Parallelogram : Day Two : Chapter 38
Five Days, Fifteen Hours
"There!"
Nina nearly fell to the floor as the safety catch gave way. After much protest, the hatch finally swung away, revealing the bulletproof viewport in the airlock's door. She felt Ebdon's arms under her shoulders, and he kept her from crashing to the ground. He helped her stand upright again, and, together, the two of them glanced through the opening into the room beyond.
Even the thick steel couldn't muffle all the gunfire that had erupted not long after David Jennings had rushed them into the small corridor. Bursts of deadly fire exchanges routinely sounded like muffled grinding through the door, and they looked out furiously hoping to learn what exactly was going on.
"Oh, my Lord, they're taking some hits!" Ebdon exclaimed.
The main entrance to the Mallathorn's chamber had been blown from its hinges, and the steel interior plating had eventually given way to a second blast. Then, armed soldiers hopped into the room, their guns blazing at the scientists and support personnel moved for cover. Many weapons must have been hidden within the chamber as Jennings appeared to be scrambling about, arming the entire staff, and the firefight had begun. Straining, Nina made out several of the fallen whitecoats, and she noticed one of the faces – one of the technicians she thought she had recognized when they first entered the installation – do his best to provide medical treatment to his colleagues.
"They're not going to last long against those soldiers," she announced, her voice full of dread.
"Nina, you find a way to get me out of here, and I swear I'll take a few of those boys down with me before I go," Ebdon challenged. "My skill may not be what it used to be, but there's no way I'm going down without a fight!"
Comforting, she placed a hand on his shoulder. "This isn't our fight, Ebdon!"
"What are you talking about?" he charged. "There are people dying out there, and we're safe in here! What other fight is there?"
She nodded at the door behind them, the one that led into the inner sanctum of the Mallathorn.
"Jennings believed that these men have come for the alien," she explained. "If that's the case, then our fight is in there, making absolutely certain that they don't take him or kill him ... I don't know which, but we won't settle for either! Now, I don't know what to do, but we need a plan, and we need it fast!"
Pounding his closed fists against the steel plate, Parker screamed, "Open this damn window!"
"It is no use, Frank," the alien tried. "We have been sealed in for the purposes of survival."
"I want to see what's going on out there!" Glaring back over his shoulder at the small creature, he yelled, "My friends are out there, and I have to do something!"
"I'm certain Jennings will get them to safety."
"Safety?" Parker challenged. "What the hell kind of safety is there? It looked like every door led to here, so where else is there for them to go?"
"Frank, please relax."
"I can't!"
Again, Parker rolled up his fists, smashing them as hard as he could against the plate.
"LET ME OUT OF HERE NOW!"
Pointing toward the door to the interior chamber where he knew the alien would be, Ebdon Finkle said, "We're going in there."
Turning away from the horror she witnessed through the small portal, Nina glanced at the other steel door. There was no sign of any window on it, and she could only imagine what the Mallathorn and Frank Parker were doing on the other side. They were probably trying to figure out, as she was, what they could do to help the others, and they were probably as frustrated with the fact that any possible solution evaded them as it did her.
"Ebdon, I can't go in there."
"Doctor, I hate to tell you this," he tried, "but there just isn't any other way to go!"
She left the door and firmly took the old man by the shoulder. "You don't understand, Ebdon! I can't go in there! Frank's in there, and he's out of his containment suit! If I'm exposed to the temporal contamination trapped in his body, then I'm as good as dead!" She glanced down at the pistol she held in her other hand. "I may as well be of some use out there, where I can help the others try to fend off these attackers."
Confused, the old man brought a hand up to his face and brushed it across his brow. He wiped away a small line of sweat that had formed there. "I guess I hadn't thought of that."
"You've been immunized," she reminded him. "You go. Help Frank protect the alien."
Defiantly, he barked back at her, "I won't leave you here to die!"
"If you don't go, then quite possibly we'll all die, Ebdon!"
"There has to be another way!" he insisted.
"But there isn't!" Again, she squeezed his shoulder, struggling to hold back her emotion. She knew that she was going to die. Everyone did. In her line of work, she had seen far more people – innocent people – pass into the great mystery of death than she cared to remember. Most of the deaths had been fitful, the merciless wrath of temporal contamination, but some of it had been peaceful. She hoped that she'd receive the latter. "There isn't any other way, Ebdon, and you're not doing any of us any good by staying here to protect me." He started to protest, but she interrupted him. "Frank's body is no threat to you, Ebdon, but I've seen what it can do to others ... and there's no way I'm going to put myself through that. I've worked too hard for far too long to give in to it, and there's no way I'll let myself think otherwise when it comes to saving my own life." She took her hand from his shoulder and placed it gently against his cheek. "Please. Go. Just go. I'll stay here. I'll do what I can to hold them back. I'll do what I can to give you and Frank and the Mallathorn some more time. Maybe reinforcements will arrive soon, and maybe those soldiers won't even get through this door. Either way, I want you to go ... now."
When it appeared he was still unwilling to go, she added, "I'll be all right."
Slowly, he swallowed. He couldn't leave her ... could he? It wasn't right ... but what about Frank? What about the alien? Shouldn't he try to do as she said and protect the two of them?
"Nina?"
"I mean it, Ebdon," she said. "I'll be all right."
He turned. There, it stood: the door that separated him from an entire lifetime of secrets. He took a few steps toward it, glancing sideways at Frank's possessions, and ...
"That's it," he said.
"What?"
He whirled around and faced her. "Nina, you're coming with me!"
"Ebdon, please ..."
"Listen to me, young lady," he spat. "I won't hear any more of this. You're coming with me, and you're coming with me right now!"
"Don't make me do this!" she screamed.
"Nina," he cut her off, "I have an idea!"
END of Chapter 38
