They won’t run away because they’ll know it’s just a test.’
‘Then we need them to believe it’s real.’
She nodded.
‘How?’
She shrugged. ‘Only one way. It has to be real.’
He looked at her. ‘Real?’
‘I don’t see any other way.’
‘That would be another Chernobyl!’
‘Maybe worse. You won’t believe some of the shit they have down here.’
Stratton contemplated the idea. ‘You really are a cold-hearted bitch, aren’t you?’
‘You have a problem with surviving?’
He shook his head. ‘You are in the wrong job . . . How does it work?’
‘There are dozens of sensors around the place but several different locations need to detect the leak in order to trigger a full shutdown. A small leak won’t work. We need to be at the lift when the sensors trip, otherwise someone might beat us to it. Once it goes up it will not come back down.’
‘Have you figured that part out - how we set the leak and get to the lift before the sensors trip?’
‘No.’
‘Some genius.’
Rowena clenched her jaw. ‘I thought I’d leave something for you to figure out.’
Stratton ran his fingers through his hair as he pondered their next move. ‘You know where the exec lift is?’
‘I can see the map in my head.’
‘And the storage rooms?’
‘Yes.’
He gripped the AK-74 and took another moment.
‘What do you think?’ she asked. ‘Too crazy?’
He wasn’t entirely sure but there were no other options. ‘It sounds like my kind of plan.’
She fought back a smile. She had gone from despising the man to seeking his approval. He had something about him.
The guard moaned as he began to come around.
Stratton indicated for Rowena to lead the way along the corridor. ‘After you.’
She took a breath, focused her mind and moved ahead.
A wooden door at the end led into another, broader corridor running left and right. She did not hesitate in selecting a direction.
A short distance along it they came to one of the huge emergency doorway seals. They paused to check beyond it and Stratton took a moment to inspect the huge steel door that had a thick rubber seal lining the inside frame. An electric motor behind the door operated a hydraulic arm that closed it. It was covered in rust and when Stratton grabbed hold of the rubber seal a piece of it broke away.
Rowena saw the rubber crumble in his hand. ‘Good old Soviet maintenance under a new name,’ she muttered.
Beyond the doorway a metal gantry extended mid-height through a cavernous hall that housed several large and noisy machines. The hall was hewn out of the bare rock and reinforced with concrete and steel bracing.
Stratton leaned onto the gantry to look below and saw a couple of engineers in hard hats working on one of the machines. He gave Rowena a gentle nudge. ‘Go for it,’ he said.
Rowena was no less committed than when she had climbed the oil platform and she did not need any further encouragement. Leaving the safety of the doorway she crossed the gantry. Stratton followed close behind and they reached the other end without attracting any attention. They passed into a short rock tunnel with another emergency door seal halfway along it. Beyond lay a cavern of the same size and construction as the previous one.
Rowena crouched on the edge of the gantry to look down into the hall as Stratton joined her. ‘This is the first of three bio-storage rooms,’ she said.
Stratton leaned further out to take a look for himself. Halfway along the gantry a metal staircase led down to the floor. Two huge vats the size of shipping containers were on one side. A web of various-sized piping led from valves on the faces of the vats and threaded their way to yet more valve systems before disappearing into the walls.
‘What’s inside them?’ he asked.
‘The serials mean nothing to me,’ Rowena replied, referring to the Cyrillic stencilling on the faces of the containers. ‘Some of these concoctions are probably unknown outside of here.’
‘How far are we from the lift?’
‘Through there.’ She indicated ahead on the same level. ‘First right, next left, down a long corridor past several offices and into a large room, which I think is a laboratory. Do you want to check it out first?’
‘The longer we hang around the more chance we have of being busted.’ He studied her. ‘If you’re right about all you said then we should just get on with it.’
Rowena looked him in the eye. ‘I’m right about what I said.’
Stratton believed her. He suddenly ducked back, pulling her with