Labyrinth (25 page)

How the hell was she going to get out of this?

K
ESSEL
COULD
HEAR
Greene somewhere in the darkened corridor ahead of him—the ragged breathing from the intense pain Greene was no doubt feeling from the glass in his eyeball.

And Kessel, for the first time since he’d begun this operation, finally felt like he was the hunter.

He didn’t envy Greene right now.

But he’d envy him even less when he caught up with him. Kessel glanced at the pistol in his hand.

And knew that using it on Greene was far too lenient a sentence.

Kessel lowered his stance and headed down the corridor. It was time to dispense some serious justice.

Chapter 28

Kessel followed the sound of Greene’s whimpering up the corridor. Although he couldn’t see, Kessel was locked on his target. A few more minutes of trailing him and he had no doubt he’d be able to finish this for good.

Kessel grimaced at the thought of having such fine glass shards embedded in his own eye. He hadn’t deliberately set out to do that to Greene, but the ecoterrorist had made the mistake of looking up.

Greene had taken the full brunt of the shattering bulbs right in his face.

Ouch.
But then again, Greene had caused his own fair share of suffering. Maybe this was karma.

There had often been times when he felt as though the universe was using him for its own ends. When he’d come across the group of Taliban fighters that had just torched a girls’ school in a remote town in Afghanistan, killing every single one of the eight-year-olds in the name of radical Islam. His heart beat faster as he remembered with striking clarity how he had been the instrument of their destruction, calling in a Predator air strike.

Greene was still scuffling up ahead. His breathing sounded more labored. He must have known Kessel was tailing him because the whimpers had quieted.

He’ll try to get to safety and keep me down here, Kessel thought. I’ll have to take him before he can reach the exit. Kessel increased his speed but not to the detriment of his stealth.

Kessel wanted Greene to feel what it was like to be hunted, to not have any control over his destiny.

He wanted to shout, “How does it feel, Greene?” into the darkness. Make Greene’s fear palpable. But Kessel remained silent, focused on the task at hand.

As the corridor led him upward, it seemed as if the walls of the tunnel were starting to close in on him. He put out one hand and felt the cool stone. Everything seemed right.

And he could still hear Greene up ahead.

Was the man crying now?

Wasn’t that always the way. So much for the false bravado, he thought. Greene was done.

And then Kessel picked up speed.

It was time to end this.

O
KAY
, A
NNJA
THOUGHT
, I’m in a room with no exit.

A room with no apparent exit, she quickly corrected herself. Chances were good there was a way out. She felt sure that Fairclough still wasn’t done with her yet—that he would funnel her into some other portion of his maze where she’d have to jump over a snake pit or something like that.

Or maybe he’d just keep tormenting her with this silliness until he saw her crack.
I’m not in the mood to fulfill this guy’s fantasies. Not a damned chance.

But she did want to get out of the room she was in. The smell of food was driving her nuts even if she was determined not to let it show on her face. She couldn’t help walking close to the vent and inhaling the air. If she could have fed on smell alone, she’d be sated.

She took another breath. The room was twelve feet by twelve feet. Another perfect square in the heart of the maze. Well, she had no idea if this was the heart of the maze or not, but she had to think that after climbing up and almost out of the trap, and then finding herself right back down here, Fairclough must have wanted her close to the center by now. She felt sure that the guy had some sort of schedule Annja was adhering to whether she knew it or not.

Video cameras were probably tracking her as she paced the floor and tried to figure out how she was going to get out.

If she was supposed to get out at all.

She stopped. Was this where she was supposed to end up? Would this room serve as some sort of prison cell for Annja? Had she been sentenced to spend the rest of her life here? Well, without food or water, the rest of her life would be pretty short.

What gave Fairclough the right to sentence her to this place like a prisoner? What had she done that warranted such extreme action as this? Annja had always tried to defend good. The things she’d done in pursuit of justice weren’t evil; they were necessary.

And yet she doubted Fairclough would ever understand that. In order to create something like this, his mind was most likely warped by fury.

And talking to him would do no good, either. Fairclough knew what he wanted and how to get it. Greene had brought her here to be a pawn in the bookseller’s vengeance.

Annja’s heart raced at the thought that Kessel was still out there. He was her one chance at salvation. If he was able to turn the tables on Fairclough and Greene, she might just have a shot at getting out.

