The Golden Couple (The Samantha Project Series, # 2) (39 page)

We ran under the small bridge and waited. Off in the distance, we could see helicopters hovering over GlobalLife, surveying the area from above.

“There’s nobody here,” Erik said. “Maybe we should keep running.”

“Just wait a minute.” I knew this was the right spot. I could feel it.
 

“This doesn’t seem like— ” Erik was interrupted by the rumble of an engine racing up behind us. But it wasn’t a car engine. And it wasn’t just one engine. It was two.
 

Two large motorcycles stopped right next to us. They were driven by large figures wearing helmets that hid their faces. “Get on,” the one yelled at me. The other one ordered Erik to do the same.

“Sam, no! We don’t know who they are. And we have to stay together.”

“I’m going, Erik. I feel it. This is right.” I got on the back of the motorcycle, ripping my dress to get my leg over.

Erik hesitated, then hopped on the back of the other one.

The motorcycles sped off, going farther and farther away from GlobalLife. We slowed down when we got to a remote area near the ocean. I could hear the waves breaking on the rocky cliffs. The driver stopped, then suddenly sped up. I held on tight as he drove almost to the edge of the cliff but then turned sharply down a long and steep incline into some type of underground garage, which opened as we approached.
 

Inside, the bright lights of the garage blinded me for a second. As my eyes adjusted, I looked for Erik. He was right behind me with the other driver. We parked near a door and both drivers jumped off. The driver who’d been with me removed his helmet and held out his hand to help me off.
 

“Hi, I’m Vince. I work for Mr. Owens.”

I climbed off the motorcycle. Erik came over and stood beside me. “What is this place?”
 

“It’s a safe house. We’re deep underground. There’s a whole complex right through this door.”

“Owens said a car was picking us up by some old warehouse buildings but it never showed up,” Erik said.
 

“Yeah. We had a change of plans,” Vince explained. “That generator kicked in sooner than we expected. With the power back on, the original meeting spot was too close to GlobalLife. They would have seen us.”

“How did you know we’d find you?” I asked.

“Owens knew that one of you would figure it out. Let’s go inside. You can clean up.”
 

I looked down to find that my dress was not only ripped but also covered in mud from the motorcycle ride.
 

Vince led us inside to a long hallway that opened up into a large seating area. It had modern, high-end furniture and concrete floors. Off to the side were several other rooms. One of them looked like a control room. It had computer monitors lining the wall and people were working on digital touch screens that hovered in the air.

“This is the common area,” Vince said, leading us over to a large leather sofa. “It’s a place where people come to have meetings or just hang out. Have a seat. We’ll be right back.” He and the other driver disappeared down a hallway on the other side of the room.
 

A soon as they were gone, I hugged Erik. “We did it! We really got out of there!”

“It was close. But yeah, we made it. It’s kind of hard to believe.”
 

“Wait—how did you
get out?”

He smiled. “The garbage chute. It was in a maintenance room off the lobby. I remembered seeing it on the building map Owens gave us. I’m guessing that room’s usually locked. But when I went to check, the door was open. There was a cleaning cart wedged in it. The maintenance guy was wheeling it out when he got knocked out by the gas. I didn’t know where the chute would take me, but I tried it anyway.”

“Where did you end up?”

“In a dumpster outside the back of the building. I got out, then ran and climbed the fence just as the alarms went off.” He brushed his suit off. “I didn’t even get that dirty. I don’t smell, do I?”

I laughed. “No. So what was the deal with the password? Why wasn’t it working?”

“I don’t know. It’s like you had to put it in multiple times. I was ready to give up, but I punched it in one last time and the box popped open.” He showed me the two vials tucked away in the inside pocket of his suit jacket. He grabbed my hand. “We got what we needed, Sam! We can turn off the timer!”

“Yeah, but I shouldn’t have left you behind like that, Erik. And you shouldn’t have told me to. I thought you were gone forever.” I hugged him again.

“We both made it out, Sam. That’s all that matters. Hey, what happened with the globe? I was so busy keeping time I wasn’t listening to what you were thinking.”
 

