Dawn came at QT Laboratories, with a light fog shrouding the low-rise complex. A sole security guard manned the main gate as another walked the perimeter corridor. Otherwise, all was quiet.
“Over here, man,” whispered Dopler. He motioned Zak and Francesca behind a grassy knoll just outside the compound. “No security cameras until you get around the corner.”
Zak and Francesca followed him stealth-like, both armed with their homemade weaponry and backpacks filled with extra ammo.
Dopler saw something and shoved their heads down. The guard patrolling the perimeter came into view, glanced in their direction, and continued his beat. As soon as he was gone, Dopler jogged over the knoll to a square metal grate. He pulled it up and quickly lowered himself down, Zak and Francesca right behind.
They dropped into a massive concrete chamber, large enough to hold a truck. The sound of a humming motor echoed from somewhere ahead. A trickle of murky fluid flowed beneath their feet.
“Is this stuff toxic?” grimaced Francesca, trying not to step in it.
“Probably,” answered Dopler.
He led them in the direction of the hum, the dim light brightening a few lumens. A slight breeze began to move his gray locks.
“Were almost there,” Dopler told them, his anxiety growing with every step. They came to a junction and saw what Dopler had drawn on the napkin.
The exhaust fan was much bigger than they had expected, with a diameter of at least six feet. It was also spinning faster than they’d been led to believe.
“This is it,” stated Dopler. His voice was unsteady. “Just past here are the ducts into the building.”
They stared at the fan soberly, its sharp blades slicing through the damp air in a blur. Just as Zak started to question the plausibility of their plan, Francesca took hold of his wrist, as well as Dopler’s.
“Push the button, Zak.”
Her positive expression injected him with confidence. He reached down and activated the watch. The rippling flashed through all of them. The liquid beneath their feet was now ice-still. More importantly, the fan had slowed to a crawl.
Zak studied it carefully. While the blades were razor sharp, there appeared to be enough space in their rotations to pass through.
He mustered all the confidence his constricted larynx would allow.
“All right, let’s go.”
Dopler just stood there.
“C’mon, Earl—you wont fit through the blades with your pack on,” said Zak Somehow “Earl” didn’t sound right, but Zak felt they had been through enough together to be on a first-name basis.
Dopler pulled off his backpack and tossed it at Zak’s feet. “Here’s extra ammo. This is as far as I go.”
Zak burned him with a stare. “Hey, we had a deal.”
“Look man … I’m scared, ’kay? If you went through what I’ve been through, this place would give you the willies too. I can’t go in there, Zakman.”
Zak was livid. “He was like a father to you, huh?”
“Hey, that’s low, man. If you hadn’t taken the watch to begin with, he wouldn’t be in here!”
“What are you talking about, you greasy loser? You put my whole family at risk when you sent him that watch!” Zak changed his voice to a Dopleresque whine: “‘I didn’t know it was a weapon, I thought it was far science, man.’”
“That’s the truth, man!”
“Yeah? I’ll tell you the truth …” Zak stepped closer, his heart in his throat. “That man in there gave his life to students like you! He treated you like a son, you said so yourself! And now that he needs something back, it’s too much for you! Well, I am his son. And I’m going in there.”
Although Zak wasn’t aware of it, tears were welling in his eyes.
Dopler was moved, no question, but he held his ground. The only way he was going back into Quantum Tech was kicking and screaming.
Francesca glared at Dopler, then tossed their backpacks through the slow-moving blades.
“Cmon, lets go,” she quietly said.
Zak took one last look at the scientist, whose eyes were full of fear. He suddenly realized he was just as scared. That he might very well die trying to save his father. That Francesca was facing the same possible fate.
Zak shoved all of these doubts into the background as he jumped between the steel-edged blades.