Page 90 of Sinner's Salvation

“You two, stay here. Do not drop your guard. Anyone you encounter here could be one of them.”

Two voices replied with, “Yes, sir.”

The elevator dinged again, three or four people got on it, and the doors closed.

Anna quietly started down the stairs.

It took almost ten minutes to go down fifty floors, and she didn’t rush. By the time she got down to the lobby level, she could hear several people shouting through the walls.

Mason was one of them, demanding to see arrest warrants, probable cause, and allow the State Department officials inside.

Someone else was shouting about police brutality.

Someone else was demanding to see Yvgeny, or Anna, or Bazyli.

Someone, a woman, was crying.

A man’s voice rose above the others. “Handcuff anyone with the last name Breznik. We’re bringing them in for questioning. Suspected terrorism.”

“We only have a warrant for Anna Breznik,” a different man said.

“Material witnesses,” the first man said. “Bring them all.”

So Mason and Magnus were in danger as well.

She considered her options. She could interrupt what was happening in a couple of ways. First, she could step out into the open and surrender herself.

Or, she could exit the same way Evan had, down on the parking level, come up to the lobby level, wave, and lead whoever was looking for her on a merry chase through the subway system.

Surrender was out. All she’d get out that was horribly painful torture.

Leading whoever was looking for her on a chase wouldn’t work, either. That would tell her pursuers where to look for her. She needed the tunnels, public and secret, to be free of people, not crowded with law enforcement people.

Plus, if she tried to rescue Mason and Magnus now, she’d be leaving Brian in the hands of Homeland Security. If it was Homeland arresting Mason and Magnus, it would be better to wait until all her people were in the same place.

If it were Homeland.

Damn it, if she were upstairs in the safe room, she’d have access to the security feeds. Anna continued to listen.

“Who authorized our arrests?” Mason asked, his voice a sharp growl.

“Homeland Security Secretary Ledger,” came the reply.

So, Homeland again.

“Where is Anna Breznik?”

“I don’t know,” Mason answered. “She was supposed to meet with some people from the State Department, but you guys wouldn’t let them in. For all I know, she saw all of you and decided to meet them out on the street.”

A number of people swore and ran out of the lobby.

“Why was she meeting with the State Department?” the same man asked.

“She wanted to launch a formal complaint and initiate attempted murder charges against Counterterrorism Coordinator Ledger.” This time, Mason sounded smug.

Anna almost laughed.

“I knew all you Brezniks were in on this,” the man said.

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