“The first two phrases didn’t work. I was in a total panic and then you were yelling at me to leave.”

“So what was the phrase?”

“It was my name. And my, uh—my number. Subject 46A.” I told Erik how I’d remembered Drew reviewing the announcement speech and how he crossed out the part with my name and subject number. “Why would that even be in his speech? Isn’t that weird?”

Vince came back in the room. “There are some people who want to see you.”
 

Erik and I stood up, expecting to see Owens and whoever else played a role in our escape. But instead, we saw Jack and Colin coming out from behind Vince.
 

“Colin!” I ran over to him.
 

“Sam, I told you never to leave me again,” he said, not letting me go.
 

Jack went over and hugged Erik. He looked like he hadn’t slept since we’d seen him last.

“Colin, I didn’t think we’d ever get out of there. You wouldn’t believe what happened when we—”

I stopped, almost passing out when I saw another person coming down the hall.
 

“Uncle Dave!” I yelled.
 

Colin let me go. I ran up to Dave, tears streaming down my face.
 

“Uncle Dave! I can’t believe it’s really you!”

“Hi, honey. I’m so happy you’re safe.” He gave me one of his big Uncle Dave hugs that I’d loved since I was little girl.
 

“What happened? How did you get up here? Was that letter really from you?” I had so many questions for him.

He smiled. “Sam, just slow down. We’ll get to all that later. But first, tell me, are you okay? Did they hurt you at all?”

“No. I’m okay. What about you?” I stood back and looked him over to see if he’d been harmed by GlobalLife. But he looked just as I’d remembered.
 

“I’m fine, Sam. I got away from them before they could do too much damage.”

“Uncle Dave, I was so worried about you.”

“I know, honey. I’ve been worried about you, too. But it sounds like you’ve been taking pretty good care of yourself. Getting out of GlobalLife not just once, but twice! Making it down to Texas. Finding my old friend, Jack.”

Jack came over and gave me a hug. “Hey, Sam. I didn’t even get to say hello when you came in.”
 

“That’s okay. You need to be with Erik.”

Jack turned to Dave. “Dave, I need to introduce you to my son, Erik.”

Dave shook Erik’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Erik. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
 

“Yes. Dave and I have had some time to catch up while we’ve been waiting here for you two,” Jack said.

“Well, sorry we took so long, Dad,” Erik kidded. “See, Sam? I told you we should have escaped sooner.”

“Let’s go sit down,” Dave said. “We have a lot to talk about.”
 

Jack and Erik sat down. Dave and I sat across from them.

“Colin, get over here and sit by your girl,” Dave said. “He’s talked about you nonstop,” Dave whispered to me.

Dave moved over and Colin sat down, putting his arm around me. My heart ached as I sat next to him, knowing I was pregnant with Erik’s child. How could I ever tell Colin that I was pregnant? I felt sick just thinking about it.
 

“I have to admit we were surprised you were able to get out this soon,” Jack said. “Owens didn’t think the plan would happen for another few weeks. And then all of a sudden it was tonight. What happened?”

“There was gonna be an announcement about—” Erik stopped before mentioning the pregnancy. He looked at me for permission to continue.
 

I got in his head.
“Please don’t tell them yet. I need to tell Colin myself. And Dave. Let’s just wait. They don’t have to know this second.”

I could feel Erik’s mood change from excited to sad as I waited for his response. It was almost like he couldn’t wait to tell them about the baby.
 

“What announcement?” Colin asked.
 

“Oh, just some announcement about the project,” Erik lied. “But the reason we had to get out tonight was because they were gonna move us to separate rooms on Sunday.”

“And being separated would have made it impossible for us to escape,” I added.

“You were in the same room together?” Colin asked. “The whole time?” He glared at Erik and held me closer.

I started to say something to change the subject when I suddenly realized that we were missing someone. “Where’s Brittany? I want to see her.”

Jack’s face changed from happy to disappointed. “I’m sorry, Sam. They haven’t rescued her yet. According to Owens, GlobalLife moved her to a different location about a week ago but now they’ve moved her back to the facility you just left.”

