The Prairie Dog slowly came to stop at its designated point and powered down. Roger switched the lights to the emergency red lights. Beck started to climb out.
"Stay for a moment, Beck. Let your eyes adjust to this light first, then we'll go out. It'll help you see better in the dark."
Beck rolled his eyes as he climbed down.
"While we're waiting, let's go over the route," he said, as Yumi sat near him. Roger dug inside his pack and found the maps, laying them next to each other. Dastun crouched down near the group.
"Here's the route we're taking. There should be an old maintenance shaft here. From what Norman's contact told him about it, it looked safe to descend, mind you, that was nearly a month ago, so things could've changed. We're here, at the entry point into West Dome #7. So, we'll need to walk about klick north from the Prairie Dog. We're stopping here because Norman's contact heard sounds deeper in the tunnel. The Prairie Dog makes enough noise on its own and I don't want to risk alerting the enemy, if we haven't already now. By stopping here, we should be alright and if anything happens, Big O will still be within range of my call."
"How far is a klick?" asked Yumi, groaning.
"About over half a mile, roughly," replied Dastun, "So not far. According to Beck, you went further than that last time."
"I did. I just don't want to deal with the rats."
Roger shook his head, putting the map of the city away and leaving the subway tunnel out for him to use. "If there were rats, the Prairie Dog has probably scared them off. You'll be fine, miss."
Yumi nodded, still grimacing. She was not happy being in the subway again so soon.
"Right, that should be enough time. Let's go," said Roger, and they all climbed out of the Prairie Dog.
Roger grabbed his flashlight from his pack and slung his pack on his shoulders, standing close to Dastun. He moved his flashlight around. There were on a pathway in the subway, so it was very dark. Roger noticed cracking along the walls.
"I don't remember these being here," he observed in a low voice. Dastun raised an eyebrow.
"You sure you didn't cause them?"
"No, Big O hasn't been summoned, remember? Norman and I go check the tracks every so often. These weren't here in December when he and I did a maintenance check, I'm sure of it."
"So, are they recent?" asked Yumi in a hoarse whisper. She had Beck's device out, mapping their route.
"It would be hard to tell if they were."
Beck followed Roger's light, going to the wall, studying the crack. He ran his fingers across it and then rubbed his fingers together.
"These cracks are deep, Crow Boy. Best keep it quiet for now. We should get going. Can your, whatever you call it, move through concrete in case of a collapse?"
"With enough speed, yes," Roger replied.
"I rather not linger here any longer. These might be caused by the tremors I felt the other day. Let's get going."
Beck pulled a similar device to Yumi's and held it out in front of him. Roger and Dastun followed down the path. They held the map of the subway tunnel, shining their light on it every so often to make sure they were going in the right direction.
The group walked in silence and for what appeared to be quite a distance. Beck felt a little braver than last time, in part because Roger had brought Big O with him, but there was not enough money in the world for him to admit that to Roger's face. Beck also had a purpose as well to focus on. No one had mapped the tunnels in a while, and the price would be good on the right markets for the information. The information would also be handy for him to have in case he ever needed to use it.
Yumi had outpaced Beck by a few steps walking down the tunnel and stopped. They had reached a fork. Roger looked up and motioned his light to the left. Yumi went down the left tunnel, followed by Beck.
"Never thought in all of these years I actually be walking with a former subordinate and former criminal in haunted tunnels," whispered Dastun as he looked around.
Roger raised an eyebrow. "Didn't know you believed in the rumors. Though I never did and well… Anyway, feeling sentimental?" Roger raised his sleeve, showing the watch comm. Dastun shook his head, a small chuckle coming from him.
"Knock it off. I rather not be squashed by…"
But he stopped talking as he felt a shallow vibration beneath him. Roger, Beck, and Yumi felt the tremor pass and disappear. Yumi's face grew pale.
"Beck?" she called uncertainly.
Beck tensed up. The tremor felt like the same one near West Dome #5. He turned to Roger.
"We've been walking for a while. How much further?"
"We just made the turn," said Roger, consulting the map, "Not much further."
They continued walking quietly, however now they were more alert than before. Beck grew frustrated as his machine he was holding began to lose signal.
"I'm surprised it's made it this far. Damnnit, I'm gonna have to amplify the receptor on these when we get back."
