Free Designated (Book 1): Designated Infected by Ricky Cooper Page B

watched as the three man team stacked up on the door,
weapons readied and levelled.
    'They won't make it out of that corridor in one piece.'
    Baker grinned. 'Watch them.' With a thump of his balled
up fist, he drove in the door release button and then watched as the
three men leapt into action. Snatching up his rifle, Baker booted
open the control centre door and sprinted along the walkway. Leaping
forward, he slid his hand through the rung of the emergency ladder
and hared up it like a caffeine drunk gecko.
    Andrey screamed after him Baker's feet thudding against
the rungs as he powered his way up the ladder. 'You won't get there
in time. If you do, you won't find them in one piece.'
    Baker gritted his teeth as he pushed up and over the top
of the ladder, sprinting deeper into the access tunnel. A single
sentence echoed back from the tunnel mouth, rolling through the room
as Andrey cursed loudly.
    'Watch me.'
    Flames burned deep within Andrey watching the flickering
dance of Baker's torch as he sprinted through the tunnel. Cussing
harshly, Andrey snatched up his AS VAL and sprinted after Baker.
Leaping from the walkway he heaved himself up and into the tunnel's
mouth. Fadei smirked as he watched Andrey's retreating form.
Clutching his weapon to his chest Fadei moved deeper into the snaking
maze of tubes and cylinders.
    The soft clicking of a keyboard drew
Fadei forwards, his hackles leapt up as a deep sense of trepidation
filled him, a chaste clink of metal-on-metal drifted up as he slowly
lifted his rifle to his shoulder. Steam hung in thick clouds over the
walkway as the valves began to vent the excess water vapour from the
heating system.
    The swirling mass of white enveloped the hulking man
mountain as he trudged forwards, his feet moving almost of their own
volition, as he kept a watchful eye on the writhing tunnel of white.
A valve hissed, making Fadei jump slightly as it vented over his
head. the boiling water dripping down with an echoing splat. Fat
balls of water like shimmering glass rolled along the pipe work as it
snaked through the patch work of grating and stanchions coalescing in
bulbous, bug like droplets as they fell with all the grace of an
airborne hippopotamus; pattering against his helmet covered head.
    Turning right, Fadei sped up, the sound of taping keys
growing louder by the second. He approached, his heavy booted feet
thudding against the iron and steel lattice work beneath him as he
purposely made his presence known. Swinging out through the
thickening haze of steam and smoke, Fadei burst forth, his white
steam laced form looming large as his shadow danced off the buffeted
vapour. It twisted and swirled as if it in itself was a living being.
The clicking keys came to a crescendo as he stood; his breathing
shallow. Staring, he cast his gaze about the platform.
    Desks formed a disjointed maze of paths and alleyways as
he moved toward a white coated form, raven tresses pulled back into a
loose pony tail. The clacking intensified as Fadei drew closer. He
watched as lines of text flew across the screen. Fadei's eyes widened
as he began to read.
    'You don't have to point that at me; I am of no threat
to you.'
    Fadei looked down from the back of her head, to the
chair in which she sat. The light weight titanium frame glinted
lightly as his torch beam played across the reflective squares
mounted on the back of the chair. The typing stopped making him snap
his head up sharply, a small red blush creeping across his cheeks as
he watched the woman before him reach down and roll away from the
desk. He listened to the soft rumble of the tyre treads as they
rattled over the diamond lattice beneath them. The front wheels
chattering in a language all their own as she whirled the chair to
face Fadei, her hand clamping down hard on the protruding titanium
ring on the outer edge of the wheel.
    Her clipped personnel badge glimmered in the lights from
the screen, flaring white as Fadei's torch played across it.