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She checked the petrol level and saw the tank was half full. It took four yanks of the cord but when the generator turned over, the lights in the operating room glowed to life.

Darshana raced back to Kusum and Sanjay.

“This way,” she said as she released the lock holding the gurney’s wheels in place.

They rolled him down the halls and into the center operating room. Then Darshana returned to the medical supply room, filled up a cart, and ran to the linen closet and grabbed several towels before hustling back to her friends.

“Here,” she said, holding a couple towels out to Kusum.

While Kusum replaced the now soaked cloth with the towels, Darshana pulled the sat phone out of her bag and called the Americans.

“Kusum?” the woman named Crystal said through the speaker.

“Yes, I am here,” Kusum replied.

“Hold on.”

A second passed, then, “Kusum, it’s Dr. Gardiner. Are you somewhere you can work now?”

“Yes. Darshana found a hospital.”

“Okay. First let’s get some vitals. How is his pulse?”

Kusum, her hands once more occupied, looked at Darshana.

“One moment,” Darshana said. She grabbed Sanjay’s wrist and hunted around until she felt the beat of his heart. “It’s very weak.”

“All right, we need to patch up those wounds and then get some blood into him.”

“Maybe there is still some stored here,” Darshana suggested.

“Unless the hospital’s electricity is working, whatever you find wouldn’t be any good.”

“The whole country is without power,” Kusum said.

“Don’t worry,” the doctor said. “We can get the blood from one of you. Do you know your blood types?”

“I have no idea,” Kusum said.

“Me, neither,” Darshana replied.

“What about Sanjay’s?” the doctor asked.

“Same,” Kusum told him.

“All right. That’s not a problem. They should have blood-type testing kits there somewhere. Darshana, maybe you can look for that, and in the meantime, I’ll talk Kusum through dealing with the wounds.”

“What does it look like?” Darshana asked.

Gardiner described the test kits he was familiar with but warned they might look a little different there. He also told her about the equipment needed to perform a person-to-person transfusion.

She found most of the gear in the supply room. The test kit, however, she ended up finding in a drawer at a nurses’ station.

Sanjay turned out to be type O positive.

Darshana tested Kusum next.

“She is A negative,” Darshana said.

“All right, you next,” the doctor said, concern in his voice.

She changed the disposable portion of the kit and then placed it against the tip of her index finger. When she pushed the button, a needle pricked her skin and blood blobbed onto the test strip. She watched the display.

“I am also O,” she said. “Negative.”

“Ah, good.” There was no hiding his relief. “Then you’re the lucky one who gets to donate.”

Kusum had a little bit of a problem getting the needle into Darshana’s vein, but otherwise the transfusion went off without a hitch.

“What if he has injuries inside?” Kusum asked the doctor as she removed the gear from Sanjay’s arm.

“Don’t worry about that right now. For the moment, we’re just focusing on stabilizing him.”

“But when he is…stabilized, are you expecting us to cut inside him?”

A click.

“Kusum? It’s Rachel. You’re not going to have to cut into anyone. We have a team already on its way to you. They should be there before morning. There’s a doctor with them who will take care of Sanjay. By this time tomorrow, the three of you and your hostage will be far away from Jaipur.”

Darshana’s eyes widened at the mention of the hostage. Mahajan was still in the trunk of their car. In their rush to help Sanjay, they had totally forgotten about him.

While Kusum kept an eye on her husband, Darshana headed back outside to the car. She removed the keys from the ignition and moved around back.

Holding Sanjay’s pistol in her other hand, she slipped the key into the lock and said, “Don’t try anything.”

As the lid of the trunk began to rise, she took a big step backward, her gun aimed inside. The director was right where she’d left him, still tied up. His clothes were soaking wet and his eyelids were only half open.

“Water,” he whispered.

He’d been cooking in there. It was a wonder he wasn’t already dead, she realized.

She stepped over, intending to help guide him out, but then heard voices from farther down the street.

She lowered the lid and crouched down.

Peeking between the cars, she saw two Project Eden security men walk across the street about a block away, looking left and right.

A
thud
from the trunk—Mahajan kicking the inside.

The two security men paused. When the director kicked again, the men began walking cautiously in Darshana’s direction.

There was no way she could haul the director out of the trunk without being spotted, but there was also no way she was going to let the men find Mahajan.

She checked the guards’ position. Another couple of car lengths and Darshana’s sedan would be in view. She had only one option.

Lifting the lid just high enough, she crawled inside and stretched out directly on top of Mahajan. She then lowered the lid and held it in place, just shy of letting the lock engage. With her other hand, she placed the barrel of the gun against the director’s head.

“Quiet,” she whispered.

Mahajan tried to glare at her, but even in the dim light seeping around the edges of the lid, she could see he was scared.

Outside, the footsteps drew closer and closer, until finally they passed right by the rear of the car.

The guards continued down the street, and it wasn’t long before their steps faded to nothing. She let another ten minutes pass before she opened the hood. She would have stayed longer to be on the safe side but she’d reached her limit on close contact with Mahajan.

She crawled out and ordered the director to follow. In his weakened state, he caught a foot on the lip of the car and down he went, slamming into the road face-first.

Groaning, he rolled onto his back.

“Shut up,” she hissed. “Get on your feet.”

By the time he stood, he was panting like he’d just run a marathon.

She motioned toward the hospital. “Head there. I’ll be right behind you.”

Five minutes later, he was secured to a pipe in the public toilet and Darshana had rejoined Kusum and Sanjay.

“How is he?” Darshana asked.

“A little better, I think,” Kusum said. “Where have you been?”

“Getting our friend.”

“Was there a problem?”

“Nothing a good scrub won’t solve.”

11

DREAM SKY

2:33 AM EST

I
F ASH WAS
remembering the map correctly, the way to the tunnel was beyond the wide double doors just ahead.

