Red Awakening (Red Zone)

by Janet Elizabeth Henderson

  This time, Daniel let him be. This was his brother’s idea of fun—terrorizing the help. Charles had no intention of killing the man; he’d already set his eyes on someone else. And yet again, Daniel had to come up with a way to redirect him.

  It was how their game was played.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “Can you do that thing with your magic fingernail again and change the cameras?” Mace said.

  “I’m beginning to think Friday’s idea about signing you up for basic tech lessons is a good one,” Keiko told him as she went back to the control panel and changed the feed.

  “Stop.” He held up a hand.

  A chill went through her. “What is it?”

  He pointed to the screen in the top left-hand corner of the wall. “We’ve got incoming. Freedom fighters in the stairwell. We need to move. Elevator. Now.”

  She hurried after him, and he ushered her inside.

  “Where’s the security hub?” he said.

  “If I remember correctly, the security hub is about here.” She pointed to the location on the communications panel inside the door.

  “Take us to that spot, but on the floor above. We’ll take the stairs the rest of the way. We need to get rid of Freedom’s eyes on the building. Otherwise, they’ll always know exactly where to find us.” He thrust a tube of bruise cream at her. “Put that on your ankle while we’re moving.”

  Taking the tube, she pressed in their destination—and nothing happened.

  Mace watched her, his mouth set in a tight line, as she pressed the location into the panel again. It made no difference. They weren’t going anywhere.

  “They’ve disabled the elevator.” Mace grabbed her hand and pulled her back into the hallway. “This one’s on a separate circuit. They’re cutting us off. We need to hide.”

  “Wait.”

  “Keiko, we don’t have time.”

  She ignored him and studied the ceiling. Her heart was racing so fast she feared it was going to explode. “Look for a panel with three raised dots in the corner. That’s the one with access to the crawl space. The guy who fixed the AC in my office last summer told me all about it. There’s one in the ceiling of every room in all CommTECH buildings.”

  She was grateful when Mace didn’t argue but started examining the ceiling panels. “There.” He pointed to one just in front of the elevator doors.

  “Can you jump up and push the dots? That’ll open it.” Rubbing her sweaty palms on her stolen shorts, she kept her eyes on the corridor, waiting for the moment when Freedom would appear.

  Mace bent his knees, jumped, and pressed the exact spot that Keiko would have needed a ladder to reach. The panel slid down silently. “Bingo,” he said. “You’re a genius.”

  “True,” Keiko said. “Now hurry. Get in there.”

  “You first.” Without hesitation, Mace grabbed her waist and thrust her through the opening into the crawl space.

  Clutching the edge, she pulled herself inside and rolled out of the way to give him space to come in after her. Again, all he did was bend his knees and jump. He caught the edge and pulled himself up, angling onto his stomach fast before his head had a chance to hit the concrete above them.

  Keiko reached past him and slammed her hand on the button to close the panel. A few seconds later, they were lying in the dimly lit space, flat on their stomachs, listening for movement beneath them. The area between the decorative ceiling and the concrete of the building was made up of a network of metal beams, joined together by a steel mesh that supported the panels beneath it and was strong enough to easily hold their weight. There was only one entrance to the crawl space in each room, and no way to crawl from room to room, unless access had been cut in the thick concrete walls for that purpose. Basically, they were trapped in the small space above the apartment lobby with nowhere to go.

  In the dim light, she turned her head to find Mace watching her. She gave him a tremulous smile, and he winked, making her shake her head at him. Inching her hand toward him, she clasped his arm, needing the reassurance of touching him. Slowly, he lowered his head to place a gentle kiss on the back of her hand, stealing her breath as well as the panic building within her.

  In his gaze, she saw promises—he wouldn’t let anything happen to her, no matter how much it cost him. She squeezed his arm and blinked back tears. Stupid tears of fear—she was afflicted with them.

