***** Vol.5 Chap.30 Get to a terminal *****

Frank helped May-Ling up the ventilation system. He knew that he got to find a terminal quickly. He listened through the door of the utility room for any outside activities. When he heard nothing he decided that the guards must be busy watching Kristin that they were not watching him.

He pulled out his map and memorized the pathway that he had to go. Then he darted out the door and ran down the hallway. But to his surprise, the hallway he had chosen ended shortly in a dead end. He pulled out his map and retraced his steps on the map. According to the map, he went the correct path. But it was also clear that there was a solid wall in front of him. He made a notation on the map indicated that the hall way had been closed off.

Then he plotted another path and had to retrace some of his previous steps. Again he met another dead end. Frustrated, he went back into the utility room to study his map more carefully.

Eventually, he realized that the only way to get to his destination was to go to the lower level which happened to be the main level. Then he had to cross a connecting corridor to get to another section of the compound before he could reach the control room. The new route would mean considerable exposure and consequently much higher risk of being found and caught.

After thinking about it for a while, he decided that he must risk his life to gain access to the security system. Otherwise, May-Ling’s success in carrying out her mission would be in great jeopardy.

For her sake, he had to try.

He knew exactly where the stairs were since he had passed them on his way back already. He stared at the map until he remembered all the hallways and turns that he had to make. Then he darted out of the room. He ran to the stairs and ran down the stairs. Before he opened the door, he paused to catch his breath.

He was again in unfamiliar territory. He wondered how May-Ling and Kristin were doing. But for the being, he had no time to worry about them.

He listened for footsteps on the other side of the door. Hearing none, he gently opened the door and looked both ways. The hall way was empty. He tiptoed out and quietly walked down the hallway. He passed some doors and could hear voices inside. This appeared to be the residence section for the scientists and workers.

He figured that most residents must be having dinner or at the in-house theatre. Behind one door, he could hear some loud snoring. That must be the room for the night guard, he thought. He hurried through the hallway and finally got to the connecting corridor.

As he peeked through the hallway down the corridor, he saw two scientists heading his way. Fortunately, they were in a serious discussion and did not notice him. He looked around and saw the men’s room nearby and he made a quick getaway into it.

The two men stopped outside the restroom and chatted for a while. Frank was becoming a nervous wreck listening intensely on the other side of the door.

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“Are we on schedule?” One man asked.

“We are doing the best that we can.” The other answered.

“The boss is getting edgy.”

“I know.”

“Well, I feel really good about this new batch of experiments.”

“That is good.”

“We have gone down a lot of blind alleys in the past few months. We have no problem designing a vicious enzyme, but keeping the enzymes effective before breaking down has proven to be more difficult. Our past experiments were unsuccessful because the enzymes could not last but for a few minutes. But my assistant came up with a brilliant idea and I think we got the problem solved.”

“Well keep me informed.”

“I need to stop by the restroom for one minute.” He pushed the door ajar. Frank made a mad dash into one of the stalls.

“One last thing, doctor.”

“Yes?”

“Walk with me a little. This is extremely confidential.”

“Okay.” The door closed and Frank let out a sigh.

“The boss had told me about the updated schedule…” The voices faded away.

Frank waited for a minute before he got the nerves to push the restroom door open again. He made sure that there was no one around and quickly made it to the connecting corridor. Fortunately, no one was coming down the corridor and he scooted quickly down the corridor.

He was not about to stop for anything. At the other end of the corridor, he knew exactly where he had to go. He had no trouble finding the stairs to go up to the upper level. Apparently, the upper level was primarily for maintenance and very few people actually visited the upper level.

He had no problem finding the control room this time. Quickly he opened the door and rushed in. He was relieved when he saw that there was no one in the room. Then he moved the chair to the camera and jammed a book on the control so that the camera would not swivel.

Now he could go to work. He had to work quickly as he had no idea how much time he had. He expected the guards to burst into the room at any time.

His fingers were flying over the terminal in an effort to gain access into the security system. This had proven to be harder than he anticipated. First he tried all the common passwords, but none of them worked. Eventually, guessing the password was too slow. Frank loaded a password-cracking program and let the program do the work cracking the password. While, the scheme worked, it took a significant of time, precious time that he was not sure he had.

In the meantime, he had nothing to do but to pace back and forth waiting for the program to do its work.

After five anxious minutes, his program had successfully cracked the password protection. So the first thing he did was to change the password and shut off all other security access. Then he quickly shut down the surveillance camera in the lab and in the control room that he was in.

Now he could relax a little. Unfortunately, it was already too late. The security guards at the main control had already discovered his presence when he first entered into the room and a whole regiment of guards had already been dispatched to his location.

As Frank began to pan the surveillance cameras, he could see the guards rushing towards his location. He had to slow them down. He searched for fire doors and security doors and noticed that different sections of the compound can be secured by closing some heavy steel doors. He quickly tapped on the terminal and shut off their advance.

He knew he would not be able to hold them for long, but at least for now, he was safe. He made sure that all steel doors leading to his hideout were down. But he knew also that his backdoor was also closed. Anyway he had no time to dwell on that.

He needed to check and see how May-Ling was doing. All was lost unless May-Ling could succeed. He set the display to the surveillance camera in the lab and was ready to turn the camera off as soon as he could see May-Ling coming through.

In fact to complete the masquerade, he would randomly turn the surveillance cameras on and off at random locations. He was sure that somebody in the security control room was watching also.