Matthew Reilly - Area 7

over the last few hours. It had leveled off flush against the

floor of Level 4. Inky black wavelets lapped up against the

edges of the horizontal opening so that it now looked like a

little rectangular pool.

Level 5, it seemed, was completely underwater now.

Schofield stepped past the pool--just as something

slashed quickly through its waves. He spun, whipped his

gun around, but whatever it had been was long gone.

This was not what he needed.

Dark complex. Bears moving around the stairwells.

Caesar and Logan in here somewhere. Water everywhere.

Not to mention the possible presence of more prisoners.

He came to the wall that divided Level 4 in two, flung

its door open and snapped his gun up ...

... and immediately saw Gant on the far side, beyond

the shattered remains of Kevin's cube, lying spread-eagled

up against a bizarre steel cross.

SCHOFIELD RAN ACROSS THE OBSERVATION AREA, SLID TO HIS

knees in front of Gant.

As he arrived before her, he dropped his P-90, clasped

her head gently in his hands and, without even thinking,

kissed her on the lips.

At first, Gant was a little stunned, then she realized

what was happening and she kissed him back.

When he pulled away, Schofield saw the two men on either

side of her.

First he saw Hagerty, out cold, similarly crucified.

Then he saw the dead Colonel Harper—saw the raw

pink flesh of his hacked-off lower body, saw his exposed

tailbone.

"Holy Christ ..." he breathed.

"Quickly," Gant said. "We don't have much time, he'll

be back soon."

"Who?" Schofield started unraveling her duct-taped

throat.

"Lucifer Leary."

"Oh, shit ..." Schofield started working faster. The tape

around Gant's neck came free. He started on her wrists ...

There came a loud resonating boom from within the

walls.

Schofield and Gant both looked up, eyes wide.

"The aircraft elevator ..." Schofield said.

"He must have gone upstairs," Gant breathed, "and now

he's back. Hurry ..."

Faster now, Schofield continued untying the tape

440

Matthew Reilly

around Gant's left wrist, but it was done too tightly. His fingers

fumbled with the tape. This was taking too long ...

He spun, saw some glass shards lying over by Kevin's

stagelike living area--shards that he could use to cut the

duct tape. He slid over toward them and sifted through them,

trying to find one that was sharp enough. He found one, just

as Gant called, "Scarecrow!" and he stood and turned--

--and found himself confronted by an extremely tall

broad-shouldered figure.

Schofield froze.

The figure just stood there before him--perhaps a yard

away, his face shrouded in shadow--absolutely motionless.

He towered over Schofield, gazing at him silently. Schofield

hadn't even heard him approach.

"Do you know why the weasel never steals from the alligator's

nest?" the shadowy figure asked. Schofield couldn't

even see the man's mouth move.

Schofield swallowed.

"Because," the figure said, "it never knows when the alligator

will return."

And then the giant man stepped into the firelight--

--and Schofield saw the most fearsome, evil-looking

face he'd ever seen in his life. The face was big--like its

owner--and it had a hideous black tattoo covering its entire

left side, a tattoo depicting five ragged claw marks scratched

down the length of the man's face.

Lucifer Leary.

He was absolutely enormous, too, at least six-foot

eight, with massive muscular shoulders and gigantic tree

trunk legs; almost a full foot taller than Schofield. He wore

prison-issue jeans and a sky-blue shirt with the sleeves ripped

off. His black eyes revealed not a trace of humanity--they

just stared at Schofield like empty black orbs.

Then Leary opened his mouth, smiling menacingly, revealing

foul yellow teeth.

The effect was mesmerizing, almost hypnotic.

Schofield shot a glance back over at Gant, at his P-90

lying on the floor in front of her. Then, in what he thought

area 7 441

was a quick draw, he whipped his two pistols from his thigh

holsters.

The guns barely got out of their sheaths. Leary had anticipated

the move.

Quick as a rattlesnake, he lunged forward and clamped

his fists around Schofield's gun hands, seizing them by the

wrists.

And then the bigger man started to squeeze.

Schofield had never felt such intense pain in his life. He

dropped to his knees, teeth clenched--his wrists held in

Leary's giant paws. Blood flow to his hands ceased. It felt as

if his fingers--bulging with redness--were going to burst.

He released his pistols. They clattered to the floor. Leary kicked them away.

Then, with the guns gone, he seized Schofield by the

throat, lifted him clear off the ground and hurled him across

Kevin's living area.

Schofield went crashing across the stage, sliding

through some toys, before he exploded through a still

upright section of glass and went tumbling off the far edge

of the stage.

Lucifer stalked around the elevated platform after him,

his every step crunching on broken glass.

Schofield groaned, tried to stand. He needn't have bothered.

Within seconds, Leary was there.

The massive killer lifted Schofield off the floor by his

combat webbing and punched him hard in the face, sending

his head snapping backwards.

Gant could only watch helplessly from her cross--her

hands still tightly bound, Schofield's P-90 lying on the floor

only inches away from her--as Lucifer pounded Schofield.

The fight was all one-way traffic.

Lucifer hit, Schofield recoiled, collapsed in a heap to

the floor.

Lucifer strode forward, Schofield struggled to stand up.

And then Lucifer hurled Schofield through the doorway

that divided Level 4, sending him sliding into the decompression

area.

442

Matthew Reilly

Lucifer followed him in.

Another kick and Schofield rolled--bleeding and gasping --up against the rim of the horizontal doorway in the

floor, filled as it was with lapping water.

And then from out of nowhere, a giant reptilian head

came bursting up out of the water and lunged at Schofield's

head.

Schofield rolled quickly, avoiding the fast-moving jaws

as they snapped down an inch away from his face.

Jesus!

It was a Komodo dragon. The largest lizard in the

world, a known man-eater. The President had said they kept

some of them here--along with the Kodiak bears, in cages

down on Level 5--for use on the Sinovirus project.

The electric locks on their cages, it seemed, hadn't survived

the power shutdown either.

At the sight of the Komodo dragon in the pool, a thin

smile cracked Lucifer's hideous face.

He lifted Schofield off the ground and held him out over

the reptile-infested pool.

As he hung above it, legs kicking, hands grappling at

Lucifer's enormous fists, Schofield saw the dark alligator

like bodies of at least two dragons in the water beneath him.

Then without so much as a pause, Lucifer dropped

Schofield into the pool.

Schofield splashed down into the water in an explosion

of foam, a moment before Lucifer pressed a button in the

floor beside the doorway, causing the hole's sliding garage

style door to close quickly over the ripples that marked the

spot where Schofield had plunged into it.

Within seconds, the leading edge of the door met the