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Crap.

Matias looked at Wes, shrugging his shoulders in awhat nowfashion. Wes lifted his spare hand and made aknock-knockmotion.

“What?” Matias mouthed, looking as though he wanted to punch Wes in the face.

Wes glared back at him, pointed at the door, and then made anotherknock-knockmotion. I swear, if it weren’t because I was desperate for this whole thing to be over, I’d burst out laughing right then and there. It was just too ridiculous.

Matias rolled his eyes, let out a deep breath, and then knocked on the door. Commotion came from the inside, and after a few seconds, the door opened.

“What do you need?” a man said.

“Oh, nothing much,” Matias said, shrugging his shoulders. “Justthis.” Matias shot out his leg, landing a hard kick to the guy’s sternum and sending the guard flying backward into the room.

Wes stood up, lifting his arm, holding a stun bomb, and in one fluid motion, he pulled out the pin and threw the bomb into the surveillance room. Matias reached forward, snagged the handle of the door, and slammed it closed as a deep, bassy boom—barely audible—came from inside. We remained frozen for several seconds before Matias opened the door, glanced inside,and then motioned us to follow. We poured in and closed the door behind us.

Five men lay on the ground. Harper checked one man’s pulse and confirmed, “He’s alive.”

“Computers are down,” Blondie said as she tapped several keyboards. I noticed all the monitors were black.

“Gotta love a stun bomb,” Matias said. “Knocks the shit out of everything every time.”

“Yeah, except they work like shit in open spaces,” Blondie countered. “I much prefer a real grenade. TNT’s way more reliable than electricity.”

“Tie ’em up,” Wes ordered. “We’ve got to get going.”

Each one of us pulled out a roll of duct tape and began wrapping wrists and ankles, as well as placing a patch over their mouths. Every guard we tied up was one less that could sound the alarm before we had a chance to get out of this place. Wes walked around and collected all of their keycards and then destroyed each guard’s mini-tab.

“Does anyone think that this is too easy?” Harper asked as he spun a roll of tape around a guard’s ankle for the third time.

“Shut up, Harper!” Blondie snapped.

“I’m just saying…”

“I don’t think our boat nearly flipping, and then your ass almost falling 250 feet, was easy,” she countered.

Jim bit off the tape, and then stretched out another six inches of it. “Yeah, but that’s been the hardest part so far. We were all preparing ourselves for this crazy ass death mission, and frankly…it’s been prettyokay.” He bit off the rectangular piece and placed it over the guard’s mouth.

“Christ, Harper,” Matias muttered. “Are youtryingto fuck us all over?”

“I’m just saying—”

“Enough!” Wes bit out. “Stop your yapping and get your asses in gear. Let’s move it!”

We quickly finished up and filed out of the surveillance office, moving on to our next obstacle. But I couldn’t help but mull over Jim’s words. He was right. Thiswastoo easy. As Raúl’s daughter, I knew the Bellfire Tower was rumored to be an awful place. A place no one ever escaped. But if it truly was this horrible, formidable prison, then why was I only moments away from finally having my brother back?

It didn’t make any sense.

Perhaps the formidability of the tower was just another one of Raúl’s lies? Then again, perhaps the tower was only toying with us, letting us think we were superior to her deadly bites. Perhaps she was just biding her time before baring down her teeth and eating us alive.

58: Modified

Matias strolled up to the desk, walking right past it as though he owned the place. We all watched from around the corner, just out of sight of the security station. Our view of the desk itself was a little obstructed, but we had clear sight of the giant barred gate that separated the desk from Cellblock C, which is exactly where Matias went, standing in front of the gate as though it should open for him like an automatic door. It took a second for the guard to notice him. His head looked up from his computer, and then he looked around, completely confused, before he stood up.

“Hey,” he called to Matias.

Matias casually turned around, putting his arms out in awhat’s upfashion.

“What are you doing here?” he asked as he walked around the desk toward Matias.