She’d freed herself.
I looked around and computed how. The guard’s arm had been close enough for her to reach through the bars, and she had removed his thumb with the scalpel. We think alike. Then she’d used what she’d taken to unlock the door.
The guard had stopped writhing, was motionless in a pool of his own blood. Unblinking eyes stared off in the distance.
I’d taken a life.
WHATEVER’S NECESSARY.
A sob escaped me, a testament to the still-fraying rope holding back my emotions. It wouldn’t last much longer now. Shaking, I removed his badge and handed it to Reeve, just in case we were separated.
“Got another tranq gun.” Jaclyn came up beside me and gently removed Kat from my hold, wrapping her arm around the girl’s waist to remove half the burden from Reeve.
“You’re strongest. You lead the way.”
“I’m just going to slow you guys down,” Kat panted. “Leave me here and come back for me later.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said. “I’d rather stay here than leave without you.”
“Seriously, Ally Kat,” Jaclyn said. “Shut it.”
“Now follow me.”
I used Lab Coat’s badge to open the door to the hallway. We entered a long, narrow passage I was relieved to find empty. Maybe I’d disabled the only guards. Please, please.
“Where should we go?” Reeve asked, her voice strained.
I ripped the emergency exit map from the wall, considered the corridors and said, “This way.”
Down the hall. Around a corner. Another hall, another corner. In the stairwell, our breathing and footsteps echoed off the walls. But those were the only sounds. No one was following us. Others would be here soon, though. I was certain the alarm had already been reported to Kelly, wherever he was.
Kat’s head lolled to the side as the girls carried her down, down, down the steps. As fatigued as I was, as undernourished, as wounded, my trembling seemed to magnify with every new inch of ground I gained.
Finally we reached the end of the well, and I used the key card to open the door.
“—remote camera show they entered the stairwell.” Kelly’s voice rose above a symphony of pounding footsteps.
Dang it! How had he gotten here so quickly?
Jaclyn and I shared a look of absolute, utter panic.
“I want you six to comb every inch of it. And I want a man posted on every floor. We’re dealing with four half-starved teenage girls. You should have no trouble finding and subduing them.”
As yet unnoticed, we dragged Kat to the side of the now-abandoned security desk.
Perfect timing. A group of men whisked past us. Six entered the door we’d just left, and one muttered, “We aren’t paid enough for this.” Some entered the elevators. They were all dressed haphazardly, as if they’d been roused from sleep and had had to hurry. There must be a facility close by. Like army barracks, maybe. We’d have to be careful to avoid it.
I gazed longingly at the wall of glass doors leading outside.
“You two,” Kelly said as he entered the elevator, “wait here.” There was a white bandage wrapped around his neck. He was pale, almost as shaky as I was. “Call me if they make it this far.”
The doors closed on him.
The two men he’d left behind assumed their positions, forcing us to inch our way around the desk to continue to hide our presence. I sat for a moment, trying to decide on our next move.
There was only one thing to do, really.
“Wait here,” I whispered, and crawled to the end of the desk. I peeked around the edge, noting the exact positions of the guards. Then I set a dart beside my thigh, readied my gun, aimed.
Deep breath in...hold...ouuut...I squeezed the trigger.
There was a gasp, a rustle of clothing—then a heavy thump. The first guard had just gone down.
Yes!
“What’s wrong?” the other asked, racing to his side.
He saw the dart in the man’s thigh, frowned and glanced up.
Before I could finish loading the gun for round two, he was placing a walkie-talkie at his mouth.
“Mr. K, I found—”