Sleeper Cell Super Boxset (22 page)

Dylan scraped his knees and elbows against the concrete, his belly sliding along the wet floor until he finally made it to an intersection where the piping opened up into a small cavern, just big enough for two men to stand. A vent was directly above them that would take them into the air ducts, where Dylan and Kasaika climbed.

The air shaft ran another hundred yards and then opened up into a utility room, where they would be able to use the security codes that Cooper had given him. The five men squirmed along the narrow vents until they finally arrived at the utility room.

Air conditioning units hissed and hummed upon their entry, and Dylan pulled the key card from his pocket and slid it across the magnetic strip on the door’s locks. A light flashed green, and Dylan cracked the door open to get a look outside. The hallway was clear, and Dylan took his first step out as the last member of Kasaika’s team lowered himself into the utility room.

The hallway was dimly lit, and according to the schematics, they still had to go down one level to retrieve the computer chips. Dylan followed the path, doing his best to remember the way that Cooper had described it on the maps.

Voices echoed farther down the hall, and Dylan came to an abrupt halt. Kasaika and his men quickly stopped behind him, and they retreated to the utility room. Dylan fumbled for the key, and the voices grew louder. They heard their footprints thump closer. Kasaika aimed the rifle down the hall, and his men mimicked his motions.

The green light finally flashed, the door unlocked, and they piled inside and sealed themselves up just before the guards rounded the corner. Dylan sat on the inside of the room, his body still pressed firmly up against the door, and listened as the men’s voices grew louder as they approached the room then faded away as they continued down the hall.

Dylan wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and let out a sigh. While Kasaika and his men weren’t as vocal about their near escape, Dylan could still see the sweat beaded on their foreheads. Kasaika pointed toward the door. “We need to move before they realize the security feed is down.”

“All the levels are circular,” Dylan said. “We should wait for them to come back around to see how long it takes. Then we’ll know how much time we’ll have on our run.”

Kasaika shook his head. “We go now! We don’t have time for your cowardice.”

“There’s a difference between keeping us alive and being a coward. Shh! Listen.”

The voices of the guards grew louder as they made their approach down the halls, but this time there was a third voice, one that Dylan couldn’t make out until he heard the crackle of the radio.

“Team six, we’re having a video feed malfunction down on level fourteen. We need you to check the utility room for a system scan for the level.”

“Copy that, control. We’re on it.”

Kasaika motioned his men to aim their weapons at the door, and Dylan hid behind them. The voices grew louder, and Dylan felt his heart pounding in his head as he watched the red light on the door lock flash to green, and before either of the guards realized what happened, two bullets pierced each of their heads and redecorated the walls of the hallway with the insides of their blood.

“Move!” Kasaika thrust his arm forward, and he and his men stepped over the bodies and emptied into the hallway, with Dylan following closely behind. On their way to the stairs, Dylan heard the radio on the dead guard’s chest spout another series of demands.

They burst into the staircase, and a blur of feet and legs descended the steps. “We don’t have much time before they realize what’s happened,” Dylan said, his breaths short and sporadic as they reached the bottom floor. He rushed to the front and slid the security card through the slide holder, and the moment he stepped into the hallway, he was greeted by three guards making their rounds.

“Freeze!” The guards aimed their weapons, and Dylan tried to jump back into the stairwell, but Kasaika forced him into the hallway as a distraction and then fired at the guards.

Bullets peppered the concrete walls, and Dylan ducked on the far side of the hallway as Kasaika and his men followed, returning fire. The first terrorist who entered immediately took a bullet to the head and dropped to the floor.

Dylan scrambled to reach for the dead terrorist’s weapon, but Kasaika and his other men cut him off, firing into the hallway, before he had a chance. Kasaika shouted his orders to his men over the gunfire as the two groups crouched and stood their ground in the narrow curving hallway.

Lights flashed, and alarms sounded as Dylan and Kasaika’s men retreated backward, using the curve of the walls as cover while the guards continued their fire. Dylan kept his eye open for the door described in the schematics and finally found it on the left-hand side where the key and fingerprint scan was needed.

