The man might become a problem. In Ryan’s place, Krysty thought she might have chilled the scientist then and there to protect the other companions. They owed Bernsen nothing; the man had even tried to kill them.
But she wasn’t Ryan. So she’d taken the chance that Doc could handle the man.
On the first floor, Jak went through the double doors leading out into the main hall. Another two turns put them into a large meeting area. Rusted metal folding chairs were thrown haphazardly about, partially buried by the chunks of ceiling that had fallen over the decades.
They stopped at one of the large plate-glass windows overlooking the pit area.
Looking through the glass, Krysty saw intermittent gunfire flash yellow and white against the foliage and the neon burn spots.
“Ready?” Jak asked.
Krysty took a deep breath and nodded. The visions she’d had while in the airwag still made no sense, but her mutie powers told her definitely that Ryan was still in the Mirage and that Dean was probably in there, as well. Her power tweaked suddenly, and the sense of imminent danger for Ryan suddenly increased. “We need to go.”
Jak removed the window. He’d loosened it earlier, working the dried putty from the framework with a knife. He spit on his hands, then rubbed them against each other.
The glass was a three-foot-by-four-foot rectangle. Jak placed his hands against it, using the friction of his moistened palms to draw the window back and prevent it from falling from his grasp when he drew it farther away.
Krysty caught the edge of the glass and helped him put it against the wall on the floor. She kept her ears cocked for the sound of a sec guard’s shoe brushing against the carpet outside, but didn’t think it would really happen. The sec men were too interested in the death being dealt in the pit.
Jak shook loose a length of climbing rope with a small grapple already attached. He hooked it to the window’s lip, then threw the rope outside.
When there was no immediate gunfire in response, he clambered out after it.
“Go,” Krysty said. “I’ll be right behind you.”
Looking down, she spotted Jak already on the ground forty feet down. He looped the rope around his waist, bracing it for her descent.
Breathing a quiet prayer to Gaia, Krysty slid down into the waiting death arena.
Chapter Thirty-Five
The rope burned Krysty’s hands and she bit her lip to endure the pain. Seconds later her boots hit the ground.
There was no choice but to leave the rope where it was and hope it wouldn’t be spotted. If it was found later, it would be too late to matter. She hoped.
Jak turned and took the lead, running toward the foliage forty yards distant.
Krysty followed, drawing her weapon. If she had to use it, she’d only be one more shooter among the dozens left in the pit area. The only things she worried about were the bare places between the buildings, the forested areas and the wall. Care had been taken to keep them separated.
She ran, trusting Jak’s woodcraft skills and her own persistent mutie powers to put her on the path to Ryan.
THE ONLY WARNING Dean and the other boys got was the heavy rustle of what sounded like leather on fabric behind them. They turned together, bringing up their weapons.
Dean’s eyes burned, trying to sort out the shadows from reality over the sights of the Browning Hi-Power.
Several shadows were in motion, though. He peered at them intently as they approached. Then they started jabbering hostility.
“Monkeys!” Bobby Handley called out. “Just a bunch of monkeys! There’s no reason to be scared!”
As the shadows went away and the moonlight leaking through the building fell across the monkeys, Dean saw that they weren’t ordinary beasts of their kind.
These monkeys looked leaner, their legs more proportioned with their arms and upper bodies. Their heads, however, were half again as large as they needed to be, and they were filled with teeth and bright, burning eyes. The lower jaws held more teeth than usual, and the bottom canines thrust belligerently upward, curving dangerously, fangs that almost reached the eyes.
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