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            Of course! The Evacuation Center’s electricity was principally served by the main Complex.
The Evacuation Center could function independently, but they hadn’t switched over automatically. Biological pathogens couldn’t spread via electricity, so there was no need. When the power went down, the admin computer needed to know how to treat the Evacuation Center. Should it consider the Center to be an evacuation point, or a quarantine station?

            The computer was asking Gould to choose between the two options.

            Gould smiled and rubbed his hands together. An Evacuation Center and a Quarantine Center had very different purposes. One was designed to be protected, while the other was designed to be guarded. Quarantine Center occupants had absolutely no control of their surroundings. Prisoners don’t get the keys to their jail.

            Gould typed ‘Q’.

            With that single tap on the keyboard, every person in the Evacuation Center was immediately classed as a quarantine risk.

            A new line flashed on the screen.

            QUARANTINE PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED.

           
Now Gould had control of every system in both facilities.
Every cloud has a silver lining.

#

Dana beamed at Harrison. She was flushing with relief. ‘It’s out. Our message got out!’

            Harrison punched the air. ‘Yes!’

            Dana hesitated. ‘Wait…this can’t be right.’

            They were in the communications room. Dana poked the enter key on her keyboard. Frustrated, she moved to another computer and tried again. The second computer wasn’t responding either. Both screens were unresponsive. She opened and closed the computer program. That worked okay, but she couldn’t do anything once the program opened. ‘Why isn’t this working? The computers are operating fine, they’re just not letting me do anything.’

            Harrison looked around the room. Something felt different. The communication room was a small chamber leading directly off the communal lounge. L-shaped workstations lined two walls. On the workstations sat eight computers. What little else occupied the room looked brand new. This was probably the longest that anyone had ever spent in this room. Harrison sensed that something had changed in the last few seconds. He suddenly picked the difference.

            ‘Why have the computer screens all changed color?’ he asked.

            ‘Pardon?’ asked Dana absently, still futilely tapping system commands into her keyboard.

            Harrison repeated, ‘All the background screens have changed color from blue to pink.’

            This got Dana’s attention. ‘Pink?’

            She jumped up from her computer and rushed to one of the monitors near Harrison, gently pushing on his arm to make herself room.

            Harrison became immediately aware of her touch. Had it lingered a little long? He kept his mind focused on whatever caused the computer problems.

            ‘Oh, no!’ Dana tested a few keys on this third computer and then slammed her palm down violently on the monitor.

            ‘What is it?’ asked Harrison, surprised by her outburst.

            Dana took a deep breath. She seemed to be getting her head around what she read on the screen. ‘Our status has been changed from an Evacuation Center to a Quarantine Center. I should have seen this coming. We could have isolated our electrical systems when we had the chance, then this never could have happened. I was too busy worrying about everything else. I never thought of this.’

            Harrison couldn’t see why she was so upset. Her hands shook. He sounded her out carefully. ‘OK. Evacuation to quarantine. Why is this a bad thing?’

            Dana slumped back in her seat. ‘Quarantine is a scientific way of saying ‘prisoner’. It means we’ve lost control of all the systems in here.’

            ‘What system exactly?’ asked Harrison, dread creeping into his voice. ‘The systems in this comms room?’

            Dana shoved away the keyboard. ‘No, you’re not understanding me. All the systems. Everything. Including the containment door, Harrison. They can open the containment door any time they want.’

            Harrison felt like he’d been slapped in the face. ‘They can let the creatures in here?’

            Dana met his eyes and held them. ‘And there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop them.’

#

Onboard the
Coronado
, Vice Admiral Tucker stared at the pictures arrayed over the table. Chief Warrant Officer Daniels fidgeted.

            Tucker couldn’t blame him.

            For the first time in his twenty-five year naval career, Tucker was speechless. It was hard to believe the pictures were real. If Tucker hadn’t known the source of the transmission, he would have dismissed the images as an elaborate hoax. The signal transmitted from the Biological Solutions Research Complex had been squeezed through a point four second interruptions of the C-Guards. Somehow, someone inside had managed to interrupt the jamming equipment long enough to transmit the message.

            Only one short text message and the attached photos had been received. Tucker reread the text message.

            ‘Is this for real?’

            ‘The pictures aren’t doctored,’ answered Daniels. ‘The signal codes are ours. That message came from one of our people. This is real.’

