Page 90 of Nuclear Option (Owens Protective Services)

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CASH

“Boss, this guy is psychotic,”Fox muttered as we fell to the back of the pack for a few minutes. “And that’s saying something coming from me.”

“I know, but we don’t have a choice right now. We need to find Noah if we have any chance of getting out of here and finding the evidence to end this.”

“What about Eva? She’s too trusting.”

“I think she’s just placating him.”

“You sure about that?” he glanced at me. “She seems to really like the guy.”

I smirked at him. “Eva has a secret talent that none of us have.”

He frowned. “You’re going to let her sleep with him?”

I stopped and glared at him. “No, people trust her.”

His face dawned in understanding. “Ah, that makes more sense.”

I shook my head and walked forward to catch up to Eva. She may be playing it up for Mole, but that didn’t mean I trusted her alone with him. He was dangerous in that we had no idea what he would do.

I grabbed Eva’s elbow as I got closer, gripping her tight as we walked. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m fine.”

“Really? This has been a lot more than we bargained for, and you’re not healed.”

“I feel good, though I could do without crawling through any more tunnels anytime soon.”

It was dark and I couldn’t really tell how she looked, but she sounded upbeat enough, and that was going to have to do for now. We needed this to be over and get back to some normalcy. Eva needed to see a physical therapist so she could get back to healing instead of just running from one crisis to the next.

After several hours of walking on uneven ground, the tunnel narrowing again, and Mole rambling on and on about government conspiracies, the sound of water hit my ears. It grew louder the closer we got to the end of the tunnel.

“Are we coming out by a river?”

Mole snorted in amusement. “Sort of.”

We turned a corner and stopped as we saw a curtain of water flowing over the exit to the tunnel.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jones muttered.

“Is there another way out of here?” Rae asked.

“Nope,” Mole grinned.

“What about your laptop,” Rae asked, pointing to his bag.

“I’m not completely stupid,” Mole said, walking precariously close to the edge of the waterfall. He reached around the corner and grabbed a rope. Pulling it closer, a case was attached to the end of it. He opened it up and shoved his messenger bag inside. “I wouldn’t bring you all this way and not be prepared. Anything you don’t want waterlogged, hand over.”

I looked at Rae, who just shook her head. I didn’t want to get wet either, but what were the alternatives? I pulled out my phone and tossed it inside. Rae had one also, along with Fox and Jones. When everything was inside, Mole shut the case, sealing our objects in the watertight case.

“Bombs away!” he shouted as he tossed the case into the waterfall. Turning back to us, he waggled his eyebrows. “Now comes the fun part.”

He turned and took a running jump through the waterfall, leaving the rest of us standing there. Eva tightened her grip on my hand.

“We’re not going to do that, are we?”

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