We moved like intrusive ghosts. Almost silent. Fluid, rushing motions. All the entrances were steel sliding doors and they had control panels beside them. The barriers hissed aside automatically when we approached; we entered rooms, searched rapidly and went on.

​

The chambers showed no signs of the panic which we knew had gripped the facility. Most were neat and tidy; the scattered, untidy mess of other chambers just suggested lazy inhabitants. There were no bodies. A few computer tablets and laptops were found, but we didn’t waste time trying to access each one.

​

Over the comms, Robinson eventually reported-in that the door leading to the Delivery Systems was still locked. Less than a minute later, that distant team came upon the site where half the security force had been killed. Soon after, Graves, Robinson and I were standing where the rest of the security team had perished.

​

At both locations, there were bullet holes in the walls and blood evidence on the floor. No corpses.

​

I eyed the patterns of bullet holes in the walls and ceiling.

​

“They just opened up and zigzagged their weapons.”

​

“Pray and spray,” Graves agreed. He shrugged: “Were they that badly trained? This isn’t an enormous corridor. Surely they could have just shot down the centre of it and killed their attackers.”

​

I pointed up: “And why shoot the goddamned ceiling?”

​

Graves knelt and examined the arrays of blood-splatter. There were jets of blood, obviously from massive, sudden wounds; also smears, a single footprint in an area of blood-spray, and more spatter across the walls.

​

“It’s like Jacobs’ men described with the dead woman: huge injuries, probably stabbing or skewering. Certainly, the attackers didn’t use guns.”

​

Howard queried that: “How do you know?”

​

“No bullet holes in the walls behind us, so no bullets flew towards them.” Graves was almost genial in his explanation.

​

I pointed up the passage. “Erratic blood-drips. Suggests the bodies were picked up and carried off, soon after the fight ended. They weren’t dragged – the blood would be smeared.”

​

Graves laughed. “So they like to leave a tidy combat zone – except for the holes and the blood.”

​

“Damn weird.” I tabbed my comms. “Lee? Anything else there?”

​

“No. We’ve been listening to you guys – it’s pretty much identical here. Except, they took the woman’s body too.”

​

“Okay. Continue your search. We’re almost at the corridor entrance now. We’ll hold up there and wait for you, and I’ll update Wilde.”

​

What the hell had happened down here?

 

*     *     *

 

Twenty minutes later, the entire Living Ring had been searched, without incident.

​

Our split team rejoined and we entered the corridor leading to the Bio Labs. Robinson stayed at our rear as we advanced, keeping him as safe as possible. The passage was two hundred metres long and we could see that the far door was shut.

​

“Any new thoughts on the buzzing?” McBride asked as we progressed.

​

“Not a chainsaw, anyway,” Graves’ digitised speech offered.

​

Lee considered. “Something from the Delivery Systems Labs, maybe? They must have rockets and other stuff in there...”

​

Robinson cut in. “No rockets or anything mechanical. The research is into biological delivery systems.”

​

“Meaning what?”

​

“Well, from what I heard, the idea is this... If you fire a rocket, people trace it back to you and they get payback. But if you infect something – say a cute-looking puppy – and let it loose in a city... Well, think how many people will pet it while the thing wanders about. You could spread a virus subtly and no one would ever guess the source.”

​

Graves shook his head. “And they say I’m a bad guy.”

​

“That’s because you are,” Howard retorted. “But these guys are in a league of their own.”

​

“Still doesn’t explain,” McBride said, “that bloody buzzing.”

​

Nobody else had any further suggestions.

 

*     *     *

 

The Bio Labs Ring.

​

We stepped beyond the doorway and formed a half-circle, peering about. Within a few minutes of scrutinising, we could tell the entire ring was almost certainly empty.

​

All the walls – of the circular ring, of chambers which completely filled the inside of the ring, and those located outside it – were made of thick glass. The sliding doors to all compartments were glass too. We were able to look through a vista of bio-engineering labs, containment chambers, storage rooms and decontamination units. Only where a piece of equipment or furniture was large enough, could someone have hidden behind it. Nothing moved – except for an oscillating desk fan far off to the left.

​

Better still, there were small units mounted on the corridor walls at intervals of thirty metres. Each one of these shone with a dull green light. I knew what this meant before Robinson offered an explanation.

​

“There definitely hasn’t been a breach of containment,” he said, his enthusiasm raising the pitch of his voice. “Or those lights would be flashing red.”

​

Howard slapped the tech’s shoulder: “Buddy, just by saying that, you’ve earned your pay.”

​

Robinson grinned like a happy school kid.

​

Lee, typically, wasn’t able to summon a smile. Instead, the Korean noted: “Doesn’t look like there are any bodies here, either.”

​

Graves added: “This job is almost boring.”

​

“Okay,” I said. “Graves and Howard, head right and search. McBride and Lee, you’ve got left. At least this should be a quick, easy check... Robinson: find a workstation and find out what’s been happening around here...”

​

He led me to a small office not far away. As we walked, and as he worked on the console there, I kept my eyesight roaming the expanse of the labs. The area remained calm. You could almost forget the bloody havoc that had occurred down here; you could almost forget anyone had ever been here at all.

​

Robinson connected one of his tablets to the computer and used it to bypass the password systems. He spent a few minutes roaming through files. I saw him downloading chunks of data while he worked on overlapping windows of information. Finally, Robinson turned in his chair to face me as he disconnected his gear.

​

“This is damn mysterious. I’ve been through all the work logs for the Bio Labs. The last time anyone did any work in here was over a month ago.”

​

“What?”

​

“No one logged into a workstation, used any equipment or accessed the Biohazard Stores... Nothing happened.”

​

“Then they were all working in the Delivery Systems Labs?” I suggested.

​

“I guess so. I can’t read those records from here. I’d need to access a workstation in the Delivery Labs to find out. But this doesn’t make sense.”

​

“No argument there. What—”

​

“Turner,” Lee’s even voice interrupted over the comms.

​

“I read you.”

​

“You’ll want to see this.”

​

“On my way. Graves and Howard, you complete the search and join me with Lee and McBride.”

​

That nasty, digitised voice replied: “No problem.”

​