“What about your promise to help us escape?” Jimmy said bitterly.
“I’d save you if I knew how,” Sherman admitted guiltily. “But I don’t.”
“Sherman, they’re just computer programmes,” Nulce’s voice dripped with scorn.
“Shut up, you,” Madrid snapped.
“Well, you don’t have to believe me. I certainly wouldn’t if I were you.” Sherman unfastened two small round objects from his belt. “So, I tell you what. These are grenades with a twist timer, simple to work. You’ve got half an hour. Get back to the surface, try to blast your way through the fences and good luck to you. We can handle things from here on out.”
“In case you’d forgotten, we’re still outnumbered,” Madrid said coolly. “And these kids know how to fire a gun.”
“I have a son about your age.” Sherman ignored his subordinate and smiled at Jimmy. “looks a bit like you in fact. We don’t talk and I regret that.” He handed the grenades to the boy. “Go on. Get out of here.”
Jimmy nodded and stuffed the grenades into his pack.
“Now ye’ve got me goin, eh?” Dave held up his hand. “I cannae help thinking that, aw this time, May-Rose has stayed in Bunker 10 wi her wee cronies instead of trying to work her way up the levels and escape. Whit does she know that we dinnae know, know?”
“Don’t you start!” Simon threatened.
Jimmy’s thumped a fist into his palm. “Maybe she’s working on a different escape route.”
“Aye, but what’s she gonnae do? Build a teleporter and transport herself tae the nearest tropical island?”
“Who knows?” Jimmy stood up. “She’s a super genius. Maybe that’s exactly what she is doing.”
He crossed the Ops Room, threading his way past the broken bodies. On the far wall was a gun rack fitted with a row of automatic weapons. The personnel hadn’t been able to reach the guns before Dunwoody cut them down.
“You’re completely wrong, Sherman, I’ll tell you that. But whether this is a simulation or reality makes no difference to our situation. Fact is, we’ll never get out of range of the blast in half an hour. Our best shot at survival is to make it to Bunker 10 and find out what May-Rose is up to. See if she really does have another way out.”
He pulled a rifle from the rack and looked along the barrel, more for effect than anything else. He’d never pulled a trigger in his life.
“Hey Barn,” he shouted. The boy looked up and raised his arms in surrender.
“Put your hands down,” Jimmy tutted. “Much as I hate to admit it, Sherman’s story makes sense. We’re in a virtual simulation. You haven’t killed anyone.”
“Really?”
“Trust me. It’s just a game.” Jimmy gave the boy a jovial wink.
“Hicks!” Simon hissed. “What are you playing at?”
“You want Barn to have another episode?” Jimmy muttered out of the side of his mouth. “We’ll play long with these deluded morons, for his sake.”
He stuffed the bomb in his pack and tossed the rucksack to Barn. “You carry this, ok? I’ll take the gun.”
Barn nodded, managing a sorrowful smile. Jimmy slung the rifle round his own neck.
“Let’s go finish what we started.”
19.25
Sherman split his force into the same four pairs and led them down the stairs. The railings were twisted and black and charred bodies littered the ground. The air was suffocatingly hot and stank of cooked flesh, forcing them to cover their noses and mouths. It looked like the entrance to Hades.
But the fire had been extinguished by the explosion, just as Jimmy predicted.
The team made their way down past level three shining flashlights in front of them. The children carried the handcoms and the adults carried the firearms.
Barn was once again in charge of operations, peering through the gloom at his handcom and guiding the others using Darren’s headset. A few of the green dots on level four and five had begun to move again. Some base soldiers had obviously survived the blast. Perhaps they had been sheltering behind heavy equipment when the explosion occurred.
Barn carried Jimmy’s pack and moved Sherman’s team around like the chess master he was, directing them along the smoke shrouded passageways and in and out of shattered rooms. They easily outmanoeuvred the enemy, trapping them between pairs and dispatching them with quick, efficient bursts of gunfire. Within a few minutes they had made their way to level five and Barn and Darren were descending the stairway to level six.
And Bunker 10.
“Shouldn’t we wait for the others?” Darren peered into the dark stairwell and cocked his gun. “I’m not much of a fighter.”
Barn checked the computer in his hand yet again.
“The enemy are all in Bunker 10 right at the other end of the level,” he said. “But it’s safer if you wait downstairs, because there’s a couple of base soldiers still loose on level five. I’ll send Madrid and Nulce towards them but I’ll have to do it from up here. The reception on these headsets is fading the lower we get.”
“You’re the boss.”
Can you carry this bag?” Barn handed the pack to him. “I need to concentrate.”
“Sure, buddy. Be careful, huh?” Darren gave Barn a friendly pat on the cheek and made his way cautiously down the stairs.
Like the rest of underground complex, the lights on level six had been destroyed by the blast, though Jimmy insisted that power would be unaffected in the biohazard labs. An operation of that sort would have its own generators to keep the reinforced doors sealed and the lights and fans working.
Darren wouldn’t have minded getting near those fans. The smoke was gradually fading and being replaced by another acrid smell, whose origins he tried not to think about.
He turned and shone the flashlight beam in the direction of Bunker 10.
Four men stood facing him, rifles in their hands.
Darren drew a sharp breath, his heart hammering.
“Barn?” he said quietly into the intercom. “There are people here.”
Barn didn’t answer.
“Put down your weapon and come with us.” One of the base soldiers motioned towards the biohazard area with his gun.
“She’s waiting for you.”
19.27
The others found Barn waiting at the top of the stairs that led down to the lowest level.
“Hey big man.” Dave slapped the boy on the leg. “Where’s yer skinny pal?”
Barn didn’t speak. He was shining the torch on his watch.
“Where’s Darren, Barn?” Sherman repeated, an edge to his voice.
“May Rose’s men captured him,” the boy replied, turning to the handcom. “They’re taking him to Bunker 10.”
“What! How could you let that happen?”
Jimmy stepped forward, looking around.
“Where’s my pack Barn? Where’s my pack with the grenades in it?”
“Darren’s carrying it.” The boy tapped his watch. “I set the timers on them.”
‘What?”
“See… the doors protecting the Biohazard units are obviously bomb proof from the outside. We have to blow them from the inside..”
There was a resounding detonation from under them and the floor shuddered. A water pipe burst in the darkness behind them, hissing into the corridor.
“They’ll be open now,” Barn said.
Sherman’s mouth dropped open. “You sacrificed Darren?”
“Of course.” Barn looked puzzled. “After all, it’s just a game.”
Jimmy fixed Sherman with a steely gaze. “Can’t have it both ways Mr Sherman.”