Hide My Soul: A Romantic Suspense Thriller Novel (Hide Me Series Book 4) (11 page)

Nelson spoke. "She doesn't scan the aircraft. He could take a helicopter."

"Can you fly a helicopter?" West asked both men.

They both shook their heads.

"Can anyone down here fly a helicopter?"

"No," Nelson said. "I don't think so. But I know where the pilot's barracks are."

"Good enough. West looked at the watch on Darden's arm. 2:00 was coming for him. He needed to make a decision, and fast.

Katerina gaped openly at Dylan. Adrenaline rushed through her veins and her heart sang in her chest. Get out of here? That was the best thing she had heard all day. But how? This place had to be guarded better than the White House.

"Can you really get me out of here?" she whispered.

Dylan shrugged with only one shoulder. His right shoulder didn't move at all. "I can try," he said.

"But why?"

Dylan pressed his mangled lips together. "It's my fault you're here in the first place isn't it? The least I can do is try to make that right."

Katerina's mouth went dry. "But ... but earlier ..."

"Earlier I was an idiot. Earlier I fucked up. But I'm pretty sure I'm going to die within the next two or three hours, and since I'm not God ... Well, maybe this is my last chance to get things right. Maybe I can make up, just a little bit, for all the things I've done wrong."

Katerina searched his face. Could he possibly be telling the truth?

Dylan raised his good hand to her door. Katerina watched him closely. There was no lock or even a closing mechanism as far as she could see. He splayed his fingers out dramatically and screwed up his face in an effort. A tiny spark jumped from one finger to the other and fizzled out immediately. His face fell. "Oh well. That was just for show anyway," he said. He reached in a pocket on his chair and pulled out a tiny silver cylinder then held it to his mouth. "Thisbe, open her cell."

With no fanfare, Katerina's door slid open, as if separating two sheets of glass. Katerina stepped out into the hallway quickly, not allowing anyone a chance to change their minds. If Dylan backed down, she would run.

But he didn't back down. "This way," he said and left her standing there. She followed through a long, sterile hallway, not looking back.

"It's probably better if we don't speak," Dylan said quietly and Katerina nodded, jogging a little to catch up with his chair. She glanced at his right shoulder and saw the black streaks had advanced even farther onto his chest. She could see them easily without him pulling his shirt back. His right shoulder seemed sunken into his chest like a cave. She grimaced and looked away.

He led her through what must have been a mile of empty, bleak corridor. The silver cylinder in his hand beeped and he held it to his ear, then swore lightly. "Soldiers coming in this direction, we will have to head to a different exit."

Katerina felt her heart clench in fear. Was it a fool's game she was playing? Would she really ever make it out of this place alive?

Katerina's breath stopped in her throat as she heard yelling coming from a nearby corridor. Gunshots sounded, scaring her deeply. Her hands clenched into fists and she looked up and down the hallway, not sure which way to run. Dylan raised the cylinder to his lips. "Thisbe, turn off all the lights." The hallway plunged into darkness but emergency lights clicked on in an instant. "Cut the emergency lights too," he hissed.

Again, they were in total darkness. A harsh, masculine voice sounded nearby. "Drop the guns, get on the ground. Don't move!"

Katerina felt faint, like she might pass out right there. She fought it with every cell in her body. No way was she passing out and missing this. "West!" she screamed.

"Katerina?" West's voice called, sounding like a beacon from heaven.

Lights speared the darkness and Katerina realized they were coming from Dylan's wheelchair. She heard footsteps pounding towards them and she began to run in their direction, her emotions overflowing.

A man in military fatigues carrying two guns rounded the corner and Katerina let out a sharp scream before she realized it was West.

"West!" she cried, joy at seeing his face causing tears to fall from her eyes as she flung herself into his arms. He squeezed her tight, whispering her name into her neck, his voice low and needy.

His mouth found hers and claimed it, his kiss telling her everything would be all right. He would make sure of it.

