Evil Without a Face (Sweet Justice)

by Jordan Dane

  “When the alarms went off, one of your guards left to save his own skin. And this one allowed the girl to get away.” The doctor pointed to the guard on the floor and went on, “She punched him in the gut with her elbow, and when he bent over, she shoved him into the wall. I think he may be dead.”

  The man was speaking faster now, out of breath. Spittal came from his mouth.

  “She looked like she’d taken martial arts. I couldn’t do a thing against her. Where do you think she learned that?”

  “Focus, Doctor. Where did she go?”

  The man pointed to his right. “She took off toward the elevator. She’s got the guard’s gun, and I think she took his keys too.”

  Stas clenched his jaw, working hard to contain his anger. He had to think clearly. But no matter how hard he planned for every contingency, whenever he involved others to carry out his orders, things got fucked up. And today had been no different. In the end there was only one person he could trust. And he had to remember that.

  “Why bother with her?” the doctor said, trying to downplay the incident and justify his own cowardice. “We should be going. Besides, she’ll die in the explosion anyway.”

  “You make a good point, Doctor. Very sound reasoning from an educated man, such as yourself.” He waggled a finger at him. “The men are waiting at the helicopters. Perhaps you should go. I will follow shortly. Since I’m a man of duty, it falls to me.”

  He turned to go, but stopped short at the door.

  “You know, Doctor. In many ways, we are men cut from the same cloth.” He could tell the good doctor believed he’d been insulted, but the medical man forced a grin. When he did, Petrovin added, “That’s how I know.”

  “Know what?”

  “That you have no heart.” He smiled and ventured a laugh until the man relaxed. “Because if you did, I would cut it from your chest and take it with me.”

  The doctor looked up, but before his eyes registered full recognition, Petrovin raised his weapon and pumped a round into the man’s heart and throat. He caught him just right, freezing the moment when the man’s expression switched from pompous to startled. Stas didn’t wait for the body to fall.

  He turned and walked away, muttering, “A bullet is a sure cure for stupidity.”

  He left the operating room, but once he got to the corridor, considered his options. He stood outside the room, awash in the red lights of the alarm system, and gazed down the hallway where the doctor told him the blond girl had run. Down the other way, his men waited at the helicopters. It didn’t take long for him to make up his mind.

  Above all else, he trusted his instincts and made his choice accordingly. A man of duty always weighed the consequences.

  “What was that? Did you hear that? Sounded like gunfire.” Gun in hand, Payton ran into the dark with his flashlight sweeping through the dusty haze. The crunch of dirt under his boots echoed down the gutted corridor. The air felt thick and muggy, making it hard for Jess to breathe.

  “I think it came from over here,” he cried out to her, not caring who else overheard.

  She raced after him, gripping her weapon and casting her flashlight in front of them both. She heard the shot and knew exactly what it was. But as she looked ahead, the corridor came to an abrupt end. Stone and rubble blocked the way. It didn’t look like there was a way around it. And her heart sank.

  She could have sworn the sound came from this direction. Hell, it wasn’t like they had a minivan full of options.

  But as she slowed, Payton picked up his pace, maybe seeing something she hadn’t. When he got to the end of the corridor, he reached to the floor and grabbed a handful of dirt. He tossed the dirt into the air, letting his flashlight pick up the particles as they drifted. To her surprise, the finer particles of dust drifted forward and got sucked through a section of the collapsed wall. Payton had found an opening large enough for them to squeeze through.

  As sure as she was that the gunshot came from behind the rubble, she was game to try whatever he came up with—his Hail Mary pass at fourth and long.

  “How did you see that? I would have missed it. Damn, you’re good.” She grinned.

  “I used to watch MacGyver reruns in the off season.”

  Before she could reply, Payton grabbed her hand and tried to rush her through the small opening, but she stopped him.

  “We better mark this spot for anyone to follow.”

  “The troopers?” he said. “Good idea.”

