Shadow Tyrants (Oregon Files 13)

“Roger that,” Max replied. “The HOB?”

“That’s what I’m thinking. Can Gomez control it from where he is?”

A pause, then, “He says, no problem.”

“Good. Give us a couple of minutes to get topside.”

“It’ll be waiting for you.”

“The HOB?” Raven asked as she ran past to the shield provided by the next door.

“A new toy. Haven’t briefed you on it yet. Still experimental.”

“And we’re the guinea pigs?”

“Unless you want to stay here,” Juan said.

Raven ducked as more bullets ricocheted past them. “Not really. I’d rather be a lab rat than a fish in a barrel.”

They kept going until they arrived at the end of the corridor. Guards attacked as they came out of the elevator and were using the doors as shields themselves. While Raven provided cover fire to keep them back, Juan quickly knelt by the north stairwell door and emptied the anti-glue syringe into the sections of the door that Eddie had sealed shut. The glue deposited there bubbled as the solvent ate away at it.

Juan waited five seconds and then threw his shoulder against the door. It flew open, and he turned to lay down suppressing fire for Raven. She dove through the door, bullets flying over her head.

Juan shut it and coated the jamb with half of the glue supply in a second syringe. Raven had given hers to Eddie for the other doors.

“That should hold for a little while, at least,” Juan said. It wasn’t as strong as using the whole syringe, but it might be enough.

They ran up one flight and repeated the process using the rest of the glue on the second-level door.

When they had the guards locked in, they went up to the top level. Juan opened the door and saw an empty hallway. The guards and Yudin must have gone down to the bottom level hoping to stop them and find a way out.

Juan waved Raven to follow. They walked down the hallway, checking rooms as they went to make sure they were clear.

The fifth door Juan opened was to the deserted control room. He went inside hoping to find at least some hard evidence to take with them. He saw a switch labeled PIER. It was currently set to SUBMERGE. It would certainly be easier if the Oregon could pull alongside the pier to pick them up, so he flipped the switch to RAISE.

Then he noticed that the monitor above the switch showed a countdown timer ticking down.

“This doesn’t look good,” he said. “We’ve got less than two minutes.”

Raven frowned. “Until what?”

He tapped on the keyboard, but it asked for a password. He was locked out from making any changes.

“Lyla said the Bedtime protocol was meant to get rid of all evidence of what went on here,” Juan said. “I think the warden set this whole place to self-destruct.”

TWENTY-SIX

Three ATVs with one rider each were approaching the towed container fast. But they weren’t taking the same path. Instead, the ATVs were driving through the jungle to the right of the tractor-trailer.

“They’re trying to make an end run around us,” Linc said.

“They know we’ll be sitting ducks if they can take out MacD in the tractor,” Eddie said.

Although the ATVs were much faster than the tractor, they had to slow considerably in the dense brush.

“I can’t pick them off,” Eddie said after his shots were blocked by the trees. “Can you?”

Linc shook his head. “I can barely see them.”