Helix Nexus, Chris Lofts [best android ereader .txt] 📗

Helix pulled his gun from the holster and looked back at Dmitri. Was he nodding? Helix pointed at the gun. Dmitri’s eye blinked. ‘Can he hear?’

Ethan pushed himself up onto his fists. ‘I think so. It was a bit one-sided, but when I spoke to him, he would grunt and nod. Difficult to talk without a tongue.’

‘Jesus,’ Helix said. ‘We can’t take him with us. Archer’s dead, Lytkin’s legged it—’

Dmitri howled again.

‘He does that whenever you mention his missus.’

Helix turned the gun back on Dmitri. The Ukrainian’s eye widened, a series of short grunts and nods followed.

Ethan read the question on his brother’s face. ‘You know what he wants, Nate. You’d be doing him a favour.’

The broken man nodded and closed his eye. Two rapid shots echoed around the room.

Helix closed the door as Ethan bear-crawled past. ‘Have you any idea where this place is?’

‘Have you got any bud in there?’ Ethan replied, nodding at the rucksack. ‘I could murder a spliff.’

Helix crouched next to his brother. ‘Damn. Sorry, Bruv. I knew there was something I’d forgotten.’ He dropped the rucksack between them. ‘You’ll have to make do with this instead.’ He pulled the MP5 from the rucksack. ‘Don’t. I know it’s an antique. It’s got a sliding stock and a three-point sling, should make life a bit easier. Here.’ He handed the submachine gun to Ethan with two 30-round clips.

‘Gee thanks,’ Ethan said, inserting the clip and cocking the weapon. ‘I assume you have some sort of plan as we’re tooling up,’ he asked, applying the safety. He looped the sling over his head and adjusted it.

Helix nodded. ‘Find a way out. Find Lytkin. That’ll do for starters.’ He stepped away from the wall. ‘There’s a Government limo down there. Given it’s still here, my assumption is that she’s still in the building.’ He peered into the shadows. ‘Come on.’

Helix approached the limo, his P226 sweeping the area. Pressed to the side of the vehicle he placed his left hand on the invisible scanner. A green bloom haloed around his palm and fingers. He turned away, aiming inside the roomy passenger cabin. ‘Clear.’ He jogged to the control panel beside the heavy metal access door in front of the vehicle. The thumbprint scanner remained dormant, the door unyielding.

‘What’s up?’ Ethan said.

‘Door won’t open.’

‘I could always blast it with this pea-shooter, like they do in the movies,’ Ethan said, brandishing the MP5. ‘Failing that, there’s a lift.’

Helix ran his eyes over the edges of the lift door frame. There was no call button, no direction of travel indicator, no floor counter. ‘I can’t see the EMP screwing it this far out.’

Ethan tugged another door open. ‘Stairs,’ he called.

Helix stared into the dark void between the stairs and banisters above. ‘Nothing.’

‘What are you on about?’

‘Nothing that I can see. My PCM got fried by the EMP.’ He switched the rucksack to his front and crouched beside Ethan. ‘Come on.’

‘You’ll never carry me, Nate.’

‘It’ll take you too long on your stubbies and I’m not bloody leaving you down here. We’re wasting time. Climb on.’

Ethan studied the handrails and the width of the void. ‘I’ll race you,’ he said, heaving himself up on the outside of the stairs. Finding his rhythm, he pulled himself upwards, swinging left and right on his thick arms.

Helix grinned, and set off up the stairs in pursuit, Ethan’s grunts and his footsteps echoing in the stairwell with its weak emergency lighting.

Ten minutes into their ascent, Helix paused on a half-landing. ‘This doesn’t make sense,’ he said, wiping the back of his hand over his mouth. ‘We should have come to another door by now.’ He squinted upwards into the dark. ‘Did you notice anything else?’

Ethan heaved himself over the banister the MP5 clattering against the metal. ‘Nope.’

‘No cameras.’ Helix scratched his cheek. ‘Whoever it’s meant for doesn’t want to be seen using it.’

‘It must go somewhere,’ Ethan said, catching his breath. ‘Either that or the architect had a sense of humour.’

Helix grabbed the banister. ‘Onwards and upwards it is then.’ Hesitating, he pulled his hand back and stared at his palm. ‘Blood,’ he whispered. Looking at Ethan, he pressed a finger to his lips. With his head canted, he listened. Lytkin had lost her shoes in the lab. Stocking feet on concrete. There wouldn’t have been much to hear.

Ethan raised his eyebrows, a silent question.

‘Nothing. Come on.’

‘Whose blood?’

‘Archer’s. Lytkin was plastered in it. I’ll fill you in on the details later.’

Further up, Helix paused again. He’d seen something above. A form in the shadows. Not human. A door. He edged up, his hand held out to Ethan, telling him to slow. With his shoulder to the wall, gun held two-handed, he shuffled up the last few steps to the landing with the door. ‘It’s ajar,’ he whispered. The stairs continued overhead. Roof access. The door wasn’t labelled. He had no idea how far up they were or what lay beyond, but there was more blood on the handle. Turning his hand towards his brother, he leaned into the door, its metal skin cold against his ear as he listened.

Ethan adjusted the sling on the MP5, bringing the weapon around to his front and across his chest as they took up position either side of the door. Helix took the right, Ethan the left. At a nod from Ethan, Helix pressed the handle down and shoved the heavy door inwards. The door cracked open about another three inches and stopped. Jesus it was heavy. Helix took a step back, aimed and kicked it with his left boot. Ethan swept the right side of the room’s interior, Helix the left. Empty. Helix stepped through, back to the wall, swept again. Nobody.

He’d been there before, a little more than two days previously. Julia Ormandy’s office. Ulyana Lytkin’s office as it turned out. They had been in the MoHD all the time. Ethan followed, closing the thick door behind him.

Helix glanced through the bedroom door at the bathroom beyond. ‘Clear.’

‘Where’s