Page 82 of Heart of Danger
“Of course it’s illegal, it’s murder.” Catherine stood. “We’re going in right now. I don’t know how long his heart can stand up to this, and he was in a weakened state already. That drug is killing him. We can’t wait any longer. Mac, get us in there now.”
Her look was imperious. Mac’s heart swelled with pride and foreboding. She had clearly forgotten any danger to herself. She was totally focused on one thing and one thing only. If she’d been alone he had no doubt she’d march right in and try to rescue the Colonel.
She was brave and that scared the shit out of him. Brave, untrained people died often and badly.
“It’s pointless going in through the main entrance.” His finger moved to a point 50 meters from where the Colonel was lying. “That’s the closest door. Is it alarmed?”
“They are all alarmed,” Catherine replied. “And they all require a swipe card. Let’s hope what Jon cloned will work.”
“Damned straight it’ll work!” Jon answered indignantly. “I don’t do failure.”
“We need a way to mask the infrared too. On most doors, the security system counts how many people come through an entrance and if there is a discrepancy between numbers of entrances and number of swipes an alarm sounds.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Jon said and Catherine nodded.
“Then let’s go.” She was quivering with impatience. All three of them looked at him.
“Saddle up, boys,” Mac whispered and gave the go sign.
* * *
Lee leaned forwardand tapped his driver on the shoulder. “Can’t you go any faster?”
“No, sir. I’m not allowed to exceed the speed limit. Not for anyone, not even for you. I could lose my job.” The driver answered in a monotone. He was a Millon employee with no special brief to cater for Lee’s needs. Lee made a note to get himself a driver with explicit instructions to do what he was told.
Lee checked his watch. 4 am. He’d given the order to start the IV infusion of SL-59 an hour ago. He’d harvest the brain at eight, together with the other three soldiers, who’d proved almost as useless as Nine himself. Six hours of perfusion should be enough to get an idea of the effects on the nervous system and on neurological tissue.
This could have waited until next week or even next month of course, but something was eating at him. His usual calm was broken and a huge sense of urgency was riding him. It was ridiculous. He was in the middle of a twenty- year plan. Urgency wasn’t necessary, thoroughness was. But though he was a scientist and though he believed in the rigors of reason, he had also learned to follow his gut.
It made him uneasy to be rushing to the laboratory in the dead of night to oversee something his secret team could easily take care of themselves, but it made him even more uneasy to stay at home.
Sleep was out of the question.
Perhaps it was like dreams. Though a scientist, Lee believed absolutely in the predictive power of dreams. Dreams were a manifestation of what the conscious mind had observed and extrapolated. He felt this biting drive to be there perhaps because it was important for him to observe first hand the effects on Patient Nine. Maybe he would see something that eluded the vidcams or that the techs would fail to report.
If his subconscious told him to be there, it was for a reason.
Not to mention the fact that that idiot Clancy was threatening to cut off funding.
And then, of course, there was the sheer pleasure of watching Nine die. He’d been recalcitrant, a difficult patient. The most difficult patient Lee had ever had. It was going to be a real pleasure watching him die in a useful way.
He checked his watch again. Nine had received an infusion of 20 ccs.
It should be a fatal dose. At a guess, Lee imagined that the useful dosage for performance enhancement would be 2 ccs over a period of a week. Twenty was ten times the amount, delivered in the space of six hours. The autopsy was going to be very interesting.
On the whole, Lee was glad he’d decided to come along now. He’d observe the final effects firsthand. He tapped his ear. “Levinson, in half an hour take Patient Nine down to the autopsy suite in Level 4. I’m coming in.”
“Yes, sir.” Levinson one of the three scientists who knew of the secret protocol.
“Driver, take me around to the side entrance. Entrance D and drive directly to the loading area.” From there it would be a short descent down to the autopsy suite. He’d have time to suit up and set up his private recording equipment.
“Yessir,” the driver answered and Lee tapped the button that lifted the privacy screen and sat back, pleased.
All in all, a good night’s work.
At first,it was hard for Catherine to run. Her legs wobbled, her head felt light and far away, she could barely concentrate. But minute by minute she came back into herself.
Mac was there beside her, every single step of the way. If she stumbled, his hand was there, on her back, steadying her, so surreptitiously that Nick and Jon never noticed.
