CHAPTER 28

The humming noise that came from the remote lab intensified. Concerned about the unusual sound, Claudia rushed from desk to desk, looking over shoulders, frantic as she tapped in key strokes, trying to locate system anomalies. She checked everything, every computer and monitoring instrument, but could find nothing wrong. The readings all appeared normal. Until the ground vibrations began. For a brief moment it felt like an earthquake tremor. Claudia was on her way to another computer and thrown forward. A steel rail bolted to the wall was the only thing that kept her from falling face first on the tile floor.

She surveyed the room, frantic.

“What the heck was that?”

The group of Committee scientists had been adamant about the safety of the experiment. But Claudia’s success in science had not come from following trends. As the loud humming noise and vibrations intensified, she questioned their logic. The probability projections from the Committee calculations were valid and their logic was sound, but Claudia could not be certain their assumptions were accurate, because they were dealing with an unknown force.

Claudia knew something was wrong. Her gut instinct told her that the experiment was a mistake, a terrible miscalculation. They should immediately shut it down, she thought, and go back to the drawing board. They needed to temper their enthusiasm and take their time. But the instruments all said the experiment was not in any danger, and that the range of energy output was “tolerable.”

Claudia had nothing concrete she could argue with Professor Blackstone. Deep down she felt her scientific peers had beaten her into submission. She reluctantly agreed to participate in the experiment out of a sense of guilt for how she had acted. Claudia’s job was to oversee the central lab monitoring equipment. She had the authority to ground the experiment if something went amiss. Something was amiss, yet she had no way to prove it.

The ground floor was steady after the first tremor shook the lab. Everyone felt the vibrations growing in the remote laboratory building. The scientists tried to stay focused and ignored the distractions as they calculated and recalculated their instruments.

All was well, according to their estimates.

Every eye in the lab was now focused on the flat screen broadcast of the remote laboratory.

***

A central power station had been installed at the estate when their energy needs had outgrown the original feed from the local utility. A poured concrete structure had been built to house the station that was located at the far end of the estate. The steel door entrance to the power grid had an electronic lock and only a limited number of staff had access to the room. The security protocol set up by John required that the guards check the room at least twice a day. To ensure they spent time there, he left a coffee pot and supplies in the far corner of the building. One guard, while doing a second sweep of the grounds, stopped in front of the power station.

A second guard opened the steel door and stepped outside, carrying a coffee cup. He nodded to his coworker.

“How’s it going?”

“Good.”

The first guard, a former Swiss policeman, held up his radio.

“Did you hear anything on the radio a second ago?”

The guard shrugged his shoulders. “No. What’s up?”

“I can’t seem to raise the gatehouse,” said the first guard. “I heard a noise after he keyed his mike. Now he won’t answer.”

“Let me try,” said the second man. He put down his coffee and pushed the button on his radio. “Gatehouse, this is Pollack, come in. Hello gatehouse, come in, this is Pollack.” His face was grim. The breach of security concerned him.

He continued speaking into his radio. “Hello, hello?”

Shaking his head, he spoke. “No good. Maybe his radio is out. Why don’t you stay here? Help yourself to a cup of coffee, just brewed it. I’ll go up to the guard shack and see what’s up.”

The first guard squinted in the direction of the gatehouse and headed for the coffee.

“Keep me informed.”

“Will do.”

***

The bakery truck and three SUVs were inside the compound, the front gate secure. To the casual observer driving past the walled compound everything seemed normal. Behind the wall, a deadly plan had been set into motion. The attack had begun, and one of John’s men lay dead in a bloody pool next to the guard shack.

Lucien, Hamid and the six thugs, each with an AK-47 automatic rifle slung across his shoulder, huddled behind the estate wall. Lucien had a detailed map, encased in plastic, which gave the specific locations they had targeted. Colored pencils marked each spot, and Lucien gave each man detailed instructions on how to proceed. While he spoke, two of the men began to drag the bloodied guard’s body into an area hidden by the brush.

Lucien turned to the pair, his face red. “Leave him! We need to get to the power grid.”

Hamid stood next to Lucien as the scientist pointed out the location of the building on the map. “There. We go there first.”

Hamid turned to the group of thugs. “Spread out! Teams of two. We meet at the power station.”

***

The second guard gave his coworker a wave as he left the power station and casually proceeded across the estate compound. The guard was accustomed to false alarms, because John had insisted his men stay on their toes, and often triggered events that were, in fact, drills. The guard was about to lift his radio and try the guard shack again when he heard a noise. He spotted Hector on his right. The mercenary quietly slipped in and out of the trees, headed for the power station.

Not wanting to alert his target, the guard put away his radio and pulled out his pistol. Lucien’s man carried his AK-47 in a horizontal position and was careful not to make any noise as he stopped and scanned the area around him. No one else was visible to the guard, so he decided to take action. The guard knew the treed area like the back of his hand. He maneuvered his way around and to the front of the intruder. He hid behind a large tree, waiting for the armed intruder to pass him.

