She snatched up her satchel and hurried into the office. Metal groaned as the magnetic locks released. The door started to slide open.
With a bang and a clank, a shot ricocheted off the metal door. Nyssa gasped and flattened herself against the wall. The door snapped shut again.
“Blast! Rivera’s got a man out there with a gun,” Hart said.
“It’s okay. I’ll go through the floor.”
Returning to the lab, Nyssa threw herself at the hole in the floor. She wrenched up another board. Another complicated nest of wires lay beneath. She pushed at them, trying to make a space big enough to slip through. Sparks snapped at her.
“He’s in the workshop.” Hart’s display changed to that camera feed.
One of Rivera’s henchmen wheeled out a barrel with a metal rod attached. They fitted the rod into the hole in the door between the workshop and the office. Nyssa’s stomach clenched.
“I’ll have to be quick.” She shut the door between the lab and the office, hoping it would buy her some time, flipped her goggles to field detection, and started working through the wires.
She clipped restrictors around one bundle, sliced into them, then moved on to another. Soon there was a small gap where she could see the plaster from the ceiling below them. She chipped at it with the crowbar.
“Nyss, look!” Hart said.
A greenish vapor, like a bank of fog, was already seeping under the door. She bit her lip then returned to her hacking. To her frustration, a layer of wooden paneling lay beneath the plaster.
Her eyes smarted, and a scent like rotten eggs burned her nose and throat. She yanked her shirt over the lower half of her face, trying not to breathe too deeply.
The green gas pooled around her, until she could no longer see into her excavation to work.
“The gas is coming in too quickly. We need another plan,” Hart said.
She glanced at the monitor. Rivera himself held the metal rod that fed the gas into the room. Nyssa’s vision wavered.
The gas is low to the ground …heavier than air. If I can get higher, it might buy me some time.
Nyssa scrambled onto the table. The air was clearer here. She managed a few steadying breaths before reaching for the exposed beams of the ceiling. Even with the chair on top of the table, she couldn’t quite reach, nor would there be much to hold onto once she did get there.
Her eyelids felt heavy, and tears ran down her cheeks. Oh God, I know I shouldn’t fear death, but I don’t want to die yet. There’s so much I wanted to do … with Ellis, mostly, but … please … I’m so dizzy.
Nyssa’s legs gave out beneath her. She leaned against the wall. The gas now tickled the edge of the table. Heavy fumes grabbed her by the throat.
If only I hadn’t gone to that stupid meeting in the hangar. Oh Ellis, I wish you could forgive me for that. We could’ve been so happy together.
“Nyss! Don’t fall asleep. You have to fight this,” Hart pleaded.
“I’m sorry, Hart. This isn’t your fault.” She coughed. Reaching into her pocket, she found the handheld and flipped it open. At least I can say good-bye.
The screen crackled to life. Ellis’s beloved eyes stared at her, wide and frightened.
“Nyss, are you all right?”
In spite of her situation, Nyssa smiled. He’s so handsome. I never told him enough, but at least I told him. “I just … I’m sorry, Ellis. I’m getting so … sleepy.” She was vaguely aware that her words ran together … or perhaps her hearing wasn’t working quite right. It felt as if someone had stuffed cotton through her ears into her brain. “I just wanted to hear your voice, one more time.”
“Hold on. For me, please hold on.” Ellis’s voice cracked. “We’re trying to get help. I’m so close. Please, Nyss, you can’t leave me.”
Her vision became as foggy as the gas nipping at her heels. The agony in Ellis’s voice stirred something in her soul, a sharp pain that fought against the swiftly growing stupor.
“I love you so much,” she whispered as the handheld slipped from her grasp.
“Nyss!” Ellis and Hart’s voices joined in a single cry.
She tried to sit up, knowing that the lower she lay, the quicker death would come, but her body sank onto the wood of the table.
“Nyss! Please wake up!” Hart begged.
Nyssa wanted to comfort him, but her words turned into another cough.
“I love you, Nyss.” The computer gave a hissing sigh. “Please, tell him to take care of you for me.”
Lights flashed. Something popped and fizzed, sending sparks across the room. Nyssa screamed, curling into herself.
A breath of air tickled her face, a draft from somewhere. She tried to sit up, but her head spun, and she fell into darkness.
Chapter Sixteen
The lights flickered. Ellis stared into the handheld, but the screen had gone black.
“What was that?” O’Hara frowned.
Aito moaned and pulled himself to his feet. “I’m not sure.”
Pounding feet echoed outside the study.
“Jamison!” a voice shouted. “The boss is dead.”
Ellis started. Aito and O’Hara exchanged a confused look.
“What? How?” Jamison voiced what Ellis was thinking.
“I don’t know. He was pumping gas into that girl’s prison and then … it was like the room exploded. Lightning shot through the door. It fried him! I was standing a few feet back, and my hair was still singed.”
“Well, what do we do?”
“If he’s dead, we ain’t gettin’ paid. I say grab what we can and get out of here.”
O’Hara turned her attention to the door, ramming into it with her shoulder.
Ellis swallowed, trying to sort the confusion, fear, and hope that warred in his mind. “Wait. There’s something Nyssa taught me once. Do you have a hairpin?”
O’Hara nodded.
Ellis reseated himself in his chair and wheeled to the door. Oh God, please let her be all right somehow. Please!
He picked the lock at a speed Nyssa would’ve been proud of and rolled into the empty hallway. No sign of Jamison
