Wrong Place (The Wrong Series) (26 page)

“I’ve got it!” Zane
exclaimed.

“What is it?” Nathan asked.

“Since you two still have those uniforms, two of us can go into the facility early and find the security monitor room. Those two can take out anyone in that room, and then the rest of the crew can enter the facility.”

“There’s
only one little problem with that,” Sam said.

“What’s
that?”

“You can freely go up from the basement floor
, but there is a lock that I believe prevents you from going down.”

“Don’t you worry about that. All I have to do is take the elevator panel off and rub a couple of wires together and
then bam, down we go.”

“I’ll go with you,” Sam said.

“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Zane said.

“Why not? It’s not like I can let an old man like you go down there
by yourself,” Sam said and then smirked at him.

“Hey
, I’m getting tired of people talking about my age. Besides, I thought after I gave you my car I had earned a pass on comments like that. Where is my car anyway?”

“L
et’s get back to the plan,” Sam said while making sure not to meet Zane’s eyes.

Zane thought
that her avoidance of talking about the car was strange, but he just moved on.

“I was actually thinking that Dan could go with me because t
hese people don’t know what either one of us look like. They know exactly what you two look like. Honestly, I don’t know how you two were even able to escape.”

What Zane said sounded reasonable to b
oth Nathan and Sam, so they agreed.

“
All right. I need to go tell Dan what’s up, if he’s through watching his cartoons,” Zane said as he was starting to walk away.

“What?” Sam asked
.

“Oh
, nothing.”

Zane went back to his room and informed Dan of their plan.

“I think we should leave soon so maybe we can all have a last meal before the mission. Then we need to get going to the facility,” Zane said.

The two of them went back to Nathan and Sam’
s room and picked them up. Then, the four of them were off. One final meal, Zane thought to himself as they drove away. 

Chapter 26

At a small diner, everyone
gathered for a last meal before the operation was carried out. Everyone seemed to be nervous, and someone needed to say something to ease the tension. They needed to talk about anything but the operation they were about to carry out. Zane thought of one subject that was different and that he had really been wanting to know about.

“
So you seemed to dodge my question about the car earlier,” Zane said to Sam in a puzzled tone.

“W
hat are you guys going to eat?” Sam asked while looking down at the table.

“
Sam?”

“Just tell him,” Nathan said.

“Well you see, Nathan wanted to stay at this cheap hotel in Birmingham, so it was all his fault!” Sam quickly said.

“Way to throw me under the bus there
, Sam,” Nathan said.

“Wait
, what happened to the car?” Zane asked.

Sam only looked away.

“It was stolen when we were in Birmingham . . . and apparently it was all my fault,” Nathan said.

“You lost my car? And only one day after you received it,” Zane said in surprise.

Sam looked very ashamed and uncomfortable. After a long silence, Zane finally spoke.

“Oh well, it was just a car. I’ll just make them get me a new one. After all this running around
, I kind of figure that they owe me at least that.”

“Thank you for understanding. I mean
, Nathan appreciates it,” Sam said and then laughed.

“W
hat are we going to do after this op is over?” Dan asked.

“I have no idea,” Zane said plainly.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going to find out what Lee did with that flash drive and see what’s on it,” Nathan said.

“I agree
, and with everything that we’ve been through, there better be some serious stuff on that thing,” Sam said.

“I just hope that Jason and Lee were smart enough to store the device somewhere and not bring it with them when they tried to rescue everyone,” Zane said.

“I’m sure that they were. The thing I worry about more is what the people at that facility might be doing to them to get the location of the flash drive,” Sam said.

“I don’t even like to think about that,” Na
than said while noticeably shuddering.

The group continued to make idle chatter throughout the meal
, and then they made their way to their destination.

A block away from the facility
, they saw four large trucks that were undoubtedly filled with soldiers. The group stopped beside the front truck, and Zane got out of the car.

“I take it
that you’re Zane?” a man said as he stepped out from inside the truck.

