CHAPTER 113
Ms. Murdock took the lead and forged on toward the control room with everyone else following. She and Bryce were covering the front of the group while Hector was sweeping the air vents and Humberto and the other local took up the rear.
Over the still buzzing siren of the fire alarm Bryce said to Joan, "you know, you could take a few lessons in empathy."
"And you could take a few lessons in being a hard ass. Having common sense doesn't make me a villain, Dr. Conners."
"Fair enough, Joan."
In an unexpected turn the fire alarms abruptly ceased and the sprinklers were reduced to thin trickles. It was shocking to Bryce because for the first time in several minutes he could actually hear himself think, and it was an overwhelming roar of noise in itself. "Whoa." He heard the sound of his own voice and realized he was still compensating for the sirens. He reduced his words to a whisper. "They probably did that at control. Let's hope they can get the lights back up too."
At the far end of the shadowy hall was one set of emergency floods that was almost hindering more than it was helping as it shined straight into their eyes.
Bryce spotted a surveillance camera on the floor that was smashed to pieces and pointed it out to Ms. Murdock. She nodded with a grim look, knowing what the implications were.
When a group of dark figures crossed the light at the end of the hall it felt pretty obvious that velociraptors were on the move. That notion was shattered when a popping of pistol fire sparked through the hallway and a voice shouted, "eat lead you sons of bitches!"
Dr. Conners and the others dove to the corners of the hall yelling, "hold your fire! Hey! Hey! Hold your fire!"
The gunshots ceased and Dr. Conners shouted, "Gary, God damn it, it's us!"
"Oh my God! Shit. Are you alright? I'm sorry. I thought you guys were them."
"We're fine. Stay there. We're coming to you." Dr. Conners knew that the control room was just at the end of the hall where Gary was already standing.
As everyone approached Gary they could see that he wasn't alone. A young woman in a white lab coat was standing next to him, and between them they were propping up a scruffy looking lab tech who was unconscious.
"What happened to him?" Joan didn't see any blood or visible injuries on him.
"It was the flashing lights. He suffered an epileptic seizure," the lady in the lab coat answered.
Dr. Conners raised an eyebrow at Gary. "Eat lead?"
Gary shrugged.
"You should lay off the Nintendo." Bryce turned to the whole group. "Alright, everyone in the control room."
"Bryce?" another voice entered the hallway. It was Dianna. She was standing at the door to the control room with a flashlight and a pistol. "My God, get in here quick." She flagged them in with a beam of light.
Dr. Conners took up the rear and watched as everyone entered. Filing in behind them he saw a control room that was dimly lit by one emergency flood lamp and several flashlights. Carrie was hunched over what appeared to be the only operational terminal in the room. It had a yellow raincoat draped over it unlike the others.
"I may have the lights up in a minute," Carrie was saying.
In the middle of the room Guss and Phill were guarding an air vent on the ceiling with shotguns. Ms. Murdock was approaching them to discuss some matter of security. Under a desk on the far end of the room Bryce spotted Kyra, Seth, and Shelly taking cover. As Dr. Conners finished panning the room he noticed something.
"Hey, Hector. Where's the other guy?"
"Eh?"
"You know, pretty good, Bud Light?"
"Oh." A light went on in Hector's head. "Jacinto." He shot a look around and didn't see him either. "Oh shit, Amigo."