“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 friends! Excuse me if I’m also concerned about my wife!”
“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 so young. How would she ever repay his sacrifice?
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 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.”
No! Oh, God, no! They knew she was here. Now they wouldn’t stop until…
…until I’m dead, too.
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.