“Time enough to get the other beagles out,” I say, heading for the elevator.
Joel stops me with a hand on my arm. “I’m calling it, Justin.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“There are five beagles in that room,” I say in a tight voice. “They’re going to be killed tomorrow.”
“We’re out of time,” Joel says, fatigue and regret lining his face.
“I can’t leave them behind!”
“If we go back for them, we sacrifice the six we can save.”
“I agree with Joel,” Sue pipes up, darting anxious glances around the reception area.
A feeling of helpless rage surges through me. I made a promise to save those beagles. I can’t break that promise. But I also remember another pre-raid promise: to listen to Joel’s voice of caution because I know how hot my blood runs.
“Don’t fight us on this,” Joel pleads.
After a moment, I say tonelessly, “All right, we’re leaving.”
“You got everything?” Joel asks Sue.
“Yes.”
We exit the building and climb into the van. Joel sits up front with Michael while Sue and I position ourselves in the windowless rear of the van to keep an eye on the beagles. The dogs are whining nervously in their special carriers. Sue switches on an interior light and speaks soothingly to them as the van rattles out of the parking lot toward the security gatehouse, the radio turned up to drown out any barking.
“The operation was a success,” Sue says hesitantly.
I simply look at her. I feel no sense of triumph. I only taste failure as I think of the five beagles with holes in their throats sitting in their cages. And what will happen to them tomorrow.
My feelings must show on my face, because she says, “The six beagles we saved will live to have pups, and that effectively translates into, maybe, eighteen lives saved, if they each give birth to three pups.”
“I wasted precious time doing malicious damage.” The confession tumbles out of me. “I might have saved the other beagles if I’d gone to them first.”
“At least you destroyed those smoking chambers,” Sue says. “It’ll be awhile before they can afford—” She stops, her face draining of color.
“What is it?” I ask tersely.
She buries her face in her hands, speaking through her fingers. “When I saw that man...I panicked...I was in such a hurry.”
“What did you do?” I ask, fighting dread. “Sue, what did you do?”
She glances up, looking stricken. “I left the wrecking bar behind.”
I suck in an unforgiving breath. A wrecking bar that I handled before putting on my gloves. A wrecking bar that has my prints all over it.
37
KANE
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Thursday, July 15
“Do you have a plan to lose them?” Nolene asks, hunched over in the back seat of the RAV.
