Chapter Six
Jacqueline was reclining comfortably on a chaise lounge in her office, drinking lemonade and savoring her impending victory when the lights began to flash, strobe-like, at bionic speed, through the lab, the office and the other rooms of the small complex. She was already on her feet when the two assistants who had grabbed Rudy rushed in.
"The main entrance has been breached, Ma'am," one of them said breathlessly. He and his partner ducked as Jacqueline threw her glass at them, causing it to smash against the door frame and land in shards, ice cubes and lemon pulp at their feet.
"I figured that out when the lights started blinking, Imbecile!"
"The live feed should be active in the lab, if you -"
"Then why the hell are you wasting time here?" she snapped. "If our visitors are who I think they are," she continued as they moved down the hall toward the lab (and Rudy), they may have played their last card, straight into our hands. In any case, with security breached, we'll have to terminate the prisoner." She and her assistants readied their guns as they reached the side door to the lab.
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Oscar and Jack reached the entrance less than five minutes after Steve and Jaime had gone into the complex, but found a heavy metal door now blocked the stairway and kept them from getting inside. "How big is this place?" Oscar asked.
"Not very – there's the main lab, two smaller labs, a master office and a couple of storage rooms," Jack told him.
"Any other way in?"
"No. But the hallway from here to the complex is fairly long, so if we can get a demo crew in here, we can blast the door open and hopefully not hit anyone."
"Or we could do this." Oscar drew his weapon and fired three shots into the locking mechanisms of the door, then reached through the opening where the handle had been and easily pulled the door open. There was no sign of Jaime, Steve or Rudy. The lights were blinking wildly, making navigating even the straight hallway difficult.
"Dammit!" Oscar swore, becoming disoriented. "Steve and Jaime could get through without the lights – probably better – and it'd give them an advantage. Where's the main breaker?" Silently, Hansen pointed the way.
Jaime and Steve froze briefly as they were plunged into pitch blackness. Jaime grabbed Steve's arm. "Ok, I'm the ears, and you're the eyes; they're straight ahead. Lead on, Colonel," she whispered.
"There's a lab straight ahead. I can see the bottom of something – I think it's a cage – I'm betting Rudy's up there. Let's go."
"I don't think so," a voice snarled, and Jaime felt Steve being wrenched violently away from her.
"Get Rudy!" Steve told her urgently. Jaime was already heading into the lab. Steve made his way there, too, dragging his potential captors with him as they continued to grip his arms. He swung his right arm around to hit one man with the other, and dropped them both to the floor, just as Jaime reached a point directly under the cage. "Ok, Jaime," he said in a voice so soft that only she could hear him, "straight up."
He glanced around the lab, and saw that in the darkness, Jacqueline had edged over to a large switch on a wall. Jaime leaped high into the air and curled her fingers around the bottom edge of the cage. While holding on tightly with her left hand, she reached up with her right to bend and then break the bars. Steve's eyes were drawn away from Jaime and Rudy by the laughter of the woman at the switch.
"Nice job, cyborgs. Too bad you didn't know this is the one switch not connected to the main breaker. Your little friend up there can fry along with your doctor."
"Don't move, Lady," Hansen called, as he and Oscar finally made their way into the lab.
"I'd just as soon shoot you as arrest you."
The guns were all in place, those required (Oscar, Hansen, Rudy and Steve's) and those intent on profit at any cost (Rivera and her two cronies'). Jaime was too busy to even think about hers. Seven fingers moved onto seven triggers, but only one was the first.
BANG!
The only sound that followed was of two bodies thudding softly to the floor, then everything happened at once. The lights came on and Russ and his teams came thundering down the hallway into the lab. Jacqueline released a loud, angry string of words as she slumped against the wall, clutching her bleeding hand and staring at the pieces of wire that remained where the switch had been. Steve smiled with satisfaction at his ability to hit a target in the dark. He'd been aiming for the switch, to shoot it in the opposite direction of On; he couldn't help that her hand was in the way. Oscar and Hansen stood over Jacqueline while Russ and his men rounded up the two assistants, and Steve moved swiftly to embrace Jaime, as she set Rudy down safely on his own two, unharmed, feet.
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