“YOU BARELY GOT OUT alive last time, and you want to go back?”
“I don’t think we have any choice, Micah. If we want to find out what’s happening, we have to go back in.” Rain paced the length of their tiny room in the church basement. After what she’d heard from Dave Dugan, she was ready to hit the Marine base yesterday.
Micah reluctantly nodded in agreement. “You’re right. I don’t like it, but you’re right.”
She knelt next to him on the bed. “I’ll be fine. This time it will be different. This time I have you with me.”
He pulled her against him and gave her a thorough kiss. “I’m glad you have such faith in me.” His voice was wry.
“Why shouldn’t I,” she said with a grin. “You’re a Warrior. Genetically altered for speed and strength and stamina.”
“Did you say stamina?” He leered at her which made her laugh.
“Oh, yeah, definitely stamina.”
“Tomorrow we head to the base. Tonight, I’ll show you the true meaning of stamina.” His leer turned to something much more heated.
“If you insist.” Rain’s voice came out a little more breathless than she intended.
“Oh, I do.” His hands found their way under the hem of her t-shirt and up towards her breasts which suddenly ached for his touch. “I most definitely do.”
“LOOKS CLEAR.” RAIN lowered the binocs.
“They’ll be out hunting for hours yet. There will only be a skeleton crew at the base. If we’re going to go, it better be now.” Micah lay next to her in the dust of the hillside overlooking the Marine base.
She nodded. “Once we get rid of the sentry, there shouldn’t be any problem getting into the base through that hatch I found. Problem is finding the sentry.” She scanned the hillside, but there was too much brush, too many rocks. He could be hiding anywhere.
“He’ll be in the same spot the other one was.”
“Oh, come on. They can’t be that stupid.”
“It’s not stupidity so much as arrogance.” Micah shrugged. “You’ve got to understand, the Marines are the biggest bad-asses left on the planet, or at least this little corner of it. They’ve got the weapons and the warriors to fight the drags. They take what they want, when they want. They don’t consider you or anyone else a threat.”
“I knocked out their guard. Snuck onto their base. And I escaped.”
“I know how these people think, Rain. They’ll assume you got lucky. That you won’t do it again, and that no one else would think of it.”
She snorted. “Guess they got that wrong.”
He was right. They found the sentry in the very same spot where she’d discovered the first one. The second one was rendered unconscious just as easily, too. Micah gave him one solid punch to the jaw and it was lights out. This time they had the materials to tie him up and gag him. They had until the next shift when he was sure to be discovered.
Micah stopped her before they entered the hatch. “We go for the documents first. We find out what they’re up to. Then we go get Sutter. Got it?”
She scowled at him but agreed. Unfortunately, it made perfect sense. They couldn’t very well haul Sutter’s remains around with them while searching the base.
It was a heck of a lot easier traversing the air ducts now that she knew the way. Not to mention they had the proper equipment with them. Getting from the air shaft ladder into the air duct itself was a breeze when there were ropes involved.
Micah took the lead guiding them away from the air shaft and deeper into the base. Rain caught glimpses of rooms through the vents they passed: Labs, sleeping quarters, a gym. Everything spotlessly clean and polished to a shine. She was beginning to think the Marines had too much time on their hands. The people of Sanctuary and Fossil were way too busy fighting drags and trying to stay alive to keep things so neat.
“Here.” Micah’s voice was hardly more than a whisper. “This is one of the oldest sections of the base. They started cannibalizing the systems for parts a decade ago, so no one comes down here anymore. This is where they keep the records.”
Rain pressed her face to the mesh of the grate. The hallway below was barely lit by a single flickering light tube. It cast an odd, sickly glow over the place. Cobwebs floated on a phantom breeze sending eerie shadows dancing along the walls. She repressed a shudder.
Rain tested the grate. It held firm. But this time she had what she needed. The two of them made fast work of the screws. They quietly removed the grate before lowering themselves into the hallway.
“This way.” Micah led them further down the hall. “This is it.”
“How can you tell?”
“I know this base like the back of my hand.”
She gave him a doubtful look.
“Plus the ‘R’ on the door stands for ‘Records’.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re such a dope.”
The door, not surprisingly, was locked. Micah dug around in his pack and pulled out a screwdriver, a hammer, and what looked like a kitchen towel.
Rain raised her eyebrow. “Plan on doing some repair work?”
He laughed. “Watch.”
He wrapped the kitchen towel around the handle of the screwdriver then placed the screwdriver blade in the lock. He gave the screwdriver a sharp tap with the hammer, the towel muffling the sound. A couple more taps and the lock fell out of the knob and hit the floor with a thunk. Micah flashed her a smile and swung open the door. “Milady.”
The room beyond was pitch
