Chapter Five
T he door to the holding room opened with Evander Gunn standing in the center of the doorframe. This man, however, was completely unlike the charming fellow who’d treated Anna’s refusal to cooperate with poise and patience.
Now, he wore a handgun in a holster on his right thigh, a bullet resistant vest festooned with items, and a serious expression on his face.
He looked...comfortable carrying weapons. This was no negotiator, hiding behind polite platitudes. Evander Gunn was a warrior.
Desire ignited in her gut, raising her temperature and making her hands shake with the need to get closer, to touch him.
To taste him.
She was so thirsty.
No, that would be a horrible idea. They were under surveillance. She couldn’t do anything out of the ordinary or weird. She’d done enough of that already.
His transformation meant something had changed. But what?
She counted one handgun and at least three knives that she could see on him.
Whatever had happened wasn’t good.
Anna shoved her reaction to Evander to the back of her head, and moved to stand in front of Brian. Who huffed in annoyance, but subsided as soon as she lifted one hand.
Gunn was still wearing the ring. Was it a coincidence that he was wearing it? Had Bernard betrayed her in the end? Or put his trust in the wrong person?
Disappointment was a bitter taste in her mouth.
Gunn came inside the room and shut the door behind himself. He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped before any sound came out.
He frowned, turned around, and cocked his head. Listening.
Anna could hear shouting.
Smoke!
There’s a fire in the security room.
Gunn probably couldn’t hear the exact words, but the tone was all that was needed.
He jerked the door open and let a cacophony of sounds in. Panicked shouts from multiple people.
Brian shifted, leaning around Anna as alarm bells began to ring, so loud they beat against her skull.
More shouts, people ran past their little room in ones and twos, then in larger clumps. A thin finger of smoke snaked past the doorway.
How terribly convenient.
Evander turned to meet her gaze, and she raised one eyebrow at him.
He didn’t smile, but she detected a couple of very small changes to his expression that told her he wasn’t surprised. In fact, things were going exactly as he wanted.
Her thoughts and half-formed escape plans all came to a sudden silent stop.
Things were going exactly as he wanted .
Her assessment of the situation shifted to move Evan from enemy to ally.
“Don’t move,” Evan ordered her and Brian gruffly. His tone was at odds with the quiet satisfaction on his face.
Brian hopped off the gurney. “Are you fucking kidding me? There’s a fire out there?”
Gunn took a long step into the room, paused to look right at Anna, tilted his head down, then mouthed, be ready Sunshine . He grabbed the door handle, backed out of the room, and closed the door.
Her entire world tilted slightly, realigning itself into a new pattern with a jolt that punched her in the chest, robbing her of her breath.
Sunshine . Bernard had called her that as a joke, because her skin was so sensitive to the sun. A private joke. The ring wasn’t a mistake or coincidence. Evan Gunn knew things no one alive should know.
Her friend had trusted Evan with what he knew about her. She’d never met anyone who was a better judge of character than Bernard. He could pick out a collaborator or Nazi spy out of a group of people in minutes. If he judged this man safe and trustworthy, she could too.
Wait . Be ready for what?
He wouldn’t have set fire to the building? Would he?
She went to the door and listened.
“It’s about to get FUBAR around here,” Gunn was yelling to someone, probably the guards. “Stay in front of this door until I come back. If the fire encroaches on this area, however, move the prisoners to the closest muster point outside.”
“Sir, yes sir,” both guards said. They moved, and she was certain they were standing right in front of the door.
Brian came over to stand next to her, frowning. “What the hell is going on?”
“I think,” she said, very quietly. “This is a jail destruction.”
He stared at her blankly for a moment.
Then he blinked. “Jail break,” he whispered back. “We say jail break .” He studied her face for a moment. “You think Gunn is helping us escape?” Brian sounded like he thought the idea was ludicrous. “Why would he do that?”
“Three reasons, none of which I’m willing to discuss right now.” She stepped away from the door.
Brian frowned at her, then turned that frown on the door. Suddenly, both his eyebrows shot up toward his hairline. “He didn’t lock the door, did he?”
Anna smiled.
***
E van followed the trail of smoke all the way back to the security office. The door was open wide and a handful of people were milling around outside it, doubled over and coughing. One of them was Ledger, and his two buddies were next to him.
“Sir,” Evan shouted, over the squawk of the alarm. “We need to evacuate the building.” He gestured in the direction he’d come from.