Zane then filled him in on the layout of the facility and told him about their plan to first infiltrate the facility and hijack the
security monitor room.

“It sounds risky
, but it would certainly give us a tactical advantage to know that they were blind when we attacked,” the man said.

“
All right. My friend and I will get to it then. These two are going to need some body armor and weapons,” Zane said while motioning toward Nathan and Sam.

“We have them covered.”

“Great! Are you ready?’ Zane asked while turning toward Dan.

“I am.”

The two of them
started making their way on foot to the facility. Once they arrived at their destination, Zane and Dan walked up to the front door. It, as expected, was locked. Zane scanned the area and toward the back of the building, he saw a lone man standing.

“Hey
, can I ask you for a favor?” Zane asked as he walked towards the man.

“What is
it?” the man asked.

“I
seem to have forgotten my key. Can you help me out?”

“I haven’t seen you two around here before,” th
e man said in a suspicious tone.

“We’re
sort of new here, and honestly, I wouldn’t normally be asking for a favor from someone so early, but I don’t want to have to deal with the boss. You know how it is.”

“Uh huh,” the man said
while still looking suspicious but unlocking the door anyway.

“Thank you very much,” Zane said.

Zane and Dan entered the facility.

The man had initially been extremely suspicious of them and was planning to report them to security
, but when he got closer to the two men, he noticed how old Zane was. The old man in front of him had forgotten his keys, and although he probably shouldn’t have helped him out, he felt a bit bad for the old guy. He concluded that if he were still doing these types of things at that man’s age, then he might need a little help every so often, too. He underestimated Zane and unlocked the door. He never once thought that the old man in front of him could be an intruder.

“That was close. What made you think it was a good idea to just come out and ask
to be let in?” Dan asked.

“What was the worst that could have happene
d? I mean, if he had arrested us, a rescue party would have been here in about ten minutes anyway,” Zane said.

“I guess
you’re right.”

The two of
them walked over to the elevator. Once they were inside, Zane pulled a set of small screwdrivers from his pocket and began taking the elevator panel off the wall. After a few minutes and a small amount of frustration Zane exclaimed, “Going down!”

“Are you ready?” Dan asked
.

“Always,” Zane responded confidently.

As the elevator doors opened, the two men casually stepped onto the crowded floor and made their way to their right while scanning the room for the security room.

We can’t walk
around here looking lost forever, Dan thought while worrying about how much they must stand out in this place. All of a sudden, much to Dan’s surprise, Zane had engaged someone.

“Excuse me
, can you tell me where the monitor room is?”

The man he stopped only sighed and pointed in the direction of the security room.

“Cutting it close
, aren’t you?” Dan asked.

“No worries. Y
ou would be surprised what you can get people to tell you just by casually asking them.”

They both walked to the security room that was only a few yards away from their current position. Once
they were inside, Zane and Dan noticed that there were only three people in the room. Two of them were on the left side of the square room, while the other one was on the right side. This will be simple enough, Zane thought to himself.

“Can I he
lp you two?” one of the men asked as he turned in his chair to face Zane and Dan.

Zane quickly shu
t the door to the room and pulled the pistol from his pocket and fired two shots into the heads of the two men on the left side of the room, while Dan did the same to the man on the right side of the room.

“Thank God for silencers.
So what do we do now?” Dan asked.

“I say
we just hang out and wait for help to come before we make a move.”

“Here’s
to hoping they get here soon,” Dan said.

* * * * *

A block away from the facility, Nathan and Sam were waiting to be given the okay to move. Nathan was fidgeting with his newly acquired body armor.

“Do they just not want you to be able to move at
all in this armor?” Nathan asked.

“
You’ll be thankful for it after the first time it stops a bullet,” Sam said.

“There’s
no guarantee that a bullet will ever hit me, though. Right?” Nathan asked nervously.

