We’d arrived on the same sort of helicopter the prison staff used and we were wearing the same military uniforms. We’d hoped that would let us get close before anyone suspected anything and, as we approached the huge, concrete entrance, it seemed like it was working. The guards even got the door open ready for us. I guessed they were worried about prison riots and breakouts: they never dreamed someone would try to break in.

Gabriel, ever the conman, raised his hands and greeted them warmly in German. He got within six feet of them before he pulled out his pistol and fired a tranquilizer dart into each of them. We grabbed them as they fell and pulled them into the guardhouse so they wouldn’t freeze to death.

Inside, the prison was dark and quiet. Three more guards sat at a control desk, watching surveillance cameras. Cal, Gabriel and I shot one each and we dragged their sleeping bodies out of sight. So far, it had gone like clockwork. But now came the hard part.

Bradan uploaded the virus that would wipe the cameras after we’d gone. Gabriel searched the computer. “Got him,” he whispered a moment later. “Cell 308.” Then he cursed. “Right over on the far side.”

He pointed the way and I stared at the darkened hallway. We’d have to creep right through the prison. If one guard saw us and raised the alarm…

I turned to Erin. “Stay behind me,” I reminded her.

She nodded and I felt her hand press between my shoulder blades. It was comforting but also terrifying, a reminder of the fragile prize I was going to have to protect.

I told Bradan to lead the way: he could sneak like no one else. “Okay, this is it,” I whispered. “Not a sound from now on.” I took a deep breath. “Let’s go.”

21. Erin

21

ERIN

The prison was dark, damp and horribly cold, the bare concrete walls like ice. As we crept down the hallway, the howl of the wind outside fell away and the sounds of the prison surrounded us. We could hear the footsteps of patrolling guards, the mutterings of prisoners as they half-woke and fell back to sleep.

I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck rising, the tension almost unbearable. The place felt like a trap that could spring shut at any second. The prison had been dug into a cliff so there were no other exits, not even a window. If anything went wrong, the only way out was the entrance we’d come in by and we were getting further and further from that with each step. The warm pressure of Danny’s back under my hand was the only thing that kept me going.