Agent 34 (Book 1)

21. I was in the neighborhood

Everly's POV

"How many bullets do you have?" I asked Alejandra.

She reloaded the gun. "Enough," She replied.

I nodded. "The one in the middle has grenades on her belt," I told her.

Ian's eyes widened, immediately understanding what I was implying. "Don't-"

Alejandra was already firing and seconds later there was an explosion that threw us to the floor and blew the mercenaries away.

Ian groaned as he shoved himself to his feet only to turn and glare at me. "Really?"

I shoved to my feet, wincing at the pain it caused me. "I didn't feel like actually dealing with them," I said to him before waving at Alejandra. "Clearly she agreed. Unless of course, you wanted to go another round."

Ian just shook his head and began walking down the hallway, careful to step between the debris and the bodies. Alejandra and I followed close behind.

"The others?" I asked Ian as I took up walking right beside him.

"They're alright," Ian replied. "It was Noelle and Tessa right above us, but they handled the mercenaries on their end."

"They didn't happen to find a staircase while they were at it?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "Nope."

We continued on down the hallway, taking random turns here and there. We didn't want to split up, but these tunnels seemed to be going on for miles and it was getting hard to keep track of where we'd been.

"Pretty sure we already went that way," Alejandra said just before Ian could turn down another tunnel.

He groaned and pulled at his hair. "Which way do you suggest we go then?"

Alejandra shined her flashlight between the four different tunnels surrounding us. She turned back to Ian and shrugged.

We'd picked up extra weapons and flashlights from the mercenaries we killed, but so far we hadn't run into any other mercenaries. I took that as both a good sign and a bad sign all at the same time.

Ian suddenly stopped for a moment, seeming to listen to whoever was now speaking through the comms. "Well, where are you?" He asked.

I waited as he listened to the person respond.

"Now how does that help us?"

I shook my head and pushed past him, continuing on as he continued to speak with whichever of his agents was speaking to him. Alejandra stayed with him.

I ran my hand along the wall as I walked since I no longer had a flashlight and it was continuing to get darker and darker the further down the tunnel I went. I moved quietly and kept my attention solely focused on my hearing, waiting to hear any other sound other than the soft echoes of Ian arguing with whoever he was speaking to.

I stopped after a moment, as I felt something strange on the wall. Something that didn't belong. I backed up to the slim metal plate I had just barely brushed my fingers over, just as I heard swearing from down the tunnel.

"Thirteen!" I heard Ian calling out. "Where the hell did she go?"

I felt around the slim metal plate, trying to determine what it was in the dark. It stuck out from the wall, just barely, and was only about the width of my finger. As I traced along it with my hands, however, I discovered it was much longer. It went from the floor almost to the ceiling and then over and back down.

It was a doorway.

I pushed back from the wall, hearing Ian still calling out to me and debating waiting until he arrived. Once he arrived I would have light to actually see how to get this thing open. But, if there wasn't a way to get it open from this side . . .