"Stop," said Roger and everyone halted.
He moved his flashlight around looking at the markings on the wall and found what he was looking for. He moved off to the left and found the maintenance shaft hidden behind a column of concrete.
"This is it," he said. Everyone moved closer to look.
The maintenance shaft looked in decent shape and safe to descend on upon initial glance. Roger pulled off his pack and found a glow stick and put the map away. He sealed his pack up once more, activating the glow stick and dropping it down the shaft. He saw the light fade as it dropped further down, until it disappeared. From what Roger could tell, they would be alright descending into the underground using this route.
Roger put his flashlight up and took the first rung of the ladder leading down. "Watch your step," and he began descending the ladder. Everyone then followed Roger down into the darkness.
Like the last descent, it took forever for them to climb down. Some time passed before Roger noticed the walls starting to look newer in appearance.
Nearly there.
The maintenance shaft finally opened into the large underground area that Roger recognized.
"We're not far. I can see the bottom."
Roger descended a few more feet and jumped to the ground when he saw it was close. He saw the glow stick he had thrown on the ground, broken, but its contents still glowing. He moved to the side, waiting for everyone else to finish climbing down.
"So, this is what's underneath the tunnels? This looks… new… Angel told me about it, but seeing it now…" Dastun whispered to Roger.
"Yeah, that's not the only thing weird about this place," replied Roger, moving his eyes all around him.
Beck was still fiddling with his invention. It was barely working. He swapped out batteries and then turned it back on.
"So, I've lost connection and now I am mapping this on the device's memory. Let's try not to get lost."
Roger pulled out the map of the city and pointed at locations marked.
"We should be roughly about here. The one location Dastun and Angel staked out a while ago should be lying in this general direction. If we continue going this way, we might find something."
Roger pointed ahead of him.
"Come on then," said Beck, and they all began walking. Dastun kept looking all around him, trying to grasp the size of underground in his mind. Roger, on the other hand, having been down here so many times before, kept looking ahead, with only one thing on his mind: Finding answers for Dorothy.
Just like before when Beck had entered the underground, they walked for some time. Roger and Dastun would have a brief conversation to pass the time, before going silent again. Roger checked the map every so often, but there was no need as the path continued only in a straight direction. After some time had passed in silence, they approached a fork. They all stopped while Roger consulted the map.
"At this point, I think we've passed that building. So… let's head in the direction of the river. Take a left," he said.
"Left it is," said Beck, and they began walking down the path once more, taking a left.
They didn't get very far down the corridor when they felt a tremor once more. The group braced themselves, allowing the waves to pass through before they finally stopped.
"What is that?" asked Dastun, "Roger are you seeing…?"
"I am…" Roger noticed hairline cracks starting to form and dust falling from the ceiling. Yumi, on the other hand, was holding tight to Beck, looking worried as Beck's face had grimaced as he thought about bolting with her and leaving Dastun and Roger behind. However, he thought better of it.
"They're keeping something big down here, alright. Let's keep moving," Roger said and kept moving, with the others following in tow. They kept walking for quite a distance until they began to hear noises. Roger motioned everyone to make themselves small against the wall, and Roger and Dastun went ahead to investigate the noise.
Like it had been the last time with Beck, it was the same here. Roger crouched down by the vent cover. He saw that it was locked by a padlock off to the side. He looked around and saw the same electrical grid fixtures Beck had described earlier in the week. People were running back and forth, yelling at one another, though it was hard to make out what they were saying. Roger and Dastun moved back and motioned for Beck and Yumi to come forward.
"It's the same, like you described. The grate with the padlock to the side," Roger mentioned to Yumi. Yumi nodded and began getting to work. Last time, she did not pack her entire tool kit. This time, she packed everything. She studied the grate for a moment, then opened her bag, rummaging around for the item she needed. She pulled out a small cylindrical tube with a small smile and began adjusting it. When she found the right settings, she aimed it, and pressed a button on it. A laser shot out and she began cutting around the frame of the vent cover. Dastun raised an eyebrow at Beck.
"You've been playing with some new toys."
"Having money allows you to do that. It's still a prototype, but I've tested it enough in a lab setting. Today's is its first field test. How's it working, Yumi?"
