Dani had heard Quinn’s voice when the handoff went awry, and had even hoped he would get her out.
“If you’re his partner, you’re something else, too,” she said, remembering the conversations she’d overheard.
“You mean girlfriend? Yeah, that, too.” The woman paused, breathing deeply. “If I was here to hurt you, wouldn’t I have been shooting at you instead of at that jerk who took you?”
“People don’t want to hurt me. They want what I have.”
“Yeah, I have a feeling the cat’s out of the bag on that one. I mean, this place, right? It’s your big secret.”
Dani held her tongue. The silo was only part of the secret.
Beyond the light, Orlando groaned.
“Are you okay?” Dani asked. “Did you get shot?”
“What? No, um, just…give me a moment.”
Dani thought she heard another groan, but it was very low.
“How much farther does this thing go?” Orlando asked a few seconds later.
Dani hesitated. “I’m not exactly sure. Not too far, I think. There should be another exit up here.”
“Into what?”
“One of the storage levels.”
“Will you wait for me?” Orlando asked. “Please.”
Dani chewed the inside of her lip, not knowing if that was a good idea or not, but in the end said, “Okay.”
The woman’s light began moving again. Soon Dani could see the woman behind it. That’s when she realized why she’d noted something odd about Orlando earlier.
“You’re pregnant,” she said, as if Orlando might not be aware of it.
“Not for much longer.”
Dani’s eyes widened. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing you need to worry about.” She nodded at Dani’s hands. “Here, let me cut those off you.”
__________
QUINN, NATE, AND Ananke climbed over the fallen boxes and reached the elevator just as the motor switched off. Nate was able to work the door open and take a peek up the shaft.
“Looks like it’s three floors up,” he said.
“Anyone spot a stairwell on our way here?” Quinn asked.
Nate and Ananke shook their heads.
“We could crawl up the shaft,” Nate suggested. “There are plenty of things in there we can use for handholds. The only problem is, we wouldn’t be able to get around the bottom of the car.”
“Not if all three of us go,” Quinn said. “But if two of us climb up onto the floor below him, and whoever stays down here calls the elevator, we climb up once it passes us.” He looked at Ananke. “You know him. You should come with me.”
“I’d really rather not,” she said, a sour look on her face.
Quinn stared at her.
After a moment, she closed her eyes and let out a disgusted huff. “All right, I’ll go. But I won’t be held responsible if I accidentally shoot him.”
“Our number one priorities are Dani and Orlando,” Quinn said. “If he’s standing in our way, I’m not going to question anything.”
“That sounds fair to me,” she said.
Nate lifted the door and held it open while Quinn and Ananke transitioned into the shaft. There appeared to be one floor beneath them and at least the three above. As Nate had promised, they had plenty of things to grab on to, and in less than a minute, they were prying open the door for the level right below the elevator car.
When they were out of the shaft, Quinn waved to Nate.
__________
THE WOLF AND her people had already exited the upper landing when Daeng reached the entrance. He climbed down and eased into the stairwell.
Staying tight to the inner wall, he moved along the steps until the man at the very back came into sight. Daeng allowed himself a brief smile. They had strung out in a line just like he’d hoped they would.
Once he’d moved in right behind the last man, he placed the end of his suppressor against the guy’s head and wrapped an arm around his neck, stopping him in his tracks.
“One word and I pull the trigger,” Daeng whispered into the man’s ear.
The man stayed quiet.
As the others continued walking away, Daeng squeezed his arm tight. As soon as the man lost consciousness, Daeng laid him on the steps, secured his hands and feet, and continued his pursuit.
Next in line was the other man, only things didn’t go quite as smoothly. Daeng was able to quietly grab him, but while he was cutting off the blood flow to the man’s brain, the guy began to struggle and his feet scraped loudly on the steps.
Before Daeng could finish the job, the blonde woman came back up the steps far enough to see what was going on. Daeng aimed his gun at her, but she ran out of sight before he could pull the trigger. He laid the man on the steps and secured him, then went after her, already several seconds behind.
Ahead, he could hear the two women taking the stairs, their pace as fast as his. Then came the sound of a door opening and all went quiet.
He hit the bottom landing and shoved open the door as the women were passing through another doorway on the far side of the room beyond.
Not stopping, Daeng touched his comm. “Daeng for Quinn.”
Nothing.
“Daeng for Nate, for anyone, can you hear me?”
“Daeng?” Nate said. “Where…ou?”
“The Wolf’s back. I took out two of her men, but she and that other—”
“Can’t hear…what…you…”
“Hostiles,” Daeng said. “The Wolf and the blonde woman. I’ve followed them down.”
He reached the door and pulled it open. There was a tunnel on the other side, but no sign of the women.
“I…catch…”
Daeng repeated what he’d said, but if Nate responded, he didn’t hear it.
He took the bend in the tunnel at full speed. That turned out to be a mistake.
The blonde was waiting against the wall on the other side, and launched at him. They slammed against the corrugated siding, Daeng’s gun flying out of his hand. As they slid down the curved surface, she punched him in the ribs twice and jammed her knee into his hip.
