Page 65 of Sawyer’s Mistake

Waaaaaahhhhhh, waaaaaahhhh.

She took a step back, frightened. Her stool clattered to the ground but made no noise as it landed. Then the computer and the lab faded away slowly, until she was in a completely different room.

She sat up in bed. In the narrow bunk bed next to hers, Eva did the same thing, her face blurry with sleep.

It took her a moment to understand that the wailing noise from her dream was still going on.

Somebody was screaming in the hallway.

“The Remur are trying to get in!”

“How the fuck did they find us?”

Storme ran into the room, followed closely by Sawyer. “Eva! Saoirse! Get up! We have to get out of here!”

Saoirse got out of bed, glad she hadn’t even considered undressing. Her fear was a live, coiled animal around her neck. Then Sawyer was behind her, his body hard and warm. The fear receded to a corner of her mind, and she was able to breathe again.

“I’m with you every step of the way,” he whispered. “Stay with me and do everything I say.”

He’d freed up both arms. His sling hung loosely from his neck.

The two men led the way, leading them towards the main hallway.

“Where’s Alix?” Eva shouted.

“She’s with Prado. Come on, we need to get out of here.”

“How did they find us?” Sawyer asked.

“They must have tracked us somehow,” Storme ground through clenched teeth.

The main room vibrated with a horrible drilling noise. Saoirse covered her face with her hands.

“They’re trying to dig a tunnel through the ceiling, Storme,” Zander shouted.

“That means they haven’t found the main entrance.” Storme turned around to face Sawyer. “Okay, we’re all here. But we don’t know how long this is going to hold. Ray! Ray!”

Ray sat in his arm chair, a book open on his lap, looking for all the world like none of this concerned him.

Saoirse knelt next to the old man.

“Ray, do you hear that noise?” She was surprised to hear her voice so steady.

Ray nodded. “I don’t like it. It makes it hard to concentrate.”

Saoirse nodded. “It’s the Remur. They’re trying to get in. We can’t go out the main entrance. Are there any other exits we could use to get out?”

Dust started falling from the ceiling on their heads.

“Shit, we’re running out of time! The ceiling’s going to cave in on us at any moment!”

“Ray, please,” Saoirse begged. “How can we get out?”

His eyes finally cleared. “The ventilation shaft in the kitchen. It connects to a tunnel north of here.”

“Fuck,” Kopf said. “That’s the opposite direction of where our vehicles are. We can’t outrun them on foot, not with—” He looked in her direction and never finished the sentence, but she heard him loud and clear anyway.

“I can keep up.” She stood up to her full height, which barely came to Kopf’s shoulders.