Celtic Empire (Dirk Pitt 25)

“Help us try.”

Perkins looked into the eyes of Pitt and Giordino. An analytical scientist, he scrutinized the two men before him. What he observed was not a hapless pair on a crusade of folly. Instead, he saw two men who had defied the odds their entire lives. They radiated toughness, morality, and an unfailing sense of determination.

For the first time in a long while, Perkins felt a sliver of hope. “Aye,” he said with a faint nod.

Pitt flashed the card reader again, opened the door a crack, and stepped into the hall. “All clear.”

Perkins followed him, with Giordino behind. As Perkins cleared the doorway, a shrill alarm sounded. The scientist pulled up a pant leg, exposing an ankle monitor.

“I’m terribly sorry. Been wearing it for so long, I forgot all about it.”

Giordino pushed him forward. “Don’t worry now. Just don’t let it slow you. Any thoughts on a quick way out?”

The scientist thought a moment. “There’s an external freight door in the production room that locks from the inside.” He pointed down the hallway, then took off at an awkward run.

Pitt and Giordino followed him to the end of the corridor, where he burst through a set of double doors.

Inside was a large, high-bay production room where the company’s bacterial solutions were grown in nutrient-filled vats. Bathtub-sized stainless steel tanks near the door gave way to larger ones along the side wall, which were dwarfed by a half-dozen huge tanks positioned in the center of the bay. A maze of pipes crisscrossed the high ceiling, connecting the various containers. Along the near wall, a raised platform housed the operating controls and monitoring systems.

A wiry man in a dark jumpsuit stood on the platform with a clipboard, examining a computer monitor. He looked up as the three men stormed into the room, accompanied by the blare of alarms.

“Hey!” He jumped off the platform and rushed over to the men. He raised a hand to Perkins’s chest and shoved him to a halt.

“You don’t have authorization to be in here.” He gave Pitt and Giordino a suspicious look.

“Our authorization is right here.” Giordino stepped between his companions and threw an overhand punch at the technician, tagging him hard on the chin. The man’s eyes rolled back in his head.

Pitt caught him before he crumpled to the floor.

“Growing soft in your old age?” Giordino asked as he rubbed his knuckles.

“Sympathy for the workingman.” Pitt eased the technician onto the ground. He stood and looked at Perkins. “The back door, Doctor?”

“This . . . This way.” Perkins snaked through the center tanks to the back wall and a large drop-down door. A small panel at the side controlled its operation, and Perkins pushed the lift button. Nothing happened.

“It’s probably secured by a reader,” Pitt said. “Let me try my key card.” He waved his stolen ID in front of the panel, but it made no difference.

Pitt turned to Giordino. “We may need your sleeping buddy’s assistance.”

They turned to retrace their steps when gunfire sounded, and the concrete floor exploded in small chunks in front of them.

They froze as two guards with raised assault rifles appeared at the center of the bay. A third man, the Perkins imposter, emerged behind them. Stepping between the guards, he raised an automatic pistol, aimed it at Pitt, and smiled.

50

Dr. Perkins, so nice to see you again,” Pitt said to the security man named Richards. He waved a hand toward the real scientist. “I believe you know Dr. Perkins?”

“Shut up.” Richards took a step closer, leveling his pistol at Pitt’s chest. He nodded at one of the guards, who searched the three men. The map was taken from Pitt’s pocket, and Giordino was relieved of his wrench.

They were then held at gunpoint, backs against the wall, for nearly twenty minutes. When the production room’s doors again swung open, Audrey McKee walked in, escorted by an armed man and woman. Pitt recognized her companions as the assassins who had killed Dr. Nakamura in Maryland.

Audrey approached Pitt with a look of bemused annoyance. “Mr. Pitt, you’ve been wandering around in places you don’t belong.”

“I thought you told me to make myself at home.”

She shook her head. “I saw your submersible at the dock. Very sly.”

“We heard that Nessie was in the neighborhood,” Giordino said, “and stopped by to see for ourselves.”