"Perfect!" and Yumi shut off the laser, "I think this is a success, Beck! Another one we can add to the books."
"Thank you dear," said Beck, sneering at the compliment while Yumi packed up her gear. Yumi then moved out of the way as Roger went into the space once more. He crawled into the vent, gently opened the grate, and crawled out in the area as the others followed him. Thankfully, there were some crates nearby to take cover behind while everyone got their bearings.
Now, not being hindered by the grate anymore, the group could see the vastness of the area. There were many wires connected to electrical grid frames, the lines leading into what appeared to be different areas as they continued through the wall. Roger could hear a low hum of electricity and knew they were live. He motioned for the party to follow him, spotting another area they could take cover behind. They all ducked when they heard a couple of people dressed in weird uniforms walk by, talking quickly. They were probably the guards, Roger thought, as he noticed they were armed and wearing different uniforms from the construction workers and other people nearby.
"Station 4 is having a malfunction. If we don't figure out how to get energy over there soon…"
"Don't remind me. It's bad enough we lost Station 1 a while ago, then had to get it back online. I never seen the doctors or Lucille so angry. If that blows up again like it did, we're done for…"
Roger looked at Dastun. To their knowledge, the only thing that they knew had blown up recently was the building in the dome near the Townsends location, but that was months ago. Dastun felt some relief that on that night he was being paranoid, and it was just a fluke, as he had figured someone had followed Angel. Roger nodded at Dastun to move with him. Roger saw a key card dangling from the man's pocket from a clip and he found cover quickly as they stopped at the door. Roger swiftly unclipped the card, disappearing behind the crates once more, near Dastun. The guard reached down to find his key card, only to find it missing.
"Ah, damnnit! Not again! I lost my keycard."
"Better keep an eye on that. I heard Lucille is dealing out the punishments herself now regarding lost equipment."
The other guard swiped his card on the lock and the door opened, both guards walking inside. Roger and Dastun met back with Beck and Yumi.
"Well, learned a lot. Hopefully, this helps us discover more." Roger pointed showed the key card to the group.
"The fact that they have something like this online, and more, they got some someone with brains working with them alright," said Beck.
"We need to follow those guards and find out what's going on," said Dastun, keeping an eye on everything around him.
"Yeah, except there's probably cameras all over this place. We'll have only a limited amount of time before we get spotted or someone sounds the alarm," replied Roger.
Yumi was looking along the wall opposite her and saw that the wall had windows at the top, but she couldn't see into them.
"Look, that has to be some kind of control area, which controls the flow of the electricity, right? Why not go there? I'm pretty sure there's all kinds of information we can gather. Pretty sure that's where the guards were heading."
Roger held his breath. It was worth a shot. He looked around the area. Every seemed busy and frantic, trying to resolve the problem in Station 4.
"This is our chance, let's go."
They all moved quickly, Roger approaching the door first, swiping the key card. The door opened and they all piled through the door quickly, before it automatically shut. Roger breathed a sigh of relief, but he knew they weren't out of the woods yet.
"Well, whadayah know? This is nice of them," said Beck and he pointed to a map on the wall. The others approached it and looked it over. It was a map of the facility they were in. Beck snapped a picture of it with his device and went back to studying it.
"If we go down this hallway and to the right, we'll be right at the foot of the stairs that lead to the control room," he said, and he took lead, heading them down a hallway and then turned right. Sure enough, they found stairs. Beck was about to go up when Roger pulled him across the room, and crouched down by the stairs with him. Dastun and Yumi followed them.
"There's people manning the control room. We need to figure a way to get past them or get them out without them spotting us."
"Oh, right."
Dastun was looking all around him, trying to see if there was anything that could possibly be a distraction. His eyes narrowed on the emergency fire sprinklers.
"Beck, what's the chances of this place having sectioned off fire sprinklers?"
"What?"
"If I were to set a fire sprinkler off in here, would it affect the rest of the facility and trigger the remaining ones, or would it seal off the area that's affected?"
Beck thought hard. "This place has electronic locks, so there's a good chance they would have some kind of containment procedures in place…"
"Where's that laser from earlier?" Dastun asked Yumi. Yumi quickly dug around in her bag, finding it, and handing it to him.
