Another dark hallway drew Hanna’s attention. It seemed to lead out toward another cavernous space. She stopped and shone her light down. The space was empty. But several doors lined the hallway walls. What are those rooms about? Perhaps another way out? She slowly stepped back and realized she needed to catch up to the men. They had kept moving and left her behind. She could still hear their footsteps. They were close but adding distance with each long step. She took one last curious glance back to the hallway before shuffling off to catch up with the men.
Between two metal tanks, Hanna passed through in a hurry. A tall, lanky being crossed before her. She slammed to a stop and shone her light into the space. It moved so fast that she couldn’t tell what it was. Please, God, tell me that was my shadow! Her hands shook. She looked back toward the direction she had come. A disoriented feeling swept over her. She felt she was walking in the wrong direction.
Then the sound arrived. It was like a whisper. A child’s voice calling out something familiar.
“Mamma.”
The word poked her attention. She angled back and did a double take. What the hell was that? It was a child’s voice. Hanna snapped toward the direction of the sound. It was echoed and faraway. Maybe it was in her head. Whatever it was, it didn’t feel threatening. Rather, a sense of warmth flooded over her. She slowly stepped forward with her light. Being alone wasn’t a factor anymore. The sound was calling her. It needed her. It was counting on her for help.
Hanna stepped out into the juncture between two rows of cylinders that went on for at least thirty yards. They created a hallway. The sound seemed to be coming from the end. Hanna tried to rationalize. She shouldn’t go down here. Too many blind spots. She thought about what Pierce had said earlier. The base was under attack of some sort, but by whom? Militants? Terrorists? The Russians? It sounded ridiculous. No militant would hide down here. I heard a child, goddamn it.
Hanna stepped into the darkness anxiously. Her flashlight led the way. She canvassed the light around the landscape, making even the most normal inanimate object seem like a threat. She had crossed through the gully of two large metal boxes. A slender beam of aluminum conduit ran along the edge of the concourse. Hanna stopped and looked back. It felt as though someone was watching her from behind. She pivoted back and shone her light. Nothing was there. She figured it was probably just her imagination. She angled back. “Hello?”
Her voice echoed gently. No response came. She continued slowly and cautiously. She had traveled a few yards into the cavernous area, and the dusty, unknown darkness engulfed her. If she was going to be attacked, it would have happened by now. She didn’t budge from her mission. A movement flickered near the floor at the end of the row of cylinders. Something slid across the floor. It sounded like sandpaper. She called out again. “Hello. Who is that down there?”
The haunting silence returned. Hanna’s determination was feeling more like regret. She took in a heavy swallow and continued a few more steps before reaching what appeared to be a chain link gate that was blocking entrance to another area. She lifted her flashlight. The lockup was roughly three hundred square feet. The light of Hanna’s flashlight created a spider-webbed shadow as it cut through the chain link and into the space. The slightest movement of her wrist gave the illusion of something moving.
Maybe I’m losing it, she considered. The place is empty, and there’s no kid. Her imagination must have taken control. She had to catch up to Dimitri and Russell. Hopefully they hadn’t already left her down there. She shook her head with a sense of self-defeat.
Hanna moved away from the fence, and something crashed to the floor, startling her out of her skin. It sounded intentional. She spun back and clasped her chest. Was someone fucking with her? She twisted back and shone her light through the fence and into the lockup. She aimed the light beam at the floor. Then she moved it up a column and across the wall. Nothing was out of sorts. She focused her eyes.
She moved the light across a pile of boxes that seemed to have been the source of the sound. Dossier files spewed out from the top of the box, which had toppled over two others and landed on its side. That doesn’t just happen. She moved the light back for a second look.
The edge of her light beam caught another twitch of movement. With the flick of her wrist, she spotlighted the source of the commotion. Standing before her, on the other side of the fence and behind the boxes, lurked a dark-complexioned creature. She was not alone. It was hunched over at the waist, and it slowly stood upright as it looked toward the light. Its black eyes reflected back toward her like those of a cat. The creature was humanlike with its primate build and facial construction, but it was clearly not a human being. Perhaps it had been following her all along. Perhaps it wasn’t friendly.
Hanna stumbled backward down the hallway of cylinders, not taking her eyes off the creature lurking on the other side of the fence. It wasn’t pursuing her. It continued its awkward stare as she departed the location. Her breathing intensified. Her legs became wobbly. She spun around and bolted. Her legs could hardly carry her. The clamor of her running footsteps reverberated through the facility in every direction.
The long hallway Hanna had seen moments prior was her exit. She dashed down the corridor that poured out into another cavernous pump room that held a series of other hallways. The possibilities were endless, but at least it looked familiar. Which way did those bastards go? She looked around as she fluttered through the space, spinning around and agonizing over a decision.
One hallway had a light at the end. It seemed like a good incentive. She dashed across the pump room, leaping over a series of two-inch pipes, and she dashed into the long hallway. Her movement picked up into an all-out run. The lining of her expensive brand-name flats tore from the sole. The bottoms of her feet were being cut up with each impact, but she didn’t care. Her tolerance for discomfort had seemed to increase over the last few hours.
Hanna slid around a corner lined with more cinder blocks. Another doorway was a few yards away. Through a narrow section of shelves, Hanna jettisoned herself through the threshold and hit something solid. It wasn’t a wall or a pipe. It was Russell. His flashlight popped up to his chin, making her arrival even more startling. Hanna gasped and stepped back. She was happy to see him nonetheless.
She pushed past Russell with a shove and moved up behind Dimitri, who was on all fours near the elevator that the group had investigated earlier.
Dimitri had been at it for a while, and his frustration was starting to show. He desperately tried to pry the flat end of his screwdriver between the surface plate of the control panel and the cinder-block wall. However, there was little chance of him prying the panel from its mounting plate with a screwdriver. He needed something to shove the screwdriver deeper underneath the panel’s lip. He needed a hammer or something.
CHAPTER 10
It had been fifteen long minutes since the others had left the laboratory. Gail remained quiet on the other side of the room. She leaned up against the counter island and sighed with agitation. She was burning up. Her face was dripping. Her hair was weighed down with sweat. How much longer? She periodically glanced at the window that looked out into the dark facility.