The “thing” was a blob of flesh with no apparent structured form. Tumor-covered tentacles splayed from its center, slowly probing against its containment. It moved extremely slowly, and Marcus wondered why the doctor was so scared of it. They were currently at Level 6, one level above the lowest and was tagged ‘Specimen Containment’ and had passed through multiple card and code locked doors to enter.

  In hindsight, Marcus thought that it might have been a bad idea. They didn’t have the codes, and even though they could take the ID card from the doctor, they’d have to brute force the code locks to get out.

  “Why can’t you kill it?” Marcus asked, tapping the armored glass as if it was just a goldfish in a tank. In a response, the creature raised one of its tentacles and slammed it against the enclosure. The impact jarred the structure, but it held.

  “It’s a Siphonophore. Individual creatures that form together into a colony. Each cell has been bio-engineered to survive extreme heat and chemical means. Individually, the cells can be killed easily, but as the colony has grown, only a large dose of radiation can kill it.” He said. “Before you ask why I let it grow this big, it was already at this size when I discovered it in a dormant state.”

  “And after all this time you spent here, you haven’t found a way to kill it? Like fire or something?” Marcus asked, skeptical of the man’s answers. “Besides, it doesn’t look dormant to me.”

  Isaac looked down. “I… I wasn’t really good at my job. I only got to this position due to my wife, who used her position in the company to secure me in a cushy job where I don’t have to do much.” He then looked up. “As for its dangers, it is a bio-engineered creature designed to destroy a city just by contaminating its water supply. From my tests and the lab results I can access, it can survive the harsh conditions within the human body. With its extremely rapid reproduction cycle, it can overtake the human body’s defenses and kill them within two days. There is only one cure, a high dose of radiation. But once symptoms are detected, it’s already too late.”

  The doctor paused, gazing at the creature through the window. “It’s the foulest weapon. A crime not only against the laws of war, but humanity itself.”

  “Riiight.” Marcus muttered, sharing a look with Columbus, who stood in the corner. With a nod, he left the room. Columbus didn’t look to be concerned about taking control of the situation, so Marcus went ahead, acting as if he were in charge. Besides, they could just do the good cop, bad cop.

  “We’ll leave you to it then.” Marcus said, tapping the doctor on the shoulder and giving a thumbs up. “Good luck!”

  The doctor looked at Marcus incredulously. “You aren’t going to help? After everything I told you?”

  Marcus shrugged. “The way I see it. You already said that it’s hell of a lot dangerous and it seems that you had it handled. You’re the smartest person here, so you’re the one who knows how to kill it best. Besides, we’re here for another reason. What we can do is report this place to the authorities and make it their problem.”

  “Please! You have to kill it!” Doctor Isaac pleaded as he jumped and grabbed at Marcus’s legs. Marcus tried to pry his arms off when he felt a drop of water fall on his hand.

  The man was crying. “Please! I don’t want to stay here any longer. I need to leave this place. I want to go home!”

  Marcus sighed. He wanted to kick the doctor away as he couldn’t take another side quest on top of what they were already doing. Still, he’s on the clock and could just let Columbus decide.

  Marcus looked at Columbus, who stood outside, reading his notes. “What do you think?”

  “It shouldn’t take too long.” Columbus replied. “What do you need us to do?”

  The doctor sniffed, standing and wiping the tears and snot dribbling down his face. “I’ve tried many things. Poisoning it would only give it resistance to the chemical, burning it would take a lot of fuel, more than this facility has on hand. There is only one thing that kills anything living, and I am loath to admit it’s the only way. We have to flood this place with radiation. We have to cause the fission reactor at the lowest level to go into a meltdown.”

  Marcus could only roll his eyes at the doctor’s dramatics, which reeked of desperation. Surely, there are other ways to kill something besides causing a reactor meltdown and creating the most exotic and dangerous substance known to mankind. Nevermind that it's likely a crime against humanity, and would get him on the Light of the Stars administration’s shitlist faster than he could say they shouldn’t park the ship there.

  Shaking his head, he caught Columbus looking at him.

  “Stall him.” Columbus mouthed. Marcus nodded.

  “Considering that this place hadn't been reduced into a radiated shit heap, I’m guessing there isn't a button somewhere with a sign, ‘reactor meltdown’ is there?” He asked the doctor.

  The doctor sniffed. “Nuclear reactors are designed to use fissile materials to generate heat over a long duration and are surrounded by numerous safety measures and locks. But I have put in enough time to know how to make it unstable enough, but I didn’t have access to the facility itself.”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “So it’s just running on its own right now? If that’s the case, we can just let it be. Nothing lasts without maintenance anyway.” Marcus shrugged.

  “The containment for the thing would long fail before the reactor does. There is no other way.” Doctor Isaac shook his head.

  “If you don’t have access, I guess we could blow the door up. Or cut our way in.” Marcus offered, knowing well that doors guarding a piece of the sun would withstand an explosion or blow torch. Still, he needed to stall, and talking is one way to do it. “You have a shop here or something? Maybe an armory with some explosives?”

  “The armory reserved for the guards should have it. As for the machine shop, there is one in level 4.” the Doctor replied. Marcus’s eyes lit up at the mention of an armory. Wondering what kind of goodies might be in store.

  “Then we should get to it.” Columbus said, pinching and rubbing his nose as if it were a habit. It

  Wasn’t something Marcus had seen Columbus do before, not even once, despite all the time they’d spent together. A sign.

  ‘Something smells? Good. He wasn’t trusting of him either.’ Marcus thought to himself. Knowing Columbus, he'd beeline for their objective, securing it first before something happened. Doubling the need for Marcus to make sure the doctor was distracted.

