Fight or Flight (24 page)

With a deep breath and a hand on her churning stomach, Regan followed Tyler into the darkness.

Kelsey lay in the dark ceiling, incredulous terror paralyzing her. How had they gotten him? Why? What were they doing?

The paralysis was good, because it kept her from slamming through the tiles to the room below, and from screaming at the top of her lungs, which she somehow would have managed despite the lack of air. The screams reverberated in her head, though, until something snapped, and hysteria shut off like flicking a switch.

You’re his only help
. She slowly sucked in a long, silent breath. Lights danced at the edges of her vision, but she heard her mother’s voice:
Never leap until you know where all your nets are
. Okay. She could do this.
Observe, assess, plan
. Her vision sharpened like a camera lens.

Bulldozer was busy at the counter with something she couldn’t see, so she watched Tom’s chest rising and falling in a very slow rhythm. He’d probably been drugged, which would make it difficult to get him out of here. Which she would.
Don’t leave any option but success
. That one was her own.

Confidence seeped back into her, despite the obstacle. Yes, that was good—this was an obstacle. Thinking of it that way made it easier to be analytical. So her original plan—to find the exit, get out, come back with help—totally blown. She couldn’t leave without Tom. What if they had Van, too? She thought of crawling around in the ceiling trying to find her friend, trying to get
two
drugged people out of here, and blackness pressed down on her.

Don’t leave any option but success
. And don’t accept “maybe” problems, either. She’d deal with what was in front of her. Tom. She waited, watching, her heart squeezing with love and despair as he lay motionless below her. Impervious to her attempts to mind-meld with him and jolt him awake. If only her mother was here—God, she hoped she was okay.

Kelsey’s shoulders screamed from her cramped, half-supported, half-leaning position as she lay still, trying to plot her next move. The door opened and Archie walked in. She couldn’t see him, but recognized his voice right away.

“How is he?”

Bulldozer looked over his shoulder at Tom sprawled on the table. “Still out. Don’t know how much they gave him, but he should have been waking up by now.”

Kelsey’s breath caught. What was wrong?

“Give him a stimulant. I don’t want to delay this phase of our project.”

What?
Tom was part of all this? No, he couldn’t be. That was far too coincidental. And…and he’d been sick, she remembered. He’d caught Van’s cold and joked he hadn’t even had the benefit of making out with her first. So what was this guy talking about?

“Don’t you want to make sure the girl’s blood will work, first?”

Archie stepped forward into Kelsey’s vision, his hands in his lab coat pockets. “That’s completely separate. We’re running three phases of this program now. The girl’s blood can take us down one road, but we’ve got to analyze the mother’s before we proceed with phase one-A, the original plan. Assuming they can bring her in, of course. She’s been such trouble.” He tsked, sending a new wave of pride and fury through Kelsey.
That’s right, asshole.

“We’ve already injected Mr. Johnson with the original compound. His system will process it within two days. We can mate them within a week after, and the child, phase three, will be the ultimate achievement.”

“I don’t think the girl will go along with this.”

Stop calling me the girl!
Kelsey was so outraged by what she was hearing she wanted to rip off Archie’s head. This was so…so…diabolical!

“The girl will go along with anything, once she has her boy toy in residence with her. She won’t know what else is happening.”

“How can you be sure they’ll—you know?” Bulldozer lifted Tom’s arm from where it hung down next to the table and injected him with something, probably the stimulant. The men watched him in silence for a minute before he stirred.

“If they don’t, we’ll do it manually. But it will be considerably easier if they do. Don’t worry. They’re teenagers. They won’t be able to help themselves.” Archie jumped back as Tom suddenly rolled to his side and vomited on the floor.

My poor baby
. Kelsey wished she were down there, helping him. He was going to be so scared and confused when he realized what was going on. But if she tried, they’d just lock them both up again.

Tom rolled onto his back and opened his eyes. They locked right onto Kelsey’s face. She quickly put her finger to her lips. He took in the room, the men, the syringe still in Bulldozer’s hand, and shoved himself off the table with a roar.

“Where is she, you bastards?”

