The Investigators, Inc. Sky’s Past Returns. Chapter 6. The Vault.

“You are sure these security cameras do not work?” John asked Clarence. “They only come on once that alarm sounds,” he reassured John, “But I hope that girl works fast, we are down to 30 seconds now.” Astrid was working at it, but she had to get the number of the unit so she could match up her equipment. She had it now and it was quickly going through all the possible combinations. This one had 5 numbers. “18 seconds girl,” whispered Clarence.

10 seconds and her little machine was still testing for the right combination. “There it is,” she said and punched it in, “safe now, and 4 seconds to spare.” She smiled. Poor Clarence was sweating by now. They went down some stairs to the basement only to be met by a locked steel door. “Hmm, something new,” said Clarence. Angel held Storm and went all around the door. Meowr.=Wire right here. “Must be an alarm,” said Angel. Astrid went after this one too with a mini saw to cut away a section of the wall so she could get at the wires.

That went fast and she quickly clipped the wires. “Alarm is disconnected,” she said. Then MC picked the lock on this door too. “Oh, Sky might be in the Vault, next floor down,” said Clarence. Rock went first. There could be security cameras down here, so now they just needed to move quickly. “Just stop anyone who gets in our way,” said Rock, “and find Sky quickly.” They ran through the door into a large room with several women in it. They ran at the team, but our girls met them, and a big fight took place.

Those girls were good, but not as good as our team girls. Rock, Benson and Erisman went down a couple of halls checking rooms, looking for Sky. What they found horrified them. Men came out further down the hall and attacked. Rock just charged through them, knocking them against the walls, while Benson and Erisman finished them. In another large room at the end of the hall, more men were there, and these had guns. But so did our guys.

There was quite a gunfight going on which kept our guys pinned down for a while. That was bad. Carole Ann came out with 4 other women, each carrying guns. Another gunfight began. Carole Ann tried to run down the hall we had come in, but Clarence was at that end of the room. “Remember me, Carole Ann?” he said. She stopped, with a shocked look on her face. “Clarence!” she screamed, “who sent you, Victor or the Major?” “I came on my own,” he said smiling, “and your time is up.”

“Wait, you cannot shoot, my hands are raised,” she said angrily. “That only works for the cops,” he said, “for me, it means nothing.” Then Clarence saw someone coming up behind John. “Look out Johnny!” he yelled. That was all Carole Ann needed and she grabbed a knife down her back and threw it at Clarence. He went down slowly and lay leaning against a wall. Carole Ann laughed loudly. John looked and saw Clarence. He was about to shoot Carole Ann, but someone shot him first and he fell face first to the floor.

Carole Ann turned and laughed at the sight of John down too. She turned back to leave, but Clarence had his gun raised and shot once, then dropped down again. Carole Ann staggered but fell. The gunfights ended and they continued to look for Sky, but they were unable to find her. One more door to check and it led down another flight of stairs. Down they went and found a man coming out of a room. He spotted them and pressed a button on the wall, then tried to run but Rock caught him.

“Open that door!” demanded Rock. “I, I cannot do that,” he said shaking, “only Carole Ann can open it now that I set the alarm.” “It is an old combination lock system,” said Astrid, “I cannot open that.” There was a gauge on the wall measuring something. “What does it measure?” demanded Rock. The man did not say anything. Then came the sound of breaking bones, and screams. “It measures the oxygen level,” he said at last. “The oxygen is half gone,” said Galyna, “we will never get it open in time.”

“Put a blindfold on me,” said Rock. Then he started pounding himself against the door. Time and time again he tried, but without success. “The oxygen is gone,” said Galyna. Meanwhile… I was dreaming, a horrible nightmare. Finally, I was thrashing around and yelling! “Steve, wake up, wake up!” said Crystal, “you are having a nightmare.” I opened my eyes. Crystal was standing there. “That must have been a bad one,” she said. “Yes, it was,” I said through tears, “it is Sky…”

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.