Page 147 of Where the Snakes Sleep

The security system is still chirping intermittently.

Not an alarm.

Failures.

One after another.

Camille glances down at his phone, swears under his breath, and changes direction so abruptly I nearly collide with him.

“The backup power should have engaged,” he hisses.

My mouth is dry. “S-should have?”

“Yes.”

“Not loving that word right now.”

“I know.”

We pass the stairs.

For one frightened second, I assume he intends to take me upstairs after all, but instead he pulls me farther into the ground floor, toward the section of the estate I know almost as well as the kitchen now.

The lab.

Understanding hits me just before we reach the door. “No!” Camille ignores me. “Camille!”

He releases my hand only long enough to punch a code into the electronic lock. Nothing happens.

“Fuck.”

I have never heard him say that word with genuine fear behind it before.

Camille reaches above the frame instead, fingers finding a small concealed panel I never noticed, then produces an actual key. He unlocks the door manually and shoves it open.

“Inside.”

“No.”

“Ryan.”

“I’m not hiding in here while you—”

His hands land on my shoulders with enough force that he turns me bodily toward the doorway.

“Inside,” he instructs coldly.

Something in his face stops me.

He is terrified.

“Camille…”

“Please.”

That does it. The word is so quiet beneath the urgency that I stumble backward into the lab before I make a conscious decision to obey.

Camille follows me only far enough to reach the wall beside the door, where he opens another narrow panel and pulls out a small emergency flashlight. He switches it on and presses it into my hand.