Recon Marines II: Marine's Heiress, The (32 page)

Vin touched her shoulder, startling
her. She bolted upright, probably unable to see him clearly in the
dim light. But she didn’t cry out, instead reaching a hand toward
him. “Vin? How did you get in here?”

“
We have to go.” The
getting out was his concern now.

“
Didn’t you see my
message?”

“
I did.”

“
Why did you
come?”

Vin saw a pair of sturdy new boots
sitting near the foot of the bed. He took her hand and tugged her
to the edge of the bed. “I came to get you out of here.” He picked
up her boots and handed them to her.

She took them but didn’t put them on.
“I sent for help, Vin. If Ben catches you, he’ll have leverage to
make me cooperate again.”

“
Let’s go.”

“
You go. Get out of here
and hide somewhere until this over.”

“
I’m not leaving you here.
You don’t know what the admiral might do to you.”

“
I can’t.” Emma caught her
trembling lip between her teeth. “Vin, Moe died because of me.
Vannie almost died too. I can’t lose another person I care about.
Please.”

Vin sorted through her words,
understanding the tears she held back for Moe and Vannie but her
last statement…. “You care about me?”

Her tears spilled over but her lips
curled. Somehow she managed to smile and look sad at the same time.
“Yes. Quite a bit.” She rose on her knees and pulled his head
toward her. Her kiss asked nothing but seemed like a gift given to
him.

He wanted to ask her what it meant,
what her words meant, but he didn’t know the right question. So he
shoved her boots at her again. “I’m not leaving without you and
every minute we spend talking increases our risk of getting caught.
Whatever help you sent for can assist you from somewhere outside
this castle.”

She smiled for real and took her boots.
“Castle?”

The sight of the big bed distracted Vin
from his mission for a moment. What would it be like to make love
to Emma in the comfortable expanse instead of his narrow
cot?

“
I’m ready.”

She’d gone to bed fully clothed in a
style of attire that muddled his thoughts more than the bed did.
He’d seen similar form-fitting clothing on the women engaging in
outdoor sporting activities like rock climbing but Emma wore the
clinging material in a manner unlike any he remembered seeing. Only
when his gaze climbed back up her body and met her amused look did
he recall the need to hurry.

Vin opened the door a crack and
listened for an entire minute. He heard nothing moving, but
something stirred his instincts. He took his mirror out of his
pack. Careful to make sure the lamps along the hallway didn’t flash
on the mirror, he checked the hall. Nothing in either direction.
Nothing except tension so thick he could almost smell it. But they
couldn’t linger and wait for a better moment.

He led Emma out of the relative safety
of her room. They went the same direction he’d arrived from. Emma
gasped when they stepped over the dead guard but she didn’t
hesitate as Vin broke into a jog. He kept her behind him as they
rounded the corner. The wall along the back of the rectangular
hallway held only one door, an unlocked one.

Vin took Emma’s hand and led her into
the room he’d considered using to enter the premises before
deciding to use the roof. The air in the room, though scented like
clean laundry, gave Vin the impression it wasn’t used very often.
He tried to raise the window but found it locked. Emma reached
around him and fiddled with the latch so it slid up
smoothly.

“
Are we climbing out this
way?” Emma sounded excited, her eyes glittering.

Vin shook his head and put his fingers
to his lips. Though floors below them, he heard one of the guards
on patrol. He doubted Emma’s arms could make the trip down from
this height with only small crannies for her fingers to grip. He
took the phosphorous light tube from his back and waited until he
heard the guard turn the next corner before igniting it. It flashed
and then glowed with a hot, white light. He threw it out the window
toward the right so its brightness and heat would capture the
interest of the camera in that corner.

He grabbed Emma’s hand and ran back to
the hall. They slowed as they approached the wide stairs. Vin heard
shouts from two stories down. He led Emma down to the next landing
and paused. Voices drifted up, definitely from the ground floor. He
took them down another flight.

Ideally the guards would rush to
investigate the light tube and he and Emma could walk out the front
door, but he couldn’t expect them to fall for that. He turned and
jogged back the right side of the second floor hallway. He started
to enter one of the rooms, intending to use the window to go out
the opposite side of the castle from the distraction, but Emma
stopped him. With a gesture of her head, she directed him to the
next door.

Vin went through the door first,
finding a small landing and a set of steps leading down. Emma
closed the door behind them and complete darkness closed in. Not
even Vin could see in the absence of all light.

Emma reached out and touched his arm.
She slid her hand down his arm until she found his hand. Her
whisper echoed in the hollow space. “This is an emergency exit for
family and staff. It leads to the sub-basement and to a tunnel that
takes us off grounds. There’s a light switch along the right
wall.”

Vin ran his hand along the wall and
found it. A dim illumination glowed from low on the wall, lighting
only the steps. He started down, keeping hold of Emma’s hand and
slowing his pace to match hers. With his other hand he reached out
and touched the wall, finding more of the mortared fake stones. No
artistic arrangements graced these walls and the bonds between them
seemed smooth and level. They passed the door for the first floor
and kept going. He wondered if he should use the laser to seal the
locks. But doing do would slow their retreat if they needed to
return.

The air changed as they hurried down
the next flight, becoming cool and damp. When they reached the
bottom, Vin saw rows of stores stretching into the distance. Food,
canned and dehydrated. Wines in dark bottles took up an entire row
to themselves. This even more than the castle above displayed the
admiral’s wealth.

“
This way.” Emma pointed
to the aisle between the wine and shelves of cans.

