Track of the Beast: A Brock Stone Adventure

25- The Facility

Stone heard the sound of running feet. Instinctively he drew his Webley and aimed it toward the noise, but he held his fire. He couldn’t say for certain that it was Ward and not Trinity he would be targeting. A moment later he heard a heavy door slam shut.

“You let him get away,” Trinity’s voice came from the darkness only a few feet away. So it had been Ward running away.

“Did you really think we had no safety measures in place?” Ward called out.

“Keep him talking,” Stone whispered softy.

“What did you do?” Trinity added a tremor to her voice, feigning fear.

“The fob on my keyring has a panic button,” Ward said. The glee at having turned the tables on them rang brightly in his voice.

Stone crept silently toward the sound of Ward’s voice. He had caught only a glimpse of the room before the lights went out. To their left had been a doorway barred by a gate of thick iron bars. Directly ahead was a thick glass door, through which lay a laboratory. Off to the right had been another gated doorway. That was where the voice was coming from.

“What’s going to happen?” Trinity said.

“The two of you will be quite useful in our experiments. You are of a healthier stock than the women we have managed to acquire thus far, and Mister Stone is a fine physical specimen, if a bit slow on the uptake.”

Stone smirked. He was closing in on Ward. He just needed to avoid notice a bit longer.

“You will not use us like you used those poor people,” Trinity said.

“I don’t plan on giving you a choice,” Ward said with a touch of indifference.

Stone heard a hiss from somewhere up above, caught a whiff of mint. Cool mist drifted down from the ceiling. It was some kind of gas! There was no more time for stealth. He made a dash for Ward.

“If the knockout gas doesn’t subdue you, my soldiers will be here shortly.”

Stone reached the barred door just as Ward was pushing another button on his key fob. It emitted only the faintest flash of light, but in this utter darkness, it was enough for Stone.

Ward never saw him coming. Stone reached between the bars, grabbed Ward by the collar, and pulled him forward with all his might. Ward struck the bars with a smack. His body went limp and he slid to the floor. The key fob clattered to the ground.

“What’s happening?” Trinity shouted.

“Don’t breathe the gas. I’m looking for the key fob!”

He took out his IMCO lighter, a refillable metal lighter manufactured in Austria, and flicked it on. A faint circle of yellow light blossomed in the darkness. The mint smell grew stronger. He felt a detached sense of ease, like the effects of nitrous oxide. He needed to hurry.

He finally found the keyring and ran his fingers across the surface of the fob. There was only a single button.

He clicked it once. Nothing.

Two clicks in quick succession and the lights flickered on. The gas ceased to flow from the ceiling. Across the room, the barred door swung closed seconds before a cadre of beastly men came dashing down the corridor. The Illuminati soldiers. When they reached the barred door, they began to shout incoherently and shake the bars that held them back.

He pointed to the glass door that led to the laboratory and he and Trinity ran inside. Stone sucked in precious breaths of clean, pure air.

Inside, three women lay strapped to hospital beds. A burnt orange liquid dripped from an IV into the women’s arms. All three of them looked up in surprise. And off to the left, locked in a cage, a hairy creature huddled with its head between its knees and its large hands covering its head.

“Oh my God,” Trinity whispered, “they captured a juvenile Bigfoot.”

He and Trinity hurriedly freed the captive women, removed their IVs, and helped them to their feet.

“Who are you?” one of them asked.

“I’m a reporter,” Trinity said. “We’re here to help you.”

“You’re not the police? And he doesn’t look like any reporter I’ve ever seen,” the woman said, looking at Stone with curiosity.

“He can scarcely write his own name, but he’s useful when brute strength is required.”

“Take the ladies and make tracks. I’ll take care the Bigfoot,” Stone said.

“Be careful.” Trinity looked nervously at the creature, which lay slumped against the side of the cage. It was barely four feet tall, but it had muscular arms and sharp teeth. At the sound of Trinity’s voice, it lolled its head to the side and gazed at them through glassy eyes.

“I think it’s been sedated. I should be okay.”

As Trinity ushered the captive women out of the lab and toward the exit, Stone cautiously approached the cage.

“It’s all right, pal. I’m going to take you home. Lucky for you I know exactly where you live.” He spoke in a soothing voice as he sorted through the keys. The juvenile Bigfoot continued to stare dully at him. When Stone found the correct key and opened its cage, it didn’t make a move.

“Moment of truth,” Stone said. “I’m going to pick you up. Please don’t sink your teeth into my jugular or anything like that.” Gingerly, as if picking up a newborn baby, he scooped the creature up, grunting with the effort. The thing weighed as much as a grown man.

They looked at one another for a split second, eyes locking, and Stone saw intelligence and emotion in the creature’s eyes.

“It’s all right now,” he said.

Maybe the Bigfoot understood, because it draped its long arms around his neck and laid its head on his shoulder.

As he left the lab, he took another look around. The Illuminati thugs were struggling to get past the door that held them captive. Stone saw a wildness in their eyes that reminded him of the stories of Viking berserkers.

He had taken two steps into the room when the lights flickered and dimmed. An alarm bell rang. The lights flickered again. A metallic clank echoed through the room. He looked over to see that whatever system held the gate closed had failed. Inch by inch, the thugs were raising the gate.

Stone began to run.