julie said. “Just like before. That’s what I was saying. This guy either has a personal jet and a ticket out of here before it hits the fan, or he’s hiding out somewhere on the station. Doesn’t matter. Our mission is the same it’s always been: we need to find the server room, then find whatever computer can interact with the mainframe, and get what Mr. E wants.”
Hendricks and Kyle were nodding along. “That’s what makes sense to me.” Both men were checking the weapons of the dead guards, and combining the magazines from the weapons that had been taken from them.
Julie smiled.
“Here’s what doesn’t,” Hendricks said, passing out rifles and handguns to the group. “How do we get down there? We’re even higher up than we were in the barracks, and that level’s below us?”
“Right,” Colson said. He had finally decided to stand up again, and he was leaning on the conference room table with one arm outstretched. “About seven levels below us.”
“And there are Chinese troops and security guards fighting for control of all the levels in between us,” Hendricks said.
“Exactly.”
“So tell us how to get down there,” Hendricks said, looking directly at Colson.
“E — excuse me?” Colson said, shuddering.
“You’re the guy who’s worked here. You’ve got the tenure, so tell us the fastest way to get downstairs.”
Ben watched Colson’s expression change from one of satisfaction to dismay. He thought Colson was a true waste of a man, someone completely pigeonholed into one specific skill set that it was almost funny to imagine him doing anything else. Ben had known a few people like Colson — they were hilarious to watch as they fumbled through their poorly chosen jobs, unable to accomplish even the simplest of tasks.
As a park ranger, Ben typically wouldn’t even give them the opportunity to prove themselves. He was more interested in finishing whatever job he needed to do without taking on the burden of training other men who would never be capable enough to stick around. They were good people, but not valuable employees. Ben wasn’t the type of person to care enough about their future success to spend the effort training and teaching them.
As Colson stood in front of them all, the only man able to help them achieve their goal, Ben felt his dismay. He knew Colson was out of his element. He had no leadership skills, no battlefield savvy, or even a semblance of useful knowledge he could use to MacGyver his way out of a sticky situation.
And this, Ben knew, was a sticky situation.
There was an entire army of Chinese soldiers ready to kill anything that moved inside the station, and the much-improved security guard reinforcements were now specifically searching for his group, and the only man able to provide insight and knowledge about their surroundings was a man he wouldn’t trust to change a flat tire.
“Colson, please,” Julie said suddenly. Ben looked to his left to find Julie standing there, a concerned look on her face. “You have to help us.”
Colson’s expression continued to change, like a caricature drawing of the full spectrum of human emotions. His face lit up when she spoke, as if she was the first female who had ever spoke to him, then it dropped with the realization of his uselessness, and finally rested into a dejected, broken hue. “I’m sorry,” he said, nearly whispering. “You know the way. Stairs, or elevator, but both are going to be —“
“I ain’t interested in getting shot at any more than I need to, Colson,” Reggie said. “There’s got to be a way around that doesn’t include the most obvious routes through this base. Stairs, elevator, both are going to be heavily guarded by now.”
“That’s the quickest way to the lower levels —“
“What about the slowest way?” Julie asked.
Colson frowned.
“Seriously, man. Are you really this dense?” Kyle said. For a man that had seemed completely devoid of emotion, Ben was surprised by his sudden outburst.
“Colson, is there any other way downstairs?” Hendricks asked.
Colson paused. “Uh, no. Not inside. There are stairs, and there are —“
“What about outside?”
“Outside?”
“You said, ‘not inside.’ We can get outside again?” Mrs. E asked. “What about the way we came in, through the vents?”
At that moment, Ben noticed two things. First, Colson seemed to completely lose control of his facial expressions, exposing nothing but sheer terror at the thought of traveling outside, through the vents, to get to the lower levels. Second, Ben heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire ricocheting off the walls and into the inner chamber they were now standing in. A line of pockmarks sprinkled the glass Ben was standing in front of, the arc ending at a spot frighteningly close to Ben’s head.
CHAPTER THIRTY-four
“Get away from the walls!” Hendricks shouted, reacting immediately to the sound of the attack. “We need to find a room away from the glass.”
Without waiting for the others, he ran through the glass door at the back of the conference room and toward another open door nearby, alongside the edge of the level. Mrs. E, Kyle, and Joshua began to follow, so Ben grabbed Julie’s hand and headed that direction. He caught sight of Reggie nearby, still wide-eyed after his spree of violence, but Ben didn’t stop to ask if he needed help.
Hendricks turned into the room and disappeared, and Ben watched as the others did the same. He knew the room must be large enough to conceal them all, but he wondered if it was secure. He hadn’t heard gunfire in a few seconds, and assumed it meant the Chinese had removed any threat of attack and were now entering their level. If so, it meant they only had seconds before they were apprehended.
