Page 17 of Code Name: Admiral

Agent Kane nodded, ducking into the maintenance tunnel in front of me. Smart man—keeping me where he could see me. I followed, the confined space pressing in from all sides. The tunnel had been designed for access to the pneumatic system’s machinery, not for comfort. My shoulders brushed both walls as we crawled forward. He was so much bigger than me. I wondered how he was keeping from getting stuck.

A deep rumble shook the tunnel, which meant the thermite had done its job. The shaft would be sealed now, buying us precious time. But the vibrations had loosened something above us. A section of ceiling groaned.

“Go!” I shouted. Agent Kane grabbed my hand as we scrambled forward, lowering our heads when chunks of concrete and metal rained down behind us. It wasn’t just the dust filling my lungs that made it hard to breathe. The fear that I’d gone too far, fucking with something like thermite when I had no practical experience with the shit, had me close to panicking.

“Keep moving,” he said, holding my hand tighter and pulling me with him until we finally burst into the junction point, both of us coughing and covered in grime. It was a larger space, maybe six feet square, where several maintenance tunnels intersected. Old electrical panels, their gauges dark with age, lined one wall.

“Are you okay?” Kane asked, scanning me with his eyes for injuries while running his hands down my arms.

I nodded, unable to speak through the dust. I shook as I pulled out my water bottle, taking a careful sip before offering it to him. When he accepted, our fingers brushed in the exchange. The touch sent an unwelcome jolt through my system—a reminder that I couldn’t afford to let my guard down.

“What are you doing?” I asked, watching him enter something into his phone.

“How close is the way out?” he asked.

“Through that door,” I responded, pointing.

“Where does it lead?”

“Another alleyway.”

He typed more on his screen, then grabbed my hand again, pulling me behind him.

I tried to wriggle from his grasp, but he held tight. “Tell me where we’re going,” I demanded.

“Somewhere you’ll be safe.”

Everything in me screamed I could trust him, but what if I was wrong? As wrong about him as I’d been about my sister? But what choice did I have? If I stayed in the building, Castellano’s thugs would eventually find me. I had no doubt that, when they did, they’d kill me. If Agent Kane was working with them, I was dead either way.

“What’s your ETA?” I heard him ask as he shoved the door open. Seconds later, an SUV stopped directly in front of us. If I’d taken as much as a step forward, it would’ve hit me.

“Get in,” he said after pulling the rear passenger door open. When I did, he climbed in behind me.

“Where to, boss?” asked the driver, a man I recognized from the security footage I’d poured over.

“Out of the city.”

“No!”I cried, grabbing his arm hard enough that my fingernails dug into his flesh.

He covered my hand with his. “You know you aren’t safe here.”

“I can’t leave until I go to Sarah’s apartment.”

He studied me as though he was trying to read my mind. “What for?” he asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

“Things…My parents…” I choked on my words, hating that I couldn’t contain my emotions. All I knew was I had to get as much as I could before Castellano’s men did. “Please,” I said, my eyes boring into his.

“Go,” was the only word he uttered.

“Roger that,” the driver responded, then said more I couldn’t hear into a headset.

Agent Kane pulled something out of his pocket and held it out to me.

“What is that?” I asked.

“A handkerchief. For your face.”

I stared at it when he handed it to me. “I’ll ruin it.”

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