  “They’ve got to be here somewhere.” A voice came from beneath them, making Keiko hold her breath.

  “They’ve got to be hiding,” another voice said. “You, guard the stairwell. The rest of you, spread out, check everywhere—including the elevator shaft.”

  Heavy footsteps ran off, but still they didn’t dare move, unsure who remained beneath them. The hum of the air-conditioning pipes seemed to grow louder as Keiko’s hearing became more focused. The air was thick and musty, filled with the dust whipped up by their presence.

  “You think they’ve found the panic room?” a voice said.

  Mace tensed and shot Keiko a look. She arched her eyebrows. It was the first she’d heard of it, too.

  “I doubt it,” someone else said. “Shepherd keeps the locations of those things to herself. I’d be surprised if they even knew there was one.”

  “Where do you think it is?”

  “My guess? The office, probably.”

  Keiko’s mind raced. Panic room. A safe place to hide. Somewhere to ride this whole mess out. But where? Not the office. They were wrong about that. The office was the place Miriam would have felt most secure and was also the room that had the most security attached to it. No, a panic room would make the most sense in a place where Miriam felt vulnerable. Her eyes snapped to Mace. The bedroom! It had to be.

  He pursed his lips and made a soft shh noise at her, which made her glare back. Of course she wasn’t going to make a noise. She didn’t want to die. They lay there for what seemed like hours, the steel beams, mesh, and cables biting into their bodies as they listened to the Freedom fighters moving about beneath them. The dust grew thicker, as though attracted to them, and the air became dense.

  Keiko’s nose twitched, and she slowly reached up to rub it. Mace’s eyes snapped to her, and he frowned. She was about to smile at him, to silently signal that everything was fine. But it wasn’t. Her nose began to tingle, and she knew what was coming. She was going to sneeze. And there was no stopping it. He opened his mouth, probably to warn her to be silent. But it was too late. She rammed her face into the crook of her arm.

  And sneezed.

  …

  Mace saw the sneeze coming and sent out sound waves to counteract the noise, but he was still new to this noise-dampening thing, and he didn’t quite get the frequency right. Although the sneeze wasn’t as loud as it would have been, it could still be heard.

  “What was that?” a voice barked.

  There was nothing they could do but lie still and hope they weren’t found.

  “Check the elevator shaft again.”

  “We’ve been over it twice. There’s no way they could have climbed out of the elevator and into the shaft without us spotting them. There’s no place to hide in there.”

  “What about the ceiling?”

  Keiko’s fingernails dug into Mace’s arm, and he clamped his hand over hers, holding it tight.

  “I can’t see an access panel,” someone said.

  “Yeah,” another voice chimed in. “You’d need to crack open one of the ceiling tiles to get into the crawl space. It was done in my apartment. They had to replace the tile when they were through ’cause they broke it to bits getting in there. Cost me a fortune.”

  “My apartment has access built in,” the first voice said.

  “You see any access?” the other guy demanded.

  There was silence as Mace quietly released Keiko’s hand and inched his way down toward the gun at his side.

  “There’s no way they’re up there,” the second voice said. “Even if there was an access panel,
there’s nothing around here they could climb on to get up there. No chair. Tables. Ladders. There’s no sign anyone stood on something to reach the ceiling.”

  Those words made Mace insanely grateful that he was freakishly large and able to access the crawl space without help.

  “Where the hell are they, then?” The first voice again. “We saw them on camera walking through the apartment. There’s no way they could have slipped past us. I want these two. I want them bad. That asshole killed two of our people. He isn’t getting away with that. Not on my watch.”

  “Maybe they went out on the ledge again?” a woman said. “There’s balcony access. They wouldn’t need to break a window.”

  “Check all the ledges. Search the place from top to bottom again. I want them found.”

