Michael Vey 9, page 13
“It was my fault.”
She tossed the empty water bottle to the ground. “I shouldn’t have surrendered.”
“We still haven’t found Jack,” Ostin said.
“Taylor, where’s Jack?” I asked.
“Jack,” she said softly. She looked at me. “We need to save him.”
“He’s not Chasqui?”
She shook her head. “He tried to help us escape. Amash ordered him killed.”
I was both relieved and frightened at the same time. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t come with us. I think he’s still at the plant. That’s where they took us. That’s where our plan failed.”
“Are you sure he’s alive?”
A tear rolled down her cheek. “No.”
I wiped her tear with my thumb. “If he’s alive, we’ll save him.”
Cristiano looked scared. “We can’t go to the plant. There are hundreds of guards at the plant. We could never get in.”
“We did it before,” Ostin said, joining the conversation.
“They will be looking for us. It will be a… death trap.”
“Unless they’re not there…,” Ostin said.
I turned to him. “You’ve got a plan?”
He nodded. “Where is the cave’s ventilation system?” he asked Cristiano.
“It is at the end of the supply room in the utility room. We passed it on the way here.”
“What’s in the supply room?”
“A lot of things. Food. Water. Uniforms. Boots. Some of the weapons. But we are not safe there. There are two entrances to the utility room. There is one from the guards’ barracks, and there is an outside entrance near the ventilation.”
“All the better,” Ostin said. “This is my plan. We fill the cave with smoke so they either have to evacuate the cave or die of smoke inhalation. After they’re out, we’ll lock all the doors. To get back in, they’ll have to fight their way in, which means they’ll call for reinforcements.”
“How do you know they’ll do that?” Ian asked.
“Because it’s their only way back in. While they’re doing that, we go back out the way we came, hike to the Starxource plant, and rescue Jack. It’s the ultimate distraction.”
“How do we fill the cave with smoke without killing ourselves?” Ian asked.
“There aren’t any ventilation shafts back here; they are all in the rooms. The airflow will carry the smoke to the front.”
“And the control room,” Cristiano said.
“We’ll close off the vents with the duct tape.”
“That might work,” Cristiano said.
“It will work,” Ostin said.
“How do we get Tara out?” Ian asked.
“We’ll have to carry her,” I said. “But we’ve got to move now. Those welds aren’t going to hold all night.”
“I’ll need everyone’s help with the fire,” Ostin said.
“Let’s go,” I said.
We went back down the tunnel to the supply room—the place I’d stopped on our way in. The room was about seventy feet long, with rows of metal shelving, filled with plastic bins. Ostin picked up a shovel as he walked by one of the shelves.
“The utility room is through that door,” Ian said.
About ten yards from us was a metal door near the back with the word UTILIDAD.
“Is there anyone in there?” I asked.
“It’s clear.”
We walked inside. The room was loud with the hum of belts and electric motors and moving air. To the left of us there were several large propane tanks connected to water heaters. They were next to a bright red door.
“That must be the barracks door,” I said. “Ian, is there anyone trying to get in?”
“No. Looks like they’re all going to sleep.”
“Good. McKenna, we need you to weld the barrack door shut while we start the fire. If anyone comes, fry them.”
“Okay.”
Directly ahead of us, on the ceiling of the cave, we could see the outside entrance, a hinged metal hatch that opened to the room, aligned with metal rungs bolted to the wall to climb down on. The hatch was next to where a large air duct came in from the outside, then dropped to the ground, where it fed through an air-conditioning and a humidifying unit, then back up through more metal ductwork to the stone ceiling and through a hole cut through the stone wall.
“I think I got it,” Ostin said. He inserted the point of the shovel between two of the metal pieces and pried a metal panel off the last filter. We could hear the apparatus sucking air into the vent.
“This is the place,” Ostin said. “This will feed whatever we give it into the main ductwork.” He looked up. “Gather anything that will burn. Rubber and plastic are good. Any kind of accelerant will help.”
The three of us went back out to the supply room. We gathered up anything that had wood or paper. There were several wooden pieces of furniture and a large wooden chest.
“The plastic bins,” I said. “They’ll burn, right?”
“Like torches,” Ostin said. “Let’s get them all.”
I began tipping all the bins over.
“Guys, I struck gold,” Ian said. “You wanted an accelerant. These barrels are full of rum.”
Ostin came over to inspect the barrels. “No surprise, the way the Elgen used to drink. They’re all overproof. One hundred fifty proof, seventy-five percent alcohol. These puncheons will burn like kerosene.”
We rolled six barrels over to the filters, then covered the barrels with the furniture and plastic bins.
“See if you can find an ax,” Ostin said. “We need to break holes in the barrels. We don’t want them to explode.”
“Why not?” Ian asked.
“It could put out the fire.”
“Here’s one,” Ian said. He started smashing the rum barrel lids like an old-time Prohibition agent.
Ostin and I tipped one of the barrels into the wooden chest, filling it with rum. We then threw rubber boots into the chest, which created a thick black smoke. After we finished, our pile of flammables was more than eight feet high. It looked like a funeral pyre.