He was still several yards away when the right half opened. Skidding to a halt, he and Sealy brought up their guns.

“Ash?”

“Chloe?”

They lowered their guns and jogged the rest of the way.

“You made it,” he said.

“Of course we did.”

“Any problems?”

She shook her head.

There was something about her eyes that troubled him. Something distant and un-Chloe-like. “You okay?”

She ignored the question and instead asked, “So, what do you need us to do?”

He studied her for a second and then said, “We’ve taken care of security. Well, there’s one unaccounted for but all the others are out of commission. We need to start rounding up the rest of the base personnel. We’re on level ten, the bottom of the base. If we work systematically, we should be able to clear this floor in no more than fifteen minutes and then move on to the next.”

“All right.” She turned to the two people who’d come out the door after her. “Robert, can you tell everyone to—”

The ceiling lights began to flash white and red as an alarm wailed.

“I think they already know we’re here,” Chloe said.

__________

R
ENI STOOD IN
the very center of level ten where all the radial corridors met, pausing just long enough to scan each one before moving on to the next. She was just starting to switch again when the dark, distant form of someone running past the hallway on the outer loop caught her eye. Though too far away to identify, whoever it was had been wearing black instead of the blue scrubs worn by all non-security personnel, so she was sure the person had been one of the faux security guards.

Instead of moving down the hall where she’d seen the movement, she took the one the runner should be passing next. She expected to see the shadow pass by before she reached the halfway point, but the outer loop remained vacant. Had the infiltrators doubled back? Or had they heard her coming and were waiting to ambush when she appeared?

Upon reaching the end, she pressed against the wall and listened. No steps. She tensed, drew in two quick breaths, and then peeked around the corner.

Empty.

Dammit. They must have gone back the other way.

She moved into the loop and headed the way the person should have come from. It was the low mumble of a voice that finally caused her to look toward the other side of the corridor.

She blinked, not immediately comprehending what she was seeing. There was an opening for a hallway just ahead along the right wall. But she was in the
outer
loop, which meant everything on this level should have been to her left.

Then she remembered she wasn’t on just any level; she was on the tenth. Unlike the other ones, where everything was contained within the outer loop, the tenth had an exception, a hallway that led outside the circular level to the room that connected to the auxiliary access tunnel.

They must think they can use the tunnel to escape.

Boy, were they in for a surprise when they reached the top and found the exit welded shut.

As she sneaked over to the hallway, a few more muffled words tumbled her way. She lowered herself to her knees and very slowly eased her head around the corner.

What she saw was not what she expected.

While her two faux security men were there, they weren’t alone. Several others were stepping through the door to the tunnel staging room.

Reni’s body went numb.

Dream Sky was being invaded.

She could pick a few of them off with her rifle, but her hope of completely eliminating the threat was gone. There were too many of them.

She looked down the outer loop. There, back the way she’d come, just before the tunnel curved away, was one of the orange alarm boxes.

She sprang to her feet and ran toward it.

__________

“W
HAT’S…GOING ON?”

Medical technician Gale Dodson stared up at the flashing lights, barely hearing the question over the alarm. When the patient touched her gloved hand, she jerked in surprise.

“Is…something…wrong?” the protectee asked, his voice slurred by the drugs that had been pumping through his system since he was brought to Dream Sky.

She put on her best smile. “It’s nothing. I think it’s time to get some more sleep.”

“Slept enough,” he said. “Think I’m…feeling…better.”

“You’re still a very sick man. The more rest you get, the sooner you’ll get better.” As she spoke, she turned his IV on again, and it wasn’t long before his eyelids drooped.

Though the patient was unaware of it, he was getting shortchanged on his awake time. Each of the Dream Sky protectees—all of whom thought they were being treated for Sage Flu—were routinely brought to a state of semiconsciousness for a few hours every other day. This particular patient, number 0763, had been woken only thirty minutes ago.

Once Dodson was sure 0763 was asleep, she hurried out of the ward and joined several of her colleagues gathered at the duty station.

“Is this a drill?” she asked.

“None was scheduled,” a tech named Hodgins said.

Dr. Loria, one of the two physicians on graveyard shift, strode up to the station. “What in God’s name is going on?”

“We’re not sure,” Hodgins said.

“Security hasn’t made an announcement?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Well, someone call them and find out what’s going on! We don’t need this noise disturbing the patients.”

Dodson was closest to the phone, so she made the call.

“No one’s answering,” she said after several seconds.

“They’re probably a little busy,” Hodgins suggested.

“I don’t care how busy they are,” the doctor said. “Stay on that line until someone answers.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Dodson replied.

The ringing went on for over a minute before the tech heard a click and—

“Yes?” The voice was rushed, annoyed.

“This is, um, medical, um, level six,” she said, surprised that someone had answered. “There’s an alarm going off down here but we’ve received no instructions.”

“It’s a malfunction. We’re working on correcting it right now. Just go on as usual.”

“Is there any way to at least turn it down? We’re concerned it will disturb the protectees.”

There was a pause, then, “I said we’re working on it.”

The man hung up.

Everyone was looking at Dodson as she hung up. “Malfunction,” she said. “We’re supposed to ignore it.”

Seething, Dr. Loria said, “Do we at least have earplugs?”

__________

A
SH QUICKLY GATHERED
Chloe’s people around and motioned down the middle, dividing the group into two.

“This half will clear this floor,” he shouted above the alarm. “Leave no room unchecked. Anyone you find, take to the elevators on the east side. That’s where Sealy will have set up a holding area. The rest of you will go with Chloe and clear level nine. When a level is done, we’ll leapfrog each other, my group to eight, Chloe’s to seven, and on like that all the way to the top. Any questions?”