Matthew Reilly - Area 7

the doorway, reaching out for Book II with an outstretched

hand.

Then Book II looked up.

The descending elevator was barely three feet above his

head and coming down fast!

He threw out a hand and Love Machine grabbed it, and

hauled him over to the doorway, pulling him through the water.

Then Elvis and Calvin grabbed them both and yanked

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them out of the water, just as the elevator slid past the edge

of the doorway and abruptly came to a halt--right in front of

the doorway.

Everybody froze.

Water began to ooze up around the floor of the lift, rising

up from beneath it, hungrily searching for an escape

from the shaft. It immediately began to spread out across the

concrete floor of Level 5.

Book II waited tensely for the elevator's doors to

open--waited for a phalanx of 7th Squadron men to burst

out from it with their guns blazing.

But none did.

The lift was empty.

They were safe, for the moment.

Book II turned to face the room around him. A layer of

expanding water had already started filling it.

It was a wide anteroom of some sort. Some wooden

desks, a Lexan glass cabinet full of shotguns and riot gear.

Plus a couple of holding cells.

Book II frowned.

It was almost as if he were standing in the reception room of a jail.

"What in God's name is this place?" he said aloud.

AT THAT VERY SAME MOMENT, ON THE OTHER SIDE OF LEVEL 5,

Juliet Janson and the President of the United States found

themselves standing in a whole new kind of hell.

Juliet had thought the animal cage room had been bad.

This was worse.

After bursting through the heavy-looking door on the

western side of the animal cage room, she now found herself

staring at a far more frightening part of Area 7.

A wide, dark, low-ceilinged room stretched away from

her. It was sparsely lit, with only one in every three lights

turned on, a policy which had the effect of leaving small

patches of the vast room hidden in perfect blackness.

But the low light couldn't hide the true nature of this

level.

It was filled with cells.

Old rusty concrete cages--thick-walled, with anodized

black bars sunk deep into concrete dividers. The cells were

quite obviously aged, and in the half-light of Level 5, they

took on a positively Gothic appearance.

It was, however, the groans and hoarse whispers coming

from the darkness behind the bars that betrayed the nature of

their occupants.

These were not animal cells, Juliet realized in horror.

They were human cells.

THE PRISONERS HEARD THE HEAVY DOOR BURST OPEN--HEARD

Juliet and the President and the other two Secret Service

agents charge through it--and they rushed as one to the

doors of their cells to see what the commotion was.

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"Oh, hey, baby!" one toothless individual cried as

Juliet, striking and purposeful as she held her silver SIG Sauer pistol in her hand, charged past his cell, pulling the

President behind her.

"Ramondo!" she yelled. "Block that door behind us!"

A row of steel lockers lined the wall near the door leading

back to the animal cage room. Ramondo yanked the first

three of them down from their upright positions, strewing

the lockers in front of the door.

The prisoners began to shout and cry out.

Like all lifers, they could sense fear instantly, and they

took pleasure in heightening it. Some yelled obscenities,

others rattled their bars with enamel drinking mugs, others

still just wailed a constant ear-piercing "Ahhhhhhhhh!"

Juliet bolted through the nightmare, grim-faced and determined.

She saw a gently-sloping ramp off to her right--fenced

off by a big barred gate. The ramp seemed to lead up to the

next level. She made for it.

"Hey, baby! You wanna go for a spin ... on top of my

flagpole!"

The President stared wide-eyed at the chaos all around

him. Prisoners in blue denim uniforms, unshaven and

crazed, leaned out from their cages, trying to grab him.

"Hey, old man. I bet you got a nice soft marshmallow ass--"

"Come on," Juliet yanked the President away from the

voices.

They came to the barred gate.

As one would expect on a cell block, its lock was thick

and strong. They couldn't shoot through it.

"Curtis," Juliet said crisply. "Lock."

Special Agent Curtis slid to his knees in front of the

gate and pulled a high-tech-looking lock-picking device

from his coat pocket.

As Curtis unfolded his lock-picker, Janson scanned the

area around them.

There was movement and noise everywhere. Arms

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flailed out of cell doors. Snarling faces tried to squeeze

through the bars. And the shouting, the constant shouting.

"Ahhhhhhhh!"

None of the prisoners seemed to recognize the President.

They all just seemed to enjoy making noise, inciting

fear--

Then abruptly, there came a loud boom from somewhere

behind them.

Juliet spun, pistol up.

She was met by the sight of a Marine, his full dress uniform

completely saturated, charging toward her with a Remington

pump-action shotgun raised.

Behind the first man were three more Marines, also

soaked to the skin.

The lead Marine lowered his shotgun when he saw

Juliet and the President.

"It's okay! It's okay!" Book II said, coming closer, lowering

the shotgun he had pilfered from the arms cabinet in

the anteroom. "It's us!"

Calvin Reeves stepped forward, spoke seriously.

"What's happened down here?"

Juliet said, "We've lost six people already, and those Air

Force bastards are in the next room, right on our asses."

Behind her, Special Agent Curtis inserted his lock

picker into the gate's lock, pressed a button.

Zzzzzzzzz!

The lock-picking device emitted a shrill dentist-drill

like buzz. The lock clicked loudly and the gate swung open.

"What's your plan from here, Agent Janson?" Calvin

asked.

"To be where the bad guys aren't," Juliet said. "First of

all, by going up this ramp. Let's move."

Special Agents Curtis and Ramondo headed up the

ramp first, followed by Calvin. Juliet pushed the President

after them. Love Machine and Elvis went next. Book II fell

into step beside Juliet, covering the rear.

Just as they were about to head up the ramp, however,

they both heard a voice above the din.

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"--not a prisoner--a scientist!--know this facility-- can help you!"

Juliet and Book II spun.

It took them a second to locate the owner of the voice.

Three cells down from the ramp, in the cell closest to

the animal cage room.

The owner of the voice was standing up against the bars

of his cell--which in the surrounding chaos had only made

him look just like all the other prisoners.

But upon closer inspection, he looked considerably different

from the others.

He wasn't wearing a blue denim inmate uniform.

Rather, he wore a white lab coat over shirtsleeves and a loosened

tie.

Nor did he look deranged or menacing. Quite the opposite,

in fact. He was short, with glasses and thinning blond

hair that looked like it had been combed every day of his life.

Juliet and Book came to his cell.

"Who are you?" Juliet shouted above the din.

"My name is Herbert Franklin!" he replied quickly.

"I'm a doctor, an immunologist! Until this morning, I was

working on the vaccine! But then the Air Force people