“Now we just need a fuse,” Ostin said.
“On it,” Ian said. He started tying Chasqui uniforms together into a long rope.
“Those uniforms won’t burn well,” I said.
“They will after we soak them in rum.”
“Smart.” I began helping him tie the uniforms together. We then dunked our “fuse” into the chest until they were drenched with rum, then laid them on the ground all the way to the door to the supply room.
“Will those propane tanks blow?” Ian asked.
“Most likely,” Ostin said. “If the flame gets to them.”
“Let’s increase those odds,” I said. I laid the pack with all the grenades next to it.
“There’s a man trying to come in through the door,” Ian said. “Probably a rum run.”
“McKenna!” I shouted. “We need you to light the fuse.” I waved everyone else over. “Everyone into the tunnel. This thing is going to blow.”
Once we were back out in the tunnel, McKenna flamed up her hand and touched it to our makeshift fuse. The pale blue alcohol flame moved quickly down the uniforms toward our pyre. When it hit the barrels, flames blew upward to the top of the cavern, illuminating the entire utility room. We could feel the initial blast of heat from where we stood.
“We’d better shut the door,” Ian said. “Before we get smoked out.”
We closed the door, then ran back to the control room. Cristiano had taped up all the room’s vents, though the smell of smoke had already permeated the room. Cristiano and Taylor had brought Tara inside, and she was sitting on the ground, her eyes closed. Taylor and Cristiano had been watching the monitors. They could see some of the men still trying to get into the prison.
“Your weld is holding,” Taylor said to McKenna.
“I do my best,” she said.
One of the screens showed the utility room. Our fire was burning wildly, and the top half of the room was already filled with smoke. One of the barrels had tipped over and spread the fire toward the barrack door and the propane tanks.
“We made a good fire,” Ostin said.
“Boys and matches,” Taylor said, which made me happy. She was sounding like herself.
“For the record, McKenna started it,” I said back.
The smoke in the room swirled around as it was sucked into a vortex near the center of the room, where Ostin had opened the ductwork.
“It’s working,” I said.
“I turned the cave ventilation system on full,” Cristiano said.
“Now let’s shut out all the lights,” I said.
“This switch right here,” Ostin said.
The entire place went dark. McKenna lit up so we could see. Even in the dark caverns, we could see on the monitors black smoke pouring into each of the rooms. Most of the guards had been sleeping, so the thick smoke caused intense confusion and fear. Chaos broke out, with men screaming and shouting.
I asked Taylor, “How is Tara?”
“She’s coherent.”
“Can she walk?”
“No. If she’d been on that RESAT much longer, her heart would have stopped.” Her eyes welled up. “She would have died.”
“Amash should pay for this.”
Almost as if we’d summoned him, Amash’s voice came over the intercom. “Control, what is happening? There is smoke coming out of my air vent.”
Cristiano answered, “There is a confirmed fire in the utility room, Sovereign. We are fighting it. You should evacuate immediately.”
“Why haven’t you activated the suppression system?”
“We have, sir,” Cristiano said.
“Then where are the—”
Cristiano shut down the PA. “I hate his voice.”
“There’s the switch for the alarm system,” Ostin said. He pulled the switch, and a warning siren squealed throughout the cave, adding to the chaos.
The guards, in various stages of dress, some holding clothing or pillows over their faces, rushed toward the front exit. Within minutes a large group of them had gathered. Ostin said, “There’s a control to a remote machine gun. Should I fire on them?” His hands were on the remote.
“Let them all get out,” I said. “But if you get a shot at Amash, take it.”
Eventually the screens displaying the inside of the cave were completely black with smoke. The cameras on the outside showed the men congregating near the front exit, likely awaiting their orders.
“I don’t think they know that we did this,” Ian said.
“You’re probably right,” I said. “Only a few of them knew the door to the prison was locked.”
“The doors lock automatically when there is a fire,” Cristiano said.
“And they felt the doorknob was hot,” Ian said. “They probably thought the room was on fire.”
“I think they are all out of the cave now,” Cristiano said. “No one has come out for a while.”
“I didn’t see Amash come out,” Taylor said.
“If they’re not already out, they’re not breathing,” Ostin said.
“I don’t see anyone left in the cave,” Ian said.
“Okay, lock the doors,” I said. “Let’s seal this place up.”
“On it.”
“Cristiano, do a broad sweep with the guns. Time to let them know we’re in here.”
On one of the monitors, we could see men scattering or falling as dirt and foliage flew up around them.
“Now they know we’re here.”
“There,” Cristiano said, pointing at the monitor. “That’s Amash. He’s the one on the radio. I didn’t see him go out.”
“Can you hit him?”
“No. He knows where to stand.”
I groaned. “Of course he does. He’s no doubt calling for reinforcements. Let’s get out of here.”
“What about Tara?” Taylor asked.
“We’ll have to carry her,” I said. “Cristiano, give me a hand.”
“How are we going to get her through the tunnel?” he asked.
“We’ll figure it out when we get there.”
Cristiano and I put Tara’s arms around our shoulders, then lifted her. We walked out of the control room back into the tunnel. Smoke had seeped out from under the supply room door into the tunnel but not so much as to stop us.
