Doom 3™: Worlds on Fire

28

ISHII WALKED SLOWLY PAST THE WALL OF MONITORS,looking down at his PDA as if checking that it was synced properly.Yes, that’s what I’m doing. Just checking things. But he kept moving, walking close to the main entrance of Delta. Lab assistants and scientists walked back and forth. Ishii reached the Delta reception desk, manned by two women who, for some strange reason, also wore lab coats.

Two burly marines stood at the main exit, and more marines were posted at the lab’s secondary exits.

Ishii walked up to the exit. Immediately a sentry bot scurried up and took its place immediately behind him. But at his level of clearance, a sentry bot was entirely optional.

He scrolled to a window on his PDA and, at the security screen, hit a button to disengage the bot. It immediately scurried back to some distant corner of Reception. The marine stood perfectly still. If they suspected anything, their eyes didn’t show it.

He started talking into his mouthpiece. “Yes, I’m checking on it now. Don’t worry. All right. I’ll make sure.”

And, maintaining his stream of meaningless one-sided conversation, he slipped out into the main hallway. One foot in front of the other, he told himself, walking away with enough data to expose everthing that had happened here and—sweet God—everything that was about to happen.

“MacDonald—where is the subject?”

Kellyn MacDonald turned away from Pod One, the delivery pod.

“He’s on his way now.”

Betruger nodded. “Good. I want things to go smoothly when he’s here.” Betruger raised his voice.

“Everyone hear that? No sense of alarm, just another day in the lab—okay?”

MacDonald waited until Betruger moved away, dashing from station to station, radiating plenty of tension. Then MacDonald got up and walked back to the storage chambers in the back.

He went into one that he knew wasn’t used except for discarded equipment. A bit of privacy. He began to record his special message on his PDA.

Mars City PDA

Dr. Kellyn McDonald

Personal Folder, Security Enabled.

Checked and Opened_03_13_2145 10:28:19 Sent to: Private

Recording Begun:

So, sweet Ann, it’s about to happen again. Everyone knows the danger, knows what has happened. And yet—somehow—we all continue. I have told Kelliher everything, and yet, hestill doesn’t pull the plug. But this time, something worries me even more.

It’s Betruger himself. Not only does he ignore the results from before. This time, he seems to be hurrying, as if we are all on some deadline. To which I might ask, deadline to what?

I don’t know what will occur. I don’t know what great threat the experiments may pose—to the lab, to me, to all of Mars City. I have tried to do what I can here. Now, there is nothing else for me.

Tell Patrick that I think of him tons. But please, don’t say that I will see him soon. Not until we know that is a real possibility. And trust me, after this I will be doing what I can to leave this planet forever. Of course, Ann, I miss you terribly. To talk to, to be with, to be there for each other. In some ways, I’ve been negligent, haven’t I? Perhaps like every other scientist in history, lost to their world of ideas and experiments.

I’d best end this. You never know who might come back here. But know that I think of you. And I will contact you when this hellish day is over.

Recording Ended:

Folder Closed and Locked___10:37:28

MacDonald quickly walked out of the storage room. Because of his special security clearance with Kelliher, he was able to send encrypted voice messages that Comm did not screen. They would note that he had sent a message, but that was all.

And when MacDonald rejoined his team, the test subject was already there.

“Okay,” Kane said. “We turn around here.”

Smitty looked down at his PDA. “You sure? It looks like—”

But Kane had already turned on his heel, completing the mindless loop he had been assigned by Kelly. Maybe doing time in some serious brig might have been better than this, he thought.

Betruger stopped and looked around the room.

He saw MacDonald walk out the rear area.What is he doing there?

Then he looked over at the entrance and saw his medical team talking to the subject. The man wore a broad grin.

Look how happy he is, dreaming of all the perks to come.But something was wrong. Another look around. Where thehell was Ishii?

“MacDonald!” Betruger yelled. The scientist hurried over. “Have you seen Ishii?”

Betruger watched as the other scientist stopped and looked around. Ishii was gone, just as the preparations for the experiment would intensify. Another glance, seeing Ishii’s station abandoned. Then Batruger thought:Could Dr. Ishii have decoded some of the material from Site 3? Could he suspect what this is really about? No matter. But then, where was he off to? What was he doing?

“Ishii. Any idea where he is?”

MacDonald shook his head. “No, I—”

But Betruger already had General Hayden in his ear. “General, one of my people has left Delta. I want him found and returned immediately.”

Betruger didn’t wait for an answer. Instead he walked over to the subject. And as he did, he forced himself to smile. Wouldn’t do to alarm the man….

Kane saw Kelly waiting for him at Marine Combat Prep, with a few other marines standing around.

“Kane, I have a new job for you.” Kelly grinned at the others. “You like to rescue, hmm?”

Kane just kept looking at Kelly. He heard a snigger from behind.Easy, he told himself. “Yes, Sergeant.”

“One of the white coats from Delta has gone AWOL. Left Delta apparently.”

“So—aren’t they free to come and go?”

Kelly grinned. “Sure they are. Whaddya think, this is a prison? Let’s say…they’re just worried about him. Sometimes the pressure, you know, gets to them, or some kind of bullshit. So I want you to go find him and bring him back.”

“Does he have one of those”—Kane looked down at a security bot standing ready—“tailing him?”

“No such luck. At his level, he can override the bot. But no matter, his PDA is telling us where he’s headed. So you got to follow the signal. I’ve had Command link your PDA to his. So—get the hell going.”

“Me too, Sarge?” Smitty asked.

Kelly shook his head. “No. Don’t want to make a big deal of this. So you stay here. And don’t call me Sarge again, if you like staying alive. It’s Sergeant.” Then back to Kane: “You just go get the scientist on your own. And remember—don’t hurt the bastard.”

“Where is he headed?”

Kelly shook his head. “That’s the weird thing, Kane. He’s in the old underground wing. Leads just about nowhere—except to an abandoned EVA port and the old comm wing.”

Kane looked at his PDA. And he could see that he had, along with full schematics of Mars City, a new map showing a blip tracking the scientist as he made his way underground.

Kane looked up. “Sergeant—maybe a better weapon?”

Kelly shook his head. “Nah, you got two good USSM sidearms, with plenty of clips. And if you use them, then you will have—guess what?—fucked up again. Now move it.”

There was more laughter from the marines standing around as John Kane began his solo trek to the underbelly of Mars City.