  Letting out a slow breath, Mace glanced over at Keiko. Her eyes were so wide it was a wonder they didn’t pop out of her head. They were safe for now, but there was nothing they could do except wait until the Freedom fighters gave up on their search. He bent his head and pressed another kiss to the back of her hand, and then he smiled against it. When he looked back up at her, she rolled her eyes at him, and he grinned.

  Keiko Sato was a remarkable woman. No matter what came her way, she rolled with it. He honestly couldn’t remember ever coming across anyone like her. She was brave, tenacious, smart, funny, seriously sexy, and just violent enough to give her a little bit of an edge. She was beautiful, inside and out. He’d seen the way she cared for her friend Abigail, taking the time to reassure her in the middle of a press conference. And it had been clear she’d worried over her parents, even though they’d upset her. She noticed people, saw what they needed, and tried to give it to them. And she was so damn brave. Walking into situations people twice her size would hesitate to take on.

  He caught her frowning at him and realized he was staring. She was so damn cute when she got all grumpy on him. He wanted to just pick her up, put her in his pocket, and keep her with him all the time. Everything about her drew him to her. When he thought about it, she was pretty much his perfect woman. Then he remembered that she worked for CommTECH, was born to a different century, and could never accept him or the life he led.

  Mate, the voice in his head whispered.

  Mace stilled. There was really no getting around the fact his other half was talking to him. They’d communicated through images, as well as sharing experiences and memories, since he’d woken three years earlier, but this was different. This was words. And he couldn’t help feeling that it was a sign he needed some serious therapy. First there were voices in your head, then…yeah, with his family history, he really didn’t want to go there. His best option was to just pretend he didn’t hear anything.

  I’m in your head. I know you hear me.

  Mace gritted his teeth. He would not answer. It was a step too far.

  Pretend if you like—she’s still mate.

  The voice was so smug, Mace snapped. Bats don’t mate. He had no idea if that was true. He’d been in denial about his animal for the past three years and done very little research into the species. Still, it felt true.

  We do, the contrary rodent said.

  Humans don’t mate, either, Mace pointed out.

  It was pointless. We do, was the reply.

  He ran his hand through his hair in pure frustration. Listen up, you flying rat. She isn’t our mate. She isn’t anything to us.

  He got the distinct impression the bat was laughing at him. Ours, was all it said.

  Not ours. After this is over, Keiko and I will go our separate ways.

  There was no reply, just a dull ache in his chest at the thought of never seeing Keiko again. He shook his head. Damn bat was putting thoughts into it that shouldn’t be there. Keiko Sato wasn’t for the likes of him, and that was all there was to it.

  But he couldn’t stop his eyes from straying to her and drinking her in.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  It felt like they’d been lying in the crawl space forever. Keiko had lost track of time, and at some point, she’d fallen asleep. She was exhausted. She hadn’t slept much the night before when she’d made a bed on the closet floor, and ever since arriving at the research facility she’d been running for her life. Now her muscles had cramped and stiffened from lying in one position for too long, and she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to move again.

  “They’re gone,” Mace whispered.

  “Are you sure?” Her voice was hoarse, her throat dry from breathing in the musty air.

  “I would hear them.”

  Oh, yeah, his super hearing. The top-secret implants he wouldn’t tell her about.

  “Let’s get out of here.” He pressed the button for the panel, and it slid open.

  The air that suddenly flooded the small space felt gloriously cool on her skin. She breathed in deep as Mace rolled over and dropped through the hole.

  “Come on,” he hissed up at her.

  Keiko didn’t move with the same speed or fluidity as Mr. Mountain. No, she moved like she was a hundred and ten and all of her joints needed replacing.

  “Hurry up,” he said. “We need to get out of here.”

  “I am hurrying.” She had pins and needles in her left arm, and one of her feet was dead.

  “Keiko,” he growled.

  “Give me a minute and stop being so annoying. I said I was coming.” She swung her legs over the edge of the hole and looked down to find him frowning up at her. His hands were up to catch her, so she didn’t hesitate; she just dropped down into them. He caught her easily—one of the perks of having a partner his size. And it was a benefit she could definitely get used to. If she was tired, she’d have him carry her around. It would be bliss.

