26
The speeding Explorer crunched to a stop just short of the building, sending the crowd of bunny-suited lab techs scattering.
Franklin was out of the door before it had even stopped. Shepherd had clipped his safety belt on out of habit and was now cursing
as he fumbled to release it. He opened the door and ran round the car, the freezing air like razors in his lungs.
Franklin stood to the side of the main entrance, listening. Shepherd noticed he was holding his gun. He undid the buttons on his
coat and reached for his own, falling in line behind Franklin and standing slightly away from the wall like he’d been taught.
Franklin turned and beckoned Ellery over.
It all felt so familiar to Shepherd from his recent intensive training that he had to remind himself this was not a simulation and
the bullets in his gun would not fire paint. Also, the man they were looking for with drawn guns was his old professor, a man he
respected more than pretty much any of the long procession of people who had lined up to cram knowledge into his head. Professor
Douglas, with his sharp, kind eyes and his boy-scout enthusiasm. Professor Douglas who was a vegetarian because he couldn’t bear
the thought of a living thing having to die on his behalf. Professor Douglas – suspected terrorist, wanted by the FBI.
Ellery joined them in a rustle of goose-down parka, his eyes darting around. Nervous. ‘Tell me about the building,’ Franklin
said, keeping his eyes on the door. ‘Where are the exits?’
‘There’s this one and a fire exit out back.’
‘You need to get someone round there to cover it. What about inside? Tell me about the layout?’
‘The layout is kind of tricky.’
‘Then you’ll have to come with me. I don’t want to get lost in there. Shepherd, you cover the rear exit.’
‘We’re going inside?’ Ellery looked like he was going to pass out.
‘I can guide us,’ Shepherd said. ‘I worked in this building for a while. There’s a door leading away from the lobby to a
changing room. From there you pass through a scrubbing station and an airlock to get to the central chamber. The coolants are fed
into it from storage silos on the far side of the building. They come in through deep underground pipes to aid the insulation. If
there’s a leak then it will probably be in the main chamber.’ He looked at Ellery for confirmation. He badly wanted to go inside
and be there when Franklin confronted Douglas, for the Professor’s sake as much as anything.
Ellery nodded, all his earlier bravado now gone. ‘That’s about the size of things. You’ll need access codes for the doors but
they’ll all be the same because the system is in evac mode. It’s star, four zeros then the hash key.’
Franklin nodded. ‘OK. You go organize your men to cover the exits. We’ll go in the front and try and flush him out.’
Ellery nodded and hurried away. Shepherd watched him go, taking in the crowd beyond him – the emergency vehicles, the shivering
people – his senses made sharp by adrenalin and fear. In the distance he noticed that the trees were heavy with snow and what
looked like black fruit. A car door slammed and the fruit took flight, rising in the air like a column of living black smoke,
thousands of migratory birds flying out of season and resting on trees that had never known snow. Nature turned on its head.
End of days.
‘Ready?’ Franklin said.
No – Shepherd thought. ‘Yep,’ he said, turning back to the entrance and raising his gun.
‘Good, ’cause you’re on point.’ He stepped around and behind Shepherd so the front of his body was tight to his back – nuts
to butts. ‘Cover and move,’ he murmured, ‘just like in Hogan’s Alley.’
Except the bullets are real – Shepherd thought. The bullets are real.
Then he stepped forward and opened the door.
The Tower A Novel (Sanctus)
Simon Toyne's books
- As the Pig Turns
- Before the Scarlet Dawn
- Between the Land and the Sea
- Breaking the Rules
- Escape Theory
- Fairy Godmothers, Inc
- Father Gaetano's Puppet Catechism
- Follow the Money
- In the Air (The City Book 1)
- In the Shadow of Sadd
- In the Stillness
- Keeping the Castle
- Let the Devil Sleep
- My Brother's Keeper
- Over the Darkened Landscape
- Paris The Novel
- Sparks the Matchmaker
- Taking the Highway
- Taming the Wind
- Tethered (Novella)
- The Adjustment
- The Amish Midwife
- The Angel Esmeralda
- The Antagonist
- The Anti-Prom
- The Apple Orchard
- The Astrologer
- The Avery Shaw Experiment
- The Awakening Aidan
- The B Girls
- The Back Road
- The Ballad of Frankie Silver
- The Ballad of Tom Dooley
- The Barbarian Nurseries A Novel
- The Barbed Crown
- The Battered Heiress Blues
- The Beginning of After
- The Beloved Stranger
- The Betrayal of Maggie Blair
- The Better Mother
- The Big Bang
- The Bird House A Novel
- The Blessed
- The Blood That Bonds
- The Blossom Sisters
- The Body at the Tower
- The Body in the Gazebo
- The Body in the Piazza
- The Bone Bed
- The Book of Madness and Cures
- The Boy from Reactor 4
- The Boy in the Suitcase
- The Boyfriend Thief
- The Bull Slayer
- The Buzzard Table
- The Caregiver
- The Caspian Gates
- The Casual Vacancy
- The Cold Nowhere
- The Color of Hope
- The Crown A Novel
- The Dangerous Edge of Things
- The Dangers of Proximal Alphabets
- The Dante Conspiracy
- The Dark Road A Novel
- The Deposit Slip
- The Devil's Waters
- The Diamond Chariot
- The Duchess of Drury Lane
- The Emerald Key
- The Estian Alliance
- The Extinct
- The Falcons of Fire and Ice
- The Fall - By Chana Keefer
- The Fall - By Claire McGowan
- The Famous and the Dead
- The Fear Index
- The Flaming Motel
- The Folded Earth
- The Forrests
- The Exceptions
- The Gallows Curse
- The Game (Tom Wood)
- The Gap Year
- The Garden of Burning Sand
- The Gentlemen's Hour (Boone Daniels #2)
- The Getaway
- The Gift of Illusion
- The Girl in the Blue Beret
- The Girl in the Steel Corset
- The Golden Egg
- The Good Life
- The Green Ticket
- The Healing
- The Heart's Frontier
- The Heiress of Winterwood
- The Heresy of Dr Dee
- The Heritage Paper
- The Hindenburg Murders
- The History of History