I wanted to kill them all.
My fingers clenched the grip of the gun but I left it in the holster. I couldn’t let my emotions get the better of me. The instant I fired my weapon, hell would rain down on us. Beverly and I would die instantly. Diane, if she didn’t perish in the crossfire, would die shortly afterward.
I glanced back at Beverly. She stood behind my shoulder, peering through the small crack afforded by the slab of metal. “Seen enough?” I mouthed.
She nodded and stepped away.
Gently, I pushed the slab back into place. Then I followed Beverly back through the flue.
Once we were out of earshot, I took a deep breath. “We need to rescue her.”
“Don’t you ever get tired of playing underdog?”
“It’s the American way.”
“I know those people. They’re some of Jack’s best soldiers. We can’t beat them, especially not with just two of us.”
“We don’t have a choice,” I replied. “She needs our help. She’s dying.”
“There’s always a choice. And right now, the smart thing is to wait for our opportunity.”
“You just want to sit here and do nothing?”
She shook her head. “We’ve got two things going for us. First, we know where to find them but they don’t know where to find us. And second, we know what they want.”
“The Bell.”
“I say we go and destroy the thing before it hurts anyone. Then, we set a trap for them. In the confusion, we’ll grab your friend and run for it.”
“How the hell are we going to do that? I thought you said we didn’t stand a chance against them.”
“We don’t. But we can’t stage an effective fight here. If I know Jack, he’s itching to find us. We might as well make sure that when he does, the advantage is ours. Because the instant he sees us, he won’t let up until he’s dead…or we are.
Chapter 53
Doubt wrapped its icy fingers around my heart as I darted through the passageway. I didn’t like leaving Diane behind. It felt wrong.
Completely, utterly wrong.
You’re doing the right thing.
I repeated that mantra over and over again in my head. Part of me knew Beverly was right. We didn’t stand a chance in a fair fight. We needed to regroup at the Omega and destroy the Bell. Then we could marshal our resources and strike at our enemies in an unconventional fashion.
But no matter how many times I tried to convince myself we were doing the right thing, it didn’t help. I still felt guilty.
Guilty as hell.
As I rounded the corner, I squinted. To find the Omega, we first needed to find Cartwright. Unfortunately, he had a lead on us. Even worse, we didn’t know how to navigate the maze of passages.
To make matters worse, once we caught up with him, there was no assurance he’d take us to the Omega. In many ways, that task seemed even more daunting than the first one.
I turned at a corner and hustled through a short passageway. At the next corner, I took the turn too quickly. My feet slipped and my hands reached out to brace myself.
It worked, but not enough.
My forehead slammed into the bedrock.
I saw stars. Lifting my hand, I touched my forehead. It felt sticky, gooey. Shifting my light, I studied my fingers and saw smears of fresh blood on them.
Beverly halted behind me. I swung around and faced her. “How bad is it?”
“I suppose it could be worse.” She grimaced. “But not much.”
I felt sticky liquid pouring down my face. “Damn it.”
“You reopened a cut. If you give it some time…”
“We don’t have time.”
I noticed an annoying slur in my voice. It bothered me. Destroying the Bell and rescuing Diane would prove difficult even under the best of circumstances. Losing a lot of blood might ruin our already infinitesimal chance of succeeding.
I turned away from her worried eyes. Pointing my flashlight at the ground, I quickly studied the tunnel that branched off to my left. It looked perfectly ordinary.
Twisting back to the right, I directed my beam down the tunnel and saw bits of mud and wet partial footprints on the bedrock.
I followed them. For the next ninety seconds, I led Beverly down a series of corridors, doing my best to follow the trail. But with every second, it faded.
Blood dripped into my eye. Blinking awkwardly, I swatted it away like a gnat. So far, the wound on my forehead had failed to clot. If I continued to lose blood at my current pace, I wouldn’t have to worry about passing out.
I’d be dead.
I pressed my right palm against my forehead, hoping to quell my blood loss. But my vision dimmed and I began to wonder how much longer I could keep running. Gritting my teeth, I kicked it up a notch and darted through a short, winding passage.
At the end of it, I heard a light shuffling noise. Turning the corner, I saw a silhouette in front of me. It paused for a moment. Then it spun around, pointing a shotgun in our direction.
“It’s us,” I hissed. “Don’t shoot.”
As the silhouette lowered its weapon, I jogged over. I halted next to him and bent down, breathing hard, doing my best not to vomit all over the place. I felt horrible.
After a moment, I looked up and saw Cartwright’s dark, angry eyes.
He flinched. “What the hell happened to your face?”
Lifting a hand, I signaled that I needed a few seconds. Then I stripped off my satchel and shirt. I flopped down on the bedrock, barely noticing its sharp edges. Bunching up the shirt, I pressed it hard against my forehead and began to count slowly in my head.
“Why are you here?”
I opened my mouth to respond. Immediately, a queasy feeling hit my stomach and I doubled over in pain.
“We’re looking for you,” Beverly said. “We want to help.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“You have no electricity, no third rail. As I see it, you’ve got no way of moving the Omega.”
“I’ll stop them.”
To my surprise, my body started to move. My knee jerked under me and then planted on the rock. My sore, scratched palms shifted, one to the wall and the other to the ground. Next thing I knew, I was standing up and struggling to put my shirt back on.
Cartwright shook his head. “You’re in no shape to go anywhere. Why don’t you just stay down like a normal person?”
My feet wobbled under my heavy body and my mind felt sluggish. But when I spoke, my voice ripped through the air like a jackhammer. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m done running.”
He turned around. In the dim glow afforded by my light, I saw uncertainty in his eyes. “My friends…?”
I shook my head. “They didn’t make it.”
“If you hadn’t followed me down here…”
“Then Chase would’ve found you anyways.” I swallowed thickly. “What’s done is done. All that matters now is destroying the Bell.”
He shook his head. “I already told you. That’s impossible.”
Beverly rolled her eyes. “So, what’s your plan? Sit on top of it with your shotgun?”
“I’ll think of something.”
“We have Hartek’s journal,” she reminded him.
He hesitated. “You realize that this isn’t going to end well.”
My gaze grew hard. “Yes it will.”
He looked closely in my eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Excuse me?”
“I can see it in your face. There’s something else going on here, something beyond the Bell.”
I took a deep breath. “Chase is holding a friend of mine hostage.”
“Your lover?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Beverly looking very hard in my direction. I shook my head. “Just a friend.”