GENESIS (GODS CHAIN) (64 page)

Francesca recognised instantly
that
she was out
-
manoeuvred
,
and
saw that
the man was in a position to shoot
.
L
etting go of her weapon, she bolted out of view and back down past the cabinets!
The man struggled to take aim, the wound impeding his judgement
—he
released a shot behind her.
The girl instinctively ducked to her left
,
swerving through one of the cabinets
.

‘Come back here
,
you interfering fool!’
he cried.
S
he must be heading for the door,
Zito thought
,
shouting at her.
He moved his head to
the
opposite side of his current aim to look down to
the
left side of the room
,
where the security door exit was located.
The girl was not there
.

Correcting his position again, Zito knew that the girl could not go far, let alone escape from the room.
He walked carefully, albeit in total agony after the girl
’s attack
.
She was going to be rescinded
.
Killed!
I’m going to make it slow for her
, he thought grimly.
Raising his gun
,
Agent Zito walked slowly forward, his broken arm dangling helplessly by his side. Blood
ran
freely
down
the back of his hand
,
which was
torn
by her blow
.
The blood
dripp
ed
onto the floor.

The Agent star
ed
along towards the end of the room and then saw the small duct door
standing
ajar.
Where
ha
s she
gone
—
through that small door?

Then
,
from behind a far cabinet at the end near the duct doorway, Francesca’s arm suddenly appeared and moved
quickly upwards to the ceiling with a naked flame from a gasoline fuel lighter
.
She held
the flame
steadily beneath the
sprinkler nozzle that was sticking down from the ceiling
.
Why...?
Zito’s eyes widened in distress
.

Oh shit
,
the fire alarms
.
Someone is bound to come here if the alarm systems go off!
Rescind her now
—s
hoot her arm!!!

Taking aim, Zito
prepared
to
destroy Francesca
.

**********

Suddenly the bright lights
of the room
dimmed and were instantly replaced by red light as a bullet passed close by
Francesca’s
body!
Loudly the sounds of Claxtons oscillated all around the room, deafening and numbing
her mind.
This
barrage
would normally force anyone inside to run to the exit
, but
n
ot in
Francesca’s
case
...
.
At that instant
,
loud hissing noises exploded all around
.
It was the sound of rushing gas
,
spreading quickly into the room
.
It was coming in from everywhere!

Francesca understood that she had
between
thirty seconds
and
a minute at the most to
escape from
the room
, and m
aybe not even that
.

Zito shot
his silver Beretta
at her
a second time
;
the bullet
struck
the metal duct door behind her
and ricocheted.
Zito struggl
ed
to catch his breath
,
which gave the girl time to reach the duct opening again and
clamber
inside
,
closing the door behind
her
.
The
a
gent tried to run and stop her
from
getting away
by
battering
on
the door behind her
.
She instantly locked it
fast.
Her heart rac
ed
wildly
as
s
he listened to him strik
e
the door several times with the pistol butt!

Because
assistance would soon be on the way, Zito
knew he
had only about five minutes to deal with the girl
. The question was,
how
?
S
he had
already
proved
to be
a very slippery and a more able
opponent
than Zito had first judged
.

The Agent stood back from the small door and shot at the lock.
His bullet
had no effect.
Zito’s breathing was beginning to cause him a serious problem,
as the fire-
retardant
escap
ed
from the massive Halon gas cylinders
at
each corner of the room
.
What is that gas?
He wondered.
In panic,
he tried
to inhale,
finding
nothing
...
nothing
!
to
breathe.
His lungs moved in short
,
start
-
stop movements
.

The man
’s
mind screamed
as the oxygen was pushed out of the room.
There was no air left in the room
—everything was
being forced out and replaced by this inert gas.
H
e was beginning to lose consciousness
...
smart ass bitch
!
he thought
.

Zito’s survival instincts were still working
strong
and
,
as a last ditch effort
,
the man unloaded his magazine into the side of the wall next to the door.
He was not stupid.
He was e
mptying his clip and creating a large hole
,
h
oping that more air would come back through into the room for him
. Perhaps it would choke the girl
and sav
e his life
at the same time
.
To Francesca’s horror
, the trick
was working
—
some air escaped
from the duct
and went back through into the larger room as the Halon gas displaced where she sat inside
. She
had
hop
ed
that the man would collapse
.

Catching his breath again at th
e
hole
to her duct
, Zito began to recover, his head clearing fast
.
Francesca had taken a deep breath and look
ed
back through
the hole,
into the room
.
Immediately
,
Zito’s sunglasses were looking back at her!
He saw Francesca’s frightened face
. Now that
Zito knew the female
’
s location
,
he
aim
ed
his silver Beretta at her
with malice
!
As fate would have
it,
another full gas cylinder kicked into action
immediately above the man.

“HISSSSSSSssssss
,
”
the
strong loud noise burst into action!
Just to be on the safe side
,
the system integrated
an additional pressured rush from a double large gas cylinder
.
It filled the room completely in seconds!
Estates had done a good job
of protecting their equipment
.