THE TITAN EXPERIMENT

CHAPTER 15 - The Secret Level

The secret level of the TXP Facility was a basement, the lowest floor in the sprawling underground complex. Sarah's gaze combed over the offset lines of the block walls that were painted pale yellow. The hallway had a utilitarian feel, much like some of the other rooms and corridors she had encountered in the underground maze. The admiral spent money on technology and experiments, not decorations, which meant practicality and function were more important than atmosphere. But one thing wasn't lacking... cleanliness. The floors shined a polished gray, and the air smelled of a pine scented odor. A janitor with a top-level security clearance made regular rounds throughout the facility, even though she had yet to see anyone pushing a cart or using a mop or broom. She shrugged her shoulders at the thought and scrunched her nose. She wanted to pinch her nostrils because of the strength of the floor cleaning solution.

Sarah dragged her feet behind Wolf, her shoes scuffing over the concrete, slow and with mounting trepidation. She felt hypersensitive to the functions of her body. Her breathing came in shallow spikes and her heart bumped in her chest.

Wolf turned a corner and never looked back. He must have known Sarah would follow him without question.

Every twenty or thirty feet, florescent fixtures provided bright lighting.

They traversed another long hallway and came to an end, where a heavyset door awaited them. To each side of the entrance, another corridor stretched into the darkness, capping the end of the hall like a capital T. Wolf shot a sideways glance at Sarah, held her attention for a moment with his wide set dilated pupils, and then placed his palm to the reader on the wall. The serious look he gave her made her feel like this was the point of no return. They were about to open Pandora's box.

The bolt unlatched with a metallic clack within the heavy door frame.

Wolf turned the knob, swung the door out to open it, and then waved for Sarah to follow him into an anteroom. After he secured the entrance from the inside, he paced over to another door. At this one, he entered a security code on a keypad, all the while shielding the numbers as he typed with his free hand, his eyes darting back at Sarah to make sure she wasn't trying to see the passcode. There was a sharp click and then light seeped around the crack in the doorjamb.

Wolf glanced back. "Sixty years ago, I found you for the first time. You were diving on the sunken ice breaker. Do you remember?"

"The Hercules Australis."

"You were searching for answers to your... abnormality."

"To me, it was an affliction."

"To anyone else, it would have been a miracle."

Sarah took a deep breath through her nose and when that didn't satisfy her lungs, she finished it by sucking in air through her mouth and exhaling. "I had left Jake. People were asking questions. They were suspicious. They had performed blood tests, which revealed I had a heightened immune system. They couldn't explain my physical strength and stamina, which grew stronger by the day. They had their suspicions about the effects of time on my body. I didn't seem to show signs of aging. But they couldn't have known the extent of my..."

"Immortality." Wolf snorted. "No, Sarah. Probably not. How could they have known?"

"The admiral caught wind of my whereabouts and sent you to fetch me."

He winced, like fetch was offensive. "I had a two-fold mission: secure you, and the prize."

"The prize?"

An alarm beeped, letting them know the door had remained open for too long. This prompted Wolf to enter with Sarah in tow. With the second door closed, he turned to her again. They were in a short hallway that widened into one half of a large room with worktables against a wall to the right. A pair of microscopes and a series of test beakers sat in a line across one table like they were about to be used.

To Sarah's left, a strange gurgling sound came from the other half of the room, which was hidden around the corner of an extended wall.

"The chairperson of Ocean Blue, Roland Zanderthal, and his ship went down thanks to you and Jake, and his friend. If I recall, his buddy's name was Tony Cruze."

"That's right. Go on."

"The admiral sent me to seize possession of the cargo that rested on the bottom of the sea."

"The army of soldiers?"

"No. They had drowned. Men can't breathe underwater, Sarah. Such a shame because most of them looked like they could bench press a tank, or a house."

She had a realization. If he wasn't after the soldiers, then he must have been after the original source of the Ocean Blue serum. She nudged Wolf aside with a brush of her hand, rounded the corner, and set her eyes on the prize. A glass wall took up the entire back section of the left side of the room. With high reaching concrete walls, this part was cavernous compared to the other half.

A water filter gurgled, sending bubbles to the surface of a massive aquarium that rose above them about thirty feet high, as big as a two-story apartment building, or one of those thick doors at the TXP Facility's mountainside entrance.

"You've got to be kidding me?" Sarah's jaw dropped as she beheld the giant shape of a fish gliding through the water. "It's still alive? Wait. This can't be the same one, can it?"

"It was malnourished, trapped in the tank all that time by itself, but the real kicker was no one knew it was immortal."

"That's the same fish?"

"The same fish that Jake and his buddy found on the ship," Wolf replied. "A great barracuda. Reminds me more of a great white shark, in size."

"Jake said it was in a cargo hold surrounded by the army of super soldiers inside their glass containers."

"I assumed your work would lead you back to the Ocean Blue research. I was afraid you might react violently when you found out what we've been hiding."

"What would make you think that?" Sarah crossed her arms, gave Wolf a smirk and then went back to staring at the spotted body of the giant barracuda as it swished around, eyeing them like they could be its next meal. "So, this is how you came up with your version of the serum?"

Wolf nodded. "You catch on quick."

"Even with Jake's help, I never made much headway on Arcturus, trying to perfect it."

"You weren't motivated with Jake at your side."

"I had limited resources at that outpost, thank you. And I wanted to cure Jake. I didn't want him to transform into one of those monsters like Sergov."

Wolf looked away like the transformation topic hit too close to home. "The space station was the perfect place to conduct research. Do you know how many scientific breakthroughs we made in space? Especially on Arcturus. Besides, space is why we wanted the serum."

Sarah let her eyes fall on the barracuda again. "But now we have the sample taken from the Greenland shark." She pursed his lips and narrowed her brows at Wolf. "What about the immortal jellyfish? We still have to go after it."

"I can see your mind at work. Good. You're already piecing this puzzle together. You can use Ocean Blue's research as a foundation to build on. But just so you know, no more expeditions will be necessary. I've had enough with sea cycles."

"But what about the jellyfish?"

Wolf glanced behind Sarah and nodded toward the far end of the aquarium to a passageway that led to an area behind the enormous tank.

"Follow me," he said. "We have the jellyfish in their various stages of life, all ready for your work."

With these recent developments, Sarah thought she might get to Jake much sooner than she expected. She only needed to put together all the pieces and begin human testing. She might even have a viable candidate to experiment with standing beside her. The thought made her recoil internally. What if it actually worked on Wolf and healed him?

The question was, did she really want him cured?

The corners of her lips curled down into a frown as she followed him through the passage. If helping Wolf meant saving Jake, then that was a price she would just have to pay.