Page 80 of Remington’s Mate

Sutcliffe just laughed harder, blood pouring down his face. “Your brother thought he was smarter than me. So did that bitch Jaeda. But you’re both wrong.”

He hit the button on the walkie-talkie. “Smith!” he croaked. “Secondary detonation protocol. Override code alpha 4561.”

No. Oh, no.

The red light on the radio detonator started blinking.

Smith had started the detonation sequence, and there was nothing Remy could do to stop it now.

Remy slammed his fist into Sutcliffe’s face once more, knocking him cold, and then he ran out of the guard house and took to the air.

He had to find the radio receiver and take it out.

As Fernandez led them through the hallways, Jaeda could see the explosives, connected by some kind of fuses.

“You got a knife?” Colt said to Fernandez.

Fernandez handed it over, and Colt began slashing the fuse cords as they passed.

“We need to hurry up,” Fernandez said uneasily.

Colt said, “Either Sutcliffe is going to wait to set this off because he thinks I escaped, which means we have plenty of time, or he’s going to hit the button any minute, which means our only chance of survival is for me to cut as many connections as possible.”

He slashed another cord. “The fewer charges that go off, the more chance this section of the building won’t completely collapse. We could still make it out.”

“Unless we just get blown up,” Fernandez said gloomily.

“Unless that,” Colt agreed. “But the initiation is at the other end. We should have some warning—”

At that moment the building shook, and they heard a faint rumble. Then another, closer, and another.

“Run!” Colt yelled. “Back the way we came!”

They headed back down the hall. More charges detonated, and a cloud of dust billowed down the hallway.

They ran past the place where Colt had started cutting the cords. The explosions stopped.

There was silence for ten seconds. Twenty.

“Is it over?” Jaeda whispered.

And then there was a great boom overhead, and a grinding rumble like an oncoming freight train.

Colt shoved Jaeda into an open doorway, and ducked in after her. Fernandez followed, just as the hallway collapsed outside the door.

Remy flew straight for the building, trying desperately to get there in time. Where would the radio receiver be? Inside the main doors? He was just dipping down towards the arched doorway when there was an explosion inside the building. Then another, and another.

Waves of overpressure knocked him backwards through the air and he tumbled madly, finally hitting the ground with a force that stunned him. He turned human as he landed.

Remy watched, horrified, as the building collapsed in a cloud of bricks and dust.

Colt. Jaeda. Colt. Jaeda.

Behind him, he was vaguely aware of headlights entering the grounds, and tires skidding on gravel. He heard shots and yelling, and then return fire.

The cavalry was here—Brandon and the others. But it didn’t matter.

Jaeda. Colt. Gone.