Meltdown Ophilion - Book One

39_RENRO

"Looks like the same guys are coming back," Orion said, "come on." They started jogging.

"I don't think we're going to make it." Celli vocalized what they could all see from the hologram and they broke into a run. The guards would turn the corner before they could reach the next juncture and they would be in plain view.

Jenna suddenly stopped. "Here," she whispered, "this part of the corridor is darker."

"What?!" Celli exclaimed. "We'll never fit in there. They'll see us."

"Not if we use the stealth technique," Jenna pointed out.

They scanned each other's faces. It was too late to argue. They all quickly piled into a nook in the wall which looked like it had once held a large vertical pipe. Fel still held the projector – they could see the green dots coming around the corner, closing on their position. He deactivated it and placed it in his chest pouch. They remained as still as possible, then focused their energy inward.

From their perspective nothing changed, but from the outside they were almost impossible to notice because of the mental deflection they were creating. This technique affects the way a brain perceives the images and sounds it receives – in effect deflecting all attention from the awareness of any animal or human. This technique, however, does not fool Merenthaal, or Baccaran. They could hear the guard's footfalls again. "Shift your eyes to the floor when they pass." Jenna reminded them. Movement or sound or eyes could still be detected.

A few seconds later the guards passed them, but after twenty meters they stopped. We're sunk! Orion thought. They could hear what sounded like a panel opening in the wall; then there were some electronic beeps, then the panel closing. "All clear." One of the guards said into a communicator. "Copy," came the reply. The footfalls began again, moving away from them. Soon they faded altogether.

The four teenagers exhaled audibly. "That was way too close." Celli said, a distraught look on her face. Orion, by contrast, felt rather euphoric: enjoying the exhilaration of outwitting authority. Fel re-activated the projector – the green dots were not on the display, neither was the first corridor they had entered.

"What happened to our exit?" Celli whispered.

Orion glanced around. "I don't know, maybe they locked it out; probably an electronic wall."

"If we hadn't left when we did..." Celli said.

Orion nodded. "No going back, though."

They walked quietly along the corridor following the hologram until they came to a large tightly sealed door with no handle. "It's bio-chip activated," Fel observed, and then said, with a sly smile: "But... I bet our new chips will open preeeeetty-much-anything." He reached up and pressed the activation button. A green laser scanned his shoulder. A second later they heard a mechanism whirring. A light at the top of the door began blinking orange. A few seconds later the light turned blue and the door opened smoothly and noiselessly inward. They were all impressed at the power of their new chips.

As soon as they had entered, the door closed behind them, sealing tightly. Orion swallowed nervously. Inside they could see what looked like a laboratory. There were monitoring panels along the walls and work tables full of various kinds of equipment. The space was as large as a warehouse. There were braces supporting chemical vats; large, heavy looking hand-held weapons; hazardous material containers. At the far end they could see what appeared to be targets for weapons practice. The more they studied their surroundings the less comfortable they felt. This was a place where people planned for death. They looked to the projector image which blinked blue, indicating they had reached their final destination.