Andy Mcdermott - Temple of the Gods

Ranks of stacks flashed past. He kept his pace and footfalls as precise as those of a hurdler — if he tripped on the tracks, he would be an easy target.

Another aisle ahead — and a shuttle bearing several boxes rolled into view. If it turned towards him, he would be trapped—

It carried on past the intersection, heading for the cabins. Eddie swung round the corner and into the new aisle, running away from the retreating machine. It would give him temporary cover from the pursuing airmen, maybe even cause them to lose track of him.

More shouting, this time over a loudspeaker. ‘Don’t shoot, don’t shoot!’ Ogleby’s amplified voice boomed. ‘You’ll hit the files! Catch them and take them outside — and then shoot them!’

That restriction would help — if the guards took orders from a civilian. Not willing to gamble his life on that, Eddie kept running. If Nina had taken the route he’d suggested, she would be eight or nine aisles back to his right. But now that shots had been fired, she might have followed a different path.

He reached the next junction and ducked into the cover of the cross-aisle, stopping to look across the cavernous hall. No sign of Nina. Damn! Had she carried straight on, or gone into another aisle?

He glanced back round the corner. The shuttle had switched tracks to deliver its cargo to a collection point, leaving the way free for some of the airmen to run towards him. The others would be charging up the neighbouring aisles to cut off their prey. Eddie took a deep breath and ran again, heading — he hoped — back towards Nina. He glimpsed two men as he crossed an aisle and a single shot cracked past behind him, plunking into one of the metal storage boxes, but he was already clear.

‘I said don’t shoot !’ screeched Ogleby over the PA system. ‘Do! Not! Shoot! How hard is that for you to understand?’

The next aisle had nobody in it, nor the one beyond that. Eddie turned up it and raced deeper into the hangar. If he could reach the next intersection before any of his pursuers saw him…

Sparks lit the aisle as another shuttle rounded the corner ahead, coming in his direction — then stopped, its lifting arm rising up to pluck a large box from a shelf. He cursed. Squeezing past the machine would slow him down, but he was too far down the aisle to turn back and find an alternative route.

Not that he could anyway. ‘Stop or I fire!’ a man bellowed.

The guards had found him.

Eddie was over ten feet from the stationary shuttle as it lowered its cargo. He would be shot before he could get past the machine. He stopped, and turned. Two airmen had him in their sights. He held up his hands. ‘Nina!’ he called out. ‘They’ve got me. Get out of here, don’t let them catch you!’

‘Shut up!’ one airman shouted as he and his partner advanced. Another two men reached the junction behind them and followed. ‘Drop the gun!’

Eddie obeyed, then glanced back at the shuttle. If it set off again, he might be able to dive behind it as it passed. But it was still lowering the box.

He would have to risk it. It was clear that Dalton’s plan was for them to simply ‘disappear’. Better to try to run than meekly accept his fate.

The guards approached. The leading man took one hand off his rifle to take a set of flex-cuffs from his belt. The M4’s muzzle swayed away from Eddie.

This was his chance.

He tensed, about to rush for the shuttle—

Metal crashed above. The startled airmen looked up — and were knocked to the floor by a cascade of storage boxes falling from a high shelf.

Nina popped her head through the gap where the containers had been. ‘Eddie, run!’

‘I told you to run!’ he complained. But he was relieved beyond belief to see her. She ducked back as he slithered sidelong past the shuttle. Fallen boxes clanged and thumped as the groaning guards tried to get up.

Eddie rounded the corner, emerging in the next aisle in time to see Nina jump to the floor. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked, hurrying to him.

‘Yeah, but there’re more of ’em out there. Let’s find the stairs.’ They headed for the nearer of the hangar’s long side walls.

Ogleby’s voice came over the loudspeakers. ‘You morons!’ he shouted at the airmen. ‘They’re getting away! They’re in area seven. Stop them!’

‘Shit, he can see us!’ said Nina. There had to be security cameras somewhere above. If Ogleby could guide the troops after them, they had no hope of escaping.

Eddie looked ahead. They were coming up to another intersection, a set of points clacking to direct an approaching shuttle. He snatched a box file from a shelf. ‘What are you doing?’ asked Nina.

‘Putting things on the wrong track.’ He kicked at the points to force the switch open, then jammed the box into the gap. ‘Down here, get back.’

They retreated into the cross-aisle as the shuttle rumbled into the intersection. With the points out of position, it tried to continue straight ahead where it should have turned — then hit the box. The metal container was crushed by the shuttle’s weight, but it was enough to jolt the entire machine…

And send it off the tracks.

The thirty-foot crane tower made it very top-heavy. The shuttle wobbled before finally overbalancing and crashing against one of the stacks — which itself toppled, containers sliding off its shelves in a cacophonous chorus. It hit another stack, and that too fell, a giant domino reaction sweeping inexorably across the hangar.

But it wasn’t only the stacks that were falling. The top of the shuttle’s tower snagged the power grid as it tipped, tearing down a section. It slapped across the tracks—

There was a loud bang and a huge spray of sparks as the system short-circuited. The sudden overload blew out other parts of the Cold War-era electrical system — and the entire hangar abruptly fell into darkness. Ogleby’s horrified cry at the sight of the destruction of his library was cut off with a squawk of feedback.

‘Wow,’ said Eddie as the last echoing slam of a felled stack faded away. ‘That worked better than I thought.’

‘It doesn’t really help us, though, does it?’ Nina complained. ‘We can’t see anything either!’ But as her eyes adjusted, she realised they were not in total blackness. Amber emergency lights high overhead had come on, casting a dim fireside glow across the great chamber.

She could just about make out Eddie’s grin. ‘We can see enough. Come on.’ He took the lead as they ran into the gloom.

With the power off, they no longer had to worry about the repository’s machines, and in short order reached the side of the hangar. About fifty yards away, an illuminated box shone red above a recess in the wall: an emergency exit sign. They ran to it. Behind them, their hunters shouted across the stacks, but they were having enough trouble locating each other, never mind their prey.

Eddie barged through the door at the back of the opening. More sickly lights revealed a metal staircase switchbacking upwards into a tall shaft. No sign of movement above, but he still paused. ‘Can you hear anyone?’

Nina strained to listen, picking out a distant clamour of feet pounding on steel. ‘Someone’s there, but they’re a long way up.’ Eddie nodded and started up the steps. ‘Whoa, wait! I know your hearing’s not great, but didn’t you hear what I just said? They’re probably waiting for us at the top.’

‘Good job we’re not going all the way up, then. Come on, give it some high knees!’ He set off again, Nina following in confusion.

‘What do you mean?’ she panted. ‘How are we going to get out?’

‘Not by running up three thousand bloody stairs, for a start.’ As they climbed, another sign came into sight: the next level. ‘That big lift was on this floor.’