The First Horseman (Spy Thriller-Area 51)

Chapter 10

10

The florescent industrial lights of the underground labs flickered with disturbance. I sat at the ready on the edge of the all too familiar uncomfortable steel framed bed. My new ally stood firm until the lights went completely out, then she turned on her shoulder mounted spotlight and faced me.

"Step in the center like you remember from before, do it now," she said firmly. I did stand in the center of the holding cell, waiting. The floor rose despite the power surge, and the small squared steel platform I stood on was pushed upward. The ceiling opened swallowing both I and the platform into an upper level. My partner in subterfuge met me at the sliding elevator doors as they opened. She spoke both with authority and concern, "Quickly, stay as close to me as possible."

I followed behind. Her shoulder flashlight lit the mazelike grey brick laboratory hallways and sounds of distant movement kept us both on guard.

"Wait," the soldier spoke. Then as silence swept in again, we moved.

In all my time at 51, I had always been taken down the same pathways and directed by armed personnel as to where I was to be, 'refreshed' and then 'qualified' for my next assignment. This wondering the labs in darkness was somewhat foreign. If I hadn't of had the someone to guide me, I may as well have walked back into my cell. Her pace hastened. The sound of her leather boots hitting the floor however gently it was still clacked and echoed through the hallways. The now eerie silence made our movements louder. All power went out again in a second surge and darkness blanketed us completely now. Even the soldier's flashlight was out.

"Hold on I have a faraday pouch with more batteries." In complete silence and darkness I stood blind. I could hear the soldier changing batteries in her shoulder mounted flashlight. I could also hear what sounded like more footsteps from above and around us.

"How much time do we have until a generator comes on?" I questioned with a whisper.

"I can't say for certain, it depends on something."

I didn't ask what, instead I rounded the final corner of the grey brick hallways in the underground and kept moving. We had stepped into an open common area in the labs. It was a gathering place with soft furniture where scientists and technicians alike could blow off steam. We were one level above what I thought was the lowest level in Area 51 when she spoke her name.

"My name is Nina Masala," she whispered. "If we are getting out of here alive Michael, you need to do exactly as I do, and right now I can hear people closing in on us. So unfortunately, we are going to have to get in that elevator and do something I've never done before."

"And what might that be?"

"Our friend, the Doctor. He told me he'd befriended a man who had access to a wide array of the networks and security protocols around here.

He said he requested that the man leave a dormant sub routine on the network that would upgrade my clearance undetected at the right time. Now is the time." Nina and I walked to the end of the darkened hallway, "Give it a minute, I think the power should come back on via the generators."

We waited by the doors of that stainless-steel elevator, and as the sound of lights and technology came to life again. Footsteps became louder, closing in until we could both hear them around the halls end. Nina swiped her right hand against the RFID access panel of the elevator allowing the large doors to open accepting her new clearance. As we stepped in, I saw a fleet of many soldiers turn at the halls end. None of which faced us in time to see who had gone below as the doors closed. The elevator dropped slowly and I was the first to break the silence between us on the ride down, "Where are we going?"