The Eyes of Darkness

through the airtight steel door.
    As Elliot used the last of the rope to tie Dombey, the scientist said, "Satisfy my curiosity."
    "About what?"
    "Who told you your son was here? Who let you into the labs?"
    Tina blinked. She couldn't think what to say.
    "Okay, okay," Dombey said. "You don't want to rat on whoever it was. But just tell me one thing. Was it one of the security people, or was it someone on the medical staff? I'd like to think it was a doctor, one of my own, who finally did the right thing."
    Tina looked at Elliot.
    Elliot shook his head: no.
    She agreed that it might not be wise to let anyone know what powers Danny had acquired. The world would regard him as a freak, and everyone would want to gawk at him, put him on display. And for sure, if the people in this installation got the idea that Danny's newfound psychic abilities were a result of the parietal spot caused by his repeated exposure to Wuhan-400, they would want to test him, poke and probe at him. No, she wouldn't tell anyone what Danny could do. Not yet. Not until she and Elliot figured out what effect that revelation would have on the boy's life.
    "It was someone on the medical staff," Elliot lied. "It was a doctor who let us in here."
    "Good," Dombey said. "I'm glad to hear it. I wish I'd had enough guts to do it a long time ago."
    Elliot worked a wadded handkerchief into Dombey's mouth.
    Tina opened the outer airtight door.
    Elliot picked up Danny. "You hardly weigh a thing, kid. We'll have to take you straight to McDonald's and pack you full of burgers and fries."
    Danny smiled weakly at him.
    Holding the pistol, Tina led the way into the hall. In the room near the elevators, people were still talking and laughing, but no one stepped into the corridor.
    Danny opened the high-security elevator and made the cab rise once they were in it. His forehead was furrowed, as if he were concentrating, but that was the only indication that he had anything to do with the elevator's movement.
    The hallways were deserted on the top floor.
    In the guardroom, the older of the two security men was still bound and gagged in his chair. He watched them with anger and fear.
    Tina, Elliot, and Danny went through the vestibule and stepped into the cold night. Snow lashed them.
    Over the howling of the wind, another sound arose, and Tina needed a few seconds to identify it.
    A helicopter.
    She squinted up into the snow-shipped night and saw the chopper coming over the rise at the west end of the plateau. What madman would take a helicopter out in this weather?
    "The Explorer!" Elliot shouted. "Hurry!"
    They ran to the Explorer, where Tina took Danny out of Elliot's arms and slid him into the backseat. She got in after him.
    Elliot climbed behind the wheel and fumbled with the keys. The engine wouldn't turn over immediately.
    The chopper swooped toward them.
    "Who's in the helicopter?" Danny asked, staring at it through the side window of the Explorer.
    "I don't know," Tina said. "But they're not good people, baby. They're like the monster in the comic book. The one you sent me pictures of in my dream. They don't want us to get you out of this place."
    Danny stared at the oncoming chopper, and lines appeared in his forehead again.
    The Explorer's engine suddenly turned over.
    "Thank God!" Elliot said.
    But the lines didn't fade from Danny's forehead.
    Tina realized what the boy was going to do, and she said, "Danny, wait!"
     
    •        •        •
     
    Leaning forward to view the Explorer through the bubble window of the chopper, George Alexander said, "Put us down right in front of them, Jack."
    "Will do," Morgan said.
    To Hensen, who had the submachine gun, Alexander said, "Like I told you, waste Stryker right away, but not the woman."
    Abruptly the chopper soared. It had been only fifteen or twenty feet above the pavement, but it rapidly climbed forty, fifty, sixty feet.
    Alexander said, "What's happening?"
    "The stick," Morgan said. An edge of fear sharpened his voice, fear that hadn't been audible throughout the entire, nightmarish trip through the mountains. "Can't control the damn thing. It's frozen up."
    Eighty, ninety, a hundred feet they soared, soared straight up into the night.
    Then the engine cut out.
    "What the hell?" Morgan said.
    Hensen screamed.
    Alexander watched death rushing up at him and knew his curiosity about the other side would shortly be satisfied.
     
    •         •         •
     
    As they drove off