She was stuck in an air duct with nowhere to go. The very thought of it had Nick scrambling back a foot before he remembered he had a job to do. Little black dots floated before his eyes. If he passed out, Mrs. Penny would definitely die in here.
“I don’t know about you, Penny. But I don’t want to die like a hamster in a habitat trail.”
“Ten-four,” she acknowledged. “So what’s your plan?”
His plan?He hadn’t thought much beyond getting into the building.
Good thing he was Nick fucking Santiago and Nick fucking Santiago was fast on his feet and his belly.
“Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to shimmy up behind you and grab you by the ankles.”
“Keep talking.”
“I’ll pull you backwards, and then we’ll back out of the tomb and go through the first air return we find.”
“Let’s find the snack room. I’m hungry, and they’re talking about food down there.”
“My girlfriend is being held hostage by a rampaging murderer, and you want a snack,” he repeated.
“I shoot better when I’m not hungry.”
The duct gave a creak beneath him. The duct supports probably weren’t designed to hold the weight of two adults.
“You must always be hungry,” he grumbled, shimmying closer to the orthopedic shoes in front of him.
“Real funny, boss. Hey, wanna hear something even funnier?”
“Sure. Why not,” he said, grabbing her by the ankles and wondering how he was going to get the leverage to pull her backwards if he was stretched out flat like a tapeworm.
“Pull my ankles,” she said.
Nick gave them a hard tug, and Mrs. Penny let out a loud fart. He smacked his head off the top of the duct. “Ow!”
“Hehe,” Mrs. Penny chuckled. “Pull my ankle. Get it?”
“Hilarious. God, you smell like Burt.”
“We eat a lot of the same things. Am I unstuck yet?”
“Does it feel like you’re unstuck?” He pulled his shirt over his nose for protection and reached for her feet again.
Nick’s phone vibrated, and he let go of her ankles. “What?”
“Get the fuck out of there now,” Weber enunciated in his scary cop voice.
The duct creaked ominously.
“Listen, I’m doing my best not to get teargassed in an air duct while rescuing a civilian.”
“There’s a fucking bomb in the studio. The captain just had us push the barricades back another block. You need to find a way out. Now.”
“I’m not leaving without Riley.”
“I had a feeling you’d say that,” Weber said, sounding resigned.
“Then why waste the call?”
“We’ve got someone on the inside. We sent someone in to deliver the food.”
