Armen Gharabegian - Protocol 7

“SAM!”

The heat drove her back. She tried to push herself forward again, groped in the water to find Andrew’s shoulder or hand, anything to grab onto, but he was fully underwater now. She had to struggle to keep from sliding forward through the slush, where she knew she would sink into the melted water herself.

Moments later, the Spector disappeared into a vertical pool it had created. Soon after, the melted ice it had left behind with the heat of its passing started to re-freeze.

Sam saw what was going to happen an instant before it did.

“Wait!” she screamed and lunged forward. “Wait!” The brilliant light from the shaft began to fade to a ghostly glow as the Spector fell deeper and deeper. Samantha pushed even deeper into the freezing pool where Andrew had disappeared, searching.

Ice was already forming on its surface, impossibly fast.

She jerked her hands free, struggled to her feet, and kicked out a boot at the skin of ice as it formed. It cracked with the sound of a gunshot, and she threw herself forward, trying to thrust her hands into it again.

She was hysterical. Andrew’s down there, she told herself. I can do this; I can pull him out.

She felt the ice form around her wrists. It was happening so fast.

She felt Ryan’s hands on her shoulders, his arm around her waist. She felt her hands fly free of the confining ice as he pulled her back, hard, and they fell sprawling on the ground.

But that was all she felt. She could think of nothing more.

“Andrew,” she said turning around, crawling onto her knees. “Andrew.”

The ice turned solid as rock as she knelt there weeping.

He was gone.

The pilot’s flesh wound burned like fire as the DITV made its last turn and paused at the entrance to the Dragger Station Bridge. They were less than five hundred yards from the edge, and Simon was still holding the pistol firmly against the pilot’s neck. He didn’t seem to care that the Vector5 solider was bleeding heavily.

For the first time, Simon was aware that Nastasia was standing close behind him.

The sensor array on the console showed them the image of what lay ahead: the chasm, and then three chambers on the far side. Beyond that was a network of tunnels even more complex and ominous than the labyrinth they had just navigated. In the center of the dome, there appeared to be three vertical shafts-huge elevators that went even lower, deeper into the ice, toward the depth of the icy underworld.

“Where the hell is this leading us?” Max asked in a strangely hushed voice.

The pilot was getting woozy, but he tried to answer anyway. “The tunnels to…Central…you can only get to them through those vertical shafts. Watch…”

The DITV rolled across the bridge very quickly. On the far side, they were abruptly thrown into complete darkness as the shadow of the structure fell across them. The only light that survived was the glow from the digital displays.

The pilot activated the forward headlamps with one shaking finger. The three elevator doors were just a hundred feet ahead of them; each elevator was large enough to accommodate a vessel the size of the DITV.

The indicators above two of the doors read 000. The indicator above the third, the one to the right, read +480…and grew smaller as they watched: +470…+460…

The soldier slouched forward, losing the last of his strength. Max moved quickly in trying to grab the man as he fell, but he was a beat too late. The DITV started rolling slowly forward, toward the door of the elevator that was about to arrive.

“Stop him!” Simon said.

“Too late! Brace yourself!” The DITV moved relentlessly forward; nothing could stop it. In less than twenty feet, they would crash directly into the gargantuan doors.

Simon reached past Max and slapped the pilot, hard as he could. It shocked the man half-awake, if only for an instant.

“Look!” Simon shouted straight into his face. “LOOK!”

The pilot’s eyes widened. He saw the metal doors of the elevator surging toward him.

“NO!” he said. His hands darted out, found the controls, and pulled.

The vehicle skidded to a halt, three feet from the elevator doors.

Still the one elevator descended: +280…+270…

The pilot fell back in his seat, his mouth working as he tried to speak.

“Doesn’t matter,” he gasped. “We’re all dead now.”

“What’s down there?” Simon said. “What’s happening?”

The pilot’s eyes fluttered. He closed his eyes. His head fell to the side as he lost consciousness entirely, slumping over in the chair.

+230…+210…

“Shit,” Max said. He hesitated for an instant, then jumped forward, and ripped the unmoving pilot’s uniform from his body.

Nastasia blanched. “What are you doing?”

With sudden ferocity he grabbed her by the collar of her exo-suit and dragged her to him, putting his mouth close to her ear, speaking in a very fast, nearly-silent whisper.

“The AI hasn’t noticed us coercing him. Which means there’s no voice recognition-she doesn’t pay attention after the first security check. So I have to try this. Help me.”

It was a thirty-second struggle to get the suit off the dying pilot and on to Max. The instant it was in place, he threw himself into the pilot’s seat and scowled at the freight elevator’s indicator:

+120.

He looked frantically around the console, trying to understand the complex array of gadgets. Where was the starter? Where was the fucking weaponry? Whatever was coming down that shaft was not going to be friendly; he had to be ready for it.

+50…

They began to feel the vibration of the massive elevator as it approached. Only then did Max decide what to do.

He put his hands on the control and pulled back, just a little. The DITV obeyed and moved back.

“Lazarus-9905,” he said. “Open central shaft.”

The door to the left of the approaching elevator obediently, swiftly, opened wide.

Simon lifted the rifle that he was holding, well aware that it would be useless to stop any real threat.

+20…+15…

Bright light poured from the elevator door as it cracked open. Max had made sure the DITV’s sensors showed the space inside was empty, so he didn’t hesitate. He moved his wrist forward, and the DITV responded instantly, trundling into the massive elevator. To their surprise, before the treads had engaged the edge of the door, a voice command prompted permission.

“You are clear, 9905, for your coordinates at 2,435 meters. Please confirm depth.”

“Affirmative,” said Max. He had no idea if that was the correct response.

He had guessed right. The doors slid shut and the lights blinked off, plunging them into total darkness yet again.

Their stomachs sank as the descent to Central Command began.

Two seconds later at Dragger Station, the elevator to their right opened wide, and Blackburn emerged.

“Report?” he demanded.

No one said a thing.

“Report!”

* * *

Below him, falling away, Nastasia felt her world closing in.

She didn’t belong here. She knew that. But fate had chosen her, and it was time to do what had to be done.

* * *

Blackburn clenched his teeth as the freight elevator reached the level of Dragger Pass, and continued downward. He had no idea that Simon, Max, and Nastasia were literally a few feet away from him, descending to the Nest in the adjacent shaft at a speed only slightly slower than his own. The padded interior cast an eerie effect from the dim blue lights mounted along its interior edges.

His detachment of soldiers was absolutely silent behind him; he knew they were the only men in the entire Vector5 organization with the clearance-and the courage-to enter the Nest…and he wasn’t sure if he was glad of that or concerned. This was his operation-his goal. He didn’t want to share it, not even with his own men.