The Search (39 page)

"Nothing's under control." She started down the steps. "Logan's in the basement lab. If you didn't know already."

"I knew."

"And you and Logan knew all about Bassett."

"Not at first. We only suspected. But we confirmed when we found out that his calls to his wife were being forwarded to another number."

"That's why no matter how tight the security, you knew Rudzak would strike here. He had someone on the inside feeding him information about security checks and opening all the doors."

"Yes, that's what tipped you off, wasn't it? I knew it bothered you."

"Then why the hell didn't someone tell me?"

"Sarah, you're many things, but deceitful isn't one of them. You'd never have been able to look Bassett in the face and pretend you didn't know."

"So Logan is down there alone with Rudzak."

"You can't go down there, Sarah. That's what Rudzak wants."

"Watch me."

Galen's hand closed on her shoulder. "I promised Logan that I'd get you out of here."

"Then you lied through your teeth, because I won't--"

Darkness.

12:05 A. M.

"You're being very docile, Logan," Rudzak said. "I wonder why."

"It could be the gun in your hand."

"Yes, that would have a dampening effect. Then there's the fact that your feet and hands are tied up. And you're lying on the floor like an animal ready for slaughter."

"Or it could be that this building is crawling with security men and one of them will come bursting in here any minute and butcher you." Logan smiled. "I'm visualizing that possibility with great pleasure."

"I'd kill you first." He smiled back. "But that's not going to happen. I've planned this too well. We'll just wait for your Sarah and then begin. I'm hoping the blast won't kill you immediately, but it probably will. If the blast doesn't kill you, then you'll still be crushed. I had Duggan plant the explosives at the top of those columns. The girders holding up this section of the building will topple like dominos."

"Another tribute to Chen Li."

"The last one."

"No, you'll be the last one. They'll catch you and send you back to prison. You'll die there."

Rudzak shook his head. "I'll get away from here the same way I got in--through an old trapdoor leading to a drainage tunnel beneath the building. I have a plane waiting for me at a small airport outside town. I'll be gone before anyone bothers to look for me. They'll be too busy trying to dig your body out of the wreckage."

"Don't count on it. Galen's smart and he's my friend."

"I was very tempted to include Galen in my plans, but it wasn't practical. Perhaps I'll have a chance at him later." He checked his watch. "Bassett is being very slow."

"Maybe he's tipped his hand. Sarah's not stupid."

"No, but Bassett says she likes him, and it's hard to suspect people you like." He smiled again. "You liked Bassett too, didn't you?"

"Wouldn't he have been here already if something hadn't gone wrong? Galen was ordered to clear the building. That would include Bassett. If Bassett objected, it would have sent up a red flare. Galen's not like Sarah, he suspects everyone."

Rudzak frowned. "You're trying to make me uneasy. Are you willing to give up your final moments to save the woman?"

Logan didn't answer.

"Maybe you are. You always were a fool." His frown cleared. "I'll wait a little longer. It may be worth it."

"Good." Push him, make him uncertain, make him uneasy. And hope Galen managed to get Sarah out of the facility. "Every minute you spend here will make it easier for Galen to catch you."

Rudzak hesitated and then shook his head. "We'll wait."

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

Logan was staring at him. Where was his fear? Rudzak had wanted him afraid. Would he be afraid at that final moment?

And where was Bassett?

"He's not coming." Logan was reading his expression. "But Galen will come. He should be wondering now where I am."

Rudzak made a decision. "I don't need Sarah Patrick. I can always get her later." He walked over to Logan. "And I will get her, Logan. Think about that when those columns come crashing down." He opened his duffel bag. "I have a present for you. I was going to make the mirror my final gift, but I changed my mind. I decided that this should be the final resting place for all my other gifts to Chen Li." He pulled out a large teakwood box. "So I put the other six treasures I gave her in this box and a little something else besides." He opened the lid to reveal four sticks of dynamite beneath the artifacts.

Logan stiffened. "I hate to pun, but isn't that overkill?"

A response at last. Logan was trying to hide it, but the shock was clear.

"When I'm in the drainage tunnel, I'll blow the charges Duggan set in here. But that's a little unimaginative for me. So I want you to watch this fuse creep closer and closer." He placed the box beside one of the columns nearest Logan and unwound the fuse as he made his way across the lab toward the door. He stopped there and leaned down to light the fuse. "It's a slow burning fuse. You won't know which one of the charges will take you out first, Duggan's or mine. You have about three minutes. Lie there and count the seconds." He took a last look at Logan. Logan's expression was grim, but he still didn't see fear, he realized in frustration. "Good-bye, Logan, you're going to die."

