Had they hit the Ranch, too? Was…was Michael okay?
Dear God, please see both of us through tonight.
She had to get closer to the window. She had to see if she could get inside. Even if the others were still around, perhaps there was someplace she could hide. Surely they had already checked the rooms. If she were able to, say, climb into her closet, chances were they would never know she was there.
You can do this.
She silently counted to three, pulled the blanket off her head, and crawled back down to the base of the dormer. She lay back, panting, the short distance having required most of her energy. She didn’t even realize she’d closed her eyes.
Nor was she aware of losing consciousness again.
__________
LEAVING TWO MEN behind to stand guard by the entrance, Pax led the others through the house to the secret elevator that went down to the detention level.
“Put your masks on now,” he said as they entered the car. “When we get to the bottom, Browne, I want you to keep your finger next to the Close Door button, but don’t push it until I say. The rest of you stay where you are while I run an air analysis.”
As they descended, Pax attached a long cable to his iPad. On the other end was a device that looked almost like a wand. He handed the computer to Ash. Holding the wand with one hand, he coiled up the cable, finishing just as the car began to slow.
He moved to the front and looked at Browne. “Be ready.”
The car came to a smooth stop. After a second’s delay, the doors slid open.
They weren’t even a foot apart when Pax tossed the wand into the arrival area, letting the cable play out as far as it could go.
As soon as it stopped moving, Pax said, “Close the door.”
Brown hit the button, and the doors slid shut around the cable.
Pax took the tablet back from Ash and studied the screen for several seconds.
“Smoke looks like it was just there for cover,” he said, his voice both muffled by the mask and coming clearly over the radio. “There’s something else, though.” He waited for a moment, his eyes on the screen. Then his nostrils flared. “Those bastards. Double LG.”
“Double LG?” Ash said, surprised. Double LG was the nickname for a deadly nerve toxin that killed within seconds of contact. He’d never heard of anyone actually using it before.
“There’re only trace amounts left,” Pax said. “But keep the masks on. Got it?”
On Pax’s command, Browne pushed the Open Door button.
The room beyond the elevator was unchanged from their brief preview a moment earlier. With Pax in the lead, they moved out of the elevator.
As they neared the body on the floor, Pax glanced at Billy. “Check him.”
The doctor knelt beside the still form, while the others headed over to the Plexiglas wall. Where it met the outer wall was the control room, itself fronted by a glass wall. Though they’d already seen the dead men inside via the camera feed, it was still unnerving to see nearly a dozen people slumped over desks and lying on the floor, dead.
Pax tossed the sensor into the control room and read the results. “Same. Concentration’s higher, but that’s probably because the room’s smaller.” He looked up as Billy rejoined them. “Dead?”
Billy nodded.
Michael moved to the control room window. “I don’t see her. I don’t think she’s in there.”
“No, but a lot of others were,” Billy said.
Michael whipped around, his eyes on fire. “You think I don’t know that? I worked with these people every day! They were my friends! Excuse me if I’m also concerned about my wife!”
“Michael, calm down,” Pax said. “Or I swear to God I will send you back upstairs right now.”
“My fault,” Billy said, sounding like he actually meant it. “Sorry, Michael. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Michael did nothing for a moment, then gave Billy a curt nod.
For the third time, Pax did his trick with the sensor, this time throwing it into the detention block.
“It’s clear,” he announced. “Don’t think they used any gas in there. But just to be safe, keep your masks on.”
Ash had guessed as much. The intruders would have only come down here for one thing: the detainees.
While Billy and Solomon checked the downed guards to see if any of them was still alive, Pax asked Michael, “Which cells are occupied?”
Michael thought for a moment. “Three…five, seven, um, eight…and eleven.”
Ash had assumed all were full, so he was surprised to learn that most of the twenty cells were empty.
One by one, they checked each. In the first four, the prisoners had all been shot through the head. The fifth cell, though, was empty. Ash didn’t need anyone to tell him who had been held there. He’d once visited cell eleven himself.
Olivia Silva’s.
“Son of a bitch,” Pax said.
__________
IT WAS A noise that woke Janice. Not just any noise. Voices, indistinct and coming from the other side of the window.
She tried to peek inside, but couldn’t do so without risking being seen, so she hung back.
Once they were gone, she waited five minutes just to be sure. Then, using more strength than she thought she had, she raised the window and crawled back inside.
At first she just lay on the floor as she let the warmth of the Bluff flow over her and attempt to thaw her out. After a while, though still cold, she felt like she could stand. Using the bed to help her, she rose to her feet. That’s when she saw Robert. He was lying near the door, a drying pool of blood at his side. He could have saved himself, but had instead given his life to save her.
She knelt beside him, and brushed a strand of hair off his cheek. He was so young. How would she ever repay his sacrifice?
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something under her dresser. She leaned forward to take a better look. A pistol, probably the one Robert had been using. She picked it up and checked the mag. It was full.