Daeng rolled when they hit bottom and pulled her under him. At the edge of his vision he spotted his gun on the floor by her head. He grabbed for it, but before he could reach it she shoved him in the chest, throwing him onto the floor beside her.
In a mad scramble they both lunged for the gun. The woman got there first, but as she wrapped her fingers around the grip, Daeng grabbed the barrel and twisted the weapon until it popped out of both of their hands.
He dove after it. His hand was only a few inches from the gun when the woman kicked it out from under him, sending it sailing down the tunnel, straight at The Wolf.
Realizing he’d never get it now, Daeng knocked his attacker to the side, jumped to his feet, and ran. He’d just rounded the bend when he heard the thup of his gun and the smack of the bullet hitting the wall behind him.
He sprinted out of the tunnel and slammed the door shut.
“Daeng for Nate or Quinn,” he said.
No response.
“Can anyone hear me?”
Nothing.
“If you can hear me, The Wolf’s inside, and she’s armed!”
__________
THE ELEVATOR MOTOR whined to life a moment before the car began to descend.
Though Orbits had been expecting it, he would have liked a little more time. So far he’d found crates of riflescopes, combat knives, and flare cartridges but no flare guns.
He scanned for boxes that looked like they might contain something with more firepower than his pistol. Near the back of the room, he spotted a stack of small boxes marked 5.56 x 45mm.
M16 ammo.
He cursed at himself for not taking one of the rifles from downstairs, but then, just beyond the bullets, he saw a stack of long boxes exactly like the ones the rifles had been in. He smiled.
Please let me be lucky.
____
______
QUINN WATCHED THE elevator pass level three, and then nodded at Ananke.
They climbed up to either side of the shaft until they were in position beside the entrance to level four. Quinn grabbed the lip of the door and pushed it up a few inches so Ananke could take a look at the other side.
“Clear,” she mouthed.
He pushed it up until it was wide enough for her to pass through. She then held it in place for him and quietly closed it again.
They heard grunts off to the left, followed by a crash on the floor. Using the stacks as cover, they moved closer.
The groan of a nail being pulled out of wood told Quinn Orbits was trying to open a box. After a moment, there was the pop of a board breaking. Some shuffling around, and then—
“Dammit!” Orbits yelled.
Quinn crept to the very edge of a stack, no more than twenty feet from Orbits, and peeked around the corner. Orbits threw a piece of wood on the ground and cursed again. As he was turning, his gaze fell on Quinn.
“Oh, shit!” he said, and dropped out of sight.
Quinn said, “No one needs to get hurt. We just want—”
A bullet whacked into the crate right in front of him.
“You don’t want to do that,” Quinn yelled. “You’ll never win a shooting match. We’ve got you outnumbered.”
__________
“IS THAT RIGHT?” Orbits replied. “Well, the box full of M16s I have here says differently.”
If only that were true. The box Orbits had thought held more rifles turned out to contain a disassembled grenade launcher. And, in keeping with his string of luck, there were no grenades.
“Just give us the women,” the man said. “There’s no reason for them to be in the middle of this.”
Women? Was there someone around other than Danielle? Screw it. The only important thing at that moment was getting out alive.
“I don’t care what you want. Unless you leave right now, the only thing you’ll get from me is death.”
“Dear God. Did you really just say that?”
Orbits’s brow furrowed. It hadn’t been the man who’d spoken, but an annoyed-sounding woman. A very familiar annoyed-sounding woman.
“Ricky, you stupid son of a bitch, get the hell out here. Now!”
“Kitty-kat?”
__________
AS THE ELEVATOR descended, Nate tried reaching Daeng again. He’d caught enough of his friend’s message to know something was wrong, but had been unable to discern anything else.
“Nate for Daeng,” he said again.
The radio remained silent.
Behind him, the elevator came to a stop.
“Daeng, are you there?”
He heard a low thunk, not from the radio but from the other end of the room.
Pulling out his gun, he stepped lightly over to the crates lining the walkway to the elevator. He moved up to the central aisle.
The room was quiet so he moved around the corner and crept over to the pile of boxes Orbits had created. Using a gap in the debris, he looked toward the other end of the room. Though he didn’t see anything unusual, his senses told him something was wrong. He stared down the aisle, waiting. Half a minute later, his patience paid off.
First the motorcyclist and then The Wolf appeared around the crates near the tunnel entrance. Every few seconds they glanced back the way they’d come, as if expecting someone else to join them. Their appearance was unexpected, but Nate was even more surprised when The Wolf handed the other woman a gun. They should have been unarmed.
Behind him, the elevator came to life again. The women heard it, too, and ducked behind a stack, out of sight.
Nate frowned. Just when I thought it was going to be easy.
__________
“I TOLD YOU not to call me that,” Ananke yelled at Orbits.
“Don’t rile him up,” Quinn whispered. “Just get him in the open.”
“What are you doing over there, kitten? I, um, mean Annie,” Orbits said.
“Annie’s not my name, either,” she yelled. “What the hell’s wrong with you?”
“I’m sorry,” he replied defensively.
“Ricky, if you don’t want to get hurt, get out here!”
