Viruses are evil. Go back up your stuff everybody before it's too late and the fist gnawing agony descends upon you.
Chapter 11
"We need to get Sally to the underground pool then get everyone else to the pool. Will, you and... no just you, everyone else is competent with a gun."
Ashley dished out orders sharply, now the Cabal were here there was no time for niceties.
"I don't think Sally would appreciate me ordering her around," whinged Will.
"Will," Ashley placed her hands on Will's shoulders and looked him in the eye. "You can moan about it forever, I promise. Afterwards. There is no other choice. Sally knows the plan and will be ready."
"There's a plan?"
"Of course there's a plan."
"I... it's not one of yours is it?" Ashley glared at him. "It's just you know these plans of yours aren't always too hot. In the last one you had, you died."
"Mom came up with the plan, now move it."
Will looked visibly relieved to hear that Magnus had input into the madness this time.
"The Big guy and Tesla will insist on staying with Mom and will keep her covered while she sorts Druitt. When you get the signal, you all leave and head for the pool."
"All including Druitt?"
"Including Druitt. I didn't go through all that to leave him behind."
"What's the signal?"
"You'll know it when you hear it."
"Dammit Ashley, you haven't decided what the signal is going to be, have you?" demanded Will, looking pale and very anxious at the impending doom.
"Kate, Henry, get upstairs to the South side windows and see how many agents you can pick off before they get inside. If you get forced back make sure you get to the pool."
"Why the pool?"
"If the bomb goes off and we can't stop it, it's our only way out. With Sally's help we might make it to the river."
"How are we going to stop the bomb?"
"We're not. The ripper is."
Despite the scarcity of time and imminent invasion there was a deafening silence as those words sank in.
"I'm sorry, hang on a second," said Henry. "For a moment there I thought you said 'The Ripper' is going to stop the bomb."
He gave a slightly maniacal, strained laugh. Ashley said nothing.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, Ashley! That is the most insane, really stupidest, asking for trouble, did I say insane thing I have ever heard in my life, and that is saying something working here."
"Hey, I already told you, Mom's plan."
"What happens to the ripper afterwards?"
Will, Kate and Henry stared at Ashley in horrified expectation, ready for it to get worse.
"I can't hear you," prompted Will.
"Don't worry about that, chances are we wont get that far and if we do, I've got something that should theoretically work. I'll figure something out."
"What!"
"Relax Henry. That was almost a joke."
"Ash, how am I going to get Sally to the pool?" asked Will, worriedly.
"As quickly as possible," she replied. "I don't know Will, use that unusually massive brain of yours and think of something."
An almighty boom shook the building. The air seemed to shake with the source of the explosion. Dust which had not seen the light of day for hundreds of years escaped from its imprisonment in the stones and filled the air making Henry sneeze.
"I would bet actual money that was the front door," said Henry. "Why can't they just knock like everyone else?" He hammered away at his computer pad remotely accessing the Sanctuary systems. "I'm closing the inside blast doors to try and compartmentalise them."
"OK everybody go, you know what you're doing. Keep checking in on the walkie talkies."
"Crap, Ash, they're stuck," said Henry, sounding slightly panicked.
"What are stuck?"
"The blast doors are half closed, they can get through they just need to duck. They've done something to the system. That explosion must have done some damage somewhere. Shit, Ash, I'm sorry." He apologised, feeling that as the tech was his domain, he had failed.
"Henry, its cool, be cool. When they bend down to clamber under the doors we'll whack 'em on the head, right?"
"Oh, yeah," he looked a bit relieved at that thought. "I guess. I'm sorry."
Kate grabbed him by the arm and they ran for the stairs, headed for some target practice.
"Helen, we can't stay here," said Tesla, getting twitchier by the second as the building shook in its foundations.
His survival instinct had kicked in ever since he'd been de-vamped and he did not like to place himself in such dangerous situations any more. He hadn't been a big fan of fighting, even with superpowers, but now it held even less appeal. His new mantra was: Those who fight and run away, live to fight another day.
"John has a collapsed lung. We can't move him in this condition he has to be stabilised or he won't stand a chance," said Magnus, working furiously on Druitt lying on the table beneath her.
