Wrong Place (The Wrong Series) (27 page)

“Sam,
can I get a little help, please,” Nathan said.

“Sure,” she said as she planted the butt of her gun firmly into the back of the man’s head.

“You really do need to show me how to knock people unconscious before I give some poor guy brain damage.”

Sam reached down
and felt in the man’s pocket. Please have some keys, she thought.

“Bingo!” Sam
said as she pulled the keys from the man’s pocket.

“
All right, let’s get everyone out of here,” Nathan said.

* * * * *

Back on the main part of the basement floor, Zane and Dan had joined the fight. They both had to take cover and be extra careful due to the fact that they had no body armor. The fight was fairly even. Jeffery’s men far outnumbered Zane and his crew, but due to their bulletproof armor, the fight had been put on a level playing field. Zane fired, picking off two men that were approaching their team from behind.

“What are we supposed to do? W
e’re far outnumbered,” Dan said.

Zane looked around
, and on the far side of the room, he spotted a door leading to another area. There are four areas: a main floor, a jail, a security room, and that must be a private area for rooms and whoever runs this place, Zane thought to himself.

“Come with me. We’re
about to turn the tide,” Zane said.

The two of them slowly made their way to the large doors in the distance
, and once they were there, all of Zane’s suspicions were confirmed. This was a bunk area.

“What are we doing here?” Dan asked.

“If we find the biggest room, we’ll probably find the person who runs this place. Then maybe we can force the people here to lay down their arms.”

“It s
ounds like a long shot. I’m sure that whoever runs this place has a ton of people guarding the area that he’s in.”

“Do you have any better ideas?’ Zane asked.

“I guess not. Let’s go.”

The two made their way through the rooms, while checking every individual room to find that it was empty. Upon rounding a corner
, they saw two men standing guard in front of a room. The men almost immediately noticed them. Zane and Dan quickly raised their guns. The four men fired their weapons almost at the same time. The two guards fell to the ground dead.

“Well
, those guys were poor aims, huh,” Dan said in a delighted voice before turning to see Zane.

“Zane
, are you okay?”

Zane had been hit.

“It’s just a flesh wound. I’ve had much worse,” Zane said while trying to appear tough.

He had been hit in the
shoulder. Nothing vital was hit, but that still didn’t stop the wound from bleeding, and it still didn’t stop the throb coming from Zane’s shoulder. Zane took his shirt off.

“Well
, can you wrap it for me?” Zane asked Dan while motioned to his bloody shoulder.

“Yeah,”
Dan simply said while taking the shirt from Zane and wrapping it around the wound to form the best makeshift tourniquet he possible could.

“Maybe you should
just stay here,” Dan said.

“No
, let’s go finish this,” Zane said while turning to face the door.

Zane turned and kicked the door
, effectively sending it flying open. There sat the master of this particular facility. Jeffery turned to face his intruders. Zane and Dan walked straight toward him and collected him.

“Who are you people?” Jeffery asked.

“We’re your worst nightmare,” Zane simply responded as they drug him from the room.

* * * * *

Back in the prison area, Nathan and Sam had freed everyone except for Lee. There was only one door left at the end of the ominous hallway, and they all feared the shape that Lee would be in inside his cell. Sam opened the door, and what they saw shocked everyone. Lee hung there against the back wall. He had been beaten almost beyond recognition.

“Thank God
you’re here,” Lee said in a hoarse voice.

Nathan grabbed the keys from Sam and rushed to his friend. Once he found the correct key
, he let Lee down from the chains that held him.

“I am
so
sorry,” Michael said while stepping forward.

“You should be. If we would have held our ground back there
, none of this would have ever happened,” Lee said.

“Held our ground?” Nathan asked.

Michael then explained to Nathan and Sam what had actually occurred prior to their escape. Lee was extremely surprised to hear how Michael had unlocked Nathan and Sam’s cell.

“You saved us. Thank you,” Sam said.

“I didn’t do anything. You two were the ones who came back for us. I knew we were outnumbered, Lee, and I’m so sorry that you had to suffer, but I’m glad you were able to hold out until help could arrive.”

Lee was still mad
, but he understood why Michael had done what he did. He even thought it was a bit clever.

“It’s okay
, but next time how about you take the torture chamber, and I take the comfy jail cell,” Lee said.

“It’s a deal.”

