Marty Morgan crept through the ventilation shaft as quietly as he could. It helped that

the facility was so large that it needed duct work heavy enough to carry air down to

the bottom of the base. That prevented his climbing around from being heard unless

you were directly under the shaft.

He couldn’t wait to get out of the network. They were in a trap if the Watson guys

figured out where they were.

“We can get out up here,” said Ren. “We are above a garage full of vehicles.”

“Go ahead,” said Marty. “We want to get out of this before someone realizes where

we are.”

“Damn right,” said Corona. “One guy at either end and we’re done.”

“All right,” said Ren. He kicked the vent cover. Nothing happened. He kicked again.

“Seems jammed. Hold on.”

Finch pushed him forward and got in his spot. She kicked the cover off with one

blow. She dropped through the hole and landed silently amidst the cars and trucks.

“I could have done that,” said Ren.

“Sure,” said Corona. “Don’t just stand there. Go ahead. We’ll be right behind you.”

Ren lowered himself through the hole. He looked down at the concrete floor. It

looked higher than he liked. He let go and dropped to the floor. He rolled when he hit

to minimize the impact to his body.

Marty moved up to the hole. He called for his griffin to carry him down to the ground.

He waved it away as he looked around.

Corona dropped down in a bubble of light. She looked around. No one was around

to stop them from taking a truck and driving away.

Marty inspected the closest cars. None had keys in them. He looked the garage over.

He spotted sets of keys on a peg board across the room. It was time to get the others

out while he went about his business.

“All right,” said Marty. “This is what we’re going to do. I’m going to walk over and

get those keys. I’m going to bring them back. You three take a truck and head out of

here. I’ll turn loose the dragon in here and join you.”

“Nice try, buddy,” said Corona. “We all know you’re going to try to sneak back in

and steal those files you were talking about earlier. Why else send us ahead when you

know I’m the best blow things up person here?”

“Because one man can get in and out while they are searching for a bunch of us,” said

Marty. “And someone has to get away to tell the authorities what was going on here.”

The women looked at Ren. He looked at them, and then understood what they were

silently saying.

“I need those files to solve everything so I can start my own agency,” said Ren. “I

can’t walk away now.”

“Cog wants to go,” said Corona. “Let him carry word to the outside.”

“I don’t know that he will do that,” said Marty. “Plus it’s not his responsibility to do

anything about this. It’s mine. This place. It finally hit me. It’s set up like the Hazard

Scouts base. The guy killed my friends and then copied my home. And he just reeled

others in on top of that. I can’t let him get away with that.”

“You can walk away and let others handle this,” said Ren. “You don’t have to do

anything more.”

“Wrong,” said Marty. “Without those files, we have nothing. Watson and his staff can

say we broke in here for no reason. He’ll hold up that it was a coincidence that we

worked on helping him with two of his problems before the team was ambushed.

Without a paper trail, we have nothing. And the blame will be put on us for violating

someone’s civil rights instead of trying to get a search warrant, or a writ for

evidence.”

“So we all go,” said Corona. “You don’t get to exclude us from the action.”

“Finch?,” asked Marty. “What do you say about this?”

“Hurt them,” said Finch. Her voice and inflection was flat and emotionless.

“Looks like you’re outvoted, Chief,” said Corona. “We all go, or none of us go.”

“All right,” said Marty. “The first thing we are going to need are disguises.”

“Okay,” said Corona. “Let’s get some keys in case you guys have to leave in a hurry.”

“Hopefully, none of them will check the shaft over the elevator any time soon,” said

Marty. “That’ll buy us some time while they try to figure out what we did.”

The group started toward the pegboard. They divided the keys and put them in

pockets, or utility pouches. They walked over to the door leading to the rest of the

complex. No one seemed to be on guard. Marty slipped out first, listening for trouble.

Corona and Finch followed. Corona should be able to blast anyone who got in their

way. Finch had her staff and other weapons that could be used at a distance if she did

have to use them. Ren came last, closing the door behind them.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Hopefully, Cog could get himself clear while they were looking around. One of them

should be able to go home after this.

And if he spotted them in trouble, maybe he would come back and do something.

Marty knew that was a longshot. Cog didn’t strike him as brave, or concerned about

others. He simply wanted to get away from trouble as fast as he could. The Scout

resolved not to tell Finch that Cog wanted to leave her behind. He felt that would

cause trouble that they didn’t need.

They had enough to go around without conflicts in the group.

Marty paused when he heard people talking and working around the floor. He pressed

against the wall as he looked around. The soldiers were working on blasting down a

metal door.

He wondered how he could grab four of them for disguises. He considered turning

his dragon on them. That would clear the hall fast in his opinion.

Then he saw three men who attracted his attention. One was a guy in a suit. One was

a soldier with what looked like mismatched eyes. The last was a robot about seven

feet tall. The design was smoother, but it resembled the visible parts of Barry’s

robotic limbs.

Marty bit down on his anger so he didn’t do anything stupid.

The last thing he should do was turn his dragon loose and alert the soldiers that he

was close enough to talk to them. That would be bad. On the other hand, the dragon

could take care a lot of the opposition there and then.

“Don’t, Marty,” said Ren. “All we need are the files.”

Finch stepped around them. She grabbed a guy by the neck and dragged him back

from the crowd. She dropped him in an office. She waved at the others to get inside.

