He managed to free his weapon from the holster before I barreled into him, but there was no time to get off a shot. I grabbed the wrist of his gun hand and slammed my fist into his solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him. Then I spun him around, pushed his face against the wall, and twisted his arm behind his back, lifting it toward his shoulder blades until his fingers loosened and the gun fell to the floor.
I picked it up.
“The code,” I said.
“Screw you,” he gasped.
I let go and stood back, keeping the gun pointed at his head. He turned around and leaned against the wall, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.
“I’ll shoot you,” I said.
“Yeah, right.”
I shot him in the foot.
He dropped. I stepped over him to the keypad by room 202.
“The code,” I repeated. “Or I take out the knee.”
Ashley was hiding behind the door. She came at me as I burst into the room, holding a metal stool that I guessed she intended to smash over my head. She froze when she recognized me.
“Alfred?”
“You bet,” I said.
The stool fell to the floor and then the girl into my arms, burying her face between my shoulder and the base of my neck. A world of blond under my nose and its sweet atmosphere of lilacs. She touched my cheek.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She nodded. Just outside the door I saw the legs of the guard as he started to crawl toward the stairs.
“Hold on,” I said. I went into the hall, yanked him to his feet, and pressed the muzzle of the gun behind his ear.
“We’re leaving,” I told him. “You’re our guide.”
“I don’t think I can walk,” he said.
I squatted, pushed my left shoulder into his gut, and stood up. His head smacked me in the back when I swung around to motion Ashley out of the room.
We trotted down the hall, away from the stairs that led back to Mingus and the OIPEP twins, Ashley on my right side, her guard flopping over my left shoulder.
“Tell me there’s a back door to this place,” I said to him—or rather to his butt, which was two inches from my nose.
“There’s a back door to this place.”
I grabbed his dangling legs with both hands and swiveled hard. His head hit the wall with a satisfying smack.
“Hey!” he said, like he was shocked I whacked his face against the wall.
I did it again. Whack!
“Stop that!”
I started walking again. The hall ended. One corridor branched off to the right, another to the left.
“Which way?” I asked him.
“The right way.”
I smacked him again—whack!—and he shouted, “No, the right hallway—literal right, literal right!”
We took the passage on our right. Ashley had said she was okay, but she was wincing with every step and breathing hard. My head hurt. Was my head pounding now from all the running and fighting—or was it broadcasting our position on the Kropp Channel?
“I’ve got a bomb in my head,” I told her.
“I’ve got a bullet in my foot,” the guard said.
I ignored him. “An SD 1031. It’s also a tracking device.”
“I didn’t know,” she said.
“Didn’t know about the device or didn’t know it was in my head?”
“Didn’t know they implanted you.”
“Well, probably best you knew, in case I go down with blood pouring from my orifices.”
We came to some stairs.
“Up the stairs, first hall on the right, door at the end of the hall,” the guard said.
“Where’s that put us?” I gasped. He was gaining about a pound with every step I took.
“Back door.”
When we reached the door, I dropped him, grabbed a fistful of his collar, and pulled him to his feet. I shoved him toward the keypad.
“If this is a trick, you die,” I promised him.
He punched in the code, the little light flashed green, and the door swung open, revealing a white landscape shimmering like a Courier and Ives print.
Then Nueve stepped through the doorway, his gun pointed at Ashley’s head.
“No, Alfred,” Nueve said softly. “She dies.”
03:02:55:21
“A most ingenious and impressive attempt,” Nueve said. “But ultimately fruitless. Drop your weapon. You know I will not hesitate to kill her.”
I did know that. And I also knew this was my last chance to escape. If I gave up now, I would spend the rest of my life at Camp Lobotomy, a locked-up lab rat at the mercy of this slick Spanish madman. That didn’t really appeal to me, but neither did Nueve putting a bullet into Ashley’s head. I didn’t think Abby Smith knew what Nueve was up to, but that didn’t matter. By the time she found out, it would be too late. I’d be a vegetable and Ashley would be dead.
When you get to that place where desperation meets despair, the best thing to do is zig when the baddies expect you to zag.
It went very fast but felt very slow.
I raised my gun.
And then I pulled the trigger.
And then the bullet smashed into Ashley.
That bought two seconds, because it was the last thing Nueve expected. I used those two seconds to leap over Mr. Bullet-Foot and hit Nueve full force, wrapping him in a bear hug and driving him to the ground.
I straddled his chest, put one foot on his gun hand, and pinned his left arm with my knee. I pushed the barrel of my gun against his finely developed cheekbone.
“The box,” I said. “Where is it?”
“Left pocket,” he said.
I pulled the gun from his hand, stuck it in my pocket, then switched my gun to the other hand so I could get into his left pocket. Once I had the box, I stood up and backed away, putting Mr. Bullet-Foot between me and Nueve.
Nueve sat up, holding his right wrist, red from the pressure of my boot. “Now what?” he asked. “You are surrounded by hundreds of miles of wilderness. How far do you think you can go? If we don’t get you, the elements will.”
I pulled Ashley to her feet. I whispered her name, but she didn’t answer. Her eyes rolled in her head. I didn’t think I had much time.
“Call me crazy,” I said. “But I’m gonna risk the elements.” I brushed past him, holding Ashley against my side.
“Alfred,” he called softly.
I turned.
“You should shoot me.”
I turned away.
“You know what will happen if you don’t kill me,” he said. “I will not stop. You know I will not stop. You know there are no boundaries that can stop me. Dispatch me, and the director might be able to persuade the board to let you go.”