Coldbrook (Hammer) (7 page)

‘There!’ Estelle said. ‘Movement, screen three. Look! Can’t you zoom in, or . . .?’

Uri worked his control desk expertly and the image on screen three grew. Holly was cowering behind her desk, and Melinda was advancing towards her. She dragged one leg, and it looked loose. Her head and back were a mess, and Jonah shivered, glad that he could not see her face and the damage that the thing had done. A guard was standing behind her, swaying slightly as if he’d been knocked over the head.

‘Melinda’s not dead,’ Uri said. ‘But . . .’
But
, Jonah thought.
But indeed
. She trailed a slick of blood behind her, and the back of her lab smock was torn with what appeared to be bullet holes and knife slashes.

‘Where’s everyone else?’ Estelle asked. Jonah could see that she was staring at screen one, where the intruder from beyond the breach could be seen most clearly.

‘Who else was down there?’ Uri asked.

‘Satpal,’ Jonah said. ‘The standard four guards, including Alex.’

‘He’s alive!’ Estelle said.

On screen four, another guard was getting to his feet, inching slowly up the glass wall until he stood upright. Blood had sprayed the opposite wall and, though it was unclear on the image, Jonah thought he could see a dark mess at the guard’s throat.
That’s arterial
, he thought. The guard stood with his hands by his sides, not pressed to his wounds. Then he turned and started walking along the corridor towards the camera.

‘Fucking hell,’ Estelle said.

‘His face!’ Uri said.

The wounded man passed below the camera, and he was not wearing the expression of someone in pain or close to passing out. Instead, his teeth were bared and his pupils completely dilated. He looked predatory, sharklike. He was barely out of his teens, and the most frightening thing Jonah had ever seen.

‘Holly,’ Jonah breathed. She stood slowly from behind her desk and looked up at a camera, drew her hand across her throat – and then the last guard remaining in Control ran at her. His uniform was splashed black and torn in several places. He had dropped his gun, and his hands were held out, clawed, in front of him, ready to rip and tear. He leaped onto a desk and jumped over Melinda’s head onto another work surface. Holly slammed her hand down onto a button and ran.

Directly at the breach.

‘No!’ Estelle gasped.

Jonah caught his breath, heart thudding. Her disappearance into the breach was such a simple thing, so soundless and fast, that he was not sure he’d seen it at all. One moment she was there, the next she was gone, and he sat back in his chair and took a deep breath. W
here are you now?
he thought, and though he was not a believer he prayed to something, anything, that she was still alive. Then at least something might be saved from this disaster.

‘She’ll see it all,’ he said. His powerful sob surprised him.

The pursuing guard hit the floor where Holly had crouched moments before and stared after her. He swayed left to right, apelike, as if searching into darkness. Then he tilted his head to one side as though he’d heard something, and ran from Control, a fleeting
shadow across screen four as he too disappeared into Coldbrook.

‘She’s gone through,’ Uri said. ‘I can’t . . . can’t access all of Control’s sensors to see if . . .’

‘I know,’ Jonah said. ‘But it doesn’t matter. She’s on her way to another Earth.’ He watched Melinda pause in front of the breach, her head raised slightly as if sniffing the air, and then turn away and stagger towards Control’s open door. He sighed in relief, glad that she had not followed Holly. Perhaps she had sensed closer prey.

‘Holly’s on her own through there. And we have to commence lockdown.’

Secondary fell silent as his words sunk in. None of them spoke, all thinking their own thoughts. When no one objected Jonah sobbed again, quieter this time, because of everything they had done.

‘Still no one approaching,’ the guard said.

From the distance, gunshots. And screams.

‘Jonah, this doesn’t mean we were wrong,’ Estelle said.

‘Thank you,’ he said, and he had never meant the words so sincerely. ‘Now, Uri, if you’d prepare the lockdown orders, I think I should initiate it myself, and I’ll remain here to ensure it’s worked. You all go and find somewhere safer. I’ll see you on the screens.’ He nodded up at the view of Control, free of all movement now apart from Melinda’s shuffling figure. ‘I’ll join you later.’

