Forty was like a statue, just staring. I suppose she thought that she was going to die where she stood. I knew better… he wouldn’t kill us yet. Not until he’d gotten the code from me, and he would likely use her to force me to reveal it.“Now… you seem like a smart young man, so let’s cut to the chase before your team ends up getting minced out there. Give me the tablet, and the code, and I’ll let you go.”“Right,” I drawled. “The second I give you anything, you’ll kill me. And your granddaughter, for good measure, I’m sure.”I saw a flinch in the guards, but not the old man. It was interesting. “She told you, I’m sure.”“Yes.”

When Captain Case took me to my guest quarters, the first thing I did was to throw my clothes into a cleaner. Case had suggested just tossing them, and I told her that she was welcome to let Lauren burn my Beta team shirt, but the pants had a special purpose. I didn't want to leave them behind. The next thing I did was to step into the shower and scrub myself about a dozen times. I didn't think the stench of the sewer pipe would ever come off, but eventually, it did.Once I was as clean as I could reasonably expect, I sat on my bed and checked my messages. Captain Case came in, looking unsurprised at the sight of the tablet, though she did shoot me a grin. "That little toy could get you into a lot of trouble if you aren't careful," she murmured."Hence the reason I'm keeping the pants," I admitted. "Hidden pockets."

The next morning I was awake early, sitting on my bed, fighting the tears. Grandfather... I missed him so much. He'd saved me from myself, and I could tell from the tenor of his messages that he desperately wanted to protect me. He wished he could call me home and find another way to complete my mission, especially after hearing what had happened to me in the Underground.He couldn't... I was the best candidate to complete this mission, if not the only candidate. We'd lost too many good people already... it was my fault and my task.I wished, though... oh, how I wished that anyone else could do this job! That I could just return to Central Control and wait for someone else to find the damn keys and make the computers work!The door opened and my pity party was interrupted as Jake stuck his head in. "Hey, Cap sent me

As much as I loathed pretending to be a dead man, at least I got a shower out of the deal, something I only had once a week in the Underground. Captain Case had been very kind to let me have free access to the water at her base, and I figured it would be a long time before I ever had another shower. Clearly, I was wrong... never had I so wished to be right.I went into the bathroom, took a very quick shower to get rid of the dust, then wrapped myself in a towel and returned to the bedroom. I caught a whiff of something familiar and I felt a complicated mix of dread and anticipation.The mist... this woman somehow had access to the same stuff the general had used in the Pit... and her bedroom was now full of the stuff. At least it gave me a decent excuse for getting dragged into her bed. It didn't help the guilt all that much; I had no idea how I would explain a

After giving myself over an hour to attempt to come up with a solution, I started to look around the room for ideas. I dug into whatever drawers I could reach for tools to dismantle the bed but found nothing useful.I did find a few leftover snacks, which I devoured with an appetite only the truly starving could understand, but they gave me very little strength.I turned back to stare at the body, my mind working furiously. There was only one solution... the bed wasn't fastened to anything that I could tell. It was damn heavy... but if I wanted to get out of here, I needed to drag it across the room to get to Vanessa and get the key. It was my only hope.I moved to the foot of the bed and tugged. It might as well have been cemented in place, for all the good my tugging and yanking did. I leaned my head against the b