The Delta Chain (48 page)

A scream erupted. Adam swung
round to see an ugly reptilian body thrashing, lunging from
God-knew-where, jaws open, practically on top of Elizabeth.

Daniel had said there were croc
pits in one of the chambers adjoining the dock.

With a sudden, lightning fast
thrust, Daniel pushed her aside, twisting and flinging his own body
after her. But the jaws clasped down on his arm, arresting his
sideways movement, wrenching him back. Through a fine mist of half
light, smoke and dust, Adam saw the mass movement of other eyes and
other ridged hides, gliding in on the rising, rushing flow of
water.

O
’
Malley watched as teams of SES workers cordoned off the
disaster site, examining the rubble and assessing the extent of
danger. The area had to be stable before the clean up could begin.
Team leaders were conferring with their operations chief, a bulky
character named Harradin who had the loudest voice
O
’
Malley had ever heard.

Megan Shorter ran toward
him, switching off her cell phone as she reached him.
‘
Inspector, I
’
ve got
some very interesting intel from our Defence people.
’

‘Can it wait for the
debrief?
’

‘No, this affects us here,
now.
’

‘Here?
’

‘Yes. We knew the
Institute site was once an old food processing plant. But Canberra
have said that during the Second World War, the plant was seconded
to our Defence Department
’
s Coastwatch
unit. They built underground barracks and tunnels with surveillance
slots cut through to the lower cliff face.
’

O
’
Malley knew of the coast watching done by the military
during the Second World War, particularly along the north east of
the continent. Landings by the Japanese, coming down via Papua New
Guinea, had posed an ongoing threat. He tried to visualise the
underground barracks.
‘
So the
infrastructure was already down there for Westmeyer to have his
hidden section built.
’

‘Yes,
’
said Megan.
‘
Boss, most of the
old barracks were simply covered over and left after the War. Which
means the tunnels would still be there.
’

‘A way in to Adam, via the
cliff face.
’

The SES man Harradin
approached.
‘
I
’
ve got heavy earthmoving equipment arriving in
minutes,
’
he said.
‘
I want to start looking for the man you
’
ve got down there. But Ron, I still don
’
t have the A-OK to start digging. The
area
’
s too unstable.
’

‘There may be another way
in. Can we get as many men as possible down on the beach and around
to the point where the cliff starts to rise.
’
O
’
Malley then told him about the
tunnels.

The explosion had sent
Erickson crashing to the ground. He
’
d
watched in frustration and with a rising sense of fear as great
slabs of rock fell, crushing the middle section of the truck. The
thin beam of his flashlight cut a swathe through swirls of dust and
falling debris.

At first he thought
he
’
d been sealed in the dock. The entry
via the two corridors, at opposite ends of the dock, had been
blocked. But casting about, Erickson saw that an enormous fissure
had opened up in one of the walls. Large enough for him to climb
through, long and deep enough it might lead somewhere. He clambered
through, and noticed the ground was quickly being covered by
water.

Kate dropped down beside
the crashed elevator car in the near darkness. Markham was wedged
there in the small space. She felt for a pulse and, thank God,
found one. But it was faint, very faint. Kate saw that a slab of
brickwork had fallen across his legs, blocking any movement even if
he
’
d been conscious and able to
move.

She called out to Hunter
and he pulled her back up onto the roof of the car.
‘
He
’
s alive but
he
’
s unconscious and wedged tight. Best
bet now is to find our way out, get help…
’

‘Kate…
’

She was already pointing
to the sub-level lift doors just over their heads. Wafer thin
streams of water were escaping from under the doors and trickling
into the shaft.
‘
If we can prise open
those doors enough to squeeze through-
’

‘Kate, I
don
’
t think we should try and get into
the sub-level right now.
’

‘Are you kidding?
’
Kate
’
s adrenalin was
pumping faster than ever.

‘Kate, listen to me. There
are crocodiles in special tanks and walled-in pits up there. The
detonations will have sent fissures through everything, snapping
everything out of shape. That means all those crocs, there could be
a dozen or so, may be free…
’

‘I know about the blasted
crocodiles, Stephen.
’

‘How…?
’

‘As I said before,
there
’
s a Federal Task Force that knows
they were being captured and brought here. They know it was
Westmeyer
’
s boat that dropped an
unidentified girl in the ocean and that a boy was kidnapped this
morning and brought here. They were moving in on the Institute
when…
this
…happened.
Seems your mystery visitors got wind of the police action. They
were already prepping the building for destruction so they rushed
ahead with the plan. I know all about it, Stephen.’

