The Road to Hell Read Online Free

fight our way out so I’ll be manning the sixty-cal.”
    “ It’s that bad?”
    “ Worse,” replied Harrison, peering around the corner again.
    Kane was gone. If there was anything worse than seeing Special Agent Kane on the scene, it was not seeing him and knowing he was lurking around out there somewhere, ready to spring a trap.
    “ Gimme a few minutes,” said Rosie. “It’s going to take some time to bring all the systems online remotely.”
    “ Time’s the one thing we don’t have,” replied Harrison, switching off his wrist communicator.
    “ You. Stop,” came a cry from behind them.
    Harrison turned to see a plain clothes officer wearing body armour about thirty feet behind them. He was standing in front of a conveyer belt feeding freshly folded garments into a packing machine. Flashes of light burst around them as the officer fired on them. Boxes of clothing exploded above their heads as they crouched down instinctively, dropping below the incoming blaster fire. Fragments of cardboard, strips of cloth and burning strands of plastic billowed out of the shelving with each incoming round. Firing three rounds from the hip, Harrison caught the officer with a shotgun blast to the chest, knocking him backwards onto the conveyer belt.
    “ Go!”
    Harrison pushed Susan out in front of him across the wide main aisle. Uniformed officers in jetpacks rode high above the whirring knitting machines, floating across the ceiling of the factory looking for movement.
    Laser packets cut through the air like lightning. Blaster shots rang out muffled and mute against the sounds of industry around them. Harrison ran alongside one of the metal carts as it followed its preset path along the concrete floor. Compressed beams of fortified light punched holes in the thin sheet metal beside them. Smoldering ash filled the air.
    “ Down here,” he cried, dragging Susan with him into another aisle. “We’ve got to get to the loading dock.”
    Halfway down the aisle, Harrison dropped to the ground and rolled under the warehouse shelving into the next aisle with Susan following hard behind him. Ahead, a large metal roller door began closing, shutting them in on the factory floor.
    “ Quick,” yelled Harrison, making a break for the roller door.
    Flashes of light burst around them as shots whipped by, burning into the concrete floor and the metal shelving on either side. The angle told Harrison all he needed to know. Someone in a jetpack was screaming down the aisle behind them firing on full auto. Thank God for full auto, he thought, the recoil made for a lousy aim.
    Harrison dived for the closing door, rolled under it and out on to the other side. His shotgun skidded across the slick concrete floor and into the side of a maintenance rack a few feet away. Susan wasn’t as quick. She slipped and fell to the ground with less than five feet to cover. Scrambling, she fought to get back to her feet as the door closed to within a foot of the ground.
    Harrison kicked over a metal garbage can, knocking it under the closing door, jamming the door partially open. Several pairs of feet appeared on the other side of the door as the police landed, disengaging their jetpacks.
    “ No,” screamed Susan.
    She was halfway under the roller door when one of the officers grabbed her by the left leg. Twisting over on her back, she lashed out with her free leg, striking the officer in the groin. Above her, the industrial-strength metal door groaned, its gears straining to crush the garbage can caught in the tracks. An alarm sounded from the door’s electric motor. Harrison grabbed Susan’s arms and dragged her through. No sooner had her feet cleared the edge of the door than he grabbed the shotgun and fired at the garbage can. The force of the shot knocked the crushed can out into the factory on the other side, allowing the door to thunder shut behind them.
    “ Come on,” said Harrison. “It won’t take them long to get around that.”
    The