They nodded, and Lexi stalked down the hallway in a half crouch, head on a swivel in expectation of danger. When she reached Room 30, she used her device to open the door and step inside.
Burke lay unconscious on the bed, still weighted down. She swept the rifle barrel back and forth in the room, noting the two figures passed out near the desk. One was Kim Shields, the other was one of the soldiers from General Miller’s group.
She pocketed her device, tossed her rifle on the bed, and crawled up to Burke. She removed a mask from her pack and slipped it on his face. Then she used a connection hose to pump in an agent that would counteract the sleeping gas. As the man began to stir, Lexi went to work on his locks.
It took her longer than normal with her own air filtration mask getting in the way. But within thirty seconds, she’d picked his ankle locks. His wrists came free fifteen seconds after that. She grabbed his chains and pulled them away, letting them fall off the edge of the bed and onto the floor.
She put her hand beneath Burke’s chin and lifted it. He gasped and wheezed, his arms suddenly reaching and grasping at her. Lexi batted him away easily and delivered a single slap across the side of his head.
Head lolling, his eyes tried to focus on her, but he wasn’t even on the same planet.
“Can you hear me, Burke? Hey, in there.” She slapped his head lightly, grabbing the bottom of his mask and tilting his head up.
He nodded, eyes sliding right and springing wide as he noticed something.
Lexi snatched her rifle from behind her and spun in one smooth motion. Weissman was on his knees, a rag wrapped around his mouth and nose to partially protect him from the gas. His face was turned down, hand pawing at his holster. At first, she didn’t think he would get it. She could kick it out of his hand and use the butt of her weapon to send him back to sleep.
But he got hold of the grip and whipped it free. Lexi squeezed the trigger, sending a quick burst of rounds through the man’s chest that put him on his back.
She dashed to the door and glanced up the hall to see her soldiers still standing there, some of them with questioning looks on their faces. She waved that everything was okay.
When she turned back into the room, she saw that Burke had picked up Weissman’s dropped pistol and was pointing it at Kim.
Lexi took three steps and snatched the gun out of his hands, tossing it on the bed.
“No way, buddy,” she said.
Burke grabbed her by the arm and fixed her with a scowl. She ripped her arm from his grasp and slammed the butt of her rifle into his throat.
His eyes went wide in surprise and then bulged as he grasped his neck and gagged. She seized him by his shirt and threw him toward the door, shoving him ahead of her down the hallway.
“That’s the last time you touch me that way, Burke. From here on out, I’m in charge. And if you don’t like it--”
The lights in the entire section fell low, and the passage ahead erupted in gunfire. Splinters of wood spilled out from Room 5 and showered the hall with debris. One soldier went down, while the others scattered into the cafeteria.
Burke cowered back, but Lexi slapped her palm into his ribs and shoved him forward. She nodded to one of her troopers who stood at the end of the hall. He fired two bursts diagonally into Room 5, chewing up wood and plaster. As soon as he stopped, Lexi pushed Burke past the door and sprinted after him, barely squeaking by as more gunfire flew behind her.
She nodded to her remaining three soldiers, and they turned and marched toward the elevators. It was too dark to see much, but she didn’t have time to pull out her device and raise them.
If anything, it had given them just the cover they needed to get away.
She swung her rifle to the right but looked left, catching a slice of movement from that direction. Her eyes narrowed as a thick band of shadow slipped behind one of the game tables.
“Down!” she shouted as shots sparked from that side of the room, moving diagonally along the wall.
A soldier cried out, hit, dousing her and Burke in warm spatters of blood. She shoved the man ahead toward the right-hand passage, bullets ripping the surrounding air.
Her soldiers flipped up a pair of tables and returned fire, but she kicked Burke in the back and sent him flying down the hallway. Before she entered behind him, Lexi turned and shot toward the moving shadow. The figure dropped and then popped up again, shooting a tight burst that zipped past her stomach.
Pulse racing, Lexi turned down the passage and sprinted after Burke.
