Page 52 of Already Lost

“Hold on,” Nate whispered, grabbingLaura’s arm as she tried to go in the direction of one of the windows wherelight entered from a position near the moon. “This way.”

He had the advantage of knowing that thiswarehouse was very like the one he had explored before, where he had comeacross the homeless kid. It was in the same condition. Rotting crates, plasticsheeting that was halfway through the process of falling down, the odd puddleof standing water where a hole in the ceiling let it in. And Nate knew that ifthis warehouse was the same, hiding would be easy. They just had to find a spotwhere they couldn’t be seen, keep an ear out for approaching footsteps, andthen…

But the footsteps came far too soon – or,rather, the sound of metal dragging. Nate was just leading Laura, pulling herby the arm, towards a tall stack of rotting crates that might hide them when heheard it. Oreyo was entering the warehouse. He was still close behind them,even with the weight of the sword dragging across the floor. His footsteps werecovered by the light symphony of dripping water from the various holes in theroof, and Nate hoped their footsteps were as well, but the sword scratchedthrough it all like nails on a chalkboard. Laura stumbled against Nate and madea small noise as he caught her, and Nate’s own breath caught in his throat. IfOreyo heard…

Sure enough, the scraping sword seemed toturn in their direction. Nate changed target, fixing his eyes ahead of thestack. There was a length of plastic sheeting that seemed to reach across halfthe warehouse, only just visible as a vague outline in the darkness. Behindthat, somewhere, there would be another place to hide. They had to keep going.Had to put as many layers between them and Oreyo as possible.

Nate focused on moving quietly andcarefully, dropping speed in favor of not tripping over anything. Laura waslagging, leaning heavily against his arm now, her feet beginning to dragagainst the ground. Nate could feel her exhaustion. He gritted his teeth. Heneeded to be strong for both of them.

“There.”

It was a whisper, so quiet he almostdidn’t hear it, fixed right into his ear. But he did hear it, and when hefollowed Laura’s gaze he saw. There were two more sheets of plastic flappingloosely from rails on the ceiling, and behind them, another tall stack ofcrates. Two stacks, side by side. Perfect to shield them from Oreyo’sdetection. And best of all, they were at a diagonal angle across the warehousefrom their current position, a line that Oreyo might not expect them to take.

Nate redoubled his efforts, the sound ofthat metallic scraping ringing in his ears and seeming to fill his entire head,desperate to make it there before some errant shaft of light from a passing carwould illuminate them for Oreyo’s eyes.

He made it behind the crates, pullingLaura with him, and found himself slumping down on the floor as quietly as hecould. He was breathing hard and trying to stifle it at the same time, theeffort of getting away while also supporting Laura’s weight having taken itstoll on him. She sat beside him, resting, but her head lolled on her neck.

“Laura?” he asked, risking a ghost of awhisper. The sound of the scraping was continuing, but it sounded further away.Far enough that they might be able to communicate.

“My head,” she murmured back, not awhisper and yet somehow quieter than his had been. “He hit me over the head.”

“Shit.” Nate moved quietly to glancearound the stack of crates. He caught a glimpse of light flashing off somethinglong and thin: the sword. Oreyo was across the other side of the warehouse,still following the path he and Laura had originally set off on. They hadfooled him, but only for now. Sooner or later he would get to the end of thespace and realize he had missed them, and then he would come look for them.With Laura so tired and obviously reeling, Nate didn’t know how long they couldkeep running. She must have used up all the energy she had in trying to getaway before he arrived.

They needed help.

Nate grabbed his cell phone and turned,putting it inside his coat and using it as a shield around the phone, stoppingtoo much light from spilling out. Even so, when he turned on the screen it madehis heart pound in his chest even faster. It seemed so bright in the darknessof the warehouse. A telltale sign, if Oreyo looked around. Nate hit thebrightness slider and put it all the way down, but it wasn’t enough. He neededto do this quick.

There was no chance of making a call. Hetyped out a quick message to Marsters –HIDING FROM KILLER. TRACE L FROSTCELL & MY CELL. BACKUP REQUIRED URGENTLY.Then another to CaptainKinnock, hoping he would be fast enough and careful enough to actually help –ABANDONEDWAREHOUSE COMPLEX ABOVE TINNERY BRIDGE – KILLER WITH SWORD – BACKUP REQUIREDURGENTLY – AGENTS UNARMED.

He thought about sending another messageor two to Kinnock to try and explain more in case the man didn’t get it, but hewas relying more on the FBI resources at any rate. It wasn’t worth the risk ofkeeping the light of the screen on. Marsters would send someone – he could relyon that. Nate turned off the screen and tucked the phone back into his pocket,making doubly sure to turn the volume slider to silent as he did so. Theycouldn’t have a phone call or a message alert giving them away, not now.

“Just hold on,” Nate whispered, so quietit was almost under his breath. “Help’s coming.”

Laura said nothing, but she pressed a handagainst his arm in the darkness – a gesture of understanding and reassuranceboth. He patted her hand back with his own: message received.

Sudden silence made Nate sit up straight,his hand automatically going for his gun belt and closing on empty air in theabsence of the weapon.

The sound of the sword scraping on thefloor was gone.

Was Oreyo standing still somewhere?

Or had he picked up the blade so that hecould approach them silently?

***

Laura’s head pounded and she rubbed at hertemples, trying to get it to stop. The pain was so bad, she was having troublekeeping upright. It must have been the exertion. The pain had faded away whenshe was lying still on the floor, going down to a more manageable level. Butsince she’d got up and tried to run away, it had become so much worse. She hadto have a concussion. That would be it.

But it wasn’t like she didn’t haveexperience dealing with bad headaches. Wasn’t like she didn’t know how to pushthrough them.

She needed to think. That was the problem.Thinking through the pain.

“Just hold on,” Nate whispered. “Help’scoming.”

Laura nodded in the darkness and flinched,feeling the pain roll through her head at the movement. She reached out andsqueezed his arm lightly to let him know she’d understood. She would hold on.Nate reached up to touch her hand back, another wordless gesture.

And a wave of darkness washed over her, sothick she thought she was going to throw up there and then –

Nate was sitting right there when the bladesliced through the side of the stack of crates and through his body, making himchoke up red blood that looked black in the darkness –

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