“But you could do it.”
She nodded.
Okay, if something happened to him, the state of California would just continue going to hell for an extra couple of weeks.
“So make it to the wall, grab the handle of one of the ropes and activate the hoist. That’s the green button you’ll find to the side. Press it and it will immediately start pulling you up. Get to the helo and activate the distress signal. That’s a big red button smack above the pilot’s seat on the starboard side. It sets off an alarm at Haven. As soon as Haven gets an active helo going, they’ll come get you. It might take a day or two or maybe more but you should be safe up on the roof. There’s a first aid kit if you are wounded. There’s also water and energy bars. Just wait, Sophie, don’t move. They’ll come for you. Repeat that.”
She made her voice an even monotone. “If you die, I proceed to the Ghirardelli building. If I manage to get the case off you, I carry it. If not, I abandon it. There are two ropes hanging from the building. I grab the handle of one, press the green button and rise to the roof. Press the distress button and wait.”
“Okay then. So?—”
“Listen!” she said urgently.
“What?”
“The noise is almost gone.”
Damn. Unforgiveable. He’d been so wrapped up in making Sophie realize she had to get her gorgeous ass to safety even if he was down he hadn’t kept up situational awareness. It was true. He checked the scanner. The huge swarm had passed, there were only stragglers and behind the stragglers, nothing. He tapped the screen, zoomed out. Once the stragglers had passed there was no thermal footprint of infected for a radius of well over five hundred meters. It was their best shot.
He touched his comms. “Ryan, heading out with Dr. Daniels. See you at the homestead.”
It was Nick who answered. “Bring her home, Jon, or Elle will never speak to me again.”
“Roger that.”
He touched Sophie, looked deeply into her eyes. “Are you ready?”
“Yes,” she answered and he could tell she was.
“Let’s go.”
CHAPTEREIGHT
Sophie had never seenanyone move the way Jon did. Cautious, careful, each move pondered. Butfast. He ran in small precise steps designed to keep his gun level.
First he peeked out in the corridor when he opened her apartment door. He pulled his head back, said, “Don’t look around, keep focused on moving forward,” and with a gentle push ushered her out the door.
It was clear what he meant. The hall way—her very nice hallway with the Italian wall sconces in her very nice building—was littered with corpses, the walls blood-stained.
She did as he said. She watched her feet, kept her focus ahead and moved as quickly and quietly as she could. They passed the elevator bay, but he’d told her elevators were traps and anyway they didn’t know if they were working or not. They headed for the staircase. Just before the hall turned into the stairwell Jon stopped her with a light touch to her arm. She froze.
He cracked the stairwell door open a fraction of an inch, pulled out a flexible tube from his wrist scanner and bent it so he could look around the corner and down the stairwell without being seen.
Clear.
They made it down the stairs quietly, Jon managing to cover their backs as well.
They quietly exited the building into the alleyway and made their way along the wall toward Beach. Which was covered in bodies.
Right then, right there, Sophie resolved to survive the dash to the helicopter, to arrive in this Haven, manufacture as much vaccine as their lab could and stop this thing. Save as many people as possible. She would not allow this abomination to continue.
Jon checked the flexible tube, checking all of Beach from the safety of the alleyway.
“All clear,” he said to her in a soft, low voice that was perfectly comprehensible but wouldn’t carry more than a foot. He tapped something and said, in that low, calm voice, “Moving out.” He listened for a second, then said, “Roger that.”
He checked the street again, checked the scanner. “Ok. Now’s the time. We should be at the rappelling rope in about three minutes. Go.”
She went, as fast as she could. She didn’t look back because Jon was there and she didn’t look left or right because she trusted him to keep an eye out. To have keen situational awareness. Her job was to get herself as quickly as she could to the Ghirardelli building and she put everything she had into it.
