Judging by the glassy look on her face, the same emotional storm raged in Sam, but she just nodded and said, “Heck yeah.”
They raced from their hiding spot, blazing across the small stretch of open space to the front door. They both froze for a second when they saw the unconscious lumps that were the two guards. Knowing that if they lost momentum fear would freeze their feet to the floor, they set off on a careful, measured run—more like the run a nun might do when she was late for service as opposed to the raging bull type they typically liked best. They stopped at every corner and made sure the coast was clear before continuing on. They allowed themselves only a moment to marvel at each unconscious soldier they passed.
The hallways of the compound seemed to stretch on forever. The rhythmic echo of their feet hitting the floor became a hypnotizing lullaby. TJ had completely lost track of time when they stopped at an intersection with halls branching off in three directions.
Sam took Colonel Horne’s hand drawn map out of her back pocket. She started at the front door and traced their route with her finger. “Uh-oh.”
TJ’s blood ran cold. Those are the last words anyone wanted to hear when in the middle of a covert mission. “Whattya mean, uh-oh?”
Sam whispered through her clenched jaw. “Uh-oh as in, I think we’re lost.”
“How could we be lost? You said you knew the map.”
“Yeah, well, knowing the map and actually using it while running through a secret military facility are two very different things.”
TJ snatched the map out of Sam’s hand. “Gimme that. We can’t just stand here.”
Sam restrained herself from punching TJ in the neck. Not a good idea. I can’t carry him and a dinosaur out of here.
After a second of scanning the map, TJ threw his arms up in disgust. “I don’t even know where we are on this thing.”
Sam snatched it back and pointed. “I think we took this turn back here when we should have taken this turn. Which means we just need to go back this way.”
“You think? And what if we didn’t? We’d just end up more lost.”
“So what do you want to do? Ask for directions?”
Before they started throwing neck punches, a toilet flushed nearby and snapped them back to reality. They peered around the corner and saw what must have been a bathroom door only a few feet away. A sink ran for a moment then an automatic hand dryer whirred. TJ and Sam both resisted the urge to pass out. Barely.
They pressed against the wall as the door swung open and a soldier stepped out, whistling and shaking the rest of the water off his hands. His boots sounded like cannon fire. The guard stepped into view, his back to TJ and Sam, and stared down the opposite hall. He was less than three feet away, only seconds from discovering them and ruining everything.
TJ and Sam tried to become part of the wall, to blend into it like kid-sized chameleons. An idea suddenly bloomed in TJ’s head. Something he’d seen in a movie once. He took his collapsible fishing pole out of his bag, tip-toed to the soldier, and pressed it to the back of the man’s neck. He said in the deepest voice he could muster, “Move and you’re toast, buddy.”
The soldier threw his arms in the air. But as soon as the surge of adrenaline wore off, he must have realized something wasn’t right. In a blink he spun and snatched the pole out of TJ’s hand. At first he looked confused, as if he thought the intruder had disappeared, but then he looked down and saw the two kids standing there. “What the heck?”
Sam’s leg cocked back. TJ winced before it even happened—the next few seconds playing in slow motion in his head. Her foot flew forward with enough force to punt a football to the moon. Straight into the soldier’s…little soldiers. He doubled over, tears in his eyes, face white as a sheet.
Sam tried to run, but TJ turned an odd shade of green and leaned against the wall. “I’m gonna puke.”
“Why? I didn’t kick you?”
“Yeah, but guys have a highly evolved sense of sympathy pain when it comes to that.”
“Get over it.” Sam pulled him off the wall, and they ran down the hall. Because she was such an excellent super spy, she was able to backtrack and get them on the right path, or so she told herself. Either way, they came to the big, metal door that Colonel Horne had described as the entrance to the lab.
“It’s open,” Sam whispered. They stepped through and marveled at the gadgets on the walls and the hi-tech equipment scattered around the room. “Where do you think they’re keeping Rex?”
“Probably in the back. The coolest stuff is always in the back.”
Sam nodded. It was an excellent point.
