“What the?” It turned out to be Patrick, his blue eyes wide.
“Quiet. See the room to my left? There’s no one inside. I’m gonna go look around, and you keep an eye on the bus. Come get me when it’s about to leave.”
He didn’t give Patrick a chance to object as he got up and strode to the room that beckoned to him with its glowing screens, empty chair, and stacks of papers. Chad didn’t look back as he closed the door behind him, and only then did he dare release the air from his lungs.
Think, he ordered his brain, looking around the small, dark room. His gaze flicked up to the ceiling, checking all four corners, but there were no cameras. How ironic, he thought, peering at the three monitors before him.
To his disappointment, the images were useless. Just a bunch of halls and corridors, most of them empty at the moment. He saw the three buses, but even with a night-vision camera, there was nothing else for him to see. The two Commandos that had driven them there stood smoking behind the bus.
Chad turned to the table on his left, when the door creaked behind him.
His heart skipped a beat before freezing in his chest.
“Who the hell are you?” a male voice sounded, and Chad swallowed hard.
He turned around. “Good, you’re here,” he said, keeping his voice even with an effort. “Victoria sent me to bring her papers, said you know which ones.” His mask of calm wavered when the Commando closed the door. At least there wouldn’t be any witnesses.
“She sent you?” the man asked, shifting on his feet. Chad’s eyes were on his gun, slung casually across his shoulder. No vest—just a guard.
“Yes. She couldn’t find any of you guys. It’s no big deal,” Chad waved his hand, putting on a friendly face again, as if it mattered under the mask. But even as he kept talking, the man’s hand reached for the radio on his belt.
Distracted as he was, the poor bastard never saw that left hook coming.
His teeth shattered from the impact, and his eyes rolled back even as Chad grabbed his jacket, keeping the man from crashing into a table behind him.
I am so dead, the thought flashed in his head, while his fingers searched the man’s numerous pockets. What was he going to do now? Dead or alive, the man would alert the Commandos, and they’d be busted.
Chad pushed the thought to the back of his head when, at last, he found something useful. Unlike the civilians, the guards were allowed to keep their smartphones. And it solved all of Chad’s problems, except the problem of being spotted and shot dead in about five minutes.
He grabbed the phone, unlocked it with the man’s thumb, and tapped the camera. With the flash on, he quickly snapped a few pictures of the room and screens, before he turned to the table filled with papers. He spread them on the table and snapped more pictures. Let Rooney sort through them, even if there wasn’t anything useful at first glance.
Chad ran his hand over the papers, returning them to their previous disorganized state, and slipped the phone into his inside pocket. He hoped they wouldn’t scan him again. There was only one minor question—the knocked-out Commando at his feet.
Chad could feel the seconds tick away along with his racing heartbeat while he struggled to come up with a solution. He could try to hide the body behind a table, which would give them more time to escape. He could take the man’s radio with him, too.
But they would still find out eventually, and he would be the one to blame when the Commandos changed their tactics and HQ was back to square one.
There was only one other option—to take the man with him, but how was he going to get past the Commandos?
Quiet footsteps sounded behind the door, and Chad’s head snapped up. He had an idea of how he could do that but wasn’t sure if he was actually able to do something like that.
The door cracked open, and Patrick’s blue eyes stared at him. “Are you okay? I saw him come in.”
“Come in and close the door,” Chad whispered, grabbing the unconscious Commando by the belt.
“What the hell are you doing?” Patrick’s hand flew up to grab his hair, before he remembered about the mask. “We can’t leave a body behind!”
Chad closed his eyes and tuned out the panic in Patrick’s voice.
“We’re not leaving him behind.” Pain’s not gonna believe this. He opened his eyes and looked at Patrick. “He’s coming with us.”
Chapter 16
“Keep moving!” Chad muttered.
Patrick hissed a response but slowed down even more as the crowd around them got jammed in the narrow corridor. Chad snapped his mouth shut, reminding himself to stay focused on the man that was sandwiched between him and Patrick. Chad held him in place, while their two shields kept him upright and off the ground. The moment they collapsed, people would notice and probably alert the Commandos.
The crowd finally started moving again, and Chad gritted his teeth, feeding the shield more energy. Just a few more steps. He tightened his grip on the man’s belt. The gun was poorly covered by the man’s jacket and pants, but with Chad covering him from behind, no one would notice.
Back in the control room, he had seen their bus move away from the exit, then stop to wait for them, while another one pulled up to the door and people started filing inside. With the darkness and the crowd, it was the opportunity they needed. All they had to do now was slip by the officers and get to the back of
