Chapter 8 - Breaking Out
The heavy steel security shutters locked into place with a series of loud, mechanical thuds that vibrated through the concrete floor.
Sarah grabbed David’s arm, her eyes wide with terror. “They’ve locked the bulkheads. The only exit from this lab is the main freight elevator shaft, and they’ve cut power to it.”
“Not if we use their own infrastructure against them,” David said, his structural engineering training instantly kicking into high gear beneath the adrenaline rush.
He sprinted to the laboratory’s main control console, ignoring the blaring red strobe lights overhead. His fingers flew across the keyboard, typing in administrative override commands using the master credentials he had downloaded from Dr. Harrison’s system terminal moments earlier.
“What are you doing?” Sarah asked, standing beside him while watching the security monitors.
“Harrison thinks this lab is a fortress,” David said, staring at the schematic blueprints of the hospital’s sub-basement levels flashing on the screen. “Every subterranean medical facility built in the 1990s was required by municipal code to have an emergency seismic pressure-release valve connected to the storm drainage system.”
He pointed at a dashed blue line on the schematic running directly beneath the isolation suite.
“That’s an old municipal culvert pipe. It leads straight out to the river basin half a mile away.”
Footsteps were right outside the glass door now. Heavy rattling sounds indicated that security guards were trying to force the electronic lock with manual override keys.
“Step back,” David instructed Sarah.
He grabbed a heavy steel IV pole from the medical cart and jammed it directly into the manual control box of the laboratory’s hydraulic emergency vent. With a fierce grunt, he threw his entire body weight against the pole.
CRACK.
Sparks showered across the floor as the electronic circuitry short-circuited. With a heavy, groaning hiss, the floor grate beneath the center of the isolation suite popped open, revealing a dark, circular concrete tunnel leading downward into rushing water and fresh outdoor air.
“Go! Down the culvert!” David shouted, lifting Sarah and lowering her feet into the dark opening.
She dropped into the tunnel, coughing slightly from the damp air, but turned back up to reach for him. “David, come on!”
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As the glass door of the lab finally shattered under the weight of a security battering ram, David dove headfirst into the drainage shaft just as Dr. Harrison and three armed guards poured into the room.
The cold rushing water of the storm drain caught them, sweeping them safely away into the darkness beneath the city streets, far beyond the reach of the Sterling-Montgomery Trust.
