Okay, But Try Not To Murder Anyone 7, page 23
Instinctively, I knew TR stood for ‘toe ring,’ an artifact that belonged originally to the Berber civilization but was now in Bannister’s possession, somewhere in this very lair. I clicked into the document, and my face twisted in horror as I realized what I was looking at.
There was another series of horrific torture photos, except this time the subject was a woman, a local-looking one at that. I noticed she wore a toe ring in the photos while masked men experimented on her with heat tools like blow torches and some of the Bunsen burners from the lab. The woman was clearly in immense pain, and they seemed to be testing the limits of the heat resisting qualities of the toe ring. I clicked through until I got to the last photo, which showed the woman dead on the dentist chair with the ring still wrapped around her toe.
My face hardened as I returned to the folder and opened a word document. My stomach turned as I read through the document, which was notes on the experiment, and although we already suspected as much, this was just gruesome confirmation that Bannister was using local men and women to experiment on while he tested the artifacts.
I returned to the home screen again and clicked open a few more documents. Bannister had experimented on dozens of different people, and they all wound up dead. I shook my head as anger filled my chest. I wanted nothing more than to wrap my hands around Bannister’s thick neck and squeeze until the life left his body.
But that would be too generous. He should suffer like he made these poor people suffer.
Suddenly, I remembered the empty flash drive in the utility pocket on my gun holster. Sammy and Mary insisted we carried them around during each mission, in case we came across a scenario just like this. I pulled it out, plugged it into the computer, and immediately started transferring the documents over to the flash drive.
While the files were filling up the flash drive, I went back to fantasizing about the ways I’d kill Bannister with my bare hands.
“Jonah!” Elaine suddenly called out, and her voice pulled me out of my murderous thoughts.
“What’s up?” I asked, and I tried to keep my voice light as I spun around to face the ex-soldier, who was crouched under a desk.
“I think I found where the artifacts are,” she said in an excited voice.
“Oh, where?” I asked as I crossed the room and bent down next to her.
Underneath the desk was a small safe carved right into the side of the wall with a numbered dial on the front. It made sense for Bannister to store the artifacts near the research lab where he conducted his brutal experiments, and he was definitely cocky enough to expect no one to ever find it.
“Now, to get in,” Elaine said as she drummed her fingers on the wall above the safe.
“What’s Bannister’s birthday?” I asked as I bent down and pinched the dial between my thumb and forefinger.
“You think he’d be that stupid to use his own birthday?” Elaine asked with a frown. Then her face changed to a musing expression before she nodded. “Actually, scratch that, he definitely is. Or at least vain enough.”
“Exactly.” I grinned as I started to spin the dial. “July something, isn’t it?”
“July eighteenth, nineteen seventy-four,” Elaine recited.
I spun the dial and entered his birthday, and sure enough, the safe clicked, and I pulled the door open.
“Idiot,” I chuckled and shook my head.
“Totally,” Elaine giggled.
Inside the safe, there was a manila envelope laid across the bottom and two boxes on top of it. Elaine reached inside the safe, but as soon as she did, I realized something was wrong. A red sensor light flicked on inside the safe, and it scanned across Elaine’s hand. Then there was a hiss of air before a wailing siren filled the air.
“What the--” Elaine gasped as she pulled her hand out and covered her ears against the alarm.
“Shit!” I cried, and I jumped to my feet and pulled Elaine up with me. “It was rigged.”
“Wait!” Elaine bent down, scooped up the contents of the safe, and quickly shoved them in her pockets. “Might as well get them anyway.”
“Good thinking, now let’s get out of here,” I said, and I stopped at the computer, yanked the flash drive out, and then sprinted out of the research lab and toward the staircase.
To my horror, a heavy steel door slammed down from the ceiling and trapped us inside the bottom level of the lair.
“Fuck!” Elaine screamed as she hurled herself at the steel door and slammed her fists against it while the alarm continued to blare.
“Stop, you’ll hurt yourself,” I said over the alarm, and I pulled Elaine away from the door before she started kicking and broke a toe.
Then the alarm suddenly stopped, and the silence afterward was spooky. Elaine and I glanced at each other in confusion before a hissing sound started to fill the room.
“Jonah, look,” Elaine said in horror, and she pointed behind me.
I spun around, and my eyes landed on a vent where a cloud of pale blue gas started to billow into the hallway.
“That’s not good,” I said as my heart sank.
Chapter 15
“What do we do?” Elaine asked in a panicked voice as the pillow of gas started to fill the end of the hall.
“Back up as much as you can,” I instructed as I swung my gun around and raised my hands.
I took a few steps away from the door myself while Elaine scurried behind me as I assessed the situation. It was pointless to try to shoot at the door, I could tell it was bulletproof. Shooting it would only cause the bullets to ricochet and probably destroy our hearing in the process. I didn’t know if the door was impervious to my powers, but I was about to find out.
I summoned up my kinetic energy and hurled a ball of yellow light at the door. It exploded against the steel structure, and I ran forward and put my hand on the blast site, but it didn’t seem to have had any effect.
“Fuck,” I grumbled, and I backed away again and raised my hands.