Though hiding in the closet had been her initial plan, a new one had taken its place. She would find the intruders, and get a good look at them so she could identify them later. If she were really lucky, maybe she would find one alone, and take one life in payment for the many that she was sure had been lost that day.
Quickly she exchanged her sweats for more practical clothing, then checked to make sure no one was in the hallway.
Without waiting another moment, she slipped out of her room.
__________
THE MOOD IN the elevator was somber as the team headed back up to the house. Counting the four prisoners in their cells, thirty-two were dead, and two—Janice and Olivia—were the known missing.
Not only were the losses devastating, but the numbers themselves were a problem. There had been thirty-five people at the Bluff, not thirty-four. Someone else was also missing. To try figuring out who it was, Browne and Solomon had stayed below to ID the bodies.
As soon as the doors opened at the top, they all ripped off their masks and took in deep breaths of fresh, untainted air.
“I need to report in,” Pax said as he pulled out his phone and walked away.
Ash and the others headed toward the front room.
It was clear to him what had happened. The Project had found out that Olivia was alive and had come for her. She had been one of their leading scientists before she was taken and her death faked. There must have been a need she filled that required her return to the fold. How had they found out, though? A leak here at the Bluff?
Perhaps the missing—
A gunshot rang out.
__________
MOVING AS SILENTLY as she could, Janice listened for intruders as she made her way toward the stairs that would take her to ground level. So far she had heard nothing, and had the distinct sense the others were no longer on the second floor.
She was just starting to think that maybe they’d pulled ou
t altogether when a male voice drifted in her direction, and was answered a moment later by a second man. They seemed to be somewhere ahead of her.
The hallway she was in T-boned with another that ran parallel to the front of the house. She turned left, heading toward the stairs, and soon discovered where the voices were coming from.
The hallway stopped at the edge of the second-floor mezzanine. There was no one there. The speakers must have been in the room below, their voices drifting upward. The problem now was, if she stepped out onto the walkway, she’d easily be seen from the lower level. She scanned ahead, and realized maybe that wasn’t correct. If she stayed low, she could use the railing as cover and get even closer to the stairs.
Not allowing any time to talk herself out of it, she dropped into a crouch and crept along the mezzanine until she was three feet short of the stairs. She peeked over the top rail. Standing together in the lower room were two men, both wearing black, with rifles slung over their shoulders.
Without warning her head began to swim. She reached out and grabbed the rail to keep from falling down.
“Did you hear that?” one of the men said. “Up by the stairs, I think.”
They’d heard her.
“We need to check,” the other one said.
“I’ll go.”
No! Oh, God, no! They knew she was here. Now they wouldn’t stop until…
…until I’m dead, too.
She had to buy time, but the only way to do that was to let them know for sure she was there. Without looking, she pointed her gun into the room toward where she thought the others were, and pulled the trigger.
__________
ASH RAISED HIS gun, and looked back at Michael and Billy.
“Stay here,” he said.
Billy wasn’t armed, so he didn’t put up any protest, but Michael looked like he was about to.
“Stay. Here,” Ash repeated.
Not waiting to see if Michael complied, he ran to the end of the hallway and scanned the front room beyond. He could see the two men they had left behind, pressed against the wall opposite the front door.
Ash quickly waved his hand to get their attention. One of the men looked over and pointed at the mezzanine above him. Ash nodded, then held up his hand, telling them to stay put.
He turned and ran back down the hallway.
When he reached Michael and Billy, he said, “Is there another way to the second floor?”
“One of them is still here?” Michael asked.
“Is there another way or not?”
Michael nodded. “I’ll show you.”
Moving fast, Michael took him into a room that was set up as an office, then out a door on the other side. This led into a narrow corridor that fed into the kitchen. At the back of the room, next to the pantry, was a closed door. Michael wrenched it open. Beyond was a staircase.
Ash pushed past Michael and raced up. Behind him he heard the other man’s feet pounding the treads.
Instead of arguing with him, Ash looked back and said, “Stay just inside the stairwell in case they try to use it.”
Michael nodded. “Okay.”
Ash took off down the hallway. Having never been on this floor before, he let his instincts guide him. Ahead, the hallway bent to the left. He stopped just short of the turn and listened.
Silence.
Planning to move as quickly as he could to the far end, he stepped around the corner. He was instantly halted by the gun thrust in his face.
__________
JANICE HEADED FOR the back stairs, hoping the intruders weren’t guarding them, but as she neared the end of the corridor, she heard footsteps running in her direction down the intersecting hallway.
She leaned against the wall and raised her gun.
__________
AT FIRST, THE only thing Ash could see was the barrel of the pistol. Forcing himself to look beyond it, he made eye contact with the person who wanted to kill him.
“Janice?” he said, surprised.
Her eyes narrowed, confused, but she didn’t lower the weapon.
“Janice. It’s Ash. We’ve been looking for you.”