  “Yeah, right—Frank and Gary.” She would take any help she could get, but she was hoping Alexa might still find them.

  Payton fumbled through his pockets, fishing out fifty-dollar bills and a clean white handkerchief. The hankie caught her eye and she considered using it, but she had something more noticeable in mind.

  “At the risk of sounding prudish, turn your back.” When he did, she fished her arms under her shirt and pulled a Houdini. “Okay, we can use this.”

  With only a smile, she held up her lucky red bra and raised an eyebrow. This time she hoped for a different kind of good fortune.

  “That would get my attention.” He winked.

  Jess wedged the lacy garment into the debris near the opening and followed Payton through the wreckage. When they got to the other side, it didn’t take long to find an elevator. Locating a working elevator in this dump had seemed like winning the lotto until they got inside and looked at the button panel. Now they had way too many options to choose and no time to do it.

  Before Payton started to do the “man thing,” and hit all the buttons in a typical testosterone-driven shotgun approach, she reached out her arm and stopped him.

  “Don’t touch it. Hold on.” She bent over and flashed her light onto the elevator panel. When she found what she was looking for, she smiled and said, “You may have MacGyver, but I’ve got my rebellious youth in the foster care system and my felonious friends to fall back on. Check this out. Only one button has layers of fingerprint smudges. I’m thinkin’ that’s the place to be.”

  “And I’m with you. Punch it.” He nodded.

  When she hit the button and the elevator started its descent to God knew where, Jess reminded herself that what had drawn them here was the sound of a gunshot. She clutched her Glock and took a deep breath, nudging Payton to do the same. When the elevator door opened, no telling who would be on the other side.

  Nikki heard the gunshot but didn’t stop. She knew instinctively to run faster. She had no idea where she was going, relying only on her sense of direction and what she had memorized of the layout. For the first time since her abduction, she was alone. She had to take advantage of it.

  The rotating beams of red—even though they flashed without sirens—made her anxious, but at least they enabled her to see in the darkened corridors. She’d taken the guard’s keys and had his gun but had no idea how to use it. If it took more than pulling the trigger, she’d be toast.

  As she ran, her lungs burned, making it hard to swallow. Her throat was parched. And whenever she heard footsteps running toward her, she ducked around a corner or squeezed behind fallen debris. But she knew her luck wouldn’t hold.

  Gripping the keys in her hand, she realized why she’d taken them. She might not have known the other girls’ names, but she wouldn’t leave them behind—not if she had a chance to make a difference. She wasn’t able to help Britney, but for the sake of the others, she had to try.

  This has got to be it. She finally found the hall she’d walked down only a short time ago, where she saw the other girls locked in their cells. She rushed to the first door and slipped a key into the lock, but it didn’t budge. Her fingers trembled and she kept looking over her shoulder. Her eyes played tricks on her. Shadows moved and undulated in the red flashing light.

  “Please…get me out.” A small voice came from the other side of the door. Nikki felt tears welling in her eyes—tears of frustration and fear.

  “Shhh. I’m trying,” she whispered back, shoving another key
into the lock.

  This time the key worked. When she opened the door, a little girl reached for her, clutching her in an embrace, her body shaking. She couldn’t have been more than eleven years old, a scrawny little thing with blond hair, big brown eyes, and freckles across the bridge of her nose. All Nikki wanted to do was hold her. She needed someone to do that for her too, but neither of them had time.

  “We’ve gotta go—get the others.” Before she left the room, she had to ask. “What’s your name?”

  “Shelby.”

  “I’m getting you out of here, Shelby. No matter what happens, you stick with me.” She took the girl’s hand and squeezed it. Her fingers felt so small and fragile.

  Nikki had used the words that Jessica Beckett had said to her, a memory from a lifetime ago in Chicago. And Jessica had also taught her a move or two that had helped her take out the guard in the operating room. She wasn’t sure she’d ever see the woman again, but remembering her now had given her strength.

