Lying next to his open hand is a gun. I take it and check for bullets. Four. No telling when he discharged the others, today or on some other job.
I check the safety, then stick the gun in the waistband of my leggings. I get down low. Four down, no telling how many more to go.
I take a quick breath in through the gas mask, praying that whatever is in the air is something the mask will filter out.
I seem to be fine, so I crawl along the floor. I hear a footstep—otherwise all is quiet.
I turn just in time to see a man lifting the butt of a gun to bring it down on my head. I scoot away, then turn and sweep his legs so he falls.
In a flash I grab the strap of his gas mask and yank it off. My legs flip around, a move I’ve practiced a thousand times, and I sit on his neck.
I’m not really combat trained. I only know the most basic of moves. But if the gas is still working, I won’t need to fight him.
The man’s arms flail and rain blows on me, but he’s already starting to lose his strength. His motions get weaker and weaker, and I don’t bother to wait until he’s all the way out. I roll off him, take his gun, and search the room. I can’t just sit here. What happened, and where is Jacob?
I feel along the walls, wishing the smoke would clear, until I reach the side that would have opened into the living quarters, if the steel walls were up. Here there is a gaping, jagged hole in the metal.
I peer through. A mechanical battering ram rests on the floor just on the other side, its metal jaws open and sharp. This room is less smoky.
I step through the hole carefully, crouched down low, uncertain of what I’m going to find.
But as I walk through the living room, bedroom, and kitchen, I realize that I am now very much alone. The guard who attacked me was the last man standing.
Jacob and Antony are nowhere.
A low beep draws my attention to a console on the wall. I approach it. The screen readsSleeping Agent Complete. Beneath that it saysAir Contamination 100%.
It sounds like the system is finished dumping gas in the air.
I turn away, searching the room again. Our wine bottle and glasses remain as they were. My mostly empty plate and Jacob’s partially finished one still sit on the dining room table. Big clues that we had been here. We practically wrote it in the sky.
The console behind me beeps.Air Contamination 90%.
I wonder what point will be low enough for the men in the control room to wake up. I can probably risk it to fifty percent. This gives me maybe a few minutes, probably less.
I need a car. Surely there’s one here. We got here somehow. I try to think like Jacob. Where would he put essential items like keys?
Certainly by the door. He would have weapons there, control mechanisms for the room. He would prepare for the possibility that someone would be inside, and he might need to instantly take control.
I move to the wall that has been breached. That has to be the way out. I peer through the jagged hole that matches the one in the control room.
Beyond it is a small room made of metal, outfitted with rusting electrical switch boxes, as if it is an abandoned service building. Clever. The outer door is open. Beyond it the afternoon burns bright. We’re in the middle of nowhere. I figured that.
Antony must have tracked Jacob here after we left the armored car heist. I turn back to the bunker. To the left of the opening, I spy an unusual seam in the metal walls. I run my hands down it, and yes, there is a small rectangle of metal that is a slightly different temperature. I push on it and it clicks inward.
A voice says, “Initiate exit sequence or a sleeping agent will fill the room.”
Jacob sure likes to knock people out.
I’m actually totally okay with more gas. It buys me a little more time.
I have no idea what the exit sequence might be anyway. I don’t need it to get out. There’s a hole the size of a kiddie pool I can step right through.
But I need to communicate with someone to come for me, or get a vehicle to escape.
I turn to the small, decorative side table closest to the door.
The top drawer opens easily. It’s filled with ammunition, but a quick check proves they are not for the gun in my hand. Of course not. I got it from one of Antony’s men.