He pulled away before Katerina could even get started and raised one of the guns. "Who is that?" he said, deadly steel in his voice.

Katerina looked behind her. "That's Dylan Phillips. He's here too. He - he likes to be called Storm now."

West raised the gun higher and Katerina could feel the tension in every set of his muscles. She grabbed his arm. "He helped me escape. He got me out of the cell they put me in."

Before West could respond they heard voices from behind them. "This way," Dylan called urgently, leading them in the other direction.

Katerina and West ran to catch up with him. He was already talking in a low tone when they got there, more to himself than to them. "They won't dare shoot in section E."

He held the cylinder up to his lips. "Thisbe, open the exit door in Section E. As soon as we get out of it, lock the door behind us and don't let anyone else out."

Katerina looked at him, her expression startled. "Dylan, are you coming with us?"

Dylan didn't say a word, only urged his wheelchair faster. They rounded a bend and came across a huge orange and black warning sign marking the entrance to Section E. It had a gun with a red line through it right in the center of the sign, and several other signs proclaimed: Danger - Flammable - No open flames - No guns allowed. As they passed the signs, the corridor opened up and began to change. Large pipes bound with heavy-duty tape ran along the ceiling and walls. Katerina shivered as she ran. The whole place looked so menacing.

Dylan made a motion towards the walls. "No guns allowed here. Twenty different experimental gases are being pumped into here and most of them are highly flammable. So you are at least safe from being shot for now."

They ran down the corridor, West on one side of Dylan and Katerina on the other. Dylan whipped his head towards West. "Put away your guns," he snarled. "Weren't you listening? No matter what you can't shoot in this corridor. If one of those pipes gets hit by a gunshot the whole place could go up."

West made the guns disappear in the waistband of his pants and Dylan faced forward again. Katerina felt her strength flagging, her breath tearing in and out of her lungs in short gasps.

From behind them, they heard shouting. Katerina tried to put on a burst of speed, afraid of being caught. Then came a sound that chilled Katerina to her very bones. Gunshots. Katerina saw sparks fly as the bullets whined off the wall close to her.

"God save us all," Dylan muttered and ducked his head.

More shots roared from behind them. "What are you doing?" Dylan screamed over his shoulder, but his voice was swallowed in a great fiery whoosh that seemed to explode on all sides. Katerina cried out and almost fell to her knees as fire seared over her head.

West was there in an instant, cradling her, pulling her forward, urging her on. The hallway around them filled with fire and Dylan swore under his breath as Katerina and West covered their heads with their arms and bent low as they ran.

Dylan held his metal communicator to his lips again. "Thisbe, fire in section E. A pipe has burst. The idiots shot at us." Dylan listened for a moment and then spoke to the faceless computer again. "I know it's bad. You have to try."

Behind them, the roar of fiery gas escaping the pipe and metal melting down the walls covered any other noises there might be.

They reached a T in the corridor and Katerina chanced a look over her shoulder. The fire was behind them. For now. The loud bray of an alarm descended on them from all sides, making Katerina cover her ears in pain.

Thisbe's voice came over a loudspeaker, cool and unemotional, but certainly not computer-like. "Fire in Sections E and F. Spreading quickly. All hands on firefighting duty. Enact containment plan 21. All hands. Prepare for escape plan 5150 on my mark."

Dylan led them left. Katerina could see a door big enough to let in a tank at the very end of the hallway. Dylan wheeled directly to a small door inset in the big one and pressed a button. The door opened and Katerina felt a blast of sweet, cool air on her face.

Oh thank God.

They stepped out of the doorway and onto a long, concrete ramp that led upwards at a steep incline. The door slammed shut behind them, cutting off the strident alarm. From where they stood, Katerina could see nothing. No sky, no stars, no trees, no ground. Only concrete on every side.

"Dylan, are we underground?"

Dylan only grunted, but Katerina knew they had to be. A horrifying thought entered her brain.

"Dylan, are the monkeys kept underground too? Are they housed down there?"

