Page 113 of A Touch of Treachery
Desmond dropped his hand, opened his eyes, and pointed to the right.“That way.Something at the end of that corridor is using more power than the surrounding lights.”
“Good enough for me, Slick,” Gabriel said.“Let’s move.”
He holstered his gun, stepped forward, bent down, and picked up Desmond, slinging the other cleaner into a fireman’s carry across his shoulders.Desmond hissed with fresh pain, but it was a necessary evil.Gabriel headed down the right corridor, and Joan and I followed him.
Gabriel seemed to jog along with ease, but his face was twisted into a tight grimace, and the muscles in his neck stood out in stark relief from the strain of carrying Desmond so far so fast.Joan raised her eyebrows at me.She had noticed it too, but there was nothing we could do to help either one of them.
All we could do was run.
Finally, we turned a corner, and there it was—a large freight elevator.Even better, the car was on this level, as though it was waiting for us to arrive.Weird.Why would the car be down here?If I were Henrika, I would have left it up at the top and then disabled it so that no one else could escape.
Gabriel hustled inside, still carrying Desmond.I followed him, as did Joan, who punched a green button on the control panel.A metal grate rattled into place, and the car slowly started to rise.
“Time?”I asked.
Joan checked her watch.“Three minutes.”
I willed the elevator to rise faster, but of course it didn’t.
Five seconds ...ten ...twenty ...forty-five ...
At the sixty-second mark, the freight elevator finally floated to a stop, and the grate rattled back.
We raced through a short corridor and up a set of concrete stairs to a low ceiling.Joan punched another green button on the wall, and the ceiling slowly slid back, revealing the winter sky above.I drew in a breath.I had never been so glad to smell fresh air, no matter how cold and snowy it was.
“Ninety seconds,” Joan called out.
“Go!Go!Go!”I yelled.
The instant the door was out of the way, Joan sprinted up the stairs, her gun in her hand, just in case any guards were stationed outside.“Clear!”
Gabriel went up the stairs next, still carrying Desmond, while I brought up the rear.
I cleared the last step and skidded to a stop.A spotlight burned over my head, and the unexpected glare made me blink in surprise.After being surrounded by gray walls for the last hour, it took me a moment to orient myself and realize where we were: the clearing where Henrika had conducted the Redburn demonstration.
Joan was already running toward the woods in the distance, along with Gabriel, who was still carrying Desmond.They stopped at the edge of the trees and turned around.Gabriel lowered Desmond to the ground, then gestured at me.
“Charlotte!”he yelled.“Run!”
But I couldn’t run.Not without closing the door behind us.Henrika had probably packed her lab with enough explosives to blow it up ten times over, and I had to contain the blast as much as possible or we might still get fried to a crisp.
I whirled around, searching for a way to close the secret door, but it was embedded in the ground, and I didn’t see a way to pull it shut.Henrika would have wanted to be able to access—and hide—the lab entrance on a moment’s notice, which meant she had to have installed a way to open and close the door from this side.
I spun around in a circle, and my gaze landed on the spotlight.It was the only thing that didn’t belong here.I raced over to the pole and ran my hands over the cold, slick surface.It had to have a hidden button or switch.Where was it?Where was it?
My hand brushed up against a tiny button, so small that it blended in perfectly with the rest of the metal.There.I jabbed the button, and the door slowly started to slide shut.
“Fifteen seconds!”Joan screamed in the distance.
“Move, Charlotte!”Gabriel yelled.
I whirled around and sprinted in their direction, running as fast as possible, even as I counted down the remaining seconds in my mind.
Ten ...nine ...eight ...
I was a quarter of the way across the clearing.My lungs burned, and my legs felt like jelly from our long run inside the facility.
Seven ...six ...five ...
