Col. Chuck Williams opened the center drawer of his desk and pulled out a red rubber demon figurine. He held the small toy by the elastic loop coming from it's head. A small smile crossed his face and then a frown. He threw the toy back into the drawer and slammed it shut.He jumped out of his chair and hurried out of his office.

Henry the guard smiled as he approached the steel door of the elevator.

"Good evening, Colonel. Working late?"

"Good evening, Henry. I got some testing to do. Cranberry, should have me on the list."

Henry looked at his order book. "Yep, Right here. Have a good evenin' Sir."

Henry pushed a button. The elevator door opened.

Colonel Williams stepped in and slid his ID through the reader. He waited while the elevator took him the seven floors to the university sub basement. His card was used three more times to get him to his destination.

He entered the lab and locked the door behind him. Going to the broom closet, He reached up and pushed a ceiling tile aside. He reached in the hole and pulled out a child's book bag.

Setting it on the floor, He stripped out of his uniform. Opening the bag, he pulled out slacks and a short sleeve shirt. Dressing, he grabbed his uniform and stuffed it into the bag. He reached into the side pocket and pulled a small package out and stuffed it into his pants pocket.

Colonel Williams glanced at his watch as he walked to a small wall safe and entered the combination on the keypad. It beeped and unlocked. He pulled the metal door open, Inside were three small silver cellphones on chargers.

He unplugged one and put it in his pocket. He unplugged the other two and removed their batteries, shoving them into his pocket. Colonel Williams plugged the cellphones back into the chargers. With quick practiced movements, he changed the safe combination and shut it's door and smiled when he saw the little green light on the keypad give three short blinks.

Moving to the command console, He pulled the flashcard from the dog tag chain around his neck and plugged it into the terminal and entered his password on the keyboard.

A pop up box appeared on the screen asking for a second code. Colonel Williams punched in the seventeen digit code. He tensed as he waited for the mainframe to decide if the code was valid.

The pop-up changed to a two minute countdown timer display. He watched as the timer rolled back in 1 second intervals.

The Klaxon horns went off, almost making him shit himself. He sprinted toward the far wall as pounding started on the lab door. The wall shimmered as he shot toward it. He heard the door shatter as he jumped.

He rolled as he hit the grass and groaned as the hard object in his pocket jabbed into his hip. Colonel Williams came up on one knee. He froze as he listened to the night. He could hear a dog barking a few houses down.

He eased himself up and jumped the waist high chain link fence into the alley behind the house. He stepped into a door way as a police car stopped at the corner and shined a light into the alley. He waited twenty beats after the light went off. He peeked around the corner and seeing nothing continued his journey. He glanced at his watch. He had twenty three minutes left.