“Oh, yeah? Well, I’m not the one who’s going to get hurt!”
“All right, then. Prove to us you have an M16. Fire off a round.” She paused. “Go ahead. Any time now.” Another pause. “We’re waiting.” Still nothing.
As Quinn had suspected—and apparently Ananke had, too—Orbits had lied about the rifle.
“If I come out there, you’ll shoot me,” Orbits said.
“If I was going to shoot you, I’d have done it years ago. God knows I probably should have. But you know why I won’t?”
“Why?”
“Because you can’t help that you’re an idiot.”
“Hey, that’s not—”
“Ricky!”
“Fine, maybe you won’t shoot me, but your friend will.”
With a roll of her eyes, she said loudly enough for Ricky to hear, “Quinn, are you going to shoot him?”
“Not if he cooperates,” Quinn replied, his volume matching hers.
“See, no one’s going to shoot you. Now, last chance or I’m coming over there myself and putting you out of our misery!”
“Fine, fine. I’m coming out. But I swear, if you shoot me…”
“What?” Ananke asked. “If we shoot you, what are you going to do, Ricky?”
“Why are you so pissed off at me?”
Quinn edged around the crate, pointing his gun toward Orbits’s voice, while Ananke positioned herself beside him so she could see, too. “Any time now,” Quinn said.
“I’m coming, all right? Calm down.”
Orbits appeared from behind the boxes, his hands shoulder high. In his right was his gun.
“Toss the weapon this way,” Quinn ordered.
“Now why would I—”
Ananke fired a bullet past his head.
“Okay,” Orbits said. “It’s all yours.”
He lobbed the gun into the aisle with enough force that when it hit the concrete, it skidded past Quinn and Ananke’s position with no sign of stopping.
“Happy?” Orbits asked.
Quinn and Ananke stepped out from their hiding place.
“Where are the women?” Quinn asked.
“I don’t know anything about any women,” Orbits said. “Wait, that didn’t come out right.”
“Where are Dani and Orlando?”
“If by Dani you mean Danielle, that little…”
Quinn raised his gun a few inches.
Orbits said, “…princess ran off right before you two started chasing me.”
“She’s not with you?” Ananke asked.
“Not anymore.”
“Where did she go?” Quinn said.
“Well, you should know. You were the ones shooting at me while she got away.”
“We weren’t the ones shooting at you.”
Orbits looked confused. “You weren’t?”
“Orlando,” Ananke said to Quinn.
“Who’s this Orlando?”
Quinn motioned toward the elevator. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?” Orbits asked.
“Out.”
“I’m not go—”
“Ricky, move!” Ananke ordered.
They started down the aisle, Ricky in front with Quinn and Ananke right behind him.
“Just so we’re clear,” Orbits said, “I’ve got dibs on this place.”
__________
NATE SNEAKED OVER to the wall and slipped sideways through the gap at the end of the row. He repeated the move at the next two stacks, stopping when he reached the crates that separated him from where he’d last seen the women.
He heard the elevator stop at the top for a few seconds and then descend again. Wanting to neutralize the problem before Quinn and the others arrived, he slid into the final gap and inc
hed forward, pausing just short of the corner.
No sounds. Had they moved on?
He inched forward again, easing his head out of the stack for a quick look.
“Hi, there.”
The motorcyclist stood four feet away, her gun pointed between his eyes.
__________
QUINN MADE RICKY open the elevator door when they reached the first level. Stepping out, he expected to find Nate waiting for them, but his partner wasn’t there.
“Nate?” he said. When no response came, he flicked on his mic and repeated his friend’s name.
Ananke looked at him, alarmed.
“What’s going on?” Orbits asked.
“Shut up,” she whispered.
Quinn cautiously approached the central aisle, but before he could reach it Nate came around the corner, the motorcyclist holding a gun to the back of his head. As Quinn and Ananke jerked their weapons up, The Wolf stepped out behind the motorcyclist, also armed.
“Well, isn’t this convenient?” The Wolf said. “All the people I’ve been…” She stopped. “Hold on. Where’s Danielle?”
“Drop your weapons,” Quinn said.
The Wolf laughed. “I don’t think so. You drop yours.”
“Not going to happen.”
“Then we have a problem,” she said. “But one we can easily solve. I want to know what happened to the girl. Did you kill her now that you found this place? It’s what I would have done.”
“Let my friend go,” Quinn said.
“Or do you have her tied up somewhere? I hope so. I’ve so been looking forward to reminiscing with her about her father.”
“I said, let him go.”
“Answer my question and maybe we will. If you don’t, I will have Bianca kill him.”
Quinn drew in a breath. “We both know that won’t happen. If she kills him, then we kill you.”
“Well, isn’t this exciting?” Orbits said. “Four guns, two on each side. I kind of feel left out. I probably should just—”
“Don’t move,” Ananke said, her eyes not leaving The Wolf. “Or you will be the first one hit.”
Orbits froze.
“Let him go now,” Quinn said to The Wolf, “and we’ll leave this place to you.”
“It’s that easy, is it? Why do I have the feeling that when we finally leave, the police and FBI would be waiting for us up top?”
The Buried Page 27
