The Delta Chain (45 page)

It took another minute, sizing up the situation, before they were ready. Hunter and Kate knelt beside the open panel, reaching down through the space. Markham took several deep breaths and then launched himself, leaping up so that the tips of his feet were propped against the thin metal rail that encircled the car at shoulder height. He reached upwards as he did.

None of them had their co-ordination in tune the first time and Markham fell back, landing on the balls of his feet.

On the second attempt Kate and Hunter grabbed hold of his shoulders as he jumped. Straining every nerve end and muscle, and summoning impossible reserves of strength, they pulled him close enough that he was able to shove his arms through the space and take hold.

He
’
d barely dragged his whole body through the opening, saying thanks, when the world went mad.

‘Are you okay?
’
Adam asked the girl.

Her eyes were swollen, face drained of colour. But Adam noticed she wasn
’
t coughing and wheezing, deprived of oxygen, in the same way he had been. He took off his shirt and gave it to her to cover her nakedness.

‘Yes…I
’
ve been through this…before.
’

‘I
’
m Adam, I
’
m a detective, and I
’
m going to get you out of here. Okay?
’

‘Uhhh.
’

‘What
’
s your name?
’

‘Elizabeth.
’

‘Thought so.
’
As soon as the last of the water had run out, Adam had pulled Elizabeth through the opening. Both were still breathing heavily. Elizabeth fell into the arms of the boy who
’
d saved them.

Adam, too, placed an arm around the young man
’
s shoulders.
‘
We owe you our lives, Daniel. But what…
how
, is it, that you
’
re down here?
’

‘I don
’
t know how I got here. One minute I was in the back yard with Costas and Mrs. Cail and Joey and the next I woke up in a corridor here, near some kind of docking space. There
’
s a van and a massive truck in there.
’

‘And this is the friend you
’
ve been looking for.
’
Adam looked from Daniel to Elizabeth and back again.

‘Yes.
’

‘Well, next step for us, let
’
s find a way out of here.
’

‘I can show you the place where the truck and the van came in. It
’
s back through there, near another …kind of cavern, like this one, but a little smaller.
’

‘There
’
s another one?
’

‘Yes. With crocodile pits.
’

Elizabeth
’
s eyes shot open with fright.
‘
Crocodiles. Why would there be crocodiles down here?
’
Before either Adam or Daniel could respond all three were pushed off their feet by a sudden, invisible, body slamming force, the chamber plunging instantaneously into darkness, a deafening roar exploding like boom boxes in their heads. Hitting the ground with such force, Adam had the bizarre sensation the whole earth had risen up, slamming into his body on all sides, an angry netherworld that didn
’
t belong here, in the real world, but in the dark, twisted, surreal other reality of some Grimm fairytale.

He lost consciousness.

The Institute erupted in a thick cloud of granite, glass and metal, whipped into a whirlpool as the structure collapsed on itself. Like an earthquake, where the shelves of earth beneath the surface shift and slide and collide with one another, so the levels and sections of the building broke into thousands of fragments, large and small, flung against one another as they crumbled.

Over thirty people, staff and police, ran as the building fell. Few had reached a safe distance as flying chunks of debris started crashing down around them.

Ron O
’
Malley was with the patrol cars scattered about the perimeter. He reached for the police radio, shouting at the dispatcher:
‘
Where are the emergency services!
’

His eyes never left the disintegrating Institute. This wasn
’
t like one of the controlled demolitions he
’
d seen in the past. Something was wrong. Fires had broken out, shrapnel had spewed out too far, parts of the building still stood.

Asquith
’
s men hadn
’
t been ready, he realised.

Chunks of the structure leaned and groaned, slabs of brickwork and giant shards of glass broke away and toppled at random.

They hadn
’
t been ready.

Sirens heralded the arrival of the emergency services.

O
’
Malley wondered if they were too late. If they
’
d
all
been too late. The Institute
–
and its secrets
–
was gone.

And there was no sign of Adam Bennett.

O
’
Malley and his team moved through the bewildered crowd looking for Westmeyer and his senior executives. Paramedics attended to the staff members who
’
d received injuries. The wail of sirens was constant now, together with the babble of voices - emergency workers shouting commands - and long, low booms of thunder. O
’
Malley realised for the first time that rain was falling. When had that started?

What a mess, what a blasted mess.

A dishevelled young woman
–
she was the front lobby receptionist and one of the first out of the building - was talking with Detective Mike Stanley. O
’
Malley, picking up on pieces of the conversation, turned toward them. She was saying she
’
d seen Westmeyer and Donnelly in a small group heading toward the southern perimeter of the grounds. She hadn
’
t paid much attention, there
’
d been people everywhere, and the security guys had been issuing instructions to most of the staff.

O
’
Malley was on his phone again, this time to Wal Hester.
‘
Wal, I need you and Megan to lead a couple of units to the south of the Institute. It
’
s a hilly area, rising above the nearest curve in the main road. You
’
re on the lookout for a group of middle-aged men in suits. Westmeyer
’
s mob. Not sure what they
’
re doing, just make sure they don
’
t take off.
’

‘On our way,
’
said Hester.

James Reardon had been one of the last to leave the building. He hadn
’
t really believed the PA announcement. These things were usually the result of some hoax.