A fist came out of nowhere and cracked her in the chest, narrowly missing her vulnerable throat. Still, she flew backward to land on her backside, rifle flying from her hands to clatter into the darkness.
She gasped, rolled frantically to her knees, and struggled to stand. She expected one of Mueller’s men to step up and deliver a kick that would knock her out and end her abduction. What she didn’t expect was the kid from the hospital room. He wore an air filtration mask, hobbling up with his fists balled up and a scowl written on his face.
Burke suddenly raised and punched the young man in the back. The kid howled and spun, grabbing Burke by his throat and slamming him against the wall.
By that time, Lexi had gotten to her feet. And as much as she enjoyed watching her former boss get choked out, she was forced to save him. She delivered a kick to the kid’s injured back that drove him to his knees. She drew her pistol to finish him, but shouts came from the rec room and she grabbed Burke and shoved him toward the end of the hall.
Next to the apartment elevators was a barely visible door, painted white to match the walls. She put her palm against the hand reader, and it clicked open. Then she pushed the weak, sputtering man inside.
Chapter 38
Jessie, Redpine Facility, Little Rock, Arkansas
“I’ve got to get the fresh air back on.” Jessie stood by her door, peering down at her handheld device, trying to pull up the life support systems. She glanced up at the touchscreen from time-to-time, watching for the troopers she’d tried to block a few seconds ago.
Jessie had been half asleep when the alarm on her handheld rang out. She’d begun feeling dizzy almost immediately. Pulling her shirt up to cover her mouth, she’d rolled out of Dex’s arms and threw open the bottom desk drawer. Inside were five air filtration masks she’d collected over the days. Some of them, she’d taken from the upstairs lobby and others from the decontamination room.
Left-handed, she’d slipped it on her head and breathed deep before immediately turning to put one on Dex. She’d needed both hands to get it on, her right shoulder aching with every movement. The man took longer to recover, but within a minute, he’d begun to stir.
“Come on, Lieutenant Colonel.” Dex in turn slapped Bryant’s air filtration mask repeatedly, trying to wake the man up. The soldier had been standing by the guard desk when the gas hit, but they’d dragged him inside.
“I thought you said you had super ultimate access or something,” Dex said. “Can’t you turn it off?”
“I have the same access as the person controlling it,” Jessie snapped, “and all we’re doing is overriding each other.”
She glanced up at the touchscreen by her door and saw four soldiers walk up and stand there with rifles at the ready. She spun around and put her index finger to her mouth with wide eyes.
Dex nodded that he understood.
She quietly stepped away from the door, placing her device down and lifting her rifle from her desk. She cradled it awkwardly in her left arm, the stock resting against her waist. She stared at the men in the hallway and swallowed dry. She wasn’t a soldier, and it was just she and Dex against four men. At least until Bryant woke up.
A slim figure suddenly strode between the soldiers and moved down the hall out of sight. While Jessie had never spoken with the woman, she knew it had to be Lexi. She didn’t have a bio chip implant, so it had been impossible to track her. And she must be the other person with override access.
/> She cursed herself for not seeing it sooner.
“What’s going on?” Bryant mumbled from the floor. His big hands pushed and shoved Dex to the side.
Jessie fell to her knees, put her gun down, and grabbed the Lieutenant Colonel’s jaw. She jerked his face toward her. “We’ve got a problem. Lexi is here, and she’s gassed the apartments. Everyone’s out cold but us.”
Bryant stared wide-eyed at her as it started to sink in. “Melissa?”
“As far as I know, she’s in her room knocked out,” Jessie spoke quickly but clearly. “I think they’re here for Burke.”
Dex helped the man to his feet, and he stood shaking his head, the daze clinging to him like a heavy cloud.
A burst of rifle fire reached them from down the hall. The soldiers in the hall jerked their heads toward Burke’s room.
Kim and Weissman were in there.
“They shot someone.” Bryant’s bloodshot eyes glared at the door, bulging with rage. “They’re going to get Melissa, too.”
