C. Palov - Templar's Quest

Heart pounding, Kate pushed herself to keep up with Cædmon’s long-legged stride. Although the temperature inside the atrium was downright frigid, she was heated from the exertion. Stress, combined with lack of food and sleep, was sapping what little energy she had left. To prevent herself from stumbling, she focused on keeping her arms and legs coordinated.

Worried that Finn might run into trouble, she spared a quick glance over her shoulder. She hoped to God that Dr Uhlemann’s associates didn’t send armed reinforcements to ambush him. She didn’t know a lot about pipe bombs other than the fact that they were incredibly volatile and dangerous to handle. If he got caught in a firefight, it might trigger an unintended explosion.

As if to prove that very point, a loud blast suddenly thundered in the level below them, Kate feeling the reverberations in her spinal column. A few seconds later, a second bomb detonated. And then a third.

‘Excellent!’ Cædmon exclaimed. ‘McGuire has ignited the first three bombs.’

A few moments later, they arrived at the exit door, both of them slightly out of breath.

‘Bloody hell! Who puts a security lock on both sides of the door?’ Cædmon gestured to the numeric pad affixed to the right side of the door jamb. ‘Luckily, I have the access code.’

He keyed in a six-digit number.

‘Damn … I must have mis-keyed.’ He tried again, slower this time.

When nothing happened, Kate asked the obvious question. ‘Why isn’t the door unlocking?’

‘I have no idea. Not to fear.’ Cædmon absently patted her arm. ‘I have two other codes. I’m sure one of them will work.’

Despite his assurance, she literally crossed her fingers as she watched him carefully key in a second numeric code.

Six attempts later, Cædmon turned to her and delivered the bad news. ‘It would appear that we’re locked in.’

Kate gasped. Swayed. Saw spots in front of her eyes.

They were trapped inside the facility!

88

Like he was a launched ballistic missile, Finn charged out of the third-floor stairwell, hung a Louie, and ran towards the library.

‘ The laboratory is two doors down from the library. ’

‘Two Doors Down’ – one of his favourite Dolly Parton songs.

Finn smiled, everything going according to plan. Soon it would all be over. And when he’d completed the mission, he planned on sweeping little Katie right off her feet.

His smile widened. He wasn’t supposed to let his emotions flare during a mission. But what the hell? This was his last op. Once he cleared himself of the murder charges, he was going to put in for a transfer to Fort Bragg. Get himself a cushy position as a Delta Force training instructor. And while he didn’t want to get ahead of himself, he was feeling pretty confident that Kate would sign up for the move.

Arriving at the second door, Finn peered at the mezzanine below – Aisquith and Kate were already at the exit, about to make good their escape. Perfect.

Ripping open the flap on his cargo pants, he removed Uhlemann’s severed index finger, using the hem of his T-shirt to wipe off the excess blood. That done, he placed the fleshy tip on to the biometric reader.

A white light flared. An instant later, the bolt on the door popped open.

‘In like Finn,’ he chortled, riding a little happy high. He flung the butchered finger aside and opened the door. ‘I love it when the op goes without a hitch.’

Stepping across the threshold, he hit the light switch. A row of fluorescent bulbs washed the laboratory in antiseptic bright light.

‘There it is, the Flux Capacitor.’ But unlike the DeLorean time machine from the Back to the Future movie, this was the real deal. Not some contrived Hollywood invention.

He strode over to the glass enclosure. The remaining pipe bombs will definitely do the trick.

In a big-ass hurry, Finn went down on bent knee in front of the enclosure. He then carefully removed the last three bombs from his Go Bag and lined them up directly in front of the heavy-duty glass. Retrieving the cigarette lighter from his breast pocket, he quickly lit all three fuses.

Okay, boys and girls. ‘It’s home from work we go. ’

Lurching to his feet, he rushed over to the door … Only to draw up short an instant later.

Seeing the metal security panel attached to the side of the doorframe, Finn’s heart skidded. Full stop . Little Katie forgot to mention that there was a biometric security lock on both sides of the laboratory door, Uhlemann’s severed finger now on the other side of the locked door.

Ah, shit.

89

Refusing to surrender, Cædmon glared at the numeric keypad, the locked door an unforeseen wrinkle in the plan.

‘If we can’t exit the facility, Finn won’t be able to get out either,’ Kate anxiously informed him. Visibly shaking, her concern had already leapfrogged from moderate to acute.

‘Not to worry. I’ll call for help.’ Cædmon removed his cell phone from his jacket pocket and flipped it open, relieved that Uhlemann’s bald-headed minion had lacked the foresight to confiscate it.

Damn!

Bewildered, he showed Kate the dark screen. ‘It’s completely dead. I don’t understand … the battery was fully charged.’

‘I’m guessing the Vril force emitted an electromagnetic pulse that somehow disabled it.’

He shoved the phone back in his pocket. ‘Do you recall seeing a fire alarm anywhere in the research facility? If so, I could trigger it, alerting the guards in the lobby.’

Kate’s brow furrowed. ‘No, I …’ She shook her head dejectedly. ‘I’m sorry, Cædmon, but I can’t –’

‘It’s not your fault.’ He hesitated, worried that if he shouted for help, an armed interloper might answer the summons.

Bugger it.

Cupping his hands to his mouth, Cædmon stepped away from the door and bellowed, ‘McGuire! Where are you? We need your assistance!’

Ears still ringing from the first three bomb blasts, he cocked his head to one side and listened attentively.

Not so much as a pin. Damn.

He walked back to the exit door. ‘Doctor Uhlemann’s postmortem revenge, I daresay. Not only are we in the stocks, but we’re unable to communicate with the outside world. Only one thing left to do.’ Although his right arm ached and his head throbbed ferociously, Cædmon forcefully beat on the steel door with his balled fist in the hope that someone might be on the other side.

The painful shock waves that pounded his body in the aftermath were for naught. No one replied.

‘Wait!’ Wide-eyed, Kate clutched his forearm. ‘Didn’t Dolf key in a security code to gain entry to the viewing chamber?’

Cædmon replayed the scene in his mind’s eye. ‘He did, but I didn’t take note of the code.’

‘Um … let me think a minute …’ Closing her eyes, Kate raised her right hand. She then took several deep breaths before her fingers moved across an imaginary keypad. An instant later, her eyes popped open. ‘Three, eight, two, five, six, three. Try it.’

He hurriedly keyed in the code.

Hearing the lock click open, Cædmon sagged against the door jamb. Although he wasn’t a church-going man, he offered up a grateful prayer.

‘What a relief,’ Kate murmured. ‘We need to wait here until –’

Just then, a blast detonated on the upper level of the atrium. The force of the explosion blew out an entire bank of frosted glass, strafing the mezzanine with thousands of white shards. A deadly snowfall. A second later, the next blast detonated, hurling a section of railing through the air.

‘Finn! Where are you?!’ Kate screamed over the third and final bomb blast.