I'm gonna finish by the end of the month... well that worked!
Ok, I'm definitely nearing the end... it's just taking me longer than I expected, due to so many things I won't bore you with them. Anyway, I am still determined to finish this story, even if only three people are reading it... I hope there are more though. ;-)
Anyway, rather than babbling on, I'll just let you read this chapter now =-) Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval. If I did, I would have been fired from it by now.
"That's it!" cried Abby in celebration, as the lights came flickering on and the door shutters slid open. All around them there were the noises associated with an entire building springing back into life. "Connor, you're a genius!"
"I kn..." Connor was cut off by Abby excitedly kissing her boyfriend. The couple stayed in an embrace for a few seconds, before Abby pulled back, smiling.
The smile quickly died down into what Connor knew was Abby business face and he obligingly let her go when she pulled further away, collecting up the bits of equipment they had brought with them.
"Are we taking that?"" questioned Connor as the woman loaded herself up with the stuff.
"Yes. Firstly, in case the lockdown initiates again..."
"So much faith in my work," said Connor sarcastically to himself.
"...Secondly," continued Abby, not hearing him, "we don't know exactly what trouble Matt and Becker are in. We may still need to release them."
Connor conceded that he couldn't argue with that and obediently took the pack of tools that was thrust towards him. He stuffed them into his pocket and then turned back to the screen that he had left. He studied the monitor for a couple of seconds, frowning.
"Abby!" he called. Abby looked up from her final packing. Connor nodded towards the plan on the screen, which was flashing red and orange in various sections. "Matt and Becker are in there?"
"I don't know," murmured Abby. "But they're alive. We know that much. What's the orange?"
"Heavy damage, but I think we'd still have a chance of getting at them. It's just if they're in the red..." Connor pressed a few buttons and the picture zoomed out, revealing a 3-D representation of the ARC, every section and area sketched out as if on the building plan. He swung the image around and gasped.
""What is it? What's wrong?"
"You see that black area?" Abby nodded. "That where the ARC isn't."
"Isn't? Well, take it back around..."
"No, no, you don't understand it should be there. It's just... not there any longer." Abby gaped at the revelation. The blast was a lot worse than either of them had thought. And there were still two people to be rescued from there.
Abby took a deep breath in and pulled away from the monitor. She put her hand to her head and then, remembering the pain of the action before, lowered it again.
"Ok, where were Matt and Becker when the lockdown first happened?"
Connor tapped a few keys, his tongue poking out the side of his mouth in concentration. The picture twisted and then zoomed in on one floor.
"Is that it? They were outside Lester's office, weren't they? And I think that the room... there. Which makes sense 'cos they were getting into one of the higher vent shafts which is that one there." Connor leaned back to allow Abby to see. The blond peered at the small area, still intact, then bit her lip. It was incredibly close to a mass of colour and the awful black patch.
"They took a while to get up into it. So they can't have got very far. And they were headed here? Or were they going to the menagerie?" Abby looked at Connor for confirmation.
He shook his head. "Makes no difference. If they hadn't got very far, then they'll have still been in this section... here." He enlarged a line which began pink, denoting it was a vent shaft, then went through orange, red, black, red and then orange before recovering into an ordinary pipe again.
Abby sighed. "They could be anywhere along there."
"Not in the black or red, I'd guess. Not if they're still alive."
"We need back-up," decided Abby. "There's no way we can enter that shaft safely alone."
"But where are we going to get back-up from?" asked Connor.
Lester counted up the men he had managed to gather together amid all the chaos and gritted his teeth in frustration. Ideally, he'd have liked to have sent in a team of at least fifteen, but having had a quick inspection he knew that he couldn't leave less than ten men holding back any prying eyes and curious police detectives who couldn't wait for the official, if slightly less than honest, report to land on their desk next week.
So that left eleven able-bodied men to enter the ARC. Including him. Well, this suit was ruined enough to never have to face an important function and he could pack a punch when required. Besides, it prevented any more awkward conversations with Phillip until he could sort out a proper story in his head.
"Right, Wainwright! You're in charge out here until a superior officer finally decides to turn up. Make sure nobody gets within a hundred foot of the... hole and prevent anyone seeing things they shouldn't."