“Maybe not,” she said, but the situation was slipping through her fingers like dust.
Bryant turned until he spotted the open drawer beneath the bed. They’d told Mueller they’d put their rifles in his room, but Jessie had been the one to keep them.
The lieutenant colonel strode over and snatched up a gun. His legs appeared steadier as he checked the weapon to ensure it was charged.
Jessie wanted to stop him, but she couldn’t find a good reason to. They couldn’t just let these people waltz into their area and shoot up the place. And what if a kid woke up and stepped into the hall?
Shaking her head, she stood and positioned herself next to Bryant while Dex climbed onto the bed and knelt.
“On three. Short, controlled bursts.”
“Wait.” She reached out with her right hand and put her finger on her device screen.
Bryant nodded and continued his count. It took forever, and when he reached the end, Jessie lowered the hall lights and squeezed the trigger. She ripped off one burst, then another. She barely had control of the weapon as it bounced against her hip, tearing holes in the door.
The reports crushed her eardrums in the closed room, and she shut her eyes and made a high keening noise until Bryant suddenly shoved her out of the way and hit the floor.
Jessie fell against the desk, wincing as pain shot down her wounded arm. At first, she didn’t know why he’d pushed her, then she realized the remaining soldiers were shooting from the other side, and their room had become a bees nest of buzzing bullets.
It lasted another few seconds before it stopped, and Bryant fired three quick bursts at the shredded door, pieces of fabricated wood falling loose and collapsing.
It grew quiet for twenty seconds until more shots rang out from farther off, probably the rec room. Jessie stepped away from the wall and squinted at the touchscreen. It hung from its wires, the surrounding frame chewed to pieces.
It still worked!
“They’ve moved on.” She stalked to the door, glancing back. “They’ve got Burke. They’re getting away with him.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Bryant staggered to his feet and pushed past Jessie. He peered through the chewed-up hole, ducking and rising to see what was going on out there.
“Someone’s hitting them in the rec room,”
“One of ours?”
“No idea. Can you unlock the doors?”
“Yeah.” Jessie grabbed her handheld device where she’d dropped it on the floor. She placed it on the desk and continued swiping through the ventilation selections. “Okay, I switched to back up ventilation and unlocked and opened the adults’ doors. They’re about to start waking up.” She hit a button, and all the doors’ alarms bleated in concert.
Bryant nodded and ran through what remained of the beat-up door. He took a left and sprinted to Room 20. Jessie and Dex followed behind him, ducking and keeping against the wall. The gunfire from the rec room continued for several seconds before fading to silence.
“Go check on Kim,” the soldier shouted over his shoulder.
Jessie shoved the device in her pocket and sprinted down the hall. She passed Bryant’s room, hearing him coaxing Melissa awake. Garcia leaned against his door frame, holding his head. Trainor and Hicks’s doors were open, though she saw no sign of the soldiers.
At Room 30, Jessie pulled to a stop, panting. She closed her eyes and gulped. Then she took a deep breath and stepped into the room.
Kim sat up, leaning against the far wall, moaning with her head in her hands. Burke’s chains lay in a pile on the floor. Weissman was sprawled out with bullet holes through his chest and a pool of blood around him. Jessie bit back a sob and threw herself to her knees at his side. She put her hand to his neck and felt for a pulse.
There was none.
Tears dripping into her mask, she crawled to Kim’s side.
The woman looked up, eyes bleary and head wobbling. “They... the ventilation system... gas.”
“I know. I re-routed it,” Jessie nodded. “There’s fresh air pumping in now. Everyone should be waking up.”
“Weissman?”
She glanced at the soldier and then shook her head. Kim dropped her chin for a moment, but when she raised it, her eyes were full of anger.
“Burke--”
“Lexi. It was the woman, Lexi. His mercenary.” She rushed her words as she explained. “She must have had a handheld device, too. She used gas to put us to sleep, then locked all our doors. I tried to block her, but it was too late.”
