‘I’m just going by what Colonel Kern told me, sir.’
Eddie cautiously raised his hands. ‘Hey, ah don’ know wart the prahblem hee-ah is, but there’s ahhbviously been some mistarke.’
Ogleby boggled. ‘Where exactly are you supposed to be from, captain? Australia?’
The airman stepped into the cubicle. ‘I’ve got orders to take you both into custody. Miss, drop that box.’
‘No, don’t drop it!’ Ogleby snapped. He glared at the guard. ‘The contents are fragile, you idiot! Dr Wilde, put it down very carefully.’
‘Like
He reacted instinctively, pulling the trigger—
There was a loud clanging impact and a crack of glass. The flying box jolted, but carried on along its arc to hit the man’s gun hand. Before he could bring his weapon back up, Eddie lunged at him and drove a crunching punch into his face. The airman fell, a heel to his groin making sure he wouldn’t be getting up for a while.
Eddie shot a look of mixed anger and relief at his wife as he took the gun. ‘That was a fucking stupid thing to do.’
‘Jesus!’ Nina gasped. The back of the box had a prominent convex dent where the bullet’s force had been just barely absorbed by the metal and glass of the folder. ‘He tried to shoot me!’
‘What did you expect? That sign said deadly force was authorised.’
‘Yeah, but it didn’t say it was
Ogleby stumbled backwards, hands up in fear. ‘Don’t kill me, don’t kill me!’
Eddie followed him, the gun raised. ‘Just tell us how we get out of here.’
Before he could reply, honking klaxons sounded in the hangar outside. Red lights started flashing. ‘You don’t,’ said Ogleby, a spark of defiance returning. ‘That’s a lockdown alarm.’
The Englishman shoved him hard against a cubicle wall. ‘How many men in the base?’
‘About forty,’ he gulped. ‘They’ll be on their way down here already — if you want to stay alive, you should surrender while you have the chance.’
‘I don’t think we’ll be given the option,’ Nina said grimly. She went to the door and looked out towards the great vertical shaft. The elevator on which they had descended was no longer there, Kern having ridden it back to the surface — but as she watched another platform in the opposite corner came into view, bearing a group of uniformed men carrying rifles. ‘Shit! Eddie, they’re here already!’
Eddie’s glance into the hangar warned him that shooting their way out was not an option — nine M4 assault rifles against a single Beretta M9 pistol was a fight that would only end one way. Instead, he pulled Nina back into the cubicle. ‘Come on!’
‘Where?’ she demanded, confused. ‘There’s no way out!’
‘Yes, there is.’ He dived on to the exit chute of the automated delivery system, the metal rollers squealing as he juddered down the incline. ‘Let’s roll!’
He hit the flap with a bang and disappeared through it. She looked back through the door. The elevator was almost at the bottom of the shaft, the men preparing to leap out.
Nina threw herself on to the rollers.
She crashed through the flap — and immediately found herself in peril as a mechanical arm swung at her head. She yelped and twisted aside, a metal claw sweeping through her hair. The chute led to an oversized hopper where boxes being returned to the stacks were sorted… and the system apparently didn’t like unexpected objects.
The flickering laser beam of a barcode scanner flashed in her face, momentarily dazzling her. A section of the hopper’s side popped out like a pinball flipper and thumped painfully against her, forcing her towards what was presumably the destination for rejected items.
The rollers gave way to smooth metal. Nina slid helplessly down it — seeing machinery like a giant mangle descending to squash her at the bottom—
Hands grabbed her just before she reached it, dragging her to a stop. ‘Got you!’ Eddie grunted as he pulled her over the chute’s side. The giant rollers thumped together, then retracted, denied their meal.
‘God!’ she gasped. ‘What is this, Satan’s amusement park?’
‘Kern did say he was right below us. This way.’ He ducked under another chute, heading towards the stacks. ‘And watch what you step on. I think the tracks are electrified.’
‘As if we didn’t have enough to worry about.’ Eddie hopped over the track; she waited for a shuttle to clatter past before following. ‘Where are we going? We’re heading away from the elevators.’
Staying clear of the rails, they hurried down an aisle. ‘Have to see if we can find those emergency stairs Kern mentioned,’ said Eddie.
‘That’s a hell of a climb!’
‘You want to stay here reading ancient documents for the rest of your life? Wait, don’t answer that. But if we can get off this floor, we’ve got a chance.’
‘We still have to get back to the surface — and even then, there’s only one door that goes outside.’
‘Yeah, but it’s a pretty big door!’
Shouts came from behind them: the troops were spreading out in pursuit. Eddie looked back, alarmed. ‘Christ, we’ll be sitting ducks if they shoot at us down this aisle.’
Nina had drawn ahead, passing an intersection. ‘If we turn at the next — whoa!’ One of the towering shuttles rounded the corner directly behind her — and kept going, forcing her onwards. It was carrying a large container, not leaving enough room for her to squeeze past. ‘Eddie, I can’t get back to you!’
‘Go on ahead!’ he shouted. ‘Go left, I’ll catch up!’
Nina ran ahead of the advancing machine. Eddie doubled back to the intersection, cutting across to the next aisle. He looked along it. The next junction was about eighty feet away; he could catch up with her there—
‘Here! Over here!’
The yell was from behind him, one of the airmen at the start of the aisle.
Bringing up his rifle—
Eddie flattened himself against the end of the towering stack as bullets seared past. Even as the echoes of the gunshots faded he ran again, cutting across the endless rows of shelves. He had to draw the troops away from Nina, then find a way to double back past them.
Ranks of stacks flashed past. He kept his pace and footfalls as precise as those of a hurdler — if he tripped on the tracks, he would be an easy target.
Another aisle ahead — and a shuttle bearing several boxes rolled into view. If it turned towards him, he would be trapped—
It carried on past the intersection, heading for the cabins. Eddie swung round the corner and into the new aisle, running away from the retreating machine. It would give him temporary cover from the pursuing airmen, maybe even cause them to lose track of him.
More shouting, this time over a loudspeaker. ‘Don’t shoot, don’t shoot!’ Ogleby’s amplified voice boomed. ‘You’ll hit the files! Catch them and take them outside — and
That restriction would help — if the guards took orders from a civilian. Not willing to gamble his life on that, Eddie kept running. If Nina had taken the route he’d suggested, she would be eight or nine aisles back to his right. But now that shots had been fired, she might have followed a different path.
He reached the next junction and ducked into the cover of the cross-aisle, stopping to look across the cavernous hall. No sign of Nina. Damn! Had she carried straight on, or gone into another aisle?
He glanced back round the corner. The shuttle had switched tracks to deliver its cargo to a collection point, leaving the way free for some of the airmen to run towards him. The others would be charging up the neighbouring aisles to cut off their prey. Eddie took a deep breath and ran again, heading — he hoped — back towards Nina. He glimpsed two men as he crossed an aisle and a single shot cracked past behind him, plunking into one of the metal storage boxes, but he was already clear.
‘I said
The next aisle had nobody in it, nor the one beyond that. Eddie turned up it and raced deeper into the hangar. If he could reach the next intersection before any of his pursuers saw him…
Sparks lit the aisle as another shuttle rounded the corner ahead, coming in his direction — then stopped, its
