Khaki paired up with Cooper, thanking God over and over that Xander had taught her how to shift her eyes. If she had to use her nose in here, she wasn’t sure she could do it. The place reeked.
She and Cooper had only gone about twenty feet when they heard gunfire. She turned and raced back the way they’d come, tracking the sounds of a scuffle down one of the other main tunnels, Cooper on her heels.
They got there along with everyone else, just in time to see Hale pinning Reynolds to the ground, a zip tie already on the man’s wrists, the shotgun lying in the dirt about ten feet away.
When Hale hauled the guy to his feet, Xander flipped on his flashlight and shined it in the man’s face “Where’s the little girl? Is she down here?”
Reynolds squinted against the light, babbling incoherently and shaking his head from side to side. Whether he was freaked out because he’d just gotten his ass kicked by a group of cops with glowing eyes or simply spent too much time down here inhaling these fumes was anyone’s guess. Regardless, they weren’t going to get anything out of him.
“What the hell is this stuff?”
Khaki turned to see Max holding up a mason jar of honey-colored liquid. He angled the jar toward Xander’s light, shaking it as he tried to figure out what it was. Beside him, there were several pallets of the jars, stacked high on top of each other.
“You think he was making moonshine down here?” Max shook the jar again. “If it is, what’re all these sparkly things floating in it?”
Cooper brushed past Khaki. “Stop shaking the jar, Max.”
Max frowned down at the jar in his hand and shook it some more. “Why? What is it?”
“Stop shaking the fucking jar, you moron!” Cooper growled so loudly that a sprinkle of dirt from the roof of the tunnel rained down around them.
“I finally figured out what this smell is,” Cooper said, glancing over his shoulder at the rest of them. “It’s nitric acid. This crazy son of a bitch has been trying to make his own explosives. Those sparkly things are nitric salts. You treat them too rough, and we’re gone. Hell, with all the jars on those pallets, a good portion of the neighborhood is gone with us.”
The tunnel went dead quiet. Even Reynolds stopped babbling.
“What do I do with it?” Max asked softly.
“You put it down,” Cooper advised. “Slowly.”
Outside, Matthews must have heard every word Cooper said through his mic because the lieutenant told them he wanted them out of there ASAP.
“We need to get Explosive Ordnance Disposal down there to clear those tunnels before we look for the girl,” Matthews added.
“Lieutenant, as bad as the air is down here, that girl will be dead long before EOD can get through this place,” Xander said into his mic. “It might take days.”
“Dammit,” Matthews swore. “Clear out as many members of your team as you can. I want essential personnel in there only. And find that little girl—fast.”
Khaki expected Xander to say that everyone on his team was essential, but he pointed at her and Cooper. “You two are staying. Everyone else out.”
The guys looked at Xander as if he were crazy. Khaki could imagine what they were thinking. Cooper was former Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal. But what the hell did Khaki bring to the table? She had to admit, she wasn’t sure either.
“Max, Hale, Alex, Becker—out,” Xander ordered. “Now.”
Khaki could tell from the looks on their faces they didn’t like it, but they went, dragging a dazed and confused Reynolds with them.
Xander turned off his radio, then motioned for her and Cooper to do the same. “Khaki, I need you to find that little girl.”
She blinked. “What? How can I do that?”
“You can pick up her scent.”
Of course. Xander thought that with her exceptional sense of smell, she could track the girl despite the reeking, burning chemical odor permeating every inch of the tunnels.
“Maybe,” Khaki agreed. “If I knew what she smelled like, but I don’t.”
Xander’s golden eyes were bright in the dark. “Yes, you do. I know for a fact that you got a whiff of that little girl’s pink sweater when her mom shoved it into your hand. You smell, and remember, everything. You just have to find her scent in that head of yours.”
Cooper’s brows furrowed. “What the hell are you talking about? No werewolf could smell a damn thing in here. We’re wasting time. We need to start searching.”
