Kazimi was giddy with the significance of Bacon’s huge bodyguard casually emerging from the lab and lumbering past them and across the Great Room. Until that moment, Doug Bacon, the master of Red Cliff, had led him to believe there was only a single passage into that wing of the castle. Leaving the lab as the bodyguard did had to have been a mistake.

Now he stood in the lab, just inside the closed door through which Costello had come. He was wary that the giant, or Drake, the other huge guard, would open the door at any moment, and even the smallest sound from the other side caused his pulse to skip. Another concern was the security camera mounted close to the ceiling in one corner of the lab. An identical electronic sentry kept watch from a similar spot in the annex. Perhaps the guards would realize the significance of what he was about to try, and would be on their way to stop him as soon as he got started. Kazimi gritted his teeth, then cursed his inability to stay cool. This was a time for action, not apprehension.

Almost certainly, there was a hidden passage—a secret way out of the wing, and most likely down to the boathouse at the base of the cliff. It was time to find it and to escape.

Where to start?

As a scientist, Kazimi prided himself in his ability to work out problems. The X-factor here, of course, was not only figuring out the solution to the puzzle, but doing it without getting caught. Step one, always, observation. From large to small, broad to compact. Stay casual, look busy, and examine every bit of the lab and the annex—the stark animal containment room the guards had taken to calling the “mouse house.”

Mindful he was probably being watched, Kazimi moved around the perimeter of the spacious lab, doing menial tasks as he scanned the gray mortar and fieldstone walls, as well as the concrete floor, looking for cracks, ill-fitting rocks, or any part of the construction that appeared to have been patched. It took most of an hour to make several passes, all the while continuing to prepare culture agar and growth medium.

Nothing.

His enthusiasm dampened. Sooner or later, someone would be in to check on him. Sooner or later someone would realize the repetition of his actions and speak to Bacon if, in fact, Bacon wasn’t the one currently watching the monitor screens.

Don’t give up became Kazimi’s mantra. If he got caught, he would deal with it. But he had to keep trying.

Don’t give up.…