Kim put her palms against the floor and struggled to stand. Jessie rose and helped her until she was on her feet, half leaning on her.
Jessie turned to her left and got under Kim’s right arm, and together they exited to the hallway. Trainor, Hicks, and Garcia were half-running, half-stumbling up the hall with their pistols drawn.
“Oh, my head.” Kim held her hand to her forehead with a groan.
“Yeah, everyone got a double dose of some pretty heavy stuff.”
They came to Room 15 where Bishop staggered out. He took one look at Jessie and Kim before blurting, “I’ll check the kids.”
They passed Savannah standing in her doorway, hands against the door frame to hold herself up. Her face was a grimace, her words slurred. “What happened? I was watching a show and then--”
“We were gassed,” Jessie replied.
Savannah’s eyes widened, and her eyes shifted down the hallway. “The children!” She took a shaky step forward and turned to walk along the wall, one arm held out for support.
“Bishop has the override,” she called over her shoulder as they came to the end of the hall.
By that time, Kim could walk, albeit slowly. Jessie retrieved her handheld and brought up the lights as they entered the rec room. Moe, Garcia, Trainor, Hicks, and Dex stood with their pistols and rifles at the ready.
Three dead soldiers lay on the floor, sprawled in various positions after what looked like a viscous firefight. Tables were overturned and filled with holes. Dust and debris floated in the air. Glass lay scattered around the video games, and the air hockey table lurched to one side with two of its legs shot out.
A guy she didn’t know sat at one of the tables, hunched over with thick bandages on his back. Blood spots soaked through the gauze and tape. She assumed it was the injured man Moe and Melissa had brought from Tulsa. Randy. But she had no clue how he’d gotten to the rec room.
Moe broke from the others and turned to Kim and Jessie, gesturing down the right-hand passage. “They escaped that way. Can you track them?”
She placed her handheld device on the table and stared at it, looking for ways to do it. “Neither of them has bio trackers.” She searched the rear entrances, thinking they might have gone that way. But all those doors remained shut and locked. She used her finger to slide the screen around, checking for other activity. “I found them! They’re moving through some service stairs to the motor pool.” She raised her eyes. “
They’re almost at the front gates.”
“Can you tell us how to get there?” Moe asked.
Footfalls approached down the hall from the security wing, and Mueller and five of his guards sprinted up.
“What the hell is going on here?” The captain wore his standard issue whites instead of his fatigues, and his gray hair was a mess on his head. His eyes fell to the three dead soldiers scattered around the rec room before he pointed to them. “You’re all under arrest.”
“We didn’t do this,” Moe explained, lowering his weapon. “It was the mercenary, Lexi. She took Burke. They’re almost at the gates.”
At first, Jessie thought the captain might balk at Moe, but something in his eyes instantly believed the man. His face twisted with rage as he strode to the elevator doors and hit the button to call the car.
“We can cut them off at the main hall,” Mueller said as his soldiers fell in behind him along with Moe and the others.
The doors slid open with a ding, and the armed mob stepped inside. A moment later, the doors shut, leaving the three of them alone. Turning, she watched Kim slide into the seat across from Randy, still holding her forehead as her senses cleared.
“Let’s hope they get the bastard,” Jessie whispered.
Chapter 39
Moe, Redpine Facility, Little Rock, Arkansas
A dozen pairs of boots jogged down the long hall to the entrance. They grabbed air filtration masks off the racks. Slipping them over their heads, they moved into the foyer area. Mueller put his hand against the security reader, and the doors popped open to let them out.
They jogged across the motor pool, their boots echoing inside the massive chamber. Moe’s eyes scanned the two long busses on the left, parked next to a pair of trailer trucks and larger Redpine vehicles. On the right, two Humvees and a half-dozen Jeeps sat idle.
“They took one of the Humvees,” Mueller spat.
They approached the tunnel on the far side, and the captain put his hand against the reader until it turned green. A heavy click resonated through the passage, and a crack of light appeared at the end.
Spore Series | Book 5 | Torch Page 29