Thread: Breaking Out of a Secure Facility

Okay, here's the jist:

I have a team of soldiers trapped inside a bio-safety laboratory in an underground base. They're in the the BSL-1 section, closed behind two doors. One leads to the BSL-2 labs, the other back to the "safe zone". The control console for the door leading to the safe zone has been smashed. The one leading to the BSL-2 section requires a fingerprint and retinal scan. None of the soldiers are registered. The doors are made of 100mm-thick bullet-resistant glass. The facility is designed to house the worst biological and chemical agents known to man -- "hot agents", for which there are no known cures. Therefore, the doors can withstand a barrage of bullets and the soldiers have a limited supply and no explosive devices.

To make matters worse, the CDC agent with the soldiers has discovered that trace amounts of the nerve gas "Novichok" has been released into their area. This particular agent is the most deadly nerve gas on the planet, able to, over time, pervade the chemical protection suits the soldiers and the CDC agent are wearing. They have about fifty minutes before it breaks down the protective seal on their suits and kills them.

I've got my guys into the worst possible situation. Problem now is: I can't, for the life of me, figure out how the hell I'm going to get them out. Can someone help me brainstorm a few ideas; see if it gives me an idea?

Thank you.

1. Some of these soldiers must have other skills besides soldiering. Have one of them repair the console - that’s the old race against time trick.

2. Another of the soldiers is a hobbyist chemist and figures that a combination of gunpowder from all the bullets and some other normally inert ingredient he finds in a box under a shelf will blow the shit out of the locked doors.

Of course neither of these solutions answers the problem of the Novichick following them around wherever they go. I can only do so much.

3. Electronic link to outside - phone, laptop - and the world’s your oyster - register to open BSL-2 door or call in the cavalry or whatever.

4. Let them die and take the story off in a different direction.

No, that's good, OX. I like the gunpowder idea -- and once they're back in the safe zone, they can find a way to bypass the elevator and ride it back to the surface. You've just given me a whole new plot-line too!

Thanks, OX.

I think Ox's 3 is your best bet. Some sort of cobbled up link to the outside, obscure enough they don't think of it right away. Obviously they don't have cell phones or they would have used them, but one guy has something--a special remote to the computer system of his cute girlfriend whose smarts and daring he underestimates--and manages to contact her for one of those white knuckle hack jobs where the digits count down to 1 before salvation? Which he has because she like left it in his car, which he had to ditch when the unit scrambled and he pocketed because he didn't want it to get nicked by theives???

Putting myself in the shoes of the CDC agent or commanding officer:

Unless there is a dead person who could be used to open the bsl-2 door, I would concentrate on the other door, especially if it is known that bsl-2 is a dead end. Although, if I were leading a strike force into such a place, I would want someone who knew how to circumvent such doors, like, for example, someone specially trained or even the son of a genius who programs them. Hand/retinal scanning is a matter of programming and subject to change. Technicians exist with the knowledge of how to change the program.

There has to be an air exchange system of some kind. It would be too small for escape, but . . . If it isn't shut down to to the detection of the nerve gas, I would have someone on it to see of they can't get fresh air in to cycle out the nerve gas or at least dilute it more to buy more time. I would look for a mini safe zone that may have been built into bsl-1, like a control room to hang out in or that is secure from the rest of the area.

The door to the safe zone is where I would concentrate my efforts. If the consle is broken, it doesn't necessarily mean that the door is locked into place, merely that it won't move electronically. I would look for ways to manually open it, by use of a lever or other applied force.

Sections in facilities like this (and prisons) usually have sections that are essentially concrete blocks. Without a jackhammer, the likelihood of timely getting through the wall is slim, but if there were pickaxe like tools, I might have a couple soldiers giving it a try. If the doors are sliding doors, that means the wall on one side of the doors is like a sandwich but empty in the middle for when the door detracts. I would try to break thru there.

A very desperate person might put on 3-4 suits to buy extra time. How far underground is it? Is there cell coverage? Is there a rescue protocol? A wounded soldier left behind earlier? A counter-agent to teh nerve gas in a refridgerator somewhere?

Building on alanmt's idea, what about one of the team being electronic genius and dismantling the control systems for the working door and retro fitting them to the broken door to get it open, finding his way around the bio metric security of course.

Graham

Putting on extra suits would be pointless after exposure, and that person would be helpless because the suits are likely unwieldy to begin with; extra suits would make joints, especially fingers, much more difficult or even impossible to manipulate.

Labs are built to protect from someone breaking in, so the big anti-human stuff is probably all outside except for internal security measures for preventing exposure and levels of security keeping different classes of people from getting at things they shouldn't (e.g. keeping menials out of secure areas.) So, the inside security will be weaker than the door facing the world, aside from safety measures for the biological agents.

I think opening up the security panel that was smashed and "hotwiring" it is the best bet. There have to be wires in there. Maybe someone can Phone a Friend or hack the Gibson to get details.

PS - Why does it have to be a "cute" girlfriend? Why can't she be homely?

Why does it have to be a "cute" girlfriend? Why can't she be homely?

Come now.
Why do these guy have to be cool and smart and macho. Why not weak, idiots stumbling around? You're writing a book dude.

Originally Posted by lin

Come now.
Why do these guy have to be cool and smart and macho. Why not weak, idiots stumbling around? You're writing a book dude.

C'mon, that's soooo clichéd!