MacLean and Leavey adjusted their position under the tanks to follow his progress as he walked slowly round the echoing gallery, pausing at intervals to look over the rail like an animal sniffing the air. He made a complete circuit of the gallery and disappeared through a door, which banged behind him; the noise reverberated round the cavern.
Leavey let out his breath and said, ‘I guess that was Hartmut, Von Jonek’s little helper.’
The two men started to make their way back to the steps leading up to the gallery. MacLean paused when he got to the foot of them and looked back.
Leavey read his mind and said, ‘What do you want to do about this place?’
‘I don’t know,’ he confessed sadly. ‘I simply don’t know. When I think about the people these thugs killed in order to… do what? Create designer children? Jesus!’
‘We could alter the thermostats,’ said Leavey.
The tanks were fitted with thermostats maintaining human body temperature. MacLean looked at Leavey as if inviting him to share the moral dilemma.
Leavey pointed to a water supply valve. ‘Maybe a flood?’ he suggested. ‘When the water reaches the electrics, the system will short out.’
MacLean sought resolve for a moment in remembering Jutte and thinking about Carrie. ‘Open it up,’ he said.
Leavey failed to budge the wheel and looked around for something to provide added leverage. He found a spanner and inserted the narrow end through the spokes of the wheel, putting his weight against it, straining until the veins on his forehead stood out. The wheel suddenly gave, sending the spanner spinning to the floor and Leavey sprawling as a torrent of water erupted from the outlet to knock him over and soak him.
‘Let’s get out of here!’ said MacLean helping Leavey up.
They had barely made it back to the foot of the steps when a door opened above them and Hartmut re- appeared on the gallery. There was a moment when the three men stared at each other then Hartmut withdrew a thin silver whistle from his pocket and put it to his lips. There was no sound that Leavey or MacLean could hear but two massive Dobermans came bounding along the gallery to sit snarling at Hartmut’s heels.
Hartmut raised his arm to point at MacLean and Leavey. He let out a cry and the dogs bounded into action. Leavey traced the path of the first dog with the barrel of his gun as it coped with the difficult steps and squeezed the trigger. There was a quiet click and nothing else. ‘The bloody water!’ he exclaimed.
MacLean kept his gun on the second animal, waiting for a sure body hit when suddenly it veered from the steps and leapt over the rail at him. He tried to get out of the way of the animal but the proximity of one of the tanks stopped him. The animal hit him squarely in the chest sending him and the tank behind him crashing to the floor in a shower of broken glass and warm fluid. Somewhere in the process, the gun fell from his grasp.
His hands fought desperately for something to grip on the mound of writhing muscle that was intent on tearing his throat out and he managed to get his fingers under the studded collar. He could now keep it at arm length but knew that he could not sustain the enormous effort it required for much longer. As the animal lunged again at his face he used it’s own weight against it and slid out to one side. At least he was out from underneath the beast but the stalemate persisted and he was tiring fast.
MacLean went for one last gamble. There were several shards of broken glass around him. He removed one of his hands from the dog’s collar to snatch it up and sweep it across the animal’s throat. A fountain of warm, sticky blood rewarded his efforts.
There was no time to relax; the sounds of snarling said that Leavey was still locked in combat with the other animal. He pulled his legs clear of the limp, heavy carcass lying on them and crawled towards the sound. Leavey was still fighting but the blood on his face and arms said it was an uneven contest.
MacLean saw the spanner that Leavey had used to open the water valve and picked it up. He came up behind the dog and raised it in the air but at the last moment the beast caught sight of him and turned on its haunches to spring at him. He raised his foot to fend it off but it sank its teeth into the calf of his right leg and brought him to the floor, which was now awash with swirling water from the open valve.
MacLean was fast approaching complete exhaustion. As he fell over on to his back he caught a glimpse of Hartmut leaning over the rail above them. He was watching the contest impassively but with total concentration, like a cat watching a bird that was about to become its prey. MacLean raised his hands weakly to fend off the animal that was coming for him when Leavey, who had now got to his feet, had more success with the spanner. He brought it crashing down on the Doberman’s skull and there was silence.
‘He’s going to raise the alarm!’ warned MacLean as he saw Hartmut move off along the gallery. Leavey stood up straight and threw the spanner at the spindly figure above. It hit Hartmut on the side of his right knee and brought him down. Leavey was already half way up the metal steps before Hartmut had started to recover. He had just managed to get upright, using the rail when Leavey caught up with him. He made an attempt to defend himself but was no match for Leavey who, even in his exhausted state, took him out with two blows.
Leavey returned to the floor of the cavern and retrieved their guns before they were lost in the tide of rising water. MacLean, sitting on the steps, applied a makeshift tourniquet to his leg and was relieved to find that he could still walk, albeit painfully. Leavey finished drying out the guns and rested a hand on his shoulder. ‘How are we doing?’ he asked.
‘Just fine, Nick,’ murmured MacLean through his teeth and returned the gesture.
NINETEEN
The men made their way back up to the gallery and along to the door that Hartmut had used because it was nearest. They hoped to find an exit route but were disappointed. The door led to a series of small chambers in the rock, which had obviously been living quarters for Hartmut and the dogs. They were about to leave when Leavey said quietly, ‘Sean, a moment.’
MacLean knew from the tone of his voice that something was badly wrong. He went back to see what he had found. Willie MacFarlane’s body was lying in a small dark cleft in the rock. He had been shot through the head. Leavey knelt down beside the body to close his friend’s eyes and MacLean shut his own for a moment in silent grief.
‘Let’s go,’ said Leavey.
They had to go right round the gallery to reach the door they had used earlier, the one leading to the lab. They took a last look at the floor of the cavern where the water level had now reached the first of the electrics and saw that sparks and smoke were coming from one of the control panels. An alarm suddenly went off and the cavern a filled with the urgent whooping of a siren. Outside they could hear the sound of running feet in the tunnel. They were trapped.
MacLean pointed to the bench and both men squeezed themselves underneath it with no time to spare as the door burst open and five men passed through the room on their way to the cavern. From his knee-level view MacLean could see that three of them were guards and the other two were wearing white lab coats. Leavey saw their best chance and flung himself across the room to slam the metal door shut, trapping the five men in the cavern. As he secured the door, an older man, also wearing a white coat and accompanied by a further guard came into the lab behind him. The guard raised his gun.
He did not see MacLean who fired from below the bench and hit him in the chest, throwing him backwards against the wall. MacLean struggled out, painfully nursing his wounded leg. Leavey now held the older man at gunpoint.
‘MacLean!’ he exclaimed. ‘You!’
‘It’s been a while,’ said MacLean.
‘Don’t you realise what you’ve done?’ snarled Von Jonek.
‘I think so,’ replied MacLean. ‘But you can fill us in on the details if you like.’
Von Jonek, prompted by Leavey holding a gun to his cheek, outlined a list of what he clearly saw as his considerable achievements. He only confirmed what MacLean had worked out for himself.
‘What happens to the children, Von Jonek?
‘The seeds of a new order have been sown. Ther’e nothing you can do.’