More confusion, the barrel wavering slightly.
“Please. We’re not here to hurt you. Whoever did this is gone. We just flew out from the Ranch.”
“The Ranch?”
He could see she was having a hard time understanding. She took a harder look at him.
“Ash?”
Whatever energy had been holding her up vanished. If Ash hadn’t jumped forward when he did, she would have smacked her head on the floor.
13
I.D. MINUS 12 DAYS
BROWNE AND SOLOMON accompanied Ash, Pax, Billy, Michael, and Janice on the plane back to the Ranch. The other men stayed at the Bluff, securing it until the cleanup team arrived the next afternoon.
Janice had yet to regain consciousness since falling in the hallway. After a quick examination at the house, Billy determined that in addition to the flu, she was now also suffering from hypothermia, which would explain why she hadn’t been killed with the others. Somehow she had been able to hide outside.
Matt was waiting for them when they landed back at the Ranch. He had Ash and Pax ride with him, while everyone else piled into the other waiting vehicles.
“It was indescribable,” Pax said as Matt pulled away from the airstrip. “A goddamn massacre. I don’t think anyone even had a chance.”
“We ran the names of everyone you identified,” Matt said. “The missing person is a man named Jeremy Murphy.”
Pax shook his head. “I don’t think I know him.”
“He was one of the control room technicians.”
“So was he involved?”
“He’d have been perfectly placed.”
Everyone was silent for a moment, then Pax said, “If that’s the case, I wonder if he did this of his own free will, or was he coerced?”
“It doesn’t matter one way or the other,” Matt said. “They’re all still dead.”
Silence once more.
After a little while, Ash said, “Olivia must be pretty damn important to them.”
Matt frowned. “Maybe a few years ago, but I wouldn’t have thought now. Whatever skills she had, they would have surely replaced them by this point.”
“Could be a personal connection. Someone in the Project who just found out she was alive?”
“That would make more sense.”
“Or,” Ash said, having another thought, “what if she was just a byproduct? And the real goal was to disrupt your organization.”
“Then they would have struck here.”
“Has Murphy ever been here?”
“Yeah, but like most of the people we bring in, he doesn’t know where here is.”
“You should probably still get ready, because chances are they’ll figure it out.”
“That’s already being taken care of.” Matt glanced at him. “I’m afraid I need your answer now.”
Ash’s mind had been so absorbed with the events of the evening, it took him a few seconds to realize that Matt was talking about Bluebird. “You should have Pax lead the team. He did a pretty damn good job at the Bluff.”
“Pax will be going, but he won’t be leading. He’ll be there to help and advise, but mainly to be my eyes and report back. I can’t have you burdened with dealing with me, too. Once you go, you’re the authority. I won’t contradict any of your orders. I’ll have too much down here to deal with.”
“You’re assuming we won’t be successful, aren’t you?” Ash asked.
Matt said nothing for several seconds, then nodded. “Yes.”
The rest of the ride was in silence. When Matt pulled up in front of the Lodge and killed the engine, no one made a move to get out.
“You’re asking me to leave my kids,” Ash finally said. “To quite possibly sacrifice my life for something you think is not going to work anyway. Why in the hell should I do that?”
Matt look
ed at him. “Because if you do succeed, you’re ensuring that the world your children know will still be here.”
It was as if Matt had been echoing his own thoughts.
“Well?” Matt asked.
__________
ASH SAT DOWN on the edge of his daughter’s bed, and gave her a shake. “Josie, I need to talk to you.”
She groaned softly and turned on her side, her back to him.
“Josie, come on. Wake up.”
He put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back around. She twisted against the mattress, then her eyelids parted.
“Dad?”
“Hi, sweetie. We need to talk.”
“What time is it?”
“Nearly four.”
She looked at the window, then back at him. “In the morning?”
“Yeah.”
Looking completely confused, she asked, “What do you want to talk about?”
He patted her on the leg and stood up. “Get dressed. I’ll wait for you in the hall.”
Once she joined him, he took her down to the kitchen where Bobbie had some hot chocolate waiting. The house was eerily quiet, in part due to the hour, but also because, as Matt had told him, most of the resistance personnel had shipped out not long after the destruction of the Bluff was discovered, so as not to be caught in any action that might have happened at the Ranch. Those remaining would be moving into the Bunker in the next few days, where they would remain, acting as communications hub, until it had all played out.
It took Ash an hour to fully explain everything to his daughter. He left nothing out, and answered all her questions as honestly and directly as possible.
She took it surprisingly well, but telling her the world might end in the next few weeks wasn’t the hardest part.
He took a sip of his now lukewarm cocoa. “There’s a chance we might be able to stop it. It’s not a good chance, but we have to try.”
“What is it?” she asked warily.
“We think we know where the Project’s headquarters are located. If we can get to those in charge before anything happens, we might be able to stop it.”
Exit 9 (A Project Eden Thriller) Page 9