Part 39
You listen in as John broadcasts his conversations with increasingly senior soldiers and finally with the base commander. They are wary of him. It is indeed policy to shoot spies on sight but John has them curious. They want to know how he came to be in the base, where he got his uniform, what he already knows and whether he has an accomplice as the first young soldier claims. They're also sufficiently nervous about the unexpected ash eruption from the volcano that John's certainty that a second eruption is following worries them.
As you listen, you creep out of the building you're in and try to find out what is in the tanks and pipes around the site. You move cautiously, teleporting short distances where there's a possibility you might be seen. Being shot at once in a day has been more than enough for you.
You hear the soldiers begin to shout to one another as one of the lesser officers that John has spoken to on his way to the commander warns his troops to prepare to evacuate. You begin to relax. You know that discipline can rarely hold against the panic of ordinary soldiers. Regardless of what the base commander decides to do about what John tells him these troops will make sure they are clear of the volcanic blast.
Still, you have another concern. What are the chemicals being worked on in this remote base? It is almost an hour after you arrived and John is still talking to the base commander when you find your way into the base's main laboratory. Outside, the soldiers are already loading themselves onto the trucks not waiting for their commander's orders. The civilian staff also appear to be leaving if the evidence of a hasty departure from this lab is anything to go by. It looks like the drawers and shelves have been hastily searched for the few most important files while the others have been left where they fell. The walls are covered with blackboards and pin boards and those are covered in turn with complicated equations and elaborate molecular diagrams. You image them to TIM, well aware of your own inability to deal with such things, and are shocked at his reply.
[Jay, John, that base is working on acute psychoactive neurotoxins. If their supplies are vaporized, particularly in a number of possible combinations, a toxic cloud could affect the whole of the northern hemisphere! And the volcano is only minutes away from erupting. You must evacuate the base now and get the chemicals clear if you can!]
[So the base commander has just told me.] John says grimly. [I've managed to convince him about the eruption. He's asking if there's anything we can do to remove the supplies from the base. He doesn't know who we are. He's just desperate for help.]
Outside you hear the first truck pulling out of the base as the Commander's confirmation of the order they've been waiting for comes through. If these chemicals burn together though, there might be no distance that's far enough to save them.
[Can we help?] You ask desperately.
[I think so.] John tells you. [Come here, Jay. I'll need your help for this.]
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