Free Plot Line by Alton Gansky Page B

an
electronic key,” Rehnquist shouted. “Now open the elevator.”
    “I came down with someone else. He used his
key. Don’t you have one?”
    “No. Of course not. They only they give them
to people cleared to leave.” The gun dug into the flesh of his
neck. “Okay, okay,” Rehnquist, babbled. “Think, think, think.”
    “Maybe we could move the gun—”
    “Shut up!” Rehnquist lowered his head for
just a second then said, “Let’s go.” He seized the front of Ray’s
shirt and spun him around. The muzzle of the gun was now pressed
into the back of Ray’s skull. Ray struggled not to imagine what
would happen if the crazed scientist pulled the trigger.
    “Go where?”
    “To the lab. I’ll get away from them one way
or another.”
    “I don’t know where the lab is. I’ve never
been here before.”
    “I know precisely where it is.

 
     
     
     
    Nine
     
    Ray jogged down the wide
hall, Rehnquist pushing from behind. They
had made three turns, each time the scientist shouted out a
direction. “Right. Now left.”
    If there had been any doubt as to the man’s
sanity, Ray dismissed them when a guard appeared around one corner.
The man drew his weapon but hesitated when he realized Ray was a
hostage. The hesitation was brief, but long enough for Rehnquist to
shift the aim of the 9mm’s barrel from Ray’s head to the soldier’s
chest. The sound of the shot bounced down the hall. The gun was
close to Ray’s right ear and he screamed from the pain of the loud
report. A sharp ringing stung his ear and tears poured from his
eyes. The guard dropped dead, a widening red stain spread across
the fallen man’s chest.
    Ray thought of his wife and daughter.
    “Move,” Rehnquist demanded. “I only have
seconds. The rest will be here.”
    They rounded another corner and had taken
less than ten steps when they heard excited and urgent voices
behind them. “Man down. Medic! We need a medic.”
    The corridor came to an abrupt end. To Ray’s
right was a pair of four-foot wide, steel doors. An electronic
keypad was attached to the wall near the doors.
    Rehnquist had Ray’s collar bunched in his
hand so tightly the shirt choked him. He tried to cough, but
couldn’t. The gun’s muzzle, still hot from the shot, was pressed
deeper into the base of his skull.
    The corridor was a dead end. No way out. The
steel doors looked solid, immovable. Behind them came the sound of
booted footfalls. Rehnquist spun Ray around and backed up the last
few feet of the corridor. Moving the gun from the back of Ray’s
head, he placed it just behind his right ear. “I’ll kill him,”
Rehnquist shouted.
    The words rolled down the
hall like a surge of water through a culvert. Ray was
terror-stricken. As a novelist, he had written many scenes of
tension, fear and violence, but this was not a chapter from one of
his books. This was flesh-and-blood real. His flesh and blood.
    “Listen, buddy—”
    “Shut up!” Rehnquist twisted the gun deeper
into the tender flesh of Ray’s ear.
    Two guards rounded the corner that Ray and
his abductor had passed only moments before. The pain behind his
ear cease. There was half-a-second of relief before Ray realized
why the pain was gone.
    Rehnquist squeezed the trigger.
    One guard dropped. The other dove back
behind the corner.
    A sound came from Ray’s left. The doors to
the lab parted smoothly, driven by some unseen mechanism. Rehnquist
didn’t hesitate. Charging through the doors, he pushed Ray in front
of him.
    Ray felt something large and soft. A body.
He saw the form of a woman stagger backward, fall and land hard on
her back. He could hear the wind leave her lungs.
    The room was dim, lit in twilight making it
difficult to see. Ray was vaguely aware of equipment, computer
monitors and several people who had backpedaled when he and
Rehnquist burst through the opening.
    “Close the door!” Rehnquist demanded. “Now,
now, now. Close the door!”
    Ray heard a shot and cringed, pulling