She slapped my hand away. “I’m glad you find me attractive, but this is no time to mess around.”
“I need to look at your wound.”
“I know. And you don’t have to worry about me. I’m fine.”
“Like hell you are. Now are you going to lift up your shirt or do I have to tear it off you?”
She sighed. Then she slowly wiggled her bloodstained shirt up a few inches. Exhaling, I stared at the long, gaping wound across her belly. It was a nasty cut, oozing with blood and puss.
Standard medical procedures — cleaning it, removing the dead flesh, and dressing it — were outside the realm of possibility. Makeshift medicine would have to suffice until I could get her to a hospital.
Lifting my arms, I stripped off my tattered, bloody shirt. After tearing it into pieces, I tied the strips tightly around her body, enclosing the wound.
Diane looked at me. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“What did you get me into?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“At this point, I’ll believe just about anything.”
“Oh yeah? Would you —”
The subway car lurched. My body launched into the air and I slammed into something cold and hard. Dazed, I crumpled to the floor. I was hurt but alive.
I just hoped I wasn’t the only one.
I peeled my sore body off the floor and rose painfully to my knees. Fishing around for a few seconds, I managed to locate my flashlight. As I switched it on, a dim glow covered the interior of the car.
The Bell, which had stopped my movement, rested directly in front of the double doors. Beverly knelt on its left side, head in hands. I noticed a bit of blood dripping from her skull.
I shook my head, trying to free myself from my mental fog. “Are you okay?”
Beverly nodded. “What happened?”
“We hit something.”
I looked around for Diane and spotted her lying on the ground, feet splayed out across the floor. “How about you?” I asked. “Are you all right?”
“I’ve been better.”
I stood up. “I hate to rush everyone, but we can’t stay here. We need to move before Chase arrives.”
Diane pointed at the Bell. “We’re leaving that thing, right?”
“No. It’s coming with us.”
“Why? What is it anyway?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
“It’s a particle accelerator.” I took a deep breath. “It creates a substance called Red Mercury which can be used to fuel hydrogen bombs.”
Her eyes grew wide. “Forget I asked. How are we supposed to move it? It’s got to weigh a couple hundred pounds at least.”
I winked at Beverly. Then, I bent down and put my hands under the lip of the Bell. “I’m sure I can manage it.”
My grin vanished as I found myself struggling to lift the Bell off the car’s floor. Finally, it lifted into the air for a few seconds. Oddly, it had gained significant weight since being unplugged. I found it curious.
And troubling.
“Nice trick,” Diane said. “What’s it made out of?”
I shrugged my shoulders, deliberately removing my hands from under the Bell in the process. “Who knows?”
Her jaw dropped as the Bell remained floating in the air. Quickly, I opened the doors. Then, I pushed the Bell out of the car and into the tube. Looking around, I noticed that one of the running rails had cracked, presumably under the weight of Beach’s subway car.
I reached up and helped Diane out of the car. Her face looked flushed and she seemed to move with more energy.
“How…?”
“Don’t ask.” I shook my head. “I don’t have the slightest idea.”
Beverly hopped out of the car. “There’s no lock on the other door. And unfortunately, there’s nothing to barricade it with either.”
“What if we shoot out one of the seats and use it to block the knob?”
“Honestly, I think we’re better off saving our ammo. By the time we finished setting it up, they’d be right on top of us.”
“We don’t have enough time.” The realization hit me hard. “Without the car, we’ll never escape with the Bell. We need to destroy it.”
“How do we destroy it?” Diane asked.
I pulled Hartek’s journal out of my satchel. “Hopefully, this will tell us. I’ll push the Bell forward to give us some more breathing room. I need one of you to read this book and figure out a solution.”
Beverly shook her head. “You’re our best chance. You’ve read far more of that book than either of us. You read, we’ll push.”
I didn’t like it. It made sense but I still didn’t like it. I looked at Diane. “How’s your stomach?”
“I’ll manage.”
Glancing back at Beverly, I shrugged. “Let’s get to it then.”
Beverly and Diane threw their combined weight behind the Bell. Soon, it started to shift forward through the tube. Although it still floated, its growing weight was cause for concern. What happened when it finally fell victim to gravity?
As the two women pushed the Bell, I focused my attention on Hartek’s journal. I flipped through page after page, scanning them with my flashlight, searching for clues.
Red Mercury is a superconductor.
I stopped on the page and quickly read the surrounding notes. I saw something about a property called the Meissner effect. I flipped a page and read some more. Although I didn’t understand everything, it appeared that the Bell’s anti-gravity properties were due to Red Mercury itself, which was subjected to extremely low temperatures and manipulated with magnets inside the Bell.
I read more. It seemed that when the Red Mercury and magnets moved together, they started to both attract and repel each other. The magnets, which were positioned above the Red Mercury, levitated. As they rose, the Red Mercury rose with it.
I turned it over in my mind, trying to understand the inner workings of the particle accelerator. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I almost missed the sound of splashing water.
But as it grew louder, it grabbed my attention. I realized we were nearing the giant alligator’s home.
My ears perked. Pounding footsteps. And they were running toward us.
Not now! I need more time!
Stuffing the journal under my arm, I leaned my back into the Bell and helped push it through the tube. Fifty feet separated us from the next station. But it was a temporary refuge at best. We couldn’t stay ahead of them forever, especially not with the Bell gaining weight with every passing second.
We lumbered into the station. Something whizzed over my head and slammed into the opposite wall. Immediately, I veered to the side, pushing the Bell away from the tube’s mouth.
Beverly turned and fired a few shots over her shoulder. The footsteps retreated.
I looked around, trying to formulate a plan. We couldn’t reach the opposite tunnel, not without stepping in the path of gunfire again. And the station itself offered no means of protection.
My eyes crossed the space. We needed to destroy the Bell and escape. But how?
A crazy idea popped into my head.
Immediately, I spun to the side of the Bell and shoved it across the station. The abandoned tube lay in front of us, its metal grating warning us away.
By entering it, we could buy ourselves a few seconds. And if I could figure out how, we could destroy the Bell and escape into the underground river. It wasn’t a great option.
But it was the only option.
There was nowhere else to go.
Nowhere but back into the monster’s lair.
Chapter 62
“Are you out of your mind?” Beverly shot me an amazed look. “We can’t go in there.”