Page 98 of Girl Lost

Luna paused at the last room. This one felt different. Inside, the bed was unmade, the sheets a tangled mess, as if someone had just been pulled away. Hospital restraints—heavy-duty leather straps—lay on the unmade bed.

“This must be where he was,” Luna said. “We’re too late. He’s gone.”

Trinity’s shoulders slumped, defeat mirrored in her pale face.

Summer gripped the tablet tighter, her gaze flickering back down the hallway, the hope draining from her eyes. “Where would they have taken him?”

Luna pressed her lips together, fighting to contain the despair that threatened to engulf her. “I don’t know.”

She checked her phone. Still no connection. No hope of backup.

They rounded the nurses’ station, their steps silent on the tile floor. Luna snatched up the phone on the desk.Please work.She pressed it to her ear. A dial tone, a faint, reassuring hum. Finally something going right. She punched in Blade’s number. Waited.

A rapid, insistent busy signal blasted in her ear. Her thumb pressed the disconnect button. She released it, tried 911.

Same thing.

“Try nine,” Summer said. “Get an outside line.”

She added it to Blade’s number and 911. Neither worked.

“How about zero,” Trinity suggested.

Luna punched the key and felt her eyebrows raise when she heard, “Chiron BioInnovation Center. How may I direct your call?”

She hadn’t thought this far ahead. Asking for help might only send them trouble. She took a deep breath, pitching her voice low, a gruff, masculine growl. “There’s a bomb in the building. You’ve got three minutes to evacuate. Then it goes boom. You tell the cops that it’s all clear skies ahead.”

She slammed the phone back on its cradle and glanced up at the wide eyes staring back at her.

“Why’d you do that!” Trinity shook her head. “You’re going to cause a panic.”

“Our friends are waiting outside,” Luna said. “Ready to extract. Once they see everyone running out, they’ll understand and send help.”

The alarm blared through the hallway, the shrill sound drilling into her skull.

Trinity flinched, her hand instinctively flying to her chest. “What is that?”

“Shhh...” Summer’s gaze darted down the hall. “Someone’s coming.”

“This way.” Luna grabbed their hands and pulled them toward a nearby doorway.

They stumbled into a small, darkened room. A storage room of some kind. The heavy steel door clicked shut behind them, sealing them inside. Luna pressed her back against the cool metal.

She held a finger to her lips. Quiet.

They crouched in the darkness, barely daring to breathe, listening to the heavy footsteps approaching, the murmur of voices growing louder.

“Clear!” one of the guards called out.

“Check the south rooms,” another voice ordered.

The voices faded, moving on to search another part of the facility.

Luna released a breath. But Trinity’s hand tightened on her arm. “What is this place?” she whispered.

It took a moment for Luna’s eyes to adjust to the dim light. A yellow safety cabinet stood against the far wall, its door ajar. She peered inside. White plastic jugs lined the shelf, each marked with red-and-white hazmat stickers. The bold black lettering on the bottles read “Diethyl Ether.”

Shelves lined the walls, stainless steel and sterile, each one filled with containers. Glass containers of various sizes, labeled with dates and alphanumeric codes. And within each one, floating in a pale, pinkish liquid, were organs.