It was a strong door, but hopefully a few more blasts would at least weaken it enough for me to do something with it. I glanced back at Elaine, who had pulled her scarf around her mouth to prevent her from breathing in the blue gas, but I could still see the panicked look in her eyes. Urgency flared in my chest, and I knew I needed to do whatever I could to get my lover out of here.
I summoned another ball of kinetic energy, this one bigger and stronger, and I fired it at the thick steel door. Then I fired three more in quick succession, and I let out a frustrated growl when none of them even made a dent in the hardy structure.
I glanced back, and I knew time was running out as wisps of the blue gas started to curl around my feet.
“Jonah!” Elaine cried out in a panic.
Another vent had started leaking more blue gas into the small space.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I grunted as I turned back to the door and fired another three balls of energy.
Still nothing.
I took a deep breath and realized I needed another approach. I stepped up to the heavy door and studied it, but it was solid. No handle or hinges or anything.
I suddenly started to feel tingly all over, and strangely relaxed, despite the perilous situation my girlfriend and I were in. I mean, was it really such a big deal after all? So, I can’t get through a door, boo-hoo. It was kinda nice down here anyway.
As my legs got heavy, I snapped back to reality and realized it was the effect of the blue gas convincing me to give up, not my own conscience. I shook my head and fought against the gas. I glanced back at Elaine, and I knew I needed to get us out of here ASAP. The sexy ex-soldier had a content look on her face, and she leaned against the wall and slid down to a seated position. Then she started to play with the gas that swirled around her.
Elaine wasn’t as strong as me, she couldn’t fight against the gaseous enemy. That just meant I needed to be strong enough for the both of us, so I turned back to the door and ran through my options. Blasting it with energy balls wasn’t working, I needed a new approach. I suddenly remembered my training with Laura, where I manipulated my kinetic energy into sort of arm-like structures I could use to move objects, like the defibrillator in the training room back at HQ, half a world away. Maybe, if I could squeeze a couple of those underneath the doorway, I could pry it open.
It was worth a shot.
I squared my stance and concentrated with all my might as I summoned up my extended kinetic arms. I watched as they snaked through the air and underneath the heavy steel door, and I mustered all the remaining kinetic energy I had as I urged the door to move.
After a short terrifying moment, I blew out a relieved sigh as the door creaked loudly and shifted upward a quarter of an inch.
“Yay!” Elaine cheered, and she clapped her hands together excitedly. Then she started to sing. “Jonah saves the day. Jonah saves the day.”
I knew it was the gas affecting my exotic lover, so I tried to ignore her singing and focus on the door. I felt the sweat pouring down my forehead as the door lurched upward another half-inch.
Then I saw the metal glint of a crowbar slide underneath the door from the other side.
“Jonah!” Mary’s voice cried out in a panic.
“Mary!” I replied as I struggled to keep my kinetic energy power up.
That door was going to crush the end of the crowbar if I let go yet.
“Jonah, we need you to lift the door about three more inches,” Laura said in a firm voice from the other side of the door. “Then we can slide the stopper in and get you two out of there.”
“O-Okay,” I stammered, and I felt the fatigue set in from all of my powers being drained.
I didn’t think I’d ever let them dip this low, and I didn’t like the feeling. I called up the rest of my energy and power, and with one last mighty push, I watched as my kinetic energy lifted the heavy door a few more inches. Then someone from the other side slid something underneath with a satisfying clink.
“We got it!” Mary shouted.
I reined in my kinetic energy and let the door fall onto the stopper. Then I spun around and sprinted to Elaine as the others started to jack the door open from the other side. Elaine was making shapes with her finger in the air in front of her while she grinned blankly. I bent down, scooped her up in my arms, and hurried back to the door, which the others had jacked up just enough for us to slide underneath.
I sent Elaine through first, and I saw a couple pairs of hands reach out to help her. Then I ducked down and slid under the heavy suspended door, holding my breath as I went. I released a relieved sigh as I came out into the staircase on the other side, and I gestured at the jack in the door.
“Release it, fast,” I said. “There’s some sort of gas on the other side.”
“Pretty, pretty, blue, blue gas,” Elaine said in a sing-song voice.
Mary sat Elaine down on the stairs while Sloan kicked the stopper out from under the door, and Sammy released the jack. The door fell back to the ground with a heavy thud, and I finally felt like we were safe.
“What happened in there?” Laura asked with a worried expression.
“The safe was rigged,” I replied. “Started filling the room up with gas and locked us in. Thankfully, the gas didn’t seem lethal. It seemed to be more incapacitating, probably so Bannister would have time to travel here and torture the intruders. Thank god you guys were here, I’m not sure I could have gotten out of there without your help.”
“You would have managed,” Sloan said confidently, but she shot me a relieved smile anyway.
“We barely managed ourselves,” Sammy said, and he wiped the sweat from his brow as he gestured at the door. “That thing is hea-vy.”
“Tell me about it,” I said as I shook out my tired hands.
“What was in the safe?” Laura asked.
“Actually, let’s find out,” I said, and I joined Elaine on the steps.
The ex-soldier seemed to be coming out of her high from the gas, and she brought her hand to her forehead and frowned.
