Sam immediately kneeled at the trapdoor. He pulled something like a thick pen from a pouch on his leg, which he then pointed at the lock. A wire-thin red beam shot out, and the smell of burning steel and oil filled the air. Something popped from inside the lock, and then the door sprang up half an inch, still dripping molten steel.

Sam gripped it with his armored glove and lifted. He stuck his head inside, and then eased back. “Clear.”

They moved in fast. The stairs were metal and new, but the rest of the building was mired in dust and the grease from a thousand cigarettes. There were footprints everywhere, proving recent high activity. Alex motioned with one hand.

“Spread.”

The group sprinted off, searched the rooms, and then came back quickly. There was nothing to report.

“Let’s head down to the ground floor.” Alex led them on.

“Down where all the crazy squiggles are,” Casey whispered.

“Ancient Arabic, and I’m betting it’s incantations.” Sam responded.

Casey snorted. “Yeah, and maybe this is Hogwarts.”

Alex turned to glare, and the silence returned. As they eased down an older flight of stairs, staying close to the wall, Alex felt the tingle of a warning on his neck. He couldn’t sense life, or the feeling he got when there was an enemy combatant concealed close by. This time it was more a sensation of something not being right.

“Stay alert. Something’s down there.”

They came off the stairs on the ground floor, and found themselves in a single large room. It seemed most of the inside walls had been knocked down, and save for a few support pylons, it was a dark, warehouse-type open space. Even the windows were bordered over.

“There was someone in here; we saw movement. Be ready,” Alex spoke quietly as he turned. The huge room was strewn with debris, building materials like stacked cinder blocks and flat iron girders were piled everywhere, indicating ongoing construction work. Against one wall stood a small forklift truck. Other than that the room would have been completely empty if not for the line of five long crates – each around ten feet in length – pushed up against a wall. All were open except for one. There was a table near the long boxes, strewn with paper.

“Give me a count.” Alex swung to Sam, nodding to the crates. He wasn’t sure if there was any form of high energy particle waves coming off the boxes, but he could sense something strange had been in them as keenly as if there was light showing at their edges.

Sam finished at the boxes, and moved around the floor, stopping at the forklift. “This thing is registering a spike – it sure lifted something contaminated.” He half turned. “The nukes?”