  The key to Shelby’s lock worked on the other cell doors. She found six girls in all. And now she had to find a way out, back to the elevator, but had no idea where to turn. She huddled the girls together and squatted near the floor around a corner. They stared at her, waiting for words of wisdom she didn’t think she had. Hell, she was just a kid herself. But for their sakes, she had to be more.

  “It’s important we stay quiet,” she whispered. “No matter what you see or hear, no one cries or makes a sound.” Forcing a smile, she reached out and stroked the cheek of Shelby, the youngest, until the girl grinned back. “We stick together, no matter what. And hold each other’s hands. Does anyone remember where the elevator is?”

  “I think it’s down this way.” An older girl, named Bethany, pointed down the hall behind them. “At the end of that hall, we make a right…I think.”

  Nikki didn’t like that Bethany wasn’t sure, but some of the others nodded. Once they had a plan, they had to move. She felt the weight of the gun in her hand but hoped she wouldn’t have to use it.

  “Okay, that’s it, then. When I say so, we’ll move out. And stay behind me.” She forced another smile, then crept to the corner and looked both ways. “Let’s go.”

  The alarm was still flashing, but she hadn’t heard footsteps in a while. She prayed the men had gone, but didn’t feel luck was on her side. Holding onto Shelby’s hand, she crept down the hallway, her gaze shifting in front and behind them as they walked single file. But when she got to the end of the corridor, nearly to the corner where they needed to turn, she heard a noise that echoed off the walls. With the sound repeating, she had no idea how many were coming.

  “Oh my God. Not now.”

  She considered making a run for the corner, but the footsteps were coming in their direction, closing the gap between them. She’d never make it with six girls. She let go of Shelby’s hand, shoved the gun into the waistband of her pants and reached for the keys she’d taken off the guard as she raced to the nearest cell. They’d hide until they could move again.

  Nikki fumbled the keys in her hands, but remembered the door was already open. The lock could only be secured from the hallway. Once they got inside, the door would be open to whoever walked in. But she didn’t have time to think about that, not with the footsteps getting louder. She rushed the girls inside, keeping them as quiet as possible. At the last instant, she did remember to flip the light switch on the outside wall of the cell. When the room went black, the girls gasped. She didn’t blame them for being afraid. Hell, she was too.

  “Get to this wall and press against it,” she whispered.

  She picked the best spot in the room for the girls to hide. She didn’t want a guard to look in the portal and see them. If someone hit the light switch, she wanted them to see only an empty room.

  “Remember, not a sound,” she whispered.

  She waited until they were all behind her, hugging the wall, before she gripped her weapon and pointed it at the door. In her mind, she pictured herself pulling the trigger like in the movies. Because if someone walked through that door, that’s what she’d have to do—without hesitation.

  She wracked her brain trying to recall what little she knew about guns. If the weapon she held in her hand had a safety lock, she’d have no way of knowing what it would look like or how it worked. That scared her bad enough, but what if she fired and missed and the guard fired back? She grimaced with the thought and pushed it out of her head, except to make up her mind that when the time came, she’d step into the center of the room, away from the girls. She didn’t want them caught in her cross fire.

  In the dark, Nikki felt Shelby reaching for her. The girl’s touch reminded her why she had taken a stand. Yet as much as the gesture meant to her, she had to stay focused. It took both hands for her to hold the weapon as badly as she was shaking. For the sake of Shelby and the others, she prayed for the strength to pull the trigger, a strange prayer. She felt the weight of the gun and the sweat on her palms. And her eyes blurred with stinging tears. That’s when she saw it.

  At the base of the door she caught movement, a subtle brush of a shadow backlit by the faint pulse of the red flashing alarm. The shadow of a man stretched farther into the room, like unwanted fingers. Someone stood outside. She held her breath and aimed the weapon higher.

  The next person through that door—she would shoot to kill.

