She sighed. “Yes, I know that. I can’t move it, though. I’ve tried. But it’s too . . . heavy for me to move it when it’s in a more solid form.”
Decided now wasn’t the time to work on Mahin’s talents. Now was the time to get the heck out of here, find the other bombs, and stop the bad guys.
Of course, now was also the time to discover exactly where in the Guantanamo complex we were. We were underground and, as I noted something starting to swirl toward us, under the water line.
“Um, how are you with liquids?”
“Useless.” She put her hands up and out and a wall of dirt went up between us and the water that was definitely starting to flood this area. “I can hold it off for a little while, but not too long.”
“Okay, hold it as long as you can, I’ll be right back.” Ran down the corridor and looked around carefully. There were no doors here. There was no way Ronaldo and company had teleported out of this area. There was no gate. Meaning there was a hidden door somewhere, because there was no way they’d have set off a bomb in this area until they were safely away from it.
“Hurry!” Mahin called. She sounded strained. “I can’t hold it much longer.”
Considered all the options, which were slim and getting slimmer. Had no clue what to do. Decided going for the crazy was probably in my best interests. Dropped my Glock into my purse, pulled out my iPod, and hit play.
Van Halen’s “Jump” was the current song of choice. “Thanks. You’re really earning the milk and pennies in shoes or whatever today.” Dumped the iPod back into my purse.
Looked at the ceiling as I headed back to Mahin. Just before I reached her I saw what looked like a rectangular outline that wasn’t the same as the rest of the ceiling. I jumped up. Couldn’t reach it. Squatted down and did my best frog jump. Still missed.
“What are you doing?” Mahin asked.
“I think there’s a trick door above us.”
“Why would a military base have something like that?”
“No freaking idea. Maybe it’s part of someone’s old escape plan. We can figure out how it got here once we get through it.”
Ran down the corridor back to Mahin’s dirt wall. Water was starting to seep through it. Turned and ran as fast as I could. Jumped at the last minute and was rewarded by being able to slam my hands against the rectangle. It moved.
I landed and spun around. “Screw the dirt wall. Make a hand stirrup and give me a boost.”
Mahin stared at me for a long moment. Then she nodded and dropped her hands into the classic stirrup boost. I stepped onto her hands, and she grunted but was able to get me up.
Slammed my hands against the trapdoor and this time I was able to move it. Grabbed the lip. “Shove hard!” She did, and I was able to pull myself up. Didn’t stop to take in my surroundings, just lay on my stomach, held onto the edge, and put my hand down. “Jump and grab my hand, wrist to wrist!”
She had the A-C ability to jump, which was good, because the water was pouring in. Mahin and I managed to get a good hold on each other’s arms at the wrist, and then the fun of trying to pull her up began.
I wasn’t losing her, but the water made her heavier and it was causing her some issues. Also, if I couldn’t get her up and into this room with me in time to slam the trapdoor shut, we were both going to drown, just on different levels.
Felt something brush by me, and Mahin felt a lot lighter. I tugged, and she flew up with me. Literally. She looked as though something had her clothes held in its talons. She was in, and I slammed the trapdoor down. “Good job, Bruno.”
Looked around. We were in a dark room with what looked like a lot of boxes in it. Pulled my phone out and used it as a flashlight. Had a lot of missed texts and calls. Decided now wasn’t the time to check them out. Checked out the room instead.
Sadly, we weren’t in Supply Room #30. On the other hand, we weren’t drowned or blown up, so chose to see this as one for the win column. Found the light switch and turned it on. Nothing. So they’d taken out the power, at least to this area.
“Any guess as to where they are or we are?”
Mahin shook her head. “I’ve never been here before. In case you weren’t sure.” Oh good, Mahin had a sarcasm knob.
“Help me shove these boxes onto that door. Hopefully it’ll keep the water out.”
Tried to figure out my next move as we did this. Didn’t have a lot of ideas other than “get the bad guys and save the base.” Didn’t feel this was my most sophisticated plan ever.
Remembered I had help with me it was about damn time to use. Opened up my purse only to see that there were no Poofs in it. “Really? Bruno, my bird, I hope you’re still around, because the Poofs have done a runner.” Either to avoid the water or, more likely, to follow Gladys. However, the bad guys had Poof Traps and I had no Poofs on Board. Both were not things that made me happy.
Bruno squawked. He wasn’t going derelict in his duties, thank you very much.
“Excellent. Get us out of here, preferably before the next bombs explode.”
Bruno went visible and Mahin jumped. “Where did that come from?”
“That is Bruno, and he’s been with us the whole time. I think. He’s what helped pull you up out of the water.”
“Oh. Thank you.”
Bruno looked at her, cocked his head, studied her some more, then went over and nudged against her. Mahin looked surprised, but she bent down and petted him. “I can’t tell by the light from your phone—is he a peacock?”
“Peregrine. It’s an Alpha Four bird.”
“Alpha Four?”
“Wow, they didn’t tell you squat, did they? I’ll fill you in later. Right now, we need to find the rest of the bombs and hopefully defuse them.”
“What if we can’t?”
I shrugged. “Then we do the next best thing and you use your earthbending powers to engulf, control, and contain the blasts.”
Mahin nodded. “I can do that.”
Bruno screeched and headed to the door. Used my phone’s light to follow him, then once I was at the door, dropped my phone back into my purse. Decided I’d spent long enough without music, and besides, why make it hard for Algar to give me musical clues? Clipped my iPod to my jeans and put my earbuds in. “Zoot Suit Riot” from the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies came on my personal airwaves. That boded.
“Let’s go. Be ready for a lot of chaos.”
Opened the door and Bruno trotted out. Grabbed Mahin’s hand and headed out after my big bird.
CHAPTER 68
I WOULD HAVE LOVED to have discovered that Bruno knew where the hell we were and how to get out. What I discovered was that he was better at mazes than I was, but not prescient.
So, we made several wrong turns, backtracked a few times, but did manage to be close but not too close when the next bomb went off on the level we were on now. Mahin did her thing, explosion wasn’t stopped but was contained, and Bruno took off again, with us in hot pursuit.
“He’s trying to find the bombs?” Mahin asked as we ran up a new set of stairs.
“I have no idea. If we find another one, then the answer is yes.”
“Why explode something on each level?” she asked as we crested the stairs and Bruno screamed at us.
Didn’t bother to answer, just grabbed her hand again, scooped Bruno up in my free arm, and ran at the fastest hyperspeed I could manage, which, considering I was revved up on a combination of anger and panic, was pretty damn fast. Which was a good thing. Because I’d understood Bruno’s scream, and it interpreted to, “We need to run away like bats out of hell.”
He hadn’t been exaggerating. The explosion was huge, and it knocked us down. We rolled over and Mahin got her hands up just in time, the flames were engulfed and the debris settled down. But the stairs we’d just come up were no more.