The second they did, I stepped inside, allowing the doors to shut me from sight.
In the abandoned elevator, rather than pressing a floor button, I pressed the door closed button, followed by the floor buttons eight, three, five, then one. With a final press of the door closed button, the elevator lurched, rattling me right along with it.
I glanced at the floor indicator that now readSpeak Passcode.
“Seventeen. Forty-eight. Twenty-three,” I said.
The elevator banged before it shifted again then began its descent deep into the underground below the hospital.
The floor indicator counted backward until it reached B10. A bell dinged and the doors slid open.
The familiar but pungent scent of antiseptic hit me the moment I stepped into the sleek halls of the underground lab. The fluorescent lights hummed above me as I traversed the long hall, finally pushing the hood off my head.
Anyone here was well within the circle of trust. I had nothing to fear from those occupying this secret lab.
I reached the door markedCryo Chamberand pushed inside. A lump formed in my throat as I stared at the cylindrical tube in the center of the room.
My fingers found the cold metal as I peered into the frosty window. Tears formed in my eyes.
“Hello, Papa,” I whispered. “I’m home.”
He didn’t answer, obviously, his frozen face looking peaceful though a tad blue.
“I may have found a way to save you.”
“You really believe that, don’t you?” Nadia asked.
I twisted to find my sister hovering in the door.
She sashayed her way into the room, her heels clicking off the polished, cement floors. “You are not supposed to be here.”
I turned back to my frozen father. “I have been away for too long.”
“He can’t hear you,” Nadia said as she arrived next to me at the cryo tube.
“I’d like to think he can,” I answered.
Her arm wrapped around me, pulling me closer to her in a rare moment of sisterly support.
“Has something come up on Kyle’s background check?”
“No. Everything looks all right there. But I’d like to tie up a few loose ends before we allow him to take a step closer.”
I buried my face in my hands. “I want to tell him everything.”
“I know you do, Natashka. But we must proceed with caution. Just a little longer.”
I lifted my head, my chest heavy with disappointment and longing. “It has already been too long.”
“Give me the morning. Just that,” Nadia answered.
I swallowed hard, desperately trying to keep my emotions in check. I bobbed my head, fluttering my eyelashes in an attempt to get my tears to recede.
Nadia massaged my shoulder. “If it helps, I think he is viable candidate. He’s used questionable methods in the past. There does not seem to be a line he wouldn’t cross. He knows how to work outside of the confines of normal behavior.”
“And you intend to use all of those things to force him to our side,” I surmised.
Nadia dropped her arm from my shoulder, stalking around the tube to stand on the opposite side. “If I must.”
