Raya pulled out her phone and switched on the flashlight. Her work here was done. She just needed to rescue those crackers and find a psychopath before they ran out of time. How hard could that be?
Something caught her eye in the far back corner. She reached out, hoping to feel the cardboard box. But instead, her hand wrapped around something hard. A cold metallic tube reflecting the light. She shuffled closer.
The box had slipped under what looked like a small vent. The shaft made a clean right angle and disappeared directly into the dirt floor below the outbuilding. As Raya’s fingers scrabbled around, she could feel the sensation of cool air whistling through the vent louvres.
She gasped, instinctively putting a hand over her mouth. Slowly, quietly, she edged backwards, out from under the shelf, bumping into Alex, who was still sitting staring at the floor, lost in thought.
Alex looked up at Raya, smiling.
“Got what you wanted?”
“Yes…” Raya said, shaking her head slowly and shooting him a clear, warning look. She held her multi-ringed finger to her mouth and pointed in the direction of the vent, then nodded to the door.
In the seconds it took them to scramble outside, Raya’s mind had processed her discovery. The impact hit hard, and she found herself struggling to catch her breath, to find the words.
It took a few attempts before she managed to speak.
“Alex…I found something! I think someone’s in there. I found an air vent at the back, underneath the shelves. It’s working. There’s cold air coming from it!” She grabbed Alex by his T-shirt, her excitement uncontainable. “Alex, we found him! The psychopath who’s doing this to us—I think we’ve found where he’s been hiding out. I think we’ve found Bates!”
26
Ana
11:09
Ellis, Jade, and Jax were waiting by the road sign. They were in a conspiratorial cluster, next to an old upside-down tractor, looking shifty. Probably plotting the next person’s demise.
“I thought you might chicken out,” Ellis said as Ana, Raya, and Alex ran up. He eyeballed them suspiciously. “Where have you been hiding all this time?” His contempt was open-faced. There was no place for niceties in a war zone.
“Not hiding, Ellis. We’ve been trying to get us home. All of us,” Ana added. “Raya found something.”
It took a few minutes to explain. About the microphone and the gas cans, about the air vent leading underground, below the outbuildings. They finally had what they needed—physical proof that someone could be hiding right under their feet, and a place to start looking for them.
Ellis questioned every statement, verifying facts and challenging assumptions.
When they’d finished, there was a long silence. It wasn’t the reaction Ana had expected. Had she not explained it right? Why wasn’t everyone excited? Whoever the cowboys were, they were safely out of reach beyond the line. But if someone wasinsidethe line—insidethe motel with them, then they could get to them, which meant they could stop them. They had a chance.
Ellis turned his back on them and started pacing, agonizingly slowly, up and down the white line. He stroked his chin pensively, precious moments falling away as he took his sweet time.
Was he really going to argue about this? This wasn’t a game. It was the best lead they had—theonlylead. Ana’s eyes found the upturned tractor, the long loop of rope stretching out across the line—the upturned barrel. She felt a sinking sensation in her stomach.What was he up to?
Abruptly, Ellis stopped pacing and turned to face his captive audience.
“Not good enough.”
“What the hell, Ellis?” Raya said, her face reddening. “Haven’t you heard anything we said? We might be able to get out of here, or at the very least try. What is your freaking problem?”
“It’s too risky.”
“Risky?What’s riskier than dying on the line?” Raya was shouting, incredulous. She threw her hands up and turned away from him in disgust.
If they weren’t together on this, there was only one way forward. In less than fifteen minutes, another one of them would have to die.
Jax was filming everything, right up in everyone’s faces, pullinghis stupid expressions for an unseen audience. Constant. Like a buzzing fly.
“Let me be clear,” Ellis said, pointing his finger in their direction. “You’re asking us to waste the little time we have left searching the motel because of a half-baked theory that the person doing all this might be hiding inside? Do you know how naive you all sound? What if we don’t find Bates? Clearly, he doesn’t want to be found, and we have minutes left. Where’s the margin for error before we’re all blown to hell and back? Even assuming wedomiraculously find Bates in time, what are we going to do then? I think it’s safe to assume he’ll be armed and fucking dangerous.”
Raya stood her ground.
