Emerson

The wind whips around us in the parking lot. The day is already turning into night. It took forever to drive here after leaving Sister Teresa’s and I know there are still so many steps to take before we can leave this godforsaken city.

It’s unnatural, this place. Grey sidewalks stretch for miles, up hills, all empty. No one leaves home anymore. It was once a concrete jungle, a technological metropolis. But now it looks more like a ghost town.

I knew we were lucky to live in Alaska, but right now I fucking love the place I was born and raised. The idea of my children growing up in a city like this makes my skin crawl. I can’t wait to get my wife home where we all belong.

“There’s no reason for her to go in,” Fallon growls as he paces in front of the vehicle outside Saint Augustine's.

“I’m the only one who knows the way around the building,” she insists.

“Not true,” Huxley speaks up. “I’ve studied the floor plan. And we know the codes. Emerson and I go in alone. You stay out here with Fallon.”

Tia looks up at me, hazel eyes pleading. “You know I’m right, Em. Tell them.”

I shake my head, agreeing with the others. “You’ve done enough. Leave this part to me and Huxley. If anything happened to you...” I can’t even finish, the mere thought of it gets me choked up.

She crosses her arms over her chest but thankfully doesn’t continue to argue. She must have heard the way my voice cracked. I can’t lose her.

Besides, our plan is better. Fallon can stay out here with her and make sure she is protected. Knowing he is with her, actually helps alleviate my worry.

I kiss her hard on the lips. “Don’t do anything stupid,” she says as I begin to walk away.

“I won’t let you down.” Her words were light but mine are filled with fervor. I have to be the man she needs.

Then I follow Huxley to the white maintenance van that just happened to be waiting for us, along with two pairs of coveralls. We’re going in under the guise of electricians.

I’ll never understand all that Huxley is capable of.

Truth be told, I probably don’t want to know.

But after a few calls, he was able to have the power turned off in the building, and all outgoing calls directed to his phone.

Within minutes there had been a call placed by one of the nuns, to Frankhurt Electric, which he intercepted.

As we drive through the gates, I adjust the baseball cap low on my forehead. The cameras should be turned off, but I don’t want to take any chances of our identities being noted, and our presence being traced back to Tia.

Inside, I realize that Huxley wasn’t lying when he said he memorized the floorplan. After we’re lead down to the basement by an older nun, Huxley is quick to take action. As soon as she disappears back upstairs, Hux whistles for me to follow him through a metal door and down a long corridor that’s illuminated by the dusky yellow lights run by the generator.

“This place gives me the creeps,” I mumble.

Cool fingers of a breeze brush against my skin making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

A moaning from behind one of the closed doors does little to help my unease.

“What the fuck was that?” I whisper.

Huxley looks over his shoulder and glares at me. “Just focus on the task at hand.”

I try to until I catch a glance through one of the doors that’s slightly open, and the chill I’d felt turns to ice that trickles down my spine.

“Fuck.” I stop, and so does Huxley. But all I can focus on is the frail form lying, strapped to a metal hospital bed, tubes and wires attached everywhere: her nose, one large one down her throat, several in her arm and chest.

But what really disturbs me is the roundness of her stomach.

She’s pregnant. Heavily so.

“Let’s go--” The words stop in his throat when he sees what I’m looking at. “Shit.”

There are more than a dozen doors in this hallways alone, and I wonder how similar the scene is behind each one.

“We have to help her.”

He shakes his head, but his eyes are haunted, tormented. “There’s nothing we can do. Not now.”

“But--”

“Don’t be a fool. Even if we could carry her out of here without anyone seeing us, by the looks of her, she’s not long for this world. Hell, that breathing apparatus is probably the only thing keeping her alive.”

I know he’s right. But guilt eats at me as we walk away.

My God, what was Warren Thorne doing here? And what exactly had he done to my wife?

Icy spikes shudder through me, but I’m even more determined to get Tia’s file.

Thankfully, for once on this damn trip, we get a bit of good luck. Slipping into Warren’s office, Huxley punches in the code Sister Teresa gave us, and the safe opens.

At first, my heart sinks. Because inside is nothing but a single manila envelope with Tia’s name scribbled in dark ink.

Huxley takes it out and dumps the contents into his palm.

A USB key.

“Is that it?” I ask.

“Let’s hope so.” He shuts the safe and hands me the USB. “Let’s get out of here.”

I nod, but as we weave back through the halls, more moaning and cries fill my ears, and I wonder if Tia knows the true horrors that lie in this place. And what savagery Banks will find when he unlocks the contents of the USB I clutch in my hand.