“Everything alright?” Quentin asked.
Nick made an uncomfortable nod as he walked down another step. By now the water was up to his knees, and he hoped his feet would touch the bottom soon. With each step he continued to sink deeper, his glacial pace taking each stride in such a way that he could easily retreat in case his feet felt something unnatural.
By the time he had reached what he felt was the tunnel floor, he was already waist deep in the brackish liquid. Sighing with relief, he began to wade forward, his light beam scanning ahead of him. “I’ve touched bottom.”
Quentin took a deep breath before gingerly following him. He was slightly taller than Nick, and he was relieved to see that the water wouldn’t reach up to his wound. Nevertheless he made his strides both wide and slow, for the last thing he wanted to do was to slip and fall into the opaque muck.
Scott stood beside his mother at the water’s edge, his face full of trepidation. His voice had turned into a soft whimper. “It’ll be up to my chest.”
Cathy placed a reassuring hand on his trembling shoulders. “If you want to stay here, that’s okay.”
The boy shook his head. “No, let’s keep going. My sister’s in trouble, and I need to do my part.”
“Okay,” Cathy said as she placed her left foot into the water. “Take my hand and hold onto it.”
“Yes, Mom.”
Quentin’s left foot slid along something slippery at the bottom, and he nearly toppled over. The tabloid reporter cursed as he managed to extend his left hand and pushed it along the sides of the corridor, preventing his slide.
Cathy and her son were a few steps behind him. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Quentin said as he bent his knee to try and get at something stuck to his foot. Reaching into the water, he felt it was some sort of cloth and he pulled it up to the surface. It was evidently a lab smock of some kind, the type of long white coat scientists would wear. This particular one had been immersed in the noxious water and seemed beyond any sort of redemption.
The name tag just above its front pocket was still intact. Quentin shone his light while wiping away the smudges from it. The silver pin simply read Dr. Reeves.
48
THE END OF THE CORRIDOR led to another steel door, only this time it had been left open. The room beyond was only partially flooded, for there was a raised, dry platform in the middle portion. Along the walls were lockers and inoperative flat-screen monitors. The raised portion had a couch and four easy chairs, as well as desks and computer consoles.
Quentin Everett bit his lip as he shone the flashlight he carried across the room. “If only I still had my camera.”
Nick Dirkse took his smartphone out of his shirt’s front pocket and handed it to him. “It’s yours. Take as many pictures as you want.”
“Thank you,” Quentin said as he switched on the camera app and began taking quick snapshots of the entire room. A part of him regretted not asking for it sooner, but he figured taking additional photographs of Emeric Morgenstern and the upper levels of the mansion could always wait until after they rescued Nick’s daughter.
Cathy stood beside her son on the platform. Their pants were dripping wet, and she dreaded having to get back into the water again because the smell had somehow gotten worse. “They must have constructed this before they put up the house upstairs. The building foundation seems very heavy.”
Nick looked at her and nodded. His wife was the expert when it came to houses. “How big do you think this whole place is?”
She shook her head. “Hard to tell from here.”
Quentin’s searchlight beam revealed a plaque on the nearby wall. The sign read PROJECT PROTEUS. He focused the phone’s camera view and quickly took another snapshot, the flash from the device casting a sudden brilliant instance of light across the room. There were spiral-bound plastic folders on top of one of the desks, and he quickly began to go through them.
Scott made his way back to the watery sides of the room as he waded over to where the lockers were. “Dad, could you shine your light over here?”
Nick held his flashlight towards him so the boy could see what he was doing. “Be careful.”
“I am.”
With her phone nearly out of battery power, Cathy stood beside Quentin while staring out at two other adjoining corridors. “Where do those lead to?”
“Hang on a minute,” Quentin said as he found a printed map of the complex with a plastic covering. Running his fingers along the diagram, he began to try and memorize the ins and outs of the place. “According to this, the corridor to our left leads towards a series of testing and synthesizing labs, while the second one to the right leads to the habitat section.”
Cathy became agitated as soon as she heard the last two words. She cupped her hands and began shouting towards the sunken tunnel to her right. “Kim! It’s me! Are you down there? Kim!”
Nick slid his feet back into the brackish muck and shone the light down the corridor leading to the habitat section. As he attempted to move closer to the edge of the passageway, the water around him quickly became deeper, until it reached up to his lower ribs. “It seems to slope down even lower here.”
“That whole section is underwater, mate,” Quentin said softly.
Cathy placed her hands over her mouth. The thought of her daughter having been drowned filled her with a sudden, unrelenting dread. “No!”
Nick turned around and clambered back up. He placed a hand on Cathy’s elbow, trying to reassure her. “I could see a bit of a light under the water, maybe the other compartment has air.”
Quentin thumbed through the schematics in the notebook. “I think you might be right. The habitat portion is actually the largest area of this whole lab, and according to the map it’s got sections for both water and land.”
Cathy pointed towards the water. “We got to get to her right now!”
Nick rubbed his wife’s upper back to try and calm her down. “We will, Cat. Let’s just think things through and come up with a plan, okay?”
Cathy’s lips trembled as she began to mentally compose herself once more. “Okay.”
Another flashlight stabbed through the darkness, startling the three adults. When Nick and Quentin turned, they saw Scott was holding onto a third flashlight and carried a fourth in his other hand. “Look what I found,” the boy said.
“Good job, Scotty,” Nick said as he helped his son back onto the dry platform. He took the other flashlight and gave it to his wife. “There, now we all have lights.”
Quentin was impressed. “Did you find anything else in those lockers, Scott?”
The boy nodded. “There’s some clothes, and plenty of books and stuff.”
“Good lad,” Quentin said before turning to look at Nick and Cathy. “I would suggest we check out the other corridor, the one leading into the testing laboratories and see if there’s a way we can pump out the water that’s in here.”
“Don’t we need power for that?” Nick asked.
“We do indeed,” Quentin said. “From the looks of things here, there must be a separate power source somewhere. If we can get the lights and all back on, then we’ll be that closer to reaching your daughter.”
“Okay,” Nick said. “Let’s look at what’s in the other tunnel first.”
Quentin led the way, tucking the map under his left arm. The corridor leading into the testing labs seemed less flooded, the water only reaching up to their shins this time. There were a number of open doors leading into small operating rooms, with anesthesia machines, electronic monitors, and surgical tables.