Rowan held up her hand, counted down the guy’s timing — thirty step route, ten second pause, repeat — waving them ahead when he stopped at the far end, a few embers drifting down from above.
They crossed the open space in a low crouch, hugging the shadows and salt-stained walls, footfalls hushed against the damp concrete. Buck angled them toward a large forklift parked off to one side, forks raised, diesel fumes lifting off the engine. They paused while the merc made another cycle overhead, moving only once he’d stopped at the end of the catwalk. Lights flickered somewhere down a long hallway off to the left, a faint generator hum breaking the silence.
They traversed the corridor, popping out at a similar open space, large silhouettes looming in the dark. Metal gleamed above them, more catwalks crossing the upper floor. A large, insulated power cable snaked across the concrete, disappearing down another darkened hallway.
Dalton’s voice sounded in their comms. Low. Steady. “Two guards, second-floor platform, eastern end. Stationary. Go on my mark.” Soft breaths whispered over the airwaves, followed by a gruff, “Go.”
Buck stepped out, led them through an array of monolithic rusting machinery, keeping to the shadows, the odd word carrying down from the catwalk. They reached the halfway point when one of the guards coughed, the loud bark stopping them cold before they melted into the darkness, took cover behind some kind of canning apparatus.
The air thickened, the weight of unseen gazes heavy on their shoulders until Dalton signaled the all-clear. Told them to move their asses.
Buck followed the cable down the corridor, Rowan at his side as Bodie guarded their six, constantly checking behind them as they crept along the shadowed passage, a volley of doors lining the left side. They neared the end when Buck grabbed Rowan’s arm, stopped her cold.
He pointed to a small unit embedded on the wall, a nearly invisible beam glowing in a swirl of dust at one end. “IR laser, likely linked to a concussive charge in that discarded bucket. Primitive, but effective. Hold a second.”
The man crouched low, cracked open the casing without disrupting the beam, then started tracing wires, cutting one with a pair of snips he’d brought along in a small tool kit clipped to his vest. He looked back at them over his shoulder. “We’re good, but step over, just in case there’s an auxiliary charge.”
Rowan watched Buck, glanced over at Bodie, eyes wide. Bodie merely smiled. While he could diffuse his share of bombs, Buck took it to a whole other level. Like his tracking abilities. Something uniquely ingrained in him that Bodie swore had been etched into Buck’s DNA. Was simply part of his soul.
Rowan picked up her feet, clearing the beam by a foot as they closed in on the last room, the one with the flickering light brightening the seam along the floor where the cable disappeared beneath the door. A chrome lock glinted in the beam Buck passed across the surface, the sheer weight of the metal door mocking them.
Rowan leaned over, flashed the light into the keyhole. “You got any small screwdrivers in that kit, Buck?”
“A couple.” Buck rummaged through, handed her twin tools. “You think you can pick it?”
She snorted. “Aren’t many I can’t. Now, if it had been a keypad…”
“Then, I could have opened it.” Buck frowned. “I hate this eighties shit.”
Rowan chuckled. “Bodie? You’ve got our six, right?”
Bodie huffed. “Now, you’re just being mean.” He stood guard, cringing when every bump and slip of the tools sounded like gunshots in the oppressive silence. He’d been about to suggest they try another way in — maybe a window or an air vent — when the locked clicked over, the tumbling sound like a mini explosion.
Rowan turned the handle, smiled when the door slivered open. “We’re in.”
Bodie checked their six, again, straining to hear any indication they’d been compromised. “They teach you that in ranger school?”
“Let’s just say my dad was away a lot with work, and I wasn’t exactly a model teenager. Got into some sticky situations and being able to pick a lock saved me from having any kind of juvie record.”
She shoved open the door, squinted against the glare of fluorescent lights, then slipped inside before Bodie closed the door behind them, careful not to let it slam. It took a few moments before his eyes had adjusted enough to study the room without shielding his face, blocking out half the light. Stainless steel tables lined three of the walls, rows of beakers and test tubes organized into various groups. A rack of computers covered the far wall, their hard drives humming softly in the background. But the real discovery filled the center of the room.
Built out of thick glass, several large glowing terrariums rose chest high, each one filled with an ethereal, blue-green fungus, the words Mycena Noctiluca scribbled across a strip of masking tape in the upper left corner. A scattering of empty cages had been stacked beside them, a lingering, musky scent clinging to the surfaces.
Bodie pointed to a small, refrigerated unit positioned under a counter with an adjoining wash station. “Not sure I want to know what’s inside, but…”
Buck grabbed the handle, took a breath, then pulled it open. A bright light blinked on, racks of vials lined neatly inside, locked behind a glass partition.
Buck pointed to the one on the left, a subtle blue tinge coloring the liquid. “It says Neuravive. Must be one of the compounds your dad talked about.”
Rowan nodded as she moved in beside Buck. “Right, but is it the potential cure or the nasty toxin?”
“No idea, but this other one…” Buck waved at the other vile glowing with a deep-red hue. “All it has is the letter L. My bet’s that it’s what the bastards are really after. There’re nearly twice as many red vials as blue.”
“Any chance we can break that glass? Grab a couple samples?”
Buck traced the edges, then studied the lock. “Depends on how much time we have. Glass is thick. Likely bulletproof. And it’s a biometric scanner. Either retinal or maybe even DNA. Thing’s off-the-charts sophisticated. Nothing we’ll crack quickly, and we’d destroy the vials if we tried to use explosives.”
“Had a feeling you’d say something like that.”
