Once inside the door, it seemed that I was pretty much on my own. I didn’t have time to waste, so I couldn’t dither. Choosing the left corridor, I jogged silently past several doors. I couldn’t tell what was in the rooms I passed, but from the spacing of the doors, they must have been offices. Katarina Kreng’s anti-matter pod couldn’t be in any of these rooms – they weren’t exactly private. Somehow, I couldn’t imagine her hauling her pod down the corridor and parking it in someone’s office.
Picking up the pace, I headed for the double doors at the end of the corridor. As I got nearer, I could make out the signs above the doors. There were three blue signs, but it was the one in green that interested me most - it read: Atlas Lab.
Following the green arrows, I sprinted and swerved my way down another long corridor until I came to a door marked Atlas Laboratory. Peeping through the small window in the top of the door, I could see that this was a huge space. The giant hunks of shining metal spread around the lab suggested that the technicians brought bits of the huge detector here to reset or cleaned or something. There didn’t seem to be anyone in, so I slipped carefully inside.
With only the central lights on, my eyes strained to make out the far end of the lab. Sensing rather than seeing movement, I instinctively crouched down, making myself as short as possible. Also, realising that I was in the most well lit part of the room, I crawled along the wall until I found some shadows into which I could disappear.
A sudden rattle from somewhere in the darkness made my right ear shoot up. My head swivelled on instinct and my eyes searched. Now I understood why Man slept at night. Our species would have been wiped out in the blink of an eye, if we had tried to hunt after sunset. Of course, there’s probably some geneticist working on that as we speak. Imagine that – designer babies with night vision!
Blurry images moving against a still backdrop was all that my light-starved eyes could make out. And if I blinked too hard, even these images disappeared. Losing patience with my inadequate DNA, I headed towards the moving images. Then a light suddenly flickered to life. Like a rabbit in the headlights, I froze mid-step. My startled mind caught up with reality, just in time for me to duck down behind a giant metal fitting.
Peering around the side, I could see them both. My heart pounded. There was Charlie, hands tied behind her back, with a gag over her mouth. She seemed to be attached to a huge metal ring, and scattered all around her were bits of piping and what must have been component parts of the LHC, or one of its detectors.
Seeing that Katarina Kreng was walking away from me, I jumped up to get Charlie’s attention. The ticking countdown on Katarina Kreng’s laptop almost outweighed the joy I felt as Charlie smiled. Well it was hard to tell if she was smiling because of the gag, but she looked happy to see me.
Unaware of my presence, Katarina Kreng headed towards a large metal sphere near the back wall of the lab. Taking a deep breath, I ran as fast as I could towards Charlie. Her eyes flashed angrily at me, as I got nearer. What was she angry about? I was coming to rescue her!
Then everything came crashing down around me as Katarina Kreng turned to face me. The shock in her face showed that she hadn’t been expecting me quite so soon.
‘Ah - my goosey goosey gander! Come over here and wonder at my lady’s chamber.’ She guffawed at her own joke, pointing to the sphere.
I took a step closer to Charlie. ‘So, you’d rather die along with your little friend than live a lifetime amongst the stars,’ hissed the madwoman. The tone of her voice made my blood curdle.
‘I’d rather have one minute with Charlie than a million years with you,’ I hissed.
‘You may have your wish then!’ she spat as she unexpectedly flew in my direction. Stunned by her sudden movement, I almost didn’t respond. Then Charlie’s muffled voice woke me up and I ran towards her. Knowing that Katarina Kreng would be on me in a second, I grabbed a length of pipe from the scattered debris on the floor and swung it behind me, catching the witch on the ankles. For a fleeting second I felt bad about causing pain to someone else, then reality kicked in - if I didn’t stop her, she would end the world.
As she stumbled past me, I pulled Hali’s Swiss army knife out of my pocket. The sharp blade sliced through Charlie’s ropes and I grabbed her hand to pull her forward. ‘Feet!’ she screamed, tearing the gag from her mouth.
In slow motion, I followed her eyes. The penny only dropped when I noticed the rope around her ankles! ‘Idiot,’ I swore at myself, under my breath. Bending to cut the rope, I hadn’t noticed Katarina Kreng staggering to her feet behind me.
With the squeal of a wild cat, she sprung onto my back. The hairs on my neck stood up in protest. With a strength I didn’t know that I possessed, I pushed myself off the floor and stood up. Her horrible fingers scratched at my face as her legs wrapped around my waist. I could feel the warm trickle of blood flowing from one of the scratches. Realising that the witch was going for my eyes, I squeezed them shut. This made fighting her a lot harder. I staggered backwards as she alternately pulled at my hair and poked at my eyes.
Then her tactic changed. Like a vice, she locked her hands around my neck and started to squeeze. My hands flew to my neck, trying to prise hers off. Her grip was strong. My vision started to blur as a loud pounding noise echoed around my head. My oxygen-starved brain was having trouble working out what was happening. My limbs were growing weaker. I felt like I was falling. The last sound I heard was a dull “clunk.”