“What? Why do they keep moving her?”
   

“We don’t know,” Jack said. “Owens overheard them saying she was supposed to be moved to the GlobalLife headquarters in Sweden. But then at the last minute they decided to keep her here in Iceland.”

The pregnancy, I thought. It had to be. With my enhanced genes, GlobalLife would worry that my pregnancy might have complications. And that meant they’d want Brittany close by in case they needed her as a donor.
 

“We’ve got to get her out of there.”

“Owens has people working on it, Sam,” Dave said. “There’s nothing we can do. He’ll get her out.”

“I don’t understand why this Owens guy is helping us so much. Who is this guy?”

“I actually met him years ago at a genetics conference,” Dave said. “We really hit it off. But we didn’t stay in touch. After he learned of the explosion at the GlobalLife facility in Minnesota, he contacted me. It’s long story, but basically that’s how I ended up here.”

“But Owens never even told me you were here. Why didn’t he tell me?”

“He probably just wanted you to stay focused on getting out of there. Anyway, that was Owens’ private plane you took here to Iceland. This is his underground facility. Few people know about this place. That’s why we’re staying here.”

“Maybe we should talk later,” Jack said. “You two probably want to clean up and change clothes. By the way, what’s the story with the fancy clothes? A suit and tie, Erik?”

“They made us dress up every day. Suits for me. Dresses for Sam. And for tonight’s event, we had to dress up even more than usual.”

“It’s an odd color choice,” Dave commented. “Pink and blue?”

“Well I don’t know about Erik, but I would love to take a shower and put on some clean clothes,” I said, trying to get everyone’s mind off of Dave’s statement.
 

Colin got up. “I’ll show you where everything is.” We went down the hallway to the bathroom. “Towels are in the cabinet. I’ll grab you some clothes and leave them outside the door.”

“Thanks, Colin.” I waited for him to leave.

He smiled. “That’s it? Sam, we haven’t seen each other in weeks. And I knew you wouldn’t let me give you a real kiss out there with everyone staring at us. Come here.” He kissed me, then hugged me tight. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“Colin, I’m covered in mud. Let me clean up. I’ll be right out.”

Colin left and I heard him stop Erik in the hall. “Hey, Erik. Tell me. Is she all right? She’s really quiet. And she’s not acting like herself.”

“Give her time. I’m sure she’ll tell you everything eventually. Is there another shower around here?”

“Yeah, just down the hall and to the left.”

After I cleaned up, I went back to the common area to find everyone waiting for me. We had some food, then Erik and I told them about our escape and how we got the genes.
 

Owens never appeared. But Vince came by later and reported that Owens had stayed at GlobalLife after Erik and I escaped. He offered to assist with damage control, helping Drew and Rachel come up with a story to tell the investors about why the announcement was postponed. I had to give the old guy credit. He did an excellent job playing double agent.

Later, Jack gave us a quick tour of the place. Dave explained that it was a safe house for people acting as spies for Owens in his efforts to stop GlobalLife. We still didn’t know the whole story about Owens. And we didn’t know why he was working so hard to help us. There was so much that Erik and I had to learn. But it was late and we were exhausted. Jack and Dave would have to catch us up later.
 

That night, I decided to stay in Colin’s room. After everything I’d been through, I didn’t want to be alone. I was actually afraid to be alone. Part of me still thought this wasn’t real. I worried that I would wake up in the middle of the night and find myself back at GlobalLife.

Before heading to bed, Erik caught me in the hallway. “So you’re staying with him?”
 

“I don’t want to be alone tonight, okay?”

“So what happens now? You just go back to him and that’s it?”

“Please don’t make me talk about this. My mind is a mess right now, Erik.”

He switched to mind-talk.
“When are you telling him about the baby?”
 

“I don’t know. I don’t think I
can
tell him.”

“You have to tell him. You want me to?”

“No! Don’t say anything. And don’t drop hints.”

“What about my dad? I have to at least tell
him
.”

“Please don’t. He’ll start acting weird around me. And then Colin will know.”