Ch.27: The Lockdown

The panic room door upstairs hisses shut, locking Aris and Isabella inside.

But I am still in the basement.

And I hear the impact at the front gate. *CRASH.* A metallic scream that vibrates through the foundation of the house.

Thorne.

He’s here. He didn’t wait.

I smile. It’s a small, bloody, terrifying smile.

But then the sirens stop.

Not because they turned them off. Because the house shuts them out.

*CLANG.*

A heavy steel shutter drops over the basement window well.

*CLANG.*

Another one covers the ventilation intake.

The lights in the room flicker and die, replaced by emergency red strobes.

**INTRUDER DETECTED. FORTRESS PROTOCOL INITIATED.**

The automated voice is calm, female, and utterly devoid of mercy.

I know this protocol. I wrote the bio-hazard containment subroutine for the lab. But Aris expanded it. He weaponized it.

Fortress Mode seals the house. It drops steel shutters over every window and door. It locks the internal partitions.

And it cuts the airflow.

The hum of the AC unit dies. The fan blades spin down to a halt.

The silence is absolute.

I look at the monitor. The cameras are still active on the backup generator.

I see the foyer.

Thorne is sliding down the laundry chute. He lands in the utility room pile of dirty linens. He rolls out, gun drawn.

He looks up at the ceiling as the shutters slam down over the windows upstairs.

"Damn it," he mutters.

He runs to the door leading to the main basement corridor. He tries the handle.

Locked.

He kicks it. It doesn't budge. Reinforced steel.

He is trapped in the utility room.

I am trapped in the medical bay.

And the air is running out.

I can feel the pressure change in my ears. The hermetic seals have engaged. The room is now a vacuum-sealed jar.

The oxygen scrubbers are offline. Aris tied them to the main power grid, not the emergency backup. A design flaw? Or a feature?

He wanted a way to kill everything in the lab without entering it. Sterilization by asphyxiation.

I look at the oxygen tanks in the corner.

They are for the patient. For me.

But the regulators are manual. I have to turn the valve.

I swing my legs off the bed. My muscles are screaming. The Rocuronium is fully metabolized now, but the atrophy is real. My legs are weak, shaky sticks.

I stand up.

I wobble. I grab the IV pole for support. It rattles.

I take a step.

My foot drags.

*Step. Drag. Step. Drag.*

It takes me a full minute to cross the ten feet to the corner.

My lungs are already burning. Is it panic? Or is the CO2 rising that fast?

I reach the tank. A large, green cylinder.

I reach for the valve.

My hand shakes. I grip the metal wheel.

It’s tight.

I twist.

It doesn't move.

I use both hands. I lean my weight into it.

*Come on. Come on.*

It won't budge.

I look at the gauge. **EMPTY.**

Aris emptied them. He drained the emergency supply. He knew. He planned for this.

He isn't just trapping an intruder. He is cleaning house.

I slide down the tank to the floor.

I am going to die here. Thorne is going to die in the next room. And Aris is going to sit in his panic room until we are both cold, blue statues.

Then he will incinerate the bodies.

I look at the monitor again.

Thorne is shooting the lock. *BANG. BANG. BANG.*

The bullets spark against the steel. Ricochets fly. He ducks.

He stops. He realizes it’s useless.

He looks around the utility room. He sees the panel for the air handler.

He rips the cover off. He starts pulling wires.

He’s trying to hotwire the fan. To reverse the flow. To pull air in instead of sealing it out.

He is smart.

But he doesn't know the system. He doesn't know that Aris put a fail-safe on the ventilation. If the fan detects tampering, it floods the shaft with Halon gas. Fire suppression.

It sucks the oxygen out instantly.

"No!" I scream. My voice is a croak.

I have to warn him.

I look at the wall between us. Cinder block. Impenetrable.

But there is a pipe.

A water pipe running along the ceiling. It goes through the wall into the utility room.

I grab the IV pole. It’s heavy metal.

I swing it.

*CLANG.*

I hit the pipe.

Thorne freezes on the screen. He looks up.

*CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.*

S-O-S.

Thorne jumps down from the air handler. He puts his ear to the pipe.

I hit it again.

*CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.*

He pulls out his baton. He taps back.

*Tap. Tap. Tap.*

He hears me.

But he can't get to me. And I can't get to him.

And the air is getting thin. My head is swimming. The red strobes are leaving trails in my vision.

I look at the keypad by the door.

**ACCESS DENIED.**

Aris locked me out of the system from the panic room. He has override control.

I need to cut the power to the magnetic locks.

The backup generator is in the utility room. With Thorne.

I need to tell him to kill the power.

But how?

I look at the pipe.

Morse code.

I learned it in Girl Scouts. Just the basics.

*K-I-L-L.*

*Dash-dot-dash. Dot-dot. Dot-dash-dot-dot. Dot-dash-dot-dot.*

I swing the pole.

*CLANG-clang-CLANG. Clang-clang. Clang-CLANG-clang-clang...*

It takes too long. My arms are heavy. I’m running out of air.

I drop the pole.

I look at the monitor.

Thorne is looking at the pipe. He’s confused.

He doesn't understand.

Then he looks at the generator in the corner.

He looks at the red emergency shutoff button.

He looks back at the door.

He understands.

If he cuts the power, the mag-locks disengage. The doors open.

But the lights go out. The cameras go out.

And Aris will know.

Thorne pulls his gun. He checks the chamber.

He walks to the generator.

He puts his hand on the lever.

He pulls it.

The hum of the generator dies.

The lights die. The monitor dies.

Pitch black.

The hiss of the magnetic seal releasing is the sweetest sound in the world.

*Click.*

The door to my cell pops open an inch.

Air. Stale, basement air, but oxygen-rich air drifts in.

I gasp. I suck it in.

But then I hear footsteps.

Not Thorne's heavy boots.

Soft. Quick. Tactical.

Aris has a secondary team. Private security. Mercenaries.

They were waiting in the panic room antechamber.

"Target acquired," a voice whispers in the dark. "Utility room."

They are hunting Thorne.

And he is blind.

I am in the dark, too. But I know this room. I know where the scalpel is.

I crawl toward the tray table.

He's suffocating the evidence.