Infiltration
Page 6
I kept dragging, thinking, trying to figure out a plan. I remembered the building plans I’d looked over, where the exits were. Tried to think of something to save us.
The thick black smoke kept following us, covering everything.
Then I had it. That waiting room I’d seen, opposite the door to this office. It had a big floor-to-ceiling window.
It seemed to take forever just to crawl there. Finally, I let Kieran slump to the floor. It took everything I had to pick up one of the metal chairs in the waiting room. I heaved it at the window. The glass shattered into a million tiny pieces, exploding out into the darkness.
Chapter Fifteen
Two security guards found us outside, all cut up from crawling over the broken glass. I don’t remember much of what happened next. There were red and blue lights everywhere. Cops yelling questions at me. Firefighters in yellow suits pouring water onto the warehouse fire. Then a medic taking me away from it all, shutting me into an ambulance.
I must have passed out on the ride. When I woke up, there was bright daylight streaming through the window of my hospital room. A nurse was pulling open the curtains. She told me that my burns weren’t bad but that I’d inhaled a lot of chemicals and smoke. The doctor wanted to keep an eye on me. And she said the cops didn’t want me going anywhere.
After that there was a steady stream of visitors. First, my parents. That went pretty much the way you’d expect. Equal parts worried and pissed off. In the end, I felt pretty bad about how much I’d shaken them up. But I didn’t know how to make them feel better. Didn’t know if I ever would.
Later the detectives came in. Two guys in business suits, short haircuts, hard stares. They made me tell the whole story several times and asked for a lot of details. I didn’t lie about a thing. I wasn’t sure what they would do to me. I did know that it was time to just come clean. I wanted to set things right, change for the better.
But that night, I realized I needed to break the rules one more time. After the lights went out on the ward, I quietly got up from my bed and crept down the white tiled hall. I looked in each room until I found Kieran. But I didn’t go in.
From the door I saw him sleeping, his bandaged hands looking like big white paws. His face was red and raw. Painful to look at.
Asleep in a chair next to him was his dad. One arm was stretched out, lying protectively across Kieran. I wondered if they would ever figure each other out. Kieran needed help. I hoped that his dad knew how to help him. I quietly turned away.
The next morning, I woke up to see Asha standing in the doorway. She looked scared and pale. I’d never seen her like this.
“You came,” I croaked. My throat still hurt when I spoke.
“I wanted to visit you sooner,” she said, “but my parents wouldn’t let me. It took forever to convince them.” There was an awkward pause. She finally came toward the bed, then reached out to touch the bandages on my arm.
“Bex, what have you done?” she said quietly.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I just wanted to fix things between us.”
Tears started tracking down Asha’s face. She took my hand. It felt warm and soft.
“Jake told me all about your plan. About the money.”
“He thought it was a stupid plan.”
“He still does. And he was right. You shouldn’t have lied to him about going in with Kieran.”
“I didn’t want Jake to get hurt,” I said. Now I was the one who was crying. “I didn’t want you to go away. I just wanted to keep everything the way it was.”
“Bex, listen to me,” said Asha. She sat down on the stool next to the bed, her face close to mine. Her eyes were deep and brown and beautiful. “As long as I’ve known you, you’ve always wanted to call the shots. Figure out the angles. Control the situation.”
She kissed me gently on the fore-head. “But sometimes you need to let go. Let other people make the plan. And trust that everything will be okay.”
She kissed me again, this time on the lips. And I knew that she was right. Everything would be okay.
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Document version: 1
Document creation date: 21.02.2012
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