CHAPTER 8
Dimitri rummaged through various supply bins on top of the filing cabinet. What can we use? He sifted through meal rations, first-aid buckets, and empty ammo boxes. He was on a mission to find something that would be useful on a journey. Nothing too much of value.
Hanna stood nearby and kept a watchful eye on Pierce. Russell had the door blocked. He leaned up against the door with his arms crossed. The moment seemed to be safe. Hanna stepped toward Dimitri, keeping her voice low. “What are you thinking?” she asked.
“There are tunnels about five more stories underground from where we are now. They go out as far as gate one. It’s the only way out.” Dimitri then looked back toward Pierce, who was sitting across the room. “I’m sure that’s how they brought us here.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea? To leave? What if he’s telling the truth?” Hanna replied.
Dimitri then grabbed what seemed to be the only bottled water among the supplies and downed it as if dying of thirst. As the last gulp traveled down his throat, he replied to the question with certainty. “They’re not sending a unit down here. It’s a one-way trip. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the one who put us here.”
It was an alarming thought, but Hanna believed him.
Across the room, Gail’s condition started to attract Pierce’s attention. She desperately coughed and gagged for air. Something was obviously physically wrong with her, but something about her symptoms scratched at Pierce’s mind. She seemed to be fading fast. He had seen this before, but he couldn’t place it. Wonder what she was exposed to. Perhaps it was just the dust in the room.
Pierce turned to Russell. “How long has she been like this?”
Russell shrugged the comment off. It was as if Gail wasn’t in the room with them. “I don’t know.”
Dimitri and Hanna entered the conversation from the other side of the room. Dimitri stopped just short of the man’s boots. Pierce looked up, coming to terms with an inevitable conflict.
“How far are we from accessing the digs?” Dimitri demanded.
Pierce looked off and said nothing.
“The elevator. How far is it from where we are now?” Dimitri continued.
Pierce dropped his head and looked away, trying to avoid the question. Dimitri kicked the side of the man’s boot. “Come on. You’re in this shit with the rest of us. You think it matters?”
“A court-martial is the last thing you need to be worried about. That’s for sure,” Russell added.
Pierce chuckled and started to rise from his chair. Dimitri shoved him back down. He wanted to say something, but Dimitri seemed to be crazier than he was.
“You don’t want to go through the tunnels. You go down there, you won’t come back,” he replied, and he glanced over to Hanna.
Hanna stood puzzled for a few seconds. The entire situation sounded like bullshit. Pierce was clearly withholding something. It was her job to recognize a lie. She was an expert at reading people. It was the one thing that made her really good at her job auditing for national security failures. She had questioned generals and politicians who were better liars than Pierce.
“You came in that way,” Dimitri replied.
“I don’t remember anything. I woke up, and here I am.”
“Help us find another way then,” Hanna interjected.
Pierce shook his head and chuckled. “Go yourself. Good luck.”
Dimitri smiled. He wasn’t sure what action to take. Russell and Hanna looked at each other with frustration. Hanna had had enough. “You’re hiding something,” she replied.
Pierce interrupted her quickly. “Am I? Tell me.”
“Why were we put here?” asked Hanna.
Pierce scoffed at the question and rolled his eyes. “I don’t need to answer to you.”
“No, but you need to answer to me, Master Sergeant Pierce. And you’re going to lead us out,” Gail replied, stepping from the shadows of the room.
It had taken all her energy to stand. She slowly wiped the sweat from her tired face and lumbered toward the door.
Pierce couldn’t help but notice her determination, but he wasn’t afraid to disappoint her. “Sorry, Lieutenant. With all due respect, I think I’ll stay right here,” he replied arrogantly.
Pierce’s smugness ended with the arrival of a sound. It was the sound of tapping. Dimitri’s index finger tapped against the Browning pistol in front of him. His eyes locked down with killer instinct. Pierce’s attention rolled back down to the gun and then back up to Dimitri. Gail stepped forward and positioned herself next to Dimitri.
“You should have stayed with your team, Master Sergeant,” said Gail.
Pierce sighed. He had been defeated. He was going to have to lead them out of that room and revisit the hell he had desperately escaped. He would make it his mission to protect himself.
PART TWO
Domicile
CHAPTER 9
A dark hallway split in two. A beam of bright light slivered from the crack of the door, separating the hallway into sections. The silhouette of a man stepped into the doorframe and paused. It was Pierce. He was still unarmed and reluctant. He was being forced to step outside first. His job now was being a human shield. Dimitri nudged him forward a few steps. He carefully ventured into the unknown hallway. Hanna was a step behind Dimitri. After that, Russell helped Gail over the threshold. On the exit, Russell tossed his red security procedure card to the floor. There was no need to carry it. Procedure didn’t matter anymore.
Pierce arrived inside the main corridor of the second facility. The run-down building was vast. Cluttered equipment rooms and workbenches lined the sides of the entrance. The odor of sulfur was difficult to ignore. He had crossed through this space a couple of hours prior and never thought he’d be back this soon. He looked back to Dimitri with a pleading frown. “This is a mistake,” said Pierce in a whisper.
Dimitri was unshaken. He shoved Pierce forward and pointed the gun down the hallway. He didn’t trust Pierce and wanted to make sure, if there were any traps, Pierce would be the first to experience them.
Another large room came into view as Hanna stepped through a series of rusted-out double doors. She surveyed the area with a perplexed scowl. Obviously, no one had been in this place for years. She had been to dozens of bases since she started working at the DOD, and nothing had ever looked like this. The ceilings looked heavy. Pipes and ductwork hung above them. They were made of heavy steel and kept together with large bolts the size of fists. God, if these things fall…
The air was stale. The hot, arid desert climate had mummified the place. No life could tolerate such dry conditions. Perhaps only spiders. They seemed to enjoy the warmth and solitude. Hanna watched the men drift through the large facility. She appreciated their lead. After all, Dimitri had the gun. She angled back to Gail, who was slumped over into Russell’s embrace. She needed his support to make it. She was having difficulty walking.
The group exited from a doorway. Dimitri noticed a large freight elevator surrounded by a large cinder-block wall. It was large enough to drive a car inside. The doors were metallic and worn. The elevator had seen many years of service. A large yellow-and-black caution stripe wrapped from edge to edge. Dimitri pushed past Pierce and moved to a button panel on the cinder block. There were only three buttons: one up, one down, and a red call button. They were round and looked like mushrooms popping out from the plate. The panel looked as though it was from the fifties. The manufacturer’s name was engraved on the top in a vintage style: Everly Co. He started hitting the buttons immediately. The buttons were sticky. They seemed to have been out of service for a while. There was no movement. The elevator was dead. Stuck.