The heavy doors clunked shut behind them and Alex locked them manually, his hands still shaking and his breathing unsteady.
‘That should hold them for a while,’ Alex said.
‘Can’t they hack the code like you just did?’ Phoebe asked.
‘Not without this,’ Alex said, holding out a small silicon chip and putting it into his pocket.
Rick swiftly tied up the arm of a wounded Agent. Another was on the ground, dragged in by his comrades but out cold. The others were nearly out of ammo.
The lights flickered noisily overhead, off, then on … then off again, for good.
Darkness. They turned their flashlights back on.
‘Could it be Solaris out there?’ Rick asked.
‘Could be, but Stella seems to be doing his dirty work so it’s more likely to be her,’ Phoebe said.
‘I’d sure like to have a word with her, if it is,’ Rick said, gritting his teeth in anger. ‘But we’d need more ammo to take her down.’
‘There were too many of them,’ Phoebe said.
‘What is this place?’ Alex asked, taking several paces down the corridor and looking through a glass wall into …
Is that a lab?
He walked further down until he found a door and entered. ‘It looks like a science lab. Or maybe some kind of medical lab.’
‘Gene research,’ Phoebe said, coming in to stand next to him. ‘In its time, it was the most advanced genetics lab in the world.’
Alex didn’t reply. He felt sick. Before him, along a wall, were tall glass jars full of …
What are they?
‘During the gene research here in the 1950s and 60s,’ Phoebe said, ‘they were experimenting—’
‘On people?’ Alex interrupted.
‘On creating Dreamers,’ Phoebe corrected.
‘Then these are all …’ Alex’s voice trailed off as his flashlight hovered over the glass containers.
‘Early prototypes,’ Phoebe said with a sad voice. ‘Those who didn’t make it.’
Alex was lost for words.
‘We gotta hustle!’ Rick called into the room. ‘They’re cutting through the door!’
‘Come on,’ Phoebe said, putting an arm around her son. ‘Let’s go. We need to search the offices and see what’s there.’
Alex let himself be led away from the macabre sight before him, though he couldn’t help but feel guilty. He had survived to become a Dreamer with a loving mother, when so many before him had not lived to see or experience anything of life at all.
As they hurried back down the corridor, Alex turned to see sparks erupting through the cut in the door.
‘Hurry!’ Rick yelled. ‘Faster!’
Room after room, lab after lab, Alex and his mother searched, seeing more things that Alex didn’t want to know about. Phoebe led the way through the laboratories, repeatedly asking Alex if he felt any sense of having been there in a dream.
‘If there is a Gear here, I don’t think I’m going to find it,’ Alex said. ‘We should focus on getting to the vault and finding the code book. Seeing all this is making me feel sick.’
‘Sweetheart …’
‘No!’ Alex said. ‘All this was part of some Enterprise program to create Dreamers like me. And I’m here today because of it, right?’
‘It’s more complicated than that.’
‘Is it? Or is it really simple?’ Alex said. ‘I see it as someone was here playing God. Playing around with DNA. Experimenting in the dark. It’s … it’s disgusting. How could you sign up for this?’
‘All this gave me you, and for that I am grateful,’ she said.
Alex looked away. ‘Come on,’ he said, ‘let’s get out of here.’
Back out in the corridor, Alex saw that Rick and his men had built a barricade of steel cabinets and tables in front of the door.
‘There’s nothing here. We have to find another way out!’ Phoebe called to Rick.
‘Two minutes!’ an Agent called out. Alex looked over and saw the sparking burn of the blowtorches. They were nearly through the door.
‘We’re out of options,’ Phoebe said to Rick.
‘Agreed,’ Rick said.
‘OK, come with me, Alex,’ Phoebe said, examining the schematics of the complex. ‘We have to follow the emergency air shaft out. There’s a coded door near the top of the ridge where we should be able to get out.’
‘We can’t leave them here!’ Alex said.
Rick smiled and put a hand on Alex’s shoulder. ‘Yes, you can.’
‘You’re outnumbered—’
‘We’re trained for this,’ Rick said. ‘We’ll hold them here as long as we can, then blow this exit and follow you out. Go!’