“McKenna, you’d better light the way,” I said.
The tunnel lit up. As we ran past the supply room, we could hear explosions.
“I think that would be ammunition,” Cristiano said.
“The entire supply room is on fire,” Ian said. “We did a better job than we planned on.”
“Keep moving,” I said.
We made our way back to the small exit tunnel.
“Ian, you go first,” I said. “Cristiano and I will bring up the rear with Tara.”
Together we carried Tara as far down the escape tunnel as we could, until we could no longer stand and had to kneel in the water.
“What do we do now?” Cristiano asked.
“I’m… sorry,” Tara said weakly, uttering her first words.
“We’ve got you,” I said. I got down onto my stomach. “Do you think you can hold on to my back?”
“I’ll try.”
“Cristiano, help her.”
Cristiano helped position Tara’s body on my back, with her arms draped over my shoulders. I crawled on my elbows and knees until the end of the tunnel, when I had to crawl on my stomach, barely holding my head above the water. By the time we reached the first cavern, I was exhausted. My elbows and knees felt raw. When we got to the edge of the pool, Ian swam over to me. “Michael, let me help you.”
“It’s going to take both of us to swim with her.” I asked Tara, “Can you hold your breath?”
“I think so.”
“We’ve got to go underwater for just a few seconds. It’s the only way out of here.” I said to Ian, “When we get to the other side, we’ll tie the rope around her and pull her up.”
“How can I help?” Ostin asked.
“Swim behind her and help us lift her up after we go through the opening.”
“Got it.”
Ian and I each took one of Tara’s arms and swam with her to the opposite side of the cavern. McKenna was in the water next to us, lighting the place.
“McKenna, when I tell you, go through so we can see the opening.”
She nodded.
I looked at Tara. “Are you ready for this?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“You can do it,” Taylor said.
“I’m going to count to three, then say ‘dive.’ At three, take a deep breath, then hold it until we come up on the other side. You’re sure you can do this?”
She nodded.
I looked at Ian. “You ready?”
“I’m ready.”
“McKenna, go ahead.”
McKenna dove down and swam through the opening in the rock wall. Even with McKenna’s light gone, I could see Tara’s face from the glow of her skin. “Ian, watch her head on the rocks.” He nodded. “One, two, three.” Tara took in a deep breath. “Dive.”
Ian and I dove under, pulling Tara down with us. It wasn’t easy swimming with just one hand and pulling her, but we kicked hard, taking her through the entrance and then up as quickly as possible. Ostin swam up behind her. He had both hands on her waist, and he helped us bring her up. When we broke the surface, Tara gasped for air.
“Good job,” I said. “Good job.”
She rubbed the water from her eyes. “Thank you.”
Taylor came up behind us, followed by Cristiano. We were treading water with our legs, and I was just about spent. “Let’s get her to the rope,” I said. “I’ve got to rest.”
“Michael, I got her,” Ostin said, grabbing on to the rope and reaching out. He pulled Tara up next to him. Taylor swam over to help.
“We’ll get you out of here,” I said. I looked up at the opening. “Zeus,” I shouted.
There was no response.
“Zeus! Nichelle!”
Still nothing.
“Where are they?” I asked.
“They’re not up there,” Ian said. “No one is up there.”
“No one? Are there Chasqui?”
“Not that I can see.”
“What if the Chasqui got them?” Cristiano asked.
Taylor turned to me. “What if they’re waiting for us?”
“If they wanted to trap us, why would they leave the rope?” Ostin said.
“There’s no one up there,” Ian repeated.
“How far can you see?” Cristiano asked.
“Far enough.”
“This just keeps getting better,” I said. “I’m going up.”
I worked my way around Tara, then, scissoring my legs around the rope, shimmied back up, my legs and arms burning with each pull. At the narrow stone opening on top, I stuck my head out and looked around, then grasped the rock and lifted myself up until I was sitting on the rim of the rock crevice, then pushed myself out.
For a moment I just lay on my back to catch my breath. Then I leaned up on my elbows and looked around. There was no trace of them. I couldn’t believe we’d lost Zeus and Nichelle—we’d rescued two people just to lose two more.
Ian came up the rope after me. I took his hand and helped him out. He was also winded.
“Still nothing,” he said from his knees. He sat on the ground next to me.
“Why would they leave?”
“They’d only leave if they had to.”
“That’s not comforting.”
I turned back to see Cristiano climbing up through the hole. “They have tied the rope around the weak girl,” he said. “So we can pull her up.”
“Her name is Tara,” I said. I got up and walked over to the hole. Looking down into the cavern, I shouted, “Is she ready?”
“I tied a bowline around her,” Ostin shouted. “Pull her up.”
The three of us pulled Tara up, slowing when she got near the top so she wouldn’t bump her head. I grabbed her arms and pulled her out, then laid her down across the ground. I untied the knot, then threw the rope back down the hole. Ostin tied the knot for the other two women, and we pulled them up. He insisted on climbing up himself.
After everyone was up, we just sat on the ground, resting.