It had been a million to one chance that Kate had retraced his steps and discovered he was the true source of the virus. Nevertheless it showed him he was vulnerable. In the event this was a prank and everyone came back later, he wanted to be certain he
’
d deleted his trail from the computers, so he hurriedly did that first. He was aware of the people rushing by outside his office, to the exits. He was not aware that Kate and Markham had gone against that flow.

He finished his deletions and, escorted by the security man who was rounding up the stragglers, left the building. They were half way toward the perimeter when the force of the blast hurled them from their feet.

Reardon was bruised and stunned, but otherwise okay. It was in the immediate minutes after that, as he worked his way through the crowd, that he came to realise Kate wasn
’
t there.

Surely she
’
d left the building. But if not…?

He was the one who
’
d sent Kate here in the first place. It was because of him she
’
d involved herself so deeply in the dramas surrounding this damn Institute. He
’
d already lost Rhonda Lagan; he
’
d only wanted to play a part in digging further into the hidden activities here.

He spoke to the police officers, listened in on the radio contacts.

He realised, with dawning horror, that Kate, Markham and Adam Bennett were missing.

The force of the explosions rocked the lift cavity, snapping the cables. The lift car plunged the remaining distance to the bottom of the shaft with Kate, Hunter and Markham clinging to the top.

Losing his grip, Markham slid across the roof and over the side.

His agonised cry echoed through the cavity as he fell between the plunging car and the wall of the shaft.

Granite showered down from above.

In the sub-level chamber, flames sprang from the ruined control panels. Water trickled in some places and gushed in others, flowing from the burst pipes, creating tiny rivers that ran through the now misshapen corridors.

Adam woke and, although groggy, took in the surrounds. Even in the flickering light from the flames he could see the layout of the chamber had changed. Random sections of the ground above had caved in, carving the sub-level labs and passageways into a maze of sawn-off areas, some connected, some not.

He called out for Elizabeth and Daniel. The shifting of the ground had flung them like rag dolls, separating them in the darkness. He heard the girl call back, then Daniel. He moved cautiously toward the sound of their voices. As his eyes grew more accustomed to the fitful semi-darkness, they came into his view.

They were both in a state of shock, eyes wide, faces without expression.

He helped Elizabeth to her feet and Daniel staggered over to join them. Adam saw that the girl had a black eye. Both were covered in blood. He looked down at his arms and through the jagged tear in his trousers and saw blood on himself as well. Water coursed around their ankles and they heard the rumble of further explosions and crashes from overhead.

‘What…happened?
’
Daniel asked.

‘At the very least, I
’
d say some kind of massive explosion in the building.
’
Adam knew that meant the whole area was unstable. He had to get the kids out. But he also knew the sub-level was most likely cut off. Which meant they were buried.

‘Wait right here,
’
Adam told them.

The girl was on the verge of hysteria.
‘
No! Don
’
t leave us-
’

‘It
’
s all right. I
’
m just going to check around the periphery of the area here. But I
’
m going to keep you both within sight.
’

Daniel was already sizing up the ruins.
‘
There are ribbons of light, Adam.
’

‘Yes. Some are from small fires. I want to see if there is light coming from possible exit points.
’

‘The rear dock,
’
Daniel reminded him.

‘I know. But right now we don
’
t know which direction that is, or whether we
’
re still connected to that section.
’

Adam walked tentatively toward the edges, some of the areas too dark to make out, other spots appearing to alternate between slabs of metal pushed out of shape and fragments of the stone walls, cracked and jutting forward. He was reminded of gargoyles, poised to leap from hidden places.

Something Daniel had said before the explosion nagged at him.

A scream erupted. Adam swung round to see an ugly reptilian body thrashing, lunging from God-knew-where, jaws open, practically on top of Elizabeth.

Daniel had said there were croc pits in one of the chambers adjoining the dock.

With a sudden, lightning fast thrust, Daniel pushed her aside, twisting and flinging his own body after her. But the jaws clasped down on his arm, arresting his sideways movement, wrenching him back. Through a fine mist of half light, smoke and dust, Adam saw the mass movement of other eyes and other ridged hides, gliding in on the rising, rushing flow of water.

O
’
Malley watched as teams of SES workers cordoned off the disaster site, examining the rubble and assessing the extent of danger. The area had to be stable before the clean up could begin. Team leaders were conferring with their operations chief, a bulky character named Harradin who had the loudest voice O
’
Malley had ever heard.

Megan Shorter ran toward him, switching off her cell phone as she reached him.
‘
Inspector, I
’
ve got some very interesting intel from our Defence people.
’

‘Can it wait for the debrief?
’

‘No, this affects us here, now.
’

‘Here?
’

‘Yes. We knew the Institute site was once an old food processing plant. But Canberra have said that during the Second World War, the plant was seconded to our Defence Department
’
s Coastwatch unit. They built underground barracks and tunnels with surveillance slots cut through to the lower cliff face.
’

O
’
Malley knew of the coast watching done by the military during the Second World War, particularly along the north east of the continent. Landings by the Japanese, coming down via Papua New Guinea, had posed an ongoing threat. He tried to visualise the underground barracks.
‘
So the infrastructure was already down there for Westmeyer to have his hidden section built.
’