Sam looked at Nathan with a little doubt in her eyes
. He had only shot a gun once in his life and now here he was holding an assault rifle and fidgeting with his body armor. I just hope he doesn’t shoot himself, Sam thought.

“No
, I’m sure that you’ll be fine,” Sam said in a voice that sounded sincere even though she had her doubts.

Nathan was noticeably
nervous. His hands were shaking, and he seemed to be staring off into nothingness. Sam was a little put off by the fact that she had so much more courage than he did, but then she thought back to the first time she held an assault rifle. She was only twelve years old, and the thought of even firing the weapon was frightening enough to her. She could only imagine what it would have been like if someone was going to be shooting back at her. She walked up to Nathan and put her arm around him.

“You’re
going to be fine.”

“Is it that obviou
s that I’m worried?”

“Just a little bit.”

“So I’m just wondering, but what makes you say that I’ll be fine?”

“Because I know
this is all new to you and right now you’re naturally nervous and maybe even a little bit scared, but when push comes to shove, you always come through,” Sam said.

“What do you mean?”

“Back in Memphis you came up with an excellent plan despite having no prior experience in such a situation, and then in Atlanta you saved me when you had never even fired a gun before. You may be nervous, but when it comes time to perform, you’ll be great. You always are.”

All of the nervousness and
doubt faded from Nathan’s face.

“You’r
e right. I am pretty great!” Nathan said in a joking tone.

“Oh
, don’t get too cocky now. I have seen you succeed, but I’ve also seen you hopping around in your underwear while fleeing a scene, too,” Sam said while laughing.

“You just had to remind me of that
, huh?”

“It’s time to move everyone,” a
voice then called out.

Nathan and Sam
, along with their newly found team, made their way to the facility and to the front door. One of the men there put a small explosive device on the front door and then stepped away quickly.

“Everybody
get back!” he said. At that moment a boom could be heard, and the door blew open. Behind the building, the man who had previously helped Zane and Dan looked on and slowly began to make his way away from the facility. He was loyal, but he wasn’t stupid, and given the fact that he was the only person outside at this moment, he wasn’t about to go picking a fight right now. Inside, they were trying to decide the order of who was going to go down first.

“Okay
, who is going down first,” the leader of the group asked.

Many hands went up. Nathan simply stepped inside and Sam followed
him.

“Wow
, you really didn’t hesitate at all,” Sam said in surprise.

“Hey
, we agreed that we weren’t going to hang back, and besides, the first people in the elevator get to be at the back of it. We’re the last to be shot,” Nathan said while smiling.

“Oh
, so courage had nothing to do with it?”

Soon the elevator filled up
, and they were going down.

“Thank God for Zane
or we would have never even been able to get past this elevator,” a soldier said as they were descending.

As the elevator stopped and e
veryone waited for the doors to open, you could feel the tension in the air. Nathan was nervous, but in this moment, he noticed that even all the battle hardened people around him had a worried expression on their faces. This calm before the storm was something that no soldier ever got used to. The doors opened, and the soldiers at the front of the elevator opened fire on the men and women on the other side of the doors as everyone poured out of the elevator. They had truly taken the facility by complete surprise. Nathan and Sam ran straight for the prison area, cutting people down as they went. As they ran into the prison area, the two guards who they had previously encountered in their own escape turned to see them. Sam and Nathan raised their guns and pointed them at the two men.

“Drop your weapons!” Sam said.

The two men thought for a second about raising their own guns and trying to fight off these intruders, but ultimately, they decided against that course of action. It was the smart choice because Nathan and Sam were completely decked out in bulletproof armor. How would these two unarmored men ever stand a chance in such a circumstance? They dropped their weapons.

“Now
, get on the ground,” Sam commanded.

Sam
walked up behind the first guard and hit him in the back of his head with the butt of her gun, effectively knocking him unconscious. Nathan then did the same thing, but once again, he failed to knock the man unconscious.

“Oh God, not again!” the man yelled
while fearing the beating that would almost certainly follow.