Magnetic Force

The basement was sweltering hot. The incinerator was active, a low roar vibrating the concrete floor.

Elena crept down the service stairs. She peered around the corner.

Two Sweepers were dragging Kael toward the heavy iron door of the furnace. Kael was conscious, his eyes wide with panic, but he couldn't move.

"He's heavy," one guard grunted. "Let's just shoot him in the head and drag him."

"No blood," the other commanded. "Protocol says incinerate live to destroy the DNA completely."

They were ten feet from the fire.

Elena looked around. To her left was the door to the MRI Suite—St. Jude’s had installed a new research scanner in the basement level for cadaver studies.

She checked the defibrillator. Charged.

"Hey!" she screamed.

The guards turned.

Elena sprinted at them. She didn't aim for the guards. She aimed for Kael.

She slid across the floor, jamming the adrenaline needle straight into Kael’s heart.

"Wake up!" she screamed.

The guard raised his rifle.

Elena slammed the defibrillator paddles onto the guard’s chest and hit the button.

* THUMP.*

The guard convulsed and dropped, unconscious before he hit the floor.

The second guard swung his rifle toward her.

Kael’s hand shot up. The adrenaline had jump-started his system, burning through the toxin for a split second. He grabbed the barrel of the gun and yanked the guard down, headbutting him with a sickening crack.

"We have to move," Elena gasped, pulling Kael up. He was dead weight, his legs still useless.

"More coming," Kael slurred. "Elevator."

The elevator doors pinged open at the end of the hall. Four more Sweepers poured out, led by Dr. Aris, who was red-faced and furious.

"Kill them both!" Aris screamed.

"In here!" Elena dragged Kael into the MRI Suite and slammed the heavy, copper-shielded door. She locked it.

"Trapped," Kael whispered, sliding down the wall. "Nowhere to go."

Bullets pinged against the door. They were drilling the lock.

Elena looked at the massive MRI machine in the center of the room. It was humming. A 3-Tesla magnet. Always on.

She looked at the control panel behind the observation glass. There was a red button under a plastic guard. **QUENCH.**

Quenching the magnet would boil off the liquid helium instantly, creating a massive explosion of gas and killing the magnetic field. But *before* the field died, the rapid change in current would create a momentary, catastrophic magnetic vortex.

"Kael," she said. "Can you hold your breath?"

"Yes."

The door burst open.

Aris and the Sweepers stormed in, guns raised. They were wearing tactical vests with steel plates. Their guns were steel. Aris had a metal clipboard.

"It's over, Elena," Aris sneered.

Elena smashed the Quench button.

* BOOM.*

The sound was like a jet engine taking off inside a closet.

The liquid helium boiled instantly, expanding 700 times its volume. A cloud of freezing white gas exploded from the machine's vent, filling the room.

But the magnetic force hit first.

The assault rifles were ripped from the soldiers' hands, flying through the air and slamming into the bore of the magnet with the force of a car crash.

The soldiers were yanked forward by their vests, pinned helplessly against the machine.

Dr. Aris screamed as his metal clipboard flew backward, pinning his arm to the scanner.

The room filled with white fog. Visibility was zero. The oxygen was being displaced by helium.

"Now!" Elena choked, grabbing Kael.

The chaos had bought them seconds. The soldiers were pinned or blinded.

Kael roared, the survival instinct overriding the paralysis. He forced his legs to move. He scooped Elena up into his arms, shielding her face from the freezing gas.

He charged through the whiteout, knocking aside the disoriented soldiers like bowling pins. He smashed through the observation glass, carrying her into the control room, and out the emergency exit into the ambulance bay.