Iversson gasped involuntarily as she felt the exotic seize hold of her and pull her up against him.
"Hold on … Professsssor."
She could have sworn she could hear the grin in his voice even under the mask.
In the dim glow from beneath she saw his other hand gripping one of the lift cables. Her lungs shrivelled in terror, driving the breath out of her when she realised what he was planning to do. Flinging her arms around his neck, she squeezed her eyes shut as he swung his wrist blades, shearing through the thick sheaf of cables in a single stroke. Her arms were almost wrenched from their sockets as the cable yanked them up and the elevator fell away beneath them. The snarling face of the creature disappeared into the gloom.
He wrapped one arm around her waist as they shot upwards and relief flooded her as the searing pain in her arms reduced. Even though she knew there was only empty air under them Iversson couldn't stop her legs flailing in panic, trying to find a foothold in nothingness. She could hear an insistent high pitched whine getting closer and closer, the noise of the metal cable flying through its housing at great speed.
She hated to think what would happen when they reached the top.
Then she felt him reach to his side with the arm that was also supporting her weight and got the sense that he was holding something. The noise got louder and louder and she realised they must be almost at the top. As the discordant shriek reached a nerve shredding pitch abruptly, terrifyingly, he let go. There was a strange moment just after they stopped flying up but before they started to drop where she felt almost weightless. Her stomach lurched as they began to fall, but at that same moment there was a sound like gunfire, a whirring noise, then with a twang their fall suddenly stopped. If he hadn't had one huge arm tightly around her waist the violence of the jolt would have torn her hands from his neck, leaving her to plunge down the shaft into endless night. For a few moments they just hung there, swinging gently in the pitch black of the elevator shaft, panting for breath.
Then there was the distant sound of an explosion and a bright light flowered beneath them. Even all these floors up she felt the vibrations and clung on desperately as tongues of flame licked up the walls. After a moment she realised it must have been his bombs going off.
The noise of the blast was followed by a deep rumbling and grinding and then there was rushing, booming sound.
"What is that… noise?" For the first time since he'd started to speak the exotic sounded uncertain.
"This whole complex is surrounded by the ocean," Iversson told him "I'd guess that either the explosion or the acid blood of those things or possibly a combination of the two has breached the hull and now the water is coming in."
"So this tunnel is… going to fill with… water?"
"Yes, of course!"
Immediately he began to move, swinging his legs so that they began to swing too until he was able to reach out and grab hold of something, pulling them to the side of the lift shaft.
"Here," He pulled her hand over to the wall and she realised there were metal rungs there welded to the metal, some sort of service ladder. She couldn't see them in the dark but evidently he could "Stay here."
"Where are you going?!"
"I see… doors above. I will … open them."
She held onto the thin iron rungs and listened to the distant thundering of the water as he climbed up past her and began to work on the elevator doors, using a blade to try and pry them open far enough to get his fingers through.
"At least those vile things will drown!"
"Unlikely," He said, massive shoulders straining as he pulled at the doors "They can swim… though I imagine it will give them… a strong incentive to climb up here rapidly!"
"Oh God!" The rushing noise from below was getting steadily closer.
Dim light filtered into the shaft as he managed to prise the elevator doors open, forcing them back by sheer brute strength.
As he turned, leaning down towards her, she heard his hiss of indrawn breath.
"What is it?"
"The hard meat… coming now!" Without warning he grabbed hold of her arm "You first, Scientissst!"
And with that he yanked her off the ladder. For a second she thought he was going to hurl her down to the waiting mouths but instead he swung her upwards in an arc, virtually throwing her overarm through the open elevator doors so she landed stunned and shivering on the metal floor.
She looked up in time to see his clawed hand appear at the lip of the shaft, and then it was suddenly dragged backwards out of sight. With a gasp of dismay, she scrambled to her feet and hurried to the edge, peering down to try and see what had happened.
He was still hanging from a metal rung, grappling with one of the monsters. The thing bared its horrible teeth at him and the exotic slammed it into the wall as he desperately tried to rip himself free. As she watched, another black shape came crawling up the inside of the shaft and leapt on him.
"Come on, come on!" Iversson leaned forward, willing him to get away, realising irrelevantly that she didn't even know his name to call out to him.
He looked up, the dim orange glow of the outdoor lighting gleaming off the polished metal surface of his mask.
"Run idiot!" He snarled "I thought you were meant to be intelligent!"
He was cut off as a third creature leapt on him from behind. He struggled for a moment and then he was gone, falling backwards amidst the threshing tangle of bodies.
Iversson sat there panting for a moment, too shocked to follow his instructions or do anything else. Then a strange blue glow caught her eye. She looked down.
Danzig's hormone tag was pinned to the front of her jacket.
Diana Weyland turned from the screen as the last of the guards at North Terminus succumbed to the Hive.
"Tell me that there's some failsafe we have in place against them?" She barked at Karlsson and Pascoe.
"I don't know Ma'am," Pascoe said doubtfully "I could round up the rest of the guys and we could go down there –"
"And get ripped apart just like they were, leaving me with no security staff? No." Diana stood up smartly "We go to the helipad."
"What about those things? Are we just gonna leave them?"
"Feel free to stay here with them if you like."
He paled "No Ma'am!" But they could get loose, what if they reach the mainland?"
"Let someone else worry about that," She was already walking to the door "We have more pressing concerns right now, like getting out of here alive."
She turned to address what remained of her security staff "Notify all remaining personnel; we are evacuating immediately."
"Yes Ma'am!"
"And make sure all the guards are armed; what are you packing?"
