Her gaze was unflinching. "I'm sorry, sir, but I would have to get my manager to authorize that. Do you want me to call him? It's just that he's dealing with another guest and it might take him a little while to get here, so if your call is urgent… "
"Er, you know what, it's fine," said Sam, backing away. "I've just seen someone I need to talk to anyway. I'll just wait until the phone in our room's been fixed."
"Certainly, sir. Have a pleasant evening." As Sam sidled away from the reception area, he saw the girl pick up the phone. He wondered whether she was calling Sara, or perhaps someone else within FireStorm, or someone they had bribed or coerced. Of one thing he was certain: that call meant danger for him and the others.
"How do we know you won't just kill him?" Nina demanded. "Or leave him to die?"
Sara tapped her long nails against the arm of the chair with growing irritation. "You don't," she said. "But Dave knows that he can trust me, even if he has abused my trust. Once I have his key, we can bring the backup servers online and undo the damage you three have done. You will have been no more than a minor annoyance. We won't be able to risk having Dave at the heart of the operation again, of course, but we would be prepared to keep all three of you on our peripheries. We can provide you with lives, employment, and places to live — in exchange for your loyalty. Gradually you would be able to work your way back into the fold. FireStorm is forgiving — as you would know already, had you embraced it."
"So you're offering to let us live under constant surveillance? What if we refuse? Is that the bit where we end up getting sliced up in the middle of the desert by your drugged followers?"
"That never happened, Nina," Sara lowered her gaze and stared directly into Nina's eyes. "You would do well to remember that."
"And you would do well to go fuck yourself," Nina snarled. "I know what I saw. And I know that you're a fucking psychopath."
Too late Nina realized that she had finally gone too far. Sara's jaw tightened. With great care and precision she crossed one leg over the other, smoothed down her skirt and spoke to the remaining acolyte. "This is getting us nowhere," she said. "Kill him."
The door, Sam thought. There's got to be a phone on the street, or another building I can go to, or even just someone passing by who might let me use their phone.
He strolled casually toward the door. Just going for a late night stroll, he repeated in his head. Taking the air. Stretching my legs.
"Sir?" A tall, broad-shouldered man stepped in front of the door that Sam was approaching. "I'm sorry, sir, but we can't let you go outside just now." The blood froze in Sam's veins as he heard the words. "There's been a police incident on the street outside, and they've requested that we don't let anyone leave the building until they give us the all clear. For your own protection, sir. There are some things you might not want to see out there."
I'll bet, Sam thought. He craned his neck, trying to determine whether there was any truth to the man's story. Sure enough, he detected a slight flicker of a flashing blue light, but nothing more conclusive than that. There's got to be another way out, he told himself. He had seen an emergency exit in the stairwell, but it had been covered in signs warning that it would activate an alarm when opened. Sam was not sure that evacuating the whole building was the way to go. Pausing in the middle of the lobby, he looked around, wondering whether there might be an exit through the kitchens or the laundry.
Then an elevator dropped past him, descending rapidly into the bowels of the building. As it flashed past, Sam caught a glimpse of a face he recognized. Julia Rose.
Nina screamed as the acolyte advanced on Purdue, his knife in his hand. A long stream of angry threats spilled from her lips. She saw Purdue raise his good arm, ready to defend himself as best he could, but she threw herself between the two of them and lunged at the acolyte with her cane.
By sheer luck, she caught him square on the back of the hand and heard a couple of the small bones crack. He dropped the knife and she kicked it away, so charged with adrenaline that she did not even register the pain in her damaged ankle as she moved. The acolyte spun around, ready to go after the lost blade, but Purdue leaped up and flung his good arm round the young man's throat, hauling him backward, giving Nina the split-second she needed to dive across the floor and grab it.
She held it out as she turned back to face the acolyte, prepared for him to have shrugged Purdue off and come after her, but he remained sprawled on the floor. The two men were grappling with each other. It was clear that Purdue would not be able to maintain his grasp for long, but he was putting up as much of a fight as he could. Sara sat by and watched, an expression of distaste on her face. On instinct Nina started to move toward her, planning to make the most of her distraction and do her some harm.
She got no more than two steps before another figure entered the room. Nina did not even stop to think. She jumped behind the man, grabbed his arm and twisted it sharply up his back. Automatically he bent backward, giving Nina the opportunity to press her blade against his throat. She could see it nicking the skin. A fat red drop of blood welled up against the metal.
"Nina… " the man croaked. "What are you doing?"
She nearly let go as she noticed who it was, but recovered herself in the nick of time. "Sorry, Jefferson," she said, "but I don't have a choice."
Without a thought for who might be watching him, Sam ran full speed toward the stairwell and dashed down another flight of stairs, past the spa, the gym, into the housekeeping area where only staff were permitted to go. At the entrance to each new level he stared through the glass panels in the doors, looking for any sign that the elevator had recently arrived.
As he set foot on the top step of the final flight, leading down to the empty laundry, Sam froze. The door below him had swung open and was now slowly falling shut, and someone was climbing the dimly lit stairs with tentative steps.
"Julia Rose!" Sam whispered, as soon as she crept into view. She jumped, gaped at him in terror for a moment, then turned tail and fled back downstairs. Sam went after her, catching her just as she burst back into the basement laundry room. "It's ok, it's ok!" He worked to keep his voice gentle, as she lashed out at him. Glad that he was taller and stronger, he pinned her flailing arms to her sides with as little force as he could. "I'm not going to hurt you. Are you all right?"
"Don't take me back to them," she pleaded, her breathing harsh and shallow, her thin shoulders heaving as she leaned against one of the industrial washing machines. "Please. Sam, you have to help me, they think I betrayed them. When they found me in that cell they thought it was my choice — that I'd sacrificed myself to let Nina go, because they'd go easy on me. Sara said—" Julia Rose stifled a sob, then composed herself again and plowed on. "Sara said that our little plan wasn't going to work, and they were going to make an example of me because she couldn't stand people who try to play one side against another. She thought I'd been faking it when I followed her, Sam! She thought it was all just me trying to get a good story — but I meant it, I really did. I thought she was so… Anyway, she said I could make up for it all at the next hunt. Then they blindfolded me and put me in a helicopter and brought me here. I got away, but the chopper pilot's not looking so good and I feel so bad. That poor guy, what if he's…? I didn't want to hurt him, but I had to get away, and now I don't know where I am or how to get out. Please, Sam. Help me."