It took Simone three attempts before she got the key in the lock but eventually the lift took them down to a small basement area where they were stopped by another heavy stainless steel door protected by a combination lock.
‘He changes his combinations on the first day of every month but he always uses the same series of numbers on all of the locks, so unless this is any different…’ Simone said, feeling for each button before she pushed it. ‘ Voila…’ The door swung aside, revealing the long tunnel to Halliwell’s private laboratories. At the far end of the tunnel, when they opened the second heavy door, Kate gasped as she was confronted with surroundings she was all too familiar with.
‘This is a Level 3 preparation area,’ she said, looking at Halliwell’s blue biosuit with its regulator and boots ready for use.
‘A what, honey?’
‘Never mind,’ Kate said, preparing to leave.
‘Don’t you want to see what’s on the other side of that door?’ Simone asked, pointing unsteadily to the airlock door marked with the international biohazard warning.
‘I’ve seen enough,’ Kate said, locking the door and guiding Simone back up the long tunnel they’d just come from.
Richard Halliwell’s steely grey eyes narrowed as he saw the half-empty whiskey bottle and the open desk drawer. The key to the lift was gone. Halliwell unlocked the other drawer to his desk and took out the Luger pistol he kept there. He slipped it into his pocket and pressed the button for the lift, putting his ear to the doors. The lift mechanism was humming. Whoever was down there had left the key in the lock. Two minutes later he stepped out of the lift and into the tunnel to find Kate and Simone about 200 metres away, walking towards him.
‘Well, well, well, what do we have here?’ Halliwell sneered.
Simone staggered to the side of the tunnel. Kate’s heart sank as she turned and looked back behind her. It was nearly 800 metres to the far door and on the other side was a hot lab. Halliwell’s slow and deliberate steps rang hollow on the concrete floor of the tunnel as his voice echoed off the walls.
‘You’ll be back there soon enough, I can promise you, Dr Braithwaite.’ Ignoring the sight of Simone slumped against the wall of the tunnel, Halliwell felt a surge of power as he got closer to Kate and another idea took shape.
‘Before I inject you with Ebolapox, you bitch, we’ll see what you look like naked and strapped to a trolley,’ he whispered under his breath. He could feel his erection hardening as he took the Luger from his pocket.
CHAPTER 93
C urtis felt the pit of his stomach tighten as the white, unmarked CIA Learjet taxied to a halt beside the black Learjet 60 with the unmistakable gold ‘H’ on the tail fin. Could Halliwell have returned early? he wondered.
Special Agent Rob Bauer, a rugged-looking veteran FBI operative Curtis had known and worked with for over twenty years, was waiting for him with a search warrant for Halliwell Tower and a warrant for Halliwell’s arrest.
‘Halliwell arrived a quarter of an hour ago,’ Rob said, as they climbed into his unmarked car. ‘I’ve got back up from the Atlanta Police Department but I kept them at a distance until I knew how you wanted to play this one.’ Two dark blue patrol cars with the familiar red stripe of the Atlanta Police Department had taken up positions some distance from the entrance to Halliwell Pharmaceuticals. Rob Bauer was well aware the entrance was under continual surveillance. ‘You know better than I do that if we arrest this guy the shit’s going to hit the fan big time,’ Rob said, as he swung out of the VIP arrivals area at the airport.
Curtis nodded. The trust between the two was rock solid. ‘That’s putting it mildly, buddy, but you’re going to have to trust me on this one. Halliwell is not the only high flyer mixed up in criminal activities here, but we need to get there in a hurry, Rob. I’ve a feeling that the life of one of my officers is on the line.’
Rob Bauer put a portable flashing blue light on the roof of the car and switched to the frequency of the two patrol cars. The time for subtlety had long disappeared, both men gambling that the sounds of sirens might make Halliwell think twice.
Deep in the tunnel underneath the Halliwell Tower, neither Dr Halliwell nor the two women he was shepherding towards the hot zone at the far end heard anything other than footsteps echoing eerily off the reinforced cement walls.
Halliwell pointed his Luger menacingly at Kate. ‘You first! Get on the trolley!’ he demanded. Keeping the pistol pointed at Kate’s head, he clipped and tightened the straps around her ankles with one hand, then anchored her wrists.
‘You’re next,’ Halliwell snarled, turning his attention to Simone. Simone fell off the trolley at her first attempt, the stainless steel gurney running into the far wall of the preparation room with a loud clang. Halliwell put the pistol back in his pocket, retrieved the trolley and manhandled Simone onto it. ‘A pity you let your curiosity get the better of you,’ he sneered as he wheeled the trolley into a waiting bay. ‘From the research I’ve done, Ebolapox works even better on humans than it does on the chimps, but we can always do with a healthy specimen like you to confirm it. It’s one of the cornerstones of scientific research.’ Simone’s red hair was in disarray and her green eyes reflected her fear of Halliwell. She had always known Halliwell to be ruthless, but even she had not detected the mind of the monster standing over her. ‘Any hypothesis requires very rigorous testing before it is proven and the tests must be able to be replicated many times,’ he snarled.
Simone fought against the nylon straps holding her down as the effects of the alcohol started to wane. There had been many times when she’d witnessed Halliwell exercise charm to control people, but now he was showing he was equally at home with violence. Simone shuddered. A psychopath, running for the highest office in the United States.
Halliwell left the curtain open. ‘You should watch this,’ he said, as he moved back to the other trolley.
He ran his hand slowly up the inside of Kate’s thigh.
Kate spat at him as he caressed her crotch. ‘You filthy deranged bastard. Get your hands off me.’
‘You’re going to regret that,’ Halliwell said coldly, as he wiped his face and went in search of some tape.
Rob Bauer screeched to a halt at the Halliwell guardhouse. The sirens of the two Atlanta Police Department patrol cars died as they stopped behind.
‘FBI. Open the gate,’ Bauer said, flashing his badge.
The guard hesitated and turned towards his supervisor, who was trying to reach Halliwell on the phone. The supervisor shook his head as Halliwell’s phone rang out. The man’s orders were explicit, no one got in without authority and he would need to hold the police until he could get in touch with the boss. Curtis could see Halliwell’s red McLaren sports car parked in front of the Tower entrance.
‘He’s here and he was in a hurry,’ Curtis said calmly as the senior security guard came over to the window.
‘You can’t-’
For as long as Curtis cared to remember, Special Agent Rob Bauer had shared his own preference for the Ruger. 44 Magnum as his weapon of choice. ‘Open the gate or you’ll spend the next fifteen years of your life in a penitentiary protecting your butt from some very nasty inmates.’