West pulled impatiently at her hand. "The what? The monkeys? Forget about the damn monkeys. You can't save them all," he admonished Katerina.

Katerina pulled away from him, running to get in front of Dylan. "Dylan, the monkeys will be last priority, right? No one's going to save them will they?"

Dylan looked at her directly and Katerina saw something new in his eyes. A light. A ray.

"You're right Katerina. I'll see what I can do."

Katerina warmed slightly. Was it the first time he had called her by name?

Dylan held his communicator to his lips one more time. "Thisbe, they need a car." He listened to something only he could hear then turned to them, speaking quickly and deliberately. "Go to the parking lot on the far east side of the compound." He motioned which direction it was in. "Thisbe says for you to find the row of driverless cars along the very back section next to the fence. Get into the third vehicle from the end. Thisbe will take you out."

Katerina glanced at West's face and could immediately tell he doubted the plan. She didn't. She trusted Dylan. She trusted the computer too.

She knelt in front of Dylan. "Thank you. You made up for all in my eyes. And maybe God's too."

Dylan's misshapen face broke into a smile of relief so great, it almost made him look beautiful. Katerina was able to smile back for only a second before West pulled her away.

They made it up the ramp much quicker than Dylan's wheelchair could, but Katerina could hear him barking orders at Thisbe behind them. He was asking her to open the doors to section R and inquiring if she were able to open any of the monkey's cages.

Dylan's voice faded behind her as she lost her breath again and her blood pounded in her ears. West curled an arm around her waist and urged her faster. The silent night air was broken by the sound of an alarm, and then sirens split the blackness. Reinforcements were coming.

They reached the very top of the ramp and Katerina looked around. There wasn't much to see, only dirt and a few large buildings and fences and scrub brush. Now Katerina could hear men's voices, yelling and calling instructions.

"Over here," West said, pulling her behind a large concrete pylon. He drew something out of his shirt. "Put this on."

Katerina shook it out and realized it was a military uniform, just like the one he was wearing. She put the pants and shirt on over her clothes, wishing she had time to stop and marvel at the fact that West had found her at all, and that they had escaped. She shoved her hair up under the cap and looked at him.

West peeked out from behind their inadequate hiding place. "I don't see anyone. We'll have to make a run for it and act like we belong. Let me do the talking if anyone stops us."

No problem.

They ran in the direction Dylan had pointed them, staying on the very outskirts of the base. People passed them on foot and in vehicles. A green fire truck and water tanker sped down the street in the direction that they had come from, but no one gave them a second glance. They finally reached the parking lot that Dylan had assured them would be there. They slowed, looking for the row of driverless vehicles. Katerina wondered if they would know them when they saw them.

She needn't have worried. In the very far corner sat fifteen vehicles, perfectly equidistant from each other and each looking exactly like the last. They counted three from the end and ran up to it. West opened the driver's door. Immediately, a light glowed on the dashboard. Thisbe's voice filled the cabin. "In the back seat please. Lay down."

West closed the front door and opened the back door, motioning for Katerina to get inside. Katerina did and West curled up beside her, trying not to put too much weight on her.

"I trust you are comfortable,  Lightning and Thunder?" Thisbe said.

"What?" West muttered under his breath.

"That's us," Katerina whispered to him. "Yes Thisbe, thank you," Katerina said louder.

The car reversed smoothly and drove through the parking lot. Katerina watched out the front window and saw the very top of a gate leading to the exit.

"Are there any gate guards?" West asked, his words tight and clipped.

Thisbe's smooth voice answered immediately. "No. I called them all away to fight the fire. I looped the cameras also because I know Storm wants you to escape undetected and that is the only way it will happen."

Katerina saw the gate slide open and the car accelerated through the opening. She felt West breathe a sigh of relief next to her. He dropped his head so that his hair tickled her ear and she could hear him breathing deeply. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

They drove in silence for several minutes and Katerina's heart began to bloom with release and hope.