"Any ideas?" Riley asked as she poked her head carefully through the door and studied the intricate spider web of tripwires. She glanced over at Cage hoping to see some sort of good news on her face. There wasn't any. Cage gritted her teeth and fought the urge to strangle her phone.
"It's as useless as tits on a bull!" Cage growled. Riley raised an amused eyebrow. Cage huffed and pushed back a long lock of blond hair falling across her face, " Everybody's phone goes directly to voicemail." Riley swallowed feeling a pit in her gut.
"Something's wrong." As she said it, Riley knew it. Cage nodded and scowled over at the girls trying to think of something. Cage squawked and almost dropped her phone. She breathed out in relief.
"Jack, I am so glad to hear from you, we need your help…" Cage's voice was breathless with the urgency of her rambling.
"Uh...sorry pretty hair, this is Maggie...you know Maggie Blue?" Cage scowled and put the phone on speaker.
"Why do you have Jack's phone?" Cage demanded. There was a moment of silence where they could hear squealing and a loud series of horn honks.
"There was an attack at the safe house, Jack...he sent me to come tell you. I'm almost there. You find anything incriminating like?" Maggie sounded casual as if she were asking about the weather. They heard another series of squeals and Maggie yelling,
"Outta the way you ol' bat...Yeah you too bi-"
"Maggie, where's Jack and Mac now?" Riley said fear in her eyes.
"I'm sorry...yeah drop dead buddy! Asshole...not you, Riley...what were you ask-right, I don't know. Him and Macaroni were taken by a bunch of goons in black...they are the same ones that work the Quiet hall…" Riley frowned and studied the hall they were in.
"Maggie, which hall was that unit on?"
"South...Oh shut up! Same to you...I'm on the main road, ok I'm pulling up where are you?"
"East wing." Cage said. The phone went dead. Cage bit her lip then ran out the way they came in. Riley was already half down the hall. They had just cleared the narrow gap between the fence and building as Jack's Shelby skidded sideways sliding to a stop in front of them. The car was covered with dirt and had several dents and dings in the black paint. It smelled like burnt rubber.
"Jack is going to kill you." Riley said her eyes wide. Maggie jumped out of the car and threw the keys at Riley. She shrugged.
"I told him I'd never driven before, he didn't believe me so-"
"Maggie, we need to get into the South wing and we can't go through the courtyard." Maggie shoved her short black hair back frowning.
"Of course not, that's where all the bombs are." The two Phoenix agents gaped at her. Maggie held up a hand to shade her eyes. She pointed to the back of the building, "The tunnel is over there. I've never been inside but I've seen people rolled up the ramp and put into trucks. I knew Jason had something going on but-" Maggie trailed off biting her lip. Tears built in her eyes. Cage narrowed her eyes and studied the escaped patient like a falcon swooping on a morning dove.
"Jason? Jason Lubeman?" Riley froze her eyes wide. Maggie pushed the hair above her forehead back and started pacing.
"I know, I know. I wanted to tell you...but…" Riley glanced at the building and nodded.
"She's yours isn't she?" Maggie whirled her mouth hanging open.
"Is she here? Did that bastard bring Ambril here? Where is she? I have to find her-" Maggie turned to run inside the building. Riley and Cage stopped her from running into the building which now had a thick cloud of smoke curling around it like a robber's fist.
"She's inside the double doors between the South hall and the courtyard." Cage said. Maggie's eyes widened and she pulled against the other women's grip, "She's wired to explosives." Maggie stepped back her pale face turning to waxy bone.
"No, he wouldn't." Maggie hissed. Riley and Cage exchanged a puzzled expression.
"He's her dad, isn't he?" Riley asked. Maggie looked away and angrily swiped at tears that leaked from the corner of her eyes.
"I...I had been dropped off by my...family...they couldn't handle me anymore they said...he...I didn't have a choice, ya know?" Riley swallowed and reached out a hand. The tall woman's thin shoulders quaked with suppressed sobs. Maggy held her hand with a cold claw.
"You have to understand...after...I...but she came and...I thought he loved her."
"And you?" Cage asked gently. Maggy laughed. It was a blunt sound that was a razor cutting into their hearts.
"No, no one ever loved me...and it's ok, I get it...but Ambrile...she's my light, I have to...please help me." Cage smiled.
"That's the plan." Cage's phone rang.
"Matty! Where are you?" Riley demanded before their boss could say a word. Matty gagged and coughed. They could hear the same noise from Lee farther away. Cage turned her eyes following the blackening cloud back to its source.
"Matty, are you ok?" Riley demanded.
"We're trapped." Matty managed to gasp out. Maggy leaned over the phone.
"Where are you?"
"At the nurse's station by the lobby." Maggy smiled.
"Good, behind the banana tree over by the chairs in the waiting area is a vent, that vent goes down to the tunnel where the quiet unit is."
