At Any Cost Box Set: Books 1 - 3

by K. M. Fawkes

  Instead, he’d copied them painstakingly. By hand. When no one else was looking. He’d even made sure Julia was out of range at the time. He trusted her and meant to help her escape, too, but he also hadn’t wanted to give her any chance to slip up and tell the guards things he couldn’t have them knowing. She was young, and enthusiastic, and she, like everyone else here, was doing her best to survive and stay out of their way.

  It was the prime opportunity for her to say something he couldn’t have her saying. So he’d kept her in the dark.

  And though he had almost everything he was about to look at memorized, he also didn’t want to make any mistakes. He wasn’t sure when Alice was going to show up, but he wanted to be prepared to move the second she got here. And if that meant studying for the next hour, and going over things he’d already figured out, then that was what he would do.

  It was two full hours before there was a knock on his door, and Garrett’s eyes were sore from holding the blueprints in front of him and forcing his gaze over them again and again. He’d already figured out the best way to get out of this place, and a route that included both the prison cell and what Julia had told him doubled for a women’s wing of the dorm rooms.

  Now he just needed the keys. He’d figured out that each guard carried a single key that opened most of the doors, but when he’d asked, he’d also been told that those keys didn’t open the ones he needed most: the prison cells or the doors into the outer world. He had to get to that key ring in Green’s room. The large skeleton key was the one he needed. He was sure of it.

  He jumped when the knock came at the door, his conscience screaming at him that he’d been caught—and in the worst possible way, with contraband in his hands. Then his mind came back into gear and reminded him that he was actually expecting a visitor, and he jumped up, stuffed the pages under his pillow, and took the two steps it took to get to the door.

  When he opened it, he found Alice standing right on the other side, looking bruised and angry, and a guard behind her, grinning. Her hands were behind her back and it didn’t take much for Garrett to guess that she’d been held that way for the entire walk to his room. He was also sure the guard had been filling her head full of the things he thought Garrett was going to do to her.

  He was certainly glad he’d told her ahead of time that he’d come up with a plan. He only hoped she realized that this was part of it. Otherwise she’d arrived furious at him, and that was going to hamper what he had in mind.

  “Got a delivery for you here, Floyd,” the guard—who he’d become friendly with—said, his grin widening.

  Garrett gave him a wink and, playing up his part, asked, “Thanks. Got any handcuffs I can borrow?”

  The guard gave a shout of laughter at that and started to reach for the pair he had strapped to his belt. “Only if you give me the full rundown after you’re through—”

  The moment the guy looked down, Garrett flew at him, wrapped one arm around his head, and slammed his head against the jamb of the door, knocking him out. He pulled the man’s head back and slammed it down again, just to be sure, and then grabbed him under the arms and dragged him into the room.

  “Get in here!” he hissed at Alice, who was standing in shock in the doorway. “Shut the door behind you!”

  She took approximately half a second to do just that, and once he had the guard stretched out on what little floor there was, Garrett started frantically searching his pockets. Keys, keys, where were the keys?

  He grabbed the guy’s gun, checked the safety—it would have been just like one of those idiots to be walking around without the safety on—and stuck it in his own pocket, then went back to searching for the keys, his hands flying through every pocket and loop he could find.

  “What are you doing?” Alice muttered. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”

  “We can’t do that without the keys,” he snapped back. “Every guard has a single key that unlocks all the doors, and we need it. Ah!”

  He found the outline of the key in the man’s shirt pocket, reached in, and snagged the key, then jumped to his feet.

  “Now we can get the hell out of here,” he said, grinning.

  Alice grabbed his hand. “Words I never thought you’d say,” she muttered, turning toward the door. “What’s the plan?”

  They darted out into the hallway and came to a stop at the head of the stairs, each of them taking a side and leaning around into the opening to stare down the stairwell. Garrett knew they should be in the clear here; given his scheduling, all of the soldiers would be downstairs still, in the mess hall, with their dinners and desserts. After that, most of them would make their way back to their rooms or to the two security checkpoints they had in the outer reaches of the building.

  Those checkpoints would be what they had to get past. He didn’t think it would be a problem.

  “Let’s go,” he said, starting down the stairs and sticking to the side, where anyone who passed would be least likely to see him. Alice fell in behind him, her feet light on the carpeted stairs.

  “He’s got twenty soldiers on rotation as patrols,” he muttered in answer to her question. “I’ve got their schedules memorized. I’ve also got the way to an exit memorized. There are supplies at the back of the complex that I’d like to try to take with us, but if we don’t have time, we make right for the exit. We have three stops to make on the way: the prison, the women’s wing, and Green’s bedroom.”

  That brought Alice’s hand down on his soldier, and she ducked closer to him so she could speak without taking the chance of being overheard. “What? Why?” she gasped.

  Garrett held the key up over his shoulder. “Because this will lock and unlock all the doors like mine,” he said simply. “But it won’t get the other prisoners out of their cells. And it won’t get us out of the complex. Green has the only key that’ll do that.”

