Page 91 of Swerve
“Knox!”
“Come on,” he says over his shoulder. “We don’t have much time.”
“For what?” I’m actually running to catch up with him, and when I do, he reaches back to grab my hand, pulling me now in an all-out run.
At the end of the hallway, he comes to an abrupt stop, pulling something from his pocket and aiming it at the wall. I hear a click and then the wall begins to separate, revealing an elevator door.
“Wow,” I say.
Still holding my hand, Knox pulls me inside and hits the Close Door button. We stand for a moment, staring at the panel. There’s only one button, marked B. Knox pushes it, and the elevator whispers into motion.
I look at Knox, notice his disheveled hair and the lipstick at the corner of his mouth. “What did you do?” I ask softly.
He lets go of my hand. “Persuade and detain. She’ll be fine. A little mad at me for the moment, but no lasting damage.”
“You might want to wipe off the evidence of your technique,” I say, even as I wonder at the nudge of envy rooting somewhere near my heart.
Knox
“To save all we must risk all.”
?Friedrich Schiller
THE ELEVATOR STOPS, and the doors slowly slide open onto a hallway dimly lit with sconce lighting. The room doors are some kind of heavy wood with keypad locks. Knox scans the walls for security cameras and spots them immediately.
“We’re not going to have much time,” he says, beckoning Emory to follow him.
“This is crazy. She can’t be here.”
“Maybe not, but while we’re here, let’s make sure,” he says, grabbing her hand to pull her along behind him until they reach the end of the hall where the camera appears to have the least reach.
“What’s your plan?” she asks. “We’re just going to knock?”
“No need to reinvent the wheel here,” he says, rapping on the door in front of them with his knuckles. They stand for a moment, Knox pressing his ear to the wood and closing his eyes.
“Anything?” she whispers.
He shakes his head, and they move to the next one. He knocks again, the sound echoing in the long hall. They wait, and still nothing. The third door yields the same. Knox is beginning to think he’s overreached on this one as he pounds on the fourth door. This was an insane idea. What had made him think whatever Senator Hagan was up to could have anything to do with Mia’s disappearance?
But in the next instant, a scream rips through the room behind the door. “Help! Help me!”
“Oh, my God. That’s Grace! That’s Grace!” Emory pounds on the door with both fists. “Grace! Grace! Open the door.”
“I can’t!”
“Shut up, you little bitch!” A man’s voice, and he’s clearly not happy.
Is that the senator? Knox scans the hallway, spotting the fire extinguisher next to the elevator door. He runs down the hall, grabs it, and uses the end to pound away at the keypad lock on the door. It doesn’t take long to prove his effort a waste of time.
“What are you going to do?” Emory says, barely getting the words out.
He checks to see which side of the door the hinges are on.
“You’re not going to break that with your shoulder, are you?”
“That only works in movies,” he says. “And it usually gets you a dislocated shoulder. The door’s hung so that it swings inward, so I might have a shot at kicking it in.”
Emory throws him a shocked glance. “Seriously?”
