A green exit sign blinked at the other end of the space.
She tried the door and found it unlocked, but when she pulled it open, she was blasted by a foul stench. She gagged. This lab must have housed animal experiments. Ugh. The empty cages were filthy. Metal cage doors hung open up and down the rows. The room seemed to be completely deserted.
At the far end, under the exit sign, was a large door that looked like it led to a loading dock.
She trotted down one of the rows toward the exit.
There was a pile of clothing in the middle of her path, and she slowed to detour around it.
Then she gasped.
It was a human being.
She knelt beside him. He lay sprawled out on the floor, bleeding profusely from multiple wounds. For a moment she wasn’t sure if he was alive. Then he wheezed and choked, and she recognized him.
Rory.
She fumbled for his coat, trying to apply pressure to the worst of his wounds.
“Nah,” he whispered. “You don’t need to do that.”
“We’ve got to stop the bleeding,” she said. “Then we’ve got to get you to a hospital.”
“Don’t bother. I just gotta know—did she get out?”
One wound was spurting, right there in his chest. It didn’t look good.
Rory coughed a little, and blood bubbled out from his lips. “Tell me, did she get out? He promised he’d get her out.”
“What?”
“He’s a liar, I know, but one thing’s for sure. He always keeps his promises.”
“Shh, don’t talk now.”
“He said he’d get Sierra out. She’s easy to spot. Beautiful… the most beautiful girl ever. Hair the color of the sun and eyes brighter than the sky.”
Elisa glanced around. There was no one in the room, and at the far end she could see the large door to the loading dock was also sealed shut. Who was Sierra?
She looked back at Rory. He gazed at her, pleading.
Whoever she was, he loved her. Elisa had to give him something.
She exhaled. “Yes. Yes, he got her out.”
He let out a long breath, like a bubbling sigh, and his body relaxed. “That’s it. It’s all okay then.” He groped for her hand and she clasped his. “When you love someone, when you really love them, they’re all that matters in the world. He said it, and he was right. He said he just never knew before.” Rory gasped, and his voice grew weaker.
“Shhh,” Elisa said. “You don’t need to talk. Conserve your strength.”
“No, I have to tell you,” he whispered. “I have to tell you because you’re the one. He said you’re the only one for him and because of it he knew he had to protect my Sierra. Because of you, she’s alive. I want you to know. I want you to know that—”
He sighed, a little puff of air came out of his mouth, and then he was quiet.
His wound had stopped bleeding. Frantically, she fumbled at his chest and put her ear to his lips.
No heartbeat. No breath.
“Warning. In twenty-five minutes, all oxygen will be ventilated from the building. All personnel must evacuate immediately.”
Could she get him out the door, find someone who could call 911? Maybe if an ambulance could take him to the hospital, he could still be saved.
She ran to the loading dock door, tugged at it. No. It was sealed from the outside.
This room was a trap. Maybe the entire building was a trap. To get out, she’d have to find the central system management somewhere.
She went back to Rory. His eyes were glassy and he lay immobile. Tears stung her eyes. He was Adrian’s best friend. He didn’t deserve to die like this.
But there was nothing Elisa could do. She squatted beside him and brushed his hair back from his forehead. She straightened his jacket and folded his hands over his chest.
She sat back. There must be some words she could say for him.
“Sierra is going to do well,” she told him. “Look down on her from heaven, and take care of her. I’ll tell her you love her.”
The loudspeaker interrupted her. “Warning. In twenty minutes, all oxygen will be ventilated from the building. All personnel must evacuate immediately.”
Elisa stood up. She had to get out of there. A gun lay on the floor just beyond his outstretched hand. She hesitated, then picked it up and slid it into the waistband of her jeans.
Keisha
Keisha loped along the dimly lit hall, trailed by Vince. She cursed her poor timing. She’d gone ahead to scout out the area and had just turned to wave the SWAT team in when all the blast doors had gone down. Now she and Vince were trapped inside while the SWAT team was stuck outside.
Low lights and flashing strobes threw shadows along the corridors and made it difficult to see. She and Vince went from door to door, checking to make sure there was no one who needed to be rescued. The last communication she’d received before her radio went dead was that a young girl had been kidnapped and was being held hostage inside the building.
They had to find any civilians still trapped inside the building and rescue them.
And oh yes, they had to find an exit.
“Warning. In twenty minutes, all oxygen will be ventilated from the building. All personnel must evacuate immediately.”
Adrian
Adrian sprinted down the corridor under the flashing strobe lights, checking each of the doors he passed.
He had to find Elisa.
She was all that mattered. Every fiber of his being yearned toward her the way iron filings lined up in a magnetic field. Whether or not she chose to be with him, he would give everything for her.
Once he had thought her hopelessly naïve, the way she longed to make the world a better place.
Now all he wanted was for her to accomplish her desires.
It was so strange, and yet so wonderful.
It was irrational, but there it was.
In the big lab, he had organized the escape of the prisoners from their cages. The entire time, fear gnawed inside him, the terrifying worry that Elisa was in danger. That every minute might be the one that made the difference to whether she lived or died.
