Read One of Them (Vigil #2) for Free Online Page B

second time. The cracking sound was louder, but it buckled no farther. I closed my eyes and summoned all of my focus. I kicked again and the bed and the pedestal went hurtling into the bars. The collision made a racket, but did no damage to the outer cell, not in any way that would assist me. A coil from a pulley system lay strewn out across the floor like a snake, dropping down into the circular hole that had been left in the bottom the cell. Pieces of the lower portion of the pedestal remained connected to the open chasm in jagged, upward formations. I took the time to admire my handiwork. Without shoes on, little ol’ me had wreaked some significant destruction.
    But freedom beckoned. I knelt down next to the hole and discovered some handholds in the dark. I stuck my right leg into the opening, dropping it downward until I could feel out another bar deeper in. My foot secure, I latched onto the topmost rung and began my descent. Fortunately, with the aid of my enhanced vision, I could see everything fine, this despite the complete blackness I’d found myself in. With no time to waste, I went down swiftly, link by link. I had made twenty rungs of progress when a light beneath me emerged. Somebody down there whistled, presumably at me. I gauged that the glow was coming from roughly thirty feet below. I shouted out a warning and let go. Air rushed by me as I speared toward the light. I slackened up as the bottom grew nearer. My feet collided with the metal and made the sound of thunder. The rest of my body dropped into a crouch.
    Springing upward and feeling cool-as-hell, I turned around to the opening where the light was coming in. It was a door, an open door, and Mac was standing in it, dressed in black slacks and a pullover, armed and at the ready with his very own tranquilizer rifle.
    “My, my. Look who it is.” I remained in the tunnel while we both made our intentions clear.
    “Hello,” he said. “The plan is to get you out of here.”
    “Thank you for that. It seems to be going swimmingly so far, but you had better back up. This is the closest I’ve been to a real live human being since, uh—”
    Mac took the hint and executed three big steps away from me.
    I tried to make light of the awkwardness. “Not that I had any intention of sucking your blood, but all of this is still new to me. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to resist, or if I can resist. Let me say this, it’s a good thing you have that rifle.”
    “The rifle is not meant for you,” he said, right before he lowered it. “It’s for anyone else we run into. I’m going through with this breakout, but I don’t want anybody killed along the way. Do you understand that? Not everyone in this building is to blame for what happened to you.”
    “But some are?”
    He nodded. “Some definitely are.”
    I glanced at the monitor boards on the wall. We were in a security pod, a high-tech one. None of the equipment was familiar to me. But I didn’t see any red lights or hear any klaxon calls going off. I also saw no guards, which I found surprising.
    On a nearby table sat a brand new pair of white tennis shoes.
    “For me?” I asked.
    “Yeah, you’ll need them.”
    I wasn’t sure that I would, but I slipped them on anyway.
    “We need to get going,” Mac said, all tough and rugged.
    To me, it seemed best to defer to the man with the plan. “Lead the way. I haven’t got the foggiest idea where we are.”
    He thumped his hip against the handle and opened the door opposite the one I had come down through. He exited; I exited. Out in the corridor were two men in silver jumpsuits, tied up back-to-back and gagged. Both looked unconscious, but I never got close enough to know for sure.
    Sluggishly, Mac moved up the corridor, in no apparent hurry.
    “Is there any kind of schedule to this plan of yours?” I asked, trying not to sound too ungrateful.
    “Let’s get to someplace secure first. We can go over specifics then, I promise.” He stopped