Page 135 of The Search

Rudzak made a decision. “I don’t need Sarah Patrick. I can always get her later.” He walked over to Logan. “And I will get her, Logan. Think about that when those columns come crashing down.” He opened his duffel bag. “I have a present for you. I was going to make the mirror my final gift, but I changed my mind. I decided that this should be the final resting place for all my other gifts to Chen Li.” He pulled out a large teakwood box. “So I put the other six treasures I gave her in this box and a little something else besides.” He opened the lid to reveal four sticks of dynamite beneath the artifacts.

Logan stiffened. “I hate to pun, but isn’t that overkill?”

A response at last. Logan was trying to hide it, but the shock was clear.

“When I’m in the drainage tunnel, I’ll blow the charges Duggan set in here. But that’s a little unimaginative for me. So I want you to watch this fuse creep closer and closer.” He placed the box beside one of the columns nearest Logan and unwound the fuse as he made his way across the lab toward the door. He stopped there and leaned down to light the fuse. “It’s a slow burning fuse. You won’t know which one of the charges will take you out first, Duggan’s or mine. You have about three minutes. Lie there and count the seconds.” He took a last look at Logan. Logan’s expression was grim, but he still didn’t see fear, he realized in frustration. “Good-bye, Logan, you’re going to die.”

“If I do, then Chen Li will welcome me. I did all I could to save her. She wouldn’t welcome you, Rudzak. You murdered her. She’d hate your guts.”

“You lie. I saved her.” He slammed the door and ran down the steps. Moments later he was in the drainage pipe.

Shit.

Logan stared at the bright glow of the burning fuse.

Think. Don’t panic.

Don’t panic when the damn lab might fall down on top of him any minute? His heart was pounding so hard, it felt ready to jump out of his chest.

Find a safer spot.

He started crawling across the floor.

Rudzak’s footsteps echoed as he ran down the drainage tunnel.

What Logan said wasn’t true. Chen Li would never hate him. It was Logan, not Chen Li, who thought that everything Rudzak and she had together was ugly and strange.

Another two minutes and it would be safe for him to press the switch. Logan would die.

And the memory of Logan and Chen Li together would die with him. Then Rudzak would remember only Chen Li, the way she had been before Logan had come along.

One minute.

He reached in his pocket and took out the switch. One more minute, Chen Li.

He ran faster.

Only a little while longer, Chen Li.

Soon, beloved.

Soon . . .

Sarah opened her eyes to black sky and trees overhead. She was lying on grass and Monty’s head was on her arm.

And Galen was towering above her, talking to someone.

He must have felt her gaze on him, because he looked down. “Sorry.” His tone was tense. “I had to get you out of there.”

She vaguely remembered his hand on her shoulder. A pinprick . . . “You drugged me.”

“Only the lightest sedative, or you’d still be out.”

“You drugged— Logan!” She sat upright.

“I think Logan’s fine.”

“You think?” She looked around her. Grass. Men. A concrete drainage pipe. “Where are we?”