"A normal day's job, sir," smiled Wainwright. Lester grimaced at the cheerful man; you could tell he had only turned up ten minutes after the blast and was just taking this all in the stride of any soldier who worked at the ARC.
"If we aren't out within..." Lester checked down at his watch. "...an hour send in another rescue patrol. There should be some more men by then, but right now we can't wait; they're probably all caught up in this traffic. Who on Earth is driving around at two in the morning?" The civil servant muttered the last bit under his breath. This was starting to look like a 48 hour day.
"Sir, are you coming with us?" asked one of the soldiers chosen for the rescue group. He was younger than the rest, a new recruit who had never seen anyone other than the security forces in action and even then only in training.
"Yes," stated Lester, in a tone which allowed no room for argument. Someone needs to be able to get down a proper insurance claim," replied Lester, dryly.
The soldier frowned. "But surely we should be concentrating on rescuing people at this stage?" An older soldier beside him knocked the younger to grab his attention and then gave a small shake of the head as Lester breathed in and out deeply. Some humour just flew over other people's heads.
"Right," announced Lester, trying to continue as if nobody had interrupted. "Is everybody ready?" There was a general murmur of consent. "Good." Lester removed his pass from his pocket, where he always kept it and swiped it against the key pass machine.
It was a rather anti-climax after all the explosion and difficulties in gaining entry to the building, but, frankly, Lester had had almost enough excitement for the day and he was sure it wasn't going to end yet.
The machine beeped a couple of times and then lit up red. Lester suppressed the urge to hit the thing and swiped the pass again. This time the beeping was followed by a whirring, a green light, and then, eventually, a click of the door locks opening.
"Probably got damaged slightly," suggested Lyons, one of the soldiers, waiting behind.
"No," responded Lester. "It does that every other time I use the damn thing. It is, despite the meticulous programming and designing MI5 put into the thing, only a computer after all."
The civil servant pushed open the door as wide as it would go. The main entrance corridor was still more or less intact, the only sign of the destruction outside being a decorated tree pot scattered in many different directions all over the floor. Lester stepped around it; he wasn't a fan of it.
"Follow me and stay together. It shouldn't be dangerous, but this is the ARC and, well, need I say more?" whispered Lester. He heard somebody breathing in, as if to speak, but then just a quiet squeak of pain. So, someone was looking after the new kid...
Abby grunted as she slid down the lift shaft a short distance. The actual lift was silent and still beneath her, having not reached the beginning of its programming at 6am. Connor had suggested overriding this particular piece of coding, but in the end both decided it would take too long and there was no knowing which of Connor's triggers they might meet, signalling the start of the lockdown again.
"One more floor," she called up to Connor, who was edging down slightly less fluidly above her. Grasping at a maintenance handle to one side, she was able to ease herself down a couple more feet and then, judging herself to be low enough, she jumped down onto the lift roof.
"What was that?" cried Connor at the accompanying thud.
"Only me. I'm going to try and get the roof open and then we'll be at the bottom." Abby crouched down and set about levering the panel up which would, hopefully allowing them down.
There was a gentle thump as Connor landed beside her and knelt down to see what she was doing.
"This is like a spy film," he grinned. Abby couldn't help but respond likewise. "Here, I'll unscrew these two screws and it should slide back."
"Then do it." Connor started to hum. "Without the Mission Impossible tune." Connor stopped humming. "Betcha glad we bought the kit now." Connor nodded in agreement.
"There." He sat back triumphantly. "Now just slide." Abby did so and found it was surprising easy. She wasted no time in lowering herself down the final seven foot, bending her knees as she landed. Connor took a moment to pack his now trusted screwdriver in his pocket and followed.
"Ok," he said. "We're near the front of the building. We should..."
"Shhh!" said Abby sharply. She paused for a few seconds "Listen..."
Connor pricked his ears, but couldn't hear anything against the silence until... yes, there was some noises. Coming this way. Footsteps. Heavy footsteps.
"Who could it be?" he whispered.
"We presumed the explosion was a dinosaur. What if it wasn't? What if those responsible are coming nearer...?"
Connor grabbed Abby gently and pressed her against the lift wall, hoping no-one in the approaching group would look left towards them. Abby tugged her boyfriend downwards and both settled into a crouching position.
A figure appeared, flanked by a number of other, all dressed in black. Abby smiled as soon as she saw them.
"Lester!"
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