Kendall frowned and walked out of the room followed by Darren. Julia turned to Wilkins and Mick. 'You guys ready?'
Wilkins held up a walkie-talkie. 'Already grabbed a radio on the way in. Let's go.'
He led them down the cylindrical corridor. Overhead, an extensive array of ductwork funneled heat throughout the station. Julia felt like she was walking down a long series of tubes. Behind her, she heard Mick chuckle.
'I feel like I'm in a habitrail.'
At the next intersection, Wilkins bore right. Julia could see the heavy door ahead that kept the greenhouse warmer and more humid than the rest of the complex. Wilkins punched the open button and they stepped inside.
A wave of sticky heat enveloped them.
'Sauna City,' said Mick.
'Has to be this way,' said Julia. 'The vegetables and plants do best in this kind of weather.'
'What exactly do they grow here?'
Wilkins moved off from them, already poking among the tall stalks of green that sprouted up from the floor. Julia inhaled the scent of produce. She could pick out the rich scent of soil, the delicate fragrance of flowering buds and an almost ethereal quality to the air.
'The greenhouse grows everything from carrots and potatoes to onions, tomatoes, and broccoli.'
'I hate broccoli,' said Mick.
Julia could see Wilkins ahead some ten feet. 'Anything up there?'
Wilkins looked up. 'Not a damned thing.'
'What exactly did you hear last night?' Julia looked at Mick.
He frowned. 'Wish I was more awake. It sounded like it might have been a thud or something. I mean, there was nothing especially exciting about it. If it had sounded unusual, I would have come down.'
'Well, let's see if there's anything here.' She turned right and moved down the narrow walkway. She heard Mick fade off the other direction.
The greenhouse itself was forty feet by forty feet. Julia's direction took her toward the leafy stalks of plants the station used in horticultural research. She didn't recognize the varieties, but knew the station had been attempting to study soil conditions hundreds of feet below the surface. One of the scientists apparently believed the conditions would be extremely fertile. The plants had been flown in to test their ability to grow in soil samples retrieved through deep-boring efforts.
From the look of it, they seemed to be doing well.
Indeed, as Julia stooped lower to check in and among the plants, the stems seemed to loom larger around her, almost closing in and shutting out the sunlight that filtered in through the opaque heavy duty roof.
Julia sighed, hoping she wouldn't find Vikorsky's body down in the dirt and among the plants.
At the same time, she longed to hear the crackle of the radio informing her that Vikorsky had been found — alive and perfectly safe.
But she only heard quiet.
She moved ahead, dropping now to her hands and knees to peer in the tightly woven stems. She could almost imagine the stalks entangling a human body and slowly devouring it like some type of giant Venus flytrap.
But that was silly.
Wasn't it?
'Find anything?'
Julia jumped. Mick. Behind her. She breathed.
He smiled. 'Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you.'
'That's okay.' Julia sighed. 'You just caught me daydreaming is all.'
'Anything good?'
'Nope.'
Mick thumbed over his shoulder. 'There's noting back that way.'
'Where's Wilkins?'
Mick turned. 'I don't know. He oughta be up where we saw him last.'
Julia stood and followed Mick back to the main throughway. 'Wilkins?'
His head appeared among some corn stalks further up. 'Yo.'
Julia relaxed. For a minute she'd almost thought that Wilkins would disappear. That wouldn't have been good. Not at all.
'Find anything?'
Wilkins shook his head. 'Nothing. You guys?'
Mick frowned. 'Nada.'
Wilkins nodded and pointed skyward. 'What about the roof?'
Julia frowned. 'What about it?'
'Those panels up there, they're individually locked into place. What if one of the is loose?'
'You think there might be?'
Wilkins shrugged. 'Never know until we check it out.'
Mick shrugged. 'Do we have a ladder?'
'In the corner when we came in. Oughta be a magnesium ladder. Nice and light.'
Mick got the ladder and opened it up. Julia braced it again the wall. 'How will you be able to check all the panels?'
'There's a gridwork up there I can maneuver around on,' said Mick. He glanced at Wilkins. 'You stay close in case I fall?'
Wilkins grinned. 'I'm touched you want me to catch you.'
'I was thinking you'd break my fall.'
'Get up there.'
It wasn't that far to climb. The roof itself was only twenty feet high with the gridwork underneath it by four feet. Mick reached the gridwork and left the ladder behind, easing onto the gridwork in a sort-of crawl. Julia watched him move around, slowly checking each panel.
From her vantagepoint, she couldn't help but appreciate the outline of his body. There was obviously a lot of muscle underneath his clothing. A quick image flashed through her mind and she cleared her throat quickly, chasing it away. Stay focused, she thought.
Maybe there'd be time for that later.
Mick had covered half of the greenhouse roof when he stopped suddenly.
Wilkins exhaled. 'What's wrong?'
Mick looked down. 'Panel up here. It's open.'
'You mean it's unlocked?'
'Yeah. It's closed but it's unlocked.'
Julia frowned. 'Can you lock it?'
Mick peered at the panel. It must have been tough contorting his body to examine the panel's edging. But he never complained. Julia thought it marked him as a real professional but didn't say anything.
'Lock's gone,' said Mick. 'Looks like it's been torn off.'
'Torn off?'
'I'm coming down,' said Mick. He eased himself back toward the ladder. His feet reappeared first and then the rest of his body followed.
Julia saw a sheen of sweat coating his face. 'Hot up there?'
'Heat rises.' Mick thumbed skyward. 'That's a real funny piece of work up there.'
Wilkins started for the ladder. Mick stopped him. 'Hang on. If we're going back up there, we ought to at least have something we can lock it down with.
Julia looked at him. 'You think Vikorsky might have climbed out of the window? That doesn't make any sense. He could have simply walked out the front door. Besides, even if he did get out on to the roof, he'd have to get down to the ground somehow and that doesn't make any sense at all — '
'Julia.' Mick stopped her.
