I was going to get us out of this. I was going to be worthy of his faith in me. I wouldn’t let myself think anything else.
I tried both pairs of shears and the hemostats with no luck, but I realized one of the tiny zippers on the bag might work. After struggling to rip the damned zipper pull off the bag, I managed to get it working slowly but surely in the first screw hole on the window bars.
Every few minutes, I had to duck down to hide my activity from patrolling guards, but I made progress. After the first screw fell out, I took a break to update Hux before getting back to work.
It seemed to take hours, and I almost dropped the zipper pull several times. The second screw of six finally fell out. My back and fingers were cramping from doing such tiny work with my arms out the window at an odd angle, but I was determined to get Carter out of here before sunrise if possible. If I could remove our bars this way, hopefully that meant I could remove Buck’s too, once I got outside.
I carefully timed the guards’ rounds as I worked. The only time they didn’t come regularly was when I smelled cigarette smoke on the next pass.
Finally, I got the third screw out and was halfway through when I heard footsteps behind me. I fumbled the zipper pull and dropped to the ground.
“Riggs?” Carter whispered. “You out here?”
I sighed and stood up, stretching the kinks out of my back before walking over to him and pulling him into a hug. He looked sleepy and smelled delicious. “I’m here.”
“What’re you doing out here?”
“I got half the screws out of the window bars. It should take me another hour or so to get the rest. Why don’t you try and get a little more sleep?”
He pulled back and looked at me with confusion. “But then what? If we can get out the window, what about Buck?”
“We’ll get him out too. I’ll need your help with the screws on his window bars, though. It’ll go faster that way.”
“But he’s not mobile. What are we supposed to do if he can’t walk?”
I didn’t want to scare Carter more than he already was, but he needed to understand the stakes. I pushed the messy hair off Carter’s forehead. “Babe, remember we talked about this. At some point, the real Gustavo is going to return and be very angry his brother went off the rails. We can’t be here when that happens. The plan is to get as far away as we can from the compound and then wait for my team to find us.”
He thought it through and then nodded. “How can I help?”
Good. That’s what I needed. Maybe if I could give him a task to focus on, it would help distract him from his fear. “Pull another one of those tiny zipper pulls off the backpack. I dropped the one I was using outside when I heard you approach.”
He muttered an apology as he reached for the backpack and began fiddling with one of the little zipper pulls. I stepped back over toward the window and glanced out again. The only clock I had was the one on the Horn. I reached for the device, intending to shoot Hux an update, but when I turned on the screen, a message blinked up. It looked like a cartoon newspaper with a large headline:
Turnip Blight devastates Hornlandia!
The text in the “article” below gave a little more information.
All Hornlanders must hunker down for the duration. Godspeed and good luck. May your previous harvests carry you through the blight. We expect our crop dusters to conquer the blight in approximately…
Below that was a countdown timer that showed eight and a half hours left.
“Fuck,” I snapped after it wouldn’t let me open the messaging portion of the game. “Fuck, fuck.”
Carter glanced at me. “Turnip blight?”
“Why didn’t they leave that part online? Now we’re completely out of touch with my team.” I couldn’t believe my mission comms were reliant on a handheld game. This was like a screwball comedy. If it hadn’t been for the very real threat of death, I’d want to laugh.
Hux’s suggestion of escaping and hiding nearby had to be our plan now since that’s the last communication we’d had with him. I grabbed the zipper pull from Carter’s outstretched hand and got back to work.
“Go get dressed, and bring me my clothes too,” I said over my shoulder. “As soon as I get the last two screws out, we need to be ready to move.”
Carter did as I said without question, making sure to strap the knife to his calf before pulling his pant leg down over it. I dressed quickly while he took a turn with the screws, and then I got to work detaching the remaining zipper pulls so we’d each have one when we got to Buck’s window. Everything was going to plan until I heard the guard come back around. This time, he wasn’t alone.