Rosenthal’s weapon, already online and draining power from portal sites across the globe.
I reached the junction box a couple of minutes before two. A pair of guards was fifty yards away, their flashlights sweeping the perimeter. I crouched in shadow and waited for the malfunction that would signal the operation’s start.
My hands were steady despite the adrenaline coursing through me, and the short trek through the forest hadn’t impacted my energy reserves. They still held at about sixty percent — not ideal, but enough. Through the interference from the facility’s electromagnetic signature, I could sense Ben somewhere on the second floor.
He was still alive.
Just two more minutes.
I closed my eyes and centered myself, knowing that everything had come down to this moment. Either we would pull off an impossible rescue against a fortified DAPI facility, or we’d fail and lose everything.
The phoenix’s presence touched my consciousness from miles away. No images this time, just a feeling of trust and faith.
I had to hope that faith wasn’t misplaced.
Two o’clock.
Time to bring Ben home.
Chapter Ten
Ben had been staring at the ceiling of his holding room for what felt like eternity, but was probably around three hours, when the door lock finally disengaged at two o’clock in the morning.
He’d spent those hours memorizing every detail Eric Hargrove had shared during his brief, nervous visit at eleven. Ben wasn’t sure how the other man had managed it, but he’d slipped a folded note under Ben’s dinner tray. Ben had palmed it immediately and read the message only after the guard who’d delivered his meal had departed.
2 a.m. Northeast stairwell. System failure will provide 8 minutes. I’m sorry for my part in this.
The note reiterated what the man had already told him, but Ben supposed that Hargrove had wanted to confirm those eight precious minutes, had wanted to let him know that the plan hadn’t changed.
He leaped from the bed and ran to the door. Through the narrow window, he could see that the corridor beyond was dark — not the dimmed overnight lighting he’d observed earlier, but complete blackness. The utter dark suggested a comprehensive power failure rather than a simple lights-out protocol.
Sidney. It had to be. She’d promised to come for him, and Sidney Lowell was nothing if not relentlessly stubborn about keeping her promises.
He eased the door open and paused to listen. All seemed quiet. The emergency lighting should have activated within seconds of the facility’s main power loss, but the corridor remained dark. Either Sidney’s electromagnetic attack had been more comprehensive than expected, or Hargrove had disabled the backup systems as part of his sabotage.
Either way, Ben couldn’t count on anything more than the promised eight minutes.
The security badge Hargrove had given him earlier was concealed in his pocket — he’d hidden it under the mattress after the scientist’s visit, then retrieved it once the overhead lights died. He pulled it out now, although in this darkness, it was functionally useless. The card readers would be offline along with everything else.
Which meant the doors would either be magnetically locked or released, depending on their fail-safe settings. He’d have to test each one manually and hope like hell it wouldn’t slow him down too much.
He moved into the corridor and kept one hand on the wall for orientation. His eyes had begun to adjust enough to make out basic shapes, so he could see that the hallway stretched maybe thirty feet before turning left. Northeast stairwell, Hargrove had said. Ben tried to recall the route they’d taken when they’d brought him to this room earlier. Two right turns, then a left. Or had it been two lefts and a right?
A soft sound behind him made him freeze. Footsteps, moving fast but trying for stealth. He pressed himself against the wall and prepared to either fight or run, depending on who appeared.
Rebecca Morse materialized from the darkness, her weapon drawn but pointed at the floor. She’d swapped her outdoor gear for dark civilian clothes, and her blonde hair was pulled back tight under a black knitted cap.
“Sanders,” she whispered. “You’re late. We have six minutes left.”
“I didn’t know the exact route.” Ben kept his voice equally low. “Where’s Sidney?”
“Outside the facility, maintaining the electromagnetic interference. She can hold it for maybe four more minutes before the cost gets too high.” Rebecca was already moving as she spoke, and Ben followed. “The northeast stairwell is this way. Stay close, and stay quiet.”
They moved through corridors he didn’t recognize. Morse navigated the near-black hallways with the confidence of someone who’d studied the facility’s layout extensively. The darkness was absolute except for the few places where emergency exit signs glowed faintly — battery-powered and apparently immune to Sidney’s interference.
“How did you get inside?” Ben asked as they descended a stairwell.
“Hargrove disabled the perimeter sensors on the east side. I walked right in.” Morse checked her watch, the faint glow from its display illuminating her grim expression. “Four minutes. We need to move faster.”
