London. They’re shipping the stuff out tonight.”
“That’s why we’re here. And we’ve got about twenty minutes to find it.”
“Why twenty minutes?”
He told her about the bomber circling overhead.
“Is it just the three of you?”
Locke nodded. “The rest of our team is locked out on the surface. We’ve lost communications with them.”
“Then what do we do?”
“After we secure the prions, we have to figure out a way to get into their control room.”
“Maybe a guard would be able to give us a way in,” Dilara said.
“Even if we find one,” Locke said, “these guys aren’t the talkative types. It would take too long to get anything out of them.”
“I know one who might talk.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Because I just pumped him full of truth serum.”
FIFTY-TWO
Sebastian Garrett watched his scientists load the last of the Arkon-C into the dispersion devices. In a few minutes, they would be ready for deployment. The assault had been a great inconvenience, but nothing more than that if he could get these scientists finished.
“Hurry up,” he said into the microphone. “This is taking too long.”
The transfer of the Arkon-C was taking place, as it always did, inside the chamber he’d used only a few days ago to make his point about traitors. All of the Arkon that existed in the world, except the one sample still on Noah’s Ark, was in that chamber. And once the transfer was complete, he would destroy the surplus.
The computer files had already been destroyed. He kept the only remaining copy of the files in a USB drive in his pocket. It held all of the plans for modifying Arkon-A, the raw form on Noah’s Ark, into Arkon-C. He didn’t want to take the one-in-a-million chance that the government would get their hands on the process and engineer some kind of antidote.
The men inside the closed chamber were wearing biohazard suits, just in case containment was compromised during the job. The other labs had already been sterilized with salt water, a process that took longer than using heat, but was just as effective. It was the reason Noah had been able to eventually emerge from the Ark and repopulate the world, the Arkon having been destroyed after it wiped out the animals and flowed into the salty seas.
In the observation room were the three men who would deliver the devices. Each of them assumed they would come back to Oasis once their jobs were complete, but there was a slight risk that they’d be infected during their missions. When they returned, they would get as far as the entranceway and be terminated there by guards waiting in hazmat suits. Garrett regretted losing believers, but it was necessary to ensure the safety of Oasis.
The only other people in the observation room with Garrett were the chamber operator and Svetlana Petrova. Dilara Kenner should have been here by now.
He spoke into his radio.
“Cutter, where is Dilara Kenner? I can’t bargain with somebody I don’t have. He’ll want to hear her voice.”
“She got away, sir,” Cutter said.
Garrett’s hand clenched on the walkie-talkie. “What? How?”
“I don’t know. But we just saw her run into the third level stairwell, right about where Locke should be.”
“So they’re together now?”
“I don’t know. The stairwell camera is out at that level.”
“Well then, what
“None of the hallway cameras has picked them up, which means they’re all in the stairwell, and we’re about to start our attack.”
“Fine, then. I obviously don’t need Dr. Kenner any more. Kill them all.”
Cutter watched the camera on level four. It was still intact and didn’t show any movement, which meant that Locke and the others must still be at the third level landing.
Perfect.
Cutter planned a three-pronged attack. Four men would come up the east stairwell below them and serve as the decoy. Another four men, who must have just missed Kenner running into the stairwell, were stationed halfway down the third level corridor, ready to ambush Locke when he came out the door. They would remain hidden until Cutter signaled that Locke and his companions had entered the range of the third level hallway cameras. Then his men would pop out and mow them down.
Cutter’s confidence in the plan came from the third prong. Once the attack had started below, the last four men, who had used the west stairwell to get up to the first level, would move into the east stairwell from above and close in a pincer movement. If they could sneak up on Locke, they could end it right there, but if not, Locke would be driven right into the ambush in the hallway.
Cutter wanted to be leading the battle himself, especially because he had seen Grant Westfield with them, but he could help the team best by directing the attack from the control room. At least he’d get to watch Westfield die on his monitor.
“Teams check in,” he said.
“Team One ready.” The bottom level team.
“Team Two ready.” The team on level one.
“Team Three ready.” The ambushers in the hallway on level three.
“Teams two and three, wait for my signal. Team One, go.”
Team One burst through the seventh level door and charged up the stairs. By now, Locke and his group would hear the footsteps below and be aiming for them, focusing their attention away from the upper levels. Team One’s directive was to start firing before they got to the third level, both as a distraction and to cover the sound of Team Two coming down from the first level. It might even drive Locke upstairs into the arms of Team Two.
He heard Team One begin firing. He didn’t hear any return fire. Locke must be figuring out what to do. Now was the time.
“Team Two go!”
Cutter saw the Team Two leader in the hallway of level one kick the door open.
The door exploded.
The two men who were right in front of the door were blown to pieces. The other two men, who had been covering them, went down holding their faces. Cutter gritted his teeth. The door had been booby-trapped.
Cutter called for Team One to pull back. Too late.
He heard an explosion before the Team One leader could respond.
“Team One leader is gone!” Cutter heard from another man. “They’re dropping grenades down the stairs!”
Cutter was losing his men fast. “Team One, get out now! Use the closest door! Team Three, hold position and wait for my command.” Maybe Locke would still come out through the third level door, and he could salvage this debacle.
He waited and saw nothing from the third level hallway camera. Thirty seconds passed. Nothing.
“Switch to the level two hallway camera,” he said.
The monitor showed Dilara Kenner behind Locke and another soldier holding Grant Westfield up to the camera. All looked uninjured. Westfield’s face took up almost the whole image. His arms were extended past the camera behind it. Why didn’t he just break it? What was he…