They snuck through the lab weary of everything they passed, afraid a piece of machinery would lurch to life if they got too close. So preoccupied were they with not touching anything that at first they didn’t notice the shadow that had crept up behind them. Then TJ and Sam stopped, sensing the presence. But before they could react, the shadow slapped a hand over each of their mouths. They squirmed and writhed and struggled to break free, but there was no point.
The shadow spun them around, and they came face to face with Colonel Horne. “Shhh,” he whispered. “I think I neutralized all the guards, but you can’t be too careful.”
Sam crossed her arms and flashed a cocky smile. “You missed one, actually. But don’t worry. I neutralized him.”
TJ shuddered. “More like neutered him.”
Horne made a face and instinctively covered his nether region. TJ looked at Sam. “See? It’s in our DNA.”
Horne pointed toward the back of the lab. “The subject is back there.”
“Rex,” TJ corrected.
“Right, Rex. But we have to bypass two access points and I don’t have the clearance.”
“I do.”
The startled at the voice and turned to see Sergeant Ferguson standing there, his gun aimed straight at Horne’s head. “Real stupid, sir. You disobeyed orders. Brought civilians to a classified location. Attacked fellow soldiers. Conspired to steal military secrets. It’s treason.”
The word seemed to stab at Horne for a moment, but only for a moment. “What’s being done in this place is wrong, Sergeant. Do you really want to see an army of those things unleashed on the world?”
A flicker of doubt crossed Ferguson’s face, but he swatted it away like it was an annoying gnat. “Orders, sir.” He gestured toward the door. “Move.”
They marched together, a gun at their backs, out of the lab and through the halls of the compound. Horne pushed TJ and Sam in front of him, trying his best to put himself between them and a bullet. The promise he’d made to Ellen played like a broken record in his head. This was it. The moment he stood for something other than what he was ordered to. It was a moment he thought he’d be proud of, but it had turned into his single biggest moment of regret. And, it appeared, it would become the moment during which he got two kids killed.
They stepped into the open air and Horne couldn’t help but think that this may be the last time any of them saw the sky. Horne turned to look Ferguson in the eye.
“Don’t move,” the Sergeant ordered. “Accidents happen. And I hate kids.”
“The feeling is mutual,” Sam muttered under her breath.
Horne sidestepped to put himself between Ferguson’s gun and the kids again. “We served together, Ferguson. I know you’re a good soldier. Always followed orders without question. But you’re pointing a gun at kids right now. For what? Because Osborne told you to? What do you think he’s getting out of this? You think he’s doing it to serve his country? Or because he fell into someone’s deep pockets?”
Ferguson pointed the gun at Horne’s face, like he wanted to shoot the words in his mouth before they came out.
A sudden gust of wind knocked the words into the ground before Ferguson got the chance. The treetops bent as if being pushed over. The rhythmic hum of an engine descended on them. Osborne’s helicopter had returned.
Ferguson looked up. Horne took advantage o
f the momentary distraction, diving through the tumultuous air and slamming into his comrade. The gun clenched in Ferguson’s hand sent a barrage of bullets into the sky, tearing holes in the side of the helicopter, which banked hard to the left and set down.
Horne and Ferguson were a rolling, flailing mass of combat boots and fists. Horne reached for Ferguson’s throat and yanked, then threw something to TJ. “Go!”
TJ snatched the security card out of the air. He and Sam ran back into the compound, hearts racing faster than the helicopter’s rotors. They reached the lab seconds later. TJ fumbled with the card, adrenaline making his fingers too twitchy to work properly. The lock blinked, and the door slid open. But their victory was short lived. A second door stood between them and Rex. And this one had a retinal scanner.
TJ tried his luck. He put his eye to the device. It blinked and squawked at him. “Access denied.”
TJ punched the door in a fit of frustration and almost broke his hand.
The click of a gun behind them sent the pain in TJ’s hand shooting into his chest. “Can’t say you didn’t try.” Ferguson’s lip was bloody and his eye was already starting to swell. “Too bad it’s only going to land you in a deep, dark hole.”
