“I doubt that,” Raven said. “Let’s go make sure.”
The two of them escorted Lyla back to the beach, keeping their heads on the swivel for any more guards.
When they reached the others, Juan was on his feet, walking toward them with Linc and Eddie.
“My fault,” Juan said. “I don’t look like a rescuer at the moment, do I?”
Raven introduced Lyla to them.
“I’m so sorry about shooting you,” Lyla said. “I didn’t know you were the good guys.”
“You’re not a bad shot,” Juan said, massaging the area over a hole in his vest. “One of them got me right in the chest. Luckily, my body armor is rated for pistol fire.” He said nothing about the slice another bullet had taken out of his collar just inches from his neck.
“You mentioned something called Bedtime,” Raven said to Lyla. “What did you mean?”
“It’s a protocol for eliminating all evidence on the island of what we’ve been doing here. That guard was about to begin carrying it out when you saved me.”
“Then we need to get you out of here,” Juan said.
“Those gunshots might be bringing more guards this way,” Eddie said as he watched the path from the jungle.
“Not right away,” Lyla said. “They’ll probably think it was me being executed. We probably have a little time before they send someone out to check.”
“Is it just you on the island,” Juan said, “or are there other prisoners as well in that building?”
“Building? Oh, the shed.” Lyla nodded. “There are nineteen of us here. They’re going to be killed if we don’t get them out of the facility.”
Linc looked at her with a puzzled expression. “Facility? You mean, they’ve been keeping nineteen of you in that little shed for over a year?”
Lyla shook her head. “The shed is only the top part. It’s where they keep the storage containers and tractor. There’s a whole underground complex on this island. And if I understand the Bedtime protocol correctly, they’re going to blow up the entire place with the prisoners still inside.”
TWENTY-TWO
Juan knew they couldn’t wait for reinforcements from the Oregon, though he had Max start bringing the ship in closer. No need for stealth much longer.
“How many guards are in there?” he asked Lyla. She was sitting cross-legged, still dazed from her near-death experience, and Juan knelt in front of her. MacD and Linc kept an eye on the path, while Eddie and Raven were on their knees on either side of the freed prisoner.
“Fifteen,” Lyla said. “Or fourteen now.”
“Not a great ratio,” Eddie said.
“Anyone else?”
She shook her head. “Just the eighteen other prisoners. Sometimes we get visitors, but not often. All our work is done on the computer, and we communicate by text and videoconferencing with the engineers on the project through a dedicated satellite link. If we don’t perform the way the engineers on the other end want, they tell the warden, a nasty Russian soldier type named Fyodor Yudin.”
She gave them the basics of how the underground facility was laid out. There were three levels accessed by a service elevator and stairs. The first and highest level under the shed was the control center and storage. The second level held the common areas like the computer room and the mess hall. All of the living quarters were on the third level down. Power was provided by a diesel generator inside the shed.
“I’m going to have you draw us a map of the facility,” Juan said. “Then I’ll have Raven escort you back to our vessel.”
“What?” Lyla said. “No, I’m going with you.”
Juan shook his head. “It’s too dangerous. You already had one close call today.”
“Listen, I appreciate you rescuing me, I really do. But I have friends in there. If we don’t go get them now, they’re all going to die. Yudin is probably already wondering what happened to my guard.”
Eddie lifted the radio he’d taken from the guard. “She’s right. They just called and told him to get back on the double.”
“Besides,” Lyla said, “the other prisoners might not trust you if I’m not there.”