She nodded and turned back to the blueprints. “The first level was built twelve feet from the ground, using very thick concrete,” she said. “Apparently, that’s where they built the crematorium and the holding cells for anyone they plan on killing. There are six cells on either side with four feet of cement in between the two sides. There is no way out once you’re down in the cells, other than elevators. Each side has its own elevator.”
“So basically, if the cells are flooded, no one gives a damn,” Wyatt said. He felt his gut start a slow smolder. “Are you tellin’ me the babies – our babies – are down in those cells alone? Is anyone else down there?”
The table trembled and for a moment the walls of the room contracted. Pepper glanced uneasily over her shoulder at him, nodding slowly. Her eyes held sorrow.
“I’m sorry, Wyatt, I tried to get them all out, but they were in separate cells and it took time to get them open.”
“It’s not your fault,” he said tersely. She flinched. He felt the flinch right through skin and bones. Deliberately he stroked his hand down her back, and pressed closer to her, trying to surround her with comfort. “I’m not upset with you, babe. This isn’t your fault. Whitney just makes me so damned mad. How could he do this to children and live with himself?”
“It isn’t Whitney,” she denied. “I’m telling you, Braden authorized our transfer to this place, brought us in by a private jet and then he issued the termination order a couple of weeks ago. Braden. Not Whitney.”
“Braden works for Whitney,” Wyatt said. “There’s not a doubt in my mind.”
Trap nodded. “Seriously, Pepper, we’ve known for a while that Whitney could never pull all these experiments off by himself. Even I have an assistant. He’s got too many facilities. He has to have someone he trusts overlooking each laboratory, but Whitney definitely calls the shots.”
“So is anyone else down in those cells right now?” Wyatt asked.
Pepper nodded. “A woman. They brought her in recently. They may have already terminated her. She was on the other side, not with the babies. Braden was definitely afraid of her. I don’t think they were even feeding her. They wanted her weak before they tried to move her to the crematorium. At least, I kind of got that from bits and pieces I overheard. I never saw her. She was brought in right before the order was issued to terminate the children.”
“How’d they bring her in?” Ezekiel asked.
“There’s a large cargo elevator on the first floor. It’s located right here.” Pepper circled a spot toward the middle of the western wall. “It’s huge. They drive trucks right in so the other guards don’t ever see one of their throwaways.”
“What other guards?” Draden interrupted.
“They have guards who protect the plastics plant. It’s a working plant. They know it’s a cover for a research facility with military contracts, but they never enter any part of the building other than where the plastic molds are manufactured,” Pepper explained.
“So there is an actual product being produced on the second floor?” Ezekiel asked. “They’ll have vents and air conduits as well as things like conveyor belts and plenty of equipment.”
Pepper nodded. “On the second floor, yes, meaning if you count the actual first floor where they hold and terminate their prisoners.”
Wyatt moved his leg very casually closer to the table, wedging it between Pepper and Trap, his thigh pressing tight against her body as he leaned down to study the drawing of the large building she’d superimposed over the blueprints.
“The cargo elevator is here.” He drew a line with his finger. “So this has to be the recreation room for the guards who don’ have any real knowledge of what’s takin’ place in their own backyard. The kitchen and cafeteria. You’ve got bathrooms and the plastic plant itself. So those workin’ the plant itself are kept away from anythin’ they might be able to talk about.”
Pepper nodded. “They bring in prisoners through the cargo elevator enclosed in a truck. Everyone’s used to the trucks bringing supplies for the plant. When a prisoner is brought in, they’re completely enclosed in a type of crate and sometimes unconscious. The woman they’re terminating was definitely unconscious. I was hiding in the vent just opposite the second elevator and I saw them take her in the crate down to the cells on the other side.”
Wyatt scowled. “Where were they holdin’ you?”
“Down in the cells with the children. They keep it cold down there, so it makes it harder for us to move around or fight them.”
Wyatt closed his eyes for a moment, trying not to think what would have happened to her and the children had the cells flooded. The water table in the swamp was particularly high, which was the reason most houses were built fairly high off the ground.
“I think I’d like to break Whitney’s neck,” he said softly, his Cajun accent deepening in direct proportion to his temper.
“Get in line,” Trap said. “Can you imagine if he happened to employ a sadistic guard to look after his prisoners? No one would be around to know what was done down there, and if the prisoner was going to be terminated, anything could happen and be gotten away with.”