"Pulse rifles with flamethrower capability, Ma'am."
"Fine."
Alarms were sounding and bright orange lights flashed as they made their way hastily to the elevator and down. A small crowd had gathered on the top deck of Island South; security, some of the science team, technicians – the people it took to keep the complex ticking along. She imagined the reason there were so few was that many of the technical staff had gone back to the mainland on the earlier flight. Still, only a handful had managed to make it here. "If any more are left behind then more fool them," She thought "Let them stay and share Woods and the exotic's watery grave!"
On the helipad, two big Boeing-Vertol copters stood ready. The huge metal dome that usually covered the launch area was already open, leaving them open to the elements. She was about to step out into the wind when Marino came around the corner with a slightly woozy looking Farrell in tow.
She regarded the minder with displeasure "Farrell you incompetent! How the hell did those kids manage to get past you?"
"Those little freaks bit a real chunk outta him," Marino cut in, trying to defend his fellow guard "I found him tied up on the floor. Fucking little bastards!"
"Oh spare me the details!" She rolled her eyes "Marino, I need you and Gross to go on the other chopper and keep the rest of the staff in line."
"Ma'am?"
She narrowed her eyes at him "Just keep an watch on the science team. I don't want them babbling in front of the non-clearanced personnel. If anyone is overly talkative then remind them where their interests lie. If they still won't shut up…." She glanced meaningfully at his automatic. He gave a grim little nod and she was reassured.
"You come with me Farrell!" She snapped as he started after Marino "I'm not finished with you yet!"
Diana ran as fast as she was able to the chopper, her heels slithering on the wave spattered deck. The wind was so high that it snatched her breath away. By the time they reached the huge tandem rotor copter, she was dishevelled and frozen.
Spluttering and wiping her hand across her face she clambered on board, gasping with relief to feel the solid floor of the copter under her feet. The roar of the rotor blades on the two aircraft drowned out everything. She sat down, strapping herself into one of the seats that lined the wall and surveyed the drab, utilitarian interior of the chopper. Of course, she'd much rather have taken her private jet but the wind was simply too high to fly in.
There was Himura, head of surveillance, the two remaining members of her security detail, Pascoe and Karlsson. Farrell was hunched up on the seat furthest away from her. Pascoe handed her a towel and she briskly dried her face. Feathers of damp black hair clung to her skin like calligraphic pen strokes across a blank page.
When she'd wiped the saltwater from her eyes she sat silently for a few minutes, twisting the fabric tightly between her fists.
Himura watched her anxiously. It was not an overstatement to say that he feared her, nearly all of her staff did. The rumour was you never even knew when you had incurred her wrath until it was too late.
"Are…you alright Ms Weyland?"
"We managed to get out, that's the important thing. I'll admit it's something of a blow to lose the complex…and the children."
Himura's mouth fell open, he'd forgotten about them "Oh God… the children!"
"Yes, we stood to make a lot of money out of them."
He stared at her in horror.
"It's this way to the landing pad!"
Lex kept the plasma gun in her hand as they ran helter skelter after Rathbone down the slippery corridors of Island South, feet squealing on the linoleum. It was not only in case of the hard meat. She didn't trust the head of security and she wanted to make sure she had superior firepower at her fingertips just in case.
They ran down the long corridor that led up to Diana Weyland's office and looking through the large windows on the side of the corridor facing away from the ocean she suddenly saw the choppers sitting on the helipad, the blades turning lazily.
They all skidded to a halt as the two helicopters began to rise slowly into the air, the gale from their whirring blades whipping up the sea but eerily silenced by the thick glass.
Rathbone gaped in dismay, his palms flat against the glass "No!"
"Looks like someone beat us to the punch!" She said flatly.
Marino sat in the second Boeing, eyeing the assorted grab-bag of Weyland employees who'd managed to make it to the evac site. Everyone was edgy and tense, they didn't know why they had been suddenly evacuated. Some of them dragged from their beds in the middle of the night and rushed out to board a chopper in a howling gale. Even though they were only a small number – just seven people –they'd have to keep a tight lid on things. He could only imagine the utter panic if they did all know the real reason for the evacuation. In fact, to his eyes the cleared members of the science team – who surely did know – certainly looked a lot more squirrelly than the others. "No surprise there!" He thought.
Marino was one of the few of the security personnel who had full clearance. As Rathbone's right hand man he could access all areas of Weyland Corporation's floating complex and he knew what was lurking on the bottom levels of Island North.
Luckily for him he'd never possessed much of an imagination. The thought of the creeping terrors now dropping away beneath them didn't bother him much; whatever those things were they were leaving them behind. He was focussed on the here and now.
He watched the Weyland employees in the darkness of the helicopter. Kurtz, one of the science team was crying. She was being comforted by one of the technicians, maybe her boyfriend. They were speaking in low voices, her whispering to him through her tears. His face became grim "Kurtz!" He barked "Stow it, cut out that snivelling!"
She turned her swimming gaze up at him in surprise "You all signed a confidentiality agreement," He reminded her grimly "Just keep that in mind!"
Seven pairs of eyes were now riveted on him, goggling up at him in terror "Well I wanted to put the frighteners on them a little," he thought, "But I didn't lay it on 'em that bad!" Then he realised that they weren't staring at him, but at something behind him.
Marino turned to see a long black arm unfolding itself out of the small storage space right next to the hatch that gave access to the cockpit area, followed by a long sleek head that opened a mouth full of sharp teeth. Clear slime drooled from its distended jaws as it reached its arms towards him, sinuous fingers outstretched with silent longing…
