The Four Corners of the Earth

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

Using the bank of elevators as a shield from the Swedes, the SPEAR team fired a non-stop volley at the Russians as they sped toward the steel doors. Hayden and Yorgi were freed up whilst Kinimaka and Smyth kept an eye open for the Swedes and the rest of the team concentrated on the Russians.

Hayden punched the button marked SL4.

If the elevators dinged, the sound was lost under the heavy gunfire. Drake kept low, but the enemy still managed to return fire and creep forward, coming around desk after desk and using the sturdier objects to shelter behind. Even then one man fell, shot through the head. Another shouted in pain as he was winged, and yet another was wounded in the leg. Still, they came.

The lights flashed above the metal doors and then they whooshed open. Hayden jumped inside, the rest of the team following. It was a tight fit, but they managed it.

Drake was crushed up against Dahl, the HK between them.

Alicia was chin-first against his back. “Who the hell is that behind me? With the wandering fingers?”

“That’s me.” Kenzie puffed as the tight space constricted them, leaving no room for movement as it sped down to Sub Level Four. “But my hands are trapped near my neck. Surprisingly, my fingers are there too.” She waggled them.

Alicia felt the movement. “Well, somebody has something pressed into my ass. And it ain’t a banana.”

“Oh, that’s probably me,” Yorgi said. “Well, it’s my pistol.”

Alicia raised an eyebrow. “Your pistol, huh?”

“My gun. My handgun, is what I mean.”

“Is it fully loaded?”

“Alicia…” Drake warned.

“Umm, yes it should be.”

“I’d best not move then. Don’t want it going off in such a tight space now, do we?”

Mercifully, just as Kenzie looked like she was about to send out a pithy reply, the elevator stopped and made its arrival sound. The doors opened and the team practically fell out into the corridor. Drake searched the walls for a sign. Of course, there was none.

“Where’s Lab 7?”

“Turn right, third door along,” Lauren said.

“Excellent.”

Dahl led the way, still careful, but looking confident. The threat was largely above, but Drake didn’t forget for one second the reason they were here. The Order of the Last Judgment. What else did they have planned?

Yorgi removed his mask, grabbing some air. Kenzie joined him, flouting the rules, and then Smyth followed suit, giving Hayden a blank stare when she spread her arms helplessly.

“Rebels,” Dahl said, still walking.

“I’d say rogues,” Kenzie said. “Sounds better.”

She moved up beside him.

“If I weren’t so well disciplined I’d bloody join you.”

“Don’t worry. We can work on that.”

Drake nudged her in the back. “You know he went to a private school, don’t you, Kenz? You’ll never break him.”

“Mossad have their ways.”

Dahl glanced back over his shoulder. “Will you two shut up? I’m trying to concentrate.”

“See what I mean?” Drake said.

“Concentrate on what?” Alicia asked. “Numbers one to four?”

“Here we are,” Dahl said. “Lab 7.”

“You count up all that way yourself, Torsty? Wait, I think I have a sticker somewhere.”

Hayden pushed her way to the front. “Formation, people. Watch the back. Watch the elevators, both banks. I need Lauren on the comms, talking me to the bio-weapon, and I need the lab secure. Think you can do that?”

Without pause, they parted and took up their positions. Drake and Hayden were left to enter the lab on their own. First, they entered an outer office, littered with paraphernalia, every available surface cluttered with all manner of instruments. Drake had no idea what they were but they looked vital, and expensive.

Beyond a glass wall lay an inner, secure room.

“Lauren,” he said. “Lab 7 consists of two rooms. Outer and inner. The inner is probably a control room for chemicals, capable of being sealed off and vented.”

Nothing. The comms were dead.

Drake stared at Hayden. “What the—”

“Sorry, Matt. Hayden. Labs are always frequency shielded so signals can’t get in and out. Lab 7 is on a different level to the rest of the facility and it took us a moment to turn the extra shielding off.”

“No worries,” Hayden said. “Where next?”

“Inner room. There should be a glass cabinet. Do you see it?”

Drake went over to the large glass wall. “Yep. Right in the far corner.”

“The bio-weapon obviously doesn’t look like a weapon. It should be stored in a canister about the size of a coffee flask. It can be identified by the code PD777. Got that?”

“Got it.” He went over to the door’s key code panel and typed in the override code. “Nothing.” He sighed. “Could this room have a different code?”

“Let me find out. Problem is, all the bosses, techs and lab people are in there with you, sleeping.”

“Not to mention the Russians, Swedes and Israelis. Be quick.”

Drake listened as Hayden checked with the team. All was quiet, eerily so. Then Smyth growled through his coms.

“Movement on the eastern staircase. Here they come!”

“I got movement on the western one,” Mai reported. “Hurry.”

“Hold those elevators,” Hayden said. “We’re gonna need them real soon.”

Drake considered shooting the glass. No doubt it would be bulletproof and potentially dangerous. There were glass cabinets in the outer room too, stocked with tubes and canisters that might contain any number of poisons.

Lauren shouted out a new code. Drake punched it in. The door swung open. He ran for the back of the room, slipped open the cabinet and started searching for the canister. Hayden stayed behind. Watching their backs, each team member keeping line of sight with the next.

Drake sifted through canister after canister. Each one bore an imprint in black, bold letters and numbers, and they weren’t organized. A minute passed. Smyth opened fire up his staircase and Mai did the same a few seconds later. They were under attack, praying nobody was idiotic enough to send a grenade into the fray.

“Got it!”

He lifted the canister, took half a second to remember it contained a bio-weapon that could destroy at the very least — America, and tucked it under one arm. “Time to go.”

As one, coordinated, they began the retreat. Mai and Smyth covered the stairs until Drake and Hayden reached the corridor and then Yorgi and Dahl covered them. Mai and Smyth retreated fast as Alicia pressed the elevators’ button.

Doors whooshed instantly open.

“Faster!” Mai shouted, appearing fast around a corner. “They’re seconds behind me.”

She fired back, pinning them down.

Smyth came the other way, shielded now by Dahl, both men backpedalling for the doors.

And then the alarms began to sound, a huge claxon-like booming that filled the ears and sent the senses into overdrive.

“What the fuck is that?” Drake shouted.

“No. Oh no!” Lauren screamed back. “Get out of there. Get out of there now! They just released something into the system.” She paused. “Oh my God… it’s sarin.”

It was already flooding through the roof vents of the corridor and the side vents of the elevator.