“How many shooters are there?” Zane asked, waving the smoke out of his face and coughing.
“I counted ten security personnel in this room before the explosion,” Carmen shouted over the sound of gunfire. “I think the explosion probably took out half of them, maybe more.”
“How did the bot create—”
“A self-destruct program.” Carmen stood up and fired another shot toward the window. “She grabbed the one who was running the collider and dragged him over to the window.”
“Which means she—”
“Yes. Gone. Destroyed. Unfortunately, I don’t know what happened to Mironov and Marrese. I haven’t seen them since the blast either.”
“What about that second blast? I’m thinking it must have something to do with the collider.”
“One of the collision points is underneath these buildings, so that would make sense.”
Zane lifted his hand to his face and spoke into the microphone on his cuff, calling up Brett. When Delphi’s Chief Technology Specialist responded, the operative brought him up to date on all that had transpired. Zane stood up and tried to look over into the cubicle. A shot rang out, so he dropped down again.
While on his knees, he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. Despite the haze, he saw two figures crossing through the smoke in a crouched position. It seemed as though they were trying to make it to the entrance undetected. Flapping behind one of the men was a cape. Marrese. But who was with him? VanGelder? Was Marrese taking the Dutch physicist off to some new location to continue the madness?
“Skinner,” Zane hissed in a low voice. “I need you guys to cover me. A couple of tangos left the room.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Negative,” Zane said. “I need you to stay here with Connor and Carmen and clean up. Now can you cover me?”
“Absolutely.”
“I just need a few quick blasts… five or ten seconds' worth is all I’ll need.”
“Roger that. Let me know when to start.”
Zane signaled that they should start now.
Seconds later, as the shots rang out, he jumped up and ran toward the doors. Someone fired at him from the direction of the window. Stopping to return fire would be pointless in a smoke-filled environment, so Zane sprinted out of the room.
As he exited into the lobby, Zane pulled out the pistol that was tucked into the back of his pants and crossed over to the double doors they had come through earlier. Cracking one of them open, he peeked through to make sure there wasn’t an ambush on the other side. Seeing and hearing nothing, he opened it completely and stepped into the hallway beyond.
Mindful that the former priest could be hiding anywhere, he moved forward cautiously, glancing inside rooms and behind lockers as he made his way through the building.
When he reached the first intersection, he heard the sound of muffled voices in the distance. One voice was curt and commanding, and the other much softer. The second voice had an almost pleading tone. Marrese and VanGelder, Zane guessed.
Unfortunately it was difficult to discern the direction the sounds were coming from. Discerning no movement down either of the intersecting halls, Zane decided to continue straight ahead. It was an old rule of thumb that had served him welclass="underline" if there was no compelling reason to change course, then don’t.
Shortly after the first intersection, Zane’s eyes began to water and sting, a sign that the smoke was beginning to thicken again. At first the presence of smoke so far from the control room confused him, but then he remembered the second blast.
Soon the smoke began to affect his throat as well, and he coughed for several seconds, the sound echoing down the hall. As soon as the noise died away, he noticed he couldn’t hear the voices anymore. Had they heard him, or had they simply traveled out of range?
Zane started walking again, staying alert for movement or sound. He needed to catch up with Marrese, but at the same time, he was also mindful he could walk right into a trap.
As he continued down the hall, Zane began to wonder what Marrese was trying to do. Was he simply trying to get out of the building? Since the priest had already passed the exit doors in the lobby, that didn’t seem likely. The more likely answer was that he was attempting to finish what they had started. And Zane sensed that it had something to do with whatever caused the second explosion, as that was the direction in which Marrese seemed to be moving.
“Zane, do you read?” Brett asked in the operative’s earpiece.
Zane, startled for a brief moment, quickly ducked into a nearby room and shut the door behind him. “You couldn’t have picked a worse time, but go ahead,” he whispered.
“I’ll make it quick. We’ve been monitoring local law enforcement channels, and unfortunately several families in Prévessin-Moëns have reported hearing explosions.”
“Not surprising.”
“The good news is they don’t know where the explosions were coming from.”
“Brett, listen to me. You need to tell me how I can help you.”
“The bottom line is, Dr. Ross is concerned that the local police may show up sooner rather than later and wanted me to try to raise you for a progress report. I heard your conversation with Skinner. Have you located VanGelder?”
“I’m in pursuit now, but that’s all I can tell you at this point.”
“Understood,” Brett said. “Just give us a progress report when you can. We’ll try to monitor law enforcement and let you know if they’re headed your way.”
“Roger that. I’m headed out,” Zane replied as he opened the door.
As soon as he stepped out, the operative heard three sounds in quick succession: a ding, a sliding noise, and then a few seconds later, a loud metal clang. The noises seemed relatively close, which meant he hadn’t lost as much time as he had feared.
He crept forward, hugging the side of the corridor in an attempt to reduce his profile. After crossing through the next intersection, he came to an abrupt halt. Just yards away was a crater that stretched from one side of the hall to the other. A thick cloud of smoke hung inside of it, a remnant of the explosion that had taken place minutes before. There was also a hole in the ceiling directly above, indicating the powerful blast had managed to rip all the way up through the roof of the building.
As his eyes continued to adjust, Zane noticed that the smoke in front of him was actually spinning like a small cyclone. The funnel came down through the roof and disappeared into the darkness of the crater. Zane wondered what might be cause of the strange scene in front of him, but he also knew there wasn’t time for scientific inquiry. He had to stay focused on the task of finding Marrese and whoever else was with him.
The priest must have taken a crossing corridor, so Zane quickly returned to the last intersection. He looked both ways. To the left, in the distance, was a dim light. When Zane stepped out into the hall, he saw the source of the light was a panel just above an elevator door.
It all made sense now. The sound of the chime had been the elevator car arriving, and the other two sounds were the opening and shutting of the door.
Marrese was headed underground.
As he drew closer, Zane realized he was looking at one of those industrial elevators common in manufacturing plants and research facilities. There would be a shaft, and inside that shaft would be a metal cage that was often used to carry equipment and supplies.
There was a window set in the door, so Zane turned on his filtered flashlight and directed the beam inside. The interior was exactly as he anticipated — an empty shaft, with cables that disappeared into the darkness below.
Zane lifted his wrist to his mouth and whispered, “Skinner, do you read?”
“This is Brett. For whatever reason the others have dropped off.”