As he said it, he looked behind him again, just for a second. The woman opened her mouth as if to repeat her question, then stopped. She leaned to the side and looked past him and Dani, staring into the tunnel herself. Though she didn’t seem to see anything, she was clearly spooked.

“Yes,” she said. “We can hard-lock it.”

“Please let us in,” Sam said. “We’ll tell you why.”

She hesitated another second, then seemed to shake off whatever rule or regulation was holding her back. She stepped aside and waved them forward. “Get in here.”

The moment they passed through the doorway, everything inside Sam seemed to change. He looked at Dani and knew it was the same for her. It felt as if some kind of internal structure had kept them on their feet for the past several minutes—the need to stay alive, the knowledge that they were on their own. Now as the woman shut the door behind them, and gave the latch a twist that locked a bolt into place, that inner strength evaporated like something from a dream. They just didn’t need it anymore.

Sam felt the hitch in his chest just before the sobs overwhelmed him. He saw Dani and everything else around them ripple and swim, and then both of them were crying aloud, unable to keep it quiet. Dani grabbed onto him and they sat down, right there on the concrete in front of the medics. Sam held her tight against himself and shut his eyes and didn’t try to stop the tears.

“You’re safe now,” he managed. It was all he could get out through the spasms in his throat.

But the thought cycled again and again in his head:

It’s over.

We’re safe here.

We’re safe, we’re safe, we’re safe.

CHAPTER SIXTY

SEPTEMBER 2018

Dryden kept the MP5 and its flashlight beam centered on Pierce. There was no sign the man had a weapon: his shirt was tucked in, with no holster visible on his waistband. No ankle holster, either; his seated position against the wall had drawn his pant cuffs upward, showing nothing but socks. All the same, Dryden kept the sights on him, and his finger on the trigger.

Pierce had taken a single shot through the abdomen—Dryden was sure it had happened during the initial volley with the Glock. The round had caught him dead center, and must have nicked the thoracic artery; there was a huge amount of blood running out of the guy, streaming between his fingers, saturating his clothes below the bullet hole. He was going to lose consciousness in another sixty seconds, and be dead within a couple minutes, but at the moment his eyes were open and blinking.

Dryden shone the light into the man’s face and spoke with authority. “Is there another attack coming today? Tell me.”

Pierce looked up into the glare.