  “I need a bath,” she said as he cradled her in his arms. “A long one. With lots of rose-scented bubbles. I also need to use the restroom. And I want some water.”

  His lips twitched at her as his eyes sparkled. “You about done?”

  She thought about it. “I’m hungry, too.”

  He just grinned. “Are you always this grumpy when you’ve just woken up?”

  “Only when I wake up in a crawl space with cobwebs in my hair.”

  “You want down?” he asked when she made no move to get out of his arms.

  “I can’t stand yet. There are pins and needles in my toes.”

  “Guess I’ll have to carry you, then.” He headed for the stairway down into the building.

  She tugged his hair. “You’re heading the wrong way. We need to go to the bedroom. I’m pretty sure that’s where the panic room is.”

  That brought him to a sudden halt. “You know where the panic room is?”

  “No, I’m guessing where the panic room is, and I think it’s in the bedroom. That’s the only place Miriam would feel vulnerable.”

  “Maybe there and near water,” he muttered as he headed for the bedroom.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “The Wizard of Oz? The Wicked Witch is killed by a bucket of water? Nobody gets my cultural references anymore.”

  “I wonder why? Which culture are you referencing, exactly?”

  “Twentieth century,” he muttered absently.

  “You expect people to get historical references?”

  “Never mind,” he said with irritation as he put her down on the pristine white bedspread.

  Seemed she wasn’t the only one who woke up grumpy. “Look around for the panic room entrance.”

  “We don’t even know if there is a panic room.”

  “It’s worth spending five minutes on. If we find one, we can hole up in there until this whole experience is over.”

  With a snort, he opened the closet and knocked on the walls. While he executed a bad-tempered search, Keiko took the time to survey her surroundings. If she were Miriam, she’d want the panic room entrance close to the bed. That way, if danger came when she was sleeping, she could get into it without even having to give it any thought.

 
A door in the wall would be the obvious place, and Miriam wasn’t obvious. Keiko rubbed her feet, then stood up to peek under the bed. There was no “under.” The bed was built on a solid platform. She felt a tingling up her spine. What if all Miriam had to do was literally roll out of bed?

  Closing her eyes, she tried to imagine she was Miriam Shepherd and under attack. She saw herself, asleep on the bed. An alarm sounded, she reached out and slapped her hand to the side of the bed where the sensor was. The bed shifted, and she fell under it. Her eyes popped open. It could work. Maybe. If Miriam was super creative, or if she employed a whole company full of creative people.

  Bending over, she moved the silken comforter and ran her fingers over the built-in base.

  “What are you doing?” Mace came up beside her.

  “Looking for the panic room.”

  “And you think it’s under the bed?”

  Ignoring him, Keiko continued searching the bed base. The panic room would need a mechanical way to open it, in case using implants wasn’t possible. She felt along the edge of the base and up the end nearest the wall. At the corner, against the wall, her fingers hit a button.

  Could it be that she was right?

  Her heart raced as she pressed it. For a second nothing happened, and then the bed and its platform slid to the side, revealing a staircase beneath it.

  “Well I’ll be damned,” Mace said.

  “Probably.” Keiko climbed into the narrow stairwell. “Are you coming?”

  He followed her down into a large room. One wall was covered in screens. Next to them, there was a desk with an inlaid control panel. A small kitchen area with a well-stocked pantry was off to the left, and a bed sat in the opposite corner, this one just as luxuriously decked out as the one above. Two armchairs and a table made up the rest of the furnishings in the room.

  “Looks like Miriam wanted to be comfortable while she panicked,” Mace said as he found the button that sealed them into the room.

  The door shut above them with an ominous thud, and Keiko couldn’t stop the thought that she was being buried alive.

  “I can’t help feeling like I’m in a tomb,” she said.