Uri nodded and started tapping some keys.

‘Sir, you don’t have to stay on your own,’ the guard said.

‘I appreciate that,’ Jonah said. ‘But that’s what I’d rather. And these two will need you to protect them. Secondary was never designed to be a refuge. I have to lock down and tell the surface what’s happening. We need to let people know. And then . . .’

‘And then?’ Estelle asked.

Jonah shrugged. And then? He didn’t know. Their absolute priority was to stop any danger reaching the surface. Beyond that, he could not yet think.

He closed his eyes. He was old, and that was fine, and he had lived a life. But others in this place had people up there, many of them living in the nearest town, Danton Rock: wives, husbands, kids.

Like Vic Pearson. A family.

And then Jonah wondered where the hell Vic Pearson had gone.

‘Uri, quickly,’ he said. ‘
Quickly!
’

Uri worked fast, and half a minute later he slid the wireless keyboard across to Jonah. ‘Hit enter to initiate automatic lockdown. You can monitor all lockdown procedures – or switch it to manual – on the schematic behind you.’

‘Thank you,’ Jonah said. But he didn’t look up as they left, and was glad that none of them offered a final
comment. As they closed the door he pressed enter, and Coldbrook began closing itself off from the only world any of them knew.

As Vic entered the vehicle garage he heard a distant shout, and then a noise like doves cooing. He paused, pressed flat against the wall with his head tilted to one side. Had he
really
heard that? Birds, underground? He couldn’t be sure – there wasn’t even an echo now. He released his held breath, the sigh making the garage’s silence seem even more eerie.

There were three vehicles in the large garage area – two SUVs and a military Hummer – and the smell of fuel and spilled oil hung in the air. For a moment the idea of taking an SUV crossed his mind, but he knew that the wide door at the far end of the garage was always kept electronically locked, and that on the slowly curving ramp that rose two hundred feet to the surface there were three other security doors.

He had criticised several times Coldbrook’s design, suggesting that there should be at least two independent escape routes to the surface in case of an accident. To begin with, Jonah had reasoned with him – nothing would go wrong, they were cautious when they built it, there was no risk. But after a while he had simply chosen
to respond with the stark truth: if the core was ever breached, none of them would have to worry about escape.

Vic could open the doors on the vehicle ramp but it would take time. And, of the escape routes he’d considered as he made his way here, it was the most observed and the least likely to be successful.

He had somewhere quicker in mind.

‘So long as they don’t go for complete lockdown,’ he whispered to himself, listening again for more voices, and deciding it must have been his own guilt calling after him. He looked around the garage, checking for movement or the dark blue of a guard’s uniform. He was sure that he was alone, and since the alarm had switched off he’d started to wonder just how serious the situation was. If they had it contained in Control, it wasn’t certain that Jonah would seek to lock down the whole facility, because if he did—

Vic . . . something came through.

‘Shit.’ Vic shook his head and checked his palmtop. The camera view of Control showed no activity now. He switched back to the thumbnail views and saw a flash of movement in one of the accommodation corridors. The image was too small to make out any detail, and by the time he enlarged it whatever had moved was gone. But . . .

Blood on the wall
– and his own ran cold.

He switched programs to the schematics of Coldbrook that he’d stored on the computer. He was responsible for the maintenance and adjustment of the unique core containment and, in turn, the breach generator. But he’d made sure that he knew as much as possible about the rest of the facility. He’d never really believed that something would go so catastrophically wrong, but it was always good to be prepared.

Holly
, he thought, but he tried to blink her away.

Vic shifted the plans on his palmtop screen. Behind the garage lay one of the three main plant rooms serving the facility, this one dedicated to the air-conditioning systems. Every single external access point would be affected by a lockdown, but if he was fast enough now maybe—

From the main door across the garage he heard the click and snap of metal. He dashed between the Hummer and an SUV and watched from there. He should have known what was happening from the first instant, but his mind was fogged by the stark fact of his betrayal. He was running just when Jonah needed him most, and if he dwelled on that for more than a second he felt physically sick. So he did not dwell on it at all. He focused on Lucy and Olivia.

