Chapter 3

June 10th 2020 – Genotech Loading Bay, 05:00

05:00 came around sooner than she had liked, she found herself overseeing the last hour of prep as her team assembled at The Bus. Chris pulled up last as Dean hoisted himself into the back of the Humvee.

“Come on newbie, you’re holding us up,” he chuckled as he nudged Dean over the lip of the door. Dean stumbled slightly, blushed as he noticed Divya giggle, and settled himself at the far end of the compartment.

“Don’t mind him,” Dante said, clapping him on the shoulder, “he’s like a kid with candy whenever he has a mission.”

“Gotta put this energy to use somehow Dante!” Chris shouted as he hauled a large pack into the small space with him. He sat down beside Divya and slung his arm across her shoulder, “So Div, you ready to put this muscle to use?” he winked lecherously over at Dean, who avoided his gaze. Divya shifted slightly to free one arm, she reached up and pinched the soft skin at Chris’s elbow, hard.

The larger man yelped and withdrew his arm from around her shoulders, “Alright, alright, I get it,” he sulked, moving over to give her more personal space.

“Thank you,” was her quiet reply as she focussed her attention back on the tablet before her. Kara watched the scene with a small, amused smile on her face as she directed the last few packages to the correct areas.

The only one who wouldn’t be joining them on the drive into New Candor was Anna. Anna would meet them with the generators once they arrived. She needed to bring in the emergency med supplies with her, just to be safe. They were sure the supplies wouldn’t make an 8hr trip in the Humvee. Hell, she wouldn’t be surprised if her whole team melted on the way there themselves. She hopped into the back of The Bus as the Genotech employees loaded the last few boxes into the other vehicles for them.

“Alright team, listen up,” She started, buckling herself into one of the empty seats in the back, “8 hours until we reach Ground Zero. Divya, you can take the time to familiarize yourself with those blueprints, I want you to be able to lead us blind if you need to.”

Divya nodded, she was most likely already able to do that, but Kara knew she would keep at it until they arrived anyway, “Dante, run through the plan with Dean, I want him able to recite it back to me whenever I ask, backwards if I want it,” Dante nodded and clapped Dean on the shoulder again.

“Looks like you’re mine for the day kid,” he smiled grimly, Dean spared him a small nod as Chris opened his mouth to comment.

“Rodriguez.” Kara snapped, causing the large man to shut his mouth.

“Yea Boss?” Chris looked at her quizzically, she didn’t normally give him instructions like this prior to a mission.

“Shut up. We have 8 hours in this thing, if you disturb what little sleep I manage, I WILL throw you out the back of it.” She held his gaze, unsmiling as he grinned at her.

“Alright, jeez, no one appreciates the muscle,” He grumbled, still grinning as he leaned back and closed his eyes.

#

“Shh, don’t let your mom see it, but I felt like I needed to get you something special,” her father’s voice, “It’s legal, fully licensed, what do you think?” why couldn’t she see him? She looked around but everything was black. Kara lifted her hands to her face and felt something like a shroud. She tore at it until it came away and she looked down at her hands. Blood? Why was there so much blood?

“Kara Piers, reporting for duty,” She heard her own voice, years younger. She looked around once again. The city around her was in flames, corpses stared back out at her from burning vehicles, mouths gaping open in silent screams. She backed up and tripped on something. She fell. The body she had tripped over began crawling over to her leaving a bloody trail behind it. It was Chris.

“Cap, Captain,” Chris croaked as he grabbed for her throat, “Captain!”

She struggled, lashing out at the corpse that held her.

“Woah, calm down Cap, it’s just a dream,” Chris held her shoulders, pushing her back into the seat so she couldn’t attack him. The Bus had come to a stop. Her team stood around the small compartment checking their weapons and ammunition, blatantly ignoring the Captain and Chris.

“I’m fine,” she ground out, jaw clenched, “has Anna arrived yet?”

Chris released her shoulders and stepped back as she unlatched her seatbelt and neatened herself up, “She radioed in a few minutes ago, there was some interference in her communication, but they’re almost here with the generators. The Genotech guys just dropped off the last Humvee and ducked out. We’re at the New Candor city limits.”

“Dean, Dante, you’re in Bus 1. Divya, you’re with me here. Chris, when Anna arrives she’s with you in Bus 3,” She shook off the dream and took charge, “Once they drop the gennies: Dean, Dante, Chris you’re responsible for loading them into the Humvees.” She heard the whirr of approaching helicopter blades as she exited the back of the Humvee. Lindquist had sent the strongest members of his team and the gennies were loaded almost as soon as they had landed. Her team split up and she got behind the wheel, Divya in the seat beside her. She grabbed the CB on the dash and depressed the button,

“Alright folks, follow me and try not to jostle the merchandise too much,” she said with a smile trying to brush off the remnants of the dream that clung to her like cobwebs. She turned to Divya, “Lead the way.”