In the past, he could have walked right by those people about to die, without a care, on his way to accomplish whatever goal he chose. Surely that was the rational thing to do.
But now, he could not leave them to their fate.
There had been no time for philosophy as he organized the prisoners, identified the leaders among them, and set them to various tasks: carrying people outside, managing others, performing first aid, contacting the police.
He was getting the last of the escapees out when the side door opened on the far side of the lab, and he spotted Mario.
Mario lifted his Glock. It was clear what was going to happen. Adrian sprinted toward him, drawing his own gun as he ran.
But Rory and Sierra were within point-blank range of Mario’s weapon.
Mario fired, and Rory fell. Adrian returned fire, but the distance was too great. He’d missed, and Mario darted out the door and disappeared.
When Adrian had reached Sierra, she was crouched over Rory lying on the floor bleeding out. Adrian was going to chase after Mario, but Rory gasped out a few words, making him promise to get Sierra out first before doing anything else.
Given his wounds, there was no saving Rory. But Adrian could still save Sierra.
He grabbed her hand and tugged her past the empty cages, yanking her to the exit despite her wails of protest.
“Rory wants you to get out safely,” he said. “You’ll do that for him, won’t you?”
The blast door had started to descend. Adrian shoved her, hard, barely in time. She rolled through and was out. The door slammed down behind her with a decisive clang.
In the sudden silence, he returned to where Rory lay on the ground, eyes closed. With multiple bullet wounds he didn’t have a chance. Adrian didn’t even dare move him, much less try to find an exit.
Then he he
ard the evacuation warning. Suddenly, much more than Elisa’s life was at risk. What could Schwartz be thinking? Was he truly planning to kill everyone in the building?
Adrian couldn’t simply find Elisa and escape, not just yet. He was responsible for other lives now.
If the system worked the way he suspected, oxygen levels throughout the building would be dropping over the next few minutes. People would soon show the symptoms of hypoxia: decreased vision, confusion, poor judgment, or inappropriate euphoria. The symptoms were unique to the individual. He himself had once visited an altitude chamber and observed his own behavior, deeming it potentially useful should he ever be caught in an unpressurized airplane.
Usually, judgment was one of the first things to go. And losing mental control or cognitive judgment was one of the few things that frightened Adrian.
Hypoxia could be especially dangerous when combined with lethal weapons. Mario had quite an arsenal with him. And there were undoubtedly security forces roaming the building.
Adrian would need to be very careful.
He glanced one more time at Rory. He’d been the closest thing Adrian had to a friend. And in the end he had demonstrated his loyalty. Was there anything Adrian could do to save him? A pang came over him, but he pushed it away ruthlessly. He had work to do for those still living.
He let the lab door slam behind him and raced down the hall under the flashing lights. More warnings sounded. He paused briefly to check the windows into each of the labs he passed. They were all empty. Hopefully most of the employees had heard the warnings and evacuated.
He couldn’t search every room. There wasn’t time. He knew where he had to go.
The central control room.
He took a right at the next corridor and dashed up the hall.
The control room was ringed by a set of large, bulletproof windows through which the occupants could scan the outside hallway. Thick glass panels reflected the flashing strobes. Set into the wall beside the heavy fire door was an entry keypad, and next to it, a full security terminal for emergency access. Adrian paused, took a deep breath, and approached the nearest window.
Schwartz sat inside at a bank of monitors. He lifted his head as Adrian drew near, and smirked.
His voice emanated from the intercom. “If it isn’t our dutiful intern, Adrian Salas.” His mouth twisted. “But perhaps you are not quite as dutiful and loyal as you appear, Adrian.”
An icy hand closed over Adrian’s heart at the sight of Schwartz. At the memory of the emails and news articles he had uncovered when he hacked into the man’s account. Schwartz had been dabbling in drug dealing for a long time. The scanned news clippings and handwritten notes dated from thirteen years ago.
There had been a news clipping of Adrian’s family’s death. Emails to a name he had recognized.
One of his family’s murderers.
Schwartz had been involved in that failed home invasion robbery so long ago.
Now that Adrian stood in front of the man, the cold rage in his stomach uncoiled and spread throughout his body. This was the monster who had destroyed his life. Who had killed his innocent family.
For nothing.
Revenge had been everything Adrian had lived for over the past thirteen years. The only thing he had lived for. The cold hand on his heart squeezed more tightly.
He was ice and steel. There was no room for emotion.
It was time to play the role, once again, of the Captain, the man with ice water in his veins and a cruel streak a mile long. He would play the game for all he was worth. Schwartz had found him useful in the past. A brilliant chemist was not someone to throw away lightly. Adrian could count on that.
Schwartz said, “It has occurred to me your loyalty might be bought. And maybe… I have the coin by which I can buy it.” His eyes narrowed.
Adrian tilted his head. “I’m listening.”
“Soon everyone in this building will die, including you. The only safe place is this armored control room.”
Adrian shrugged. “I’m quite sure I can find a way in before the oxygen levels drop too low. I’ve already hacked into your system once.”
Schwartz glared at him. “So it was you.”