There was a long minute where they couldn't hear anything over the loud roar of the fire. Then Matty coughed.
"Ok, got it. You guys ok topside?" Cage and Riley shared a serious look and nodded.
"Yeah we got it be careful the quiet unit's down there."
"Quiet sounds good." Lee Warren gagged in the background.
"Good luck." Matty said then hung up. Cage slid the phone back into her pocket. She bit her lip.
"Ok, so it'd down to us. What would Mac do?" Cage asked. Maggie laughed. The others turned to her surprised. Maggie led them to the South Wing door.
"He'd blow something up, duh." Maggie said. Cage chuckled. Riley raised an eyebrow.
"Well, you aren't wrong." She said.
"Ok, we need to get to the South wing."
"Shouldn't we call 911 or something?" Maggie asked. Riley frowned.
"They should already be here." She murmured following Maggy to the opposite side of the building.
"With his connections our friend Lubeman probably told them to stay away." Cage growled pulling her pistol. Maggie looked at her over her shoulder alarm deep in her black eyes.
"Why would he do that?" Riley and Cage shared a glance. Was the girl that naive?
"Get rid of evidence." Riley said softly patting the thin woman on the shoulder. Maggie turned to stare at her a long minute.
"He would think Ambril is evidence? Evidence of what-?"
"We can ask him later." Cage said as they drew up to a wide steel emergency door. It was locked and the lock was rusty. Maggy gently pushed the Aussie away and pulled out her Grape Crush lockpicks. She worked the lock a long time.
"So what are we going to do about the explosives?" Riley said impatiently turning taking in the parking lot. Cage sighed and shrugged.
"Really not much we can do about it. Let's get the girls out…"
"But Matty?"
"Will have to take care of herself." Cage's worried look told Riley how worried she was. With a loud click the door lock finally opened. It took all three women to drag the door open. It cracked then screeched open. They coughed as smoke curled out of the door. Riley pulled her shirt up over her nose and clicked on her phone's flashlight. She grimaced at the spiderwebs, these made and occupied by genuine arachnids and pushed her way through feeling her skin crawl.
"They never use this door," Maggie whispered as she ducked behind Cage. Cage absently nodded and concentrated on following Riley's light. The black smoke stank of plastic and chemicals. It filled the hallway whirling in front of Riley like a death mask trying to break through a wall of solid fog. In seconds all three women were covered with a black choking film on their skin and burning their lungs. They gagged as they crept as fast as they could down the hall.
Riley kept her hand on the wall and her other hand holding Cage's as she slid along as low to the ground as she could. Her thighs and butt burned. More yoga was in her future, she promised herself. Riley caught glimpses of what could only be described as torture chambers as she passed. Some of the rooms were full of machinery with wires connected to metal beds, others had blades and things hanging on the wall Riley didn't want to identify. She shook her head. What the hell were they doing at this place?
Riley ran face first into the glass doors, Cage and Maggie pushing into her back. They all stepped back in surprise. Maggie fell to her knees and put a hand against the glass. Tears streamed down her face.
"Ambril!" She screamed pounding on the glass. The two girls sat cross legged bound and gagged. This close, the three women could see the flashing red numbers. Ten minutes, "Maggy, turned and blindly pulled at the door yanking it hard and screaming." Cage pulled her back and shook her.
"Maggy? MAGGY! Calm down, we're going to get them but we have to be smart. Those vests are rigged to explode." Cage said shaking the taller woman's slim shoulders. Maggie blinked and looked back as Ambril. She nodded and dropped to the door leaning against it, putting a hand against the heating glass. She knew neither of the girls could hear her, but she kept talking to them. They were so scared.
"It's ok, babies, we're gonna get you out of there, ok?" Maggy smiled and nodded. The girls looked relieved at her presence, "I'm not going anywhere without both of you, ok?" Ambril nodded. The other girl, who had to be Heaven sniffed and started crying. Maggy looked up at Cage and Riley who were studying the door and small room beside it. She closed her eyes. God never once answered her prayers and over the years she figured he was just pissed at her and she sort of got pissed off back at him, but now Maggy closed her eyes and begged for her girl's life.
Riley ignored the woman at her feet. She turned to Cage.
"I don't think the door's wired."
"I don't see any wires connecting the vests to the mess in the courtyard. Ok, first step is to get in." Cage said. Riley opened her mouth to suggest something. Cage pulled out her pistol and shot three rounds into the glass. It spiderwebbed then shattered falling to the ground. Maggy had ducked at the first gunshot and was oblivious to the guillotine of sharp shards raining down on her as she pushed through to her daughter's side.
"Maggy, wait!" Riley said pulling Maggy up before she could wrap both girls in her arms. Maggy looked at her despair on her face. The timer flashed four minutes. Riley studied the vests and glanced at Cage.
