“How?” was the only word she could say. Anything more than that and a dam would have burst, unleashing a torrent of four-letter words.
“One of them must have hacked the security system and reprogrammed his badge. That’s the only explanation.”
“Well, UN-reprogram it!” Maldek said.
“I’m sorry, Colonel, I can’t. I don’t have that level of access. You’ll have to go through security administration for a change like that,” the young Airman said.
Maldek didn’t want to have to play by the rules. She knew that such a request would tip off the higher-ups that there was a breach of security. The brass from DC would swoop in like vultures to pick her apart. Men that had always raised an eyebrow at the idea of a woman being in charge of the Government’s most secret and important installation would pour in on a line of aircraft, one after another, chest puffed out, dicks semi-erect from the vindication coursing through their veins. No, for every single woman soldier in the United States military, she had to put this down firmly, quietly and off the record.
“That’s not necessary. Can you do me a favor and tell me where I last swiped my badge?” she said.
“Colonel, you just accessed a room on the mid-level of the dormitory facility. Dorm 81-B. Habitant is MM-4162”
“Thank you, Airman,” she said. The she turned to the four MPs that she pulled onto her detail. “You four, come with me, we need to stop by my office on the way to the dorms.”
While the four guards waited outside her office door, Maldek accessed the database files on dorm 81-B. What the hell are you up to Witter? she thought. When she reviewed the file on the dorm’s occupant, Meat Mother 4162, aka Lisa Rodriguez, formerly known as Hannah Witter, she nearly lost control of her bowels.
When the dorm door slid open, Ben had a hard time wrapping his brain around what he saw. In Ben’s mind, Hannah was still a child, but the beautiful grown woman sleeping on the twin bed against the far wall bore only a slight resemblance to the little girl he remembered.
“Hannah!?” he blurted.
Her drowsy eyes opened and blinked the sleep away. “Bonk-Bonk?”
“Yes! It’s me Bonk-Bonk!” His arms locked around her in a vise-grip embrace and tears tumbled down his cheeks.
“Bonk-bonk, I knew you’d find me. What took you so long?” Her voice quivered with the wonderment of a child walking into Disney World.
“I don’t know. I’m so sorry. I tried.” He pushed the words out past the sobs he was holding back.
“It’s ok,” she whispered in his ear and a tear rolled down her cheek as well.
DeShaun interrupted the reunion. “Ben, we gotta hurry up and find a way out of here. It’s not gonna take Maldek long—”
On cue, Maldek’s voice fell like acid rain from an overhead speaker. “Lisa… Hannah, this is Doctor Maldek. You are not to leave your dorm. Doctor’s orders. Stay right there until I get there.
“Ben, I know why you’re really here. I need you to wait there for me, and we will sort this out. We had no idea Hannah had family. Let’s talk about this, and I’m sure it will be no problem to discharge Hannah and send her home with you.”
Ben’s eyes, wide with adrenaline, searched DeShaun’s face for guidance. Deshaun spoke to Maldek:
“Colonel, this is Airman DeShaun Downsen. I have the situation under control. We will wait here for you. Mr. Witter is good now that he’s found his sister.”
“Thank you Airman. I’m on my way. Leaving my office now.”
Ben looked at DeShaun, unsure if the Airman has just sold him down the river or if Maldek really would honor her promise to let Hannah go. The answer was neither.
DeShaun held his index finger to his lips to shush Ben and Hannah, then he pointed to the overhead speaker. Then his eyes widened and he silently mouthed a single word:
“RUN!”
“Thank you Airman. I’m on my way. Leaving my office now.” Maldek punched the elevator call button as she spoke into the little microphone wire that extended from the telecom earbud in her right ear. As soon as she finished talking she tapped the earbud twice with her finger, muting her microphone.
“Lock and load,” she said to her MP team. “This is a clear and present danger to national security, and I am giving you the command to shoot to kill, on sight. Do you understand?”
The four MPs bobbed their heads in a unison nod, and racked a live round into the chamber of their suppressed nine millimeter pistols. The elevator opened onto the second level of the dormitory, and Maldek and her team double-timed it to Hannah’s cell. The MPs lined up with their pistols aimed at the door as Maldek gave them a nod of assent and swiped her badge on the control panel. When the door whisked open, the air was filled with the slams of the pistol slides and the sharp odor of burnt gunpowder as the MPs emptied their firearms. Smoking ammo brass leapt from the handguns and bounced off the waxed tiles with the tinkling of a thousand wind chimes.
When the MPs lowered their emptied sidearms, Maldek stepped inside the cell and peered through the firing-squad-fog, looking for the bodies of the troublemakers. She cursed the bullet-riddled furnishings in the otherwise empty room and stormed out, splitting the MPs like bowling pins. Her eyes scanned the perimeter walkway of the dormitory level, and she saw a black man in a lab coat exiting the dorms through the large double-doors on the far side.
“What’s going on, Bonk-Bonk?” Hannah said. “Something bad, right?”
“Doctor Maldek is mad at me,” Ben said.
“And me, too,” DeShaun said.
“Yes, him, too,” Ben said.
“But not me too?” Hannah asked.
Ben stopped and put his hands on Hannah’s shoulders. “Of course not. You haven’t done anything wrong. Doctor Maldek isn’t mad at you.” He smiled at Hannah and when she smiled and looked at her feet Ben cut a worried glance at DeShaun who was running his hands over the buzzed stubble on his head.
“Let’s move,” Ben said.
“Follow me,” DeShaun said, taking the lead. “I think she saw me. She will be on us in no time if we don’t find a way out of here, quick.”
As they followed DeShaun through the hallways, Ben asked Hannah about her time at the Ranch, eventually asking her if she had a child. He had no idea where the child would be found, and he knew that trying to find him or her would likely lead to all of their deaths. His knees nearly buckled when Hannah said she had been pregnant eight times, each time delivering multiple babies. He steadied himself against the wall.
“Wuh — where are the kids?” Ben stammered as his heart slid down his ribs and landed in his gut.
“I don’t know,” Hannah said. “Doctor Maldek says they go to live with people that can’t have kids. She says I’m like an angel, helping people have babies to love.”
Ben pictured his infantile nieces and nephews on stainless steel tables, being dissected under Maldek’s blade. Ben tasted the lubrication that precedes vomit, but fought back against his body’s natural reaction. “Oh, wow, Hannah. That’s just… amazing. I am so proud of you.”
“C’mon kids, we gotta make tracks,” DeShaun said. He took Hannah by the elbow and led her away while Ben unleashed a primal scream into the inside bend of his right arm.
At the end of the hallway, the three fugitives came to another set of automatic double doors.
“Where are we at?” Ben asked.
“Not sure,” DeShaun said and swiped his card.
When the doors swung open and they stepped inside, Ben and DeShaun thought they had stepped through the gates of Hell. For as far as he could see, row after row of skinless, pink carcasses hung on eighteen-inch steel hooks that swung from a serpentine mechanized track on the ceiling. The carcasses were gutted and headless. All four limbs remained attached, but the extremities had been lopped off. However, there was no mistaking the anatomical form of the human body.