At that moment the overhead lights flickered and died and the emergency lights clicked on, sending battery-powered beams through the smoke. "Christ, Ally," he declared gazing around still dazed as his consciousness seemed to be slowly returning. "We've got to get people out of here." There didn't appear to be a sprinkler system. Probably, she thought, because an onslaught of water would wipe out all the computers. Now she was thinking about the automatic air locks. How did those steel-and-glass doors work without electricity? Did they have a battery backup, or some kind of fail-safe mechanism, which provided a manual override in case of a power outage? Now Winston Bartlett was striding toward the center of the room. From the dazed look in his eyes, it wasn't clear whether he knew where he was or not. Kristen was walking toward him, on a collision course. "You let this happen," she said "You wanted to ruin my life." "Kristy, nobody made you do anything," he said choking from the smoke. "But now we've got to--" "It's too late," she declared lashing out with the side of her hand against his neck. He staggered back, flailing, and seized an iron girder. There was a blast of voltage, a shower of sparks, and he screamed as he crumpled sideways. Then the force of his fall broke his hand loose from the electrical short. He lay prostrate on the smoky floor of the lab, twitching. My God, Ally thought, she really is determined to kill us all before she's through. "Kristen," Van de Vliet was saying, "please. There's still time. I'm going to do everything I can for you." He was gasping for air and now more vials of flammable liquid were exploding from the heat and igniting. He turned and stumbled toward the air lock. There were sounds of yelling on the other side. The people outside can't get through, Ally realized. The security lock has no override. We 're going to die. Van de Vliet pounded on the button controls of the air lock, but there was no response. Smoke was billowing around him and he choked, coughing and dropping to one knee. Then Kristen walked up behind him. She appeared not to notice the flames and smoke swirling around her. "This is where you get what's coming, you bastard. I warned you you'd better do something for me. But you never really intended to help me. I was just an experiment. That's all I ever was. For both of you. You fuckers." And she lashed out with a powerful fist, sending him to the floor. Outside there was now the wail of a siren, the sound faintly filtering through. And the pounding on the other side of the air lock continued, though now it had the force of authority. At last, Ally thought, somebody finally got serious and called the fire department. Now Kristen had bent over the prostrate Van de Vliet and was doing something, though Ally couldn't tell what. "Keep your face close to the floor," Stone was yelling. "It's where the last of the air is. Hang on. We'll be okay."