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“Good,” she said. “Let’s go.”
They stuck to the shadows, making their way toward the prison.
Two guards stood outside the gate.
Rex tapped her shoulder. She looked back, and he pointed toward the side of the building. She followed him to the back where the gate was taller, but older and worn out.
“Be the lookout,” Rex said, bending down to inspect the bottom of the wooden fence.
Nova looked down the street making sure no one came their way. She heard Rex sawing at the wood and winced when the sound resonated in the silence of the night.
“We’re in,” he said after two minutes of unnervingly loud sawing.
He crouched and stuck his head through the hole he’d made in the fence. Nova took one last look down the street to make sure no one had seen them and followed.
Once she was through, Rex put the sawed off part of the plank back in place in a half-hearted attempt to hide the hole.
“This will be our point of escape,” he whispered, handing her a hood to put over her head, so they wouldn’t be recognized.
“These are just a precaution. We have to avoid running into any guards at all costs.”
“I thought getting rid of guards was the reason you came with me.”
“In a last resort, worse-case scenario, I will knock out any guards that get in our way. But if they see us here, they will get suspicious and check the equipment, search Brent, or even delay the execution. And then we’ll have done all this for nothing.”
She nodded.
Rex led the way to the prison’s back door. This one wasn’t guarded, so he let Nova go first. She disabled the lock fairly easily. The tools Elizabeth had gotten her were much better quality than those Brent had given her.
Once the door came open, Rex took the lead again. They entered a dark corridor. Rex didn’t use anything to light their way. Nova had to keep one hand pressed lightly against the wall to feel her way in the dark.
She walked carefully, lightening her step as much as possible to minimize the noise. Rex in front of her, despite his large body, barely made a sound.
He stopped suddenly. She heard loud footsteps walking toward them echoing off the walls.
She looked past Rex’s shoulder and saw light coming, not exactly toward them but from a perpendicular corridor. If the person shinned their light down their hallway, they would be done before they’d even started.
Nova stepped back. She’d felt a dip in the wall as she’d passed. She felt around and found a door handle. She carefully pulled down and the door came open. She quickly tapped Rex on the shoulder and stepped into the room, with Rex right behind her, closing the door gently. The room was pitch black. She kept her hand on the wall, moving only as far as she needed to give Rex some space.
They heard the footsteps approaching. Blood pounded in her ears as she worried this room may have been the guard’s destination. But the footsteps passed by, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
After several seconds passed, Rex opened the door and they stepped back out.
They took several turns in the dark, and Nova was suddenly glad to have Rex with her because she never would have found her way around by herself. She had a good sense of direction, but not in the dark.
“You’ve been here before?” she whispered when they hadn’t seen or heard anyone for several minutes.
“Yes.” He kept a steady pace, obviously knowing exactly where he was going.
“As a prisoner or…?”
“I work for Devon,” he said. This was the first Nova had heard of this. And she suddenly felt a little more uneasy sneaking around with him.
“This is where they keep the executioner’s equipment,” he said, stopping in front of a door. “It’s locked.”
They switched places, and Nova picked the lock in the dark.
Rex moved past her into the room. She stood to the side and closed the door. For the first time, Rex turned on a flashlight attached to his belt. He looked around the storage space and got to work, presumably sabotaging the equipment while she waited with her ear pressed to the door.
