Jasmine then turned and kicked Winston. She then handed Shelly Winston’s pistol and left.
Chapter 18
Downtown Dallas held no resemblance to the posters that Jasmine remembered and collected as a child. The ball atop Reunion Tower was gone. The building with the green lights that framed the outline, save for a few rusty beams at the top, had collapsed. The catastrophe of Dallas brought tears to her eyes. She remembered how much her mother loved living in Dallas and hated moving to Kansas. In fact it was one of the reasons she joined the Impact Analysis and Design team, the team that designed and constructed the underground cities throughout the world. Had they gone west to the City of Texas she might be alive today, maybe even her father, too, had things been different.
She lay on her stomach, hidden in the midst of several downed buildings on Junius St., looking through her binoculars at the remains of the Baylor Medical Center where the Last Pharmacist was supposed be hidden, where his drugs were supposedly produced. Also beneath the center was an abandoned railway track that at one time was used for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system. The tunnels had survived and Jasmine suspected so had the rails. She believed it was the main hub and distribution center. From the looks of the guards that surrounded the building, the facility was still intact and still in business.
She dropped her head in her hands wondering what she was going to do now. In her haste and hatred she hadn’t thought far enough nor even planned as to what would happen when she got Dallas. She really didn’t believe she would make it, let alone have a solid plan.
She backed out of the fallen building and hurried over to the dirt bike, mounted, it and sped off in the direction of Malcolm X Boulevard in the direction of an entrance that her Uncle Baul had given her. No one knew the condition of the entrance to the tunnel but it was a start. No one really knew if the drug were being produced here but as many had tried, this was where they failed.
She got as far as walking distance and stopped and then laid the bike on its side, hidden in the middle of weeds and brick.
The sun, what she could see of it, had set, turning the golden haze into a dusky brown. The air was thick with putrid odors left from the fallout. The scientists were unsure how long the odor would last or what potential damage was hidden behind the odor but predicted another year, maybe two before everything would dissipate. The cities were in the planning stages. The outposts that Angela would lead would play an important role in the protection of the construction of the new US. Jasmine hoped they’d be in Hawaii soon after.
Crouched, Jasmine darted across an open field and then dove into the dark entrance where she rolled down the steps and onto the entrance to the loading area.
She lay there for a moment, looking around, and then slowly got to her feet. She then went deeper into the tunnel toward the entrance to the medical center. She crept into the darkness as if she knew where she was going. As if she had a clue where to go.
And deeper into the bowels beneath the medical center sat the factory that formulated and manufactured all of the medication used within the US and, along with those legal medications, the synthetic Heroin was produced, boxed, and mailed to mail centers within the underground cities.
Jasmine managed to open a door that led even deeper into the facility to a stairwell that wound down as far as she could see. She couldn’t imagine a facility that could have been created without government knowledge, especially such a place beneath a medical center. Surely there had to be records. She stopped and pulled a schematic of the center and looked it over. Nowhere in the schematic was there a stairwell.
She listened. No alarms, nor anyone chasing her. This was too easy and she wondered if it were a setup.
Down she went.
It wasn’t until she had gone down ten or so flights of stairs did she realize there were cameras on each level.
She froze.
“You’re reputation precedes you, Officer Cooper,” said the speaker near the camera.
“Good. You were expecting me,” Jasmine answered in a cool and calm manner, but on the inside she was nearly leaping out of her skin.
“I took the precaution to let you in,” the speaker continued. “Otherwise security would have killed you immediately.”
“Huh?” Jasmine mumbled barely above a whisper.
“All doors are locked except for the entrance to my room. You can go back up. Of course if you do that you I’m afraid I’ll have to sound the alarm and you’ll stand a good chance of being captured, or worse, killed. Or, you can continue down.”
Jasmine tried the door and found it locked.
“Look through the window and you’ll see a security guard. If you were able to make it through that door you would be shot immediately.”
Jasmine looked through the door and quickly took a step back. Two armed guards stood at the door, but what frightened her more than seeing two armed men were the fact they were dressed in as Gendarmerie Police, complete with the City of Texas insignia.
“But they’re… they’re police.”
“Yes, and what did you expect?”
“I’m not sure,” Jasmine wondered aloud. She certainly was not expecting Gendarmerie Police. “And if I come down?”
“Then we’ll discuss why you’re trying so hard to get here. You managed to neutralize Owen but I fail to understand why you’re coming here to the facility as if to close us down.”
“You don’t understand?”
“No.”
“Do you even realize what you are doing?”
“No.”
Jasmine hung her head as if she were speaking to an unemotional idiot. No one could be this stupid.
She went down.
Chapter 19
Thirty floors below the surface was a factory beyond anything Jasmine had ever seen. Legal and certified Lab and Pharmaceutical Technicians moved in and around each room, and beyond the workers were conveyor belts with packaged drugs—drugs that she had recognized—in various stages, and as Jasmine followed the route no one made an attempt to stop her. She passed several Gendarmerie Police who merely nodded. One stopped and shook her hand, “We’re all rooting for you, Jaz. Every cop from every city is rooting for you.”
Jasmine was stunned. So stunned, she didn’t know how to reply. How could these people not know that the drug was being manufactured in a building they were protecting?
For fear of mentioning what she was thinking, she merely nodded and moved on. At the end of the building she witnessed the final stage of preparation and delivery.
“Who’s in charge here,” Jasmine asked a lab technician donned in a white lab coat with a Sheldon Pharmaceutical, Inc. patch sewn on the left breast, who merely shrugged and moved off into a lab.
“I am in charge,” said a voice that came from a speaker at the end of the hall. “Two doors down on the left is an office. The door is unlocked and waiting. Would you care for a beverage, perhaps something to eat? Your journey has been long and we’re excited to finally meet.” As she continued down the hall the voice continued, “It was exciting news to hear about Owen and his renegades being disposed of, and the many lives you saved. As I understand it, Lieutenant Tanner has already begun prepping to build the outpost you recommended. I must say we are very excited to finally meet.”
Jasmine stopped at the door, and when she did, the voice that had sent chills down her spine earlier stopped as well. She turned the knob, expecting to be killed and slowly pulled her shotgun.
“Your weapon is not required Ms. Cooper. You are safe here.”
She eased the Mossberg back into its holster and pushed the door open.