The two guards returned, and one said, “The elevator is out of order. The hoisting cable must have been cut. The cab dropped a few feet before the emergency brakes kicked in.”
Yudin blanched. This was a nightmare. He had to stop the intruders.
“What about the south stairs?”
“We can’t get the door open no matter how hard we pulled.”
He called down to the second level, and they reported that their door to the south stairwell was also blocked. But they said the north stairwell door was accessible.
The intruders must have jammed the doors, probably with that gel. These were pros. “Every man get a weapon!” Yudin shouted. “We’re stopping this escape attempt at all costs.” By the looks of it, they still had superior numbers to overcome the attackers.
“We’re locked in,” one of the men said. “And we can’t get to the prisoner level or outside.”
Yudin knew the guard was right. They had to break out, but how? The explosives they had were kept up in the shed. Blowing the doors open was impossible. And the intruders had disabled the elevator.
But maybe not the elevator doors. The shaft itself might be accessible from the second level.
He turned to the guard. “Take every man down to the second level and climb down the elevator shaft to the prisoner level. Kill everyone there.”
The guard nodded and waved to the others to follow him.
Yudin called on the radio to the five guards at the beach.
“Come in, zero-nine.”
“Zero-nine here,” came the response from the German. “Zero-six is dead. We can’t find the prisoner.”
“She’s here. We’re under attack.”
“Attack? Who is—”
“I don’t know!” Yudin yelled. “Just get back here on the double.”
“Yes, sir.”
Now that the facility was compromised, Yudin couldn’t wait any longer to activate the self-destruct. He entered his code in the computer and set the timer on the bombs embedded in the prison’s walls. Then he relocked the computer.
Now Yudin was the only one who could stop the countdown. In five minutes, the entire underground structure would implode.
* * *
—
As the cells were unlocked, the prisoners were ushered to the south stairwell and up to the shed, where MacD was waiting for them.
The pounding on the north stairwell door had stopped. Juan’s biggest fear was that the guards had enough explosives on hand to blow open one of the doors. He was trying to get everyone out as quickly as possible. Some of the eighteen prisoners were out of shape, and the long walk to the sunken pier could take too long. Protecting all of them during the hike would be nearly impossible.
“MacD,” Juan said into his comm mic, “prep the tractor. We’re going for a drive.”
“Roger that.”
“Max, what’s your ETA?”
“Still five minutes out,” Max replied.
“Understood. If you can wring out some more from the engines, we’d be much obliged. Might need some cover fire. Got a bit of a situation here. Keep a lookout for us at the pier.”
“Our eyes are peeled.”