            Tucker thought of the more than three hundred civilians in the facility. Then he thought of the three hundred million Americans that could be exposed to a biological weapon of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists.

            I don’t have a choice now.

            He nodded to Captain Boundary. Withdrawing the key from under his shirt, Boundary crossed to the wall safe. He entered his digital combination and then used the key. Opening the safe, he withdrew the silver cylinder containing his weapon arming codes. He stared at the silver container for a second before shutting the safe.

            He spoke his next request without turning. He wasn’t ready for eye-contact yet. Not with what he was about to do. ‘Mr. Daniels. Get us a line to the Secretary of Defense.’

#

Five seconds of darkness
.

            Coleman spun the tray-back’s wheels. He accelerated through the darkness. He possessed a mental picture of the largest pieces of scattered debris. The pattern was locked in his mind. He turned the wheel left then right, navigating from memory in the near pitch darkness. For his plan to work, his driving would have to be precise.

            ‘I can’t see a thing,’ said Vanessa. ‘How will you find them?’

            ‘Just trust me.’

            Coleman orientated himself on the one easily recognizable light. He could see the light off on his right. The green EXIT light was mounted on the outer wall. It glowed right between the north elevator shaft and the stairwell. The light had an inbuilt battery. It was independent to the electrical switchboard. The scorpion truck had collided with the wall less than fifteen meters from its eerie green glow. Tracking the light, Coleman could make a good guess at the scorpion truck’s location in the darkness.

            Four pistol shots cut through the darkness. They seemed to come from the scorpion truck, so Coleman steered towards the sound. The tray-back bucked as something crunched under the tires.

            Here comes the light.

            Lights flashed on around the pedestrian loop like fluorescent ceiling dominos. When the lights caught up with the tray-back, Coleman was driving straight towards the gaping elevator shaft.

            Vanessa stiffened in her seat.

            Coleman searched the floor ahead. He spotted the bodies lying between the scorpion truck and the elevator shaft. The two gunmen lay in pools of blood. King and Forest had disappeared. After dispatching the gunmen, the Marines could have reached only one place in the five seconds of darkness.

            ‘How wide is that elevator shaft?’ he asked.

            The external elevator doors were open. It was bare shaft beyond.

            Eyes wide, Vanessa tugged her seat belt into place. ‘Not wide enough for whatever you have in mind.’

            ‘Taking out the switchboard wasn’t the only reason we needed to lose those stones,’ said Coleman. ‘We need the truck to be heavier in the front.’

            ‘Lookout!’ warned Vanessa.

            The bottom edge of the elevator entrance was a cliff edge racing towards them. Vanessa grabbed the dashboard as they passed the point of no return. Even if Coleman hit the brakes, they would slide straight into the shaft.

            And at that moment, that’s exactly what Coleman did. He hit the brakes.

            Tires smoking, the tray-back slid straight into the elevator shaft.

#

Vanessa felt the front wheels drop over the edge.

The undercarriage slammed down, grinding the truck to a jerking halt half in the shaft. The entire truck hung silent for a moment…then it began tipping forwards.

            ‘No, no, no, no, NO!’ she yelled. It was over-balancing on the undercarriage. The back wheels lifted off the floor. The truck tipped into the elevator shaft.

            The yawning shaft filled the windshield. She felt the entire world dropping away before her…then came a thump from somewhere behind the cab. The truck abruptly stopped tipping.

            She froze in the cab, worried that even the smallest movement might start them tipping again. The truck had tilted so far forward that it hung almost completely in the shaft. It was almost vertical. She could see straight down the shaft.

            Why aren’t we falling?

            The vehicle groaned around them. As far as she could tell, they should already be dead. She remembered the thumping sound before they stopped tilting.

            The tray. The tray’s caught on the top of the elevator entrance. This thing could still fall anytime.

            Something could give way and let the truck drop. Either the tray or the elevator entrance itself. Neither was designed for this kind of punishment. Vanessa knew a thing or two about destructive testing.

            Hanging forward in the safety belt, she looked straight down the elevator shaft through the windshield.

            Alex was already moving. He placed his boots either side of the steering wheel and released his seat belt. ‘We need to leave, Vanessa. We’re getting out. Quickly, help me.’

            It took her a moment to realize his intention. The truck was completely contained in the elevator shaft. The shaft walls were just inches wider than the truck, so they couldn’t open the doors to escape the tray-back. The precariously tilted vehicle completely blocked the elevator entrance.

            That only left the windshield.