Page 114 of Over the Edge

They edged past a stack of metal ammunition boxes nearly as tall as she was, and a door appeared on her right. Trevor had stopped on the far side of it. Obviously he intended to check out whatever lay behind it. The way the hinges opened, she would be taking point going in. Quickly, she pulled out a tiny metal can and dripped oil on all three hinges.

Burst of panic.

Exhale slowly.

Focus.

Okay. Calm. Ready to go. She nodded at Trevor.

He reached out and pushed down on the latch slowly. The door opened an inch. No movement. No light inside. She nodded again.

He eased the door open a bit further. Still nothing. She swept inside low and fast, spinning to the left side of the door in a crouch as she scanned the room rapidly.

Boxes. Burlap bags. Barrels.

She quickly read the scrawled words on storage containers. Flour. Beans. Coffee. Salt.

She stood up and moved quickly around the space to make sure nobody was hiding behind any stacks of stored food. The room was clear.

She moved back into the tunnel, where Trevor was scanning the passage in both directions. She touched his right shoulder to indicate they were clear to proceed. Without looking back at her, he moved on down the tunnel.

They had to be getting close to underneath the big building in the middle of the compound that had appeared to be some sort of common gathering space. She noticed that Trevor was including the ceiling in his scans, too. Looking for trap doors, no doubt.

The tunnel widened out considerably, and four doors came into view in her NOD’s, two on each side of the broad space. Trevor scanned right and she scanned left.

There. A padlock on one of the doors.

She tapped Trevor’s shoulder twice to let him know she’d seen something he would want to look at. He finished his own scan and his helmet turned left. She pointed at the locked door. As he crept left toward it, she took over scanning to the right and further on down the tunnel.

She made out a ladder just beyond this wide space, leaning against the right side of the tunnel. Crap. Another entrance to this underground area. Probably from that central building they’d guessed Haddad was hanging out in with his chief lieutenants.

Two taps on her left shoulder. She turned, and Trevor pointed at the lock, then at her. He wanted her to pick it. Good call. She was a lot faster with locks than he was. She darted over to the door as she reached into one of her waist pouches and pulled out her rakes and picks. While an electric lock gun would’ve been faster, it would not have been silent.

Although it was a large lock, it was a relatively simple one, and she popped it open in under thirty seconds. Trevor lined up on the other side of the door. This time he had the angle to enter first. She nudged the door open a bit.

Even she heard the rustle inside. Someone had moved.

Trevor nodded at her once. They would go in hot together. She threw open the door and he swept in, covering the right half of the room while she leaped in and covered the left.

Oh.

My.

God.

On a pile of straw across the room, a skeletal figure of a man held his hands up in the air over his head. His lower body was covered with a burlap flour sack and he wore a ragged T-shirt. His arms were pencil thin, showing bone, tendon, and what little muscle he had left.

The face was gaunt, his jaw covered in a long, straggly beard.

But those eyes. She would know them anywhere.

It was Ken Singleton.

They’d done it. They’d found him.

Trevor raced forward to kneel in front of Ken, whispering, “Kenny. It’s Trevor. Can you walk?”

Ken nodded, but she wondered if his will to walk was greater than his strength to do so. Although, knowing her SEAL brother, he would walk out of here on two broken legs and a broken back if he had to.

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