"I'll be back. Just stay here unless things get bad…"
Before Roger could protest, Dastun took off, back down the hallway they came, disappearing from view. Roger found his chest rising and falling quickly and steadied his breath. A moment later, he heard the sound of the fire alarm going off. Dastun had succeeded in doing his job and came running back, joining them behind the stairs, and not a moment too soon. As Dastun handed Yumi back her laser, the crew in the control room began descending the stairs, heading for the emergency exit that lay ahead of them. The group waited until the electronic door shut and for any stragglers before ascending to the room. Roger swiped the card and the door opened.
The room was covered in various electronics and monitoring screens. Yumi and Beck brought out the devices he had invented and began taking pictures. Roger and Dastun began looking at the screens. Some screens showed power output levels and compared them to various other rooms. Roger saw that Station 4 was blinking, remembering the conversation he had overheard with the guards. Beck came over to where he was standing.
"Taking pictures. Move Crow Boy."
Roger raised an eyebrow in annoyance and moved on.
What could they possibly need this much electricity for?
He wandered around, looking at the different monitors, finally stopping at one that made his heart stop.
"Beck, Dastun…"
He motioned over for them to come over. Yumi was still perusing the electronics on the wall.
"Am I reading that right?"
The words on the screen read in bold, "CONTAINMENT TANK, 71% CHARGED TO CAPACITY."
Beck moved to the windows, looking down below.
"I'm not seeing a containment tank or anything that looks like one, Crow Boy. It must be where those wires lead to at the top."
"Beck?"
Yumi called over to him and Beck went over to her to see what she had found. Roger pulled out his pen and notepad from his pack and began jotting everything down quickly that he had seen so far. Once done, he moved on to a desk with papers strewn all over the place. Roger sat down and began looking for anything that resembled anything from Dorothy's dream or related to Angel's case.
Status reports… I'll take the most recent one with me…. More status reports, take out receipts…
He began moving quickly through the papers.
Come on, give me something else… budget workbook? Nice, that's mine now…
He pocketed the items into his pack and as he did so, a file fell and opened on the floor, showing casing a model of Big O and…
Dorothy as an android? But…how?
He flipped through it. The file contained information on Big O's weapons systems on many pages. He skipped a few pages and found blueprints of Dorothy's make up as an android, including the process for wiring her memory circuits and connecting her hard disk to her system. Roger shut the file and jammed into his pack. It seemed pretty thick, and he needed to look around some more.
While Roger was searching the desk, Dastun noticed there were monitors linked to cameras up above them. As he observed them, Beck frantically was taking pictures with Yumi and writing things down that he observed, his face desperate.
"This is impossible. We should've been dead by now, but that energy has to go somewhere. Crow Boy!"
Roger dumped out a desk drawer, looking for anything useful.
"What Beck? I'm busy."
"You're not busy enough for this."
Roger saw a paper map of the facility fall on top of the files he had dropped onto the floor. He picked it up and shoved it into his bag, now closing it and putting it back on him. He walked over to Beck and looked at where he was pointing. His face became dumbfounded.
"I'm not electrician, but that can't be right."
"I'm in the construction business and I know that's not right. Even with the domes, the amount of electricity that has already been consumed would've caused a major power surge in the domes. These numbers… there's no way this is possible. Which means…"
"It's going somewhere, and it's being used up at the same rate it's receiving the massive output."
"Guys, time's up!"
Dastun yelled and pointed at the screens above him. Roger, Beck, and Yumi saw there was a group of guards heading their way, armed, being led by the girl Beck had described as the cyborg who took down Alan Gabriel. The color in Beck's face drained. She was walking with the guard that Roger had stolen the card key from. Apparently, she had put two and two together and was heading in their direction.
"We need to leave or we're dead," he said, looking around for another way out.
Roger saw another map over by the pile he had made and picked one up and gave it to Beck, who began looking it over. He found an emergency exit tunnel was located underneath one of the consoles.
"Crow Boy, come help me find this emergency exit out of here."
Roger nodded and they began looking over the area, trying to find the release. Beck looked at Yumi.
"Yumi, disable those electronic locks. Buy me some time!"
