Plot Line (9 page)

Ray took another step back. The man looked
as if he had been pressed through a meat grinder. Blood trickled
from gouges in his scalp and forehead. Sweat mixed with the blood,
streaking the man’s face. There was terror in his eyes.

“Who are you?” The man’s voice was
tremulous, his eyes wide and fierce.

“Easy, buddy.” Ray raised his hands. “I’m
just a guest here.”

“There are no guests here. You’re with them,
aren’t you?”

Ray’s startled mind struggled to put the
puzzle pieces together. The man before him must be Dr. Colin
Rehnquist. Who else could it be?

“I’m just a writer, that’s all.”

“Writer? I don’t believe it. I’m not
stupid.”

“No one said you were stupid. I’m just a guy
they brought in to write about whatever it is that goes on
here.”

“You don’t know what goes on?”

“Not really.” Ray swallowed hard. At least
Rehnquist was talking and not shooting.

The guard groaned. He had been lying on his
stomach, unconscious. Now he was attempting to push himself up onto
his hands and knees. Rehnquist glanced back and forth between Ray
and the unsteady guard. Then with a surprising burst of speed,
Rehnquist brought the grip of the gun down on the back of the man’s
head. He crumpled into a motionless heap. The sound of it sickened
Ray.

Rehnquist paused looking surprised at his
own actions. He then raised the gun, pointing it at Ray’s chest.
Ray was sure he was about to die.

A loud noise filled the corridor and Ray
jumped instinctively. The sound rose and fell in a piercing
ululation. An alarm sounded, its tones echoing off the walls and
floor.

A stream of obscenities poured from
Rehnquist’s mouth. “They’ve seen me.” Without hesitation, Rehnquist
charged forward, the gun in his outstretched hand. Ray recoiled but
not before the barrel was pressed under his chin.

“Open the elevator.” Rehnquist’s voice
carried a hint of madness.

“I . . . I can’t. I don’t have one of those
electronic . . . thingies.”

“You can’t get down here without an
electronic key,” Rehnquist shouted. “Now open the elevator.”

“I came down with someone else. He used his
key. Don’t you have one?”

“No. Of course not. They only they give them
to people cleared to leave.” The gun dug into the flesh of his
neck. “Okay, okay,” Rehnquist, babbled. “Think, think, think.”

“Maybe we could move the gun—”

“Shut up!” Rehnquist lowered his head for
just a second then said, “Let’s go.” He seized the front of Ray’s
shirt and spun him around. The muzzle of the gun was now pressed
into the back of Ray’s skull. Ray struggled not to imagine what
would happen if the crazed scientist pulled the trigger.

“Go where?”

“To the lab. I’ll get away from them one way
or another.”

“I don’t know where the lab is. I’ve never
been here before.”

“I know precisely where it is.

Nine

Ray jogged down the wide
hall,
Rehnquist pushing from behind. They
had made three turns, each time the scientist shouted out a
direction. “Right. Now left.”

If there had been any doubt as to the man’s
sanity, Ray dismissed them when a guard appeared around one corner.
The man drew his weapon but hesitated when he realized Ray was a
hostage. The hesitation was brief, but long enough for Rehnquist to
shift the aim of the 9mm’s barrel from Ray’s head to the soldier’s
chest. The sound of the shot bounced down the hall. The gun was
close to Ray’s right ear and he screamed from the pain of the loud
report. A sharp ringing stung his ear and tears poured from his
eyes. The guard dropped dead, a widening red stain spread across
the fallen man’s chest.

Ray thought of his wife and daughter.

“Move,” Rehnquist demanded. “I only have
seconds. The rest will be here.”

They rounded another corner and had taken
less than ten steps when they heard excited and urgent voices
behind them. “Man down. Medic! We need a medic.”

The corridor came to an abrupt end. To Ray’s
right was a pair of four-foot wide, steel doors. An electronic
keypad was attached to the wall near the doors.

Rehnquist had Ray’s collar bunched in his
hand so tightly the shirt choked him. He tried to cough, but
couldn’t. The gun’s muzzle, still hot from the shot, was pressed
deeper into the base of his skull.

