Exit 9 by Brett Battles Page B

to a smooth stop. After a second’s delay, the doors slid open.
    They weren’t even a foot apart when Pax tossed the wand into the arrival area, letting the cable play out as far as it could go.
    As soon as it stopped moving, Pax said, “Close the door.”
    Brown hit the button, and the doors slid shut around the cable.
    Pax took the tablet back from Ash and studied the screen for several seconds.
    “Smoke looks like it was just there for cover,” he said, his voice both muffled by the mask and coming clearly over the radio. “There’s something else, though.” He waited for a moment, his eyes on the screen. Then his nostrils flared. “Those bastards. Double LG.”
    “Double LG?” Ash said, surprised. Double LG was the nickname for a deadly nerve toxin that killed within seconds of contact. He’d never heard of anyone actually using it before.
    “There’re only trace amounts left,” Pax said. “But keep the masks on. Got it?”
    On Pax’s command, Browne pushed the Open Door button.
    The room beyond the elevator was unchanged from their brief preview a moment earlier. With Pax in the lead, they moved out of the elevator.
    As they neared the body on the floor, Pax glanced at Billy. “Check him.”
    The doctor knelt beside the still form, while the others headed over to the Plexiglas wall. Where it met the outer wall was the control room, itself fronted by a glass wall. Though they’d already seen the dead men inside via the camera feed, it was still unnerving to see nearly a dozen people slumped over desks and lying on the floor, dead.
    Pax tossed the sensor into the control room and read the results. “Same. Concentration’s higher, but that’s probably because the room’s smaller.” He looked up as Billy rejoined them. “Dead?”
    Billy nodded.
    Michael moved to the control room window. “I don’t see her. I don’t think she’s in there.”
    “No, but a lot of others were,” Billy said.
    Michael whipped around, his eyes on fire. “You think I don’t know that? I worked with these people every day! They were my friends ! Excuse me if I’m also concerned about my wife!”
    “Michael, calm down,” Pax said. “Or I swear to God I will send you back upstairs right now.”
    “My fault,” Billy said, sounding like he actually meant it. “Sorry, Michael. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
    Michael did nothing for a moment, then gave Billy a curt nod.
    For the third time, Pax did his trick with the sensor, this time throwing it into the detention block.
    “It’s clear,” he announced. “Don’t think they used any gas in there. But just to be safe, keep your masks on.”
    Ash had guessed as much. The intruders would have only come down here for one thing: the detainees.
    While Billy and Solomon checked the downed guards to see if any of them was still alive, Pax asked Michael, “Which cells are occupied?”
    Michael thought for a moment. “Three…five, seven, um, eight…and eleven.”
    Ash had assumed all were full, so he was surprised to learn that most of the twenty cells were empty.
    One by one, they checked each. In the first four, the prisoners had all been shot through the head. The fifth cell, though, was empty. Ash didn’t need anyone to tell him who had been held there. He’d once visited cell eleven himself.
    Olivia Silva’s.
    “Son of a bitch,” Pax said.
    __________
     
    I T WAS A noise that woke Janice. Not just any noise. Voices, indistinct and coming from the other side of the window.
    She tried to peek inside, but couldn’t do so without risking being seen, so she hung back.
    Once they were gone, she waited five minutes just to be sure. Then, using more strength than she thought she had, she raised the window and crawled back inside.
    At first she just lay on the floor as she let the warmth of the Bluff flow over her and attempt to thaw her out. After a while, though still cold, she felt like she could stand. Using the bed to help her, she rose to her feet. That’s