Marked

Chapter Thirty-Six

"Get up." Rachel snapped.

Roy's blue eyes looked up at her, a flash of terror in his eyes."

"Unless you want me to rip out your eye and use it to open that door myself, you'll get up right now."

Roy nodded his head, his shaking hands still held up in surrender. "Okay, I'll do it, okay."

Rachel wondered how a man like him had gotten to be in power. Hiding under the security of poachers must have made him bold—she didn't remember him being like this the last time she'd seen him—but now that it was just him he quivered like the small pathetic, leech he was.

They were all cowards—Roy, Nicolas and Vazquez, all cowards for what they had done to their people, all cowards in their own way.

Stumbling over to the eye scanner where the metal door had once more closed off her view to the command room, Roy placed his face level to the scanner. The red light shifted to green, parting to reveal the glass hallway. The first glass door now lay open and bare. 

On her way to Roy, she kneeled and patted down Vazquez's pockets. A man like him wouldn't be without weapons, she was sure of it. Running into something hard and metallic at the overly-stretched waistband of his pants, she pulled the hand gun out and held it up toward Roy who recoiled at the sight of it.

"The next door. Go."

Roy did as he was told but it was futile. The door wouldn't open, no matter how many times he pressed the button. Hector had made sure of that. 

Rachel watched with her heart in her throat as some dialogue passed between Hector and her father. 

Nicolas' lip curled into a snarl, his mouth moving fast and angry. Hector's gun trained on Nicolas's chest with Corina's light likewise trained on him. 

"Move!" Rachel shoved Roy out of the way, pointed her gun at the glass and fired. Neither man within the control room turned to look at her. 

The glass shook, cracks forming across it like spidery veins. It wasn't enough. It must have been shatter proof, but that didn't matter. She couldn't give up. It was Hector's life on the line now.

Nicolas' hand twitched and a shot rang inside the room.  For one moment, she'd thought one of them had injured the other. Rachel shook herself back into reality and realized the shot had been a warning for Nicolas to hold still.

Rachel watched as Hector lifted the disk up into the air for Nicolas to see. His face twisted with surprise but then rage quickly took over. It was a rage she knew was directed wholly and entirely on the man she loved. She was running out of time to save him. The war, coupled with Hector's defiance would surely push Nicolas to kill him.

Returning to her punishment of the glass, she shot a few more rounds into it. When her gun clicked, signaling that it was now empty, she let out a frustrated cry and threw it against the wall.

"Let me in! Damn it, Hector, Nicolas, let me in!"

By now, Hector had approached Nicolas and had taken his arms and pulled them behind his back. 

"Do you have any weapons?" Rachel swiped the tears from her face and turned her glare on the Prime Minister.

He nodded and reached into his waistband slowly. He produced his own handgun and offered it to her. Rachel took it eagerly, depositing every round into the glass where it began to show signs of weakness. 

Pushing Nicolas onto his knees, Hector took a knife from his pocket and shoved Nicolas's neck down to reveal the smooth skin that he needed to access in order to remove his chip.