It could have been a glitch but of course, it wasn't.
There were security terminals all over the prison, and any one of them could have undone Clark's lockdown but it wasn't just a case of someone pushing a random button on a terminal. It wasn't just a simple matter of a few keystrokes to undo an emergency lockdown in the system. It required someone to input an authorization code and then to manually set all the prison's systems to 'all clear'. You had to know how to do it and you couldn't do it accidentally. Clark checked the activity log again.
'Someone's in the infirmary. Someone who wants the doors open.'
Vikram chewed nervously on his lower lip until it looked red and sore. 'Perhaps,' he said, his eyes very wide, 'perhaps we should go there and discuss this with them.'
It was the worst idea Clark had ever heard. He couldn't think of anything else to do. 'Right,' he nodded. He removed his weapon from its holster.
Monster Nation
Chapter Ten
Mars is a snowball, Venus a boiling pot of sulfuric acid. Everywhere we look in the universe we find sterile rocks and dust but not here' Earth is special, a special case. Lovelock's hypothesis is all but proved, life regulates itself, but through what agency or process? The morphogenetic field' the field is real, it's real and it can be manipulated. [Lab Notes, 2/15/04]
'What the hell are you doing here?'
Mael Mag Och raised his hands in mock exasperation. 'Saving your skin, lass. You got yourself in a bit of a pickle, didn't you? That big fellow, the one with the vaccine, he was going to do your head in. So I did the only thing I could, which was to bring you here. Now I'm making it possible for you to get out of this place. Show me some kindness, lass. Show your best friend in the wide dark world a bit of love, won't you?'
'I almost talked my way out of here on my own. I could have, if you'd given me a chance.' Nilla pulled and tugged at the chain that secured her to the wall but there was no give in it at all. She tried folding her hand, touching her pinky to her thumb, but still it wouldn't fit through the manacle around her wrist. 'Now they'll probably just shoot me because they assume I'm the one who cut the lights.'
Mael Mag Och swung his legs over the side of the table and got to his feet. He walked behind the bar as he spoke to her. 'I'm here to rescue you, lass, but that's not the only reason I came winging to your side in this dank and fetid prison. This soldier of yours is against us, and he's a smart one.'
'You're afraid of him?' Nilla asked. It was impossible. But if it was true'
Mael laughed. He ran one hand over the bar as if he were wiping it with a rag. 'He's not a threat. Our victory is assured. He could set back my plans by a few weeks, perhaps, if he put his shoulder to the right wheel.'
Nilla strained against the manacle. It started to come off but it looked like it might take the skin of her hand with it. Jesus, that would suck, she thought. When you were dead you had to be careful about these things. 'How did you manage this, anyway? Is Dick around here somewhere bashing in electrical panels with his face?'
'Dick's close by, but no, lass, this was an inside job.'
She sat down and tried to relax. She had gotten herself out of bondage before. At the hospital, back when she thought she was still alive, she had crawled out of four point restraints. She looked at the manacle. Studied it. Maybe' maybe if she twisted her hand thusly while tugging gently, like so' 'An inside job? You were able to infiltrate somebody dead into this place?'
'Oh, ho, lass, now that would be a treat of a thing to do. Yet perhaps not all my good servants are dead, hmm? At least, they don't all start out that way.'