Ledger jerked his body up and shouted at Evan, “You set off a smoke bomb in there.”
Evan frowned. “There’s no fire? Just smoke?”
Ledger froze for a moment, confusion holding him in place. “Just smoke,” he confirmed.
“Sir, if you’re right,” Evan said, leaning closer so he wouldn’t have to shout so loud. “There could be a secondary device. You need to get out now.”
“You didn’t...” Ledger began.
Evan arched an eyebrow at him. “You’ve had eyes on me the entire time I’ve been here. I’ve had neither the time nor resources to plant any kind of bomb.”
He grabbed Ledger by the elbow and pulled him away from the room. The two politicians followed them.
“Wait,” Ledger said, ripping his arm out of Evan’s grasp after they’d gotten about fifty feet from the room. “I need to get the recordings from...”
“There’s no time,” Evan said, trying to grab Ledger again.
The man danced away. “I need them.”
Evan stared at Ledger for a moment, then glanced in the direction of the security room. “I’ll get them. I’ll meet you, the congressman, and senator outside at Muster Point 3.”
He strode off, not waiting to see if Ledger followed his order or not.
The smoke was decidedly thicker the closer he got to the security room, hanging in the air like an impenetrable curtain. It seemed to swallow him whole as he reached the doorway...and spit him out as he passed it.
He checked his watch. Almost time.
He jogged until he reached the nearest doorway, then pressed his body into the recess.
A blast of air, heat, and sound smacked him in a concussive wave that rolled over and past him, casting debris and more smoke into the air.
That was no smoke bomb. That had been a genuine explosion. One small enough to cause disorder and disarray, but cost no lives.
As long as no one did anything stupid.
The ceiling around the security room began to collapse and Evan had to run to avoid getting hit by any of it.
Ledger wasn’t getting those recordings now.
At least something had gone right.
The only question he had on his mind now was, did the guards get Anna and the baby agent get out of their holding room? Did they use the fire to escape?
He raced for the nearest exit, the roar of the fire following him.
***
A nna almost laughed at the confused shock on Brian’s face. “No, he didn’t lock the door.”
“There’s still two armed soldiers out there,” Brian pointed out.
And they would make a lovely snack. Perhaps she wouldn’t tell him that, but the thought did make her smile.
Brian swallowed hard and took a step away from her, his fear obvious in his body posture and scent.
It was becoming tiresome.
Brian cleared his throat. “He said something to you before he closed the door. What was it?”
“Be ready.”
“Be ready...for what?”
“I assume for the opportunity to escape.”
A grinding boom rippled through the building, shaking loose dust and debris. The mess rained from the ceiling above them, coating their heads and clothing. Of course, it stuck to her even more than Brian. She had more drying blood on her than he did.
The lights flickered and went out.
“Time to go,” Anna said to Brian. “Stand next to the door until I say to come out.”
He moved to stand next to the doorway.
She turned the knob on the door and opened it to reveal chaos. People were running through the hallway and shouting at each other, though none of it made much sense.
The two armed guards turned, their weapons coming up into a firing position. They stood side by side, the muzzle of their rifles only a couple of feet from her head.
At this distance, a blind man could have shot her.
She ignored the weapons. “Was that an explosion?” she asked.
They didn’t reply.
She let her lips pinch together into a prissy frown. “Are you planning to let us die of smoke inhalation or burns?”
The two men glanced at each other, only for a fraction of a second, but she noted it. They weren’t sure what to do.
She sighed, making sure her whole body was involved in it. “We should go, gentlemen, before the fire spreads.”
Brian stuck his head around the doorframe. “Where’s that guy, Gunn?” he asked.
“He went to investigate the source of the smoke,” one of the guards said. “He hasn’t come back.”
“So,” Anna said, crossing her arms over her chest. “He went to see where the smoke was coming from, then there was an explosion?” She looked from one man to the other. “And he hasn’t come back yet?”
She waited, but the two men didn’t move.
“You’re not the least bit worried about him?”
No response.
“Did he leave you with any orders in case the situation becomes too risky to stay?”
The two guards exchanged a look. One nodded at the other.
“He ordered us to evacuate you to a muster point outside.”
Part of the ceiling collapsed down the hall, sending out a cloud of sparks, flames, and smoke. Enough to make them all cough and choke.
God damn it. Was he safe? He’d better be safe. She had a lot of questions for him, about the ring he wore, and what Evan knew about her. About why he chose to help her.
First, she had to make sure Brian and these two young idiots got out safely.
