Page 112 of A Touch of Treachery
“Please tell me that is not some cliché self-destruct countdown ticking off the seconds until this place is blown to smithereens,” Gabriel muttered.
No one responded.We all knew that wasexactlywhat it was.
“We have to move,” Joan said.“Desmond, which one of these laptops did Henrika use?”
He pointed out the laptop.Joan grabbed it off the table, tucked it under her arm, and ran over to the open lab door.I wrapped my arm around Desmond’s waist again and helped him in that direction.Gabriel brought up the rear.
Joan veered to the left, back the way we had come, but I shook my head.
“No.It’s too far.We’ll never make it back to the stairs, much less all the way out of the mine.None of us has seen Henrika, which means she got out through some other exit onthisside of the facility.We have to find it before the countdown ends.It’s our only shot.”
Joan nodded, a grim expression on her face.The four of us moved away from the lab, racing from one corridor to another.I helped Desmond as much as possible, but he was in a tremendous amount of pain, and I could tell it was all he could do to keep putting one foot in front of the other.He kept one hand on the wall, and the lights overhead flickered as we moved under them.Desmond was channeling the electricity into his own body, but he was still extremely weak and wobbly.
Gabriel took the lead, gun in hand, but no more guards appeared, and the entire facility was eerily quiet, except for the quick rhythm of our footsteps and Desmond’s labored breathing.
“How much longer?”I asked.
Joan glanced at her smartwatch.“Twelve minutes.”
“How big is this place?”Gabriel muttered.
He quickened his pace, and we all did the same, even Desmond, despite the sweat streaming down his face.A minute later, we reached another junction with three corridors splitting off in different directions.
Gabriel paced back and forth, peering down each corridor.“They all look the same,” he growled.“I can’t tell which way to go, and we don’t have time to backtrack if we get it wrong.Any ideas?”
Joan shook her head, while Desmond braced a hand on the wall, his head hanging down and his chest heaving from exertion.
I also glanced down all three corridors, but I didn’t see anything that would tell us which way to go.I reached out with my synesthesia, but for once, my inner voice didn’t whisper, and no telltale flares of light appeared.
Frustrated, I prowled back and forth just like Gabriel was doing.
“We need to make a decision, Char,” he warned.“I’d rather die trying to get out than just stand here and get blown to bits.”
“I know, I know,” I snapped back.“Let me think.”
Gabriel fell quiet, but he kept staring at me, as did Joan.Desmond kept his head bowed, his hand on the wall, still pulling electricity into his body.
My eyes narrowed, and a thought sparked in my mind like the proverbial cartoon light bulb appearing over my head.“Desmond?Can you feelallthe electricity in the facility?”
He lifted his head, a weary expression on his face.“Yeah.Why?”
I gestured up at the lights.“Can you separate the feel of the lights from something else?Something bigger that would require more energy?”
“Like what?”
“An elevator,” I replied.“Henrika wouldn’t have wanted to walk down rough stairs like we did every time she came to the lab.Plus, she had to have some way to get all that heavy equipment down here.”
“Which means there has to be a freight elevator at this end of the facility.”Joan gave me a look filled with grudging admiration.“Clever deduction.”
I tipped my head, acknowledging the compliment.“Can you find it, Desmond?”
He nodded, but it was a slow, exhausted motion.“I can try.”
Desmond closed his eyes and flattened his hand on the wall.The lights above us flickered, and an electrical charge filled the air, along with a faint stench of ozone, like a violent thunderstorm was about to blow through the corridor.
Joan held up her fingers where Gabriel and I could see them.Seven minutes and counting down.Gabriel opened his mouth, probably to urge Desmond to work faster, but I shook my head.He was injured, and rushing him wouldn’t help anything.
We stood there and waited, the lights still flickering, the steady pulses keeping time with the mental countdown clock running in my mind ...
