Chapter 15
Sanborn and his assistant returned to the table and began to work, Alex laid still as stone. The assistant busied him self giving the equipment a final check while Sanborn worked on a small portable computer scanning her brain. It only took him a minute to realize the chip in Alex's head was useless. He rounded on Lucas enraged, he had crossed the distance from the table to him like he was pulled there by a magnet.
He wrapped his hands around Lucas' throat cutting off his air. The assistant kept right on working, drawing syringes of anesthesia and tried to act like Sanborn didn't have his hands around Lucas' throat trying to choke the life out of him but the guards were actually startled and moved away a few paces to avoid being innocent victims of Sanborn's rage. Lucas briefly wondered what the point of the anesthesia was since pain management was obviously the last thing on Sanborn's mind.
"What have you done? You've destroyed the chip! She's useless to me now!" Sanborn yelled at the top of his lungs. If he hadn't been trying to gasp for air Lucas would have told him he was glad. As it was all he could do was try to get some tiny amount of oxygen into his lungs. Sanborn was so busy raving at him he didn't notice he was pulling Lucas physically across the room and they were moving ever closer to the table. Lucas forced himself to focus. When Sanborn had driven them close enough he snatched one of the anesthesia syringes from the instrument tray and plunged it into Sanborn's neck. The man collapsed to the floor as his eyes rolled back into his head. Lucas gasped and his lungs flooded with the desperately needed air, his lungs burned with it.
No sooner had he managed to get oxygen into his lungs did the guards fire on him. He dove for cover behind a bank of equipment beside the table he couldn't name and looked for a way out. The assistant had scrambled across the room to avoid being caught in the cross fire. Lucas dared to break cover long enough to snag the tray of anesthesia syringes hoping they might prove to be of some use, sending the other instruments clattering off in the floor and triggering another barrage of gun fire.
Lucas kept his head down and tried to think of his next move. The guards apparently didn't notice what it was he had grabbed and descended on him, intent on pulling him from his hiding place. They got a rude awaking as he plunged syringes into both of their hands. They slumped like rag dolls to the floor and Lucas grabbed one of their plasma guns. He came up from cover with it aimed at the assistant, who looked utterly terrified.
The ruckus had alerted the guards outside something was going on. He could hear the sounds of pounding on the door and plasma fire. The door was locked from inside, it would take them a few minutes to get inside. He took what advantage of it he could.
"Move. Over there against the girders," he ordered the assistant. Keeping the gun trained on him he watched as the assistant promptly followed orders. Lucas didn't particularly care that the man was probably a pawn of Sanborn in his own right. Right now he only cared about getting himself and Alex out of here alive and accomplishing what they came to do.
Lucas lifted one of the guards cuffs and used them to secure the assistant to one of the girders. Safe for the moment he lowered the gun and rushed over to Alex. He released the cuffs that held her, freeing her from the restraints and lifted her head. She didn't make a sound but she was still breathing.
"Come on sweetheart. Please. Wake up," he begged.
Carefully and as gently as he could he removed the jack from her head. She groaned deeply in pain, instinctively trying to curl into her self. He dropped the jack, his fingers came away bloody but the wound left by the jack seemed to be clotting. She opened her eyes trying to focus, Lucas could hear the door sizzle and whine. The guards would be through it any minute. He had to do something and fast.
"Alex, listen to me we have to get out of here. Can you run?" he asked, searching her face. She took a moment to answer as she sat up with his help.
"Yeah, Yeah I think so," she rasped.
"Okay, come on. I'm going to try and get us out of here," he said draping her arm over his shoulders and helping her to her feet. She almost sent them both toppling, when her legs briefly refused to support her but Lucas kept them both upright. He maneuvered his way toward the door, waiting. He had an idea that might work. If he was lucky.
The guards blasted the door free of its hinges and came barreling in guns blazing and Lucas took the only chance he could see. He sprang for the hole where the door had been, barreling through the guards and nearly dragging Alex with him as he hauled them both out into the hall way. They raced away from Sanborn and the guards, Alex panting laboriously along side him, ducking gun fire as they ran.
He dragged her into the first room they came to, slamming the automatic controls behind them and engaging the lock. He could hear the guards coming. Lucas looked around for something to smash the controls and keep them out as long as possible.
Finding nothing he drew his filched plasma gun and fired on it instead. Sparks flew as the panel melted and fried. That would buy them some time at least.
Safe for the moment he lowered Alex to the floor and leaned against the wall. They both stayed there a while in silent exhaustion before either could gather the energy or wits to speak.
"Now what?" Alex asked plaintively, drawing her knees up and resting her arms and head on them. Lucas shoved his hands into his hair and thought.
"He's unconscious right now but I don't know how long it will last. We've got to shut him out of the system, before he can decide to start another self destruct, we've got to shut him out of the main frame altogether or he might decide that all the others are better off dead and unable to ever bring evidence against him. Get the weapons offline so seaQuest can get in range. Then we've got to contact seaQuest. In that order," Lucas told her. Now that they weren't under immediate threat of death, he knew what to do and how to do it. Alex nodded weakly and got to her feet. She wavered like she was drunk, one hand going to her head briefly. Lucas reached out and steadied her.