Dylan slid the card through the key strip, and the fingerprint panel lit up. He pressed a shaky hand against the scanner as gunshots thundered through the hallways. A very long thirty seconds later, the scanner turned green, and the door opened. Dylan was the first inside and found the package of chips, along with the second component that Perry had asked for personally. When Dylan rushed out, Kasaika and his men were pinned down, holding back a force of at least seven men.

“I have what we need, but we still have to get back to the level above us to make it out of here.” Dylan ducked to avoid a ricochet and looked behind them to make sure they weren’t being flanked. “C’mon! We’ll circle around.”

Dylan led the way, and his heart pounded in rhythm with each step forward. The footsteps behind him had the sound of a panicked herd, but Dylan focused on the simple task of keeping one foot in front of the other until he saw the barrel of one of the guards’ rifles on a turn around the corner and skidded to a stop.

Dylan ducked and narrowly missed a bullet to the head as he ran into one of Kasaika’s men. There were only three guards on this side of the floor, and Dylan knew that they must have split up to try and squeeze them out.

“Forward!” Kasaika waved his men on, pushing the three guards back as empty shell casings clinked against the floor and rolled left and right in sporadic patterns. Smoke wafted from the tips of the rifle barrels, and Dylan kept low to avoid the gunfire from both the terrorists and the guards.

Sparks from bullets ricocheted against the concrete behind Dylan, and he turned to see that the other half of the guards had caught up behind them, pressing them from both sides. “We’ve got company!”

Kasaika turned and started firing back at the guards sneaking up on their rear, while the rest of his men continued to push forward. The three groups were caught in a stalemate, rotating around and around. The longer they stayed here, Dylan knew, the more the fight would turn to the guards’ favor. It wouldn’t be much longer before they had every security guard in the facility hunting them.

A pistol hung from the side of one of Kasaika’s men, and Dylan quickly snatched it from his belt. The man yelled something in Arabic, but Dylan started shooting at the guards, helping the terrorists. Together they pushed forward, and each squeeze of the trigger sent recoil through Dylan’s arm and shoulder. The first few shots almost knocked the gun right out of his hands.

With Dylan’s help, they managed to force the guards to the staircase door, which was the only way in or out of the facility. The terrorists took turns jumping out from behind the bend of the wall to fire, while Dylan watched their six. He periodically checked his bag, making sure the computer chips were still there. If he couldn’t make it out of this place alive, with the computer chips, Sean was dead.

A cluster of grenades rested on Kasaika’s belt, and Dylan plucked one off and chucked it down the hallway. Kasaika and the rest of his men hit the deck, and Dylan mimicked them, covering the back of his head. Screams from the guards echoed down the hallway, and the explosion shook the ground.

The flashing lights in the hallway shut off from the blast momentarily, casting everyone into darkness. Dylan scrambled on all fours, disoriented from the blast but moving where he thought was forward. A whine in his ears blocked the shouts around him.

Gunshots fired sporadically, the flash of the rifles’ barrels illuminating the darkness. Dylan pressed his hands against the cold, smooth, curving surface of the concrete and used that to guide him. He ran quickly, still holding the pistol in his hand. He collided with another body, and both fired randomly into the dark. Dylan jumped at the sound of the gunshot, but the moan came from someone else.

Finally, Dylan found the door handle to the stairwell, and the moment his hand touched the metal, the lights flashed on. At least three of the guards were dead, the rest with wounds ranging from severed legs and arms to shrapnel wounds. Dylan looked down to the terrorists scrambling forward, and before they could get to him, he rushed up the stairs.

Kasaika and the rest of his men shouted and screamed, firing blindly at Dylan as he climbed the steps two at a time. When he had his hand on the door handle to the floor above, he heard the quick thump of Kasaika’s footsteps getting closer.

Dylan ducked after a series of shots echoed up the stairs, and he quickly opened and shut the door behind him, sealing Kasaika and his men inside, unable to get out, as Dylan had the only key card. They pounded on the door, and Dylan took a moment to catch his breath. His breakfast tried to evacuate, but he managed to keep it down. He wiped the snot from his nose and rushed back down to the utility room where they’d entered.