Then she grabbed number two before he could even shout a warning. She dragged

him back with her.

Ren smiled as he looked around the office. He started going through files in the

cabinets around the desk.

“This may be what we need.” Ren started assembling files touching on the Scouts and

his new comrades.

“So we don’t have to go any further than this,” said Corona. “This is great. All we

have to do is get out of here with our skins intact.”

“The guy is here,” said Marty at the door. “He’s wearing a copy of Barry’s robotics.”

“What do you mean?,” asked Corona.

“One of the overseers looks like a suit of armor that looks like Barry Nicklaus’s

robotics,” said Marty. “That’s why they took Barry’s body. They wanted it so they

could make a copy.”

“Who’s Barry Nicklaus?,” asked Corona.

“He was my best friend,” said Marty. “You guys get out of here with that stuff. I’m

going to talk with this guy.”

“Don’t, Marty,” said Ren. “They didn’t just take Barry’s body. They took his brain

too.”

“What do you mean?,” asked Marty.

Finch dragged victims three and four into the office and closed the door. She dropped

their dead weight.

“There’s indications they loaded his brain into a life support and took it,” said Ren.

“There’s a bill for an estimate on a metal skull here.”

“Oh, that’s not right,” said Corona.

“You’re telling me that they killed everyone else, but took Barry’s brain,” said Marty.

“And where is it?”

“It’s here somewhere,” said Ren. “We need to search this place.”

“We need to go,” said Corona. “These people are ready for us.”

“Hurt them all,” said Finch.

“I agree with Finch,” said Marty. “I say we hurt them all.”

“We can’t do that,” said Ren. “We have enough to turn over to the authorities.”

“No,” said Marty. “We have disguises. We look for Barry. Then we blow this place

up.”

“All right,” said Corona. “Are you sure you’re not taking this personal?”

“I’m totally taking this personally,” said Marty. “I am holding back because you guys

are here. Otherwise, I would be taking things into my hands right now.”

“We look for Barry,” said Corona. “First sign of trouble, we get out of here.”

“Okay,” said Marty. “Let’s change clothes and get out there.”

The four changed clothes as fast as they could. Finch had picked four guys who were

spookily close to the same size as the four of them. Ren put his clothes in his bag. The

others asked them to hold their belongings too.

“Right,” said Marty. “We know they won’t keep Barry up here.”

“He wasn’t on the floor where Finch happened to be,” said Ren. “He also wasn’t on

the same floor as we were.”

“That gives us five other floors.” Marty stepped outside the office. He headed for the

elevator. He pulled his cap down to help obscure his face.

One of the big three might look his way and recognize him. That would trigger a fight

for the door.

Ren, Corona, and Finch followed him. They tried to ignore the activity around them.

Marty opened the door for them. The four stepped in the elevator. The doors shut on

them.

Ren pushed the button one floor down below the scene of Finch’s rampage. The door

opened. One look said this was the wrong place. He pushed the next button. The

elevator opened on something out of a mad scientist’s dream.

“I think this is the right place,” said Corona. “We even have someone we can ask

questions.”

“Let’s do that,” said Marty. He started across the open space. Two guys in white suits

were doing grunt work for a guy in a white labcoat. The Scout headed right for the

boss.

He trusted Finch to handle the other two guys. She had already torn up trained

soldiers. Igors should be even easier for her deadly skills.

“How’s it going?,” said Marty. “I’m wondering what you do here.”

“I don’t think you have the need to know,” said the boss. “Who are you? Does

Captain Mercer know you’re here?”

Finch dropped the other two men with quick blows to the head. She paused to let

them drop to the floor. The sound attracted the chief’s attention.

“You better start talking,” said Marty. “Or I’ll let her go to work on you. You don’t

want that.”

“Hurt you,” said Finch. “Hurt you more.”

“I can’t tell you anything,” said the technician. “I just manufacture things from plans

that Mr. Watson provides.”

“I think you undersell yourself,” said Ren. He examined the controls of a particular

panel plugged into a set of boxy computers running on reels of magnetic tape. “What

does cerebral fluid tank mean?”

“I don’t know really,” said the technician. “That was here before I got here.”

“Wrong thing to say, bud,” said Corona. She let her hair down by putting her cap in

her pocket.

“Which leg do you want broken?,” asked Marty. “That’s what you get for lying.”

“Don’t,” said the technician. “We have a couple of brains preserved over the factory

floor. They come up with the designs for the things Mr. Watson wants to use for the

company. I take the designs and work out the bugs. That’s all I know.”

“Brains?,” said Ren. “How many brains are we talking about here?”

“We have two here,” said the technician. He pointed to a globe hanging from the

ceiling.

“Two?,” said Ren. “Really?”

“Yes,” said the technician.

“How do we get them out of there and into real bodies?,” asked Marty.

“I don’t have a clue,” said the technician.

“Break his leg, Finch,” said Marty. “I think he can hop along on his left one.”

“No,” the tech held up his hands. “We have mobile tanks for them. We can put them

into those.”

“How?,” asked Ren.

The technician showed them the procedure and put the brains in two cylinders on

rollers. He checked the readings on the tanks to show them the life support was

working. He gestured to show things were okay.

“Thanks,” said Marty.

Finch broke the technician’s leg with one kick. He went down with a high pitched

shriek.

The others looked at her.

“Deserved it,” she said.