Brain Storm (US Edition) (16 page)

Her muscles contracted all together and suddenly she could feel again. And the first thing she felt was pain. Now she was aware of the liquid around her.
Its temperature and consistency made it difficult to feel but it was there. It was that liquid that gave her the feeling of weightlessness, she had learned that they used a similar method to train people who explored space.

There was a thick tube down her throat that made her want to gag and smaller tubes snaked up her nostrils and down her insides. She tried to force the foreign objects out of her body but she couldn't manage it. Her head told her that those tubes were what were supplying her with the materials she needed to stay alive in this environment but her instincts still wanted them out.

An itching sensation started to crawl all over her skin, stemming from points where needles were fastened to her veins pumping an unknown substance into her bloodstream.

With an effort she opened her eyes, flinching when the liquid she was immersed in first touched her eyes. But she wanted to get a look at where she was so she forced herself to go through with it.

The liquid surrounding her was opaque enough that she couldn't see much outside. She was in some sort of capsule and person shaped shadows moved in and out of view depending on how close to the capsule they came. One of the shapes came right up to the front of the capsule so that their face was pressed almost against it. The figure wore a surgical mask over mouth and nose and a cap on their head. But she could see the eyes clearly. They studied her with a clinical detachment. A pair of cold orbs watching her devoid of compassion.

***************

Sara wasn't bothering to keep track of time, since she had no starting point for reference. So she wasn't aware of how long had passed between her waking up in the cell and now when she heard activity outside it. Her mind was already focused and ready. She shuffled her behind so that she was perched on the edge of her shelf and made sure she was physically prepared. She took in deep gulps of air to oxygenate her blood and give her the fuel to act.

There was no sound of locks disengaging but they must have done so because the door was pushed inwards. Two men stood blocking the doorway with stun-sticks held ready. There were holsters for pistols strapped to their belts at the top and around their thighs at the bottom to prevent movement. The holsters were empty for now, they must not have  wanted to risk Sara getting her hands on one of them.

Those men saw Sara sitting at the back of the room watching them coolly and they started to move inside. Both men were of similar builds, larger than Sara was but not giants by any means. The one who was entering first had dark hair to match his tanned complexion. The man who came in behind was paler with orange/ginger hair.

Sara looked past the men to see if she could get an idea of what to expect outside. All she could see were bare walls that could be part of any corridor. She couldn't see out at enough of an angle to see if it changed on either side. She would just have to make that assessment on the spot.

When both guards were a few paces inside the cell, just over a meter away from where Sara sat, the dark one gestured with the business end of the stun-stick.

"Take that jacket off or roll your sleeve up for us," he instructed her.

"What for?" Sara asked in a nonchalant tone. Her brain was busy judging distances, angles and weights.

"Just do it, Bitch!" the ginger one spat.

Sara turned her eyes on him and stared until she saw the first brief crack appear in his mask of bravado. He covered it by glaring at her even harder but it was too late to cover it fully. With that minor victory accomplished Sara looked back at the guard who was in front. She pushed herself off the shelf so that she was stood. Her sudden movement caused both guards to flinch.

"Jumpy?" Sara raised an eyebrow at them.

Both men now looked equally embarrassed at having their reactions picked up on by her and just as pissed off with her for it. They wouldn't want to lose face again.

"Just get on with it."

Sara gave a small triumphant smile to ensure that they would be even more determined not to lose face to her again. The jacket already hung open down her front so she just started to pull her arms out of the sleeves. With just her left hand and wrist still inside one sleeve she moved to put it down on the shelf. When she pulled her hand out of the jacket it was time for action.

She exploded into movement. Her reactions were faster because of her preparation and training. The reactions of the guards were slowed because they were consciously putting in an effort not to react. Sara dropped her jacket and took hold of the bucket she had positioned in preparation for just this type of assault.

Her body was half turned away from either of the guards. She snapped her head around so that it was locked on the face of the nearest man. Her body and arms followed an instant later bringing the bucket along. The edge of the metal base caught him along the line of his nose and dropped him to his knees. He involuntarily dropped his weapon so that he could bring his hands up to protect his face.

The ginger guard's eyes reacted faster than any other part of him. They went wide as his brain slowly
realized what was happening. They followed the other guard on his trip down to his knees and then came back up to Sara. He only started to move when he saw that her focus was now on him.

Sara moved forwards, kneeing the already debilitated guard in the head on her way past. At the same time the ginger guard started to bring his weapon up pointing the twin prongs at her and sending electricity between them. Sara wasn't concerned. She kept her gaze fixed on his eyes ignoring the end of the stun-stick that he waved around trailing an electric glow. She saw in his eyes every move that he was going to make.

He lunged at her aiming to plant the charge into her breastbone. She knew his intent probably before he did and stepped to the side and twisted to let the weapon pass in front of her. She hooked her left arm over the top of the weapon and pressed it against her side.  The active end was crackling just a couple of centimeters in front of her. She continued to turn putting her back fully to the ginger guard and then coming back to face him from the other side. This gave the man a choice; either relinquish his grip on the weapon or come along around after her with it. He started to choose the later but let go when he ended up stepping on the other guard, who was still holding his face and moaning to himself on the floor.

Sara removed her arm from its clamp over the stun-stick. She caught it out of the air and brought it around. With a half twirl as is if it was a baton she got the stick in position. The ginger guard was still getting himself disentangled from the other guard when Sara triggered the weapon and sent a charge through the prongs and down the back of his neck.