Across the garage a wisp of smoke rose from the huge door’s securing mechanisms as they melted into lockdown. The smell of burning filled the air, and the acrid
whiff of hot metal. The clicks and clanks of warping locks echoed through the space. Vic had always thought such a process was overdramatic, and that secured locking of the exits would be enough in any emergency. But his boss had always been keen on his safeguards.

Jonah’s started!
he thought, and he ran for the doors to the air-conditioning room. Once inside he consulted the palmtop again, then dashed for the largest duct that led up through the mountain. There was a maintenance-access point at the base of the duct, sealed with three coded locks. He tapped in the codes and breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the quiet clicks of release.

The metal duct was a little over five feet wide, with a vertical ladder bolted into the inner wall. Vic pulled a head torch from his tool belt and flicked it on, securing it on his forehead before beginning the climb. He went as fast as he could, knowing that he would tire quickly but desperate to get as high as possible before lockdown of the duct commenced. The idea that he might become trapped in here had not even crossed his mind: concern for his family drove him on, and he had confidence in his ability to bypass any secured barriers.

As he climbed he wondered what was going on down below. He knew so little, and that made the fear stronger, a sense that the vast extent of the facility was loaded with threat. Once he was out and with his family he would use the satphone to find out what was happening.
Jonah would hate him for running. And Vic was certain that the old man wouldn’t even understand. But they had worked together for eight years and he was confident that Jonah would talk to him.

As he approached the first of the duct’s three fire dampers – an automatic divider that would double as a security barrier during a facility lockdown – it started sliding shut. He speeded up but was too late, reaching the damper just as it snicked closed and its internal mechanisms started overheating and warping. He winced at the acidic odour of superheated metal, but being poisoned was just something else to be afraid of.

So this would be when he’d test how good he was. There were three dampers in the vertical duct to make his way past, all of them now probably sealed shut. Beyond that, he would have to open the surface hatch from the inside and then sneak past the compound guards. And then he’d have to run a mile across the dark mountainside to Danton Rock, and his family. Perhaps once he got there he might allow himself a few seconds to relish the fact of his escape.

Vic braced himself on the ladder, and as he caught his breath he consulted the Palm Pilot. The best way past the barrier was around, not through it. As he plucked items from his tool belt, his satphone started chiming. He plucked it from his pocket and glanced at the screen: Jonah. He turned it off and set to work.

It took three minutes to create the necessary opening in the duct wall and start on the still-hot damper mechanism, and another two minutes to dismount the mechanism itself. Vic twisted and slid it out of sight on top of the damper, then squeezed through the gap. It was a tight fit. His tool belt caught and caused him a moment of panic, but then he was through. Two more to get past, and fifty feet of climbing in between. He hoped to be out of Coldbrook and into the cool night air within fifteen minutes.

He slid the mechanism back into place to block the opening, a fresh surge of guilt making him feel queasy again. And as he climbed, Coldbrook pulled at him, with its terrible gravity and the implications of what they had done there. He resisted, sweat running down his sides and teeth gritted against the pain in his arms and legs. He wasn’t used to physical exertion. They had a small gym down in the living quarters – a few treadmills and exercise bikes squeezed into an unused suite – but it was rare that he spent any time in there. Vic was naturally skinny, but that didn’t mean he was fit. He regretted his laziness now.

The second damper took longer to get past, and the third one longer still. Maybe it was exhaustion, or panic, but the head torch started slipping on his sweaty skin, and he dropped three screwdrivers back down the duct. He held on tightly to the fourth – it was his last. Drop
that one and he’d have to climb back down to retrieve it . . . he was starting to fear that Coldbrook would never let him out. It had its claws in him, and Jonah had called him four more times. He was tempted to answer and find out exactly what was going on, but he had gained a momentum now. Jonah’s voice might be enough to change his mind.
Ignorant old bastard
, Vic thought, surprised at the affection he suddenly felt for the old man. He hoped Jonah was safe.