“Ow,” she said.
“Are you okay?” Mary asked as she rubbed Elaine’s back.
“I will be.” Elaine reached into her pocket and pulled out the boxes and folded-up folder from the safe, and she handed them over to me. “Hope these were worth it.”
I handed the folder to Laura while I pried open the first black box to reveal the toe ring from the photos in the lab. My stomach twisted at the memory of the graphic images, but I was relieved we had the offending artifact in our possession now.
I handed the artifact to Mary and then opened the second box, which contained a bright green jewel. I showed it to the others.
“What’s that?” Mary asked as she leaned in to study it.
“No idea,” I said with a shrug. “But it’s important somehow if it was in the safe.”
“We’ll take it back to HQ for testing,” Laura said. Then the blonde agent unfolded the folder and peeled it open, and her face twisted into a confused expression. “Huh.”
“What is it?” Sloan peered over Laura’s shoulder, and her face also became clouded with confusion.
Laura spun the folder over so we could all see.
It was a photo of a dog.
“What the hell?” Mary asked, and then she tipped her head back and laughed.
“No idea, but it’s coming back with us, too,” Laura said, and she tucked the folder into the back of her waistband, and she gestured up the staircase that Elaine, Mary, and I were still sitting on. “Shall we?”
“Yeah,” I said, and I stood up and helped Elaine to her feet. “Find anything interesting up there?”
“Nah, nothing of interest,” Laura replied with a shake of her head. “It’s sort of a makeshift bunker it looks like, in case Bannister needs a place to hide out. There’s a fully stocked kitchen, a luxe bedroom, and a mini gym.”
“Typical rich guy stuff,” Sloan said with a wave of her hand.
We started to climb the spiral staircase, and I kept a hand on Elaine’s back the whole way, but she seemed to be recovering from the effects of the blue gas well. When we reached the top of the staircase, we fanned out into a circle.
“What’s the plan?” Mary asked.
“I think we need to destroy this,” I said as I gestured around the lair.
“Really?” Sloan asked with a tilted head. “Why?”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the flash drive.
“Once you all see what’s on here, you’ll understand,” I said in a tight voice. “Suffice it to say some not-cool things happened downstairs, and I think it would be best for humanity if we burned this place to the ground and never looked back.”
“We’ll take your word for it,” Laura said with a firm nod. “Let’s move the captives, then we can get rid of this place.”
“Bannister is going to be piiiissed,” Mary giggled.
“All the better.” I smirked.
The team and I spent the next while dragging the unconscious captive upstairs to the security post at the back of the house, and then we returned and did one final sweep of the lair. We left the dead bodies of the other guards inside to incinerate along with the rest of the place before we climbed to the top of the tunnel, and Mary launched a grenade into the lair. We scrambled out the heavy door that led to the kitchen, and I spun it shut just before the boom of the exploded grenade went off. We felt the ground beneath us shake, and I could hear a fire start to rage in the underground lair as the various flammable substances in the lab combusted. The explosion and fire might not completely destroy the bunker, but it would take time for Bannister to renovate, and I hoped to kill him before he had the chance.
“Done,” Mary said as she dusted her hands off with a wide smile.
“Good job, babe,” I said, and I planted a quick kiss on her forehead before I turned back to the others. “I think we should leave the main house as is, at least for now.”
“Good idea.” Elaine nodded. “Draws less attention. If the main house goes up in flames, the whole village will know about it within minutes.”
“And we are the outsiders who just arrived in town,” Mary pointed out. “Easy targets.”
“Alright, then I think our work here is done,” I said as I spread my arms wide. “Excellent work, team.”
“We should get back to our base,” Laura said. “I need to call the Director, fill him in on what we found.”
“And I’d like that nap now,” Elaine said with a tired smile.
“You deserve it,” I said, and I slid my arm around Elaine’s shoulders as we all retreated from the house and back to the van.
We didn’t need to be subtle now that we’d destroyed the lair and taken out the security, so we strolled to the van with our night vision goggles on since it was still pitch dark out here away from the village. Then I slid behind the wheel as we all peeled off the goggles and got ready for the short trip back to our base.
The trip back was quiet as exhaustion set in for everybody, but the bumps in the narrow dirt road made it impossible to get a moment of rest. The village was dark and quiet when we returned, which made sense. It was the middle of the night at this point. I slowed the van to a crawl and crept up to the side of the house as quietly as I could. We climbed out of the van and carefully shut our doors so we didn’t wake anyone, and then we filed into the borrowed house one by one.
Once we were inside the house, we finally breathed a sigh of relief and started to strip off our tactical gear
“What a day,” Mary sighed as her bulletproof vest fell to the floor.
“I know I said I was tired, but I suddenly just got super hungry,” Elaine said as she rubbed her stomach.
“Hungry? That’s great,” I said with a smile. “Right? I mean, better than nauseous.”
“Exactly,” Elaine said, and she moved to the small kitchen area of the house. “Anyone else?”
“Yes, please,” Sloan said, and she joined Elaine in the kitchen.
“Might as well all eat then,” I said with a shrug.
“I’m just going to give the Director a quick call,” Laura said as she pulled her phone out of her pocket.
