Free Joe Ledger by Jonathan Maberry Page A

door to the secondary generator. Collins turned, looked at the door and then back at me. His eyes were intense, pleading.
    I swallowed a lump the size of a fist.
    “Boss,” said Bunny, “if we get them out…maybe something can be done. Maybe there’s some way of reversing this….”
    His voice trailed off as the huddled monsters chittered and clicked. It wasn’t words, but it was eloquent enough.
    I shook my head.
    “But…you know what they want to do,” he pleaded.
    Top put his hand on Bunny’s shoulder. “If it was you, farm boy, what would you do?”
    I raised my pistol. “Stand aside,” I said to Collins.
    After a moment, he and the others moved away.
    It took six rounds to blow the lock open.
    Smoke hung thick in the air. The klaxons continued to bleat.
    “Give us ten minutes,” I said.
    Collins stared at me, his eyes unreadable in the green gloom of my night vision. Did he nod? Or was it simply the way his body trembled as he turned and slipped into the generator room? The others followed.
    I holstered my gun and looked at Bunny and Top.
    We ran like sons of bitches.
     
    Chap. 5
     
    The Vault
    Now
     
    The voice said: “Fail-safe is active. Hard lockdown commencing.”
    It was a female voice, very calm. She began counting down from one hundred.
    “Top, Bunny…get everyone into the elevators.”
    “The generator—” Top said.
    “…Eighty-nine, eighty-eight, eighty-seven….”
    Halverson said, “The elevator has a separate power source. It’s topside. As long as we get above the three thousand foot line we’ll be fine. Below that charges in the wall will collapse the elevator into the shaft.”
    “…eighty, seventy-nine….”
    “Get moving!” I ordered, and my men began herding the remaining scientists, support staff, and security personnel into the elevator.
    “…sixty-three, sixty-two….”
    I lingered in the staff room, watching as Doctor Goldman finished downloading his research files onto a one-terabyte portable drive.
    “Is that everything?” I said as he pulled it out of the socket.
    “…forty-four, forty-three….”
    “Yes, thank God. Everything was in packets for quick hard-dump. We have everything we need to start over.” He moved to the door, but I shifted to block his way.
    “Give me the drive,” I said.
    “…thirty-six, thirty-five….”
    “What the hell are you doing ? This is no time for—”
    I kicked him in the nuts and snatched the drive out of his hand. Yeah, it was a sneak shot, but who cares? He uttered a thin whistling shriek and grabbed his groin, sinking to his knees in shock and agony.
    I set the drive on a counter top.
    “…twenty-eight, twenty-seven….”
    I drew my sidearm and used the butt to smash the drive to silicon junk. Goldman screamed louder than when I’d kicked him. He made a grab for it, but I batted his hand away.
    “What are you doing?” he croaked.
    I moved to the doorway. The elevator was a hundred yards down the hall. I could make it at a dead run.
    I said, “I’m doing what I believe is in the best interests of the American people.”
    He stared at me and opened his mouth to say something, but a sound cut him off. Not the relentless female voice counting down. This was a thin, chittering noise that echoed out of the darkness at the far end of the corridor.
    I holstered my gun, turned and ran like hell.
    “…thirteen, twelve, eleven….”
    “Where’s the doc?” Halverson demanded as I skidded into the elevator car.
    “They ambushed us,” I lied. “Came out of nowhere. Now come on, get this damn thing moving!”
    Halverson met my eyes for the briefest of moments, and I could see the realization in his eyes. He flicked a look out into the darkness. Maybe he could hear the skittering sounds. Probably not. The alarms were so loud that they even drowned out the sound of the screams.
    He slammed the door shut and the car began to rise.
    Three seconds later, we heard the bang-bang-bang as the steel doors dropped down