Chapter Twenty Four: Fire Sale

Down in the Bureau's halls, more alarms were blaring than even up in the civilian floors. Hidden panels began to slide away, revealing hundreds of nozzles hidden in case of such an emergency.

A voice spoke from all around them, "Please evacuate for any safe houses you can. This floor will be filled in ten minutes."

Ronin shuddered at the thought of being covered in liquid cement and ran faster for the group lab.

When they arrived, they saw that everyone was already packed and ready to go, even while dozens of researchers ran frantically past the open door, desperately trying to pack. Despite the word to prepare to leave having been sent out quite some time ago, it seemed that many researchers hadn't taken the Director's order seriously until it was far too late.

Ronin shook his head sadly, a lot of work was going to be lost today, for a lot of people.

Silas smacked the back of his head and said, "We need to get the hell out of here Ronin."

Shaking his head, he nodded and walked to the far wall near where Joseph was being kept and tapped it in a sequence only he knew.

The wall opened up and began to change shape, reforming into a short distance escape pod. Opening the new door that had formed, he punched in the coordinates, the nearest town he knew of that had a train station they could take.

He waved everyone in as the nozzles in the room began spraying and filling the room with liquid cement, covering any evidence of the Bureau ever having existed.

From beyond the door of the lab, he heard the other researchers still panicking, and began to hear the sound of screaming, as well as muffled screaming that could only be people slowly being covered with cement.

Shaking his head sadly, he waited as the last members of his team filled the escape pod and pressed the release button that sent them flying toward their destination.

As the pod flew, he looked up and saw the figure of light that could only be Daruik flying away from the school, though Marcus was nowhere to be seen.

He felt his hand begin to tingle and somehow he knew Marcus was still alive.

The school seemed so serene with Daruik gone, almost as though it hadn't been at risk of destruction a few moments ago.

Sadly, what he did not see were the many escape pods of the Bureau scientists. It seemed that with the exception of maybe three or four other groups...he and his team were the only remnants of the Bureau, over four hundred researchers...reduced to thirty or forty in a matter of minutes.

Shaking his head, he said aloud, "I can't let that stop us...I am a Director...we'll set up somewhere else and continue on. Their deaths won't have been in vain."

 His team, held in place by their safety harnesses whispered words of agreement.

 They'd all come from different backgrounds, some of them religious, some of them not, but they all believed that the best way to honor the many deaths of their fellow researchers, was to continue on in their research.

They thought not of vengeance, but of the research to come.

The trip in the escape pod would likely take several hours. Train stations far enough to be safe from Daruik were far indeed, pushing the pod to its limits.

Ronin slipped into sleep and saw, again, the four pairs of eyes all watching each other, ignoring him in his insignificance, and he realized truly for the first time in his life, how minor a threat he was.