by Geneva Lee
“Hammond.” Norris nodded. “If you know that, you know the way out.”
“You mistake why I’m here. Like your darling queen, you assumed this section was empty, but some of the doors were locked.”
“But then…” He had been here the whole time? I shivered, remembering how I’d found myself here, naked and alone. But I hadn’t been alone. The man who had conspired to kill Alexander’s father had been here the whole time. “But June said there were no more prisoners.”
“Prison means different things to different people, especially June.” Hammond motioned for us to move away from the chair. “For some people, it might mean being stuck overseeing a nearly empty prison block because you pissed off the higher ups. I’ve wasted years here, doing nothing, waiting for a second chance to prove myself. But I was stuck after your husband tried to kill me.”
My mouth fell open. Almost immediately I began to cough as too much smoke got past the cloth barrier.
“Careful now,” Hammond drawled, “don’t get worked up and have that baby on the floor. You’re surprised to hear your husband killed a man? Well, tried to kill a man.”
I looked to Norris and realized his eyes were still hard. This news hadn’t surprised him, which meant it was true.
“That’s the thing about our little organization, isn’t it, Mr. Norris? They can save just about anyone when they want to.”
“I don’t understand.” I took a few steps away from both of them. “Your organization?”
“My former organization,” Norris said quickly. “I haven’t been with MI-18 in decades and Hammond knows it.”
“You’re never really out. I thought we sent you that message quite clearly a few years ago.” Hammond shrugged. “I guess you didn’t understand.”
“No, I’ve simply never chosen to allow anyone else to determine my fate.” Norris didn’t try to move closer to me, but he stepped between us just as another contraction hit.
“Now, Norris, she doesn’t look good. You’re sealed in here and she’s about to have a baby.”
“Get to the point, Jack,” Norris demanded.
“I can help you out of here, but you must do two things.”
“If you think I’m going to help you, you piece of—”
“Now. Now. I’m the one with the gun and the one who knows that, in less than a minute, every explosive in this corridor will detonate to ensure scorched earth. You remember what that means, right?” He pointed the gun over his shoulder at me. “She won’t make it out of here without my help.”
“What do you want?” Norris spit out.
“They’re very simple requests. You should have no issue fulfilling them,” Hammond said with a smirk.
We were running out of time, if what he said was true, and he was acting like this was all a game.
“First when we get to the ground, you’re going to let me go.”
“MI-18 won’t let you stay loose for long,” Norris said in a low voice.
“That might be true, but I’ll take my chances. Something tells me Alexander will be more specific in his shots this time and I have my own affairs to wrap up.”
Norris eye’s darted to me, and I nodded. We had to think of the baby and Hammond was our best shot out of here.
“And the second thing?” Norris asked. I didn’t understand how he could stay so calm. Between the gun, the sirens, and the smoke, I felt like I was having a panic attack. It definitely wasn’t ideal labor conditions.
“I want you to tell me the truth. I want to hear you say it,” Hammond sneered as though this was his real prize.
What truth? I waited for Norris to respond, but he stood silently. “You already know. I don’t need to confirm it. I’ve seen the files.”
“But I want to hear it from your mouth. I want to hear you say how you betrayed the royal family.” Hammond lowered the gun. This was a confession he wouldn’t take by force, but I didn’t understand what he meant.
“I betrayed no one.” Norris hadn’t changed position. He’d shown no sign of guilt.
“Then no deal. We all die here.” Hammond lifted the gun once more. “Would you like me to make it quick? I’m sure she would. She’s already in enough pain.”
Norris’s eyes flashed to me, crinkling around the edges as he regarded me. Something unrecognizable passed over his face before he closed his eyes.
“Please,” I begged him. “I can’t do this much longer.”
My lungs were beginning to burn from smoke and the contractions were coming more closely together. I cried out as another one hit, and then Norris confessed to the last sin I’d ever expected him to commit.
Chapter 22
ALEXANDER
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. The alarms ringing through the house didn’t seem to have a source. That didn’t stop them setting off the sprinkler system. Water sprayed overhead and we dodged left and right, trying to evade it as much as possible. Our tactical gear kept it from soaking into our clothes, but slippery weapons didn’t help anyone.
“There!” Someone yelled, the alarms nearly drowning him out.
Tendrils of smoke were seeping out of crack in the paneling. The fire was in the house. We just couldn’t see it. That meant we’d been right about the passageways. It couldn’t be coincidence that somewhere deep inside this hell house someone had lit a fire.
They were here, and now they knew we were here.
“If it’s like the ones at home.” I studied the wall looking for a likely trigger point and found a button hidden neatly in a painting’s frame. When I pressed it, a panel slid open. Smoke billowed out, but none of hesitated.
“Should we mask up?” Brex asked, gesturing toward the protective shield dangling from his helmet.
“We need to be able to communicate.” We’d thrown together our gear at the last minute, which meant we didn’t have a comms system to fall back on. “If it gets bad…”
They could use their judgment. For now, we needed to be able to get each other’s attentions, especially with the noise spilling through the open panel. It would be worse once we reached the bunker hidden under the house.
