Chapter 37

“What the hell is all of this?” Charley asked as he undid the gag and cut the strap binding Graham’s hands. 

Instead of answering, Graham lay down flat on his back, his body still pulsing with pain, and stretched his arms out wide.  He took a long, deep breath and then sat up.  He wiped the mucus and saliva off his face with the outside of the hood.  He rolled his head back and side-to-side and then glanced out into the hallway, past the broken door.  Two bottles of red wine sat on the floor across the hall.  Charley had been true to his word; he had sought out the wine for Graham’s rendezvous with Peggy Lee.

“I was waiting for you down by the boat,” Charley said.  “When you didn’t show up, I came here to see if everything was okay.  I tried to open the door with my pass card, but the lock was jammed.  I even tried the override code, but it still wouldn’t open.  Lucky this is one of the older doors, so I was able to bust it down.  So what’s going on?  Where’s Peggy Lee?  Is this some kind of weird sex game gone out of control?”

Graham shook his head.  “No, no, Charley, we have a real problem on our hands.  We’ve got to find Peggy Lee and that son of a bitch, Ian.  I think they’re eco-terrorists.  I think they’re planning on destroying the Platform.”

“Are you kiddin’ me?” 

“I’m afraid not,” Graham said.

Charley helped Graham up off of the ground.  Graham moaned and almost toppled over, catching his balance by grabbing the side of the wardrobe.  “Are you okay?” Charley asked.

“Yeah, no, I don’t know,” Graham answered, “maybe a broken rib or something.  But that doesn’t matter.  Come on, let’s sound the central alarm, and then we’ll track them down.  The nearest trigger is in the dining hall.” 

They hurried out of the room and started running down the corridor.  Just as they were about to round the corner towards the dining hall, a loud boom shook the hallway.  The lights dimmed and then flickered completely off.  Seconds later, the emergency power system kicked in, and the lights came back on at half strength.  The blast had come from behind them.  A local alarm from down the hallway began to blare, and then the central one kicked in.

“Shit,” Graham said.  “Sounds like they started in the Battery Station.  Let’s get down there before they can do any more damage.”

They turned around and sprinted past the broken door and the bottles of red wine.  Then they jumped down the two flights of stairs that led to the Battery Station.  Graham stumbled but caught himself on the railing and kept running.  Hot, thick smoke filled the approach to the station, but they did not slow down.  They ran straight through the smoke and onto the main floor. 

A small fire burned on the first floor right above them, but most of the smoke was coming from the third floor, where sparks spewed from the central command computer.  The giant overhead fans had been disabled by the blast.  The alarm blared in their ears.  The dimness of the emergency lights combined with the bitter, black smoke made it hard to see anything clearly.  Graham choked and coughed as he assessed the situation.  “It looks like Peggy Lee and Ian aren’t here anymore,” he yelled.  “You take the fire on the first floor, and I’ll work on the upper one.”  He grabbed two fire extinguishers, handed one to Charley, and then started running up the metal stairs.

As he climbed, he recalled the conversation he had had with Peggy Lee earlier that afternoon.  He had been surprised that she had even noticed the central computer way up on the third floor, barely in sight.  But now he understood; she had used him to double-check her specs.      

Now the water production system had been significantly compromised, and it was totally his fault.  He should have never allowed them to come out to the facilities in the first place.  He should have seen it coming.  He should have known that something was amiss.  He should have realized that there was no way in hell such a beautiful woman would ever be attracted to him.  The burning computer, the acrid smoke, the shrieking alarm, they were all proof of desperate gullibility and his sad, shameful naiveté.