The Buried (34 page)

“Somebody get these things off me!” The Wolf yelled, holding up her bound hands.

Bianca rolled over to the man she’d killed when Orbits got away. Though the others had taken his gun, they hadn’t patted him down. Like most competent field agents, he was carrying a knife. After Bianca cut the zip-ties from the hands and ankles of The Wolf and the driver, The Wolf told the man to find them a ride and then freed her hunter.

Rubbing her wrists, Bianca said, “Well, that didn’t go as planned.”

The Wolf shot her a look. “You should have killed them.”

“The day’s not over yet.”

Something banged over and over from behind the building. Bianca motioned for her boss to stay where she was before moving around the back corner to check it out. When she returned, she had one of The Wolf’s other men with her.

“Where the hell have you been?” The Wolf demanded.

Bianca said, “He was tied up behind a Dumpster.”

“How did that—” The Wolf stopped mid-question as the driver raced up in a small sedan.

Once they were on the highway, The Wolf pulled out her phone. When the tech answered, she described the car Orbits had been using and said, “Find it!”

Two minutes passed before he called back. “Got him on satellite. He headed off the highway and disappeared into some woods.”

Following the directions he gave them, they made it to the little used road and found not only Orbits’s sedan, but The Wolf’s Explorer
and
a third vehicle. Five minutes later they reached the meadow. When The Wolf saw the rectangular object sticking up near the middle, she started to get a bad feeling. And when they looked down into the hole and saw the space below, she knew her instinct had been right.

That damn Ricky Orbits had gotten Danielle to tell him where the goods were located. The bastard had probably planned to hand the girl over and then empty the place of the weapons that rightfully belonged to her. She admired his audacity and vowed to tell him that right before she had him killed.

“What do you want to do?” the driver asked.

“What do you mean, what do I want to do? We go down.”

__________

T
HE CRAMPED TUNNEL
was
not
designed with pregnant women in mind, Orlando concluded. It was hard enough crawling on her hands and knees, but when she came to a ninety-degree turn, she almost gave up. Forcing herself to continue, she squeezed around the corner and shined her light ahead. At the farthest reaches of her light, she caught sight of Dani’s shoes as the girl rushed away.

“Wait!” Orlando said. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m here to help.”

Dani didn’t stop.

Groaning in frustration, Orlando yelled, “Come on, Dani! Please. I’m Quinn’s partner! My name’s Orlando. You might’ve heard him talk—”

__________

Q
UINN’S PARTNER?

Dani stopped crawling and called back, “You’re lying.”

“I’m not. We were trying to rescue you at the gas station.”

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.”

__________

Q
UINN, 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.

__________

T
HE 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!”

__________

T
HE 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.

__________

Q
UINN 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.”

__________

“I
S 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?”

__________

A
S 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.