His teeth clacked together and his entire body went into a series of convulsions. She maintained the burst for a good ten seconds, long enough to leave him unconscious for at least five minutes. Even then when he came round it would take at least twice that long before he was in any condition to move. Twirling the stick again so that it ended with the prongs facing downwards she delivered an identical charge to  the guard who was already in quite a state. The convulsions moved his hands away from his face and Sara saw that either the hit from the bucket or the knee she delivered afterwards had shattered the bridge of his nose.

She took the other guard's stun-stick and patted both men down searching for other weapons,  communications equipment, key cards or anything else that could be useful. Sara found a simple key card on the dark guard and also an empty syringe meant to draw fluid. The ginger guard wasn't carrying anything of any interest. Sara took the syringe and crushed it under the heel of her boot. After retrieving her jacket she left the two men crumpled in the middle of her cell and stepped outside. 

Chapter
Thirteen

Sara pulled her jacket back on after she saw that the drab corridor outside was deserted. She pulled the door closed behind her and locked it by passing the key card through the reader at the side of the door. The corridor was approximately thirty meters from one end to the other with door    spaced at regular intervals along either side. There didn't appear to be any cameras in the corridor, unless they were hidden inside the light fittings which would have made sense in some circumstances but not in what was essentially a prison.

Sara assumed that the doors lining the walls either side of her door and on the opposite side led to other cells like her own. It was the doors at either end of the corridor that would lead to other locations. With nothing to indicate what she would find through either door Sara chose to investigate the closest one first.

She walked the corridor at a normal pace. She didn't bother checking the other cells on her way past. Her way out wasn't through there and she didn't know what she would find inside them. For all she knew imprisoning her had been a mistake and this was a legitimate operation. That was why she had come up with a plan of escape that left the guards alive in her cell. It wouldn't do to have this all sorted out only to have to be put back inside because she killed a couple of guards. Whether the people in those cells deserved to be there or not didn't really matter to her any way. They would only slow her down whichever it was.

Even though she wasn't intentionally listening for sounds from inside the cells, as she passed one she couldn't help but hear the sobs coming from inside. She ignored the noise and continued on. It was nothing to do with her. If it wasn't a threat or something that could help her get out of here it was none of her concern.

She arrived at the nearest end of the corridor. The door was identical to the doors of the cells meaning there was no way for her to get a look at what waited beyond until she opened it. But you didn't just open doors when you were an escaped prison without trying to get some idea of what was on the other side. Sara flattened herself against the door. She sealed her ear up against the barrier and opened her mouth to make hearing easier. She didn't hold her breath because that would just make her heartbeat and pulse seem louder.

After two minutes of standing there listening without hearing anything she decided to risk it. It would have been better to give it longer to be more sure that she wasn't about to walk through into a crowd but if she waited too long those guards could be missed and she would have lost the opportunity.

Sara got hold of a stun-stick in each hand making sure she could initiate the charge on either one handed. She held the key card awkwardly trapped between the backs of the fingers on her left hand. She unlocked the door and it started to swing open towards her automatically. She stepped through before it was half open. It made no sense to try and sneak through when anyone in the room would have noticed the door opening.

The room the corridor opened onto must have been the room those two guards occupied when they weren't hassling prisoners. There were the usual suspects of computer and communication terminals, only one of each between the two guards, in the room along with a pair of swivel chairs and the
world’s supply of junk food or junk food wrappings. Amidst the junk was a pair of items Sara found very alluring.

She checked over the pistols. They were of a type she wasn't familiar with but everything seemed to be present and correct, sights, safety, clip release. Sara hit the later and caught the clip as it was ejected. She freed the bullets to see how many shots she would have. Each clip held ten. She checked the chamber in both weapons and found that one had a round already chambered. She checked the clip of that weapon and found that it was down to nine rounds. It seemed like the guards were allocated a set number of rounds but one of the guards like to keep his weapon ready so it would fire instantly. Some people like to keep their clips with one fewer round in than they could actually take to ease the load on the springs inside the magazine and lower the chance of a stoppage. That indicated that one of the guards was probably ex-military.

In all this room was probably just over twice the size of the cell Sara had just been in. There was another door out on the opposite side of the room of the same type as all the doors she had seen so far and with a lock governed by a key card reader. There was a pair of lockers for either the guards’ personal items or weapons. Both lockers were locked by a numbered keypad so Sara couldn't get into them using her stolen key card.

One of the stun-sticks was left on the desk. Sara cast about to see if she could find a holster for the other but didn't see one. Deciding that if she had to deal with a threat silently she could manage with her hands, and with no way of carrying the stick except in her hand she placed the second next to it. Sara placed the pistol that had a round ready chambered in the waistband of her jeans. The other pistol was placed in her left hand jacket pocket. It wouldn't be so quick to access there but if she was noticed and made to surrender her obvious weapon maybe she could use it to avoid being taken captive again. She rooted around in the junk food and empty
wrappers for extra clips but didn't find any. Either they were in the lockers or the guards weren't issued with them.

Before she decided on her next course of action Sara waited. She picked up a sponge cake in a plastic wrapper and took a bite. She washed it down with a gulp of flat cola. She didn't know how long it had been since she had last eaten or when she would next get the opportunity so it was best to get a little food inside her. So long as she didn't pig out and stuff herself so full that she couldn't perform.