"We can't undo the wiring or timer." Riley said. Cage nodded and bent over. She slid her weapon in its holster and pulled a six inch black steel combat knife from a holster on her shin. Riley raised an eyebrow. Cage smiled and shrugged. Carefully she and Riley bent and cut into the thick canvas vests.
In two minutes Ambril was free. She ran to her mother's arms.
"Go!" Cage roared at her. Maggy paused then nodded sprinting in what she hoped was the right direction. They had Heaven out of her vest in thirty seconds. Cage didn't bother untying the girl. She slung the eight-year old over her shoulder and followed Riley who raced after Maggy her flashlight barely breaking through the solid pall of suffocating blackness. They were halfway down the hall when the twin explosions banged. Cage grunted wincing at pain in her knees as she was thrown to the cracking tile. She forced it away focusing on climbing to her feet and chugging down the corridor.
Riley could see the brightness of the outside door when the building shook and a nonstop crackle of explosions blasted ceiling tiles and debris down on them. Riley choked trying to get reoriented. A hand grabbed her shirt and pulled her out the door. She was shoved into the back seat of Jack's Shelby which roared to life as it sped down the long drive. Riley climbed up the seat and looked back as the building became the mushroom center of a bursting bag of fireworks.
"Matty." Riley whispered, tears burning her eyes.
M
"So how are we gonna get over there?" Bozer asked as he crouched beside Jack. Jack shot him a glare of pretend anger.
"That is the problem now, isn't it Bozer." He growled. Bozer rubbed at a steady stream of blood leaking down his forehead. Jack scanned the warehouse. They crouched behind a number of tall rusted tanks watching the flurry of butchery that separated them from the double doors that led to the cells Mac and Jack had been kept in. Jack eyed the machinery behind him and smiled, "I got an idea, c'mon."
Jack slid to his knees and crawled under the largest piece equipment. He came up behind it. The conveyor belt formed a narrow oval around them, this machine the turn leading to a series of smaller machines farther down the space Jack and Bozer stood. Jack grinned. He'd found a control center. Bozer looked at it skeptically.
"Do you know what you're doing? He whispered holding a hand across his middle. Jack shrugged.
"I worked a summer at a meat packing plant, how hard can it be?" The older man began to push every button and switch. He growled as nothing happened.
"That's ok, Jack…" Bozer's reassurance broke off as there was a loud crashing noise and the conveyor belt whirred into life. Jack grinned at Bozer and shinnied back the way they came. Bozer closed his eyes as pain wracked his body. Jack pulled him up short of standing. Bozer moaned, staying in the crawling position was agony on his bruises and ribs. Jack narrowed his eyes studying the warehouse floor. Most activity had stopped in surprise. A fleet of goons were heading their way.
"Now what?" Bozer grumbled. Jack opened his mouth then shook his head. He had no idea. Above them the conveyor belt stopped moving and the sound of the motor became high-pitched and pushed out heavy smoke that smelled like diesel fuel. Jack smiled. He knew that was going to happen. He grabbed Boze by the shoulder and pulled the younger man after him. Jack tugged him down the corridor they had come from, then pushed him down and covered the younger man with his own body. It took a few minutes before the awful whine grew into a grinding then exploded.
Jack was pushed down by a giant fist that sucked the air away from the two men with its hot breath. They were far enough from the explosion they weren't hurt, but back in the open area of the warehouse floor debris and flames set the old building afire. The screams of humans barbecuing alive always sent shivers down Jack's spine. In his mind, there was no worse way to die...except fire ants in the desert, yeah that would suck too.
"C'mon, buddy." Jack murmured. He helped Bozer stand and limp back to the floor. Smaller explosions from chemicals and oxygen equipment continued to crackle under the loud roar of the inferno around them. No one got in their way. Trying to flee for your life will do that. Jack leaned Boze against the wall as he dashed down the hall. There were six steel doors, thankfully locked from the outside. Sweat beaded along his shoulders as Jack heaved each one open. His side burned and hot blood soaked his entire side. Jack barely noticed. He wrinkled his nose the first four cells held stinking corpses. The oldest looked like a Bog mummy. They had all been left in the airtight blackness to suffocate. Jack's heart thudded.
"Mac, come on kiddo, where are you?" Jack mumbled over and over. The fifth cell was empty. Jack blinked and looked up at the ceiling. He saw a hole cut in the ceiling. Wet blood pooled in the center of the room, "NO, no, no, no…" Jack checked the last cell just in case, but he already knew to the center of his bones that cell number five had been where he'd left Mac. Jack let out a bellow of rage. The last cell held a decomposing family.
"DAMNIT!" Jack raged.
"Jack?" Boze asked panic in his swollen eyes. Jack looked at him
Feeling helplessness wash over him.
"He's gone, Boze. They took him."
Chapter 11 has undergone extensive rewriting, you may want to read that first. Thanks, hope you are all enjoying this so far.