“Okay. Come on. Only one way we can go now.”
They struggled to lift Cameron up and got moving. Sebastian guided them down skeletons of corridors, grateful now for having memorized the blueprints. The floodlights for the construction zone had gone out, but the glow of the fire was enough to show them the way. Sebastian no longer worried about the security guards, who were no doubt preoccupied with the fire. A completed staircase got them to the ground floor, and a small hole in the green fence gained them the safety of the park.
They halted in the middle of the grassy area, which he and Finney had walked across today, well away from the fence. The rain had stopped, but the grass was soaked, and large puddles dotted the field. He felt a stiff, cold wind. Behind them he heard a din of sirens, fire alarms, and faint shouts. The lights in the other buildings around the park were out, their power a victim of the storm, the fire, or both. The sky was overcast. It was darker, away from the fire, and they appeared to be alone.
Cameron groaned. His pain was reflected in Rita’s face, just visible in the firelight. “He needs help. I’m going to go get it.” She made to leave.
“No, you’re not, Doc.”
Wu gaped at the gun in his hand. “What are you doing?”
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, and ignoring the pain in his right side, he glanced in the direction of the sirens. The first responders would be preoccupied with preventing the fire from spreading to Turner and evacuating the patients. He still had some time, and there was something he needed to do.
He owed her that.
“Shut up and listen. We don’t have much time.”
“What the hell do you mean?”
“The bomb inside your sister’s head, Doc. I can deactivate it. But I need you to sit tight and be calm. Okay?”
She stared at him, her expression unreadable, then pursed her lips and nodded.
Goddamn nerves of steel.
Sebastian restored the gun to his waistband and took out his phone. It was time to see if Blade’s hacking program was worth the price he’d paid. He accessed the bomb’s signal, which appeared on his screen as a pattern of sinusoidal waves undulating next to a timer. The timer was at fifty-one minutes, twenty-three seconds and counting.
Counting down to her sister’s death.
“Look. There’s a control system, with a timer: an automatic countdown Finney had rigged, in case something happened, and he wasn’t able to detonate the bomb himself.” Much as the son of a bitch would have liked to, I’m sure. “Finney locked me out of the system, but I think I’ve worked out how to bypass his security.”
“How much time do we have?”
“Plenty. Fifty minutes and change.”
By then I’ll be in Mexico.
Using Blade’s instructions, which he’d memorized, he initiated the hacking program. Three beeps sounded from his phone. There. I’m in. He rapidly inputted a series of commands, pushed the SEND key, and waited.
The screen flashed.
The timer halted its countdown.
He smiled. His shoulders, which he only now realized were hunched up to his ears, relaxed. “There. That should—”
The timer started spinning backward again, this time at a dizzying rate, the numbers blurring together as they spun toward zero.
What the hell?
He frowned and quickly began to restart the hacking sequence.
“Oops.”
“Oops? What do you mean, ‘oops’?”
“The countdown started again. But faster.”
“What?”
“Just—hold on a sec, Doc. I’m working on it.”
Goddamn you, Blade …
RITA
Rita didn’t like this. She frantically patted her jeans, looking for her phone. It wasn’t there. So she bent over and searched Spencer’s pockets until she came up with his. He groaned but didn’t open his eyes.
Luckily, Spencer hadn’t enabled the phone’s security lockout (typical Spencer, always trusting that way). She punched in Darcy’s number from memory, ignoring the LOW BATTERY warning flashing at the bottom of the screen, and the multiple text and voice-mail messages from Spencer’s friend Raj.
The phone signal was weak, one bar only. The call connected briefly, then dropped.
She dialed Darcy’s number again.
SEBASTIAN
Three more beeps from his phone as the hacking sequence finished its second run. Sebastian tried a slightly different command sequence, hit SEND.
The countdown slowed to its previous, normal pace.
But it didn’t stop.
Shit.
The timer was down now to nineteen seconds.
Okay. Let’s try this.
He started inputting more commands. Making things up as he went now.
“How much time do we have?” Wu asked. He registered out of the corner of his eye that she was now holding a phone up to her ear. Probably Cameron’s, since he’d disposed of hers earlier.
“You don’t want to know,” he said calmly.
Fifteen seconds.
His fingers danced across the screen.
Ten seconds.
“Sebastian?”
“Working on it.”
Tap, tap, tap went his fingers on the screen.
“Sebastian?”
Five seconds.
“Almost got it.”
“SEBASTIAN!”