A/N There is some slight POV change this chapter. I'll try not to make it a habit, but it was necessary . . . at least I think it was necessary, if however you want more POV change please tell me in your reviews. Thanks to all reviewers.

Disclaimer: James Patterson owns them all.

Chapter XI: Escape.

"You know you shouldn't be here," commented the first voice. Strange, that voice sounded familiar. I should know it, but I don't.

"I know that," replied the second. "But something's come up." That voice. It seemed to stir a long forgotten memory. It was just outside my grasp.

"What," growled the first.

"They've been caught." Caught? Who's been caught?

"What!!" Dimly I could here a rock being thrown.

"You heard me," replied the other voice. That voice, his name, his face.

"You should have kept an eye out for them," accused the first. "You knew something like this was going to happen. You should have. . ."

"I know what I should have done," came the snarling reply. "I sent in a full squad of in to meet up with them, but they traveled faster than I thought so they had to wait for the squad to appear."

"How long?" explored the first voice.

"Three days." It was mumbled. There was something about those two voices. I know I should know them, but I didn't. Their faces were blurred. They were erased from my memory.

"THREE DAYS!!" yelled the first. "You should have seen this coming."

"I didn't know they would take so quick," voiced the second. "It took them just under a week to get through the tunnel."

"Under a week?" he/she sounded surprised. No, it was a he, something about his voice told me that.

"Yeah."

"Then what about the squad?" came the question. "They should have been able to keep them safe."

"Ari managed to reach them before hand and laid a trap," answered the second voice. The sound of Ari's name sent anger flashing through my body. Ari. One day I would kill that son of a !&#.

"You should have seen this coming," admonished the first voice.

"Well I didn't," came the tart reply. "It's not my special ability you know. It's yours."

"It doesn't matter," replied the first. "What does matter is what you plan to do to remedy this situation." There was a couple seconds of silence. "You've got to be joking."

"Does it look like I'm joking?" asked the second voice.

"Have I ever seen you joke?" responded the first.

"No you haven't," came the immediate reply. His voice suddenly took a distant tone, "Only one person has ever heard me joke around."

"She better not hear you saying that," came a chuckle. His tone suddenly turned serious, "You do realize that she will kill them if she has the chance right?"

"I'm hoping she'll hold out long enough to learn the reason." More silence. "I hoping a little friend will help as well."

"Friend?" asked a perplexed voice.

"So she hasn't told you yet?" came the surprised response.

"Told me what?" demanded the voice. Even more silence, the second voice was probably shaking his head or some other action. Is this how Iggy always felt? Did he have to second guess what was happening every time there was silence?

"So you want us to go in and save the day do you?" remarked the first voice. "You do know this will cost extra right?" Something sounding like a growl floated to my ears followed by chuckling. "Fine no extra cost."

"You'll also have to save the other people," he stated.

"What?" he exclaimed. "Are they still alive?"

"Most of them, from what I've gotten from my spy, only four died in the ambush."

"Fine," came the resigned reply. "But this will definitely cost more."

"I know old friend, I know."

Total POV

"Are you sure this will work?" I demanded of Gazzy.

"It'll work," he sighed. "Trust me." Bending down, he pulled out a set of picklocks. It was one of the few things Iggy had taught Gazzy before he left and joined Itex. That set of picklocks were even the ones Iggy had used when he had rescued me from the Institute.

Shaking my head, I came back to reality. "This is a stupid and suicidal plan." Gazzy simply ignored me and continued on what he was doing.

"You better get ready," remarked Gazzy casually over his shoulder. "Once I pop this lock all hell will break lose."

Sighing sadly, I moved over towards the center of the cage and pumped straight up. Sure we were stuck in a building and the roof was over 20 feet at its lowest point, but I made the jump easily. Catching the bars with my teeth, I some how managed to drag me up and out on to the bared roof. We had stayed in that same room for a day already and it had already strained us past what we had experienced before. The roof was made up of bars so sunlight could get in and Ari only closed the roof when it had just hit midday and even then it was just for an hour. We were lucky in the fact that it didn't rain otherwise we would have perished in a couple of seconds.

"You ready?" whispered Gazzy. Thanks the buildings construction, sound carried extremely easily meaning we had to whisper at all times. Even if we whispered, guards sometimes heard what we were talking about.

"Yep," I replied slightly too loudly causing echoes to sound all around us. Peering down between the gaps, I saw Gazzy open the lock. As soon as he did that though, bars slammed down closing off the exit and the floor started opening. Sprinting as fast as he could, he ran to the opposite side and jumped up. There wasn't enough room for any one, not even Angel, to open up their wings and fly. However, Gazzy didn't need wings to fly. Kicking off the ground, he placed a foot against the wall and kicked off again. Bouncing from side to side, each push from the walls gave him even more height.

