Chapter 1 #2
Crusher landed, hand ready with the second knife before the other guard could turn and aim. He launched the knife, hitting the man in the eye. The man cried out, dropped his weapon and reached for the knife. Crusher reached him, grabbed his head and twisted sharply, snapping the man’s neck.
The guard dropped dead beside his dying partner.
Without wasting more time, and fully aware of the cameras at the corners of the building, Crusher rushed for the door, flung it open and raced inside. If anyone had been monitoring the video feed, he’d have more guards headed his way.
Footsteps pounded down a hallway to the right.
Crusher stepped toward the middle hallway and waited silently.
A guard emerged, heading for the front door.
As he reached the open door, Crusher slipped up behind him, slung his arm around the man’s neck and sliced through his carotid artery and windpipe.
The man went down. Crusher grabbed his leg and dragged him away from the door and into the right hallway, clearing the path should they need to exit through this route.
A door slammed somewhere in the center of the building, and more footsteps pounded toward him—two men, from the sound of it. One shouted to the other in Spanish.
As they neared Crusher, he stuck out his leg, tripping the first one.
He jammed his Ka-Bar knife into the second man’s chest, cutting into his heart.
That man fell on top of the one Crusher had tripped, trapping him beneath the weight of his dead body.
Crusher reached down and dispatched the trapped man before he could free himself.
With the two men down in front of the door, he couldn’t spare the time to move them.
With only five minutes until exfil, he had to get to the asset and return to the extraction zone, or they’d miss their ride out of the godforsaken jungle.
The flash of silver dangling from the side of the dead man on top caught Crusher’s attention. He reached for a ring of keys, yanked them free of the belt loop on the man’s trousers and turned toward the interior.
Following the diagram he’d committed to memory, Crusher raced down the center hallway to the door at the end.
He tried the knob. It was locked. He spent half a minute inserting five keys before he found the one that opened the door.
He twisted the knob, stood to the side of the door and eased it open.
When no shots were fired, he eased his head around the doorjamb.
From the schematic and the looks of the room, it had to be the laboratory.
His gaze shot left and right, searching for more of the armed guards.
There were none. He entered the room, his gaze landing on the only person present, seated at a white table with a laptop, centrifuge and a microscope positioned in front of her.
Female. Check.
Auburn hair. Check.
Crusher hurried forward.
Tired green eyes narrowed at him. Check.
“Dr. Hale?” Crusher said.
Without rising, she answered, “Maybe.” Her chin rose in challenge, revealing a purple bruise on the right side. “Who’s asking?”
“I’m your ticket out of here,” he said and glanced again at his watch. “We have exactly three minutes to get to our extraction point.”
If possible, her eyes narrowed even more. “And why should I go with you?”
He blinked. “I was under the impression you were a hostage in this compound.”
She nodded. “That’s true. But if I go with you, I could as easily be a hostage to you in another compound. Give me one reason why I should trust you?”
Despite the time ticking away, Crusher’s lips twitched. She had a point. “Look. I’m one of the good guys. Trust me or not. Stay if you like. But I’m going to make the extraction point in two and a half minutes. Come with me if you want out of this jungle.”
The lines in her forehead deepened, and she chewed on the bottom of her lip for a second before nodding. “I’m not sure I should trust you, but it beats staying here.”
“Then let’s go.” Without waiting for her, he turned and started for the door. When he didn’t hear her footsteps behind him, he spun back. “What part of two minutes—”
She still sat where he’d found her, only she held up her hand a few inches above the white table top, sporting a handcuff snugly secured to her wrist. The other end was attached to the table.
His jaw hardened. The bastards had chained her to the table.
They didn’t have time for this. He hurried across the floor toward her, glancing down at the ring of keys he’d used to unlock the door into the lab.
He selected what appeared to be a smaller key, one that could fit into the lock on a set of handcuffs.
She held out her wrist as he inserted the key and twisted.
The lock clicked, and the cuffs released.
Dr. Hale rubbed the red ring where the cuff had rubbed her skin raw.
“How long have you worn that cuff?” he asked, clenching his teeth.
“Six weeks, except for the occasional respite of using the bathroom or showering once a week.”
Any residual regret over killing the guards vanished. “Come on, we have less than two minutes to get out of here and to the extraction zone.”
Instead of turning toward the door, she reached for the laptop.
“We don’t have time to take anything,” he said.
“I’m not taking anything,” she responded without looking up, her hands moving furiously. “But I’m not leaving any more than I have to for Vasquez and his people to get their hands on, if I can help it.” Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she deleted files one after the other.
Crusher glanced at his watch as the seconds ticked by. “We have to go.”
She punched one last key, lifted the laptop and smashed it against the edge of the table, breaking the screen and the keyboard.
Just in case it wasn’t enough, she slammed it again, the two halves breaking apart in her hands.
She dropped them to the floor and swept the microscope, glass slides and centrifuge off the table, adding to the pile of broken machines and debris littering the floor.
Then she sprinted for the door, calling out over her shoulder.
“What are you waiting for? We have a minute to get to the—what did you call it?”