  They got to the bottom of the stairs and he paused on the last one, taking a deep breath and then leaning out into the hallway.

  Garrett moved as slowly as he could, part of him screaming that someone was going to see him, and prayed that he was right about the soldiers being gone from this section of the building by now. He was positive they would be; everything he’d seen when he was walking with them told him they would be. Hell, he’d even stayed up and walked with some of them at night, just to be sure.

  But now that his life was on the line, it had all become a whole lot more serious. Guessing at something from his room was different than actually doing it.

  He slid his face finally out into the hallway and stared down the walkway in front of him. No one. Thank God. Then he turned his head and looked the other way, toward the darker part of the building. Toward the place where they’d find the deserted section of the complex, and where they’d find the way out. On that side, the hall ended in shadows.

  That was their exit. And it was completely empty.

  A part of him screamed for them to get out of there right then. Just take that right-hand turn and get the hell out of there. But that wasn’t the plan, and he wasn’t going to listen to that voice. Instead, he turned back to the left.

  “Where do we go from here?” Alice breathed in his ear, sending chills up his already stiff spine.

  Garrett turned his head so he could keep from raising his voice. “Green’s room,” he whispered in response. “He has a set of keys hanging in there, and we need them if we’re going to pull this off.”

  “Right,” she breathed back. “Of course we do. Green’s room. No problem.”

  A ghost of a grin crossed his face. Alice might have only been a schoolteacher in her past life, but she was a warrior now. And she certainly wasn’t worried about going into danger. This brought another thought to him—one he hadn’t considered before—and the grin died.

  “Alice, there’s a chance you’ll have to kill again before this is all over. It might mean saving our lives.”

  He felt her stiffen behind him and could almost see her lif
ting her chin in defiance.

  “I’ll do what I have to do,” she answered. “If it gets us out of here, it’ll be worth it.”

  Garrett took that as answer enough, and stepped out into the hall, his mind bringing the blueprints back and showing him exactly how to get to Green’s room. He didn’t think anyone would notice there was a soldier missing for a while—they were too sloppy for that—so they had time to go carefully on the way to Green’s living quarters.

  As soon as they got to his room, though, things were going to have to move quickly. Because he had no doubt that Green would sound some sort of alarm.

  Chapter 24

  Garrett paused at the next turn, knowing there could be a guard posted just on the other side—or other guards leaving the mess hall—and listened closely. But he didn’t hear anything, and he’d already realized that these particular guards didn’t move around slowly. Instead, they were constantly chatting and laughing. They were the worst sort of guards imaginable—unless you were trying to escape from them.

  Which he was.

  When he didn’t hear any sound, he slid his face around the corner and narrowed his eyes against the glare of the hallway. There was more light in here because it was a more common area, and if he’d been counting on shadows he would have been out of luck. But there was no one in the hallway.

  Without saying anything at all, he grabbed Alice’s hand and darted forward, across the intersection of the two walkways and toward the other side. This was where he’d find Green’s room—and the trouble he knew was going to come with it.

  They paused again at the next turn, and he listened closely. It took only a matter of seconds to hear the smacking of someone chewing bubble gum. Then the snap of them blowing a bubble and popping it, and a chuckle.

  God, these guys even thought it was funny when they blew bubbles with their gum. Green really hadn’t chosen the best or the brightest. Then again, Garrett wasn’t sure the best or the brightest would have agreed with his insane plan for the world.

  The guard near Green’s room was going to be a problem, though. Now that he thought about it, he realized he should have been expecting this. Of course there would be a guard here. Of course Green would have himself of all people watched after. Garrett didn’t know if that guard was there all the time, but the fact that he was there right now meant that Green was almost certainly in his room.

  With the keys.

  Right. He’d hoped to get here before Green, get those keys, and get out of there. If Green was in there, it was going to call for a change of plan.

  Garrett eased himself back a bit from the corner and turned to Alice.

  “There’s a guard in front of Green’s room and we have to get past him,” he said, his voice barely above a breath. “You’re going to play decoy, okay?”

  Alice nodded, her eyes solemn, her mouth a straight line, and didn’t answer.

  Garrett went quickly through what he thought she should do, with Alice adding one or two details, tweaking the plan here and there. She narrowed her eyes when he came to a stop, tipped her head back and forth, and then nodded.

  “Got it,” she said. “It works. Leave it to me.”

  And with that, she stepped out of the hallway and started walking casually toward the guard at Green’s door.

  Behind her, Garrett kept himself out of sight and held his breath, part terrified and part elated at how close they were. A quiver ran over his skin, all the hairs standing up in its wake, and he tried to sharpen his hearing to hear what was going on. If she was following the plan, Alice was walking right toward the guard right now, all innocence. Well, as innocent as a woman who wanted to kill the guard in question could possibly look.

  A moment later, he heard her voice.

  “I’m finished in Garrett’s room,” she said. Then she paused and amended her statement. “Garrett is finished with me.”

  “And what does that have to do with me?” the guard snapped. “You looking for some more fun?”

