Waters of Lethe, Book 2

48. Lifeline

Another guard stood in the hall beside the elevator as the door opened. If he looked in, he'd be able to see the gun that was propped up in the corner.

Before he could turn to see who was coming out of the elevator, I stepped between his eyes and the gun. He immediately stepped back and brought his rifle around to point at me, alarmed at who he was seeing.

"Hi, sir? Could you help me? I'm looking for room—"

I had my chance when his rifle dipped slightly, along with his defense. I had that effect on people when I used my sweet voice, the one people could and wanted to trust. It wasn't in his best interest to trust my voice or the dumb look I had on my face at the moment, but he couldn't help but give. And when he gave, I took.

"El?" I heard Audi's voice from the phone, right before I knocked his rifle from his hands like I did with the guard on the elevator. This time, I didn't let the rifle hit the floor. Instead, I caught it, wheeling it around in my arms so that the butt of the gun was facing away from me, the barrel pointing behind me. I jabbed the stock of the gun into the man's crotch and he doubled over. While holding the gun with one hand, I brought the forearm of my free hand down hard against his neck several times, right below his ear. He passed out pretty quick, which pleased me.

"El? Hello? Hello?"

"Please shut up," I whispered angrily to Audi, who probably couldn't hear me. 

"Why do you want me to shut up? El?"

My heart skipped a beat when I realized that Jai was the one who was on the phone now. And he could hear me as well as I could hear him, though I didn't have him on speaker.

I looked around the hallway. Thankfully, we were alone. I looked on the ceiling for cameras, and, to my surprise, there weren't any. I guess Scott didn't expect anyone to come up here to escape.

I grabbed the unconscious man by bending down and hooking my arms under his shoulders while holding the elevator door open with an outstretched foot, then began pulling the heavy guard into the elevator. All while trying to talk to Jai.

"Sorry," I told him. "I'm a little busy right now. Give me a minute."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes," I huffed, straining. "Everything's great."

"Give me the phone, Jai," Audi said, his voice muffled. I pressed the red stop button in the elevator once more to make sure no one would be able to call it and find the bodies, then grabbed a rifle and headed for the stairs to the roof.

On Jai and Audi's end I heard a struggle for the phone, though I knew that there was no struggle to be had in the first place. Jai let Audi put up a fight simply because Jai respected the man.

When I got into the stairwell, making sure no one saw me enter, I pulled the phone from my shorts and put it to my ear.

"What's going on?" I asked whoever currently had possession of Audi's phone.

It was Audi who had it. I could imagine the look of annoyance Jai probably wore. "What do you mean? You're the one who called us!"

I heard Jai in the background. "And why the hell didn't you call this morning when you got back?"

I rolled my eyes but smiled. At least they were tracking me. "Sorry. Alright?" I burst through the roof access door, the sun and wind sending new tendrils of adrenaline through me. The city once again rose up around me. Now, however, I felt as big as the city. "I'm calling now because I need you guys. You need to hurry and get here."

"Put her on speaker," Jai urged. I couldn't believe they were fighting over the phone at a moment like this, a time I told them, point blank, that they needed to get their behinds to Toronto.