“You kids are something else,” Nulce said nonchalantly. Sherman was shaking all over.
“My God, you really are monsters,” he spat.
“Ye telt Barn he wasnae doin nothin wrang, ya big tube,” Dave snarled back. “Now yir mad cause he believed you?”
“Hey! Recriminations can come later,” Madrid said. “The boy’s evened the odds.”
Before there could be any more arguments she unshouldered her gun and began moving down the stairs.
Madrid and Nulce led the final charge. There was no point in hiding any more, no element of surprise on their side. It was a straight out fight.
Each member of the team had switched their earpieces to loud static, in case they encountered May-Rose. This was no handicap to trained combatants like Madrid and Nulce, who relied on hand signals when in action. They reached the reinforced doors leading to Bunker 10 and found them torn apart by the bomb Darren had unwittingly carried to his death. Both dived through the gap.
Madrid was like an iron butterfly, drifting elegantly from doorway to doorway, unleashing long bursts of automatic fire down the corridor. Nulce weaved and bobbed like a deadly bee, pitching into rooms and crisscrossing through them, raking the area with bullets. Sherman stayed close behind, covering their backs and sheltering the children in case Nulce and Madrid missed anyone lurking in the dark.
The remaining base forces didn’t stand a chance. Unable to resist May-Rose’s orders, they refused to retreat◦– but they were disoriented by the fire, the explosions and the smoke and in no state to mount a proper defence.
Within minutes the last of the soldiers were dead and the group halted outside the final door. On the wall was a stark warning.
The adults looked at each other nervously. Jimmy signalled for them to turn off the static on their headsets.
“Any infectious material will be in sealed containers in a titanium containment room,” he said quietly. “Don’t worry, May-Rose can’t let any kind of toxin loose without killing herself.”
“Get ready to cover me.” Madrid switched the static back on and punched 1234 into the console set in the wall. The door slid open and she vaulted through. With a roar of bravado, Nulce leapt after her, rolling as he hit the floor on the other side. They ran the length of the decontamination corridor and vanished through a curtain made of plastic strips.
“Bloody cowboys,” Sherman complained, signalling for the children to follow him.
Bunker 10 had survived the blast entirely. Fluorescent tubes in the ceiling lit up the room and fans whirred in the walls.
May-Rose was standing in the middle of the lab, her hands above her head in surrender.
“Say one word and I shoot you where you stand.” Madrid covered her from a safe distance, static turned up to full blast, while Nulce got behind the girl and forced her to her knees. With practised moves he fastened her hands behind her back using lab gauze, tied a strip across her mouth and stepped back to admire his work.
The rest of the party switched off their earpieces.
“There now, wasn’t that easy?” Nulce said sarcastically.
The teens stared at their former friend. She looked tiny and lost and it was impossible to reconcile the forlorn figure in the yellow dress with the carnage they had witnessed.
“Guys. Look over there.” Simon pointed with a trembling finger.
Behind May-Rose was a huge contraption resembling a giant turbine engine. It was covered in wires and humming with energy.
It was a monster sized version of the Machine in their dormitory.
“Holy Hell,” Jimmy said. “She’s built a time machine.”
“A time machine?” Sherman shook his head in disbelief. “Don’t be stupid!”
“Why not?” Simon insisted. “We were working the time travel theories together in our spare time.”
“But it was you who made the breakthrough,” Jimmy said. “Not May-Rose.”
Simon turned red.
“I was using her notes,” he whispered. “She left them in her desk when she went to work in Bunker 10 and she was much further along than me.”
“You sneaky wee bissom,” Dave punched his companion on the arm. “That’s how you cracked it.”
“I figured out the equations but I’d never have had the smarts to make a Machine that would actually work.” He pointed to the captive girl. “But now May-Rose has an intellect that dwarfs ours. She hasn’t just worked out the formula, she’s actually put it into practise.”
“That’s how she intended to escape.” Jimmy said. “She was going to send herself through time.”
“Eh?” Nulce spluttered. “I say we shoot these kids right this minute,”
“I’m sorry guys.” Sherman cut through the argument. “But this is ridiculous!”
“You got a better explanation?” Simon sneered. “What the hell do you think this contraption does?”
“You are virtual simulations! You have to accept that!” Sherman clapped his hands to his face and sighed. “This is… it…. must be a device to transfer May-Rose’s programme to other computer systems.” He walked around the Machine glowering at it. “God, I hate technology.”
“And that doesn’t sound farfetched!” Jimmy retorted
Dave strolled over to Nulce who was guarding May-Rose. “You were right, Nulcy Boy,” he frowned. “This was too easy.”
“Nulcy Boy? Do you want to get shot?” But Dave had turned away, tapping his lip in consternation.
“Jimmy,” he said suddenly. “Did you no say that infectious materials are kept in a Titanium containment room?”
“That’s right.”
“Wouldn’t Titanium block any life signs showing up on the handcoms?”
“Yes it would. Now drop your weapons and put your hands behind your heads.”
The others spun round at the sound of the voice. Nulce swore loudly and threw down his gun like a petulant child.
The door to the containment room was open and Doctor Monk stood in the entrance, pointing a rifle at them.
19.35
Monk strode over to May-Rose, rifle still trained on the group, and yanked loose the girl’s gag. He moved in a precise, determined way as if something else were directing his actions. He removed the ear pieces from Sherman’s team and ground them underfoot.
“Thank you Doctor,” the girl said. She struggled to her feet and drew herself up.
Then the voice came billowing out of her frail body, accompanied by that ominous yet melodious sound.
“The rest of you, will not harm me or Doctor Monk. You will not run from me. You will do whatever I say.” She gave a small smile. “Get into a line. Eyes front.”
Sherman’s team and the children shuffled into formation like soldiers on parade. They had no control whatsoever over their actions.
“Thank you,” May-Rose giggled.
Doctor Monk untied the child’s wrists. Absently rubbing them she strolled along the line as if she were a miniature general inspecting her troops.
“I’ve been waiting for you Jimmy,” she said agreeably. “I had faith that you’d get here. All right, you’ve cut it a bit fine, but you made it.”
“What the hell is she talking about, kid?” Nulce snapped.
“I don’t know. Not sure I want to.”
“You really think I couldn’t have outsmarted Dunwoody’s men and reached the surface?” May-Rose taunted. “Then what? I’d have lost most of my force getting past him and the rest would have fallen to the lasers at the perimeter fence. If I got through, I’d have to traverse miles of forest in minus temperatures and thick snow. Might not even make it past the blast perimeter before this place went up◦– and what I have inside me is too important to risk.”