“Dammit!” I cried out and hit the button for the second floor instead of the lobby. If the three of them were coming up to see me, the odds were good that they’d have others with them, perhaps stationed around the entrance. Chances were I could take them out, but with the lobby as packed as it was, I might need to break some heads—possibly the heads of innocent people—if I wanted to make it out. As bloodthirsty as I had been of late, that thought still stopped me cold.
The doors opened on the second floor and as soon as they did I was out into the hall. The hotel was two buildings, and if I could manage to get across to the second building via the hallways, I could sneak out on the back street and run for the underground station. As for where I was going after that, I hadn’t the faintest. I’d have to figure it out on the train. One step at a time.
I tore down the hallway and took a right as it came to an end. Just as I was turning I heard the elevator ding a hundred yards behind me. I paused and looked back; stupid mistake, as I saw Bast and Karthik shoot out of the elevator doors. Karthik caught sight of me and was running as I turned the corner, my eyes on the elevator at the far end. It occurred to me a moment later that Janus must have stayed to let them know which floor my lift had stopped on via cell phone or walkie-talkie. It didn’t matter now, but it was a clever thing to do given that they could have lost me if they’d just left it to whoever was in the lobby to catch me.
I saw another bank of elevators at the end of this hallway, and I knew I’d reached the other hotel. The problem now was knowing just how prepared they were for me. I didn’t really want to go out a window for the second time today, at least not if I didn’t have to. I saw a sign for the stairs and I didn’t even think twice about it, just burst through and started jumping them a landing at a time.
I was three down when I heard the door above open, and I knew either Karthik or Bast was closing in. “Stop!” I heard Karthik from above, “We just want to talk to you!”
“I’m not in a chatty mood!” I shot back and leapt the last few steps down to the exit. I took one look at the only door and realized it was a fire door that opened to who knew where. It had a bold warning telling me that in order to properly operate it I had to push down the metal bar and wait fifteen seconds to open it.
I slammed my shoulder into the metal framing and ripped it off in one second, sending it spiraling into someone just outside. I felt bad about it until the person standing next to him shouted, “There she is!” and I realized it was an Omega agent in a suit. I recoiled as he reached for me then kicked him in the chest so hard he took flight and hit the concrete wall behind him with enough force to break a few things.
“Sienna, stop!” Karthik yelled from behind me as I took off to the left. I was in a courtyard that led into the lobby of the hotel, and I knew the exit from here. I ran toward it through a cobblestone tunnel that led out onto a main street. I was a block and a half from the Russell Square station and I was fairly certain I could beat them to the underground. I was less sure where I could go from there, but I had a reasonable idea where I could lose them from having glanced at the underground map earlier.
“We need to talk to you!” Karthik shouted again. “It’s important! This is bigger than you and your problems with Omega!”
I gave him points for persistence, but I wasn’t about to stop and engage him in a quiet debate on why he was wrong. If I stopped, I’d have to kick the hell out of him, and I really didn’t want to. I’d already impaled him once today.
I turned south and ran with all my meta speed, dodging pedestrian foot traffic, running up walls and bouncing off as necessary to increase my speed. People were shouting in surprise as I shot past them, jumping here and there. I set off the car alarm of a vehicle parked on the street as I used it for a springboard to cross. I nailed the landing and kept running, chancing a look back to see Karthik right behind me, surprisingly closing the gap.
I puffed as I slid into the entrance to Russell Square station and jumped right over the turnstiles without buying a ticket. I heard someone shout for me to stop, but the next sound I heard was Karthik knocking the hell out of them as he did the same, so I figured I didn’t need to worry about it.
The green tiles in the stairwell were a blur as I shot down. I avoided colliding with others on their way down by doing the same thing I’d done earlier, leaping from surface to surface on the walls judiciously as I descended, ending with a landing that would have made an Olympic gymnast proud. I would have considered it more impressive if not for the fact that I heard Karthik only steps behind me, knocking people over as needed to try and catch me.