Page 117 of Spy With Me

She turned and her body seemed to lift. Zach was there. Hisface was in the window, their bodies separated by these fucking doors, andthere might not be anything they could do about it. She pocketed the key cardand put a hand to the window, wanting so badly to be able to touch him. “Youhave to get out of here.”

She could see her uncle trying to use the key card from theother side.

“I’m not leaving you.” Zach’s beautiful face was stark inthe sputtering lights.

“Huisman ran that way. He has some kind of plan, and he’sgoing to blow the whole mountain. You have to get the team out of here.” Shewould beg and plead. Anything to save his life. Their lives. She would givehers up so her family could live. “Tell my parents and my brother I love them.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Zach reiterated.

Her uncle stepped away, his fingers at the comm in his ear.

“I love you, Zach.”

“Move back.” His jaw went tight.

Her uncle stopped him. “Lou is working on the system, butshe’s got another problem.”

Devi nodded. “He’s got a way to blow the whole compound, andthat will send the anthrax out into the world. But he told us it’s on a timer.”

“Lou, is there a timer?” her uncle asked, touching his earagain. Then he cursed. “The comms go in and out, and I’m pretty sure Huismanhad protocols to fuck with the key cards. Sometimes they work. Sometimes theydon’t.”

“Chaos,” Shannon said. “It’s what he bases his world viewon. I suspect he’s the only person in the facility with a master card thatworks all the time. He’s likely set up a rotating system that shuts downsecurity levels. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don’t.”

“So we try again in a few minutes?” Devi asked.

“No. I get this fucking door down.” Zach’s eyes suddenlywent wide. “Devi, behind you.”

She turned and gasped because Ray White was walking throughthe doors they’d opened. He was covered in blood and looked like a damn zombie.

Unfortunately, he didn’t move like one, and he’d found morethan a working keycard. He seemed to have found another gun along the way.

“Bitch,” he cursed and raised the gun.

Devi leapt, throwing her body to the right and behind thefirst of the long tables that dotted the cafeteria. It wasn’t a large room.Just enough for roughly forty people to take a break if they needed one. Shewould have to move and fast.

“Ray,” she heard Shannon say. “Don’t hurt Zach this way.Don’t hurt our boy.”

She couldn’t see Ray. She gripped the gun, thankful shemanaged to not drop it. Devi crawled along the side of the table to the end.Tilting her head down, she could see Ray’s boots and Shannon’s sensible shoes.They were too close. Why wasn’t Shannon hiding?

She heard something heavy hit the doors. Zach. He would tryto get in.

“Our boy? The one you took from me?” Ray asked, his voicelow and gravelly.

“He’s still your son.” Shannon’s voice was soft but steady.

How many times had she been put in a position where she hadto placate this man so no one got hurt? Zach’s mom was a study in tragedy.She’d made the mistake of falling in love with the wrong man, and there hadbeen no going back.

Another bang and pop and she realized Zach and her unclewere shooting at the door, trying to get it to give.

It wouldn’t. It was too well built.

“I think him watching me kill his bitch will be a fittingpunishment for betraying his father,” Ray said, but she watched his leg twitch.

He wasn’t all there. What she’d done earlier with the hammerto his head was probably still going to kill him, but it would be too late.

“Of course, maybe it’s time I took care of you, too,” hesaid in a growl. “Look at you, Shannon. A gun to your head and you stand there.Ain’tno fight in you at all.”

But this was how Shannon fought. She’d gone on the run toprotect her family, given up the life she could have spent with them so thisman didn’t infect them all. Sometimes bravery was simply standing tall and notgiving in.