Silent Night - By Tom Barber Page 0,89

bloodstain was running along the polished tiled floor, leading from the main lab and almost drawing an arrow to an office to the right. The door to the room was closed. Archer turned and headed towards it.

The others walked forward. Suddenly, Maddy gasped and covered her mouth, stifling a scream.

A dead body was slumped inside the main lab. It was immediately clear that the virus had killed him, judging by the blood and pieces of tissue surrounding him and sprayed onto the glass walls.

‘It’s Frankie,’ she whispered from behind her hand to Shepherd, silent tears streaming down her face. ‘Dr Glover. What the hell is he doing here?’

Marquez, Shepherd and Jorgensen stared at the dead man as Kruger put his arm around Maddy. From behind them, there was a whistle. They all turned and saw Archer standing by the office, the door pushed back. Shepherd walked over with the two doctors and Marquez to see what he was looking at.

There was a heap of dead bodies in the room, eight or nine of them. They’d been dumped in a pile, limp and lifeless. Blood had pooled and caked on the floor underneath them.

‘Jesus,’ Shepherd whispered. ‘What the hell was going on here?’

Behind them, Jorgensen hadn’t joined the group, mostly out of wanting to stay away from Archer. He was moving towards the main lab instead, walking slowly but purposefully. Shepherd glanced over his shoulder and saw him heading towards the lab doors.

'Careful, Dave,’ he warned. ‘The air’s probably still contaminated.'

'Wait,' Kruger said, moving over to a terminal to the right. He tapped a few buttons and suddenly the air purification system started blasting, filtering the air inside the lab.

'It'll take ten seconds.'

While they waited, everyone by the office looked again at the bodies dumped inside. Archer saw bullet-holes and blood on the wall to his right where they each must have been executed. In the main lab, the purification system stopped. A light turned green. Kruger looked over at Jorgensen and nodded.

'The air is clear.'

Jorgensen took point as Marquez went to follow him. Shepherd, Archer and the two doctors remained by the office containing the corpses. Jorgensen approached the door of the lab.

It slid open. He moved inside.

Marquez was a few feet behind him but before she could enter, the doors slid shut in front of her.

There was a beep.

Jorgensen swung around. 'What the hell was that?'

Marquez tried stepping towards the doors again, but they didn’t move. She started working on the keypad, but no one knew the code.

‘Shit, they locked,’ she said.

'Hang on, Jorgensen,' Shepherd said as he joined Marquez at the keypad, both of them trying to force the doors open. Inside the lab, Jorgensen nodded then turned and looked around the interior. He glanced down at Dr Glover’s body to his right. He walked straight forwards. There was equipment covering the work surfaces to his left but he didn’t know what any of it was for.

Then he heard a beeping coming from somewhere inside the room. He tried to place it. The sound seemed to be coming from a thick cabinet against the wall up ahead. He approached it. The cabinet was about the size of a large bookcase. The doors were shut. He reached forward and pulled them open.

The inside was loaded with explosives and gasoline and a timer.

00:57.

00:56.

‘Jesus Christ.’ He turned to Marquez and Shepherd outside, his eyes wide. ‘The door triggered it!'

The whole group looked at the explosives and the timer in horror. Marquez was working frantically at the keypad. But it just beeped.

'It's not working! I can’t open it!'

Shepherd grabbed a chair from behind him and swung it at the glass as hard as he could. It just bounced off. He did it twice more, then dropped it and pulled his pistol. Marquez did the same.

'Take cover, Jorgensen,’ he ordered.

Jorgensen ducked behind a far work station. Behind him the timer ticked to 00:40. The two of them fired, the weapons flashing as Maddy and Kruger covered their ears. The glass didn't smash, each round just leaving a white dent. Increasingly panicked, Marquez emptied an entire clip into it but it wouldn't give way, all the shell casings tinkling to the tiles at her feet. Staring at the still intact glass, Shepherd swung round to Archer, pointing at Maddy and Kruger.

'Get them out of here now!'

Archer nodded and hustled the two doctors towards the stairwell, the trio quickly disappearing out of sight.

Jorgensen was up by the glass, looking at Shepherd and Marquez desperately for