Goose bumps rose on every inch of my skin. I wrapped the lab coat around me. My wet tank top was already soaking through the coat, but at least it was an improvement.
Walking slowly down the hall and exercising caution, I checked the rooms I passed, all while trying to keep my teeth from chattering and my wet boots from squeaking or squashing with every step. The minutes passed by, and although it was a miracle that I hadn’t been caught, Cy was nowhere to be found.
The warehouse was cleaner, whiter, and brighter than it had been just a couple of days ago. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I would have never believed the building could be transformed in such a short amount of time.
Footsteps echoed against iron grates along the floor, this time closer, so I ducked into a dark room. One of the men wore black leather combat boots. The other wore crocodile skin boots with gray slacks. Hideous.
“Sir, he’s not talking,” the soldier said. “Tennison wants to put him on the chopper and fly him out to headquarters. We don’t have the experts here to question him.”
“Ten minutes, Sergeant,” Crocodile said. “Give me ten minutes with him, and then Tennison can take him to Disney World for all I care.”
“Yes, sir,” the soldier said.
With that, the men headed in opposite directions, but I knew exactly which one to follow.
Crocodile Boots led me down four or five corridors. I lost count. I tried to remember my route, but after a while, I couldn’t distinguish one hall from another. When Crocodile Boots went into a room, I snuck into the one next to it.
“The CIA is going to put you on a helicopter in ten minutes, son. After that, I can’t help you. I need you to tell me what you know about Dr. Zorba’s meteorite. Tell me why you’re here.”
The man paused, waiting for Cy to answer. After several moments of silence, I heard a deep sigh.
“Just tell me your name. Let’s just start with that.”
Still nothing until I heard a struggle.
“You’re going to tell me everything I want to know, or I’m going to pick up that little weirdo friend of yours and finish the game of tic-tac-toe those psychos played on her skin a few years back.”
The words he spoke made me feel dizzy, but I forced myself to remain focused, refusing to let my mind wander back to that night.
After more sounds of struggle, Cy growled, “Get away from me!”
“Are you surprised that I know what happened to her? You think it’s a coincidence that her dad was working with Dr. Zorba and his partner and met such a tragic end? Majestic watched Dr. Zorba and Dr. Brahmberger for months before they discovered that signal. We intercepted an email from Marty Riorden to Dr. Zorba. He knew the signal was suspicious. He was going to interrupt their research. Marty’s discovery would have taken it in a different direction than what we had anticipated, ruining years of planning and work.”
Cy’s expression metamorphosed from confusion to recognition. “You…you killed them.”
“The real coincidence here is that Rory lived, Dr. Zorba took her under his wing, and ironically, you did, too. Now, I can use her again to get the information I need, just as I did when we questioned her father. It only took half an hour with Rory before he told us everything we wanted to know and even things we didn’t think to ask.”
I sat against the wall with my knees to my chest and my hands trembling from anger and hatred. We didn’t die for money or pure violence or even so that I could be strong enough to save Cy. Crocodile Boots had us killed so that Dr. Tennison could get the validation he’d been seeking. He kept my father from telling Dr. Z and Dr. Brahmberger what he knew about that signal so that they could continue their research. They’d probably been monitoring Dr. Z when he learned of the meteorite in Antarctica. Tennison must have been thrilled, knowing Dr. Z would bring back the rock and do half the work before Tennison stole it from him.
So much violence, so many lives changed forever, ruined and taken away, all so Tennison could take the credit and be hailed for research he didn’t do. With Majestic behind him, he had no rules.
I looked around for something, anything, to impale the bastard the moment he stepped outside the room, but there was nothing.
“How could you murder an innocent family, an innocent girl? So that two men who Tennison knew were smarter than him could continue the science for him?” Cy asked, his voice pleading for a reason.
Crocodile Boots laughed once. “I’ll let Tennison know your concerns.”
“You’re monsters,” Cy said.
“You know what I’m going to do to that poor girl—again—if you don’t tell me what Tennison wants to know. That makes you worse than a monster. No?”
Silence.
“Okay, son. Have it your way.”
The crocodile boots clanged against the floor as he stomped away, and I scampered around the corner just long enough not to be seen before crawling on hands and knees into Cy’s room.
Before the door could slide shut, I slipped off the white lab coat and rolled it up tightly, wedging it between the door and doorjamb.
Cy was strapped to a chair with white cloth restraints on his wrists and ankles. His eyes nearly popped out of his head in disbelief as I scrambled up to hug him.
“What are you doing here?” he hissed. “Go away!”
I turned to check the hallway before shooting him the dirtiest look I could muster. “Are you kidding me? What does it look like?”
Cy’s brows pulled together, and his eyes softened. “Did you hear him? He’s coming after you. They’ll torture you, Rory. They won’t believe that you don’t know anything. You have to leave!”
“Let him try, but for now, I’m getting you the hell out of here.”
“You must leave, Rory. Leave the way you came. You can’t help me.”
“Shut up,” I said, working on the cloth around his wrist. “I’m already here. I’m covered in mud and cow shit, and I’m getting you out of here. The least you could do is thank me.”
Once I unbound one of his wrists, he used his free hand to work on the other while I untied his ankles. By the time I finished one, Cy had already freed his wrist and the other ankle. He pulled me up by the elbow and looked me in the eyes, his face just a few inches from mine.
He wiped mud from the corner of my eye and offered a sweet grin. “Thank you. But you shouldn’t have done this, Rory. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“You’re my friend. You would do it for me, right?”