Page 81 (1/2)

Max sagged back into the chair It had been the worst pounding he had ever taken Evenprison, and there they had taken turns so that the bloent on for an hour ortwo teeth freely with his tongue It had been a minor miracle that his nose hadn’t broken or one of the body blows hadn’t caused his heart to fibrillate and stop

The spot where they had cut out the bioelectric transponder was a dull ache compared to the rest of his body His chest was a ine the dae done to his face

Well, I wasn’t all that pretty to begin with, he thought griht fresh blood from the cuts on his lips

Max proer and he would have craliht Kyle to this hellhole He was back in Greece Even in the Responsivists’ grasp, he was relatively safe Max clutched that thought to his heart and let it buoy his spirits

By his esti on the loosened ropes He had created enough slack to work his wrists free of them so he could use his hands to pull away the ropes wound around his chest Finally, he was able to untie his legs and stand He groped for the back of the chair to keep fro over

“I don’t feel so good,” he muttered aloud, and waited for his blurred vision to clear

He eased open the heavy door as quietly as he could The hallas empty The industrial fluorescent fixtures bolted to the concrete ceiling cast stark pools of light interspersed with deep shadows, giving the cinder-block walls a dingy look despite their apparent newness

Max balled the piece of paper into the lock so the door wouldn’t close, and, keeping in a low crouch because his ht, he padded down the hallway,a telltale trail of blood

At the first intersection, he heard faintan eye backward every few seconds He passed an occasional unlabeled door Pressing an ear to the coolbeyond and moved on

It was the dankness of the air and the fact he’d seen no s that round He had no direct proof but didn’t doubt his assessment

Turning two more times in the monochromatic maze, he came to another door and could hear the whine of machinery inside He tried the handle and it turned easily He opened it a crack, and the level of noise rose in ti from the room, so he assumed it was deserted He ducked in quickly and closed the door behind hiht switch

Arc lights snapped on, revealing a cavernous space sunk below the level of the floor he was standing on He was in the control roo the facility’s powerhouse Behind thick insulated glass were four huge jet engines bolted to the floor, fed by a tangle of fuel lines and exhaust ducts Mated to each was an electrical generator The asseh only one of the turbines was in operation the roouised power

Either this place is ain, because they can produce enough juice for a couple thousand people, or they have some other, unknown use for this much electricity

He ruity and retreated back into the hallway

With no visible ca the corridors, Max had a sense that Kovac must feel pretty secure here It was another fact that he tucked away as he sought an exit from the labyrinth