Page 14 of Captain Santiago and the Sky Dome Waitress
It was a service corridor, because the left-hand wall wasn’t a wall at all, but a maze of pipes, conduits, engines and other machinery housed in protective metal boxes, with control panels flashing and flickering with readouts.
Through the general audio feed of the lens, she could hear the low continuous burr of equipment running smoothly.
Then, Blake appeared, running fast.Jackrabbit speed, Lucie thought.
The woman glanced over her shoulder as she ran. Her eyes were narrowed. She was concentrating, even as she ran.
Then she skidded to a halt, only just staying on her feet. At the T-junction ahead, boots could be heard. Running boots.
Blake looked back behind her, weighing her options. There was something more than concentration showing on her face now. A touch of fear, perhaps.
That was when Santiago rose up from behind one of the big motor cases. He wrapped his arm around her, slapped a hand over her mouth, and pulled her deep inside the equipment. They both crouched behind a motor case, hidden from whoever was coming,andfrom the camera, too.
From the corridor behind the camera, three men wearing black combat gear and carrying rattlers ran along the corridor, heading for the bootsteps they could hear ahead of them.
As soon as they passed the casing where Santiago and Blake were hiding, the pair moved over to the next casing, and stayed low behind it, so that if the trio looked back, they wouldn’t be seen.
But the three pursuers didn’t look back. They came to a halt as five more armed men appeared. They all met in the T-junction and talked in low voices.
One of them turned back to the corridor and considered the field of industrial fittings, his expression suspicious.
Santiago raised his hand. He had a mini pad in it. He pressed on the pad.
From much farther down the corridor, the faint sounds of an alarm came.
The eight men all turned and raced toward it, leaving the T-junction bare.
For thirty seconds, the pair crouched behind the housing didn’t move. Then Blake bounced to her feet and out into the clear corridor. “What thehell, Elijah?”
Elijah? Lucie raised her brows.
“It’s a proximity alert,” Santiago said, rising to his feet. He was smiling, which was an astonishing expression on the man now referred to as a bear. “The five were coming from the west. I sent them east.” He shrugged and stepped out into the corridor.
“I should slit your throat,” Blake said.
Santiago’s smile faded. He pointed toward the T-junction. “Theywouldhave cut yours. I thought you said you could handle Montema’s men?”
“I was handling them,” Blake muttered, her hands fisted. “I could have ducked down behind the casing myself, you know. I was going to.”
“But you couldn’t have set off the alarm two hundred meters from here,” Santiago pointed out.
“I don’t know how you did,” Blake said.
“One day, when I’ve arrested you, I’ll tell you about an AI I know, who likes me.”
“Elijah,no onelikes you.”
Santiago smiled. “You do.”
“I like the dopey messages you send me. You’re just a liability to limb and lungs.”
“I make you laugh. Go on. Admit it.”
Blake dropped her hand from her hips. “I hate you right now.”
“Ditto.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her, and Blake wound her arms around his neck.
“Turn it off,” Lucie whispered, her heart hurrying along.