When Ben entered the room just in front of Reggie, he saw that Hendricks had already started on the vent grate in the ceiling. With no time to slowly twist the screws loose with a knife, he had simply jammed the end of the blade into one of the slats and pried until the grate popped open. He spent a few more seconds twisting the grate and tearing it free from its fastening screws, then he tossed the piece of metal into the corner of the room where it fell with a clanging sound.
He paused, then turned back to Colson. “Any idea where this goes?” he asked.
Colson shook his head, but Ben noticed the man stand up straighter, his shoulders back a bit. “Not exactly. I do know that it doesn’t connect to the lower levels though.”
Hendricks frowned but continued working, now pulling a chair from the outer wall of the room and placing it directly beneath the hole in the ceiling. “Kyle, Jefferson, you three get across that hallway out there and make sure no one comes in. E and Red, you do the same from this doorway.” He stopped what he was doing and looked at them. “Got it?”
Everyone nodded, and Ben, Julie, and Colson stayed where they were standing while the others bustled around them and out the door. Ben immediately heard gunfire ricocheting off the walls, the enemy’s bullets once again finding the glass chamber that acted as a barrier in the center of the level. Joshua returned fire while Ryan Kyle ran to a similar-sized room across the hall. The hallway was really just a small open area that led to the glass-enclosed conference room on one end and the exit to the level on the other. The room they were in backed up to the wall o
f the level, evidenced by the usual liquid-filled bubbles that formed the inner membrane of the entire station.
He heard the pinging sound of bullets nailing into the bulletproof glass, and the immediate response from Kyle’s and Joshua’s guns. Ben knew it was only a matter of time — or firepower — until the walls cracked and fell and they were once again vulnerable, caught out in the open. He hoped whatever plan Hendricks and Colson were discussing would get them somewhere safer.
He watched Reggie and Mrs. E standing point in the doorway of the room they were in. Each faced an opposite direction, awaiting an unseen attacker. Neither had fired their weapons yet, conserving ammunition while Kyle and Joshua held off the slow stream of enemy forces. As long as the Chinese and security guard teams sent in one or two men at a time, Ben thought they might have a fighting chance.
“What do you mean ‘it doesn’t connect?’” Hendricks asked.
“Well, the lowest two levels, 8 and 9 — actually, since we know now that there is a Level 10, the lowest three levels — are vented directly to the outside, as they don’t have the same temperature requirements of the rest of the base. 9 and 10 operate better colder, since it saves on the massive power requirements to cool the supercomputers they’re running down there to just use outside air, and the maintenance and storage on 8 doesn’t need much heat either. The station is really like two separate facilities, one for human occupancy and one for computers and storage.”
“And one refrigerated cadaver farm,” Reggie added over his shoulder. Ben watched Julie’s expression, an obvious ‘not helpful’ on her face. Reggie still had his back to the room, standing in the doorway with Mrs. E to continue to watch for threats.
“They’re not cadavers,” Colson said. “At least, I wasn’t dead.”
“Noted,” Hendricks said, trying to redirect everyone’s attention. “So we got lucky finding the vent we did. There isn’t a vent on this level that leads outside, so we’re stuck inside the base.”
Colson grinned. “Well, that’s what I was thinking about. When Mrs. E mentioned going outside, I initially thought it wouldn’t work. Like you said, this vent won’t go outside.”
“But?”
“But it will get us close to the lower levels. As I mentioned, it’s like two distinct stations, one on top of another. And I saw a basic schematic design once, when I was first hired. The ductwork up here is all interconnected, so the air dissipates well throughout the station and has a way to be vented, at least down to my office on the seventh level. Another system — the section you found — will circulate and vent through just the bottom two levels, and also outside, to keep both levels cold enough.”
“But they’re not connected,” Julie said. “So even if we get down to the — what was it? Maintenance and storage level? — We can’t use the elevator or stairs to get down one more level to the server room.”
Colson held up a finger. “But there’s an intake vent on the seventh level. It’s not connected to anything else; it just sucks in air from outside, heats it, and sends it up and into the base. It’s — I think, anyway — the only intake.”
“How do you know it’s for intake?”
“I asked about it once. Level 7 is where my desk is, and the vent goes right by my feet when I’m down there. It’s extremely hot air, and I couldn’t figure out why.”
Hendricks thought for a moment. “Okay, that might work.”
“What might work?” Julie asked.
Ben had to agree with Julie — he was lost. “Yeah, I have to admit I’m not a fan of climbing around in tight spaces,” he said. “I thought it was a one-time thing.”
Hendricks grinned quickly, then grew stoic once again. “We need to get to Level 9 — that’s the server room, and our best shot at grabbing the data Mr. E wants to get his hands on. The only ways down there meant for human travel are going to be blocked, so the only option left is if we climb down the vent system, pop out on Level 7, then go outside via the intake shaft, come back inside one level lower, and we’re in.”
Julie’s mouth dropped. “There’s no possible way that would —“
“It has to work,” Hendricks said.
