Page 40 of Protecting Her

One minute until detonation.

They slipped through the wine cellar door just as shadows of operatives appeared in the kitchen entrance. The cellar's darkness wrapped around them like a blanket, filled with the musty scent of earth and aged wood. Rows of vintage wine bottles caught emergency lighting in strange patterns, creating an underwater effect that made depth perception difficult.

Jude guided them between racks of priceless vintages, following the path she'd memorized during security sweeps. The maintenance tunnel entrance waited behind a false wall, the kind of secret rich arms dealers loved to build into their properties.

Boots on the cellar stairs could only mean multiple teams were converging on their position. Jude reached for the hidden latch just as the first explosion rocked the building above. Dust rained from ancient wooden beams as the main charge detonated, sending shock waves through the foundation.

Secondary explosions followed, each one carefully placed to create maximum confusion. The cellar's wooden racks swayed dangerously, bottles crashing to the floor in waves of shattered glass and spilled wine. Their pursuers stumbled on the stairs, professional coordination disrupted by the building's violent movement.

Thirty seconds to clear the area before the final charge.

The false wall clicked open, revealing darkness beyond. Jude ushered Carmen through first, then followed smoothly behind her. The door sealed behind them just as more explosions thundered throughout the structure above.

They moved quickly through pitch darkness, guided by memorized steps and the cold certainty of shared purpose. The tunnel's rough walls pressed close, carrying the weight of earth and concrete overhead. Each explosion felt more distant, muffled by layers of soil and stone.

When the final charge detonated, its shock wave reached them as little more than a tremor. But Jude knew what their pursuers would find: a building that appeared to be collapsing, with evidence suggesting they'd been caught in the structural failure. The perfect cover for an escape no one would think to look for.

"Your plan worked perfectly," Carmen murmured as they navigated the darkness. Her fingers found Jude's in the black, twining together with familiar warmth.

"Our plan," Jude corrected softly. "I couldn't have done it without you."

The words felt inadequate against everything they'd become to each other. But Carmen's answering squeeze of her hand conveyed complete understanding that didn’t need lengthy explanations. They moved through shadows toward freedom, leaving chaos behind while forging their own path forward.

Together.

Darkness pressed against them like velvet as they moved through the maintenance tunnel, each step measured and precise. The space felt ancient, a remnant of Bogotá's colonial past transformed into an escape route by arms dealers who understood the value of hidden paths. Moisture beaded on rough stone walls, catching the dim glow of their emergency lights in diamond patterns.

Jude kept one hand on the tunnel wall, counting steps and turns while monitoring their surroundings through their other senses. The thunder of explosions had faded to distant echoes, but new sounds emerged from the darkness: water dripping through decades-old stonework, the whisper of their movement against confined walls, and the steady rhythm of Carmen's breathing beside her.

They passed beneath a junction where modern concrete met colonial stone. The air changed subtly. It was fresher,carrying traces of the city above. Jude checked her watch, calculating distances against memorized blueprints. Two more intersections before they reached the extraction point.

"Movement ahead," Carmen murmured, her voice barely a breath. She'd already dropped into a defensive stance, proving how much she'd absorbed from her protection detail.

Jude killed their light, letting darkness swallow them completely. The sounds clarified in blackness: multiple sets of boots moving with purpose, radio static, the distinctive click of weapons being checked. Someone else knew about their escape route.

"Three hundred meters to the exit point," a voice echoed through the tunnel. "Sweep every junction and maintenance shaft. They have to emerge somewhere."

The voice triggered immediate recognition, one she'd hoped never to hear again. William Chen, former Delta Force commander turned private contractor. They'd run operations together in Yemen before everything went wrong. Before his unit had been compromised by corporate money.

"Will's here," she breathed against Carmen's ear. "He's the one who leaked our protocols."

Carmen's small intake of breath conveyed perfect understanding. They'd wondered who could have provided such intimate knowledge of their security procedures. Will had helped write many of them during joint operations between their units. He would’ve had more than sufficient knowledge to leak.

Lights swept the tunnel ahead as Chen's team began their search pattern. Jude guided them into a maintenance alcove, pressing close together in the confined space. Carmen's heartbeat was steady against her chest, the same calm she showed during tense negotiations that had now transformed into silent strength.

"Grid pattern sweep," Chen's voice commanded. "They'll try to double back toward the square. Teams Three and Four, cover the north access points. Five and Six, move to contain the south exit."

Jude felt Carmen’s smile in the darkness. Chen was good, but he was thinking like a soldier. He assumed they would follow standard evasion protocols, the same ones he'd helped develop. But their experience had taught them both that sometimes the best path forward was the one no one was expecting you to take.

They waited in perfect stillness as lights passed their position. Chen's teams moved with professional precision, but they were looking for obvious threats. None of them thought to check the maintenance alcoves—cramped spaces that most soldiers would consider too confined for effective movement.

When the search teams passed, Jude led them deeper into the tunnel network. They moved away from the obvious exit points, following a route she'd discovered during late-night study of the building's original blueprints. The arms dealers who'd modified these passages had created multiple escape options, including ones that weren't marked on any official plans.

Water sloshed quietly under their feet as the tunnel's grade changed. The air grew heavier, thick with decades of underground moisture. Carmen matched her pace, reading her movements in darkness as easily as she read diplomatic negotiations in full light.

"Second team reporting in," crackled through Chen's radio frequency. "North exits are secured. No sign of targets."

Let them focus on conventional escape routes. Jude guided them through a narrow passage that connected to the city's old storm drain system, the kind of alternative path that most military teams would dismiss as too risky to be seriously considered. But she'd learned to think differently since meetingCarmen. Sometimes the most dangerous route was the safest, simply because no one expected you to take it.

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