The lights and sirens continued to flash, and when Dylan made it to the utility room, a unit of guards turned the corner. The reaction between sighting him and the gunfire was nearly instantaneous. Bullets whizzed by, and without even thinking about the repercussions, Dylan fired back, shooting one of the guards through the chest.

All three guards had assault rifles, but Dylan couldn’t afford to turn back. If he was caught, then his son’s life would be over. It didn’t matter if Cooper would be able to clear him of whatever charges they threw at him or what they’d be able to get out of Kasaika and his men in terms of a confession. The moment Perry found out what Dylan had done, Sean would be dead, unless he had something to bargain for, something he needed, like the computer chips in the bag at Dylan’s side.

Dylan fired into the cluster of guards, making a final sprint toward the door while he did. He balanced firing and running awkwardly, the gun nearly falling to the ground with each haphazard shot flung in the guards’ direction. He reached for the handle, and a hot sting pierced the upper left of his body, close to his neck, and he stumbled a few steps. He managed to keep the gun in his hand but fumbled with the key card. He leaned against the wall, using it to help stabilize himself.

Blood spurted from the cloth of Dylan’s shirt, and he felt his shoulder go numb. The gun in his hand grew heavy, and he finally managed to slide the card down the middle of the strip. He yanked it open and collapsed inside.

The pistol skidded across the floor, and Dylan crawled to the air duct. All he had to do was make it out of the facility. The cars were still waiting on the other end of the forest that they’d snuck through. He dumped one of the large server pillars across the entrance to the door, blocking the guards from trying to enter, or at least trying to enter easily.

Dylan lifted himself into the vent and crawled as fast as he could, elbows, knees, the top of his head all banging against the metal and concrete. Halfway through he no longer had the use of his arm and had to make the rest of the journey without it.

Throughout the crawl, he thought he could hear the shouts of men and gunfire. He constantly checked behind him, just waiting to see the barrel of a rifle ready to shoot him down. The moment he’d shot that guard, he had become a wanted fugitive and terrorist of the United States of America.

The tunnels finally opened up to where Dylan pushed himself to his feet and stumbled through the light stream of water running along the tunnel’s floor. A small circle of light was ahead, and Dylan felt a burst of energy surge through him at the sight. He broke out into a jog, his head ducked and back hunched from the small tunnel.

Dylan squinted his eyes against the sunlight and continued his stumbled walk through the forest once he was free of the tunnel. It wouldn’t take long for Cooper and the rest of them to realize what had happened. He had to keep moving. The thick trees overhead blocked the sight of the chopper humming through the air, but Dylan still heard the rotating blades wane above.

The trucks they’d arrived in were still nestled under the cover of the large tree where they’d left them, and Dylan ripped the tarp off and climbed into the driver’s seat. His body started to feel cold, and he looked to see that the bloodstain had grown from his trapezius to cover half his chest. He managed to stretch his fingers, curling them in limited mobility, but the rest of the arm was useless. Using his good arm, Dylan pried open the dash underneath the truck and yanked the wires down. He cut the ends off two wires and peeled back the wax. He twisted the pieces of copper together then jammed his knife into the ignition and turned the engine over.

The V8 roared to life, and Dylan engaged the four-wheel drive and tore off through the woods, careening around trees and boulders, doing his best to remember the way out. Each bounce of the truck sent a jolt of pain into Dylan’s shoulder, but he didn’t dare slow his pace.

The blacktop of the road came into view, and Dylan jammed the accelerator down, peeling out on the pavement. The speedometer tipped sixty then seventy once he was on the smooth pavement. Keeping the dangerous speeds and balancing the wheel with his knees, he reached for the phone that was buzzing in his pocket. He knew who it was before he even looked at the screen.

“Here’s the deal,” Dylan said, sandwiching the phone between his cheek and neck while driving. “You get your computer chips when I get my son, and if he’s in any worse shape than the last time I saw him, then the deal is off. There is no other alternative, there is no other deal, this is it. Take it or leave it.”