[Icelander]

Dr. Anderson and Agent O'Toole both declined a dual-threat vest from the guard armoury earlier. Taylor forced Dr. Anderson to wear one nevertheless, but accepts O'Toole's explanation that he prefers the concealable vest he already has on under his MIB suit. Taylor has found a box of 5.56x45mm ammo and begins stuffing his pockets with spare cartridges after finishing his talk with Col. Burr, who is trying to mount a Yukon Tactical NVRS on his M16A2, but can't find a rail mount for it.

Ignoring the tense conversation about her, Cherry Bell gives up on her attempts to flirt with Cam Townsend, who is forlornly looking for a healthy snack in the guards' vending machines. For some reason, Townsend appears terrified of Bell and only barely manages to be polite to her. Townsend almost jumps back when she tries to touch his hand, successfully avoiding any contact.

Ms. Bell laughs happily and lightly skips over to Dr. Anderson to chat. The good doctor treats her with friendly courtesy, asking her how her life has been since Project Jade Serenity and listening attentively to her less-than-revealing answers about having been bored for a very long time, reading a lot of old magazines, playing Solitaire and drawing pictures. Townsend comes up to Col. Burr and Taylor, nervously asking what happens now.

We all gather in a huddle in the guards' dining hall to discuss our next steps. Everyone is still on board with trying to find the jammer and take it out, but a complication is that neither Col. Burr nor Agent O'Toole can locate the jammer. There's no white noise to use to orient on the location of the jammer, just total silence from any handheld we try to use. After asking Dr. Anderson about the Warden's office in the main compound and what offices are around it, we decide that the odds are pretty good that the jammer would be kept in or near the Deputy Warden's office, which at least in Dr. Anderson's time there used to double as a control room for the security systems.

We discuss several alternate possibilities that do not involve going somewhere where we know multiple armed hostiles will be waiting. Escape remains as impossible as before and we aren't sure enough that the Coast Guard believed Agent O'Toole's distress call to try to remain hidden and wait for help. Dr. Anderson suggests setting something on fire, so the Coast Guard will notice it when they check out the distress we made earlier. After he clarifies that he means an abandoned wing or building, not the main compound full of guards, orderlies and patients, this is received with warm enthusiasm, with only a single sour note.

Taylor: "That sounds mighty fine, Doc, but any fire big enough for the Coast Guard to notice would hafta be awfully visible from them towers, particular' with them thermal sights. I ain't sure anybody here wants ter light a fire if'n it means sporting new fifty cal hole."
Dr. Anderson: "Can we not use a time-delay fuse of some kind? We could set fire to these barracks when we leave."
Taylor: "Bless your heart, doc, you got plenty smarts as well as high-falutin' education!" [Taylor shakes his head ruefully] "I'll be plumb amazed, a Yankee doctor teaching me my business. If I had even a lick o' sense, I'd a-thunk o' that my own self. That's just what we'll do here, doc. Ya'll go on ahead to the tunnels, I'm fixin' to set an incendiary device for a cook-out them Coasties can see all over creation."

Dr. Anderson also suggests turning on the cooking gas in the kitchen before leaving an incendiary device in there, but Taylor vetoes the idea, as he claims it is too difficult to predict the timing or effects of a gas explosion and it might end up killing guards responding to the initial blaze or even rescue workers later on. Col. Burr has some concerns about Taylor staying behind again, but as he caught up with them quickly last time, there are no serious objections. Not only does everybody hope that the Coast Guard will notice a fire and come rescue us, but it's pretty obvious that anything that draws the attention of the guards to the barracks can only make any attempt to find the jammer and rescue Agent Banks that much more survivable.

A more tame suggestion from Dr. Anderson is using the showers in the guard quarters to clean up Vicente Berrocal before leaving. Everybody agrees that this is probably a good idea and Dr. Anderson asks Cherry Bell to help him. Berrocal is awake, but not very responsive. When he sees Cherry Bell, he starts screaming and Dr. Anderson ends up having to get help from Townsend and O'Toole to clean and dress Berrocal. Dr. Anderson wraps Berrocal's ribs in clean sheets. Then they dress him in a guard uniform and fastens a dual-threat vests on him. Dr. Anderson and Townsend then carry him down the stairs to the cellars.

