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“Let’s go,” Alex says.
I look to Lori, panicked, but she only grins back at me, motioning her hands for me to walk.
We all head toward the door, Lori’s hand against her neck. “This damn zipper,” Lori says, stepping toward the crowd of men that wait in the hall. Alex and I are the last to leave the room, and noticing their shocked expressions, I freeze, taking a step back toward the table that holds the folded pages.
“I was playing with it because I was bored, and now I can’t get it back up,” she explains.
The back of her jumpsuit rests slack on her back, the front unzipped to her navel, and she stands helpless in front of the men, asking them to zip up her exposed breasts. All their eyes flicker as she circles them, drawing their attention away from me and Alex, still inside the room. He doesn’t notice when I take a final step back, bumping into the table and feeling for the pages. They are safely down the front of my jumpsuit before anyone looks back at me, and I slide out of the room as if I didn’t just do something that could get us all killed.
“Thanks so much,” Lori says when Frederick zips her up. He either understands what’s happening or is enjoying the moment. Frederick seems too honorable to take advantage, and it makes me wonder if he could be swayed despite his warnings about the uprising.
Luke looks back at me and then gives a closed-lip smile, his eyes casting over the space where the plans rested.
“Let’s go,” I call out, walking past the group, grateful the sound of machinery picks up and hides the crunch of pages from underneath my clothes.
Chapter Eighteen
A Matter of Time
“WeseetheEminentin an hour, and you steal from him,” Alex rages. “Are you insane?” He’s storming around the room, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve made this man angry. “You don’tthinkanyone noticed.”
“No, I don’t,” I argue. “Sam was practically begging me to take it.” I shove the unfolded drawing in his face, pointing at the passageway.
“You’re both fucking crazy.”
“Stop and just listen,” I beg. “It’s still open. I don’t know much about engineering and shit.”
Alex flicks the pages out of his face. “Or survival!”
I ignore his insult and shake the page in my hand. “But they are sealing this off here, and here.” I point to the places on the drawing where two doors will block the passageway. One visible to those in the underground and another several hundred feet further inside. “They stabilized the cave in, and it’s just a few steel doors between us and freedom.”
“And a hundred feet of earth they haven’t gotten through. Maybe more. And cameras, I’m sure. Also, the fact that the first tunnel caved in, Rowan.” Alex rips the page from my hand. I notice he looks it over even though he’s arguing my every point.
“You heard Sam,” I say carefully. “The top is sinking through as they work. It might even reach the outside on its own.”
“They dig at a thirty-degree angle. It’s longer than it looks, Row, even if it’s expanded. That’s a horrible climb to make and dangerous.”
I raise an eyebrow. “So, you can read it.”
“But I’m smart enough not to.” His pacing shifts from circling around the room to a steady hunt for something hidden.
“What are you looking for?”
“Something to get rid of this.” He raises the page in the air, flinging open drawers and cabinets.
“The fuck you are.” I snatch it from his hand and hold it behind my back.
“Hold it all you want while I look. We aren’t keeping that. What if someone searches my room while we’re with the Eminent?”
“Why would they do that?” I scoff. “You’re paranoid.”
“The fuck I am!” he screams at me, slamming a door behind his back. I step away from him, the back of my knees hitting the bed and tripping over the edge. Catching myself, I stand straighter to face his fury.
Veins bulge from the side of his neck, pushing the blood to his flushed face while he comes closer, his hands cupping my shoulders. “You know how many recording devices I’ve removed from here?” he asks. His hot breath hits my cheek, his chest expanding and retracting against mine.
He catches himself and takes a step back, both of us caught off guard by the sudden closeness, fearful of it. Shaking his head, he reaches into his clothing and holds up a flat black rectangle and brings it to my face. “Do you know what this is?”
“Do you know whatthisis?” I shake the paper in his direction, fighting for him to draw his attention to the solution I’ve found for us both.