Unfortunately, he was still unstable. His wild swing missed both men and he toppled onto the floor. Bulldozer caught him before his head connected and tossed him back onto the table. Tom retched again, then tears squeezed out from beneath his closed eyelids. Answering tears dripped down Kelsey’s cheeks.
I’m sorry, baby, so sorry.

“I’ll kill you,” Tom whispered. The men laughed.

“Leave him here until he stabilizes,” Archie told Bulldozer. “No sense getting more vomit in Miss Miller’s room. It won’t be conducive to romance.”

“I’ll bring him some food. Should help.”

“Excellent. Now, with the blood sample you drew…” There was a click of the lock, then Archie’s voice faded with both sets of footsteps down the hall.

Tom jumped to his feet on the table and reached for Kelsey. She stuck her hand down through to grab his, but they couldn’t reach any farther unless she moved, and there wasn’t time.

“They’re going to find me gone,” she whispered urgently. “I’ll find the exit and come back for you.”

“No, I’ll come with you!”

“You can’t, the ceiling won’t hold you. I mean it! I’ll be back soon.” She tugged her hand free and more tears fell at the rip inside her. “Do they have Van?”

“No, she’s back home. I talked to her—well, I don’t know when, but it was shortly before they took me. Kelsey, what—”

“No time! We’ll do all that later.” Before she lost her resolve, she pulled back and replaced the tile, then started crawling.
New goal
, she told herself, trying to focus. But she couldn’t shake the fear that she was never going to get them out of here.

When they entered, the dark corridor lights automatically came on, this time without Tyler’s command. Regan spotted motion sensors and assumed they sent a signal back to security or the main office or whatever. Tyler strode confidently down the hallway, apparently not worried about being heard or seen.

Regan couldn’t believe they were doing this. Everything told her it was a trap.

There were no doors in this endless hallway. Lights went on ahead of them, off behind them, like in some sci-fi movie. Regan didn’t see cameras, but knew they were there. She drew her pistol and readied herself. But it didn’t ease her apprehension.

Tyler punched a code into a keypad at the end of the hall. It beeped but stayed red. He hesitated, then punched again, a little slower. The same thing happened.

“Did he change the code?” she asked, looking back over her shoulder.

“Apparently.” He frowned and thought, then punched something completely different. This time the light flashed green, and they could hear the hum of the electronic release. He pulled the door open quickly.

Regan stayed behind him. He could catch the first wave of black-clad goons.

But again, there was no one there.

“I don’t like this, Tyler.” They were now in a small antechamber with more halls branching in three different directions. “Where is everyone?”

“I told you, he sent his entire—”

“But he has no security here? No scientists? Who’s working on the project?”

Tyler nodded to the right hallway. “The labs are down there. About two hundred yards, then down a level. They wouldn’t be up here. And he never had reason to need much security.”

But he couldn’t be stupid enough not to know he needed it now, Regan thought. Not when he’d kidnapped her daughter.

“Which way is Kelsey going to be?” she asked.

Tyler hesitated. “I think that way.” He pointed left. “It’s more medical. Exam rooms and stuff. There’s no room to the right where she could be secured.”

“Lead on.”

They moved through what felt like miles of corridors, all looking the same. Regan memorized their turns, years of planning escape routes making it easy. Tyler stopped at the top of a dead-end hallway. “Down here, I think. There’s a room at the end like a bedroom, a kid’s room. He wouldn’t tell me what it was for.”

Regan rolled her eyes. “And you’re just putting it together
now
?”

“I only saw it once, on the first tour he gave me,” he growled. “I forgot.”

Regan ran down the hall toward the door at the end. She zeroed in on the handle, knowing it would be locked, knowing she couldn’t get in, but her heart speeding up and her breath coming in a rush nonetheless.

To her shock, the handle turned when she grasped it. The door pushed open…

Into an empty room.

It was a little girl’s room, just as Tyler had said. She felt him come up behind her, but couldn’t see or say anything through the sudden swelling in her throat and tears blurring her vision.

She wasn’t here.

“It’s okay.” Tyler squeezed her shoulders, tugged her back. “We’ll find her.”

