He, of course, thought this was a waste of time. If the missing prisoners had gone there, they would have had to come through the main part of the basement, and someone would have seen them.
But as he escorted his boss along the badly lit, little-used corridor, he noticed two other doors that he had missed in his haste the first time around.
Could the prisoners have gone through one of them?
Temporarily dismissing the thought, he showed his supervisor the dingy room where the elevator car was waiting.
The older guard pointed at the floor. “Did you make all this?”
The younger man looked down but didn’t understand what he meant. “Make what, sir?”
“Look. There’s a lot of dirt on the floor. Someone has moved it around. If it was you, you must have been dancing.” The last words came out harsh and accusatory. “Were you dancing?”
Dancing? the young guard thought. What kind of foolish idea was that?
“Of course not.”
“So someone was here.”
“Well, perhaps there was—”
The sound was low and distant.
“Was that a gunshot?” his supervisor asked.
That was exactly what it had sounded like to the younger guard, but to be safe, he said, “I’m not sure.”
They paused where they were for several seconds, waiting for a reoccurrence of the sound. When none came, they went back into the hallway and listened there. Still quiet.
“Someone else must have heard the noise,” his supervisor said.
He and the young guard headed over to the door leading into the main basement area. Just as the supervisor was reaching for the handle, there was a second, distant bang.
It had come from behind them and was slightly louder than the previous one. The young guard moved quickly back the way they’d come, trying to follow the echo.
It seemed to be coming from beyond the nearest door they’d bypassed on their way to the elevator room. It was already open a couple centimeters, so the guard pushed it the rest of the way. On the other side was a dark corridor.
“Is this where it came from?” his supervisor asked as he joined the guard.
“Yes. I think so.”
The supervisor retrieved his flashlight, and drew his pistol out of his belt holster. While the guard wished he could do the same, he was not armed. That, however, didn’t prevent his boss from indicating with a nod that he should go first.
Every nerve of the younger man’s body was on edge as he crept down the silent corridor. They came to an archway and carefully peeked around it. The large space beyond was empty.
They did the same at the next archway—
— only what they found this time was not an empty room.
There was a man, slumped on the floor.
The guard shone his light in the guy’s face.
“Dr. Teterya,” he whispered, feeling for a pulse and getting none.
“What is that?”
The young guard looked around and saw his supervisor pointing his flashlight at something across the room.
A hole in the floor.
Deuce watched one of the prison jeeps come around the far side of the facility and reenter the parking area. Its companion jeep was already there, waiting. There was a quick conference between the two crews, then a man from each vehicle headed into the building.
He keyed the mic on his radio. “Cooper, any sign of Alex yet?”
He waited, but there was no response.
“Cooper? You read me?”
Nothing.
“Cooper?”
When there was still no answer, he trained his binoculars on the abandoned building where Cooper had gone. There was no movement anywhere. Cooper must be inside. Perhaps there was something in the walls interfering with the radio signal. Not likely, but possible.
Dammit, he thought. He should probably go check.
He swung the binoculars back to the prison for a final quick look, then froze.
One of the jeeps was racing for the prison gate. He watched as it passed outside the fence, then turned off-road, heading for the building in the ravine. Back at the main building, the second jeep started heading in the same direction.
Son of a bitch.
Cooper went up the ladder first, then El-Hashim, and finally Alex.
As she poked her head out of the hole, she saw Cooper off to the side, head bent, hand to his ear.
“What?” Cooper said. “When?…How much time do we have?…Okay, okay. We’ll see you there.” He looked over at Alex. “We’ve got to move. Now!”
Alex scrambled the rest of the way out of the hole. “How’s the leg?” she asked El-Hashim.
“Not great,” the woman replied.
“No choice, then. Sorry in advance.”
“What?” El-Hashim said, confused.
Instead of answering, Alex bent forward, put her shoulder into the woman’s waist, and lifted El-Hashim in a fireman’s hold.
“What are you doing?” the woman cried.
Since the answer was obvious, Alex shot Cooper a look and nodded.
As he led them through the building, he said, “Deuce says there’s a couple vehicles heading our direction right now.”
How the hell do they know we came this way? Alex wondered. She was sure Teterya and Irina wouldn’t have talked. Not unless they’d screwed up and been caught—
Wait.
Oh, God. Frida.
The only way she could have found the tunnel as quickly as she had was if she’d gotten Irina or Teterya to show her.
Perhaps the doctor was caught afterward, but there was a second, more likely possibility. Once Frida knew which way Alex and El-Hashim had gone, she’d have no use for the doctor anymore.
She was, after all, a trained killer.
Alex hoped she was wrong, but a part of her knew she wasn’t, and it made her sick to her stomach that she may have played a part in the doctor’s or Irina’s death.
Outside, they saw the jeeps coming their way. They ran down the ravine in the opposite direction, toward a large copse of trees that spread up the bank opposite the prison. They reached the protection of the woods just seconds before they heard the first of the vehicles pull to a stop in front of the building.
“You want me to take her, or are you okay?” Cooper asked.
“I’m fine,” Alex said. “Keep moving.”
The slope of the ravine was steep but not impassible. Once they reached the top, the trees thinned a bit. If they’d been doing this during the day, they’d have been spotted for sure, but the darkness helped conceal their presence.
A gunshot back at the house stopped them in their tracks. There was a pause, then a second shot, and a third, and a fourth, before silence returned.
Frida, Alex thought. She must have tried to make a run for it.
“Come on,” Cooper said.
They moved through the trees until they came to a one-lane dirt road. Instead of going down it, they crossed over into the field on the other side. They were in the open now, but out of direct line of sight of both the prison and the search party at the abandoned building.
As they circled around the backside of a small hill, Alex heard the distinct sound of an idling car engine. Though its lights were off, the shape of the sedan soon revealed itself in the darkness.
They were still a dozen yards away when the trunk suddenly popped open, its interior light coming on, and revealing Deuce standing beside the vehicle.
“Finally,” he said with a grin as he jogged out to meet them.
“Good to see you, too,” Alex said.
“Let me help you.”
Together they carried El-Hashim over to the trunk. The woman’s eyes went wide as they set her inside.
“Hey! What are you doing?” she said.