“I think that time has come,” she said, as she bent over, trying to find some clean air to drag into her lungs.
The first guard darted a look around the destruction and smoke, then his expression settled into certainty. “Let’s go,” he ordered. He backed up a few steps, his partner following him. Then he gestured with his weapon to indicate they should come out of the room.
Anna stepped out with Brian beside her. The two guards took up positions, one in front, the other in back, all of them hunched over to stay out of the smoke.
No one had to urge them to walk fast. The fire was spreading quickly enough to alarm even her.
They rushed down the hall, slowing down only when visibility was so reduced that they literally couldn’t see what was in front of them. There was no one else in the hallways. Everyone must have evacuated or left via other exits.
Still no sign of Evan.
They turned a corner, and there was an exit, just fifty feet and one set of doors away. They hurried toward it, and Anna could see relief on Brian’s face out of the corner of her eye.
They were going to make it out.
Movement above her had her glancing up. A black river of smoke hugged the ceiling, racing toward the exit ahead of them. Heat radiated from it, growing hotter and hotter, beating against her skin. But as they approached the exit doors, the smoke slowed down.
It should have been sucked outside, but instead it rolled like waves crashing against the shore. As if the doorframe was airtight. As if the world outside the building didn’t exist.
Her gut twisted into that black hole she’d been trying to avoid.
She’d seen this before, and it terrified her like no hail of bullets ever could.
If those doors were opened, introducing all that fresh oxygen to the space, it would cause another explosion. A natural one, but just as deadly as any designed bomb.
A backdraft or flashover.
It would kill them all, leaving not much more than ash behind.
“Wait,” Anna called to the guard in front of them, leading the charge to the exit.
He showed no sign that he’d heard her.
She surged forward and tugged on his body armor.
He spun around, raising his weapon.
She put her hands up to show she wasn’t a threat.
“Wait,” she said, pointing at the door in front of them. “Look at the pattern of movement in the smoke. If you open that door, the injection of fresh oxygen will cause an explosion in here .”
He whipped his head around, stared at the doors, then turned back to her. “If we don’t go out that door, we’re going to die of asphyxiation,” the soldier said. “If the heat doesn’t kill us first.”
He was right. Neither choice would get them out alive.
She could probably survive it, though it would likely cause injuries so severe she’d want to die.
She glanced up again and noticed something strange about the ceiling. A growing bulge ballooned out, right above the guard at their rear.
If it broke open...
“Move,” she screamed at him. She leapt toward him, hoping to push him out of danger in time.
He resisted her for a moment, holding her off with one hand while he brought his weapon up with the other.
Before he could fire, a clump of burning debris fell next to them.
“Anna,” Brian shouted. A ragged line of burning debris now separating them.
“Go,” she shouted, waving at him and the soldier behind him. “We’ll get out another way.”
The soldier snagged her by the wrist, and pulled her backwards along with him just as more wreckage fell all around them.
She moved with him, but they weren’t moving fast enough. The bulge in the ceiling ruptured fully, disgorging insulation, building materials, cables, and electrical wires. All of it on fire. All of it melted into an oozing mass of plastics and metals.
The young soldier took a direct hit from one of those clumps, which knocked him sideways into the nearest wall. He slid down it to land in a heap on the floor, his clothing scorched and smoking.
Anna had to fight through a burning minefield of crap before she could reach him. Some of the stuff burned right through her clothing and onto her skin. She shook it off, ignored the pain, and focused on the soldier.
He was on the floor, unmoving, with smoke rising from various spots of his clothing and gear, but no flames yet. Luckily, the spot he landed in was relatively clear of debris.
One of the clumps had hit her left shoulder. It burned or melted her shirt on that side, and she’d received some significant burns before she managed to shrug it off.
It hurt, but she ignored the pain. She’d learned how to do that years ago.
Just as she reached him, the young soldier woke up, screaming. He’d dropped or thrown his weapon somewhere, so there was nothing to stop him from trying to put out what he thought were flames dancing on his uniform by rolling on the floor.
But he wasn’t on fire, at least, not yet.
The heat was so intense it could kill him and significantly damage her body, inside and out, if they didn’t get away from it quickly.
“Hey,” she yelled at him, stopping him from taking another roll on the floor.
He fought her, kicking, then pulled a knife from somewhere, and stabbed at her blindly.
He sliced her arms in a couple of places, but she managed to avoid any major injuries. This was wasting time they didn’t have.