O'Toole and Burr also have to carry the two unconscious guards down there, where they can be stashed in the maintainence tunnel on the other side of a blast door from the fire we want to set. Fortunately, the cellars are full of camping gear, so they get military style cots to lie on, though they are still restrained and the maintainence tunnel is narrow enough for the cots to block it.

At Taylor's request, Dr. Anderson comes back up to give Taylor the other chemical concoction that Cherry Bell and the good doctor mixed while they were in G Wing. Taylor also asks him to help him find some chemical to make a slow-fuse with, but once Taylor notices a microwave in the kitchen, he tells Dr. Anderson that he'll be fine and the doc should run after the others, try to catch up with them immediately.

With O'Toole in the lead, our heroes tramp ahead and start going through the tunnels, heading back to the main compound. The goal is to find the central building with the Warden's office in it and if things don't look too scary there, maybe try to find the jammer or Agent Banks.

If they spot any major threats, we'd reconsider and maybe just hide in the tunnels until the Coast Guard arrives. Taylor is supposed to follow the others right after rigging an incendiary device in the barracks kitchen and catch up with them long before they are likely to encounter any guards hunting for them. The plan is predicated on the guards not going into the tunnels, but judging from how reluctant they seemed to do that, it seems like a reasonable risk to take.

Dr. Anderson took some Armasight Vega NVGs in the barrack cellars, but they are only cheap Gen 1+ monoculars with a low-power built-in illuminator and Dr. Anderson didn't know to take a IR flashlight with them. Dr. Anderson quickly learns that the goggles aren't enough to navigate with in the dark tunnels, not without a flashlight to illuminate where he's going to step.

For O'Toole, finding the thoroughfare tunnel that our heroes came through presents no major problems. There are abandoned offices and laboratories to both sides of the larger tunnel and side tunnels that go north and south, one of which probably leads to the south wings of the main complex eventually. As these are all supposed to be abandoned, no one suggests exploring any of these tunnels. O'Toole moves slowly in the lead, with flashlight in one hand and pistol in the other.

When our heroes reach a T-intersection in the tunnels, O'Toole is horrified to notice lights in front. As soon as he notices, the source of the light emits a burst of rifle fire. With only a split-second to prepare, O'Toole barely manages to get up a PK shield in front of him. He can't stop bullets, but he does deflect them enough for the burst to miss him. Firing his pistol blindly at the flashes up ahead, O'Toole throws himself into an abadoned office to his left. Taking care to keep O'Toole's bulk between her and the fire, as per her promise to Taylor, Cherry Bell dives into the office as well.

Burr curses loudly and fires two bursts into the multiple flashes in front of him while stepping to the side to take cover in a doorway to his left. It's a waiting room of some sort and the door is open. Burr fires from the doorway, rapid single shots now, fast enough to cause the fire in front to slacken noticably for a second or two, enough for Townsend to throw himself and the wheelchair with Berrocal into the room. As he does, Burr goes down with a shouted curse.

Dr. Anderson had almost caught up with the others when the shooting started. Happily for him, however, he was still far enough behind to be able to take cover in a side tunnel and peek out. He can't see the people shooting at the others, but sees flashes reflect of the tunnel walls and bullets hitting the door where Burr, Townsend and Berrocal took cover. The noise of gunfire is deafening and ricochets zip around the tunnel like angry hornets.

Once Burr is no longer shooting back, the fire intensifies to the point that the door starts falling apart. More than three men are firing constantly, which implies four or five firing in turns. Even without tactical training, Dr. Anderson can see that there is nothing stopping the enemies in front from moving forward to enter the rooms now, if they so desire. And if they have grenades, as the empty M67 case and flash-bang packaging in the armoury implies, they can throw them into the rooms any time they want.