“You have to get out!” Cameron said. “While I was gone, Fitz started a chain reaction that’s going to make the whole place blow!”
“What? Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Cameron said. “This was nothing I did. I can only think he’s trying to destroy evidence. The failsafes aren’t working and the pressure is building across all refinery units. There’s about to be a massive explosion—one that will take the whole refinery down. They’re evacuating the area. Homes and everything.”
“Fix it!” I, said, my heart racing.
“I can’t!” Cameron said. “There are power outages all over the plant, and the server I hacked into went down right after I got back on!”
“Can’t you get another connection?”
“It’s not that easy,” Cameron said. “I created the security breach on this server before I quit the company. There’s not a lot I can do from the outside without that connection.”
“We don’t even know where we are!” I glanced around in desperation, trying to spot some exits. “Can you see us?”
I peered through the Plexiglass windows on the double doors we’d just backed through. There was a trail of blood leading down the hallway. Fitz was long gone.
I motioned for Nash to stand back and fired at the windows.
“Save your bullets,” Nash said. “That’s safety glass. You won’t be able to shoot it out.”
“Cameron,” I said. “I don’t know how we’re going to get out of here. You’ve got to think of something.”
“Okay, I’m thinking!” he said.
I waited a beat. “What have you got?”
“Nothing yet! Let me let you go and see what I can come up with. Try to get out!”
The line went dead.
I was sweating. I felt claustrophobic. I shoved my gun back in my belt and stripped off the yellow plastic suit, which helped to clear my head some.
I stretched my arm around Nash’s back, inviting him to lean on my shoulder for support. He did so.
“Forward, ho!” I said, trying to be brave.
We limped slowly but urgently forward, eyeing the pipes all around us. Some were skinny, some were thick. Some had bolts the size of tomatoes.
A nagging question tugged at the edges of my mind. Maybe it was inappropriate under the circumstances, but I wouldn’t be able to fully concentrate unless I got it out of my head.
“Did you mean it earlier when you said I had you?” I asked him.
“Yes,” he said. “I meant it.”
“Okay, but what does that mean, exactly. Like I have you as a friend?”
“More than that,” he said. “When we get out of here, I’m going to take you out for a fajita dinner and some really big, really strong margaritas.”
“With Patron?” I asked.
“With Patron. And a sangria swirl. And this time, it really will be a date.”
I smiled. The only thing dampening my mood was the thought that getting out of here was a big, big If. With a capital I. And maybe even a capital F.
We had hobbled our way from one end of the chamber to another. We found another set of double doors and leaned against them, expecting them to budge.
They were locked.
“I think they’re sealing off the unit to try to control any potential explosion,” I said. “We can’t get out down here. The only way out is up.”
We headed toward a nearby spiral staircase. I prayed that it would be the right one—that it would actually lead us to a path that might go up and out, not to another dead end.
We began the long journey upward, with Nash practically hopping up each stair on one foot, leaning on me for support the whole time.
Above us, a bolt blew off a pipe and hot steam shot out into the space above us. The condensation dripped onto the stair railing.
“If that’s gasoline, we’re cooked.” Nash bent down and trailed his finger through some droplets, then brought it to his nose.
“Is this. . . water?” he touched his finger to his tongue gingerly, tasting the fluid. “I think it’s water!”
“It could be,” I said. “Refineries run on steam.”
“You’re joking.”
“Nope, I’m serious,” I said. “Big Oil uses steam to produce the fabulous toxic chemicals that power our world every day.”
“That is an unbelievable irony,” Nash said.
Above us, more steam jets popped one by one.
And then the flames roared to life with a deafening noise.
Nash jumped.
I peered high above us.
The flames were isolated and appeared to be controlled.