Countdown

The gun he still held.

His eyes widened with surprise when he saw us standing there.

Colin held up his hands. 'Uh … hi, there. Um … Gareth asked me to take these two downstairs for the next level of The Countdown'

'Nice try,' the man said. 'But there aren't any more levels. And I just got word that they'd escaped with your help.'

He raised his gun and shot Colin in the chest.

As he swiveled to aim again at me, Rogan sprang at him, grabbing his arms. There was a blur of fists and legs. Rogan hit him across the jaw, then spun around and kicked him in the stomach. They both fell to the floor. Rogan grabbed the man's arm and pressed his knee down on his forearm until I heard the sickly snap of a bone breaking. The man screamed out in pain, but Rogan had the gun in his hand now, and he pointed it at the man's head.

Rogan, breathing hard, then turned to look at me.

I'd caught Colin as he began to fall, and helped him down to the ground. He was breathing erratically, holding a hand to his chest, which oozed blood.

'I… I guess … I didn't pass the final.. job interview,' he managed.

'Colin …' The tears flowed down my cheeks again. 'I'm so sorry.'

He shook his head. 'No … no, I'm sorry. I love you, Kira. I always have. Don't… don't hate me.'

'How could I hate you? You rescued me. Thank you.' I kissed his forehead.

His lips curled into a small smile and then his eyes glazed over.

I let out a shuddery moan. He was dead. He'd died in my arms trying to help us.

I looked at Rogan, whose attention had diverted from the White Coat to me.

'Rogan!' I yelled. 'Behind you!'

The man used his good arm to try to grab the gun away from Rogan. Rogan was able to kick at him. I thought for sure he would shoot the man, but instead he lashed out and struck him in the head with the gun, which knocked him out cold.

Rogan gave me a dark look, his chest heaving from the exertion. 'I'm very sorry about your friend.'

I nodded, blinking back tears, and moved Colin's still body to the side of the hallway. I took a moment to close his eyes, and I held my hand against the side of his face.

'So am I,' I said.

Then I reached to Colin one last time and grabbed the red access card out of his name tag.

Rogan had a gun and I had an access card. And together we thundered down the stairs to the subbasement.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Having psi abilities is a very strange thing. I'd watched loads of shows over the years, especially when I was much younger, about psychics. They were pretty cool. Some of them made it seem like they had superpowers, being able to lift things with their minds. Being able to manipulate the thoughts of other people.

That would really help right now.

Unfortunately, my powers-if you want to call them that-weren't quite that cool. In fact, my being a psi, low- level or any level, didn't help us out at all at the moment.

Too bad.

I touched the front of my shirt to make sure I could still feel the outline of the minidisk in my bra, and I could. The subbasement looked a great deal like the other levels of this building All white. All bland and clinical, with that antiseptic smell permeating the air like a superclean perfume.

Only down here, every other ceiling light was out or flickering, casting a spooky amount of light on the hallway we briskly walked down. It felt like a horror movie, like somebody might reach out at any moment and grab our ankles and pull us into another room and devour us. But maybe I was just being paranoid.

After all, it had been a really bad day so far.

'Maybe they changed it,' Rogan said. 'The room. Maybe it doesn't have Gareth's name on it anymore.'

'Maybe,' I said. 'And maybe Joe was lying. He could have made the whole thing up.'

'Yeah, and maybe that disk only has pictures of his last vacation on it.'

I didn't like this game of maybe we were playing. I gave Rogan a look.

He glanced at me. 'Sorry. I know we need to be positive.'

'Screw being positive. I just want to find the room.'

'They know we escaped.'

I swallowed. 'Yeah. They do.'

'We don't have much time. They'll shut this place down, lock all the exits to find us. Maybe we should leave now, while we still have half a chance.'

'After we went to all this work to get in here?' I said. 'Why would we want to miss out on the fun? How much time do we have before they find us?'

'Why?'

'I feel a sense of loss if I'm not working to a countdown. Sue me.'

He snorted and squeezed my hand. 'In that case, I figure we have five minutes before they lock the place down. Sweeping the levels with full security … maybe another half an hour.'

I felt a very small sense of relief. 'That's thirty-five minutes. Talk about luxury.'

'Well, that's if we hadn't left two bodies-one dead and one unconscious-marking the staircase leading downstairs. You can cut that time in a quarter.'

My heart sank. 'That's not good.'

'No.'

'Dammit.' I scanned every door we came to. Just as I was about to give up hope and take Rogan up on his offer to get the hell out of Dodge, my eyes widened. 'Look.' I pointed at the door that had a small brass plaque affixed to it.

G. ELLIS.

My hands trembled as I slid Colin's access card through the lock. The lights flickered red.

No entry.

I felt the color draining from my face. 'It's not working.'

'Try it again.' Rogan's voice was strained, and he turned his head to scan the hallway. 'And hurry.'

I tried it again. Still no luck.

I let out a little sound of frustration as I slid it through for a third time. Then, as the red light flickered, I came to the sudden realization that I was sliding it the wrong way around. The metallic strip had to be down.

Mentally kicking myself, I flipped the card and tried it the other way around.

The light flickered green and I heard a click.

Rogan pushed the door open. It was dark inside. I felt the wall until I found the light pad, and I tapped it. The lighting flickered on, and I blinked as I gazed around at the room.

It didn't look anything like I thought it would. I expected a phalanx of computers, or at the very least one big one in the middle of the room. A desk. Maybe a potted plant. Joe said that this was Gareth's secondary office.

Instead it looked more like a lounge. A large black leather couch was in the middle of the room with Japanese-inspired folding screens on either side. There was an unusually large amount of religious-themed artwork- paintings, sculptures, and other fine art pieces depicting all forms of religions, from an ornate and bejeweled rosary on the wall to a large, golden laughing Buddha on a tabletop.

A large screen on the wall across from the couch displayed images of the outdoors. It looked similar to the 'window' display that I had had in the reward room. Fakeness trying to appear real and almost succeeding. Behind me I heard a bubbling sound and turned to see that it was an elaborate water garden next to a Zen sand garden.

I eyed Rogan, and he must have seen my confusion.