As he moved, Zoe followed, crouched, across the grassy plain west of the barn. Within minutes they were behind the main house.
“What about McCoy?” Zoe asked, suddenly thinking of the young agent.
“He can take care of himself. You just worry about following me,” Seeley said. And they were moving again. No discussion, no pause. The chaos back at the barn seemed to fade as they crossed quickly to the back corner of the property.
Just as Seeley described, an old white Toyota Corolla, covered in age and dirt, sat as part of the landscape.
“This is our escape?” Zoe asked.
“You got a better idea?” Seeley fired back.
He held out his gun for Zoe to hold, and she took it.
“Keep a lookout. See anyone you don’t know, shoot,” he said.
Zoe turned with shaky hands and looked back the way they had come as Seeley worked on the car. Every snap of a twig, every rustle in the grass made Zoe’s heart lurch. She struggled to get a normal breath.
A bullet whizzed past her head and struck a thick tree trunk a couple of feet behind her. She cried out and dropped to the ground. She could hear Seeley screaming for her to move, but she felt frozen. She yanked herself out of it, rolled onto her stomach, and started to army-crawl for the bushes, as if leaves could stop the penetration of bullets.
Zoe tucked herself away, worked on making herself as small as possible. A long moment of silence passed through the air. She tried to peer through the breaks in the thicket.
There she saw a masked soldier, rifle raised, and Seeley standing in a surrender position. Her heart sank. She felt for the gun she still had clutched in her hand and knew she had to make a move. Slowly, so as to not reveal her hiding place, she inched outward, using the tall grass as slight cover. She got her feet underneath her and tried to stand.
Something pressed into the back of her skull and clicked. A gun.
“Drop your weapon,” the voice demanded. It caught the attention of Seeley and the other soldier.
Holding her breath, Zoe put the gun down and raised her hands toward the sky.
“Up, slowly,” the man ordered.
Zoe slowly pushed all the way to standing, her eyes searching Seeley’s for a sign that he had a way to get them out of this. They didn’t reflect anything back.
She was certain she was about to have her head blown off when the man behind her grunted and the pressure from his weapon left her skull.
“Duck,” a female voice yelled, and without hesitation Zoe followed orders. She fell, rolled to her back, and scurried away as Lucy came into focus. She had the agent pinned.
The other across the yard turned to defend his friend. Two shots from the end of his gun, and Lucy moved the agent she was manipulating and used his torso as a shield. The bullets sank into his gut, and his cries of pain rose above them.
Lucy released her hold of the man, grabbed the gun he’d dropped as he fell, raised it, and pulled the trigger. It clicked empty. She tossed it while in motion toward the second soldier. She pulled a blade from her back pocket as she moved, all so quickly that even as he pulled the trigger to release another shot, she had slid to her knees and across the ground as if it were ice.
She passed the enemy just to the right of his legs, far enough away not to collide, close enough to slit his ankle. He screamed and toppled forward. Lucy spun, pushing off the ground to a standing position behind him while securing his weapon and without a moment’s hesitation sinking three bullets into his back.
Zoe’s mouth hung open in shock, and the fallen man beside her groaned. Lucy covered the distance to Zoe in a few easy strides. Even as the man started to cry for help, she put a final bullet into his skull.
Zoe heard the metal sink through his flesh and crack against the bone. The sound sent a shiver through her spine, and she thought she might vomit.
Lucy extended her arm toward Zoe, and Zoe accepted her offering. Lucy yanked her up, then turned to Seeley.
“They’ll send more,” he said. “We need to move now.”
In a flash the three piled into the old clunker, which by the grace of some higher power roared to life, and they were moving, leaving the barn and collection of dead soldiers behind.
TWENTY-THREE
SEELEY DROVE ALONG the narrow road, through the thick forest and wild overgrowth that made the journey unsuitable for anyone with queasy sensibilities. Zoe had to breathe through sickness that kept climbing up into her throat.
The time passed as the sun started its descent toward the mountains. Zoe wasn’t sure how far they had traveled but felt an overwhelming sense of relief when Seeley slowed the car and pulled in under the cover of a large oak tree.
Twilight lit the sky as Zoe held down the contents of her stomach just long enough to scramble out of the car away from Seeley and Lucy. She let everything up onto an innocent bush. Her hands were trembling as she gagged, brushing her hair back behind her ears to save the ends. She coughed and cleared the bits of sickness from her mouth before righting her stance and propping herself up against a nearby tree.
“You alright?” Seeley asked.
Zoe took a deep breath, wiped her mouth again, and faced them. She nodded and leaned back against the tree.
“We need to make a plan,” Seeley said, turning his attention to Lucy.
“Are we sure it was Dr. Loveless?” Lucy asked.
“Even if it wasn’t, she didn’t want to run. She’s not cut out for this, and now they have her.”
“We need to continue the work, so how do we do that?” Lucy asked.
“What do you mean?” Zoe asked.
“Something happened to me that time. I got past the drowning. I’m so close to tapping into my history. We can’t stop now.”
“Tell me about what happened,” Seeley said.
Lucy’s eyes dropped to the ground as she spoke. “I don’t really know. It all felt the same, until . . .”
“The barn was attacked,” Seeley finished.
Zoe was surprised by his earnest interest in Lucy’s progress.
Lucy nodded and looked up at Zoe. “You were in trouble, and I needed to get to you.”
The sentiment struck Zoe in the gut. The way Lucy was looking at her with such loyalty and fierceness, she wasn’t sure how to respond.
Lucy turned her eyes back to Seeley. “I cracked something open. I need to go back in. I can remember, I know I can.”
“We can’t go back to the barn,” Seeley said.
“There has to be somewhere else we can go.”
“The only other place I know that has the equipment you need is Xerox.”
“The black site where Grantham started,” Zoe said, finding her voice. “That is out of the question.”
“Could you get us in?” Lucy asked, ignoring Zoe.
“No, stop,” Zoe said.
Lucy turned to her. “We have to continue. I have to remember. Don’t you understand? I have to remember.”
“The three of us couldn’t possibly break into a highly secured government black site, and even if we could, what then? Just walk into the lab, use their equipment until you remember, and leave? Think this through, Lucy. What you are talking about is suicide. You might as well hand yourself over to them.”
“She’s right,” Seeley said.
“Thank God,” Zoe exclaimed.