The Cure, стр. 34

Danny followed the blueprints and passed the front desk and down some stairs to an area which was open plan with desks lined up in a semi-circular fashion in front of a giant screen. The screen flicked between security footage of the reservoir and a broadcast every thirty seconds of his father warning everyone to evacuate and move to safe and secure areas of the country. He stood there looking at the ten-foot-tall vision of his father and nodded ‘I hope I’m doing you proud Dad.’

He lifted his haversack and walked between the desks to the door at the back of the room. Looking through the window he jumped backwards as a face appeared behind the glass. ‘A hologram,’ he said to himself as the face peered back at him. ‘Name and security code?’ a voice came through the speaker on the wall. ‘Erm, Daniel Mathers,’ he stammered. ‘Not recognized,’ came the reply. He had not been prepared for this and he started to become flustered. He grabbed a nearby chair and threw it at the door. ‘Name and security code?’ came the voice again. ‘President Nathanial Mathers,’ he said. ‘Not recognized,’ repeated the hologram with no expression on its face. Danny picked up the chair he’d just thrown and sat down on it looking for inspiration.

In the silence, weighing up his options, Danny heard a noise from upstairs. He jumped up startled and ran over to the entrance to the room. He contemplated climbing the stairs and confronting whatever had made the noise, but he thought twice. He secured the doors with a broken chair leg through the door handles, wondering if it would hold.

 Running back to the security door he looked chillingly into the dead eyes of the hologram looking back at him ‘Name and security code?’ Frustrated, and almost in tears that he had come so far and was now not going to be able to complete his mission, he rested his arms and head against the door, completely exhausted. As he did, the door moved open. ‘Override effected,’ came the voice again as Danny almost fell through the door. Composing himself he walked through the door and past the hologram cursing. Now he had a choice to make. Did he close the door behind himself and ensure no-one else followed him inside, but risk not being able to get out again, or leave it open and hope the noise he had heard was nothing?

He left the door ajar and walked forward into a tunnel. It had reinforced windows overlooking a lake thirty feet below and solid steel structures on the right of him. The walls were cold and damp to the touch and he could feel the movement of water down the other side despite a good two-meter thickness to the wall. If he had placed the C4 here it would make no impact whatsoever. He needed to find the weak point and attach the explosives. Time was a concern and he hadn’t heard anything through the walkie-talkie for some time. The not knowing what was happening with Logan was far worse than being here with the world on his shoulders.

Moving along the tunnel it opened out every ten feet and a monitor above him broadcast the message from his father, ‘find a safe area.’ ‘I gave up my safe area Dad, to save your ass,’ he said begrudgingly.

Ahead of him he could see a tent pitched up against the side of the tunnel. He slowly approached it and looked inside. A skeleton still inside a sleeping bag was the only occupant. He looked around at the possessions around the tent and picked up some photos and flicked through them. Empty tins of food scattered around. Someone obviously saw this as a safe area but failed to consider their ongoing food source. Danny felt sad that this person had died alone with nothing but their memories.

Up ahead he saw the walls curve inwards and there was a metal framed vault door within the wall. This was it. A small port hole in the vault door showed nothing but water falling from above. ‘Right,’ said Danny, mentally preparing himself for what he needed to do.

***************

Back at the prison Zack’s gun pressed against the Professor’s head, leaving a red mark against his temple, whilst the others watched on. Mendez edged ever closer towards the boy, but Zack was watching every move.

‘Seriously, you think I can’t see you?’ he said to Mendez.

‘Look Zack, whatever this is about, we can sit down and talk about it,’ said Logan.

‘Time for talking is over. Did you really think your little plan was going to work? They’ve known about your little gang of ungrateful losers since pretty much the beginning,’ said Zack.

Logan looked at the others to see if they knew anything about what he was saying but the blank faces said it all.

‘Really? You think they knew anything about it. None of them had a clue. Not even Faye, may she rest in peace. Ha-ha. Jay, yes,’ he smiled ‘that was MacGregor and me. Don’t worry, he didn’t feel a thing. Ha-ha. Went down like a sack of spuds. Goldsmith told me to keep an eye on you after they had the initial meeting to put everything into place. He knew not to trust you. He said you were weak and that you would find a way to mess up any chance of a future.’ His finger on the trigger started to twitch.

‘We knew exactly what you were up to down to the last detail. Goldsmith said you’d come here. Although to be fair he thought our good Professor here would be long gone. That was the whole point of putting him with the worse human beings in the world. But here we all are,’ he chuckled.

‘And your plan was to what? Shoot the Professor and walk out