sending a shower of blackened debris to the ground.
“Wait a minute. Are you saying Swampers might have hacked the Unitech mainframe?” Keith asked, raising an eyebrow.
Luna shook her head and stood up. “Well, I guess they probably could have. But from the way things look now, I’d say they didn’t meet with much success. That is, unless they were actually trying to fry themselves. It would take a technological wizard to splice into Alex remotely. Whoever did this was an amateur, at best.”
“Or an idiot.”
“Or an idiot,” Luna repeated, shining her light down the hallway. “Okay, our cold storage room is just ahead. Cross your fingers and hope there are still some samples alive in there.”
She led him down the corridor and then turned left. The connecting hallway went on for nearly fifty yards before ending abruptly at a large, reinforced door with the words Cold Storage stenciled across its metallic surface.
Luna shined her light on the door’s mildew-covered keypad. She wiped the blue-green grime off the device and quickly typed in a series of numbers she’d found in the station’s database. There was a click, and the door’s mechanized lock disengaged.
Luna smiled, clipped the flashlight to her belt, and gripped the door’s heavy latch. “Here, help me get it open.”
Keith slung his weapon over his shoulder and joined her. Together they heaved the heavy, two-foot thick door open. Then they stopped and stared in open-mouthed astonishment.
Everything inside the cold storage room was crawling with the life forms they had come to collect. No matter where they looked, their HUD’s registered the protozoa, bathing their faces in bright yellow light.
“We’ve hit the mother lode, ” Luna whispered, fumbling with her sample case.
“I’ll say,” Keith replied quietly. “Why are there so many of them?”
“Check your environmental readouts. This isn’t exactly the coldest cold storage room in the world,” Luna said, kneeling to collect a sample from the floor.
“Someone must have cut the power to the cooling units.,” Keith muttered. He opened a comm channel to the men he’d left outside. “Hey, team, we’ve got something big in here. Come in and give us a hand.”
He unfastened his own sample case and began to fill it.
Agents Patterson, Rush, and Perkins arrived a few minutes later and Luna put them to work collecting the microbes swarming around the room.
This is it, she thought happily, securing the last of her collection vials into her sample case. Just a few more months and I’ll have a viable cure!
“Okay, everyone,” she said, addressing the team. “Fill up every vial in your field kits, and then we can get out of here—”
“Away team! Away team, come in!” Terence’s voice exploded in her helmet speakers causing her to jump.
“What is it, Fox?” Keith replied, his voice suddenly tense.
“We’ve got something coming our way … make that a whole bunch of something.”
“Is it the storm?”
“Negative! It’s the Swampers! You’d better get out of there fast!”
“Roger that. Stand by for immediate evac! Over!”
Luna stared at the agents in confusion.
“What—” she started to say, but she was quickly cut off by Keith’s commanding voice.
“Luna, pick up your things. We’re getting out of here. Now !”
Chapter 9
Luna scrambled to comply, gathering up her equipment and fastening it to her suit’s magnetic clasps as quickly as she could before being ushered into the hallway.
They rushed through the halls in silence, stopping to regroup only when they reached the main entrance. Keith ordered Agent Patterson to take point, and the group moved outside, sprinting across the open street in a mad dash for the gutted building on the far side.
Several red dots danced on Luna’s heads-up display, and she felt her racing heart begin to pound more furiously. She’d been around technology long
“Wait a minute. Are you saying Swampers might have hacked the Unitech mainframe?” Keith asked, raising an eyebrow.
Luna shook her head and stood up. “Well, I guess they probably could have. But from the way things look now, I’d say they didn’t meet with much success. That is, unless they were actually trying to fry themselves. It would take a technological wizard to splice into Alex remotely. Whoever did this was an amateur, at best.”
“Or an idiot.”
“Or an idiot,” Luna repeated, shining her light down the hallway. “Okay, our cold storage room is just ahead. Cross your fingers and hope there are still some samples alive in there.”
She led him down the corridor and then turned left. The connecting hallway went on for nearly fifty yards before ending abruptly at a large, reinforced door with the words Cold Storage stenciled across its metallic surface.
Luna shined her light on the door’s mildew-covered keypad. She wiped the blue-green grime off the device and quickly typed in a series of numbers she’d found in the station’s database. There was a click, and the door’s mechanized lock disengaged.
Luna smiled, clipped the flashlight to her belt, and gripped the door’s heavy latch. “Here, help me get it open.”
Keith slung his weapon over his shoulder and joined her. Together they heaved the heavy, two-foot thick door open. Then they stopped and stared in open-mouthed astonishment.
Everything inside the cold storage room was crawling with the life forms they had come to collect. No matter where they looked, their HUD’s registered the protozoa, bathing their faces in bright yellow light.
“We’ve hit the mother lode, ” Luna whispered, fumbling with her sample case.
“I’ll say,” Keith replied quietly. “Why are there so many of them?”
“Check your environmental readouts. This isn’t exactly the coldest cold storage room in the world,” Luna said, kneeling to collect a sample from the floor.
“Someone must have cut the power to the cooling units.,” Keith muttered. He opened a comm channel to the men he’d left outside. “Hey, team, we’ve got something big in here. Come in and give us a hand.”
He unfastened his own sample case and began to fill it.
Agents Patterson, Rush, and Perkins arrived a few minutes later and Luna put them to work collecting the microbes swarming around the room.
This is it, she thought happily, securing the last of her collection vials into her sample case. Just a few more months and I’ll have a viable cure!
“Okay, everyone,” she said, addressing the team. “Fill up every vial in your field kits, and then we can get out of here—”
“Away team! Away team, come in!” Terence’s voice exploded in her helmet speakers causing her to jump.
“What is it, Fox?” Keith replied, his voice suddenly tense.
“We’ve got something coming our way … make that a whole bunch of something.”
“Is it the storm?”
“Negative! It’s the Swampers! You’d better get out of there fast!”
“Roger that. Stand by for immediate evac! Over!”
Luna stared at the agents in confusion.
“What—” she started to say, but she was quickly cut off by Keith’s commanding voice.
“Luna, pick up your things. We’re getting out of here. Now !”
Chapter 9
Luna scrambled to comply, gathering up her equipment and fastening it to her suit’s magnetic clasps as quickly as she could before being ushered into the hallway.
They rushed through the halls in silence, stopping to regroup only when they reached the main entrance. Keith ordered Agent Patterson to take point, and the group moved outside, sprinting across the open street in a mad dash for the gutted building on the far side.
Several red dots danced on Luna’s heads-up display, and she felt her racing heart begin to pound more furiously. She’d been around technology long
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