“Especially when it’s right.” He took her hand. “Come on.”
They squeezed through the fence. Then, using the shadows of the pines that grew along the perimeter of the property as cover, they went into a sprint. A hundred yards away she spotted the parking lot. Several cars and trucks were parked close to the main building. An asphalt driveway streaked north toward the main road where a small guard shack stood.
Zack went into the shadows and stopped twenty yards from the roadway. Emily was breathing hard and sweating. Less than a foot away, Zack was looking at her with dark, dangerous eyes.
“Did you see the snowplow next to the outbuilding?” he asked.
“I saw it. Right next to the red SUV with the dented fender.” She could hear the rumble of its engine. The smell of diesel fuel filling the air. “What are we going to do? Clear the driveway for them?”
He smiled, but it looked forced. He was obviously every bit as apprehensive about this as she was. “We’re going to use the plow to down a telephone pole and take out the electricity.”
It was as good an idea as they were going to come up with. If they caught a break, Emily thought as they started toward the plow, they might just pull it off without getting shot.
Chapter Eight
Emily couldn’t believe she was doing this. Risking everything—her career, her reputation, her very life—on the word of a man she had every reason not to trust. Or did she?
Halfway to the snowplow, she noticed a man standing a few feet from the massive vehicle’s blade. He was facing away from them, relieving himself, of all things. Had she not been quite so terrified she might have laughed. But Emily had been in enough dangerous situations in her life to appreciate just how bad this could get.
Zack turned to her, his gaze seeking hers. He put his finger to his lips, then motioned for her to stay put. She nodded and watched as he approached the man alone, his stride confident, as if he had every right in the world to be there. Emily hoped the man wasn’t armed.
“Got a light?”
The man started, quickly shook himself, zipped and turned. He was heavyset and wearing insulated coveralls over a hooded sweatshirt. “Who the hell are you?” he asked.
“Your replacement,” Zack said amicably.
“Replacement?” The man made an unflattering reference to Zack’s mother. “This is a secure facility. What are you doing here?”
“I was wondering if I could borrow your snowplow for a few minutes.”
The man’s sneer disappeared. His eyes widened. Then he reached for something clipped to his belt. Zack moved so quickly, the man didn’t even see it coming. One moment he was putting his radio to his mouth, the next he was dropping like a three-hundred-pound rag doll. Zack was almost to the plow by the time the other man hit the ground.
“What did you do to him?” Emily asked.
“I taught him what happens to big-mouthed idiots when they say unflattering things about me mum.” Stepping onto the big tractor plow, he tossed her a coil of rope. “Tie him up, will you?”
Emily caught the rope with one hand. “Okay.”
Zack settled onto the seat and rammed the shifter into place. The gears ground for an instant, then the big plow jumped forward. “This shouldn’t take long.”
It wasn’t easy tying the hands of a three-hundred-pound unconscious man. It took every bit of her strength just to roll him onto his stomach. Her hands shook as she wrapped the rope around his wrists and knotted it. She’d barely finished when a crash behind her sent her a foot into the air.
She turned in time to see the plow blade crash into the telephone pole. Wood splintered. A streak of blue electricity arced through the sky. She smelled burning rubber. She watched as Zack slid from the plow and came running toward her.
“Nice job,” she said.
“Thanks.” He looked down at the man. “Let me hide porky here and we’ll be on our way.” Stooping, he picked up the man’s torso by the shoulders and began dragging him to some nearby bushes. “Best to keep him out of sight for now.” He plucked the man’s security badge from his shirt and the flashlight from his belt and stuffed both into his coat pocket. “These might come in handy.”
A giddy laugh that was part terror, part utter disbelief jammed in her throat. She couldn’t believe she was about to break into a pharmaceutical firm to look for clues in a mystery that was as unbelievable as the plot of some cheesy thriller.
Zack came up beside her then and tilted his head as if to look closely at her. A tuft of hair had fallen onto his forehead. He was looking at her intently. “You’ve got about five seconds to change your mind about this.”
She shook her head adamantly. “Let’s go find what we need to bring down those bastards at Lockdown.”