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CHAPTER 55

ONE OF THE guards led me to my cell like a naughty schoolboy. No words. Just a few annoying prods with his rifle. After he slammed my door and locked it, I walked over to my pile of cash and started counting, just to be sure it was all still there. One hundred thousand dollars. Ten grand for every day I’d awakened at the castle.

Leo was right. It was a pretty strong incentive to hang around.

But not strong enough. Not for me. Not anymore. I had no intention of being turned into a killing machine for some crazed royal.

I sat down on my cot and yanked off the thin cotton sheet. I started a tear with my teeth and ripped a long strip down the whole length. Then I looked for the sturdiest object I could find. The weight rack. Welded steel, bolted to the cement floor.

My way out.

I tied one end of the sheet strip to the upper rail of the rack, then looped the other end around my neck. I leaned against the bottom of the rack until I was sure I had enough tension. Then I slid down and let gravity do its work. I felt my arteries pulsing. I saw sparks in the periphery of my vision.

I figured it wouldn’t take too long.

It didn’t.

Within a few seconds, I heard the bang of the door opening again. Two masked guards rushed in. One sliced the sheet with a knife as the other pulled me to my feet. They expected me to be dizzy and weak.

But I recovered fast.

I knocked out the first one with a chop to the neck. When the other one turned on me, I clocked him in the jaw. His head hit the weight rack on the way down. I grabbed flex cuffs from his belt and tied them both to the leg post. I grabbed one of their pistols and a ten-pound weight and headed out into the corridor. There, recessed into the wall, was a steel locker. It had the same number as my cell.

I gave the lock a solid whack with the weight. The door flew open.

Inside on a narrow metal shelf were my clothes—shirt, shoes, pants, socks, underwear—all clean and neatly folded in a fabric bag. There was only one other item. The cutlass. I grabbed it and stuck it through the belt of my fatigues. Then I ducked back into my cell and stuffed the money into the bag with my clothes.

I glanced at the two guards. Breathing, but still out. I locked the door after me and headed for the elevator. I expected to see more men waiting when it opened, but the car was empty. Leo ran a lean operation. Maybe the two guards were the only ones on duty in my wing.

I pressed the only button. The car started moving up. It opened on the ground floor of the castle, the same place I’d exited with Leo.

I looked around. No guards here, either. And no alarms blaring.

It looked like security wasn’t as tight as I had thought.

I moved through the room with my back against the wall. I found a side door that faced the courtyard. It was locked from the inside. I threw the latch and pulled it open. I held my pistol in front of me in shooting stance, but all I saw were manicured trees and flower bushes. I tucked my bag under my arm and took off.

I didn’t have a mental map of the whole property, just the routes for our training exercises. The forest was west, so I headed in that direction.

We’d always taken roads that led out from the back of the castle. I’d never seen the landscaping in front.

I felt like I was running through the grounds at Versailles.

Everywhere I looked, there were sculpted bushes and stone fountains and rolling lawns. I ducked behind a tall bush to change from my fatigues into my own clothes. I moved along a tall hedge that ran the length of a garden, then broke into a run across an open field. At the far end was a stone wall, about ten feet tall. When I got closer, I spotted some ridges and hollows in the stonework.

Totally climbable.

I tossed the money bag over the wall. Then I reached out to test a handhold about seven feet up.

Bam!

Something knocked me to my knees.

I grabbed my gut and looked around.

Nobody there.

I stood up, still shaky. I raised my foot toward the wall and touched a small ledge with the toe of my shoe. Bam! Another huge shock knocked me on my ass. It felt like it was radiating from inside my body! I yanked the sleeves of my shirt up and angled my right forearm to catch the moonlight.

Then I saw it—a tiny scar, hidden in the coral scrapes and other bruises.

I reached for the wall again. Got knocked down again. This time, it felt like my brain was about to explode.

I sat on the grass and pulled out the cutlass.

I put the tip of the blade on the edge of the scar and pushed. I grimaced and grunted as blood started to ooze out. I dug deeper. And then I got another shock—even stronger. I dropped to the ground again. Almost blacked out.

I grabbed the blade again. Blood was dripping down over my wrist. I knew what I had to do. Against every instinct, I poked the blade into the wound again. No shock this time. Just nerve-wrenching pain. I twisted the blade tip and there it was—a tiny metal chip. The equivalent of an electronic dog collar.

No need for guard towers or electric fencing. Leo’s barriers were built in.

I pulled out the chip and placed it on a stone. Then I smashed it with the hilt of the cutlass. At that point, I had so much adrenaline shooting through me that I probably could have vaulted over the wall.

But I didn’t. I climbed it.

In a few seconds, I was on the other side and running hard toward the woods. I looked back over my shoulder. Nobody coming. At least nobody that I could see. Pulling out the chip must have set off an alarm, right? Or had I just performed a surgery that Leo had never anticipated?

Was I really free?

Or was I disposable?