  CHAPTER 31

  Outside the perimeter of the compound, some two kilometers from the old radar site, the men waited for Petrovin to show up in the two choppers that would take them to safety and a new location. Both pilots had started their aircraft, but in the one nearest the escape tunnel, tension had grown to a fevered pitch.

  “Where is he?” one man asked. His eyes darted to the other faces in the dark.

  Another man looked at his watch.

  “Twenty minutes is long gone.” A security guard clenched his jaw and heaved a sigh in frustration. “He would leave any of us. He said so himself.”

  As soon as the man said it, the others stared at him. They’d been thinking the same thing, but it was as if Petrovin himself would overhear and heads would soon roll.

  “What?” The man shrugged. “We have no idea what is going on in there. And he is the only one who controls the detonation. All I’m saying is that it’s risky for us to sit here, not knowing, that’s all.”

  “If we take off and he’s left behind, he would find each of us. You know how he is.” The co-pilot turned his head and spoke loud enough for them to hear, punctuating his commentary with curses under his breath.

  A few minutes went by, without a sound coming from anyone, but the tension could be cut with a knife. From time to time the men gaped over their shoulders and stared at the tunnel in hopes Petrovin would emerge and the waiting and uncertainty would be over. If he did show, they could forget what had been said and keep each other’s secrets. But the Russian never came.

  Without a word, the pilot took matters into his own hands and gave the thumbs-up to his counterpart across the makeshift tarmac. As the man made final preparations to leave, not another word was said. The helicopter lifted off the ground, hovered for an instant as the pilot gave the tunnel one last look, then flew into the night sky.

  Petrovin would be on his own.

  “May God have mercy on us all,” the pilot muttered under his breath.

  For anyone who heard him, they might have thought he had included Petrovin in his prayer, but that hadn’t been the case. A man like Petrovin had no use for God. And if the Russian made it out alive, every man here would require divine intervention to stay one step ahead of the man’s inevitable retribution.

  Swallowing her next breath, Nikki aimed the weapon toward the closed door, preparing to shoot whoever opened it. She felt the weight of the handgun shaking in her hands. How hard would she have to pull the trigger? Could the gun go off accidentally?

  But more important, could she kill?

  All these thoughts raced throu
gh her mind, clouding her judgment as the shadow under the door moved in the red pulsing light. Down the corridor, she heard doors slamming. The guards were looking for them. She pictured the Russian’s face, and heard his voice as if he stood next to her in the dark. Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks.

  Damn it! How had all this happened?

  The culmination of her terror came down to this moment. When she put a face to whoever was outside the cell, only one pair of eyes came to mind, and she nearly threw up thinking about it. Could she do it? Did she have what it took to kill him? If the Russian walked through that door, she wasn’t sure she could pull the trigger. That was the kind of control he had over her.

  But whether she was ready or not, she’d run out of time. The knob turned and the door creaked open.

  Oh my God, please no! Inside her head, she screamed. Her heart thrashed in her chest and pounded the inside of her ears. She gripped the weapon and stepped away from the wall. As Nikki moved to the center of the room, she felt Shelby’s small fingers fall away. She had never felt so alone.

  Now, the dark silhouette of a large man stood in the open doorway. Her eyes blurred with tears, but she couldn’t stop crying. She started to pull the trigger. And she would have done it, except movement behind the man distracted her. A face she recognized. In the red glow, she saw Jessica Beckett, the woman she never thought she’d see again.

  Nikki’s sobs came in a torrent. She lowered the gun, her muscles too drained to keep the weapon hoisted. She wanted to say something, yet the words wouldn’t come. She was happy to see Jessica, but when the woman flipped the lights on, Nikki couldn’t believe her eyes. The man from the shadows who’d stood in the doorway was Uncle Payton.

  And she’d almost killed him…again.

  Before she could say anything, he swept her off the floor and clutched her to his chest, cradling the back of her head with a hand. In his arms, she felt safe. In his arms, she never felt so loved. And in his arms, she wasn’t alone anymore.