That was the thing about Gazzy. For as long as we could remember, we all thought his skill was to mimic voices. We were wrong. His true unique skill was to be able to create a sort of low gravitational field on himself and anything he touches. In other words, the gravity acting on him right now, was equal that of the moon.

Reaching up, he grabbed on to the bars and swung himself expertly up. Holding out his hands, he pulled me close to his body and kicked off doing a perfect back flip. Trust me, it was not fun. The world spiraled around me and I thought I was going to die. The ground came rushing up to meet me, but at the last couple of seconds, he managed to right his course and land on his feet. Leaping out of his arms, I ran to a near by bush where I promptly threw up my guts.

"I swear, you're half cat of something," I told him. Gazzy couldn't reply though as seen, as he was too busy laughing. I swear I tried to walk straight, really I did, but I could. The world kept on spinning around me. I couldn't concentrate let alone walk in a straight line.

"This is no time for fun and games," I told him. "We've still got to find Angel and Nudge." Sobered by that thought, Gazzy immediately regained his composure and motioned for me to follow him. Following him, I spared a glance over my shoulder. Under the floor was supposed to be a pool of gators or something. I know it's not really that original, but I guess it was the best that they could come up with.

"Where are they?" he asked me. Placing my nose to the ground, I tried to find their scent. "Anything?"

"Nothing yet," I replied without looking up. Then I caught a whiff of something. I knew that smell. "Got it," I replied over my shoulder.

"You found Nudge and Angel?"

I shook my head, "I found Ari's scent." Slowly I moved forwards and assessed how long ago it was. "I think it's just after he left us."

"And he still had Angel and Nudge with him," announced Gazzy. It took a while, but it finally clicked. "That means all we have to do is follow his scent." I nodded my head. An alarm sounded behind us.

"Guess we better hurry up then," he remarked casually.

"Gazzy," I whispered urgently. "We've got trouble."

"What?" he asked in reply. I gestured with my snout. Peering from behind the rubble, there were was group of Eraser dead center of the road. Usually we would sneak by them, but that was the only path to where Angel was located. To our right was a cliff face and on our left was a pile of rubble.

"We'll have to go risk it," he responded.

"I was afraid you would say that," I told him.

"We have no choice," he replied rather tartly.

"I know Gazzy, I know," I sighed.

Stretching my legs, I started walking out accompanied by Gazzy. Sneaking up to the nearest two, we pounced. Bearing down on my target, I ripped out his throat. Blood sprayed all over me and I wanted to throw up, but I had to do it, there was no other choice. We learnt a while ago that the only way to dissuade Erasers now days was to kill them. Even so, I disliked doing so. The haunted look in Gazzy's eyes told me the same story.

Without a second of hesitation, we bounded up towards our next target. We couldn't take them by surprise like we did the other two, but we still had to dispatch them quickly before one of them could rise the alarm. Ducking low under the Erasers swing, I rammed him straight in the stomach. While he doubled over, I leapt up and knocked him to the ground. An audible crack signaled that he was indeed dead. Dashing forwards, I jumped out claws outstretched and raked the person across the back drawing blood. Landing softly I ripped open his stomach and was awarded with the sight of guts. I wanted to puke, but this wasn't the time. Glancing up, I saw Gazzy managing to fend off two Erasers. Running over, I swept the feet of one from under her. As she crashed to the ground, I jumped straight up aiming for her spine. This time I didn't need to hear anything to know she was dead. Standing up on shaky legs, I saw Gazzy bending over puking. I guess we'll never get over death. From the shadows an Eraser jumped out. His bearings would take him on to Gazzy back and there was no way he could win. I ran over, but even as I reacted I knew it was futile. There was no way I could make it in time. Never the less I tried. I had to. I owed Max that much didn't I?

BANG!!

The single gunshot ran out through the country, or what was left of it. The Eraser just behind Gazzy dropped on to the ground a single bullet hole through his head. Startled I saw him whirl around, but I had already abandoned that reaction. Instead I searched for the owner of that shot. Up on the hill next to me, off in the distance, I saw a figure cloaked in darkness. Next to her was a large dog of some kind. Leaping off the cliff, the dog bounded down, kicking off the rock face with precision and silence. The mysterious figure followed suite and slid down the hill. Both of them disappeared around the corner.

A/N Another chapter done. Reviews would be nice.