“Yeah?” Regan rubbed her sleeve vigorously across her face. “How big is this place?”

He didn’t answer.

“So where do we freaking look?”

They both froze at the echo of a muffled shout. It was deep and male, not Kelsey, but it could be because of her. They dashed back up the hall and turned right, moving in unison. Regan’s feet seemed to beat out her daughter’s name.
Kels. Sey. Kels. Sey. Kels. Sey.

Tyler got to the corner a split second before she did and slammed to a stop, jerking back and pushing her behind him. She could hear footsteps and voices now, something about blood and centrifuges. They were going the other way. She waited, impatiently, until Tyler peeked around the wall and nodded. They hurried, a little slower and more quietly now. Tyler pointed to a door halfway down the hall.

But then Regan heard a scrape above her. She stopped and looked up. Nothing moved, but she heard the scrape again.

“Tyler!” she hissed in a loud whisper. He halted and came back.

“What?”

She pointed upward and mimed him lifting her to the ceiling. He nodded. She stuck her gun back in her waistband, stepped into his hands, and pushed up through the tile. There was nothing in front of her, but as she turned a blur of movement warned her too late. Something slammed into the side of her head. Lights exploded in her vision and she crumpled. Tyler barely caught her, lowering her to the floor with a curse. He leapt up and caught the edge of the ceiling, but his weight pulled it down with a squeal of metal and shower of dust. Regan heard a small scream. She scrambled to her feet as Tyler lunged again, pulling down more of the ceiling, and a body came crashing through to the floor.

“Kelsey!” a voice bellowed from inside the room next to them.

“Oh my God.” Regan rushed to the coughing, gasping body and realized it was her daughter, hidden in pieces of acoustical tile and twisted metal. “Kelsey.”

“Mo—”
cough
“
—
Mom?” Kelsey reached up a hand and Regan hauled her to her feet. “What the hell?” She coughed again and squinted at Tyler. “Tyler?”

“Are you okay?” Regan patted her down until Kelsey pushed her away. “Thank God we found you.” She leaned against the wall when her noodly legs tried to give out, but kept one hand on Kelsey, not entirely convinced she was here, safe—at least for the moment—and whole. “What did he do to you?”

“I’m fine. Help me get Tom out.”

But Tom apparently hadn’t been willing to listen impotently to the commotion. More tile came down, and he plummeted to the floor in front of the door. There was more coughing and choking and hugs—and then running.

“We’re all going to get lung cancer,” Kelsey wheezed.

“If we don’t get a bullet in the back first.” Regan cringed and reached back to pull her along by the elbow. “Faster.” Now that the initial wave of relief had passed, being reunited with Kelsey poured strength into her like concrete, reinforced by rebar of determination.

Tyler in the lead, the group pounded through the maze of hallways back toward the entrance they’d come through, but crashed to a halt as they approached the last doorway. Tyler flung out his arms as if to shield them, but Regan pushed up next to him.

“The prodigal son returns.” Archie stood in front of a group of well-armed men. The soldiers Regan had been expecting all along.

Tyler glanced down at her. “Told you.”

She shrugged. “Okay, you were right. But I told you, too.” She waved her hand at the guns.

“Yeah. Sorry. I guess they recovered a little.”

“Ya think?”

“A child’s betrayal is the most painful,” Archie said. He shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked forward on his toes. He looked like a lecturing professor, but sadder. Regan saw no signs of madness or fervor, and wondered if that made him more or less dangerous.

“You betrayed me first, Dad.” Tyler didn’t sound like he was still angsting over it. “You think you can disappear without a word, then drag me back into your pathetic life without regrets?”

“Pathetic?” Archie’s eyebrows rose, and Regan could see what Tyler would look like in twenty years. “Hardly pathetic, son. Groundbreaking. The stuff for history books. I’ll transform not only the way we live, but the way we protect ourselves. War as we know it will no longer exist.”

“You’re so delusional,” Tyler said. “First off, you think you can get away with kidnapping and detaining a couple of kids? Or murdering them, which I’m sure was your plan once you didn’t need them anymore.”

Archie looked appalled. “I would never kill them!”

“You tried to kill Regan.”