“I’m sorry to interrupt
, but don’t we need to get out of here?” Jess asked.

“She’s
right. We need to go now,” Trish said.

“I don’t know
. Maybe we should wait for everything going on out there to die down before we move,” Jason said nervously.

“Thank you for coming for me
, by the way. I never expected to have such an awesome handler,” Sam said.

“No problem
, but I actually think I only made things worse.”

“Nonsense, you brought Zane and Dan to u
s. That was the best thing you could have done,” Nathan said.

“True
, but next time don’t be so reckless by endangering yourself,” Sam said.

Jaso
n nodded. Sam then walked over to the door to see Zane out on the main floor taking control of the situation.

Zane had dragged Jeffery to the main floor and was giving orders to him.

“Tell your men to drop their guns,” Zane commanded.

“Drop your weapons. This conflict is over,” Jeffery announ
ced loudly and authoritatively.

The sound of gun
fire subsided, and although the men were hesitant to lay down their arms, they obeyed their commander, if nothing else, out of fear that he would be murdered right there in front of them.

“Now
, all of you secure the enemy weapons, and then escort the prisoners to the trucks,” Zane said to his own soldiers.

It was over. They had actually taken the facility. Dan could har
dly believe it. Zane felt lightheaded and began to lose his balance. Dan grabbed him and took his place behind Jeffery as Zane sat down on the floor. He had lost a lot of blood, and the makeshift tourniquet hadn’t really done much of anything for his injury. As Zane looked up, he saw Sam walking toward him.

“You’re
hurt!” Sam said in a worried and also surprised voice.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry,
” Zane said.

“You need to get to a hospital,” Sam said while helping him to his feet.

Behind her, Nathan and Michael were helping Lee to the elevator. As Sam escorted her friend to the elevator and out of this place, she felt a bit of pride in the job that she and everyone around her had done. She looked at her newfound friends, her comrades, and Nathan and felt a sense of gratefulness swell up inside of her. It was a feeling that she had not been used to at all. For the first time in her life, she felt not only fortunate to know the people around her, but also that she was home with these people. As they ascended to the ground floor and exited the elevator, red and blue lights could be seen from outside of the facility.

“Hey
, we need an ambulance. We have two that are hurt,” Jess called to the police and emergency workers ahead of them.

As
Nathan and Michael handed Lee off to the emergency workers, Lee whispered something into his ear.

“You guys shou
ld go with them to the hospital. Sam and I have some unfinished business to attend to. We’ll be there shortly,” Nathan said while facing Michael, Jess, Trish, and Jason.

They looked at him with questionable glances but complied. Two
of them got into the ambulance with Lee, while the other two rode with Zane.

“
So we have unfinished business, huh?” Sam said.

“Lee just gave
me the location of the flash drive. It’s in Orlando, and I believe a road trip is in order. Don’t you?” Nathan asked.   

Chapter 27

Nathan and Sam pulled up to the hotel that Lee and Jason had previously stayed at.

“So how are we going to get in the room? We don’t even have a key,” Nathan said.

“It’ll be simple,” Sam said.

She led Nathan to the front desk.

“Excuse me, but we were mugged, and the thieves took everything. They even took our room key. Could we get a replacement key?” Sam asked sounding upset.

“Sure
, I’ll just need some identification,” the lady behind the counter said.

“They truly took everything
from us. My license was in my wallet,” Nathan said.

“Okay. W
ell, can you at least tell me your name so I can identify you by that much?” the woman asked.

Nathan was a bit nervous now. Who had checked in? Was it Jason or Lee? Nathan honestly didn’t know.

“I’m
Jason,” Nathan finally said.

“Jason who?” the woman asked impatiently.

“Ellis,” Sam answered.

“Okay
, here’s your room key. You two should really report this incident to the police,” the woman said.

“We will,” Sam said.

“Well, that was close,” Nathan said as they exited the building.

Sam only laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s just that you can run through a building with bullet
s flying through the air and adjust seamlessly, but one front desk worker asks you a question and you nearly freeze up,” Sam said while still chuckling.

As they arrived at the door and went inside
, a sense of excitement grew in both of them. They made their way quickly to the safe and opened it. There was the now unlocked flash drive that they had been protecting all of this time, and the allure of knowing what was on it was killing both of them.

“I don’t suppose we could take a look
, could we?” Sam asked while glancing over at Lee’s laptop that had been left on the hotel bed.