But where was Kessel? Where was he and would he even know where to look for Annja? Plus, he was still wounded. She knew he’d have to take it easy. At this point, she wondered if it would be smarter for Kessel to save himself and get help before he tried to rescue her.

Annja swallowed. That meant he’d have to leave her behind.

She didn’t like that thought at all.

K
ESSEL
DREW
CLOSER
to Greene. Only a matter of twelve feet separated them now. Greene must have known he was there. The atmosphere in the hallway would have told him that someone was close. Kessel knew what it was like to have to fight in the dark and not see where your enemy was.

“Kessel?”

Kessel almost laughed at the sound of Greene’s shaky voice. The man was terrified. There was nothing he could do but hope that Kessel would be mercifully quick in killing him.

But Kessel wasn’t going to kill him—at least, not right away. First, he needed to know where Annja was. He needed to know the layout of the maze so he could reach Annja and get her the hell out.

Then he would force Greene to take him to a phone where Kessel could call in the cavalry and get some medical attention, which he knew he badly needed. His head was much better than it had been, thanks to Annja, but he wasn’t about to start kidding himself and pretend he didn’t need some serious recuperation time.

But first he needed to make sure Annja was okay. It was the least he could do for her since she’d saved his life. What she’d done for him in the cavern had taken most of her courage. Kessel wondered if he would have been able to do the same thing.

He wasn’t so sure.

But Annja had saved him. And now Greene was going to lead Kessel right to where he needed to go to help Annja.

Or else Kessel would put out his other eye.

A
NNJA
KEPT
WALKING
across the room. The floor was simple stone tile, but she saw no pattern or other indicator that stepping on one would produce poisoned darts as they had earlier on in the maze.

Annja shook her head. No, Fairclough was done with that stuff now. She felt pretty sure that, because she’d managed to reach this point, Fairclough would undoubtedly have something special to spring on her.

The question was: What would it be?

She’d already killed a Sasquatch and a pack of wild dogs. She’d dealt with the more maddening aspects of the maze and yet she still wasn’t done. Fairclough wouldn’t blow his greatest challenge on her until he was sure she was properly prepared to face it. That meant wearing her down and riling her up with annoyances like hunger, thirst and exhaustion.

Annja was all of those things.

But she was also angry.

And she was willing to bet that the fury slowly growing in her belly would be more than enough to thwart the annoyance factor. Once she was faced with Fairclough’s ultimate challenge, she would strike hard and fast and without mercy.

Then she’d call him out. Give him the opportunity to gloat about her predicament. That didn’t matter to Annja. All she needed was one shot at Fairclough and she’d take it.

And heaven help Fairclough when that happened.

K
ESSEL
DREW
CLOSE
enough to reach out and touch Greene. He heard Greene yank himself away instinctively. And Kessel enjoyed knowing that Greene was so scared.

“I know you’re there, Kessel.”

Kessel swallowed and then touched Greene on his head. Greene yelped and fell back away from him. Perfect, thought Kessel, I can take him now. And then he moved in to grab his prey.

That’s when he heard a different sound.

It was laughter.

Laughter?

Kessel froze. Then he brought the pistol up, flicking the safety off as he did so, ready to punch two rounds into Greene’s brain.

But the gun was knocked away and, when it popped off, the bullet ricocheted off the walls before splintering away.

And the only thing Kessel heard next was Greene’s voice very close to Kessel’s ear.

“Gotcha.”

A
NNJA
HEARD
A
NOISE
through the vent. It sounded like a single pistol shot that had been suppressed by a silencer. Was it Kessel? Had he found a way to get to Fairclough? Had he found out where Greene was?

Annja bent close to the vent and strained to hear anything else. She thought she heard laughter.

She stood back up. “Are you having fun, Fairclough? Are you enjoying this little jaunt?”

For a moment, there was no response. And then through the same vent Annja had just been listening at, she heard Fairclough’s voice come trickling through.

“I’m having a very enjoyable day, Annja Creed. Although I must say you are probably not enjoying yourself at all. Are you?”

“I’ve had better days,” Annja said. “Why don’t you come down here and we’ll talk about it?”

“Oh, I shall. Very soon, in fact. But I’m afraid I’ve got a few more things to tend to first. In the meantime, I don’t want you to get bored, so I’ve lined up a little distraction for you.”

And then Annja heard the sound of crumbling or movement or something. But she soon figured it out.

The walls were starting to close in on her.