Hendricks and Ben discussed the plan a bit more. Ben got the feeling Hendricks was just talking it out aloud to be sure he had not forgotten any detail; he wasn’t truly interested in anything Ben had to add to the discussion.
He listened for gunshots but didn’t hear anything. The two enemy forces were likely engaged with each other elsewhere on the station, on some other level, and he was happy for their group to not be the center of attention for a bit. He had been impressed with the performance of everyone he was with so far, with the exception of Colson, but even he seemed to be waking up from his complacency and stepping into the role of tour guide and station expert.
“Let’s get on with it, then,” he heard Hendricks say. “Anything else you can tell us about the intake? Or any of the rest of the vent system?”
“Sorry,” Colson said. “I only got a cursory glance at it, and even then it was a simple mockup sketch.”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s our best bet,” Hendricks said. “Let’s round up everyone else and —“
‘Attention security personnel,’ the computerized woman’s voice began. ‘Please make your way to Level 2 for threat resistance.’
CHAPTER THIRTY-five
Julie looked at Ben, who was staring at the small intercom speaker in the ceiling next to the open vent. The message began to repeat, and she grabbed his arm.
“Whoever found us here must have alerted the rest of the station. We’re the ‘threat,’ right?”
“It’s either us or the Chinese,” he said. “But let’s make sure we’re not around when they get here.” Ben shot a glance at Hendricks. “You ready?”
He nodded, then lifted himself into the ceiling vent. Julie was impressed with the older man’s upper body strength; he made the motion look easy.
Hendricks called down to Ben, and he grabbed Julie’s hand and led her to the chair. He helped her up, her mind flashing back to a similar escape from a hospital room, back when they hardly knew each other. He’d kissed her then, for the first time. She felt the same warmth now as she had in that moment, and after she had been helped up into the vent she looked back down at Ben, hoping to extend the moment as long as possible.
He was already helping Colson up and into the vent, simultaneously yelling for Ryan Kyle and Joshua to join them as the group entered the vent system.
“Come on down here, Juliette,” Hendricks said, pulling her gently toward him. She squeezed by him, noticing that the duct was surprisingly wide and not as claustrophobic as it had been in the first one they’d traveled through earlier that day. She continued crawling, reaching a fork in the ducting path. The metal rectangular passageway split directly in front of her, a path going left and right, as well as one that traveled straight down.
Once again gunfire and shouting erupted from just outside the air duct walls. Julie tensed, half expecting bullets to rip through the thin metal exterior and into her body, but she knew the shots weren’t directed at her. Instead, she heard Kyle’s voice shout up and into the vent, bouncing off each wall as it reached her ears. It was loud, booming even. The volume alone would have startled her, but it was the content of Kyle’s message that sent a chill through her bones.
“They’re in! Get moving down that shaft! Hurry up!”
She frantically weighed her options, knowing that the correct choice was the hardest one. Straight down, she thought. The dim light from the opening behind her that had crept into the duct did not reach down into the depths of the vertical shaft a foot in front of her. It was pitch black, any remnant light completely disappearing after three or four feet down.
And this is the way we need to go, she thought.
“Juliette! What are you waiting for?” Hendricks growled from somewhere behind.
She heard Kyle confirm his presence as he, the last of their party, entered the du
ct, but his words were jumbled and unintelligible, nothing but echoes by the time she heard them.
“It’s okay, Jules,” Ben’s voice said. “I’m right behind you.”
Julie didn’t know when Ben had gotten right behind her, but it did give her a bit of strength to know he was there.
She took a deep breath, as if preparing for a dive, then slid forward, her feet propped against the opposite wall. She knew the proper movement — keep solid pressure on the walls with her back and feet and ‘crab walk’ down the shaft — but it didn’t make it any easier to actually accomplish.
Slowly and deliberately, one excruciatingly slow step at a time, she allowed the weight of her body to pull her downward into the vertical air shaft. Muffled voices from outside the shaft commented to one another on the whereabouts of the group they had only seconds ago been firing at. She wondered how long they had before they discovered the open ceiling vent and their escape route.
Julie took another two slow steps downward.
She thought about what would happen if they found her group, huddled together in the horizontal section of ducting, waiting their turn to descend. How they would be completely unable to defend themselves.
The thought urged her to speed up, and she pulled her foot even farther downward this time, hoping to make up for lost time. She planted it, pushed down and outward with her heel, locking it in place so she could slide her back and hands down next.
Then her right foot slipped out from under her and dangled below her for a second. Her eyes flew open, finding no light to give her any sense of security, and her hands pushed even harder on the side walls. Her left foot tried to compensate, but the increased load was too much a burden.
She felt the terrifying realization of what was to come a split-second before it happened.
Her left foot fell, and her hands tried in vain to support her entire body. She screamed, a truly involuntary reaction to the impending feeling of weightlessness.