Chapter 27

“Rest if you need to,” Dante whispered once they reached a flat part of the duct.

She didn’t have a choice. Going up through the duct was much harder than climbing down. Her quads were screaming. Surprisingly, so were her arms. She reached down into her pocket and then remembered she had let Dante finish her emra bar. She kind of regretted that now.

With no stimulant to provide the burst of energy she was truly craving, she knew mental fortitude was all that was going to get her through. She took a deep breath.

Thirty percent done,she thought. It was an old human military mantra. When you thought you were finished, you were only thirty percent depleted. Or was it seventy?

Dante suddenly reached up and grabbed her ankle. Tinsley froze automatically, waiting. She then heard what Dante’s keen hearing had picked up before her own—footsteps.

It sounded like Jorvlens were walking—no, running—directly below them. Tinsley knew they were almost at the top of the air duct, but now they had to wait.

The aggressive-sounding Jorvlen syllables didn’t mean anything to her without her translator, but she knew enough to be scared. Something wasn’t right. She could tell the Jorvlens were anxious. She just prayed it had nothing to do with her and Dante breaching their facility.

Dante firmly tapped her twice on the ankle, which she assumed was an all-clear signal. The close encounter had fired her up more than any emra bar ever could, and she practically ran up the rest of the duct.

She stepped out onto the roof and looked around. A second later, Dante exited the duct and, without a word, he picked her up around the waist and all but dove down next to a large air-handling unit.

“They are on high alert,” he whispered in her ear.

She nodded, knowing he was relaying what the Jorvlens were talking about. There was a large click and she jumped. Dante tightened his hold around her and squashed them even tighter up against the compressor.

Tinsley wasn’t sure what the click had been, but a second later, she understood. A huge spotlight swept in front of them. They were hidden from it, but they were also trapped.

“Shit,” Dante muttered, and he released her.

They sat next to each other with their backs against the unit. The next time the light swept by them, Tinsley started counting.

“Thirty Mississippis. I mean seconds,” she told Dante.

They inched farther away from their spot and again stuck their heads out in unison after the light swept by. Tinsley pointed to the spot she thought they should scramble to, and Dante grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

The next time the light passed over them, they were ready. Then they had to repeat the process. It took four nerve-racking trips, but then they were at the edge of the roof, right where they had climbed up. Tinsley had no desire to peer over the side.

Dante tied the two of them together.

“I think you can climb down, but if anything happens, be prepared to cut the rope and save yourself. I’ll hold them off.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Tinsley said.

“We don’t have time for this.”

She threw herself into his arms and he kissed her.

Then he pushed her away. “Sorry, better if you go first.”

She nodded grimly and climbed over the ledge. Feeling with her feet, she found one of the holes Dante had made in the fortress’s veneer. She found a few more and then she was clinging to the side of the building, inching her way down.

She looked up and saw Dante swing his large leg over the side. Her hopes that he had figured out another way vanished. She felt a tug on the rope and took another step down. She would have to set the pace.

Before long, she figured out her arms were all but useless. She took her time picking her way down, making sure her feet were very secure in the holes before continuing. Suddenly she felt a sharp yank on the rope.

Oh, no,the voice in her head screamed. Between her and Dante, light was coming out of one of the holes in the fake stone. She looked up desperately at Dante.

“I love you,” she mouthed at him.

She wasn’t sure he could see her in the darkness.

“Ah, hah!” a voice with a distinct Jorvlen accent called.

Tinsley froze in horror. The voice sounded like it was right next to her. She leaned over to look into the hole her right hand was grabbing onto. She peered between her fingers and was hit with a blinding light. She couldn’t help it. She pulled away.

“Dante!” she screamed.

It didn’t matter; their cover was blown. She could hear the Jorvlen on the other side of the wall yelling frantically into his comm. But the real problem was that she was only connected to the building by one hand and one foot.

“Watch out,” Dante yelled. “Get over.”

She didn’t know what he meant. She wanted to get away from the holes. What if they fired a phaser at her? She clawed at the wall, but she wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to make her own hole.

“Just let go,” Dante said. “I got you.”

She couldn’t do that. They were only about halfway down. The thought was terrifying. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the small spray can her father insisted she carry with her everywhere.

“What are you doing?” Dante yelled.

Dust rained down on her as he made a lateral move. The rope between them brushed across her face and then pulled taut. Tinsley pulled with the last strength she had and swung herself into the wall. She pushed down on the aerosol and fired it into the hole the light was still coming out of.

“Agh, you human bitch!”

“Fuck you,” Tinsley yelled back.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Dante snarled. He was beside her now, and from the look on his face, he was furious.

“I got him, though.” She grinned.

“I said to let go…”

“I just couldn’t. I was so scared.”

“I got you,” he said and then he kissed her.

Hardly the time,Tinsley thought.

“Sorry,” Dante said as he broke off the kiss.

“Wha…”

Tinsley couldn’t finish the syllable because when she opened her mouth, he ripped her off the side of the building and dropped her. She screamed.

“Grab the rope and run backward,” Dante screamed back. “Now!”

She was blind with fright and rage, and all she could see was black, but she grabbed at her waist and found the rope. She wrapped both hands around it so tightly, her knuckles started aching immediately. Then she reached out with one foot.

“Good, let’s go,” Dante said.

He didn’t bother with looking for the old holes he had made, he just punched new ones with his hands and feet. Tinsley managed to move slightly to the left of him so most of the debris raining down missed her.

“Almost there,” Dante said. “Put your feet down.”

She just couldn’t get her mind to abandon every instinct in her body that told her to hang on, and so she ended up on her ass while he stepped nimbly onto the ground.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I had to.”

“No time,” she replied, swiping a knife out of her pocket and severing the rope at her waist. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”