Adrian smiled. “Indeed. So—do you have anything of true value to offer me?”
The muscles in Schwartz’s jaw knotted, and he straightened them with a visible effort. A twisted attempt at a fatherly smile appeared on his face. “I know you want to live, Adrian. You want to be rich. I have enough evidence here to frame Holman for all criminal activity that has occurred in connection with Rapture. I also have a cache of funds and some new identities.” His voice lowered, became persuasive. “Why don’t you join me? I’ll let you into this room. We allow the cleanup process to finish here, take care of all witnesses and evidence. You survive, we escape, we travel to a new country and set up shop. You and I resume the production of Rapture. We get rich, incredibly rich, enough to last the rest of our lives.”
Adrian kept his face blank and calm as he listened. His mind raced. Should he pretend to accept the deal? Get into the room with Schwartz? Put his hands around the bastard’s throat?
He cocked his head to one side. “A tempting offer,” he said with a smile. “But…” He moved to one of the two keypads beside the door, and began inputting a sequence. “What guarantee do I have that you’ll keep your end of the deal? You do know how much evidence I’ve assembled on you,” he remarked casually.
Schwartz’s eyes shifted from side to side. “You mean that trumped up set of documents you gave to the police? I have proof it was all a forgery. Proof that pins this entire conspiracy on you and Holman.” He pointed at one of the terminals. “There is a secure, encrypted set of files that contains the real truth about Rapture. Including your role. It’s all set to go out to the police. Besides, you’ll never be able to decrypt the passwords for the security protocol to extract the oxygen. Everyone else in this building will die.”
“Do you think I care if anyone besides me lives or dies?” Adrian’s eyes were cold. “This won’t take long. Once I’m in that room, I’ll be safe. Soon it will all be over.”
“Think of it: you could have all the money and power you’ve ever wanted.”
Cold pooled in Adrian’s belly. What good was money or power without family? “I know,” he said. “I know you were involved in my family’s death.”
Schwartz’s head jerked back. “What? What do you mean?”
“I saw the files. What did you think? What’s one more home invasion robbery here or there? It’s so easy to hire a couple of small-time thugs.”
Schwartz broke out into harsh laughter. “Ha! Is that it? Is that why you persist in this foolish vendetta against me, when I’m the only one who can give you what you want? You don’t know anything. Who was really behind it all. You don’t know the full story. About your mother.” His voice lowered. “Come with me, my boy. Work with me, and I’ll tell you everything. Don’t condemn me until you know the full truth. Did you know your mother left a journal?”
“You’re lying.”
“No. I’ll prove it.”
Adrian clenched his teeth and typed faster on the security keypad. “You’re just trying to save your miserable life.”
“She wrote about you and your sister. I know all sorts of things about her. She liked playing math games with you. She enjoyed music. Her favorite composer was Dvořák. Now there’s no way I could know that if I hadn’t read her journal.”
Adrian’s fingers fell still and he stared at Schwartz. The thought that this man might know something about his mother’s past, might still possess some memento of her, some precious relic, when Adrian had nothing… It made him more furious than he could ever remember feeling. The desire for revenge leaped in him. It roared like a furnace, engulfed his soul like a conflagration.
Schwartz continued to babble. “I have information in a safe deposit box under an assumed name. So you see, if you work with me, everything will go well for
you. Holman will go to jail for the drug synthesis. I am the only one who can give you everything you want.”
Adrian said nothing. Yes, Schwartz would indeed give him everything he wanted, once Adrian had him under his hands. Schwartz would scream with pain and beg to give him anything he desired.
He worked at the keypad. It would only take a few minutes more to get into the control room; it was a relatively easy technical puzzle.
Schwartz’s blond hair had turned dark with sweat. His eyes darted from side to side, and he panted, finally falling silent as Adrian continued to ignore him. All at once, he flipped a few switches on the console, leapt out of his seat, bolted to a back door in the lab and slammed it behind him.
Adrian’s jaw muscles clenched. It was an elevator to the subbasement. Schwartz must have an escape route.
Damn! Adrian scanned the blinking lights in the control room. Only nineteen minutes until the oxygen was evacuated.
He had to chase after Schwartz. He had to take his revenge. But if he spent precious minutes pursuing Schwartz, he wouldn’t be able to turn off the fire retardant system.
Everyone else in the building would die.
His eyes flicked to the second terminal on the wall beside the keypad. He could spend the next few minutes disarming the oxygen depletion system from there, without needing to get into the control room. There wasn’t much time left. He could either turn the system off and save everyone’s life, or he could hack into the control room, save himself, and get his revenge on Schwartz.
On the elevator readout, the numbers crept down to B, B2, B3, B4, and then stopped.
Schwartz was on subbasement level B4. Adrian could still catch him. He had to find out what Schwartz knew, force any information about his mother from him, and make the man pay. It was untenable that Schwartz would escape, and not even go to jail. That he and Holman would get away scot-free for all their crimes.
Adrian lifted a hand toward the keypad beside the door. It wouldn’t take long to find the entry code.
Elisa’s face flashed in front of him, the sun glinting off her hair, waves surging in the background.
He stopped.
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