one of the men to go bring Billy and Michael in. “Make sure Michael knows she wasn’t in the room, and we haven’t found her yet.”
Janice huddled against theroof of the house. She had no idea how long she’d been there. Weakened by her illness, she’d passed out at some point and woken to find that night had fully descended.
Her whole body shook from the cold. It was as if she could feel it all the way down to her bones. She needed to get back inside. She needed to get into the heat. Nighttime temperatures had been routinely dropping into the low twenties, and even occasionally the teens. If she stayed where she was, she’d die of exposure for sure.
But could she risk trying to go back inside yet? Were the others still there? She had no doubt the intruders were from the Project. Perhaps they were even attacking multiple locations, attempting to cripple the only organized opposition they faced.
Had they hit the Ranch, too? Was…was Michael okay?
She had to get closer to the window. She had to see if she could get inside. Even if the others were still around, perhaps there was someplace she could hide. Surely they had already checked the rooms. If she were able to, say, climb into her closet, chances were they would never know she was there.
She silently counted to three, pulled the blanket off her head, and crawled back down to the base of the dormer. She lay back, panting, the short distance having required most of her energy. She didn’t even realize she’d closed her eyes.
Nor was she aware of losing consciousness again.
Leaving two men behind to stand guard by the entrance, Pax led the others through the house to the secret elevator that went down to the detention level.
“Put your masks on now,” he said as they entered the car. “When we get to the bottom, Browne, I want you to keep your finger next to the Close Door button, but don’t push it until I say. The rest of you stay where you are while I run an air analysis.”
As they descended, Pax attached a long cable to his iPad. On the other end was a device that looked almost like a wand. He handed the computer to Ash. Holding the wand with one hand, he coiled up the cable, finishing just as the car began to slow.
He moved to the front and looked at Browne. “Be ready.”
The car came to a smooth stop. After a second’s delay, the doors slid open.
They weren’t even a foot apart when Pax tossed the wand into the arrival area, letting the cable play out as far as it could go.
As soon as it stopped moving, Pax said, “Close the door.”
Brown hit the button, and the doors slid shut around the cable.
Pax took the tablet back from Ash and studied the screen for several seconds.
“Smoke looks like it was just there for cover,” he said, his voice both muffled by the mask and coming clearly over the radio. “There’s something else, though.” He waited for a moment, his eyes on the screen. Then his nostrils flared. “Those bastards. Double LG.”
“Double LG?” Ash said, surprised. Double LG was the nickname for a deadly nerve toxin that killed within seconds of contact. He’d never heard of anyone actually using it before.
“There’re only trace amounts left,” Pax said. “But keep the masks on. Got it?”
On Pax’s command, Browne pushed the Open Door button.
The room beyond the elevator was unchanged from their brief preview a moment earlier. With Pax in the lead, they moved out of the elevator.
As they neared the body on the floor, Pax glanced at Billy. “Check him.”
The doctor knelt beside the still form, while the others headed over to the Plexiglas wall. Where it met the outer wall was the control room, itself fronted by a glass wall. Though they’d already seen the dead men inside via the camera feed, it was still unnerving to see nearly a dozen people slumped over desks and lying on the floor, dead.
Pax tossed the sensor into the control room and read the results. “Same. Concentration’s higher, but that’s probably because the room’s smaller.” He looked up as Billy rejoined them. “Dead?”
Billy nodded.
Michael moved to the control room window. “I don’t see her. I don’t think she’s in there.”
“No, but a lot of others were,” Billy said.
Michael whipped around, his eyes on fire. “You think I don’t know that? I worked with these people every day! They were my
“Michael, calm down,” Pax said. “Or I swear to God I will send you back upstairs right now.”
“My fault,” Billy said, sounding like he actually meant it. “Sorry, Michael. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Michael did nothing for a moment, then gave Billy a curt nod.
For the third time, Pax did his trick with the sensor, this time throwing it into the detention block.
“It’s clear,” he announced. “Don’t think they used any gas in there. But just to be safe, keep your masks on.”
Ash had guessed as much. The intruders would have only come down here for one thing: the detainees.
While Billy and Solomon checked the downed guards to see if any of them was still alive, Pax asked Michael, “Which cells are occupied?”
Michael thought for a moment. “Three…five, seven, um, eight…and eleven.”
Ash had assumed all were full, so he was surprised to learn that most of the twenty cells were empty.
One by one, they checked each. In the first four, the prisoners had all been shot through the head. The fifth cell, though, was empty. Ash didn’t need anyone to tell him who had been held there. He’d once visited cell eleven himself.
Olivia Silva’s.
“Son of a bitch,” Pax said.
It was a noise that woke Janice. Not just any noise. Voices, indistinct and coming from the other side of the window.
She tried to peek inside, but couldn’t do so without risking being seen, so she hung back.
Once they were gone, she waited five minutes just to be sure. Then, using more strength than she thought she had, she raised the window and crawled back inside.
At first she just lay on the floor as she let the warmth of the Bluff flow over her and attempt to thaw her out. After a while, though still cold, she felt like she could stand. Using the bed to help her, she rose to her feet. That’s when she saw Robert. He was lying near the door, a drying pool of blood at his side. He could have saved himself, but had instead given his life to save her.
She knelt beside him, and brushed a strand of hair off his cheek. He was
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something under her dresser. She leaned forward to take a better look. A pistol, probably the one Robert had been using. She picked it up and checked the mag. It was full.
Though hiding in the closet had been her initial plan, a new one had taken its place. She would find the intruders, and get a good look at them so she could identify them later. If she were really lucky, maybe she would find one alone, and take one life in payment for the many that she was sure had been lost that day.
Quickly she exchanged her sweats for more practical clothing, then checked to make sure no one was in the hallway.
Without waiting another moment, she slipped out of her room.
The mood in the elevator was somber as the team headed back up to the house. Counting the four prisoners in their cells, thirty-two were dead, and two-Janice and Olivia-were the known missing.
Not only were the losses devastating, but the numbers themselves were a problem. There had been thirty- five people at the Bluff, not thirty-four. Someone else was also missing. To try figuring out who it was, Browne and
