“It’s over,” said Mitchell as he laid a hand on Sam’s shoulder.
Sam looked into Mitchell’s blue-gray eyes. She could not believe it. The nightmare was over. Like a dam bursting, all of the pent-up feelings of fear pushed deep inside her came flooding to the surface. With tears streaming down her face, Sam threw herself into Mitchell’s arms.
“It’s okay. We’re here to take you home,” said Mitchell, holding Sam close.
Jackson moved past them and checked on Cardinal. His face grimaced when he saw how bad Cardinal had been beaten. Shaking his head in anger, Jackson moved back to the door to keep watch.
Sam wiped the tears from her face and smiled at Mitchell. She slowly let go of him. “Ryan, I don’t know what you’ve got planned, but Gordon can’t walk.”
“I’ll carry him,” said Jackson firmly.
“Okay, then. We’ll take the nearest elevator and head up to the roof where Yuri can pick us up,” said Mitchell.
With Cardinal in his arms, Jackson handed Sam his machine pistol and fell into line behind Mitchell and Sam as they made their way down the long hallway. They only needed a few minutes, and they would be home free.
28
With a puzzled look on his aged face, the late-night janitor held up the night-vision gear he had found in his cleaning locker. He had been looking for a fresh jug of wax to polish the floors with when he stumbled upon Mitchell and Jackson’s stowed equipment. The old man had no real idea what he was looking at. Thinking it was something that belonged to the security people, he decided that it was nothing to trouble himself with. With a bored shrug, he was about to walk away when he decided to check his other locker for some wax and found the parachutes. With a look of disbelief on his face, he knew that something was wrong. He hurriedly made his way down the stairs and found a phone. Struggling to catch his breath, he made a call to the complex’s security office.
Atsuko was restless.
Cypher was sitting at his desk, busy on a laptop checking his stock portfolio while she waited for him in bed. She couldn’t understand why a man who was already a multi-millionaire would even bother worrying about how much money they had made from one stock or another.
“Come to bed, Gabriel. You can worry about your stocks in the morning,” said Atsuko, trying her best to sound alluring and wanting.
“Just one more minute, my love,” replied Cypher. “I just want to see how things went in New York earlier today.”
Love. Atsuko wished it were true. She knew that it was only a word that Cypher threw around to keep her interested. Still, she liked the sound of it, genuine or not.
Suddenly, a loud klaxon alarm blared in their bedroom, startling Atsuko so much that she screamed in fright.
The phone beside Cypher rang. He picked it up and listened for a few seconds before hanging up.
“What’s going on?” yelled Atsuko, trying to be heard over the shrieking alarm.
“We have intruders,” replied Cypher as he opened a drawer on his desk and pulled out a pistol. He jammed home a loaded magazine, and pulled back on the action, loading a round into the chamber. Grabbing his red silk housecoat, he quickly dressed. Cypher picked up a remote and turned on all of the wall-mounted screens in his room. He changed the channels until the security monitors showed what he was looking for. Cypher grinned when he saw his prisoners and two other men get into an elevator. So, they had come after all. He was beginning to doubt that someone would ever come for his prisoners. With a growing smile on his face, he realized that the man leading them matched the description given to him by Tara, his favorite assassin, after her failed attempt to kill Atsuko’s father.
“I know that man,” said Atsuko as she hurriedly dressed.
“You do?”
“Yes, his name is Ryan Mitchell. He was the one assigned to guard me at the unveiling in Washington.”
Cypher was stunned. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“He’s the man the woman said would come for her and the Canadian.”
“He’s also very dangerous, Gabriel… I’d be careful if I were you.”
Cypher stared at Mitchell with hate in his eyes.
“What are you going to do?”
He picked up his phone and dialed a number. The instant the line was answered, he said, “Stop the number two elevator and then send a squad of men to detain the people trapped inside.”
With a jarring halt, the elevator stopped moving.
“They’re on to us,” said Sam, calmly looking up at the camera mounted in the roof of the elevator.
Furiously smashing it with his machine pistol, Mitchell said, “Okay, everyone, up and out.”
“I’ll never fit through that,” moaned Jackson as he looked up at the small escape hatch on the roof of the elevator.
“You’re welcome to stay here and greet the guards when they arrive.”
“Out of my way,” muttered Sam. Using Jackson as a ladder, she climbed up and pushed open the trap door. A couple of seconds later, she was standing on top of the elevator.
“Pass up Gordon,” said Sam as she reached down from above.
As soon as Cardinal was out of the elevator, Mitchell jumped up and hauled himself up through the hatch.
“Damn it,” muttered Jackson to himself as he stripped down to his underwear.
Mitchell lay face down on the top of the elevator and hung his arms down. “Come on, sexy.”
“You cannot tell anyone what happened here,” said Jackson as he tossed his clothes up and then took hold of Mitchell’s arms.
“Jesus, Nate. Lose a few pounds, would you?” said Mitchell as he strained to pull his friend up.
From behind, Sam grabbed Mitchell’s shoulders. Together they pulled for all they were worth.
Grunting and groaning as if he were in labor, Jackson slowly inched his way up and out of the elevator. A few seconds later, covered in sweat, he lay on top of the elevator, gasping for air.
“Don’t say it. I know I need to go on a diet. When I get back I promise to lose a few pounds,” said Jackson.
“I’ve heard that one before. Now hurry up and get dressed; we have to get out of here,” said Mitchell, looking up the near-pitch-black elevator shaft.
Cracking open a glow stick from his pants pocket, Mitchell shook it for a second. A bright green light filled the elevator shaft. Looking around, Mitchell cursed himself when he saw that they were about a meter short of the next floor. He reached up with his hands, jammed them in-between the closed doors and then tried pulling them apart.
They wouldn’t budge.
Jackson, still only partially dressed, hurried over and thrust his big hands between the doors as well. Taking a side each, they pulled with all their might until the elevator doors slowly began to slide apart. The instant they were open wide enough for Sam to crawl through, she was gone. Quickly returning with a broom in her hands, she jammed it between the doors, keeping them open.
Jackson picked up Cardinal and carefully handed him up to Sam before climbing up to join her. Mitchell wished for a moment that he had a grenade to booby trap the elevator with when he heard voices.
Time was up. They had to get moving.
Mitchell scrambled up to join his friends. He looked up above the elevator and saw that they were one floor below the main factory floor. He yanked the broom from between the doors, Mitchell knew that time wasn’t on their side.
Mitchell tried calling Yuri.
There was no reply.
He tried again.