Phantom Prospect - Alex Archer [75]
The relief was short-lived, however. She realized that if they got Cole back to this cell, they’d see that Annja’s own door was a mess and she was no longer in her cell.
She turned and started working her way toward where the guards were carrying Cole.
“You there.”
Annja’s heart sank. She turned. “Yes?”
“Are you supposed to be over here?” It was the guard who had stopped the torturing of Cole. But he didn’t look even remotely friendly. The submachine gun slung over his shoulder wasn’t at the ready, but it was close to his hands. And the expression on his deeply scarred face was a portrait of evil and hatred.
“Aren’t I?” Annja said.
He shook his head. “All drill workers are supposed to be over in that area there.” He pointed in the opposite direction that Annja was headed. “Get over to where you need to be. You don’t want the boss looking for you and I don’t need any extra bother today.”
Annja smiled. “Great, thanks.” She started walking in the same direction that she had been heading. She was close to the opening. Just six feet to go.
“Did you hear what I said?”
She nodded. “Yep, I just have to check on something over here first,” she said.
Four feet away from the doorway, she heard the ratchet of the submachine gun’s charging handle slammed into place. The guard had a round ready to fire into her back if he wanted to. “Doesn’t seem like you heard me,” he said.
Annja considered her options. If the guards got Cole back to his cell, she was finished. If she took this guard out, she was finished, as well. There was no other option left but to make a messy scene.
As she came abreast of the doorway, she grabbed a small rock she’d noticed on the ground and wheeled around, aiming with perfect accuracy at the guard’s head.
Before the man had a chance to react, the rock struck him between the eyes and he slumped to the floor. Annja grabbed him and his gun before they could draw attention and dragged him into the changing room. She struggled and heaved until she stuffed the body in the laundry bin and then stripped off her coveralls.
Annja grabbed the gun and raced toward Cole’s cell.
She turned the corner and came face-to-face with one of Cole’s guards heading back at a run. She could see the body of the guard she’d killed in the distance.
Annja collided with the oncoming man and they both went down, their respective guns clattering on the stone floor.
Annja had the faster reaction and instantly shot her right leg out toward the guard’s head. He saw the kick coming but didn’t have enough time to block the savage blow that snapped his head back. He lay still.
Annja scrambled to her feet and grabbed at the two guns, slinging one of them on her back and running for Cole’s cell. As she ran, she wondered about the absence of radios on the guards, but quickly dismissed it as a nonissue. Probably due to the solid rock that surrounded them, radios were unreliable.
She went up the slope toward the row of cells and saw the second guard examining the entrance of her cell. Cole was nowhere to be seen.
The guard saw Annja and started to aim his weapon at her. “Hey—”
Annja’s trigger finger twitched and the gun recoiled in her hands as three rounds tore into the guard’s chest, shredding his black turtleneck and splattering blood across the walls.
He dropped and Annja knelt next to his body, grabbing his keys off the belt he wore. She called out, “Cole!”
“Annja?”
She raced to a door past her cell and fumbled with the lock. She got the door open and saw him struggle forward. He collapsed into her arms. “So it really was you. I hoped, but couldn’t be sure.”
“It’s me, you big jerk. Now come on, we’ve got to get you out of here.”
She wrapped her hands around him and took his weight. He was heavy and outweighed her by a great deal. Annja took a breath and propped him up.
He tried to stand by himself. “Let me go. I can manage.”
“You sure?”
He nodded. “I feel like shit, but if we can get the hell out, I’ll fake it long enough to escape.”
Annja took the submachine gun off her back and handed it to him.