“I won’t let him touch you.”
“You might have to let him go ahead and do it if we have to find a way to stall.”
Waldridge took her in his arms and held her. Comfort. Friendship. Togetherness. “No, then we’ll find another way to stall.”
“How? You can’t give him what he wants. You said if you gave in, you knew it would only be signing your death warrant. Do you think he’d let me live afterward? Not likely.” She pushed him away and drew a deep breath. The shaking had almost stopped. She was getting better, that moment of realizing that she was not alone in this battle was helping. “You can’t do it. We’d both end up dead.”
He didn’t speak for a moment. “Quite possibly.” His lips twisted. “Then we’d best come up with another solution. Dyle believes he’s come up with the perfect mechanism to force me to his way of thinking. He knew what seeing you tortured would do to me. He was entirely serious about taking your eyes.”
She had known that, and the fear had nearly paralyzed her. Snap out of it. They could get through this. They had no choice.
“Tell me about the layout of this place.” She looked at the large, reinforced door through which Dyle had just exited. “Do you know where that leads?”
“Oh, yes. That leads to an office-sitting room and a kitchen.” His lips twisted. “And a small room where Dyle spent a number of hours trying to convince me of my duty to him.”
Torture. Would that be where she’d be taken if Dyle decided to take her eye? Don’t think about it. Concentrate. “So that’s the main part of this encampment? Where do the guards sleep?”
“Not in the main facility.” He nodded at the other smaller door. “You said you thought that led outside. You might be right. There might be an outbuilding out there. When they were taking me back and forth to my charming little home away from home, I saw a few tents as I passed the window in the office.”
“So there will be tigers behind either door. We just have to plan a way to get past them.”
“Or invite them into our parlor?” Charles asked. “I believe Dyle has already issued a command invitation himself.”
“That’s an hour from now.” She took another step back and glanced around the lab. Concentrate. Memorize everything about it. “In an hour, we won’t be here.”
17
KENDRA HEARD FOOTSTEPS in the hall outside the lab.
She tensed, she’d been expecting it, but it still caused her heart to speed up.
They were coming for her.
Her time was up, and Dyle’s men were now unlocking the door. Her hand closed behind her around the bump key she’d identified as most likely to work on the door. Her palms were sweating, and her pulse was erratic as she stared at the door. She murmured to Waldridge standing next to her at the table. “Here we go.” She moistened her lips. “Good luck.”
“You, too.” He picked up two corked flasks filled with water. “Even if this goes horribly wrong, it’s better than the alternative.”
“Gouging my eyes out, you mean?” Her gaze never left the door. “Can’t argue with that.”
The door swung open, and the same two gunmen as before entered. Dyle wasn’t with them. Too bad, Kendra thought.
She shared a quick glance with Waldridge.
Almost time.
The two gunmen moved forward. The larger of the two men, a muscular man with a handlebar moustache, gestured toward Kendra. “Time’s up, lady. Unless Waldridge has changed his mind and decided-” He broke off as his gaze went down to the floor. The two men had stopped warily as their shoes crunched on a gritty mixture of potassium permanganate and glycerin that Waldridge had carefully spread on the floor. “What’s this shit?”
Waldridge walked toward them with his water-filled flasks. “Only a science experiment. After all, Dyle ordered me to get to work.”
He hurled the flasks toward the floor.
The flasks shattered.
The two men were instantly engulfed in flames!
Kendra and Waldridge dodged behind the nearest table.
Screams! The man with the handlebar moustache squeezed off a barrage of shots before he dropped his gun as his arm was engulfed in flames. Within seconds, the other gunman was on his knees, yelling as he tried in vain to extinguish the chemical fire on his clothes.
Waldridge whirled around. “Now, Kendra! Those screams are going to bring them running.”
She was already at the smaller door, working the bump key as she’d practiced with Jessie. She positioned the key and tapped it with the mallet she had taken from the lab equipment.
Strike, twist, repeat…
Strike, twist, repeat…
It wasn’t working!
The men’s screams had become lower-pitched wails, and she realized that the horrible scene behind her was pulling her focus.
Detach. Concentrate.
Strike, twist…
The lock turned! She pushed open the door, and bright sunlight flooded into the lab. Beyond the door there was sand, only sand for as far as the eye could see.
She turned back at a crash from the other side of the lab. Biers, Jaden, and the other guard had burst through the primary door with fire extinguishers. Biers pointed toward Kendra. “Stop her!”
Waldridge picked up two larger flasks he had ready, and yelled to her, “Run!”
Kendra bolted out the open door and a heartbeat later Waldridge was there. He whirled around and tossed the flasks toward the second, wider strip of potassium permanganate and glycerin he’d laid down.
Foom!
Flames roared over the entire lab.
Waldridge leaped through the open door and bolted across the rough sand after Kendra as a series of small explosions rocked the lab behind them.
“What’s that?” Kendra shouted.
“Ammonium nitrate,” Waldridge replied. “And perhaps a few vials of zinc powder. I used everything I could find.”
Kendra glanced over her shoulder at the complex that had been their prison. It was smaller than she had imagined, with beige coloring that would make it invisible from the sky. The lab was joined by a walkway to smaller structures, which must be the quarters section Waldridge mentioned.
Another explosion shook the lab.
Kendra’s gaze was flying over the trucks and vehicles parked in the area.
No time to hot-wire anything.
Kendra pointed to a three-wheel all-terrain vehicle parked several yards away. “There!”
Waldridge gave it a doubtful look. “Will your bump key work on that?”
“No.” She was running toward the ATV. “But it’s a sport model, so we may not need a key.” She practically flew onto the seat and checked the console. Relief. “We’re good to go. Hop on!”
Blue flames shot from the open door.
Waldridge jumped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.
Kendra had already started the ATV and was gunning the engine. She pulled back on the throttle. The back wheels kicked up sand as the ATV bounded over a small dune and headed out into the open desert.
DYLE SHIELDED HIS FACE from the white-hot chemical fire that had completely enveloped the lab. The strong desert wind had sent the flames leaping totally out of control. His hands clenched in fury as he turned back to the two badly burned men who had been dragged out just before the entire building went up in flames.
One of the men, Aaron French, was clearly dead. His crispy face was a bloody scab only barely recognizable as a human being. Incredibly, the remnants of his handlebar mustache were still visible.
The other man, Dan Brill, wasn’t faring much better. He screamed in pain as Jaden and Nathan, the other security man, tried to peel off his black fatigues. He quieted only after he was injected with a heavy sedative.
Biers grimaced at the sight of the two charred men. “That could have been us, Dyle. For God’s sake, you know Waldridge is a chemical genius. Why wasn’t he more closely watched?”