“Weapons out,” Smith shouted.
Now that we were closer to the source of the chaos, it was even harder to get bearings. The alarms inside Windsmoor sounded like wind chimes compared to the screeching fall-out bells running on continuous loop down here. We followed them, knowing we were heading in the right direction as they got louder.
None of us knew what waited for us on the other side. Then again, it didn’t really matter. We’d all come here for one purpose. It united us now.
But it didn’t prepare us.
The door we found at the end of hidden hall might have been impenetrable if someone hadn’t left it ajar. Pushing it open, we stepped into the remnants of a hospital wing. Bright white walls, exam rooms, flickering fluorescent lights—it might have been any hospital except for its current state. It looked as though it had been abandoned in a hurry, papers and files strewn everywhere, a gurney knocked on its side. But there wasn’t a living soul around.
“Alexander!” Smith called and I turned to find him staring, white faced into a room. I couldn’t imagine what had shaken a man like him. Moving to it, I pulled back the curtain and nearly collapsed.
In the center was a hospital bed surrounding by monitors. A blue curtain was hung across its center and a cart of surgical implements waiting next to it. It might have been used for anything but on a stainless steel table next to a small scale sat a baby blanket.
“It hasn’t been used,” he said, coming up next to me.
But it was here. She was here. I didn’t know if that made me feel better or worse.
“Find her,” I called out. We’d taken a few steps when a small explosion burst through a wall down the hall. Plaster ricocheted toward us and we ducked for cover. I threw myself behind a nurse’s station, barely missing a stool. When the initial shock was over, I pushed myself up, steadying myself with the desk c
ounter.
“Is everyone okay?” Georgia yelled, shaking bits of plaster from her hair.
I heard a few more shouts but didn’t answer her. I was distracted by a file laying on the counter.
Norris, James.
Throwing it open, I tried to make sense of the reports, but it was full of cryptic test results. The one thing I could make out was the date. These tests had been performed earlier this week. I pulled the sheets out, rolled them up and shoved them in my pocket.
“What’s that?” Smith asked, tipping his head to the papers.
“Not sure, but I think we might have found more than we bargained for.” I flashed him the file folder, and his eyes widened.
We’d given up Norris for dead. Maybe he was. Maybe his captors had executed him after these tests. But he had been here a few days ago—alive.
I had found him and I knew that meant I’d found Clara, too. But my brief joy was eclipsed by another explosion.
“They’re bringing this whole place down,” Brex said, grabbing my arm. “We need to get back to the surface.”
“Not without them.” I shrugged out of his grasp.
“You can’t go in there, Poor Boy. I won’t allow it.” He stepped into my path.
“You’re going to stop me?” I wasn’t walking out of here without Clara.
“Not this shit again.” Brex groaned and I could have sworn his trigger finger twitched a little. “We’ll look. I can’t let you go.”
“We’ll go in,” Smith said, stepping beside him. Together the two formed a formidable wall, but that wasn’t going to stop me from going through them.
“Like hell you will.” Georgia stomped over to Smith and got in his face. “You’re going to be a father.”
“So is he,” Smith bit out.
“If Belle was in here, you wouldn’t listen to any of us.” She was right and we all knew it.
“Look, for all we know, they’ve taken her topside,” Brex argued as I pushed past him.
He had a point. She was too valuable to leave behind, but without knowing what triggered the evacuation, I couldn’t be certain that she was safe. “I can’t risk it. I have to know.”
This time Georgia took the lead, pointing down the corridor we’d come in through. “You two get up there and make certain that they aren’t taking her away right now. We’ll make certain the building is clear.”
Brex glowered for a moment before he finally nodded and jerked his head toward the exit. A moment later, their two hulking forms had faded into the smoke and ash swirling through the false hospital.
I charged after Georgia who’d continued down the hall, checking rooms as she went. But Clara wasn’t here. Somehow I could feel her though. It was as if her presence grew stronger with each step I took. She was near. Or she had been. The truth of it vibrated in my bones. My body was on edge, longing for her nearness. She was close-by, and soon she would be back in my arms.
And I would never let her go again.
The closer we came to her, the more my body hummed with certainty. When we reached a nondescript door at the end of the corridor, I didn’t think twice about pushing it open.
Georgia wedged it with a piece of debris, pointing to a wire that was peeking through the frame. It was either wired to explode or wired into a security system. I nodded, grateful she’d caught it.
The open door also helped cast light into the dark passage we found beyond the door. Smoke had built inside the space, which had to be far from the main house and deeper underground, because it had nowhere to go.
She pointed to the masks we’d kept off during the initial breach and we both tugged them over our mouths. It would make communication impossible, but it would help to filter some of this shit out. Continuing down the hall, we discovered a number of rooms, each with a bed and a dresser and little else. Was this where they’d kept Sarah?