  He heard a long silence, and pressed his nails into his palms, telling himself to keep quiet. She can take care of herself, he told himself.

  Finally he heard her voice, deceptively soft. “I was told to report to General Green when I was done. I’m here to report.”

  Garrett breathed out a sigh of relief at her voice and prayed it would work. She almost certainly wouldn’t have been told to report to Green. It made absolutely no sense. But they were hoping this particular guard was stupid enough to believe it.

  He heard the sound of a scuffle, and knew the guard had snatched at her—either to handcuff and lead her back to the cells, or to escort her into Green’s room. If Alice was doing her job, they’d both be facing away from Garrett when he came around the corner.

  That had been the plan, anyhow. If she hadn’t succeeded, he was just going to have to hope he could get to the guard before the guard got to his gun.

  When he came flying around the corner, they did both have their backs to him, Alice struggling in front of the guard as if she was trying to fight him about putting the handcuffs on.

  Garrett darted toward them, doing his best to keep his footsteps as quiet as possible, and yanked the gun from his pocket as he went. He came to a stop directly behind the guard, lifted the gun to the back of his head, and clicked the safety off.

  “Don’t move, soldier,” he said firmly.

  The guy froze, evidently completely incapable of figuring out what to do with this situation, and Garrett quickly reached around and yanked the guy’s gun from his belt. He tossed it at Alice, who caught it easily and lifted one brow at the soldier, her mouth quirking to the side.

  “Mine now,” she breathed, chambering a round and aiming the gun at the soldier.

  He let out a curse under his breath and was just inhaling, no doubt ready to start yelling his head off, when Garrett pressed his own gun against the guy’s head.

  “Do it and you’re dead, get it?” he muttered. “They might get us, but you won’t be alive to see it. Is it really worth the risk?”

  The man shook his head, and that was good enough for Garrett.

  “Not as stupid as I thought,” he said with a grunt. “Get to Green’s door and knock on it. I want him to see you when he looks through any peephole he’s got.”

  The man went without argument, stepping three paces to the right and knocking firmly on the navy door.

  The moment the door swung open, Garrett swung the gun and clocked the guard on the back of the head, putting enough force into the swing that the guy went down immediately. Then he swiveled the gun up and pointed it right at the general.

  Green was already in his pajamas—flannel green and red things that made Garrett wonder how the hell anyone could sleep in those in the middle of the summer. Then again, he was talking about a lunatic here. There was no telling what this guy got up to in his room when he was there by himself.

  “What the—” Green stuttered, his mouth hanging open and his eyes flying back and forth between Alice and Garrett.

  “God, no wonder you were kicked out,” Garrett said, shoving the man backward into the apartment and gesturing for Alice to follow. The last thing they needed was for any more guards to come along and see them when they were in such a precarious position. “You have no idea how to react to an emergency, do you?”

  He pushed Green back once more, and the man tripped and went down on the floor. Garrett followed his movement with the gun, his hand steadier than it had ever been, the nose of the Glock aimed at the spot right between Green’s eyes.

  Then he turned the gun and aimed for the man’s right knee.

  “I want the keys you’ve got hanging under your kitchen sink,” he said quietly. “The key that opens up the brig and all the cells, and the exit doors. Give them to me or I shoot.”

  Instead of saying anything, Green jumped up from the floor and flew straight toward Garrett, his head lowered like a charging bull. He hit Garrett in the midsection, but Garrett had always been
stronger than he looked. And though Green had a good fifty pounds on him, he was also in a lot better shape than the older man.

  He shifted a bit to get Green’s head on his side rather than buried in his stomach and wrapped his arms around the man’s neck, keeping a good grip on his gun. Yes, he could just shoot the man, but he didn’t want to shoot unnecessarily, because it would bring the other soldiers running. This might be a military compound, but gunshots didn’t just happen, and he had no intention of dealing with more than one soldier at a time.

  He used his grip on Green’s neck to try to flip the man away from him, but the other man’s own grip around Garrett’s waist was too firm for him to move the guy. Instead, they both staggered several steps to the right, then to the left, each of them viciously clawing at the other and trying to take the other down, grunting the entire time.

  Garrett stuck his foot out and snagged the general’s ankle with his toes, but only ended up taking himself down in the process, as the general’s grip refused to budge. They both hit the ground with another grunt, and the wrestling match continued on the floor.

  A voice in Garrett’s head was screaming at him that they didn’t have time for this—that Green might have pressed some button to alert the soldiers, and that they had to get the hell out of there now. But that wasn’t helping him to dislodge Green’s hands.

  Garrett brought the heel of his hand sharply up toward Green’s face and connected sharply with his nose, producing a sick crunching sound, and Green cried out and shoved him back.

  Then, just as Green managed to turn Garrett on his back and he started to think that he was actually in trouble, the weight on top of him disappeared. He looked up, confused, to see Alice standing behind Green with his ear in her fingers, viciously twisting it. Another quick glanced showed him a kitchen knife—stuck right into the meat of Green’s thigh.