here with you. And if we do this calmly and sensibly we can all get out of here together. There’s no reason to panic. I won’t leave you,” Antonio said.
Jensen nodded, causing the shirt he had tied around his face to slip. Antonio stopped walking and gestured for the rest of the group to keep moving as he retied the shirt on the kid’s head. “Let’s go.”
Everyone had stopped around the corner, and Antonio made his way to the front of the group to find debris that had fallen from the ceiling blocking their path. Three of their group were already working to shift it, and he and Jensen joined them. Antonio had a lot of training in working with people in emergency situations at home on the ranch in his native Argentina. And he knew from experience that giving people a task made them feel more in control of the situation.
So he gave a task to everyone who had hung back, getting the team to shift the pile of rubble and debris until they could all safely move through the hallway. Once again he found himself at the front of the pack, and as they neared the exit, he noticed that the smoke was getting thicker.
“Everyone down on the floor. We need to crawl,” he said.
Everyone reacted quickly, following Antonio’s lead. The smoke was thinner on the floor and he moved with as much speed as he dared, constantly monitoring the team by looking back over his shoulder and keeping a close eye on the floor ahead of them for new dangers.
They reached the exit and he touched the door with the back of his hand to see if it was hot.
It wasn’t.
He slowly lifted himself into a standing position and opened the door. Fresh air rushed in as the smoke billowed out, and Antonio motioned for the candidates to leave the building. He stood by the door, counting to make sure the six people he’d had with him at the beginning of the journey were all here.
Though Antonio had expected to see emergency vehicles, there were none, just the open Texas landscape under the early-evening sky. He scanned the area again and noticed Jessie Odell, the survival instructor, standing to one side with Ace, the commander, and Thor, Ace’s lieutenant for the mission.
He had a feeling this was a test and could only hope that he’d done enough to pass. Getting on the first Cronus mission was his goal. But he realized he was also worried about Izzy. He knew she could hold her own but if this were a test, who knew what might be waiting for her in the facility.
* * *
IZZY HAD TRAINED with Velosi, aka Velocity, for the last six months at this facility. They’d both been close to winning the second-in-command position that had ultimately gone to Thor. A part of her was glad for the screaming alarms and smoke filling the hallway, because it was much easier to deal with an emergency than to worry about the aftermath of making love with Antonio.
His call sign was Playboy.
That should have been enough for her to have stayed away. Sleeping with him might jeopardize her chances of making the Cronus mission, but that didn’t stop her from remembering the way he’d felt inside of her with a delighted shiver.
“Want to split up?” Velosi asked. “You take the left and I’ll take the right.”
Focus, girl. This was what she was good at. She’d come so close the last time.
“Yes. Call out when you enter and leave a room,” she said. “Velocity in. Velocity out. Room clear. Does that work for you?”
“Sounds good, Bombshell. Let’s do this. I don’t think my wife will be too happy if I end up getting hurt while I’m training in Texas.”
Nor did she want to be injured and out of the game before they were even named for a mission. “I agree. We need to be quick and get moving.”
There were three rooms on either side of the hallway that led to the back of the gym. The smoke was getting a little bit thicker and Izzy took off her shirt and tied it over the bottom half of her face. She carefully touched the door to check for heat before she reached for the handle. Only after she was sure it was cool did she call out that she was entering the room, turn the handle and go in. She scanned the room first, just as she’d been taught in her first emergency training class and then walked the perimeter, confirming it was empty.
She exited and called out, then waited for Velosi. He rejoined her soon after, and they confirmed their rooms were clear. They cleared the other two rooms before returning to the gym and starting toward the exit.
They worked efficiently. The third room she entered was different. As soon as she stepped inside she saw the smoke was thick in one corner. She dropped to her hands and knees and slowly worked her way around the perimeter, finding someone slumped near the back.
She rolled the person over; surprised to find it was Molly—Ace McCoy’s fiancée and one of the people who liaised between the ranch and the training facility. The facility had been built on the Bar T ranch in the town of Cole’s Hill, Texas a little over forty-five minutes from Houston. Out here they had the space to do the training. She leaned over Molly to see if she was breathing and felt a reassuring exhalation. She ran her hands along Molly’s sides to make sure that there were no injuries or protruding bones.
Nothing broken, but she was unconscious.
She heard Velosi calling that he was clear.
“Woman down in here,” she yelled. “Lots of smoke, so you’ll have to crawl.”
She shook Molly’s shoulder, but she only made a moaning sound and didn’t wake up. There were first-aid kits in all of the rooms, and as soon as Velosi announced that he was in the room she instructed him to bring the kit.
She continued to try to rouse Molly, relaying the other woman’s condition to Velosi as soon as he reached her. She used the flashlight on her phone and found the smelling salts in the first-aid kit.
When she waved them under Molly’s nose, the other woman jerked upright. “What’s going on?”
Thank God. She had been scared for her friend. “You were unconscious. We don’t know if it was due to the smoke or something else. Do you think you can walk?” Izzy asked her.
Velosi had checked the room for anyone else. “Were you alone in here?”
“Yes. Just finishing up my paperwork. I should be able to walk,” Molly said.
“Good. Until we are out of this room you should crawl,” Izzy told her.
“Follow Bombshell,” Velosi said. “I’ll be behind you.”
Together they inched through the room and into the hallway. Izzy handed a bottle of distilled water from the first-aid kit to Molly while Velosi scouted up the hallway.
“There is a pile of debris that has been shifted and two more rooms. I don’t like the idea of either of us being left alone in the building. Molly, are you okay to move slowly with us as we clear the last two rooms?”
“Yes. I’ll be fine,” Molly said.
They walked past the debris, and then Izzy waited with Molly while Velosi checked out the room on the right and then he waited with Molly while she checked the right. The rooms were both clear and as they got closer to the door, they felt fresh air. Izzy guessed that Antonio had