"If I do, then Chen Li will welcome me. I did all I could to save her. She wouldn't welcome you, Rudzak. You murdered her. She'd hate your guts."

"You lie. I saved her." He slammed the door and ran down the steps. Moments later he was in the drainage pipe.

Shit.

Logan stared at the bright glow of the burning fuse.

Think. Don't panic.

Don't panic when the damn lab might fall down on top of him any minute? His heart was pounding so hard, it felt ready to jump out of his chest.

Find a safer spot.

He started crawling across the floor.

Rudzak's footsteps echoed as he ran down the drainage tunnel.

What Logan said wasn't true. Chen Li would never hate him. It was Logan, not Chen Li, who thought that everything Rudzak and she had together was ugly and strange.

Another two minutes and it would be safe for him to press the switch. Logan would die.

And the memory of Logan and Chen Li together would die with him. Then Rudzak would remember only Chen Li, the way she had been before Logan had come along.

One minute.

He reached in his pocket and took out the switch. One more minute, Chen Li.

He ran faster.

Only a little while longer, Chen Li.

Soon, beloved.

Soon . . .

Sarah opened her eyes to black sky and trees overhead. She was lying on grass and Monty's head was on her arm.

And Galen was towering above her, talking to someone.

He must have felt her gaze on him, because he looked down. "Sorry." His tone was tense. "I had to get you out of there."

She vaguely remembered his hand on her shoulder. A pinprick . . . "You drugged me."

"Only the lightest sedative, or you'd still be out."

"You drugged-- Logan!" She sat upright.

"I think Logan's fine."

"You think?" She looked around her. Grass. Men. A concrete drainage pipe. "Where are we?"

"Outside the facility."

"And Logan's still inside?"

"It's been only ten minutes."

"With Rudzak." She scrambled to her knees. "Why haven't you gone after him?"

"We're waiting."

"Waiting?"

He nodded at the drainage pipe. "That was the way Rudzak got into the facility."

"Then go after him, dammit."

"Logan told us to wait."

"What do you mean? He's going to blow--"

The earth shook beneath her before she heard the blast.

The drainage pipe erupted into a fireball of flying concrete and smoke.

"No!" She was on her feet and running toward the drainage pipe.

Galen tackled her before she reached it. "Sarah, it's okay. This is what Logan wanted."

She gazed at him in horror. "He wanted to be blown to bits? Are you crazy?"

"Logan's not suicidal. It wasn't the facility that blew, it was the drainage pipe. We knew about the explosives planted in the basement lab and we moved them to the pipe. Rudzak should have been in the pipe when he pressed the switch."

Hope surged through her. "The lab didn't blow?"

"No, just the drainage tunnel."

"You knew Rudzak was coming through that pipe, but you didn't call the police."

Galen was silent a moment. "Logan didn't want him caught and put in a jail somewhere. He wanted him dead. He made the mistake before of not killing him. He wasn't going to do it this time."

"So he made himself bait? What if Rudzak killed him before he left the lab?"

"Logan didn't think that's what he had in--"

"What if Logan was wrong?" She was starting to shake. "How can anyone guess what that son of a--"

Another explosion rocked the earth.

Sarah stared in shock at the building. The smoke was clearing to reveal that not only the drainage pipe had been blown. She whispered, "Is it the lab?"

Galen was cursing. It was answer enough.

12:55 A.M.

The firemen were blowing out the drainage pipe, trying to clear it of dust and lethal gases. Sarah's nails dug into the palms of her hands as she watched them.

"It shouldn't have happened," Galen said. "My guys aren't careless. They wouldn't have missed any of the charges in that lab."

"Well, it did happen," she said dully. "And Logan will be lucky if he's not underneath a ton of wreckage. Even if he's alive, I don't know how the hell anyone's going to get to him. That corner of the building collapsed."

Monty pressed closer to her legs and looked up at her. Find?

She reached down and stroked his head.

Find?

Yes, keep hope alive even if she was scared to death. So, stop standing there, shaking. There might be a way. Sweet Jesus, she hoped there was a way. "Find." She started toward the fire department rescue command post with Monty trotting after her.

"Where are you going?" Galen called.

"To do my job."

Christ, it was dark.

Monty was crawling ahead of her through the rubble in the drainage pipe. She could barely see him, but he was crawling steadily. He knew where he was going, he had the cone.