The corridor was a dead end. No way out. The
steel doors looked solid, immovable. Behind them came the sound of
booted footfalls. Rehnquist spun Ray around and backed up the last
few feet of the corridor. Moving the gun from the back of Ray’s
head, he placed it just behind his right ear. “I’ll kill him,”
Rehnquist shouted.

The words rolled down the
hall like a surge of water through a culvert. Ray was
terror-stricken. As a novelist, he had written many scenes of
tension, fear and violence, but this was not a chapter from one of
his books. This was flesh-and-blood real.
His
flesh and blood.

“Listen, buddy—”

“Shut up!” Rehnquist twisted the gun deeper
into the tender flesh of Ray’s ear.

Two guards rounded the corner that Ray and
his abductor had passed only moments before. The pain behind his
ear cease. There was half-a-second of relief before Ray realized
why the pain was gone.

Rehnquist squeezed the trigger.

One guard dropped. The other dove back
behind the corner.

A sound came from Ray’s left. The doors to
the lab parted smoothly, driven by some unseen mechanism. Rehnquist
didn’t hesitate. Charging through the doors, he pushed Ray in front
of him.

Ray felt something large and soft. A body.
He saw the form of a woman stagger backward, fall and land hard on
her back. He could hear the wind leave her lungs.

The room was dim, lit in twilight making it
difficult to see. Ray was vaguely aware of equipment, computer
monitors and several people who had backpedaled when he and
Rehnquist burst through the opening.

“Close the door!” Rehnquist demanded. “Now,
now, now. Close the door!”

Ray heard a shot and cringed, pulling his
head down like a turtle. He was relieved he had a head to pull
down. The sound of the automatic doors closing behind him
heightened his despair.

“Against the wall,” Rehnquist ordered. Ray
tried to move but the scientist held tightly to his collar. He felt
the gun again. “Not you,” Rehnquist snapped. The collar tightened
around Ray’s neck. “I said, everyone against the wall.”

In the dusky light, Ray saw several people
move to the wall that abutted the partition with the door. A few he
recognized. Devlin was there as was the young man Devlin had
introduced as Larry Quinn. There were also two men in uniforms: a
general and a colonel. He was guessing at the rank of the latter,
but he knew a general’s star when he saw one.

“You too,” barked Rehnquist.

At Ray’s feet was a corpulent woman. She had
been sprawled on her back. Rising slowly, she rubbed the back of
her head and cast a threatening look at Rehnquist. She showed no
fear, just barely controlled fury.

“Have you gone mad, Rehnquist?” the general
asked. “There’s no way out of here. You’ve just cornered yourself
in an impossible situation.”

“I no longer care. I thought I could get
away, but they won’t let me. They’re here, in my head. If I can’t
get away alive, neither will they, and neither will you. This has
to stop. Someone has to end it.”

“It’s not as bad as it seems,” the general
said. “You’re just looking at it from the wrong perspective.”

“Do not patronize me, General. I’m a smart
man. I am not delusional.”

“You’re not acting very smart,” Quinn
said.

“Who are you? I’ve never seen you
before.”

“I’m here to help.” Quinn took a step
forward.

“Quinn,” Devlin said. “You had better stay
put.”

“It’s all right,” Quinn answered. “Dr.
Rehnquist is a smart man, just like he said. He knows this is a
hopeless situation.” He took another tentative step forward.

“Don’t press your luck, son.” Rehnquist
words were cold and measured.

“I don’t believe in luck.” Quinn took
another step. “We were just headed out. You couldn’t have gotten in
otherwise. Maybe it’s fate’s way of saying it’s time to stop
this.”

He’s going to rush
us
.
How stupid can
this guy be? He may get Rehnquist down, but not before he fires a
shot—maybe several shots
.

“I’m not playing,” Rehnquist said.

“We know that—” Quinn’s last word was
obliterated by the sound of Rehnquist’s handgun. The force of the
impact knocked Quinn off his feet. He was dead before he hit the
ground.

It sickened Ray. Sick with fear and shock.
Sick with the sight of another man dying. Sick with the knowledge
this would be his last day alive.

“You’ve lost your mind,” the general
shouted.

“I didn’t lose it, General. They took
it.”