"Are you sure you are okay?" he asked worriedly. She looked up at him and mustered a wain smile. "Yeah. I'll be fine," came her reply. Lucas wasn't so sure he believed her but she managed to get her self steadied and looked like she might be able to manage alright.
"How long do you think a syringe of that anesthesia will keep Sanborn out?" he asked. She considered it a moment thinking.
"Thirty maybe forty five minutes." she answered.
"Then we better get started." he ascertained and together they rounded the corner into what should have been the main part of the room.
#**#
What they walked into wasn't a room at all. It was the size of a concert hall. Dead center of the room was a huge dark blue glass column. It was so large it could easily have housed another room within it. It was too opaque to see through and pinkish energy played over its surface.
Computers of the same kind he had seen at the resort facility lined the walls, data and images flickering over their surfaces. They both stood gaping at the huge electrified column. The energy playing on it's surface was reminiscent of the plasma globes once popular in the 80s.
"What is that?" Alex asked warily not taking her eyes off it. Lucas shook his head his eyes locked on it as well."I don't know. It looks like an energy supply of some kind," he answered. He had never seen anything like it. It had an odd sort of beauty to it with the pinks, blues and violets playing over its surface.
"For what?" Alex asked again. There was a low hum coming from it Lucas now realized. At first he hadn't payed any attention to the noise, disregarding it as routine. "I have no idea," he admitted.
"You try to figure it out. I have to get control of the computer system," he said tearing himself away and moving to one of the consoles. Alex cast a dumbfounded glance back at him as he set to work.
"How am I supposed to do that?" she asked incredulous.
"The console right there," he said indicating a console on the curve behind him just out of her line of vision. She came around to it and took one long appraising look at it before protesting. "I'm a biomedical engineer not a computer hacker Lucas!"
He couldn't help but laugh. "What? Did you forget everything I taught you in college? You can't have only picked up the math," he chided affectionately turning to look at her. She shot him a look for his trouble.
"Well no. But that's not a normal computer!" she protested again pointing at it for emphasis.
"Just give it a shot. Pretend its a desk you can pull things onto and throw things off of at will," he suggested. She rolled her eyes in answer.
"You're impossible." she grumbled. Her balance wavered momentarily and she clutched her head again wincing. He almost left what he was doing to make sure she didn't loose it all together and fall.
"I'm fine!" she insisted again and without another word turned to the console and began trying to work out how to use it. He watched her a moment more but she seemed to be holding her own so he turned back to his own work. He was more than concerned but there was nothing he could do about it right now.
They worked that way for at least half an hour before they began hearing the first sounds of forced entry. Lucas was just on the threshold of gaining complete control of the computer system. Then he would be able to control anything in the facility he wanted from their location. They could both hear the sound of a plasma cutter being used.
"How long do you think that door is going to hold?" Alex asked apprehensive, stopping her so far, worthless efforts with the column's console to gaze at the door worriedly.
"As thick as that is at least another thirty minutes, maybe an hour." he answered, casting a speculative glance at it himself. Exchanging glances they went back to work without a word, time weighing on them both like a physical object.
It took Lucas another fifteen minutes to gain control over the computer system. He wasted no time in hunting down and disabling the facilities self destruct mechanisms. Now even if Sanborn did come too, he wouldn't be able to blow the place to kingdom come.
Alex continued to work more or less silently. She was apparently getting no where fast because every so often Lucas would hear her mutter a string of curses under her breath and try again. One or twice she had hissed in pain or whispered ouch unconsciously but every time he turned to be sure she was alright she would have her head buried in the computer console again.
By now they could see occasional plasma fire seeping through one edge of the door. They didn't have much time before the guards would be through and Sanborn if he was conscious by the time they did.
Another ten minutes and Lucas had disabled the weapons system. Sanborn couldn't do anything outside this room. He would have to get in to do anything with the computer systems. Lucas had made sure of it. Now it was just a matter of contacting Captain Bridger and shutting him down once and for all. The guards had made it through the lower and upper sides of the door, they only had one left to go. Time was running out.
Lucas pulled up a schematic of the facility and tried to get an accurate location of where they were and the lay out of the place so he could relay as much information to the Captain in as short a period of time as possible. When he got it up he became slightly confused.
"How's it going over there?" Alex called back to him as a beep issued from the console she was working on. Lucas didn't bother to turn to answer her, he was still trying to make heads or tails of what he was looking at.
"I've got Sanborn locked out of the system, I'm in control of it now. He can't do anything without getting in this room first and the weapons system is down. Just have to contact Captain Bridger now. How about you?" he rattled off absently, He was staring a hole in the console by now.
"Well, not much. But I think I found the door to this column. It's a room. See?" she replied,touching the door control on the console and sounding mildly pleased with her progress. Lucas was still focused on the console in front of him.
"That's impossible. This schematic says all of the other patients should be in here with us. They should be right behind..." Lucas added half a beat after her, he never finished his sentence.
The column door slid open with a whoosh and Lucas turned away from the console and up beside Alex. They both inched forward toward the open door and peered in. What they saw left them both completely astounded and horrified.
"Oh my God." they both breathed in unison.