Page 66 of Knox

“Both of you, stop betting on my life, because I am not fucking quitting,” I hiss. “Alexios, what’s the status on those blind spots?”

“Loop-feeding the Sector 4 security cameras in five. You’ll have forty seconds before the automated searchlights sweep back. Three... two... one... Go.”

The three of us move as one unit all the way to the first wall.

Leif fires a pneumatic grappling line over the concrete edge; we each take a turn hooking our wires and ascend the thirty-foot barrier in seconds.

I love this thing.

“Two guards near the northern entrance. The rest are clear,” Alexios says, and we prepare.

I stay low with my rifle raised toward the shadowed walkway of Block C.

Behind me, Leif detaches his rappelling gear, rolls the cord into his palm, and stashes it behind a generator unit.

“Left entryway clear,” says Tae, and we follow him.

“You’ve got a fifty-second window before the next guard rotation on the north watchtower. Keep moving,” Alexios reminds us over the comms.

And so we do.

We move in a line along the concrete wall, completely invisible to the flickers of the searchlights or any guard on shift.

We reach one of the back doors.

“Back door number fifteen,” I say, opening the keypad.

“Thirty-eight, forty-one, two.”

I press the code Alexios passed me and hit a green button.

CLANK.

“In,” I murmur, and we slip into the corridor.

“Agent Brown is in cell forty-two, sub-basement three, and—oh, shit…” Alexios says over the comms.

“‘Oh, shit’ what, Alexios?” I ask, not liking his tone one bit.

“It looks like they never upgraded their facilities to digital down there. Everything from here on out uses old-school iron gates, so I can’t hack them open for you.”

Tae gasps, sounding way too excited. “Like in The Rock?”

“Exactly like in The Rock… but don’t get too excited, Tae. It might look cool in the movies, but it’s a time-consuming bitch in real life.”

“Well… that sounds like Leif’s problem,” Tae smiles, keeping his weapon trained on the stairwell as we move down.

“It always is,” Leif chuckles, pulling a custom lockpick kit out from one of his twenty cargo pant pockets.

CLINK.

CRANK.

CLICK.

The door swings open, and Leif steps back, lifting his arms wide. “Open sesame!”

“Seriously? Open sesame?” Tae laughs. “What are you, eighty?”