There was no resistance to the team as they made their way up the stairs to Level 1. Each level they went past was locked down; security had been good at closing up this part of the complex. They maintained silence but Dace could see the tension in Rothman, he obvious he hated being out of communication with what was going on, but Dace dare not stop for a sit rep.
It was only an hour before dawn when they reached Level 1, Blankan had got his timing wrong and the power was still on. Rothman reminded himself to give Lee a raise if they all got out of this. They came into reception from the stairs. Rothman bet he looked completely dishevelled he there was nothing he could do about that now. They came through the door into a busy lobby area; Rothman’s heart sank somewhat- why where all these people still here?
Dace barked out an order “Who’s in charge here?” One of the security guards stepped forward
“Mike Hawkins, sir” the well built guard said sharply with a nod towards Rothman.
“I’m Dace. What going on here?” the guard swallowed visibly then said
“We were just about to take the last civilians down to Otter Falls sir. Orders came down from HQ earlier on. No one contradicted them”
“You have communications?”
“Yes sir”
“Good give me a damm phone now!” Hawkins led the agitated Dace to the security office. Dace grabbed the receiver and punched a number. Rothman stepped forward and talked quietly to Dr Harman his second in command
“We have a bunch of animorphs loose below us. They are part of Blockers crew. Get security to pull back any team from that area, give them a clear path to the surface and out- we can’t stop them right now and we need them away from Dr. Summers labs”
“Yes sir” Dr Harman said and moved away to talk to Hawkins. Rothman looked around at the people here- scientists, janitors, and a couple of designers. He hoped Otter Falls would offer them some safety.
“Sir!” Dace said “Mr Knox would like a word” Rothman took the phone and discussed quietly the situation. He knew the board would be listening in. Rothman talked to the CEO Knox covering the timeline since the virus was released (though he spun what had happened to Blocker as an attempt to salvage a specimen from the project failure) and what the chaos the next 48 hours would probably bring. Knox denied any release of the corporate virus, and Rothman believed him. They touched on the civilians and Rothman pleaded with the Board to get the uninfected people out of Otter Falls- Dr. Noc and her team would more than be able to indentify infected people and there where families of those who worked on the base there, plus the staff already sent- they would need those brains later. Knox listened to Rothman then put him on hold. After about four minuets the CEO came back on
“The board agrees that uninfected people be evacuated from Otter Falls and places downstream, but remember David it’s not impossible the place is already too far gone, we’ll see what we can do. We have contact with Major Conroy in the field and Sergeant West at Otter Falls. In the meantime we suggest you batten down the hatches there and see what you can rescue of the project there”
“Yes sir” Rothman said automatically trying to keep his voice alert.
“Oh and David? See if you can recapture that specimen you made” Knox said curtly and hung up. Rothman put down the phone as wave of exhaustion washed over him and he sat down heavily in the security office chair.
As if reading his mind Brown pushed a cup of steaming coffee into his hands with a curt nod then withdrew as Dace and Harman came into the office. After a quick conference it was a simple decision to send the civilians down to Otter Falls, despite the virus it was the safest place for them. Dr. Noc would keep them safe from the virus until evacuation, plus with Blockers animorphs loose in the complex and likely to be heading for this level what else could they do? The main roads would be blocked by now and communications were very patchy with lots of teams on the ground and no overall command established which would be Dace’s next job.
Dace moved into the lobby and faced the milling crowd
“Listen up people!” Dace shouted. The crowd of civilians went quiet as ordered. “You are being shipped out as planned. Ms. Jones here” he indicated the good looking lady to his left “will be going with you to get through the various patrols that are out. We estimate you will be back in the afternoon” he paused to see if anyone would question him, no one did “Mr. Masters, take the group to the bus” The driver Bob Masters followed his directions and soon the bus outside was full of people. Rothman signed with relief as it began to move away from the complex.
“We are now clear of non essential personnel” Dace said “It is time we took control”
The next 10 minutes where spent setting up a command post in the security office; Maps where fetched, communications with Dr Summers was arranged, and Dace got Blankan busy with computing needs while Hawkins and Brown tried to establish outside contact with Major Conroy, Dr. Noc and the various check posts and mini-bases within the huge valley the Lab complex sat in. The remaining 3 guards fanned out over the lobby.
“Sirs....” Blankan called. Rothaman and Dace where immediately at his side “using the more powerful computer tools here I can confirm we have several servers still on-line and it was Lee who stopped the corporate virus; I’ve managed to get some of the security grid back up and I have reason to believe that we could reboot the power grid as well”
“Would that not need a visit to the Power Room at the bottom of the base?” Rothman said with a sigh
“No sir” the young man answered “in the Server Room there is a secondary power control unit. With the right knowledge the grid could be re-established from there. It might not work due to the state everything is in and the de-powered floors would need restarting to establish proper controls, but since the cameras show Blocker and co only 2 floors below us now then we don’t need to worry about keeping the zone offline now”
“Well we’ll have to go down to the Server room and see what we can do then” said Rothman.
“We need to stop Blocker from escaping” Dace said
“I think we might be able to rig the fire sprayers in here to fire the knock out gas across the whole lobby sir” said Hawkins “should be a simple redirection”
“Ok that’s feasible” Dace said “get on that Hawkins. Do you want to handle Blocker or the server room first sir?” Dace said to Rothman
“I think...” Rothman was cut off by a bleeping form the security console and a loud “fuck!” from Hawkins “Blocker rigged it sir!” he said frantically playing with controls as a loud ‘hisssssss’ noise filled the room.
“Gas!” Brown shouted and Daces team grabbed masks. Dace threw his to Rothman and pushed the scientist out of the room. Rothman turned to say something while pulling his mask on
“Get out! Find help!” Dace shouted pulling a spare mask from his pocket only for Rothman to see Dace’s eyes roll back and the cleaner slump to the ground near Hawkins already slumped over the console behind him; Brown and Blankan also overcome. Rothman panicked as he saw the mask less guards in the lobby also fall over -a fine green mist was filling the room, he began to feel dizzy and threw himself towards the Conference Room door which mercifully opened for him even as he felt himself overcome, and he managed to get the fire safe door shut as he fell over.