Roger smiled, even though McNabb was crushing his windpipe. The captain was trying to get a count of his men. Everyone was looking nervous, even Aubrey.
“I don’t know what you you’re trying to pull, Gillespie,” McNabb said. “But you’re fighting for the wrong side.”
“I don’t know what sides your talking about. All I know is we had a safe haven then you came and stripped it all away,”
Roger said. He wanted to sound cool, but it was hard to do when your voice was choked off by a forearm.
McNabb pulled him off the wall and turned him to the door. “Lets move, we’re too exposed out here.” The men didn’t even blink, every one of them well trained. Unlocking the door, it led deeper into the heart of the old launch facility. The hallway was well lit by incandescent bulbs. The seven of them, Roger, Aubrey, McNabb and what remained of his security detail, ran into the hallway, closing the security door behind them.
As the door ganged closed behind them, McNabb turned to his men. “We take them to the debriefing rooms.” He checked his radio to find it only returned dead air thanks to the feet of radio absorbing concrete. With a shake of his head he motioned them forward. They ran along metal grates that rang out with every heavy boot step.
Reaching a T in the hall, McNabb stopped and motioned them to take the right. But he frowned and looked back when he only counted five. “Halt!” he cried, his words sounding hollow in the hallway. “Tims and Michaels, with me.”
Running back along the sides of the hall they came to a sliding stop just before a hole in the floor where a pair of the metal grating was missing. The channel beneath was painted in shadow, it was dirty and looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since the start of the Cold War. McNabb looked back to Tims, who shook his head.
“Fuck that, I’m not going down there.”
McNabb growled, “We’re exposed and the facility isn’t secure, we need to notify command.” They double-timed it back to find the Scotsman and redhead without their guard. The two of them looking up into an opened air ducted the girl looking pale. “What did you do with him?” McNabb shouted at Roger pulling his pistol out.
“I didn’t do anything with him,” he said, yelling back. “What do you think I’ve done? Disabled your guard and shoved him into the air-conditioning all while being handcuffed?”
Having enough of this, McNabb pushed the two of them into one of the cells, inside the large concrete room with a rugged looking interrogation table and two chairs. On the back wall was a drab green phone. McNabb pushed Roger down into one chair and Michaels was helping the shell-shocked woman into the other chair.
He was reaching for the phone when Tims cried out and was pulled from the room like was attached to a hook, the door slamming behind him.
“What the hell?” McNabb ran for the door opening it fully.
The hallway was empty.
“Crap!” He ran for the phone, but was beaten by a black and while blur as it snatched the receiver off the wall and dove under the table, pulling till the cord snapped off.
McNabb jumped back and looked to Roger to find him smiling wider than before.
“You boys ready to listen to me now?”