Page 19 of Atone in Darkness
“Where do you think you two are going? The gate is the other direction.”
Chase gave Marisola disgusted look. “I know, but I’ve got orders to take her back to her quarters. The main hall is so crowded right now it’s like swimming upstream against the current. I thought we’d cut back in the right direction out here and come back in through that entrance back there.”
The guard looked in the direction Chase was pointing. “There’s no other door on this side.”
When he turned back, Chasehit him fast and hard. He confiscated the man’s rifle before dragging him back up off the ground. “Open the door.”
The gathering darkness helped disguise their movements as they dragged the unconscious guard back inside, where they stuffed him into the first unlocked door they could find. Marisol stared down at the motionless man and then back up at Chase, her dark eyes scared. That pissed himoff. “Ididn’t kill him, Doc. I knocked him out. Now shoot him up with one of your tranquilizers so he stays that way until we’re safely out of here.”
She did as he ordered while he rifled through the guard’s pockets hoping to find some extra ammunition. No such luck, but at least he scored a combat knife and another one of the radios the guards carried.
He handed it to Marisol. “Take this incase we get separated. I’ve got the one from the guard in the lab. We can’t use it to communicate, but it will keep us in the loop of what’s going on around here.”
She pocketed the radio. “If we do get through the gate, what then? It’s not like they’ll drop us off somewhere along the way. If we’re still with the guards when they reach their final destination, we’re both dead.”
Good, at leastshe had accepted the situation for what it was.
“My first choice would be to steal one of their vehicles and drive like hell.”
Not that he held out much hope for that possibility. For one thing, they probably had GPS or other ways to track their vehicles. Even if they did get away, it would only be a matter of time before they would be found again. If only he had some idea of how far they werefrom the nearest Paladin installation.
“Do you know where we are? Even a vague idea might help.”
She shook her head. “I slept through most of the trip. I always thought it was because I was so tired from getting ready to make the move here. For sure, I could hardly sleepfor the last two nights before I was due to leave, and I spent the days running like crazy to get my things packed up andinto storage.”
She looked thoroughly disgusted when she added, “Looking back, I was a total idiot. They had to have drugged me to keep me from learning too much about where they were taking me. I was still groggy the whole next day after we arrived.”
He patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t beat yourself up too much, Doc. Nothing in your past would’ve prepared you for this degree of evil. I’m atrained soldier, and they managed to get the drop on me, too.”
That was as much time as they could waste on regrets. “Now let’s go. I’d rather be outside where we can move around than trapped in here.”
He listened at the door. Silence. “Ready?”
Her smile was so damn sad. “No, but lead the way.”
She followed close on his heels as he slipped through the door. The area outside of their temporaryhiding spot was empty, but he could hear voices at the far end of the hall. “Move out.”
Marisol stared down the hall as if tempted to run toward the enemy. He grabbed her arm in case she really did try to take off in that direction. “Damn it, you heard what they said. What do you think terminating your part of the project means? That they’ll simply download all those test results you ran on meand then turn off the computer?”
Still she hesitated, which pissed him off royally. Enough was enough.
“Fine, stay and die.”
Telling himself that he could blend in with the guards better without her, he slipped out into the darkness.