Nikola didn't have the courage to say aloud the thought which was running through his head.
Leave him.
Nevertheless, Magnus looked up from John's unresponsive form and stared him straight in the eye. She knew what he was thinking. He looked away ashamed and decided to go with it and put his quick mind to work. He certainly didn't want to stay here and he wouldn't leave Helen to stay here either while the Cabal ransacked the place. If the only way she would leave was with John, then so be it.
"Helen, what about a sample of your blood? It may help him stabilize quicker."
Magnus frowned in thought, she had been so frantic with worry she hadn't even considered such a simple solution.
"It might work long enough until we can get him somewhere safe," said Nikola, finally choosing to stay and fight.
"All right, help me take a sample."
Henry and Kate peered out of a second floor window at the dark shapes, they presumed to be Cabal agents, pouring in an unending stream over the grounds toward the building. Henry looked nervously at his gun, he really didn't like those things.
"Henry, they're only tranqs and anyway, they're only bad guys."
He nodded, picked up his gun and started firing at the dark shadows crossing the lawn, satisfaction rising as they dropped to the ground. He looked over at Kate and she smiled back at him.
"First one to twenty wins."
"Wins what?"
"Another twenty to shoot at."
A secondary Cabal team stood in the main hall looking around. The initial team were checking ahead room by room. Two young agents came running up hurriedly to the Lieutenant in charge of the operation.
"Hey boss, we found something," one said proudly. "It looks like they've set a trap, or a bomb, or something."
"Just a minute," he held up a finger as he listened on his earpiece.
"Experiencing resistance on the second floor."
"Take them alive if possible," he said over the comm. to the point team.
He turned back to the eager young agents. He hadn't been sure if it was a good idea to bring along such inexperienced operatives but agents were thin on the ground and he didn't have time to be picky, besides, it sounded as though they'd had some success.
"I told you, don't call me boss. It's Lieutenant Black."
"Sure, whatever. This way, Lieutenant."
The agents led the Lieutenant to the main lab which had not long been vacated by the Sanctuary team.
"What have you got?" Lt. Black asked the explosives specialist already in place and studying the device.
"Possible explosive device. It's giving off a massive energy signature, the readings are off the scale. I've never seen anything like it."
"Carry out a controlled explosion. The only bombs going off here will be our own."
"Yes sir."
"You two," he turned and addressed the enthusiastic agents. "Guard this room. It lies at the heart of the building, once we've swept the rest of the Sanctuary this will be the ideal site to lay the explosives."
The two agents stood to attention. Lieutenant Black sighed at the sight they made as he went back to see how the rest of the invasion was going. He wondered how long they'd be able to stay in that pose for.
"Ha! Did you see that? That one did a somersault. Whah!"
Henry's cheer turned to a scream as a grappling hook flew past the window he was carefully peering out of and hooked itself over the edge of the sill. Kate pulled a knife out of her boot and sliced through the rope. A scream and a thud could be heard as someone fell off the loose rope and took the fast route back down to the ground. All at once grappling hooks started flying in through every window and the black clad agents began scaling the walls. They were coming in through every available entrance there was into the Sanctuary.
The explosives team meanwhile, were finishing up their preparation work on opening the mysterious box.
"OK, stand back, take cover."
An underwhelming thud and hissing noise were the only evidence of the controlled explosion. No one else in the Sanctuary was even aware an explosion had taken place until a few seconds later.
A roaring sound slowly filled the room and the air swirled around as though a tornado was picking up in the room with the Cabal. All sound was sucked into the vortex emanating from the box as the energy inside it was released. A black smoky substance like a portentous cloud filled the ceiling space and hovered over them. All the assembled agents stared in wonder at the contents of the box being unleashed like a genie.
The explosives expert screamed as a bolt of lightening flashed from the cloud and stabbed him straight through his heart, stopping it instantly. The two agents on guard aimed their weapons and fired in to the malevolent cloud.
Every person, human or abnormal, stopped for a second as the sounds reached every corner of the building. Everyone looked up as the screams of agony, the roar of mighty wind and then, gunfire ricocheted along the corridors.