Disoriented by the wavering tunnel shadows and the quick pace, Gina kept her head down and concentrated on moving. When they reached the end of the tunnel, she was startled by a dead-end of nothing but rock.
“Now what?” she asked, struggling to catch her breath.
Nathan stepped to one side of the tunnel and pressed a spot on the rock. A hologram disguising the tunnel exit fell away, revealing a metal door barely large enough for the men to get through. Dim light filled the cavern, revealing a plexi-sealed room with three biosuits hanging on the wall.
Gina blanched at the sight of the suits.
“We’ll only use them if we have to,” Alex murmured, close to her ear. “We’ll hold out here for BinRal as long as we can.”
“Storm’s hit,” Nathan said from a small computer console near the door. “We won’t last long out there without the suits.”
“Only if we need them. Nate, check the tunnel.”
Nathan disappeared the way they’d come, and Alex moved to the console.
“What are you doing?” She moved up behind him.
“Setting the auto-destruct. We’ve got fifteen minutes before the rendezvous with BinRal. Whether he’s here or not, we’ll have to leave.”
“How much time are you giving us to get away?” She wrapped her arms around herself, warding off the cold seeping through the walls.
“Twenty minutes.”
“Is that enough time if BinRal isn’t here in fifteen minutes?”
“It’ll have to be.”
“You may as well turn that off.”
At the sound of the new voice, Alex spun, blaster raised, a strong arm pushing her behind him. Nathan stood with his hands up, a blaster to his head, half blocking the figure behind him. The woman in front of Nathan, however, stood in full view with a wicked looking weapon pointed at Alex’s chest.
Gina choked on a curse and clenched Alex’s free arm. “Mira?” She could hardly believe what she was seeing—like looking at a ghost. Mira was supposed to be dead, killed in the public link accident that had also killed Barry. All three of the other members of the team who’d had the M-SIDs injected into their blood stream were supposed to be dead.
The woman smiled. “Hi, Gina. Surprised to see me? I’m afraid only Barry made the train that day. Lucky me. Thanks for that shout, by the way. Made Louis’s job pinpointing the tunnel easier.”
Gina felt her lip twitch with a snarl. All her shock and fear were buried under outrage as she watched a woman she’d trusted point a blaster at Alex. She tried stepping around him, but he held her in place with one hand, never taking his gaze off Mira.
Mira laughed, a light, relaxed sound. “Gina, that temper of yours is going to get you killed.”
On a good day, Mira was an attractive woman, maybe a little small, a little too skinny, but she was an exceptional engineer. Gina had liked her and considered her a friend. “You want to try it, Mira? Put that blaster down and face me, and we’ll see who gets killed.”
“Face you in hand-to-hand? You really do think I’m stupid. I heard that in your thoughts, you know. How highly you rank my intellect compared to yours.”
“Is that what all this is about? You think I insulted your intelligence?”
Mira’s face lost all trace of emotion. “I’m paid too well to take this personally, Gina.”
“By who and for what?” Gina tried to move around Alex’s arm again, but he wasn’t cooperating, as usual.
“Influential and rich people. Because you should have eliminated the telepathy bug in the M-SIDs.”
“Another corporation?” Alex asked.
“This is bigger than corporate war. The uncontrolled spread of telepathy through the populous would cause chaos.”
“Government?” Alex’s question made Mira’s mouth twitch.
“Influential and rich,” she repeated. “In a position to make sure this telepathy doesn’t get out.”
“You got rid of your M-SIDs?” Gina asked. She pushed at Alex’s arm again, testing. He didn’t budge.
“I don’t have to now.” Mira tilted her head. “You should have encouraged your father to sell the technology when he had the chance.”
“Why would I want to do that?” Gina’s gaze danced to Nathan and the man, Louis, standing behind him. Louis was watching the scene, smiling slightly, ignoring the mercenary. Mira’s attention seemed more on Gina now than on Alex. If she could just distract Mira and Louis a little more, she’d give Alex and Nathan a chance to take them down. Knowing Alex was going to hate this, she dodged in front of him before he could stop her.
Mira jerked the blaster toward her. “Stop.”
“Why? You’re going to kill me anyway. I’d rather die fighting than let you subject me to the torture you described in those messages.”
Mira’s brown eyes slanted. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Gina,” Alex hissed. Taking a step toward her.
She ignored him and focused fully on Mira’s confusion, moving so Mira was between her and a potential shot from Louis, but so that she was blocking Alex from Mira’s blaster.
“The messages my father’s been getting. Detailing the accidents, the torture and death meted out to members of the team.”
“I don’t know about any messages. And stop moving or I’ll blast a hole in your chest.”
“If you didn’t write the messages, why are you here?”
“To collect on payment due to me. I deliver you to my well-funded associates, they hold you for ransom, and your father calls off the research. Simple. And I make a lot of money.”
“Your associates aren’t going to ransom me, Mira. They’re going to torture and kill me.”
“Gina.” Alex’s voice was a growl now.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mira snapped.
Gina saw that stubborn look come into Mira’s eyes. Recognized it from too many late night arguments in the lab. She switched tactics. “Do you still hear it?” She dropped her voice to a murmur. “That first time, the sounds of so many voices in your head.”
“Shut up. That has nothing to do with this. I’m being trained. I’ll never have to suffer that way again. There’s a lot of money available to the properly trained telepath.”
“This is all about money for you? You can just ignore the killing?” Mira’s stubbornness was one thing, but Gina couldn’t understand the woman’s willful ignorance. The more she refused to accept the truth, the angrier Gina got. “Didn’t you hear about Jack? How your employers tortured him before they killed him?”
Mira’s blaster wavered. “He probably deserved it,” she spat. “He probably didn’t cooperate. That’s all you have to do, Gina. Cooperate and nothing will happen to you. They’re just going to keep you until your scanners destruct and your father agrees to their terms. That’ll be the end of it.”
“You can’t believe that? Not after Barry and Jack.” Gina moved another step forward, keeping Mira’s body between herself and Louis. “And what use will you be to them when your scanners destruct?”
“We’ve already altered that part of the program in my M-SIDs. After all, I was the one who wrote the time-limited destruct algorithm.”
“Damn it, Gina,” Alex hissed, “get out of the way.” She sensed his movement behind her but didn’t dare turn away from Mira.
Louis shifted his blaster from Nathan’s head, aiming at Alex over Nathan’s shoulder.
“I wouldn’t try anything funny, Mr. Alexander,” Mira warned. “I wouldn’t want to have to kill her. Drop the blaster. Now, or I’m taking her leg.”
Gina heard the clatter of metal against the stone floor behind her. Mira smiled.
“Feeling better now, with both men unarmed?”
“I’ll feel better when you shut up.” Mira steadied the blaster. Gina watched her clicked it to a high stun setting and aimed.
Gina prepared to take the shot. It was going to hurt. She couldn’t avoid it. But maybe she could give Alex and Nathan a chance at Louis and Mira. She balanced on the balls of her feet, smiled at her former colleague, and lunged.
She tried twisting aside as the blaster bolt arched toward her, but the shot caught her arm and sent her spinning. Air exploded from her lungs. The shot stole any control she had of the lunge, but her momentum slammed her into Mira. They crashed to the floor, Gina a numb heap on top of the struggling woman. She could feel the press of the blaster against her side, even through the parka, but she couldn’t move to defend herself.
The last thing Gina heard before she blacked out was the sound of her name echoing off the walls.