Ferguson’s head suddenly jerked back as Horne rammed into him. Ferguson flew forward, his face slamming into the wall and sliding down over the retinal scanner.
“Access granted.” The robotic voice sounded like an angel. The door slid open.
Horne checked Ferguson to make sure he was unconscious and no longer a threat. TJ and Sam raced in as soon as they could fit through the opening in the door. They scoured the lab, allowing their eyes to fall on something for only a fraction of a second before moving on. They finally arrived at a large cage in the back. Rex was inside, lying on the floor. He had grown since they’d seen him last. TJ estimated him to be about ten feet. Full grown from what Colonel Horne had told him about the experiment.
TJ grabbed the bars of the cage. “I’m getting you out of here, buddy.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Rex rose unsteadily. He swayed on his feet, still wobbly from the tranquilizers. As soon as the clouds in his vision parted, he saw TJ and began to chortle. He pressed his head against the bars like he was ready to transform into jelly and squeeze through them. TJ rested his hand on Rex’s snout. The two didn’t even remember why they’d split up. All they cared about now was making sure they’d never be apart again.
TJ ran his hand over the bandage on Rex’s neck. “What’d they do to him?”
Horne held his sleeve to a cut on his brow to keep the blood from running into his eye. “They implanted a tracking device, in case he escapes.”
A defeated sigh escaped Sam’s mouth. “So they’ll be able to find him no matter where we go? Then all of this was pointless.”
“You’re such a defeatist.” Horne chuckled as Sam glared at him. “I disabled the sat-link. They won’t be able to pick up his signal for another ten hours. And they won’t even know it.” He produced a small black box from his pocket. “This is going to throw them off our trail.” He shoved the box into TJ’s pack, and then drew his pistol and aimed it at the lock on Rex’s cage. “Stand back.” The kids huddled in the corner, behind a cabinet full of vials of strange, colorful liquid.
The pistol cracked like a thunder strike. The ringing in his ears was disorienting, but TJ had his wits about him enough to know that Rex was still locked in his cage. He could also tell that Horne was cursing up a storm even though he couldn’t hear it.
“Look for a key,” Horne ordered. “Kruger must have one stashed in here somewhere.”
Sam shook her head in disbelief. “Kruger? Seriously? We’re going up against a mad scientist named Kruger. Is it too late to just go to prison? I’d rather do that than end up one of his freaky experiments.”
“Just look,” Horne yelled. Then added under his breath, “He’s not the one you need to worry about anyway.”
TJ searched the cabinet. He didn’t find a key, but he did get an idea. He took a vial of liquid with the handwritten label PENDROX to Rex’s cage. He poured some of it on the lock and watched as the metal sizzled and dissolved. Horne flashed an approving smile and yanked the door open.
TJ dashed into the cage and threw his arms around Rex. He nearly knocked the unsteady dinosaur over.
“Save the touching reunion,” Horne said as he helped walk Rex out of his cage. “This plan has already gone completely sideways. We need to get out of here while we can.”
“Oh, I’m afraid that time has passed.” Osborne stood in the doorway, pistol in hand.
Horne stepped between Osborne and the others. “You’re supposed to be on your way to present your findings to your superiors.”
“Luckily, Dr. Kruger is a complete idiot. He forgot his notes, so we came back to get them.”
“This was completely my idea, Osborne. Let the kids go.”
Osborne flashed his ghostly grin. “With classified military intelligence? I think not.”
TJ and Sam met eyes and instantly hatched an unspoken plan. TJ nodded to his backpack. Sam, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him, reached in without Osborne noticing and took out TJ’s collapsible fishing rod.
Osborne raised his arm and aimed his gun at Horne’s head. “You never were much of a team player. And, for a career military man, you’re surprisingly naïve.” The hammer pulled back as Osborne squeezed the trigger.
The gun was suddenly yanked out of Osborne’s grasp. It skittered across the floor a moment before lifting up again, dangling on the end of TJ’s fishing line. The most perfect cast ever.
