Rather, it stopped about seven feet short of it, replaced by thick glass. Through that glass, Schofield saw a series of crisscrossing catwalks suspended above whatever was on the other side of the floor.
But it was the cube in front of him that held his immediate attention.
It was about the size of a large living room. Such a conclusion was easy to come to, given that the glass cube was filled with regular household furniture — a couch, a table, chairs, a TV with PlayStation 2 and, most strangely of all, a single bed draped with a Jar Jar Binks doona cover.
Some toys lay strewn about the glass-enclosed living room. Matchbox cars. A bright yellow Episode I spaceship. Some picture books.
Schofield shook his head.
It looked like the bedroom of a little boy.
It was at that precise moment that the occupant of the glass cube ambled casually out from a discreetly curtained off corner of the cube — the toilet.
Schofield's jaw dropped.
'What on earth is going on here?' he breathed.
There was a set of stairs on the northern side of the elevated lab leading down to the cube.
When he reached the base of the stairs, Schofield walked alongside the dividing wall that sealed this section off from the eastern side of the floor. Gant walked with him. Mother and Brainiac stayed up in the observation lab.
Schofield and Gant came to a halt before the giant freestanding cube, gazed into it.
The occupant of the glass cube saw them coming, and casually walked over to the edge of the completely sealed structure.
The occupant arrived at the clear glass barrier in front of Schofield, cocked his head to one side.
'Hey, mister,' the little boy said.
'…Sir, I have complete visual blackout in the labs on Level 4. They've started shooting the surveillance cameras…'
'I'm surprised it took them this long,' Caesar Russell said. 'Where is the President?'
'Level 5, moving up the ramp to Level 4.'
'And our people?'
'Alpha Unit is in position, waiting in the decompression area on Level 4. Delta Unit has been stopped in the animal containment area on Level 5.'
Caesar smiled.
Although Delta was momentarily halted, the theory behind its movements was sound. Delta was forcing the President up through the complex — to where Alpha was waiting…
'Tell Delta to get through that doorway and push up the ramp, and cut off the President's retreat.'
He couldn't have been more than six years old.
And with a bowl-shaped shock of brown hair that came down to his eyes, Disneyland T-shirt and Converse sneakers, he looked like any of a million American kids.
Only this kid lived inside a glass cube, in the belly of a top-secret United States Air Force base.
'Hey there,' Schofield said warily.
'Why are you frightened?' the boy asked suddenly.
'Frightened?'
'Yes, you're frightened. What are you scared of?'
'How do you know I'm frightened?'
'I just know,' the boy said cryptically. He spoke with such a serene, even voice that Schofield felt like he was in some kind of dream. 'What's your name?' the boy asked.
'Shane. But most people call me Scarecrow.'
'Scarecrow? That's a funny name.'
'What about you?' Schofield said. 'What's your name?'
'Kevin.'
'And your last name?'
'What's a last name?' the boy asked.
Schofield paused.
'Where are you from, Kevin?'
The boy shrugged. 'Here, I guess. I've never been anywhere else. Hey, do you want to know something?'
'Sure.'
'Did you know that Twinkies give kids half their daily glucose requirement as well as giving them a tasty snack?'
'Uh, no, I didn't know that,' Schofield said.
'And that reptiles are so sensitive to variations in the earth's magnetic field that some scientists say they can predict earthquakes? Oh, and nobody knows news like NBC,' the boy said earnestly.
'Is that so?' Schofield exchanged a glance with Gant.
Just then, a loud mechanical noise echoed out from the other side of the dividing wall.
Schofield and Gant spun, and through the glass section at the top of the wall, saw the lights on the other side of Level 4 suddenly and unexpectedly go out.
The president of the United States moved cautiously up the ramp that linked Level 5 to Level 4, surrounded by three Secret Service agents, four United States Marines and a lone bookish scientist.
At the top of the ramp was a large retractable grille — kind of like a garage door mounted horizontally.
Juliet Janson hit a switch on the wall and the horizontal door began to slide open, revealing ominous darkness above it.
'Ramp door is opening…' One of the Tenth Squadron commandos inside the Level 4 decompression area whispered into his radio mike.
The other nine members of Alpha Unit were arrayed around the eastern section of the floor in various hiding places — their guns focused on the ramp in the center of the room. With their half gas masks and night-vision goggles they looked like a gang of insects waiting for the kill.
The horizontal door slid slowly open, casting a wide beam of light up into the darkened room. The only other light in the area came through the section of glass at the top of the wall which divided this level in two.
'Stay out of sight until they're all up on level ground,' Kurt Logan said from his position. 'No one gets out alive.'
The two secret service agents Curtis and Ramondo stepped up into the semi-darkness first, armed with their Uzis. They were followed by Calvin Reeves and Elvis.
The President came next, with Juliet Janson by his side. He held a small SIG-Sauer P-228 pistol awkwardly in his hand. Juliet had given it to him, just in case.
Behind them came the scientist, Herbert Franklin, and bringing up the rear, Book II and Love Machine, both armed with pump-action shotguns.
As soon as he stepped up into the semidarkness, Book II didn't like it.
Various structures loomed around them. To his immediate right, on the southern side of the enormous room, was a long hexagonal chamber. To his left, shrouded in deep shadow, he saw eight telephone-booth-sized chambers. In the hazy light filtering through from the other side of the floor, he could just make out a series of catwalks high up near the ceiling, twenty feet above the floor.
As soon as Book II stepped clear of the floor-level doorway, its horizontal door slid smoothly back into place near his feet, sealing the exit.
Calvin had hit a switch in the floor nearby, closing it.