She smacked her palm against one of his ears. Hard.
The strike disorientated and dazed him enough for her to take his knife away from him and throw it aside. Then his eyes rolled up, and he passed out.
At least he wouldn’t be fighting her for a while.
She repositioned his legs out straight and together, then wrapped one arm around them from under his knees and tugged. He slid a few inches, his arms extended in wide arcs as they dragged on the floor.
She crab crawled away from the fire, dragging the soldier with her. It would have been easier for her to throw him over her shoulder, but the air was only clear enough to breathe closer to the floor.
The smoke was thick, but the fire hadn’t invaded this part of the building yet. If she could find another unobstructed exit to outside before the fire found them, they’d be okay.
She hoped he’d be okay. The heat could cause a lot of harm to a human body, damage lung tissue and scar the skin. Her own lungs struggled to get enough oxygen to keep her moving. She coughed and hacked and fought through smoke that seemed to tug at her feet and added weight to the man she was trying to save.
It wasn’t his fault he’d been ordered to stand guard over her and Brian. It wasn’t his fault she’d been kidnapped by a lunatic. When she got her hands on that lunatic, he was going to wish he’d never shot her in the first place.
She reached an intersection of four corridors. Only one looked safe to take.
The soldier groaned, but seemed only partially conscious. There was much less smoke here, so she took the opportunity to yank him up and over her shoulder. He was tall enough his boots nearly scraped the floor, so she had to watch her feet as well as his.
As she headed down that hall, she noted more exit signs pointing in the direction she was going. Good. The further she went, the cooler the air became, and her breathing became easier.
She could see the exit now, about sixty feet away. It was a single door, not a large exit like the original one, with a small narrow window in it. Daylight shone through it, but she couldn’t make out any distinguishing features beyond the window.
The door suddenly opened, and a man came through it, a handgun in both hands.
The Homeland Security Agent who’d shot her. Agent Ledger.
“Stop!” he yelled, coming to a stop about twenty feet away. His voice was barely audible over the fire alarm still peeling every three seconds, but she could read his lips just fine.
She came to a stop.
The agent raised his gun clasped in a two-handed grip and pointed it at her. His hands shook so wildly she doubted he could hit anything he aimed at. This was not the coldly calculating man who’d shot her in the head without warning.
Things weren’t going according to his plan. How horrible for him.
“P...put him down,” Ledger shouted, his tone high and scratchy, as if he were two seconds away from losing his shit.
“I’m taking him to safety.” She tried to put a reassuring expression on her face, to show she wasn’t a threat, but it was hard to do when she really wanted to kill him.
“You...you’re going to eat him,” Ledger screamed, spittle flying from his mouth.
There went his shit .
They didn’t have time for this. Smoke billowed through the air, filling the hallway fast enough to tell her that breathing would become worse than difficult very quickly.
What could she say to get this idiot to put the gun down and follow her out?
“I’m on a diet,” she said, between coughs. “I only eat soldiers on Wednesdays.”
Ledger took a few uncertain steps toward her, his hands shaking so badly the end of the gun swung from one side to the other. “I’m the Counterterrorism Coordinator for Homeland Security.” Cough, cough . “I order you to put that man down.” His expression closed down and hardened.
He’d made a decision and she wasn’t going to like it.
The door behind him opened again. Anna only saw enough to tell her it was another man. She wasn’t sure if this was good or bad, but she hoped it was someone who could convince Ledger to put his gun down so they could all escape.
A hand shot out from behind Ledger level with his neck, hitting him hard.
Ledger staggered to one side, then crumpled to the floor.
Evan Gunn bent over the politician, took the gun out of his hands, and tossed it past Anna and the soldier she was carrying. Evan slung the Homeland Security agent over his shoulder, bounced him once to get him comfortable, then stood tall. “Let’s go,” he shouted at her.
She went.
He was okay.
He hadn’t been caught in the explosion.
He was okay.
He’d moved with precision and power.
He was okay .
She hurried, and with every step she took, she could hear Evan behind her, coughing. It could have been so much worse.
The door got closer and closer, until, finally, she hit it with her left hip, and, careful not to bang the soldier’s head, shoved the door open.
She stumbled outside into the cool, fresh air, coughing at the change in atmosphere. Evan was right behind her with his semi-conscious burden, moaning and coughing.
They were in a narrow alley between buildings with no one in sight, but the sound of sirens, police, fire trucks, and ambulances were everywhere.
