Corporal Tanner had been shot and he fell on me. I dragged him into the elevator and we went to the top. But he was dead before we reached the surface.”
“He was shot where?” Cisco asked.
“In the chest. It went right through his Kevlar vest. That means armor piercing, right?”
Cisco nodded. He didn’t bother with making notes or a tape recording. But his number two man did.
“When I realized the elevator would go down again, I tried to stop it.” A harsh laugh shot from her throat. “Like slapping the eight inch thick steel door would stop that thing? They must have used it to come back up the shaft because they were right behind me.”
“Who was behind you?”
“The killers.”
Cisco didn’t bat a lash.
Her gaze flicked to Wickum. He looked normal—blond hair, brown eyes. Average cute, like someone’s big brother. But while Agent Wickum had life in his eyes, Cisco’s looked vacant.
“Continue.”
“I ran and fell once.” She showed him the scrapes on her palms and arm. “I had Tanner’s gun. Combs took it. And my clothes. When I fell, I must have lost the ID tag. They shot at me a couple times and that’s when the Marine dove at me.”
Inside Cisco went still as glass. “Marine?”
“Well that’s what he said. He wore a Gilly suit, you know, those netted things with fake leaves and branches all over it.”
Cisco nodded.
“He knocked me to the ground, covered me and fired back at the man shooting at me. He had a hunting rifle. The attackers used silencers because I didn’t hear anything more than soft popping till the bullets hit something. The Marine’s rifle was loud. Then we ran to his truck. I crawled in back with a dead deer and he went looking for his friends.”
“This man who helped you, did he say how many were out there with him?”
“He said pals, plural, Agent Cisco. More than one. He left me and that’s the last time I saw him. I ran to the store, made a call and got to Mark eight. Followed the rules.”
“Except for being outside the facility at dawn.”
“I’m alive because of that, so back off.” She stared across the room at the agent and if she wasn’t so pissed she might have put her girl brain in gear and admired his looks. But she knew better. Cisco would do anything for the cause, and if that meant pointing a finger at her, he would.
“Yes ma’am. You should know, those men don’t need a permit or license to hunt there.”
“Yes, they do. It’s a state park.”
His thin look was like saying very good Dr. Hale, next question. She wanted to drop-kick him.
Wickum handed him a large envelope. Cisco slipped out the photographs and offered them to her.
She recoiled, dropping them on the coffee table. “You son of a bitch!” It was of the dead men in black. In full Technicolor, one’s chest blown open. “You could have warned me.” She shoved them at him with a snide look. “The men I saw were dressed like that, but they wore masks. One had bright blue eyes.”
He tucked the pictures away. “What did you hear and see after you came down the shaft, Dr. Hale?”
“Smoke so dense I couldn’t see far, gunfire, and the terrorist with blue eyes aiming at me and Tanner.” She flexed her fingers. “Blue Eyes stepped over a body. I didn’t see anyone else except him.”
“Did Tanner return fire?”
“Maybe before I got down there, but I did.”
There was a slight lift of a brow. “That was very brave.”
“Are you always this much of a condescending asshole?”
“Yes.”
Wickum cleared his throat.
“The chemicals I worked with could be used as weapons of mass destruction. Shouldn’t you be looking for them instead of grilling me?”
“We are.”
“They have the gas, don’t they?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“What do you mean? You go down there, open the cold room and take inventory.”
“We can’t get into the Cradle by Tatiana’s Veil. It’s been sealed from the inside.”
“The escape elevator?” He shook his head and she frowned. “Mother didn’t automatically turn on the emergency compressors and vent?”
“Mother is down and with the Sarin threat inside, no.”
Slowly she stood, her voice a cascade of shock and outrage. “Good God, Cisco, they may be alive! If they’re trapped on a level, they have ten hours of air down there. Twelve max. But there was smoke and that eats the oxygen.”
“And if the vials were broken, they were dead in seconds anyway.”
“You know, I suspected you didn’t have a heart, now I’m sure you’re missing a soul, too.”
Cisco stood very still, his hands behind his back, his gaze direct. He’d had to weigh the deaths against the final outcome and the consequences. “If we turn on the compressors everyone above could die, too, Dr. Hale.”
“Not unless the dead guys had something like atropine and contamination suits on them. I didn’t see suits or lugging them either. No”—she shook her head—“they didn’t release the gas. The risk is too high. They attacked to steal it.”
“Yes.”
“So my entire staff is choking to death down there. Jesus, how do you sleep at night?”
His fists tightened.
“This is your mess, Cisco. The Cradle was supposed to be impenetrable. Mother should have operated on her own.”
“Yes, but it didn’t. And I’ll find out why.” Without another word, he moved to the kitchen and poured himself some coffee. Syd watched him dump heaps of sugar into the cup. Wickum followed him and the two spoke softly enough that she couldn’t hear. They did it to make her nervous.
It wasn’t working. He let her staff die. She wanted to hurt him. Bad.
“I know you worked on nerve gas countermeasures.” Cisco had his back to her.
“Goody for you.”
Cisco faced her, arching a black brow.
“I’m not breaking security, Agent Cisco, so either you two show me your clearance, or shut up.” He obeyed and she could
