Replica(66)

He had a point, as much as I loathed admitting it. “Fine. We set the explosives first, then stop them from gassing those babies.”

“We still have to figure out how to stop them.”

“The man in charge agreed to the plan of spraying down the village. Which means they’ll use some kind of vehicle, which is probably in the underground garage. I saw the location on the schematics. I know how to get there. We set the bombs, then find the garage and figure out how to proceed from there.”

“And if we make it to the garage and still don’t see what we’re looking for? Or if we get detained while the bombs are ticking down?”

“I never asked you to help, Antonio. This was never your mission. It’s mine. So why don’t you help me set the explosives and then get out of here. Wait for me by the truck, and if I’m not back when the place blows, you’ll know I didn’t make it.”

“Are you insane?” he asked. “You think I would leave you here?”

“Why would you stay?” I asked, just as incredulous as he’d sounded. “You only met me days ago. You feel no obligation to save that village. Why would you feel differently about me?”

He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it and leaned his head closer to mine.

I pulled back. “If you try to kiss me, I will seriously hurt you. Fucking priorities, dude.” Then I shoved him back and opened the door, bursting into the hall, which was a stupid thing to do. I should have at least checked to make sure the coast was clear.

But Antonio drove me crazy, because part of me wanted to kiss him, and another part kept reminding me of how Sean had tried to seduce and use me. I couldn’t fall for it again.

I took off toward the ventilation room, Antonio on my heels. I’d essentially memorized the plans, so I knew the laboratories were close. It made sense that this area would be more heavily guarded, so it didn’t surprise me when I heard the faint sound of voices at the next intersection we reached.

Antonio must have heard it too, because he pulled a handgun out of the holster at his side.

I moved with my back against the wall, drawing my own gun. “The lab is sure to have the antidote.”

“Remember our deal? Explosives first,” he whispered into my ear. “Then we can do it your way.”

This plan was a huge risk. We were damn lucky we hadn’t been caught yet. And we’d be even luckier to set the bombs and get out alive. Now we’d added another two major tasks—finding the antidote and tracking down the truck delivering the toxin. It really was a suicide mission. Not that I was changing my mind.

But first we had to make it past the hallway without being noticed.

I peered around the right-hand side and saw two guards clustered further down the hall. They stood outside of what I was fairly sure was the lab. We’d deal with how to get in there later. I decided to take a chance. People had been wandering the hall earlier. We were far enough away that if they saw us, we could pass as employees. Besides, they were so engrossed with their conversation, they probably wouldn’t even notice us.

My plan almost worked. I crossed the hallway opening without being seen and Antonio was almost across when I heard one of the guards shout, “What are you doing in this section?”

“They sent me to maintenance to get a tool kit,” he said. “They’re having issues with the coupler again.”

“Yeah,” the guard said. “Whatever. Hurry it up. This section is off limits for the next half hour. We’re about to move a toxic chemical.”

“Yes, sir,” Antonio said, then joined me on the other side. He looked amazingly calm for having nearly been caught.

The ventilation room was locked, but Antonio pulled out the employee badge from the guard we’d tranquilized and held it up to the card reader. The door popped open and we slipped inside.

Setting up the explosives was easy—so much so, it made me nervous. I had to grudgingly admit Antonio was better at this than I was. He set up five bombs to my three, then set the timer. Looking up at me as he finished, he said, “You get forty-five minutes, mi amor. No more.”

More generous than I’d expected.

We hurried to the door. “If we can intercept the toxin in the hall, we can stop it from even getting to the transport,” he said. “Then we can get the hell out of here.”

“Maybe so, but it will be heavily guarded,” I said. “Not to mention that we’re dead if it spills. It would be safer to sabotage the transport vehicle or maybe even steal the vehicle it’s stored in.” Not to mention getting Ivan and Lea out before the place blew. If they were even inside.