“Go left,” Evan ordered. “There are ambulances that way.”
She followed his directions, heading through the narrow passage between buildings at a trot, but slowed as soon as she reached the edge of the building.
Evan swept past her shouting, “Medic!”
She stopped, carefully laid the soldier down on the ground, then grabbed him by the legs again and made a valiant effort to look like she was having trouble dragging him. His head bounced a little as she crab crawled out into the open. It was a good thing he was wearing a helmet.
A knot of five people was running toward them. Three were in military uniforms and others in firefighter uniforms. At first, it didn’t seem like they saw her or the man she rescued, but as soon as they got close enough to see her behind Evan’s large body, they put a little more speed on.
She played wounded bird , coughing and hacking, and flopped onto the ground.
Two of the responders stopped to help Evan, who looked like he was ready to go on a long-distance hike with the Homeland Security agent over his shoulder.
The other three responders ran to her and began shouting at her at the same time.
“Ma’am, are you okay?”
“Are you injured?”
“We’ve got you. Just rest there. Paramedics are on their way.”
She made a show of coughing before squeezing out some words. “Please, check the soldier. We were making our way to the exit when the ceiling collapsed right on top of him,” she said, between coughs. “I managed to drag him out here, but he hasn’t regained consciousness.”
She made eye contact with one of the men, a firefighter. “Please tell me he’ll be all right.”
The firefighter stared at her with respect in his gaze, then glanced at the soldier, who was quite a bit bigger than her. “That’s a long way to drag someone.”
“I couldn’t just leave him behind,” she said, indignant. “He would have died.”
“I’m not complaining, ma’am,” the firefighter said, with a surprised grin. “I’m seriously impressed with your persistence.”
He moved to pat her arm, but stopped before he could make contact. Her suit jacket was scorched in some places and completely missing in others. Parts of it were pitted with holes, burn marks, and blood. Her visible flesh was mostly red, raised, and covered in a bloody sheen that only came with deep burns. There were, however, two spots that, instead of looking swollen, were depressed and a darker, charred red. She wouldn’t be surprised if the burns went all the way to the bone.
“Ma’am,” the firefighter said, in that calm tone first responders used when the worst-case scenario was staring them in the face. “I want you to stay right here, while I get those paramedics.”
Anna studied her burns, and absently said, “I didn’t realize the burns were this bad.”
She’d been burned before, back in the days of mobs with pitchforks. It had taken her body several days to heal. She knew the worst burns didn’t hurt at first, because the nerves had been destroyed.
But the pain was ratcheting up higher and higher every second. Healing from getting shot earlier had taken a lot out of her. Which meant it was going to take longer for her to recover from the burns. She needed blood in order for her body to have the energy to heal, but she wasn’t going to get it anytime soon.
The pain and her thirst made her vulnerable, almost human.
“Anna.”
The sound of her name in Evan’s voice had her turning to look at him. He was on his feet and walking toward her. Behind him, Ledger was moaning as he was moved onto a gurney. An ambulance had arrived, and she hadn’t noticed.
She sucked in a shocked breath. For her to miss the arrival of a vehicle...maybe the smoke inhalation had done more damage to her lungs than she thought. Or perhaps her body was struggling to heal so many injuries too close together.
Evan crouched down in front of her. “Anna, are you okay?” His voice was tight with concern, his eyebrows low over his eyes.
The firefighter’s gaze danced between them.
She turned to show Evan her burns and winced at the movement. It was really starting to hurt now.
“Holy shit,” Evan breathed out.
The firefighter got to his feet. “I’m going to grab another ambulance for her. She needs a hospital with a burn unit.” He hesitated. “She zoned out there for a moment. Will you stay with her?”
“Yes.” Evan nodded, but didn’t even look at the man.
As soon as the firefighter was out of earshot, Anna said, “Find Brian.” Her voice came out rough.
“I’m not leaving you, Sunshine.” There was no give to his tone, no opening for negotiation.
There was Bernard’s nickname for her again.
She focused on Evan’s face. He looked worried, but determined. But she wasn’t the one most in danger, Brian was.
“You need to find him before Ledger’s people kill him for real.” Who knew what orders the man gave before the explosion sent everyone into a panic?
Evan bent closer, putting his face only inches from hers. “I’m not leaving you,” he said, in a low gruff tone.
He really meant it.
When was the last time someone else put her first?
She couldn’t remember. A warm wave washed over her bruised and burnt body, and for a moment, she felt no pain at all.