Yumi unpacked her locksmith kit once more and went over to the panel, Dastun going with her, now pulling out his pistol, just in case, still keeping an eye on the screens. They were now walking down the emergency exit the other workers had left through earlier. Yumi unscrewed the panel, now analyzing the wires.
Roger and Beck finally found success on their end. Beck found a button underneath one of the consoles located near the location of the emergency exit. A hatch opened revealing a tunnel.
"Yumi, we're good. Get those locks disabled now! We're outta here!"
Beck's sudden yell distracted Yumi, and she accidentally cut all the wires, causing the main lights in the room to go red and an alarm to sound off. Roger gritted his teeth.
Not good.
"Let's go everyone! I'd rather not stay and find out their hospitality!" he yelled. Dastun helped Yumi pack her things and ran over with her. She went first, followed by Dastun, then Beck. Roger took a glance around, seeing if there was anything they could use or anything they missed, but saw nothing. He heard a loud metal clang against the door, and he jumped down in the tunnel, sliding down until he popped out from the escape tunnel. Dastun pulled him to his feet.
"LET'S GO!" Dastun bellowed and they headed back for the vent for their escape. They ran for their lives, knowing that any hesitation would be costly. They dove and ducked in between crates, rebar piles, discarded electric cables until a loud crashing noise made them look back.
"STOP THEM!" cried Lucille while in the air. She hit the ground, tucking and rolling, getting up, and ran after them. She had crashed through the glass of the control room to allow her men to take aim on them. She's definitely not human or full human, thought Roger. The armed guards took aim and began firing at them from the control room.
"GODDAMN IT!" roared Beck, "WE'RE DONE FOR!"
Gunfire was now all around them. Roger saw a small piece of rebar while running and picked it up. Lucille was closing in fast on Roger. Roger noticed her hands, metallic in color, similar to those of Alan Gabriel's, were in a bladed form. Dastun saw what Roger was doing, and in the same instant they both turned around, Roger threw the rebar at Lucille, the piece of metal spinning in the air in her direction, and Dastun took aim, firing his weapon at her.
They heard the bullet ricochet and kept running, but then a thud on the ground made them turn once more. Lucille had fallen to the ground. She had deflected the bullet with her hand, but was injured by the rebar as it had smacked her in the head, where she was bleeding. One of the guards, who had taken the escape tunnel down, ran to her.
"Miss Lucille…" he began, but she glared at him.
"SHOOT THEM NOW!"
He turned his rifle onto Roger and Dastun. They were both in open space, nearing the last set of crates that covered the grate. There was no way they could dodge such close gun fire without some cover. Roger met Dastun's eyes, both realizing this at the same time, and Dastun pulled out something from his coat, Roger instantly realizing what it was, and covered his ears. Dastun pulled the pin and threw it in Lucille and the guard's direction.
A loud bang went off knocking both Roger and Dastun off of their feet. Roger took a moment to recover, then realized the situation they were still in, pulled Dastun to his feet. They ran to where Yumi and Beck were, now crawling through the vent. They both followed quickly, now back in the underground. They took a moment to catch their breath, Roger's left side by his scar, now in searing pain.
"A…flash…grenade?" Roger panted, "Doesn't… seem… like you…"
"Let's just say… Davidson's evidence… was 'destroyed'…after he was killed," said Dastun, trying to catch his breath.
They heard yelling coming closer to the vent.
"MOVE!" Roger yelled and they began running back to the maintenance shaft.
"IT TOOK US FOREVER TO GET HERE CROW BOY! WE'LL BE DEAD IF WE KEEP RUNNING! CALL THAT MEGADEUS OF YOURS!" Beck roared at the top of his lungs.
"UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE CRUSHED TO DEATH BY CONCRETE, I DON'T HAVE A SAFE PLACE TO SUMMON HIM! JUST KEEP RUNNING!" yelled Roger.
Indeed, it had taken them hours just to get here from the Prairie Dog. There was no way they could continue to keep outrunning the enemy. However, Big O was linked to the Prairie Dog's systems, and the Prairie Dog was equipped with a drill…
Gunfire now erupted in the underground and Roger took cover with Dastun behind a column of concrete. Beck and Yumi move to the other side of the wall, ducking behind a column as well. It was now or never.
"BIG O! ACTION!"
The watch began blinking blue.