“Okay,” he said, revising his plan. “I was just asking.”
Chloe went first, pulling a flashlight out of her pocket he hadn’t known she’d brought along, and he followed. At the bottom was a large, damp tunnel running perpendicular to the entrance tube.
“This leads back to the main building?” he asked.
Chloe grimaced, annoyed. “Do you not listen to me? I already told you it doesn’t.” She huffed out a breath, then said, “Come on.”
She headed to the left, the glow of her flashlight leading the way, then stopped after forty feet and said, “Here.”
She turned her flashlight toward the wall and revealed a big V-shaped break. Ash examined it for a moment. There was an opening through the dirt on the other side of the concrete, not really a tunnel, more of a rift through the earth. Just at the furthest reach of the light he thought he caught a glimpse of more cement.
“This happened during the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989,” she said. “You know, the one that took down that freeway in San Francisco?”
He vaguely remembered that from when he’d been a kid. “What’s on the other side?”
Instead of answering, she climbed into the rift and started working her way through the cramped space. Ash knew it was going to be even tighter for him, so instead of crawling as she had, he got on his stomach and pulled himself forward.
The distant cement turned out to be a wall, the break in it not a giant V, but a lopsided oval. As he slipped through the opening and got to his feet, he found himself in a wide space that fell quickly off into darkness beyond the spill of the flashlight.
“Welcome to the Palmer Psychiatric Hospital’s special patient facility. Or what’s left of it,” Chloe said.
She moved the flashlight through the room. There were piles of wood and old office furniture and what appeared to be mattresses. Trash was strewn throughout.
“When they tore down the building, they left the basement,” Chloe explained. “They threw some dirt over the top and let the earth reclaim it. Above us is that clearing we walked through.”
“Why leave the basement?” he asked.
“You ask me like I was there. I wasn’t. I do know, though, that they tore the building down not long after the earthquake.” She paused. “You want my guess?”
He shrugged. “Okay.”
“The hospital was still open then. The people who were running it would have known about the tunnel, and probably thought they could still use this place. It’s nice and hidden from the view of anyone. I wouldn’t have put it past them.”
That was a bit on the conspiracy side of things for him, but then again, hadn’t his whole life slipped firmly to the conspiracy side? God, what was happening to him?
“Show me the tunnel into the hospital.”
“Follow me.”
She led him to a door in the far corner. Inside was a staircase leading down.
“There’s two underground levels?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Just the stairs,” she said as she started down. “And the tunnel.”
Directly left of the stairs at the bottom was a wide opening. Chloe shined the light into it, but it revealed nothing more than walls on each side before the darkness took over again.
As she started to walk into it, Ash said, “Wait.”
She turned back.
“This isn’t your fight,” he said. “I appreciate you getting me here, but I think I should go on alone from this point.”
She stared at him, then said, “Really? Do you know how to get out of the other end of this tunnel?”
“Is it that hard?”
“It depends on your definition, I guess.”
He shrugged. “If you tell me how to do it, I’ll manage.”
“And what are you going to use for light? You’re not taking my flashlight.”
“Actually, I am,” he said. “You can wait here until I get back.”
She took a step away from him, toward the tunnel. “You want to leave me here in the dark? Are you kidding me?”
“It’ll be safer.”
“Yeah, until I go crazy because I keep hearing things, then I run straight into a wall and knock myself out. I’m sorry, Mr. Not-In-The-Army-Anymore, but no way in hell I’m staying here in the dark.” With that she turned and started down the tunnel.
Once more he found himself in the position of following her.
The tunnel between the buildings was a good six feet wide and at least eight tall, with a gentle downward slope. Ash realized that explained why the stairs from the annex basement had been built. If the tunnel had been dug directly from the main building up to the annex, it would have had a considerably steeper incline.
After they’d gone nearly fifty yards, Chloe whispered, “We’re getting close, so best to stay quiet.”
Ten yards further on, they came to a stop in front of a cinder-block wall that closed off the tunnel.
“I thought you said this went all the way through,” Ash said, feeling suddenly panicky.
“You’re such a downer.”
She knelt by the wall and worked her fingers into the gaps on either side of a block on the bottom row. Within seconds, she slid it out. Peeking through, she shined her light into the opening then sat back up. Four more blocks came out. When she was done, she’d created a hole big enough for them to snake through.
“This was apparently put up when the hospital finally closed. They were supposed to fill in everything on this side of it.” She shrugged. “I guess they didn’t have the money.”
“How did you find out about it?” he asked.
She was silent for a moment. “Matt’s people, when they got me out. They showed me.”
Before he could ask another question, she disappeared through the wall. Ash, left in the dark, had to feel his way down to the opening then slip through and join her. On the other side, the tunnel went on for another twenty feet, then T-boned into a wide corridor.
“Where exactly are we?” he asked.
“This is the main hospital. The part that was built into the side of the hill,” she said. “We’re on the top floor, but still underground.”
Ash tensed. “Where will my kids be?”
“Two floors down,” she said without hesitation.
Once more he thought about leaving her behind, but she’d proved more useful than he’d expected. So instead, he said, “Show me.”
“There are five stairwells,” she told him. “One at each corner, and a fifth along the south wall.” She pointed off to their left. “We’re actually on the fourth floor. Your kids’ll be on the second, in the northeast corner.” As she said this, her jaw clenched a little. She was quiet for a moment. “The quickest way is by either of the north-side stairwells, but there’s an excellent chance the others will hear us before we can even get close.”
“So we use one on the south side,” he said, eager to move.
“Yes, but not one in the corners,” she told him. “The one in the middle. This floor used to be where the doctors’ offices were. The middle stairway is attached to the old hospital director’s office. It was his private way of getting in and out.”
“Fine,” he said impatiently. “Can we just go?”
She glanced at him without moving. “You might want to get your gun ready.”
The middle stairway creaked a bit as they went down, but not enough, Ash hoped, to draw attention. When they reached the closed door at the second floor landing, Chloe stopped and listened.
“I don’t hear anything,” she whispered.
“What’s on the other side?”
“An examination room. Or at least I think that’s what it used to be.”
“Do they use it?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “There was a stack of old wheelchairs there when I came through. That was about it. They only use a small area in the back of the building. ”
As she reached for the door handle, Ash grabbed her arm, stopping her.
“I’ll go first.”
Holding the SIG in one hand, he grabbed the knob with his other and eased the door open.
Indirect sunlight filtered into the examining room from a window on the south wall, providing more than enough illumination to see the stack of wheelchairs Chloe had mentioned. From the dust on the floor it was clear no one had been through here in a long time. Ash stepped inside, and moved quickly across the room to the main door. There was only silence on the other side.