AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But one thing she did know was that she couldn't use a light. It might alert the wrong person.
She closed the door quietly behind her.
As May crept in, she saw there were occasional lights in the tunnel, so dim that they were more like bright stars. But they were all she had, and she would have to use them. She walked down the tunnel, her feet treading over concrete, the air around her cold and dank. Her pounding heart was the only sound she could hear apart from the soft clipping of her heels on the floor. Her breathing was fast and shallow, and she felt her heart beating in her throat.
And then, ahead of her, there was a fork in the tunnel. She stopped, unsure which way to go.
The tunnel branched left and right.
May thought fast.
She guessed that one branch would take her to this man’s quarters. Perhaps that was how this layout worked. And the other branch would take her where she needed to go—to the victims.
She listened out, but the tapping had stopped. There was no more guidance now. She was on her own.
There was only one choice. Left or right. She had a fifty-fifty chance and knew that the wrong choice might spell disaster.
May took a deep breath and walked to the left. She followed the tunnel down, then ducked under a low, concrete archway and pushed on. This path was so dark, it almost seemed solid. Her eyes strained in the gloom. The chill took her breath away. The tunnel was rough, and she had to watch her footing.
There, on the side, there was an annex. Was that a door beyond it?
May turned to the annex, wanting to check. If it was a door, this might lead to the victims. This could be where they were kept.
But then, abruptly, all the lights went out.
May gasped. She'd thought it was dark before. But now, it was solid. She couldn't see a thing. She was buried in blackness.
She reached out, panic flaring, needing to touch something, because this utter lack of light was dizzying. What had happened? Had the power failed? May groped in the dark, her eyes straining to see, but it was hopeless.
She felt something solid, a wall.Her hand found the rough concrete and she used it to steady herself, trying her best to orient herself.
There was the frame of a door in the annex. But were the hostages behind it?
“Are you in there?” she whispered. “Is anyone there?”
There was a hush for a moment. And then a voice whispered back, just a thread of sound, from the other side of the door.
“Be careful. He’s coming for you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
The doomsday survivalist had seen the lady cop from the time she came in. Of course he had. This bolt hole was equipped with top-end cameras—both normal and infrared. Securing his world from intruders was as important as protecting it from the apocalypse.
So far, nobody had gotten through the layers of security and concealment. But now, she had. This policewoman with the blond ponytail and trim figure—this unassuming girl next door was the one who was going to try and take him down?
Impossible! But it was happening.
Rage surged inside him—rage, and a deep, bloody desire for payback. Everyone who was part of this debacle must suffer now.
It was the assets, they had led her in, he realized.
"It's them, it's them," he ranted in a crazed whisper as he paced up and down in his small living area where the screens were placed. "They did this, they messed it up. All of this, I did for them. And look what they have done."
He gritted his teeth so hard that he thought they might break, because he had not put a stop to this in time.
That constant tapping on the exposed steel was not loud, but it was audible if you were nearby. And he'd been planning to put an end to that tonight. It was one of the rules he was going to enforce later on.
Now, it was too late for that.