Minutes later they arrived at a tall, fenced in building in an industrial area, almost at the heart of the city. The other buildings around it seemed unoccupied.

“Genotech owns everything on this block of the city,” Divya explained, seemingly knowing what she was thinking, “Their team prefers less interactions with the public, so they’ve kept those buildings off to the side out of commission. The main building in the center is the one we want.” She typed something into her tablet and the gate before them opened up on its own.

“Well, looks like we’ve got a bit of power to work with right now,” Divya said, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. Her dark eyes were calculating as she surveyed the building before them. Kara could see her trying to take steady breaths, but she didn’t seem any calmer for them.

“Alright Div, let’s get that garage open before we move,” She said before speaking over the CB to the rest of the team, “Team, once those doors are open we’re making a straight shot for the garage.” A chorus of affirmatives later and she signalled at Divya to open the doors. They watched them grind open slowly and waited for any movement, attacks or any sign of life at all. It was too quiet. Kara put the Humvee into drive and made a line for the garage doors as they opened fully, she kept going until they were at the lowest level. There were still lights down here. She shut off the vehicle and jumped out, Divya following quickly after. The rest of her team dismounted, weapons drawn, scoping out the darkness of the garage.

“All clear,” came Dean’s voice from the back of the last Humvee.

“Clear,” Chris, as he swept the shadows at the far end of the garage.

“Clear,” Dante from the other side of the vehicles.

“Clear!” Anna from the shadows on the opposite end, “What’s that stink?” She wrinkled her nose as her light swept the wall, coming to rest on the half full dumpster.

“Well, no one’s been authorized to be here for 6 days now Anna, what did you expect?” Came Chris’s voice as he holstered his weapon and sauntered back to the group.

“Alright, lets make as much use of the remaining power as we can,” Kara said as she popped open the back hatch of the Humvee, “Chris, Dante, Dean, get to it. Divya, you have a job to do. Anna, with me.”

Between the five of them they maneuvered the generators nearer to the large loading doors. Chris propped the door open with a heavy weight from the back of one of the Humvees. The delivery elevators opened when Kara held down the button.

“Well at least that works.” Kara said as the elevator doors dinged open and they returned to the task of getting the generators to where they needed them.

“What if the power shuts off while we’re in here?” whispered Chris loudly as the doors shut, leaving them in dim light.

“Then you get to climb out of that little door up there and lug these out on your own,” Kara replied smoothly, shutting him up. He had nothing to worry about though, as the doors opened up to the main lobby, letting in the soft lights from the hallway.

“It’s so quiet,” Anna muttered as she grabbed her end of the generator, “it just doesn’t feel right.”

She was right, the backup lights in low power mode made for an eerie lighting down the halls. Kara tried to peer further down the hall before them, but the lights were so dim that she felt strained.

And there were no sounds.

She could hear the slight hum of overworked lights sure, but there was nothing else, it was as if the entire building was holding its breath. Waiting for whatever would happen next. Kara shook her head to clear the thoughts and radioed down to Divya, “Div, what are we looking at here?”

“Nothing Captain, there’s nothing going on, I’ve got all of the cameras up and I haven’t seen a single soul,” She sounded slightly worried. Kara didn’t blame her, if the employees weren’t being held hostage, what would keep them from checking in for two days?

“Alright, we’re waiting, get your butt up here soldier.” She said as the men dragged the last generator out of the elevator. She heard the whirring of machinery as the passenger elevator across the room came to life.

“On my way.”

Minutes later the team was gathered in Lab 4, minus two members. Chris and Dante had headed up to the electrical room to hook up the first of the three generators they would need. Kara swept the room with her gaze, everything seemed slightly off. Nothing she didn’t expect, just signs of people who had been required to leave in a hurry. Over on one table a half full cup of coffee sat moldering, its contents more gelatinous than liquid.

“We’re all set here Cap,” Chris’s voice crackled over her radio, “Heading back up now.”

“Roger that Chris,” she replied as she nosed around in a stack of papers left out on a lab desk, “anything out of place?”

“Nothing Cap, this place–deserted.” She could feel the unease in his voice. She couldn’t blame him.

“What’s with the interference Divya?” She asked, turning to her Lieutenant.