Hunter stared back at her,
blinking rapidly, his breathing still laboured from the exertion
and the shock of their ordeal. Wheels began spinning in his mind.
He didn
’
t want to survive all this just
to be arrested and charged for his involvement in Nexus
’
criminal activities, his career ruined, his
dreams destroyed.
‘
I
’
m not like Westmeyer and the others, Kate.
That
’
s why I came down here with you, to
help.
’

‘Save it for the police.
That
’
s if we can get out of
this.
’

‘The crocodiles,
’
Hunter repeated,
‘
we
’
re better off waiting here,
until the rescuers find us.
’

‘
Find us?
They
’
re not going to find us at the
bottom of an elevator shaft beneath the rubble of a demolished
multi-storey building.
’

‘They must know
we
’
re down here. They
’
ll dig…
’

‘Whatever
’
s left up there
hasn
’
t stopped falling. We could still be
crushed and we need help for Brian…and Adam…
’

‘Kate…
’

‘Are you coming or do I go
alone?
’

Hunter rubbed the palms of
both hands vigorously over his face.
‘
Okay…I guess we can try.
’

He joined his hands together and
she used them as stirrups and he boosted her up to the sub-level
doors. There was a thin ledge at the juncture where the floor of
the elevator car was meant to join with the doorway portal. There
was a gap where the two sliding cabin doors met, courtesy of the
force that had rocked everything, and Kate was able to use that gap
as a handhold, lifting her feet onto the ledge. There was just
about enough space for her toes to find some grip and for a moment
she hung like a fly on a wall.

‘Can you give me a hand
up?
’

‘Give me…a moment.
’
She was close to hyper-ventilating, and she felt
sharp shivers and shakes through her bruised limbs. She held
herself in place, took in deep breaths, willed herself to be
strong.

‘Why crocodiles?
’
The question had been at the back of her mind
all along and now it resurfaced suddenly. This was hardly the time
for questions and answers but why obey the laws of logic and
normalcy now? There may not be a
‘
later.”
That simple, cruel fact was dawning on her in fits and starts,
depositing its strange chill in layers, one strip at a
time.

‘For their haemoglobin.
The project, started long ago by Westmeyer and developed into its
more advanced stages by the both of us, was the splicing together
of human and crocodile blood DNA.
’

Kate recalled the
conversation on which she
’
d
eavesdropped.
‘
This is the project you
call Delta Chain?
’

‘Yes.
’

‘Why Delta
Chain?
’

‘Kate, your
foot
’
s starting to slip.
’

She steadied
herself.
‘
I
’
m
okay.
’

‘Can you give me a hand
up?
’

‘No. I
’
m barely balancing as it is. I
’
m
going to try and prise the doors open far enough to get through,
there
’
s already quite a gap
there.
’

‘Just take it slowly,
okay?
’

She firmed her toes against the
ledge, pushing her body as far against the wall as she could to
maintain position. Gripping the edges of the doors, she attempted
to push them further apart.

‘They-won
’
t-budge. Blast
it!
’

‘Look,
you
’
ve tried, Kate.
You
’
ve tried.
’

‘Must…be able to…
’
Her toes slipped out from the ledge, her grip
lost, and she fell.

There had never been so many
people on this remote stretch of coast.

Constables John Harrison
and Ken Morgan had joined Arthur Kirby to assist in the search. A
number of local men, aware of the commotion, had also come forward
to offer their services in the search for Adam. It was clear to all
the leaders that neither Kate nor coroner Brian Markham or the
kidnapped boy had been seen in the aftermath.
They
’
d either perished in the demolition
or they
’
d been trapped on the hidden,
lower level.

O
’
Malley prayed they were still alive.

Kirby had taken charge of
the “unofficial” group comprising his constables and the town men.
He coordinated their search, working alongside the Task Force
detectives and Harradin
’
s SES
team.

They had all been fully briefed,
standing on the open beach, buffeted by the powerful winds, rain
spitting, with the full force of the storm almost upon them. They
were looking for anything resembling an opening along the sloping
cliff face. Caves, holes, fissures and rifts that disappeared back
into the rocky surfaces. The opening they were looking for was most
likely overgrown with weed or fern. And across a coastal stretch
like this one there would be dozens of openings that would be false
alarms. But all had to be brought to the attention of the team
co-ordinators. All had to be thoroughly investigated.

O
’
Malley had moved onto a bluff that overlooked the shore.
Harradin joined him. O
’
Malley saw that
A.B.C.S. boss Reardon had joined one of the search
teams.

‘I
’
ve seen this sort of thing many, many times,
’
Harradin said.
‘
People
come out of the woodwork, prepared to do anything to help. I often
wish the general public got to experience this the way my men and I
do. It
’
s not a bad thing, seeing the best
brought out in people. And it
’
s mainly in
a crisis like this you get to see it.
’

O
’
Malley grunted agreement. He
’
d
been a professional too long to be personally affected by mission
failures. But he couldn
’
t shake the sense
of responsibility he felt toward Adam Bennett and Kate Kovacs. He
feared more and more he wouldn
’
t see them
again. And he was largely responsible. This was his team, his
case.

‘The local
sergeant
’
s doing a slap up job
too,
’
Harradin observed.

‘Kirby. Probably feeling
guilt,
’
said O
’
Malley.
‘
Do him the world of
good.
’

‘Guilt?
’

‘Kirby
’
s an old time city man with a chip on his shoulder when it
comes to Gen X detectives. I
’
ve known him
on and off for years. Never made the detective grade himself, but
he
’
s good at what he does.
’

‘He and Bennett
didn
’
t hit it off?
’

‘I believe the
relationship was uneasy. Kirby kept his distance from Adam, and
always found plenty to criticise. But he
’
s no fool, he knows Bennett was a damn good cop. Right now
I
’
d say he
’
s
feeling a zillionth of an inch tall.
’