Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
“You good, baby?” Shadow asked. “Your heart rate just spiked.”
“I’m fine,” she snapped. “Place is even tighter than I remember.”
“Can you make it?”
“I will.”
“Good. Tell me if you need anything. I’ll give you a countdown every five minutes so you can gauge your time.”
She grunted, not daring to talk more than necessary. Not because she couldn’t or that she was afraid someone would hear her. Because she knew if Shadow heard even the tiniest waver in her voice, he’d come in guns blazing. No one would leave in that event.
The turns and narrow corridors of the maze seemed to be the same. But she was slightly larger than she was at fourteen and fifteen. There were several places she was mashed up against the front and back wall. More than once she nearly had a panic attack thinking she was well and truly stuck.
“Ten minutes to the center,” Shadow called out softly in her ear.
“Copy.” Her answer was clipped. Sweat poured from her skin, making her clothing damp with it. Once, she got stuck in a corner. The edge was sharp, and she was mashed against the opposite concave section. One of her guns got stuck, and she couldn’t get the other hand near it to either adjust the weapon and push it out of the way or unclip her shoulder holster altogether. She wanted to scream in terror but managed to hang on to her sanity by a thread.
“Millie,” Shadow’s voice was in her ear again, a soft command. “Talk to me.”
“I’m stuck,” she admitted. “Gun is hung on corner, and I’m wedged in tight.”
“I take it you can’t release the weapon or the holster?”
“Nyet,” she confirmed, trying to keep her voice steady and get her breathing under control.
“Can you retreat slightly until you’re free, lose the gun, then try again?”
She did as Shadow instructed, knowing she should have already tried it. At first, she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to move, then she managed to wiggle free and back out of the corner. It was still tight, but she was able to release the shoulder holster so that it fell to the floor when she moved back into the corner. This time, she was able to slide around and into the next long corroder.
“I’m through,” she gasped out. “Moving on.”
“You’re good. Just take a second,” Shadow said, his tone soothing. “You’ve got another ten minutes to keep on schedule.”
“I won’t need that long,” she said, trying to inject confidence into her voice. “This was worst section. Was reason I knew I had to be careful with what I took with me.”
“You still have the stuff you need to get the trackers out of Katya?”
“Da.”
“Good. You’ll breathe easier when you’re out in the open.”
She didn’t answer but got moving again. Not long after, she slid free of the maze into the open. Stumbling in with a gasp, she sank to her knees and just breathed for several seconds. Then she heard a little whimper.
Millie rolled over, scanning the area but unable to see anything. The maze she’d navigated from memory. Even in the light, it was so close and cramped, the only way to navigate it was from memory. Now that she was in the open, she needed a light to get her bearings.
Reaching for the phone next to her skin in the front of her sports bra, she called out. “Katya?”
“Who’s there?” Katya’s voice wavered in fright. She spoke in Belarusian. Not Russian. “Go away!”
“It’s me, Katya. Millie.”
There was silence, then Millie heard her shuffling around. She had the phone light on but turned to face the wall where Millie had just come from. It gave off some light so they could see but didn’t blind her.
Finally, she spotted Katya. The girl was dressed in a plain, white, short-sleeved dress that came to about mid-calf. A sacrificial garment if ever there was one.
“M-Millie? But how…?”
“Your message got through to Venus. She found me.”
Katya rushed to Millie, throwing her body into her older sister’s arms and sobbing into her neck. “I was afraid I’d never see you again! You guys left me!”
“I know, honey,” Millie said, wanting to cry just as hard as Katya was but knowing she had to keep it together. “I know, I know, I know.” She took a breath, clutching Katya tighter to me. “I’m here now, though. And I’m getting you out of here.”
“But the maze --”
“Don’t worry, honey. I memorized it when Victor was building it.”
“I’m afraid I’ll get lost in it.” She was quiet, but genuinely distressed.
“I’ll get you out. I’m not leaving here without you this time. Never again.”
“Do you swear?”
“I swear on my life, Katya. I’m never leaving you alone again.”
“Lyudmila,” Shadow’s voice was a purr of menace in her ear. “Less talk. More gettin’ the fuck out.”