Solomon had stayed below to ID the bodies.
As soon as the doors opened at the top, they all ripped off their masks and took in deep breaths of fresh, untainted air.
“I need to report in,” Pax said as he pulled out his phone and walked away.
Ash and the others headed toward the front room.
It was clear to him what had happened. The Project had found out that Olivia was alive and had come for her. She had been one of their leading scientists before she was taken and her death faked. There must have been a need she filled that required her return to the fold. How had they found out, though? A leak here at the Bluff?
Perhaps the missing-
A gunshot rang out.
Moving as silently as she could, Janice listened for intruders as she made her way toward the stairs that would take her to ground level. So far she had heard nothing, and had the distinct sense the others were no longer on the second floor.
She was just starting to think that maybe they’d pulled out altogether when a male voice drifted in her direction, and was answered a moment later by a second man. They seemed to be somewhere ahead of her.
The hallway she was in T-boned with another that ran parallel to the front of the house. She turned left, heading toward the stairs, and soon discovered where the voices were coming from.
The hallway stopped at the edge of the second-floor mezzanine. There was no one there. The speakers must have been in the room below, their voices drifting upward. The problem now was, if she stepped out onto the walkway, she’d easily be seen from the lower level. She scanned ahead, and realized maybe that wasn’t correct. If she stayed low, she could use the railing as cover and get even closer to the stairs.
Not allowing any time to talk herself out of it, she dropped into a crouch and crept along the mezzanine until she was three feet short of the stairs. She peeked over the top rail. Standing together in the lower room were two men, both wearing black, with rifles slung over their shoulders.
Without warning her head began to swim. She reached out and grabbed the rail to keep from falling down.
“Did you hear that?” one of the men said. “Up by the stairs, I think.”
They’d heard her.
“We need to check,” the other one said.
“I’ll go.”
…
She had to buy time, but the only way to do that was to let them know for sure she was there. Without looking, she pointed her gun into the room toward where she thought the others were, and pulled the trigger.
Ash raised his gun, and looked back at Michael and Billy.
“Stay here,” he said.
Billy wasn’t armed, so he didn’t put up any protest, but Michael looked like he was about to.
“Stay. Here,” Ash repeated.
Not waiting to see if Michael complied, he ran to the end of the hallway and scanned the front room beyond. He could see the two men they had left behind, pressed against the wall opposite the front door.
Ash quickly waved his hand to get their attention. One of the men looked over and pointed at the mezzanine above him. Ash nodded, then held up his hand, telling them to stay put.
He turned and ran back down the hallway.
When he reached Michael and Billy, he said, “Is there another way to the second floor?”
“One of them is still here?” Michael asked.
“Is there another way or not?”
Michael nodded. “I’ll show you.”
Moving fast, Michael took him into a room that was set up as an office, then out a door on the other side. This led into a narrow corridor that fed into the kitchen. At the back of the room, next to the pantry, was a closed door. Michael wrenched it open. Beyond was a staircase.
Ash pushed past Michael and raced up. Behind him he heard the other man’s feet pounding the treads.
Instead of arguing with him, Ash looked back and said, “Stay just inside the stairwell in case they try to use it.”
Michael nodded. “Okay.”
Ash took off down the hallway. Having never been on this floor before, he let his instincts guide him. Ahead, the hallway bent to the left. He stopped just short of the turn and listened.
Silence.
Planning to move as quickly as he could to the far end, he stepped around the corner. He was instantly halted by the gun thrust in his face.
Janice headed for the back stairs, hoping the intruders weren’t guarding them, but as she neared the end of the corridor, she heard footsteps running in her direction down the intersecting hallway.
She leaned against the wall and raised her gun.
At first, the only thing Ash could see was the barrel of the pistol. Forcing himself to look beyond it, he made eye contact with the person who wanted to kill him.
“Janice?” he said, surprised.
Her eyes narrowed, confused, but she didn’t lower the weapon.
“Janice. It’s Ash. We’ve been looking for you.”
More confusion, the barrel wavering slightly.
“Please. We’re not here to hurt you. Whoever did this is gone. We just flew out from the Ranch.”
“The Ranch?”
He could see she was having a hard time understanding. She took a harder look at him.
“Ash?”
Whatever energy had been holding her up vanished. If Ash hadn’t jumped forward when he did, she would have smacked her head on the floor.
13
I.D. MINUS 12 DAYS
Browne and Solomon accompanied Ash, Pax, Billy, Michael, and Janice on the plane back to the Ranch. The other men stayed at the Bluff, securing it until the cleanup team arrived the next afternoon.
Janice had yet to regain consciousness since falling in the hallway. After a quick examination at the house, Billy determined that in addition to the flu, she was now also suffering from hypothermia, which would explain why she hadn’t been killed with the others. Somehow she had been able to hide outside.
Matt was waiting for them when they landed back at the Ranch. He had Ash and Pax ride with him, while everyone else piled into the other waiting vehicles.
“It was indescribable,” Pax said as Matt pulled away from the airstrip. “A goddamn massacre. I don’t think anyone even had a chance.”
“We ran the names of everyone you identified,” Matt said. “The missing person is a man named Jeremy Murphy.”
Pax shook his head. “I don’t think I know him.”
“He was one of the control room technicians.”
“So was he involved?”
