"If we don't make it, I love you and blah, blah, blah."
He laughed, and shifted so his arm wrapped around her shoulders.
"I'll say the same. It's been a hell of a ride so far."
When the final
countdown commenced, she reached up, gripped his
hand.
Terminate in ten seconds, nine, eight, seven . . .
The doors opened. They flew through them together. She heard the count go down to three as the doors secured behind them.
She snatched her coat from where she'd tossed it, and bolted through the room with him.
There was a rumble under her feet, a wave of vibration. She thought of what was below her, in tanks, in hives. Then pushed it away, shoved it back. Her nightmares would begin soon enough to go back there
now.
She shrugged back into her coat. If her hands shook, he was the only one who knew it. "This is going to take me a while."
He glanced toward the line of cops.
"Take your time. I'll be outside."
"You can pass that one onto one of the uniforms. We'll have CP here shortly to deal with the minors."
"I'll be outside," he repeated.
"Go get treated," she called after him.
"In this place? I don't think so."
"Got a point," she replied, then moved forward to do the job.
O
utside, Roarke went directly to his car. Only more relief washed over him when he saw Diana lying on the backseat with the younger girl curled against her.
He opened the door, crouched down when Diana's eyes opened. "You kept your word," he said.
"Deena's dead. I know."
"I'm very sorry. She died saving. .. saving your sister." He held out the baby when Diana opened her arms. "She helped save the children."
"Is Wilson dead?"
"Yes."
"All of him."
"All we found, yes. The facilities are gone. Destroyed. The equipÂment in them, the records, the technology."
Her eyes were clear, level. "What are you going to do with us now?"
"I'll take you to Avril."