“There’s an electrical storm moving in Captain,” Divya replied, sounding slightly worried, “Just a bad time for a mission, that’s all.”

“Will it interfere with the generators?”

“No, we should be fine.” She paused, “Captain, some of these codes don’t work,” She had been trying to access the remaining CCTV cameras, those in the sub-basement.

“What?” She snapped, there was no way Lindquist had given them faulty information.

“Yea, it seems that the codes that headquarters has were changed the day of the leak,” Divya was typing and staring at the screen before her as she spoke, “Just regular changes to the passcode, done every three months or so. The codes Lindquist gave us were before they were changed, and no one’s been able to report the new ones to HQ.”

“Can you figure it out?” She asked and waited patiently as Divya checked. Minutes went by before she answered.

“Ok, yea, I can figure this out, just needs a little bit of work on my part but we should be in soon,” Divya said distractedly as she continued typing. Not wanting to disturb her, Kara walked over to Dean and Anna who had already returned from stringing lights along the path to the elevator. The trio was busy setting up floodlights around the room as Chris and Dante returned.

“Alright let’s get the elevators set, Div is busy. Dante, you have those directions to the machine room?” Dante nodded as he pulled out his handheld, “Good, take Dean with you and head up there, we need to secure that shaft with what time we have left.” Dean and Dante grabbed the second generator and headed out the door.

“What’s wrong?” Asked Chris. He knew she wouldn’t normally deviate from the plan. Anna left them to continue setting up the rest of the floodlights, as Kara stepped aside with Chris.

“Just a little wrench,” She said, hoping it would be the only one, “Lindquist has the wrong codes for the cameras in the sub-basement.”

“We’re going in blind?” Chris exclaimed, as softly as he could.

“Not with Divya here, she’s working it out right now. Just be ready to go when she gives us the word.” She assured him before heading back to check in with Divya.

“Any luck?” She asked, placing her hand on the back of the chair Divya occupied.

“Yea, I’m getting there, just scanning the IP range right now and,” she muttered as she opened up another tab on the screen that requested a username and password, “Ok, let’s see admin and…”

The screen opened up showing the shadowy sub-basement hallway, “Excellent job soldier!” Kara exclaimed, relief at not having to do a blind sweep flooding through her.

“I can’t believe they just switched to one of the default passwords,” Divya muttered again, shaking her head in disbelief, “this is why they should change it to something harder, do you see how easy it was for me to get in there?!”

It didn’t seem that easy to Kara, but instead of saying that, she simply clapped Divya on the shoulder and left her to view the tapes.

“Captain,” she heard Dean’s voice over the radio, “got the—set up—heading—soon”

“Dean, you’re breaking up,” She called into her radio, this storm was going to be a pain if they needed to call in medical aid.

“—on our way—” Well, she could understand that, she signalled to Chris who walked over and grabbed his end of the last generator. Anna threw a headlamp at her, which she caught and secured in place, just in case. No sooner had she done that when the power cut.

“Well shit,” was all she heard in the dark. She’d give one guess to who that came from. After a few seconds in the dark, there was a humming in the room and the lights Anna had been working on glowed to life.

“Well, at least we know they work,” Anna said, smiling and obviously proud that she had set them up correctly. Chris looked at her with incredulity.

“You mean you didn’t know what you were doing?!” Anna laughed and shrugged, grabbing her weapon and one of the packs off the floor in front of her.

“Hey! They work!” Came a surprised voice from the door to the lab. Chris turned his incredulous look to Dean.

“You put the newbie and the medic to set up floodlights, and you’re surprised they don’t know what they’re doing?” Dean said as he strolled in and grabbed another pack from the floor. Chris looked over at Kara, who shrugged and smiled.

“They figured it out.” Was all she said as she grabbed her end of the generator and turned to Divya.

“Divya, we’ve got a ComBox with us, the storm shouldn’t interfere with that should it?” Divya shook her head.

“The internal ComBox communicates above 30MHz, so we should be fine within the building,” Divya mused, “We should definitely expect some interference with the walkies and the external though. Our handhelds should be working fine for the moment, but I think at the peak of it we won’t be getting much out of them if we need them, other than the stored data in there.”

“When do you anticipate it to peak?” Kara asked, adjusting her gloves and holster.

“In about an hour actually maybe two if we’re lucky,” Divya brought up a few weather maps on the console in front of her, “Looks like it’ll last most of the night as well, but that won’t stop me from getting into that feed.”

“Good, once you get a camera in that Bunker, let me know, we’ll go from there,” she motioned to the rest of the team, “let’s get down to the basement.” They headed out.

Next Chapter: Chapter 4