Ocean Blue (Sea Lab Book 1)

CHAPTER 44

ZANDERTHAL'S REMOTE COMPOUND

Maybe their fate was to be captured. Again, Jake checked the well-lit corridor in both directions and saw no avenue of escape as the guards neared their position. The only option was to go back into the arena. He scanned the hall for an archway entrance and found one they could reach before the men got to them. He had a good feeling the approaching gunmen wouldn't open fire because some of their own might get shot during the exchange. His assumption proved correct as a guard raised his weapon, looked beyond them, and lowered the rifle in frustration.

Sarah bolted toward the passage leading back into the seating area. Jake craned his head for a quick look before they disappeared through the archway. Guards closed in, advancing toward them, barking orders to stop or they would shoot.

"To the lower levels," Sarah said. They bounced down a long line of steep stairs leading to the heart of the stadium. On each side, the crowd roared, caught up in the fight's action in the sandpit below.

Sarah never raised her eyes from the steps. "All the way to the bottom."

With each step came the awful dread Jake might pitch forward and lose control in a bone breaking tumble, but for support, handrails steadied his balance. They gained some ground because their pursuers more or less picked their way down the stairs. They seemed too fearful of falling, but in all the commotion, the crowd remained focused on the cage fighters with reckless intensity.

"Take the aisle to your left." Jake pointed.

Sarah lost her balance at the bottom step. With quick reflexes, Jake reached for her arm and snatched her back to himself, and then pulled her toward the exit a few feet away. They burst through the double doors into a short hallway connecting to a main corridor on the lower level. The vicinity was clear of guards, or anyone else. He wasn't about to let go of Sarah's hand. Her safety was paramount. As much as he tried to act like he didn't care about her, he did. His stomach ached when he thought about the possibility of not spending the rest of his life with her.

To the left, the hall bent around the arena, with doors lining both walls. Jake and Sarah took off in a sprint, hand in hand. Slowing down was not an option. They ran until another hallway branched off to the right, this one away from the heart of the complex. They turned down the corridor and hurried to the end, where a pair of glass doors awaited them. Apparently, the outside grade lowered to allow an exit at this level. When they reached the doors, Jake heard boots pounding the floor, commands flying off tongues, and rounds chambered into rifles.

Outside, a limo sat parked at the curb with a beast of a man in a black suit leaned against its fender. Jake assumed he was Roland Zanderthal's chauffeur.

He squinted, looking closer.

It was the same man from the black Mercedes in Orlando at Sea Lab headquarters, the same man that had blown up Sarah's house and almost killed her.

Jake's hand slid up to the pistol at his side, and he started to draw the weapon, but the sound of guards stole his attention. He expected to see them enter the corridor at any second.

Jake glanced back at the limo and was about to take it by force when the giant man hustled away from the car and followed several men around the back side of the arena.

"Our fortune has changed," he said.

They pushed through the glass doors and bounded down the short flight of steps to the curb. Sarah went around to the passenger side door and found it unlocked. Jake hustled to the car, slid in next to her, and checked for the keys. They were dangling from the ignition.

He grinned at Sarah. "More good fortune."

A dark blur invaded his peripheral vision. He looked up. The chauffeur charged toward them, at least thirty yards away, gun raised, bullets spatting from the end of the barrel.

Lead ricocheted off the windshield, leaving pot marks in the bulletproof glass.

The Japanese man slowed a step, ejected the spent magazine, and slammed another one into the butt of the pistol, all the while angling toward Sarah's door.