Phantom Prospect - Alex Archer [74]
She skidded to a stop twenty yards away from another doorway. This time the noise was much louder than it had been up on the catwalk. Annja could hear all the different machinery.
And, along with those sounds, she could hear Cole screaming.
I have to get to him, she thought.
But she couldn’t risk running out and getting them both killed. She had to sneak out there without anyone knowing.
But how?
Annja crept up to the doorway and risked a look, hoping that the answer would reveal itself to her.
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The first thing Annja spotted was a group of workers in coveralls heading out of a room that hadn’t been visible to Annja from the catwalk. One of them was still zipping up the coveralls and Annja suspected that there might be more sets in what she hoped was a changing area. Judging by the makeup of the group, which included three women, Annja felt a surge of hope.
She waited until the group passed her spot and then she cautiously crept toward the next doorway. She could see a polished stone floor that gleamed from the constant dampness that seemed to pervade every aspect of this complex. Just beyond the doorway, she spotted a series of metal lockers set against the stone wall and beyond them another doorway where Annja heard what sounded like flushing toilets.
And they gave me a pail, she thought. The bastards.
She checked the first locker and found it locked but then spotted a bin full of used coveralls. Quickly, she grabbed one and stepped into it, zipping it up to her neck and effectively covering her body.
Fortunately, the coveralls had booties and Annja hoped that her absence of shoes would be hidden from view.
She wished the people wore masks but that didn’t seem a likely event, so she took a deep breath, checked to make sure the sword was ready to pull out if she needed and then stepped out of the changing room just as two more workers entered.
“Hey,” one said, barely even looking at her.
Annja smiled at the one that spoke to her. “Hey.”
And that was the extent of the exchange. Annja took a breath and tried to remain nonchalant. Clearly, not everyone here knew who she was or even what she looked like. That was good news.
Outside the changing room, she looked around and spotted Cole still hung up on the wooden board. She started making her way over to where he was.
The guards near Cole seemed not to even notice her as she drew closer and closer. Annja’s heart hammered, but she had to commit to this. She had no idea how they were going to make it out of there, but judging from how Cole screamed, he wasn’t going to last much longer if they kept shocking him the way they were.
She closed the distance to ten feet and was ready to jump the closest guard when she saw a new guard come down from a circular stone staircase cut into the back of the rock. He pointed at the Taser holder and shook his head. “That’s enough now. There’s no sense in killing him. At least, not yet.”
Cole’s head slumped forward and Annja saw sweat running down through the muscle valleys on his body. She frowned and bit back the surge of anger she felt coursing through her veins.
“Get him down and take him back to his cell.”
The guards complied and Cole fell forward into their arms. As he did so, his eyes fluttered open and he saw Annja.
Annja winked at him and she saw the immediate reaction of relief in his body. But he checked it and nodded toward the area by the staircase.
Annja looked over and saw something she hadn’t seen before. A video camera was stuck on a rotating pole that covered that particular part of the lower cavern. No doubt its feed led back to the control room she’d spotted from the catwalk overhead.
Cole was still staring at her so she nodded once and then he slumped forward again. Two of the guards dragged him away and Annja was relieved to see that they headed back the way she’d come down