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“Copy.”
I wait even though I want to go in, but we don’t know what’s in there, so we need to do this together. It’s the only place we have not cleared. This has to be it, but I know deep down what we will find.
More death.
It doesn’t take them long to converge on me, and I move to one side of the door as Nico steps to the opposite side. The others spread out behind us, and when I nod at Nico, he rips the door open and I go in first.
“Clear,” I murmur, feeling them moving behind me. I don’t glance back, trusting them to protect my rear.
The bunker door leads into a small air lock with another door fifty feet in. I peer through the glass, but nothing except a darkened chamber waits on the other side. The emergency lighting is on, but it doesn’t provide enough for me to see from here.
“I got it,” D says as he moves to the panel and works his magic. Jonas and Isaac aim their guns out the bunker door, while Louis and Nico stand with me in case anyone is waiting on the other side of the second door.
There’s a beep, and then D steps back, swinging his laptop around to pull out his gun. “Door opening in five, four, three, two, one.”
It swings open, and we surge in as a line of three. I go forward, with Louis on my left and Nico on my right, as we sweep the entire room.
“Clear.”
“Clear.”
“Clear.”
Relaxing slightly, I nod as Jonas hurries to the double door leading to a corridor beyond and takes up guard as we scan the room. It seems to be an entrance chamber, with computers, cameras, a locked metal weapons cabinet, and even labelled lockers. My eyebrows rise at that as D moves to the computers and starts to access them.
“This was on a different system, so I couldn’t find it before . . . and I’m in. Okay, it seems we have power and lights. They are just all turned off for some reason. It’s like it has all been powered down but the generator is fine. All the doors should work, and I can see there are some utilities still running. The cameras, however, are off. I’ll stay here and try to get them back on.”
“Good, do that, and turn any alarms off. I want no surprises. Who knows how big this place is? Isaac, you stay with D and guard the outer door. At the first sign of life, you lock it and call us in. I don’t want to be trapped, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Nico, Jonas, and Nova, you are with me. If we come to any splits, Jonas, you are with Nova, and Nico is with me. We sweep this place. I want every room, every fucking nook and cranny, searched. I want no surprises.” It’s clear Louis doesn’t like this situation, and I feel it.
An unknown bunker underground with a weapons system and separate locks in an abandoned military base? Yeah, not to mention the super creepy feeling I’m getting.
D turns the lights back on, flooding the place so brightly, I blink, and then I continue to look around warily.
This is our job, I refuse to back out, but something is telling me this place is important. They wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to hide it if it wasn’t, not to mention the systems are still running and someone was clearly here recently.
No, this is it.
I can feel it.
A change in our mission.
Lifting my gun once more, I stride to Louis’s side. Jonas steps up behind me, and Nico takes his position at Jonas’s back, ready to find out the truth.
Finally.
FIFTY-ONE
The corridor is long, the floors under us are a spotless white, and the walls almost curve like the entryway. There are no windows, but bright lights flood the place, showing us the long, empty hallway leading to another set of closed double doors. When we reach them, I count down and open one, letting Louis and Nico sweep in before Jonas and I follow.
We communicate with looks and hand gestures, not wanting to alert anyone of our presence the farther we venture into the bunker.
The place seems to stretch, becoming wider and taller. The echoing chamber is almost the size of the base itself, and it makes me wonder if it runs under the entire structure. Probably. Maybe that’s why they built the base here, to cover it.
Either way, it’s too big to stay together, so we break apart. I move to the right, Jonas following me, while Nico and Louis take the left. In the middle are machines, generators maybe, and at the back, I spy a metal staircase leading up to another level above us. It’s one giant room, where we can’t even see the end. At first, the doors are opaque and labelled—toilets, kitchen, lounge, and bunks. It’s clear they lived here or maybe even stayed here in shifts.
The doors to our right change, and I still. The wall turns into a glass, showing the labs beyond, and the farther I move, the more I see.
They are all fucking labs, which are empty, clean, and full of state-of-the-art equipment, waiting to be used.