“I won’t tell if you wo
n’t,” Nathan said.

“No
, we can’t. We’ll look at it with them back in Tampa.”

Nathan looked like he hated the word
s that had just left her mouth, and the truth was that they left quite the bad taste in her own mouth, but she knew that the others deserved to know what they had gone through all of this for at the same time as they did.

“Well
, let’s get going. I want to know what’s on this thing as soon as possible,” Nathan said anxiously.

They walked ba
ck out to the car with the flash drive and laptop and started their drive back to Tampa.

* * * * *

Back at the hospital, Zane had just had his shoulder tended to when Dan arrived. Zane had been told to stay in bed, but unfortunately for his nurse, Zane was very stubborn. Zane and Dan went straight to Lee’s room to check on him and see how everyone else was doing after the ordeal.

“How is he?” Zane whispered to Trish as he entered the room.

“It’s not good. He had several broken ribs and has a slight case of pneumonia. Apparently, they water boarded the poor guy and then turned the temperature down to freezing that night.”

Just then the nurse entered the room.

“I’m sorry, but this many people can’t be in here. I’m going to have to ask all of you but two people to wait in the waiting room,” she said.

“You guys go take a break in the waiting room
. Dan and I will watch over this guy,” Zane said.

Michael nodded, and all of them walked out of
the door.

“Mr. Green
, you’re not supposed to be out of your bed,” the nurse said in an irritated tone.

Zane shot her a look that clearly said
, “Just you try to move me.” The woman simply rolled her eyes and walked out of the room.

“
So we made a pretty big mess back there. What’s the official story going to be to the public?” Dan asked.

“The truth
, I hope,” Zane answered.

“Well
, either way, I’m just glad that we’re all okay. I thought I was going to lose you for a minute back there.”

“Nope
, it looks like I’m going to sail on for a little longer,” Zane said happily.

T
he four friends sat in the waiting room.

“I’m going to go down to the cafeteria.
Does anyone want me to get them anything?” Jason asked.

“Something to drink would be nice,” Trish said
.

“Someth
ing to drink, I’ve got it,” Jason said as he left.

In the corner
, Michael and Jess sat. Michael gently grabbed her hand.

“What are you doing?” Jess asked.

“Oh, come on. You know I’ve always been crazy about you, and I know that in the past, I’ve had my fair share of problems, but I finally think I’m over all that. I think I can finally make you happy. I can be there for you like you’ve always been there for me. Please, just let me,” Michael said.

Jess closed he
r hand and embraced Michael’s. What do you know? She isn’t as picky as I thought she was, Trish thought. All of them made small talk throughout the early morning, and for once, things seemed normal.

*
* * * *

Nathan and Sam finally arrived
back in Tampa and drove to the hospital. Upon finding out where Zane and Lee were, they made their way up toward the rooms. Just when they were passing by the waiting room, an eager Michael stopped them.

“
Nathan, where did you two go?” Michael asked.

Sam held up the flash drive
to answer his question.

“How are Zane and Lee?” Nathan asked.

Michael then recapped how Zane had recovered almost instantly and how Lee was in bad shape.

“I hate to hear that about
Lee,” Nathan said sadly.

“
I know that he’s sick and in bad shape, but I think he would want to see what was on that flash drive as soon as possible,” Jess said while anxiously looking at the device.

Nathan didn’t know about going and waking up a man who had just been through such an ordeal and now apparently had pneumonia
, but then again, he did know that Lee would actually want to see what was on it right then, with all of the trouble that it had caused him and all of the time that he had spent working on it.

“Okay
, let’s go,” Nathan said.

“But he isn’t supposed to have more than two people in there at a time. How are we supposed to get past the nurse?” Jess asked.

“I welcome her to try to stop us,” Trish said in a confident and slightly threatening tone.

The group walked into
the room. As they were about to enter the room, they heard the voice of the nurse.

“You aren’t supposed to
. . . ” she said before Trish answered.

“Yeah, yeah
, yeah.”

Nathan gently woke Lee up.

“We got the device,” Nathan said excitedly.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Lee asked.

Sam opened the l
aptop and inserted the flash drive. As it loaded, everyone gathered around Lee’s bed. Sam clicked on the first file, and what they saw next took the breath from everyone. A haunting silence enveloped the room.

“Oh my God
! That’s happening today!” Nathan said as his face turned pale.