The Chimera Secret

58

‘Where the hell have they gone?’

Kurt Agry swept the room with the flashlight beam on his rifle, but there was no sign of the tracker and his daughter. Ethan stared in disbelief as Kurt kicked boxes across the floor and ran a gloved hand over his stubbled skull.

‘How would I know?’ Ethan uttered. ‘You’ve had me strapped to a table in the control room.’

‘Don’t fuck with me!’ Kurt yelled, ramming the muzzle of his rifle against Ethan’s chest. ‘You were in here with them. They must have said something.’

Ethan said nothing. Just stared down at Kurt in disgust. One of the soldiers called out and Kurt walked across to him. Ethan watched as Milner pointed down at the locking mechanism on the door.

‘The screws are loose,’ he said. ‘Looks like they got out and then rigged the locks back in place to hide their escape.’

Kurt looked down the corridor from which they had come.

‘They must have slipped past us while we were watching for that thing to come in here.’

‘Don’t see how,’ the soldier replied. ‘I was in the corridor.’

‘You were at the other end of the corridor,’ Ethan corrected him, ‘with line of sight to the mine entrance. Both Duran and Mary are adept at moving quietly through the forest — in here it would have been child’s play. Factor in the low light and your attention on the mine entrance, it’s my guess they slipped past you.’

Milner scowled at Ethan but did not respond.

‘They’re still in here,’ Kurt muttered. ‘They can’t have gone out the main entrance so they must be holed up out back someplace. Bring the men forward into the laboratory. That way we control the front of the facility. We get the data uploaded and then we move out.’

Ethan laughed.

‘You’re not in control of anything, Kurt,’ he said. ‘You’re trapped and you’re doomed. The CIA has burned you. None of you is going anywhere.’

‘That’s for me to decide,’ Kurt snapped back. ‘You’re done, Warner.’

With that, he stepped out of the store room and slammed the door shut behind him. Ethan heard the locking mechanism slide back into place on the outside, and found himself alone in the room.