Vin turned off the lights for the
stairs before continuing. He held tight to Emma’s hand and jogged
through the pitch dark in the direction she’d indicated. The thick
darkness inspired an uncomfortable awareness of the tons of stone
over their heads. Vin took out the laser heater he’d tucked in his
belt. Estimating they’d reached the end of the row, he slowed down
and dropped Emma’s hand. She laid her hand on his shoulder, keeping
a contact he appreciated. He blindly made adjustments on the power
and intensity of the laser so it wouldn’t be hot and the beam would
scatter. It emitted a soft red glow that revealed a solid wall in
front of them.

Emma let go of him and walked to a
stack of metal crates. “Here.” She pushed on the boxes, and they
moved slightly.

Vin handed her the laser and slid the
crates aside. A dark cave-like doorway opened into the stone wall.
The scent of underground wafted out. Emma stepped in, knocking
aside spider webs coated with so much dust they looked like ragged
black lace. He followed her in and pulled the crates back across
the opening.

The narrow tunnel had a series of step
downs, not really stairs but uneven expanses of level rock that
would end with a single step down to the next one. Some of the
drops were so high that Vin helped Emma down. The surrounding rock
wasn’t quarried or contrived, but real stone buried beneath the
soil of this world. It would have been a huge enterprise to carve
this hole. At least with the rock surrounding them, Vin no longer
worried the admiral could detect them with heat sensors, not
through this much natural stone and dirt.

“
How did you know of
this?” Vin took over the lead but let Emma hold the laser. By his
estimation they’d passed under the castle walls. “Where does this
exit?”

“
This is how I escaped
before. My stepfather didn’t know I was gone for two days.” Emma
laughed, the sound echoing like a music note repeating over and
over again. “I was off world and under the grid by then. It opens
into an empty lot a few blocks from the manor.”

The tunnel leveled out for nearly
thirty feet and ended at a solid rock wall with narrow ridges
carved into it. Vin went first, climbing nearly thirty feet to a
metal trapdoor fixed flat with the ground. Near the top, the stone
was once again that manufactured by men instead of nature. A
perfect, waterproof seal protected the door.

Vin spun the wheeled latch and heard
the catch release. He lifted the heavy, metal trap door and
wondered how Emma had done it by herself. The gray light of an
overcast day greeted them.

Pulling his gun free, Vin held the
cover upright for cover in case anyone lurked behind them. Only
after making sure the lot was empty did he offer his hand to Emma.
He lifted her out the last few feet, amazed at how light she was
for the amount of strength in her wiry body. For some reason she
laughed a little.

Vin took the laser from Emma and reset
it for a focused beam before turning it off. After stowing it
behind his belt again, he oriented himself to their location. The
top of the castle peeked out over the roofs of the surrounding
business. He’d hidden his hover on the opposite side of the castle
from where they were. “We need to get away from here.”

Emma stared at the castle. “Will they
expect us to head for the space port?”

“
Or the military
station.”

“
Not there. That’s where
they kidnapped me from. And I don’t want to lead them back to
Vannie. He’s injured pretty severely.”

Vin hadn’t known. His fault again. “I
haven’t scouted out hiding places.” City operations made him
uncomfortable with their milling civilians and the constant battle
to fit in though he’d improved so much on that part.

“
Where were you before you
came to get me?”

“
On a rooftop.”

“
Let’s go there. I need to
see if my message got through.”

“
I guess they won’t be
expecting us to stay nearby.” Perhaps he could keep Emma safe and
still get the admiral.

* * * *

Emma needed Vin’s help to climb to the
top of the building. She’d known the owners of the café all her
life. Her mother had often walked to the little restaurant for
fresh baked goods or delicious fruity ices. Emma had later visited
the family run business and learned much about baking and cooking
from the kind owners. Only as she reached her teens had she
realized her mother had frequented the tradesmen along the avenues
around their home as a way to financially support her neighbors.
And the people of Brand had loved her mother for it. All that was
before the pretty young widow married Ben Lester. He’d thought the
quality of the local merchants beneath his notice.

Vin led her to the side of the wide
chimney, putting it between them and the manor. She sank to the
roof with her back to it, shivering a little in the cool morning
air.

Kneeling beside her, Vin took off his
pack. He pulled out a sack of water and a bag filled with dried
fruit and salty protein nuggets. For the first time since the
attack on Hovel Port, Emma wanted food. As she dug into the meal
packs Vin crawled on his belly to the edge of the roof overlooking
the manor.

After satisfying the worst of her
hunger Emma joined him. At least a dozen guards walked in the
grassy area between the outer wall and the manor. One of them stood
on the top of the ladder examining the camera on the nearest
corner.

“
Is that where you went
over the wall?” Emma scooted close to Vin so her shoulder leaned
into his. After the stress of the last few days she wanted nothing
more than to be held in his arms.

“
Near there.”

“
Which door did you go
in?” Even the sound of his voice, though his words were so few,
comforted her and made her feel safe.

“
I went in a
window.”

“
How did you do that
without setting off an alarm? All the windows on the first two
floors have special tamper proof sills.”

“
I went in a fifth floor
window.”

Emma closed her eyes, unable to stop
the image of him using minute finger and toe holds to scale the
tall building. And how had he opened a window? She shivered though
the sun now warmed the day to comfortable. “Do you think they’re
still searching inside the house for me?”

Vin pulled a device from his utility
belt that held all kinds of pockets and gadgets besides his two
guns. He held it to his eyes, some kind of viewing goggles, and
swept it across the manor grounds. “There are guards on every
floor, but I can’t tell how many or even what they’re doing. These
only see through one wall.”

They watched for an hour, Emma dozing
off now and then in the comfort of the sun and Vin’s muscular form
pressed alongside her length. She was half dreaming, imagining
herself in Vin’s narrow cot on Merris Five. Vin nudged her awake
and the lovely dream evaporated.