Page 303 of Broken Oath

I chambered a round.

“We’re stopping an execution.”

The helicopter tore through the darkness.

And beneath the mountain, the clock continued to run.

35

WADE

The mountain was awake.

Wade could feel it.

Five years inside Black Site Theta had taught him things no prisoner should ever need to know.

The facility had rhythms.

Moods.

Warnings.

Tonight, the mountain felt afraid.

Boots pounded through the corridors.

Steel doors slammed.

Radios crackled without pause.

The guards no longer bothered hiding their nervousness.

Wade sat on the edge of his bunk, listening.

Counting.

Waiting.

A flashlight beam swept past the narrow window in his door.

Then another.

Then another.

Too many guards.

Far too many.

The evacuation had accelerated.

Something was happening outside the mountain.

Something big.

Three knocks sounded through the wall.

Wade answered immediately.