Horne lunged at Osborne, driving his shoulder into the agent’s stomach. “Get out of here!” he yelled to the others as he and Osborne crashed to the floor.
They didn’t hesitate to follow his orders. TJ and Sam, holding Rex between them, ran for the door. Mere inches from escape, their path was suddenly blocked by Sergeant Ferguson. “Brats,” he grumbled. “Time to put you all in cages.”
TJ reached into his pack again and pulled out a plastic water pistol.
Ferguson’s stoic features twisted awkwardly into an uncharacteristic smile. “Bring it, kid.” TJ squeezed the trigger and a long stream of yellow liquid shot from the gun and hit Ferguson in the face. He clutched at his eyes and screamed.
TJ, Sam, and Rex darted past him, out of the lab.
“Acid?” Sam asked.
“Kinda.”
“Did you find it in the lab?”
TJ’s face turned bright red. “Nope. In me.”
Sam gave him a clueless look.
TJ grinned. “I peed in the gun.”
“Disgusting, but genius.”
“A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”
Sam rolled her eyes. “Quit while you’re ahead.” They raced through the halls and out of the compound.
Kruger and the helicopter pilot rounded the corner to meet them. “Stop!” Kruger yelled. “Return my dinosaur at once!”
Rex spun, lowering his tail, and knocked the legs out from under Kruger and the pilot. He snorted at Kruger, coating him in a fine layer of dino snot.
TJ had the feeling he knew exactly what Rex was thinking. I’m not your dinosaur.
The three of them raced away again only to arrive at yet another roadblock—an electrified perimeter fence higher than Rex was tall. TJ could smell the positive charge passing through it.
“What now?” Sam asked.
Rex answered her with a powerful kick that ripped the entire section of fence out of the ground, disconnecting it from its power source.
Sam patted Rex on the back. “Nicely done.”
Rex chortled.
They passed through the fence, finally making it out of the compound. But they were far from free. Sam leaned against a tree to catch her breath. She watched TJ check Rex over, making sure he was okay. An unexpected pang of jealousy pinched her gut. Her family was so large, she’d never really had anything that wa
s just hers. She’d always had to share everything with her brothers and sisters. But she’d never had to share TJ. At least, not until he’d found Rex. The jealousy turned to guilt.
Sam pushed off the tree and stripped TJ’s pack off his back.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“We’ll never outrun them. Even if they can’t find Rex with his tracker thingy, they’ll track us the old fashioned way. We need a diversion so you can put as much space between you and them as possible.” She unzipped the pack and took stock of its contents.
“So what do we do?” TJ didn’t stop inspecting Rex.
“We split up.”
TJ spun on his heels. “Are you crazy?”
She zipped the pack again, satisfied with what she’d seen. “No, I have a plan.”
“We’re doing this together, Sam.”
“Then we’ll end up in prison together.” She slipped the pack onto her back and wrapped TJ in a tight hug. “Trust me,” she said into his shoulder. “This will work.”
Caught off guard, TJ didn’t know what to do with his hands. Then he sank into it. Of course he trusted her—the one person who had never let him down, was always there when he needed her, willing to break into top secret government facilities and steal military experiments.
“Okay.”
Sam rushed past TJ, afraid to let him see the tears budding in her eyes. She looked up at Rex. “Take care of him, okay?”
Rex chortled.
Then Sam ran off into the night.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Blood trickled from Osborne’s nose. A lucky shot. Colonel Horne may have thought Osborne was just a suit, but he’d seen more action than Horne ever would. He’d done things Horne would never dream of. He got to wear the suit because he was the kind of man that made the decisions no one else wanted to make. He wasn’t the kind of man that got bested by two prepubescent kids and a soldier who’d lost the guts to follow orders.
He knocked one of Horne’s punches aside and blocked a second with his forearm. He grabbed the back of Horne’s head and drove his knee up into his stomach, knocking the wind from his lungs. Horne dropped like a brick, gasping for breath.
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