There was a slight crunch in the snow as Hector worked his way past the tree. The guard saw the barrel of the AK-47 first, pointed forward, followed by the intruder. The guard waited until he passed and jumped out, sticking his pistol inches from Hector’s face.

“Stop right there.”

Lucien’s man froze dead in his tracks.

“If you so much as breathe, I’m putting a bullet in your brain.” He gestured at the ground. “Drop it.”

The thug slowly put his gun on the ground.

“Now step away from it.”

The guard picked up the automatic weapon and tossed it behind him. “Now, no sudden moves; I want you to do this carefully. Put your hands on your head and-”

A sharp sting hit the pistol, causing the guard to drop it. It was Hector’s partner Antonio. He heard the guard pull his gun on Hector and struck the pistol with the barrel of the rifle. The element of surprise knocked the guard off balance and left him weaponless. Quick to react, the guard spun on his right foot, and struck his left heel against Antonio’s knee, followed by a foot thrust into his face as he went down. A stunned Antonio dropped his AK-47.

Hector pulled out his knife and charged the guard from behind. The guard felt his movement and sidestepped, using the leverage of the outstretched arm to pull Hector off balance, knocking him to the ground. He jammed his foot on the knife hand and grabbed the weapon.

Antonio, dizzy but conscious, jumped up and made a break for his rifle. The guard cut him off. Now directly in front of Antonio, the guard crouched in a combat stance, knife in hand, prepared to finish him off. A nervous Hector, surprised by the skill of the guard, jumped up and carefully moved in on the guard’s flank.

At that instant an umbrella shaped pattern of red splattered the two thugs; the side of the guard’s head exploded. The two mercenaries felt the drops of moisture land on their lips. They tried to wipe it away, but the bitter-blood taste of copper filled their mouths.

Lucien appeared.

Out of nowhere, he had calmly pointed his silenced gun at the guard’s left temple and pulled the trigger.

Lucien addressed his two shell-shocked employees, his voice unruffled.

“To the power station, gentlemen.”

Hector and Antonio frantically wiped the remainder of the guard’s blood off their faces as they scrambled for their rifles and ran ahead of Lucien to the power station.

A composed Lucien put away his pistol and with a relaxed gait, followed his men to the target.

***

Inside the laboratory, the humming continued. A circle of scientists stared at the television monitors, waiting for something to happen.

Claudia watched the monitor and focused on the large containment devise, praying the energy discharge would remain stable. The apprehension in the lab was palpable. She was mesmerized by the tension as she watched the two scared students shuffle frantically around the remote laboratory.

She gripped the metal rail on the wall behind her.

“Steady…”

***

John drove the four-wheel-drive vehicle up the dirt road, threading his way through the thick brush. With his window down, he noticed the tree branches he passed had been snapped, a clear sign that a large vehicle had made its way through the trail. He stopped to examine several of the branches and noticed the breaks were fresh.

John had been anxious to check the circuitous trail, located in the mountains above and facing the estate, ever since he first observed the area with his binoculars. There was some movement in the area. John knew that hikers and campers sometimes used this trailhead, but at this time of year, with the snow on the mountains, very few hikers came this way. The altitude was too high for cross-country day skiers, and until he made his observation, there had been little traffic in the remote spot.

John stopped his vehicle at the trailhead entrance and got out. Immediately, he noticed the tire tracks. Working his way through the trail, he followed the tracks until he came to the clearing. Behind him and to the left, he saw more tire tracks. From this point of view, he understood why the vehicle had been parked there. Directly below, in the distance, he could see the estate and the gatehouse entrance.

As he looked around the tracks for some evidence of who had been there, John thought he saw something going on at the front gate of the estate, but he was too far away to see clearly. He walked back to the SUV and retrieved his binoculars.

Returning to his vantage point, John lifted the binoculars and scanned the estate. He could see the top of the local bakery truck, parked behind the wall, at the side of the gate shack entrance. No one was visible. And that was unusual. So was the motionless bakery van. John had demanded a presence at the front gate at all times. The man who took the post this morning was one of his most reliable employees.

Digging into his pocket for his cell phone, John dialed the gatehouse and put the phone to his ear.

Nothing.

He speed dialed the number again and examined the display; there was no signal. The trailhead was too remote. He stuffed the phone into his pocket and ran to the rear of the vehicle. When the hatch door lifted, he picked up an automatic rifle, several clips of ammunition, and rushed to the front. He tossed the ammunition on the passenger seat and braced the rifle against the passenger side door.

Twisting the key in the ignition, he jammed the SUV into gear and floored the accelerator, turning the wheel as he raced through the labyrinth of forest, hoping this was all a mistake, but knowing better.

As he tore down the rough trail to the compound, bouncing off the rocks and struggling to stay in control, he thought of Claudia, and what Blackstone had said about the future of mankind.

He prayed he was not too late to save her.