Georgia’s eyes met mine through the mask and I knew she was thinking the same thing. It matched up with the description Sarah had given of where she’d spent the majority of the last ten years. The prison was strange. It was more like a bad hotel with no windows but locks on the doors. This is what my sister had been banished to for her entire adult life. I’d left her here to rot because I’d been too cowardly to face what I’d done. I wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
When we encountered a locked door, Georgia started to move past, but I had to be certain it was clear. I couldn’t risk leaving Clara here. Aiming my pistol at the lock, I blew it open.
Clara wasn’t inside, but it was like looking into my nightmare. A crib sat in one corner, a teetering mobile dangled bears over the mattress. There was a small changing table in the corner stacked with nappies and layette. There was no rocking chair. There were no windows.
And that’s when I knew exactly what MI-18 had been after all along.
They wanted my child.
Georgia grabbed my arm and pulled me back from the door. I stumbled after her, my stomach churning. When we reached the final room. Inside a form lay on the burning bed. Thick, black smoke made it impossible to see inside. It was too slight to be Clara, but we couldn’t just leave them there.
Running in, I bent down to check the woman’s pulse, but froze as I got a closer look at her. Dark hair sprawled around her waxen face—a face that looked a little too much like someone I knew. But it wasn’t Sarah. My mind was only playing tricks on me. Or maybe MI-18 were the ones playing tricks.
Georgia took over, grabbing the woman’s wrist before looking up to me with a grim shake of the head.
Whoever she was—whatever she was here for—she was gone. They’d left her to die. How could I be sure they wouldn’t do the same to my wife?
When we hit the hall, I barreled toward the rooms at the other end, but Georgia grabbed my sleeve. Ripping off her mask, she shouted, “We have to go.”
I shook my head. There was no way I was leaving until I was sure.
“She’s not here.” Georgia began to cough without the benefit of the ventilation. “She’s gone.”
I paused long enough to feel the truth of this. She’d been here, but Clara wasn’t here any longer. There was no light in this place. I felt foolish for falling deeper down the rabbit hole. Now I could only pray that Smith and Brex had gotten topside in time.
Making our way back through the deserted hospital wing toward the entrance to Windsmoor, we were stopped by a shadow. A figure lurched out from a room, clutching a wound in his stomach. We kept our guns trained on him until he came into better view.
I lowered my weapon automatically. Georgia kept hers up.
“Alexander.” I couldn’t hear David’s wheeze over the fall-out alarms but I saw my name form on his lips. Pain was written all over his face as he tried to staunch the wound in his abdomen.
I should move to help him, but I couldn’t process what he was doing here. Had he followed us for some reason? Why would he risk his life when he wasn’t trained in this type of situation? Then another, horrifying thought occurred to me. Was Edward here? I looked around, worried I might find my brother nearby.
David seemed to sense why I was panicked and shook his head. But the reassurance was short-lived when he mouthed something else, “She’s gone. I’m sorry.”
It took a moment for these words to register. Maybe I didn’t want to hear them for what they were, but I couldn’t ignore what he was really saying.
It was an admission. It was a revelation.
It was a confession.
I didn’t think about what came next. I didn’t ask any more questions. I was the law of this land, of this place, of this family, and he was guilty.
I shot him without a second thought.
Chapter 23
CLARA
There wasn’t time to process his confession, so when Norris wrapped a steadying arm around me and helped me follow Hammond, I went with it. Besides, I had other things on my mind—like contractions that were coming approximately two minutes apart. I’d barely began t
o catch my breath from one when another started.
All I could think of was getting out of here, putting one foot in front of the other, and escape. We were so close. No guards barred our exit. Even the alarms had begun to fade or maybe I was just growing use to them. The eastern exit wasn’t in the room I’d led Norris to, but rather concealed behind a panel in the hall.
Hammond opened it and gestured to me. “Ladies first.”
I stared up at the ladder, wondering how on earth I was going to make it up or open the hatch above.
“C-c-can’t,” I panted, my breath catching.
“Let me.” Norris moved in front of me.
Hammond didn’t comment. He seemed at ease with whatever situation left him holding a gun to our heads. And Norris couldn’t act while I was stuck below with our enemy.
He shimmied up the ladder quickly. A second later and a hard twist of metal, a circular ray of sunlight broke over my head. Tears filled my eyes as its warmth washed over me.
I hadn’t hoped I would ever see the sun again. Now it was so close that I could feel it. But before I could make my way up, Hammond shoved me to the side. “I think it’s safer if Norris has to wait for you.”
Safer for him, I was sure. I clung to a metal rung, riding out my labor pains as Hammond ascended and disappeared to the top. Overhead, I heard shouting. Then a shot. I took a deep breath and forced myself up two rungs. It was harder than I’d feared. Between my swollen stomach and the exhaustion already starting to take over my body, I wasn’t sure I could make it.
“Clara!” Norris’s face appeared overhead.
“I’m trying,” I cried, tightening my grip as I breathed through a contraction. I was going to have this baby on a ladder if I didn’t find the strength to keep going.
I thought of my son. I thought of how much he needed me to get to the hospital. And I thought of his father.