The pressure behind Ray’s head
evaporated—Rehnquist pointed with the gun. Cutting his eyes to the
right, Ray saw a room, except it wasn’t a room, not one with walls.
A curtain of water ran from the ceiling to the floor, but did so in
near silence. It looked like a circular waterfall forming a
vertical tube. Something was moving inside the enclosure, but the
churning water kept Ray from seeing clearly. Whatever was behind
the fluid screen was the source of Rehnquist’s agitation.

The concussive blast of another shot being
fired echoed in the cavernous space. Another shot. Rehnquist was
firing into the cascading wall of water.

There was a scream and Ray’s collar loosen.
Rehnquist had let go.

“DOWN!” someone shouted.

Ray lurched and dove to the ground, crawling
away from the insane scientist as fast as he could.

Pop
.
Pop
.

More shots were fired. Ray covered his
head.

Silence.

The only sound was the waterfall now less
than a meter away.

Still on his belly, Ray turned and looked
behind him, to the place where he stood a moment before with the
burning barrel of a gun in his neck. Rehnquist lay on the ground,
his arms and legs at an awkward angle. Even in the dim light of the
lab, he could see a widening pool of blood.

Another man lay next to Rehnquist, a
uniformed man. It was the colonel. Three were dead on the ground,
and for what?

Devlin stood to the side, two meters from
where he had been standing when Rehnquist was in control. He held a
small gun in his hand. It was pointed at the unmoving body of the
scientist. There was a dark spot on the left shoulder of Devlin’s
suit coat. He had been hit, yet he stood rock still, seemingly
oblivious to any pain.

Things moved slowly for Ray. He watched as
the general stepped to the door and entered a code on the adjoining
keypad. The doors opened and six heavily armed security men rushed
in.

The large woman joined Devlin; they walked
to Quinn. Neither spoke but Ray could see sorrow on their
faces.

A new thought occurred to Ray. He was alive;
alive and unwounded. The terror he felt previously melted away and
was replaced by an inrush of relief. He would live; he would see
his family again. At that moment, nothing was more important.

He rose on shaky legs and took several deep
breaths. The air was sterile, empty of any odors. Behind him the
water continued to fall. Standing closer now, he could hear the
soft whooshing sound it made.

Ray turned to the water curtain. There was
movement as if a diver swam inside. Cocking his head, Ray tried to
grasp what he was seeing.

“Step away from there, Ray,” he heard Devlin
say. “It would be better if you came with me and—”

A shadow appeared on the water, small at
first then larger. The shadow was ovoid, thicker at the top than at
the bottom. It reminded Ray of an inverted pear—a pear twice the
size of his own head.

A face appeared. It poked through the water
with alarming speed and Ray jolted back. He looked at its face and
recoiled. He took another step back and the face followed. Ray
could now see the whole head and it was hideous. His heart hammered
and twisted in his chest. His stomach turned.

He tried to close his eyes, but he couldn’t.
Something was in his head, right behind his eyes. It was
growing.

Growing.

Expanding.

“No,” Ray said. “NO.”

Blackness flooded his mind.

he was in a hospital bed
trying to exorcise the images that played in his
brain. Devlin had come in.

“How are you feeling?”

“I wasn’t injured.” Ray spoke softly.

“No, but you received quite a shock. It’s
not everyday a writer is held hostage, witnesses a gun battle,
watch men die and . . .”

“It’s the ‘and’ that bothers me most,
Devlin. What did I see? Why am I so terrified?”

Devlin pulled a fiberglass chair to the side
of the bed and sat. “We need to talk about that, Ray. You saw
something you weren’t supposed to see.”

“They were the aliens you told me about on
the surface.”

“Right. I only told you so you would know
what Rehnquist might say if he got out and started yammering all
over town. We needed a cover story.”

“So it’s all real. I thought you were
putting me on, giving me a cover story for a cover story, a lie
around which to wrap another lie. But it’s real. I saw them with my
own eyes.”

“Ugly buggers aren’t they?” Devlin
chuckled.

“Ugly isn’t strong enough.” Ray shook his
head. “So there really is life out there?”

“They’ve been around a lot longer than we
have.” Devlin said.