If I hadn’t insisted on doing my little recon mission yesterday posing as OSHA, Adley wouldn’t have gotten tipped off and thought to come back. He clearly thought someone might come for Bennet and had a plan to take them down. He’s willing to kill anyone and everyone just to get this girl back.
Tony’s voice comes through, talking to the two remaining guys not locked in a room with a homicidal maniac. “Lukas, I’m cutting the audio to the guys so our chatter doesn’t distract them while they’re dealing with Adley and the two guards. Watch the one in the doorway in case he decides to explore. Micah, stay down and stay quiet.”
I listen as they catch each other up on their positions. Lukas lets us know they barricaded the entrance, and there’s a heavy gate closed over the main entrance. The fences have been reinforced, not that they could reasonably climb them in the first place. Lukas sends Tony a few cell phone pictures, which he forwards to us. It doesn’t look good.
“Shit, Okay. Even if I could override the manual safeties and open the gates, there’s no realistic way through those barricades. We’re going to have to improvise. Big time.” Tony switches channels so he’s just talking to us. “What the fuck are we going to do?”
“What about a helicopter?” Quinn says. “Give me two minutes to make a call.”
After a moment of silence, Lukas comes back on. “Tony. We have grenades. Could they do enough damage to the barricades for us to get through?”
“Unfortunately not,” he tells him, the fear in his voice leaking through for the first time tonight.
“Guys! I got it!” Quinn shouts, probably loud enough for Lukas and Micah to hear in the background of Tony’s earpiece. “Medevac coming in, ETA 13 minutes!”
“Quinn, you’re amazing!” I feel a little spark of hope, but also worry that we’re just about to add more to the body count that this disaster has become. What if they shoot down the helicopter?
“There’s only one way you’re escaping that compound,” Tony tells the guys. “If you can’t go through it, and you can’t go around it…” He’s clearly excited and holding a little hope now, otherwise, he wouldn’t bother with the dramatics.
“Dude, there’s no way we could get over those fences. Especially with Bennet. He’s in rough shape. He needs a hospital and a surgeon like yesterday.”
“And that’s why we’re calling in a Medevac,” Tony tells him. “They’re already on their way and should be at your coordinates in less than fifteen minutes. But we need to get your guys out of that building.”
There’s a pause as we all work on a solution, and I finally get access to the building controls. “Tony, I’ve got a handle on the manual safeties.”
Lukas sounds weird, like he’s going to be sick. “The grenades might not blast through a concrete barricade…”
“But they could clear a path for us to get out the front door,” Micah finishes for him.
Damn. That’s… a lot. But I consider what I would do to save the people I love, and I can’t find it in myself to judge him. After all, I was going to blow this building to pieces until I realized there might be innocents inside. Assuming I could have gone through with it at all. Can Lukas? He doesn’t seem the type. Luis probably wouldn’t think twice. But Lukas seems quiet, shy, and sweet. He’s a worrier, and kind of reminds me of Tony.
Could Tony blow people up to save the people he loves? I think maybe he could…
Shaking myself from my internal thoughts, I listen as Micah hashes out a plan. “We need a diversion. We can give the guys a heads up, a chance to take them by surprise. I’ll sneak up on the guard blocking the doorway.”
“What about the lights?” I say to just Tony. “They could be disorienting.”
“I can turn all the lights on at once. If they know it's happening, they can hopefully keep their bearings and take control of the situation,” Tony says to the guys.
Tony claps and lays out the plan. “Alright, let's do this. I'll give them a warning, turn all the lights on at once, and then hope for the best. Listen for my cues. Lukas, there are two grenades. Grab them both and move up as close as you can without being detected. You need to be within throwing range. When it's time—pull the pin, count to two, then throw. Aim directly behind where the guards are crouched down. They won't expect an attack from the rear. The other guards will probably run forward, so be ready to shoot or toss the second grenade.”
“How do you know how grenades work?” Asks Quinn.
“Google,” Tony answers, switching back to the channel where the other guys can hear him. “Get ready,” is the only warning they get before I shut off the lights and alarms, then flip all the lights on at once.
I listen raptly as chaos breaks out, wishing that we had eyes on them so we could see what’s happening in there. I can see Micah’s back as he disarms the guard blocking the door, but other than that, it’s all speculation what each sound is. My heart beats out of my chest as I hear grunts, thuds, and gunshots.
Someone must have Adley close by. I can hear him yelling through their microphone. “You won't get away with this. No matter what happens in this room, you'll never leave this building alive. Every guard on campus is surrounding the exits, ready to shoot to kill. And if you kill me, they won’t even spare her.”
No one seems to pay him any attention, and I strain my ears, wondering what’s happening in that room.
They’re talking to each other, but it’s so low it just sounds like unintelligible murmuring. Then Micah speaks as if he’s reading something aloud. “ProGen8 is the only other surviving member of the ProGen series. Her limbs and many of her organs never developed fully, and she doesn't seem to have the ability to speak due to brain injury or malformation—there's a brief reference to a trial that was done that might have caused the damage.”
Is he talking about the comatose pregnant woman?
His voice sounds choked as he continues. “It seems they mostly have used her to test wildly experimental regenerative treatments and for… breeding trials.”
I barely catch the last words, but my stomach lurches. Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse.