  “Alright doc. Since you’re all about flooding this facility with deadly radiation, I’m sure you don’t mind us taking what we can out, right? You know, for our troubles, and making sure that we got enough money to pay for treatment and keep our balls from falling off.”

  The doctor nodded. “You can take whatever you want. As long as we kill it.”

  Marcus smiled. “Lead on Doc. Show us what we can play with.”

  The doctor led them through the halls, past laboratories filled with expensive looking equipment. On their way down the levels, Marcus noticed the puffy suits doctors wore in the movies, behind thick glass windows, the kind used when handling with dangerous biological substances that typically start the apocalypse.

  One thing he could agree with the doctor was that this place had to be destroyed.

  Past a decontamination chamber and another short hallway, they reached a code locked elevator leading to level 4. The doctor unlocked the elevator using his ID and a code. Despite the doctor's attempts to cover it with his body, Marcus saw it. He might not have caught it the first time, but he caught it on the third time he entered the same code on the readers. 55938, that was it. Still, why would he try to hide the codes when he wanted this place destroyed?

  As the elevator opened, Marcus stepped close to the Doctor in case he got the bright idea of leaving them there. The doctor didn’t make a break for it, and they all filled into the elevator heading up to the higher levels.

  The elevator opened at the 4th level and everyone filled out. The layout was similar to the other levels. Bright halls, white tiles, sterile walls, and doors with room numbers instead of names. The doctor led them down the hall and into a door numbered 124, which opened up to an armory.

  Marcus grinned as he beheld the room. He took a deep breath through his nose, smelling the scent of metal and oil as he barely restrained himself on the sights of M4s, SR-25s and Mossberg 500s lined up racks with cans of ammunition, on the other side were energy weapons. Marcus didn’t know much about them, but they looked high grade. Whatever the priority was during the evacuation, it didn’t seem to be the facility’s armory. He grinned, jackpot.

  With a wave, the goblins went to secure the loot, loading everything in bags conveniently folded just under the metal lockers.

  “Damn doc. You guys take your security seriously. There must be enough here to equip a small army.” Marcus said as they walked further into the armory. The room was deep, with dozens of guns for each type, enough to fit and equip a whole platoon.

  “It was a precaution during the war.” The doctor replied. Then, as if just remembering, he asked. “How did it go, actually? Is it still going on?”

  ‘Oh, now you’re asking what’s going on outside?’ Marcus shrugged. “No idea, really. Some people say it’s still going on, some say it’s done. Right now, there isn’t much shooting, but that could mean anything. For all I know, they could just be saving bullets for the next fight.” he answered as vaguely as possible.

  The Doctor nodded, then pulled another ID and scanned it at the reader. Deeper in the armory, behind a more secure secondary door, were crates. Gear, more ammunition, and, most importantly; blocks of explosive charges and detonators. There were also some claymore mines stacked on a shelf, untouched.

  Trying to be as unsuspecting as possible, Marcus walked to the shelves of explosives and counted the blocks of C4. “This should be enough.” Marcus lied, picking up a 1 pound brick. If he was to guess, there were enough high explosives in the room to demolish a good part of the facility. But nothing against a containment door.

  On the way out, Marcus found the goblins had finished packing up the loot. A line of duffle bags lay at their feet, filled to the brim with weapons and the greatest riches the goblins have ever seen. Despite the packed loot, more remained in the racks.

  Marcus turned to the doctor. “If you don’t mind, we’ll be handling your half of the job once we’re on the last load out.” He winked just as the goblins started hauling the duffle bags out of the room. “Find someplace nice and safe by the platform and hide it there. We would be getting all of them on the way out.”

  “Killing the organism takes precedence! You agreed!” The doctor protested.

  “With a job this big, we shouldn’t be rushing, doc. Either we do it right, or we don’t do it at all.” Marcus grinned. “You said it yourself. We have to kill that thing. So we should make sure to do it right. Now, where can I find some wires?”

  A flash of annoyance passed over the doctor’s face. Marcus noticed it but pretended not to. “That would be at the 5th level. Machine room and spare parts storage. There, you should be able to find any technical resource you might need.”

  “Sweet.” Marcus smiled, stepping to the side. “Lead the way.”

  Marcus was still smiling when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Columbus signal for him to distract the doctor. Marcus didn’t react and called, “Say, Doc. You never really seemed interested in why we’re here in the first place.”

  The doctor paused, slowly turning to Marcus. “It might have slipped my mind.” He said, just as Columbus raised his rifle and hit the man on the back of the head with the buttstock. It failed to knock Doctor Isaac out, he stumbled, disoriented, but not out. The scientist quickly regained his wits and reached for something in his pocket.

  “Restrain him!”

  Marcus was already moving before the order. With a punch, he sent the good doctor to the ground and dove after him. Having seen enough spy movies, he opened the man’s mouth and shoved the side of his palm in to prevent him from biting on anything.The goblins quickly helped, seizing all his limbs and spreading him apart as if preparing him to be drawn and quartered. Zipties came out, secured around his limbs.

  “So why now?” Marco asked, as he shoved a thick wad of cloth down the doctor’s mouth and secured it with tape.

  Columbus reached for the Doctor's pocket and retrieved a device. Marcus was annoyed that he missed it, or maybe he picked it up somewhere. “I wasn’t sure who he really was. As you said, I did my research before coming here. Doctor Robert Isaac isn’t just a researcher in this facility. He is part of Modapharm’s board of directors and the one who ran this place. My quest started out to just find out the purpose of this facility. But I suppose we also have to make sure the experiments here never escape to the outside.” Columbus said, lowering his gaze to the Doctor. “And make sure the ones responsible face justice.”

  Marcus nodded. “What’s the plan then?”

  “Search this place for anything useful; data, evidence, anything. If we can get a sample of that creature in that tank, even better.”