The Darkest Legacy (Darkest Min - Alexandra Bracken Page 0,73
I don’t get the cameras and emergency floodlights on!” he said, finally wrenching away.
Lisa blocked the door, holding out both arms. “We don’t have time. You and I need to get the kids and get to the trapdoor.”
“The power—” he protested.
“It’s too late,” she barked, hauling Miguel toward the kitchen door. “Let’s go, while we still have time.”
“Ben?” Jacob said into the walkie-talkie. “Ben! Anyone? Can anyone hear me?”
He looked to Miguel in the darkness.
“They must have something jamming the frequencies,” Miguel explained. “Which means—”
“They’re well-trained and well-armed,” I choked out.
“We’ve drilled for this,” Lisa said. “We need to wake up the kids in the tree houses.”
“No,” Jacob said quickly. “We need to get them quickly and quietly. If we make a lot of noise alerting the kids, the intruders might attack immediately.”
The agitation on Miguel’s face broke as he nodded, moving to pull pieces out of each server. He dumped them all into a bag that had been stowed beneath the desk. As soon as Lisa opened the door, I heard the confused voices of the kids upstairs. She cupped her hands around her mouth, calling softly, “Free Bird! This isn’t a drill! Leave everything!”
In response, feet pounded down the stairs, heading our way.
“The escape hatch is in the laundry, under the dryer,” Lisa explained to me, catching Miguel’s arm again as he reached the doorway.
“I’ll get the kids in the tree houses,” Jacob said, looking to me. I nodded.
“Please be careful—please,” Miguel said, returning only long enough to lock Jacob in an embrace.
“I’ll see you soon,” Jacob promised.
After one last long look between the two boys, Miguel followed Lisa out.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know…the phone…” I began.
Jacob gave a sharp shake of the head. “Even Miguel missed it.” Seeing my face, he gripped my shoulders. “You should go with Lisa and the others.”
The horror blanketing my mind was ripped away by his words.
I did this. I’d inadvertently brought the kidnappers here, and had been careless enough to think they wouldn’t track the missing phone. I wasn’t going to leave this place until every kid was safely away from whatever—and whoever—was coming for us.
“No,” I said. “No, Jacob. We need weapons—”
“They’re upstairs,” he said, already heading that way.
The kids who had been sleeping in the bedrooms ran down the staircase as we ran up. Lisa was in the hallway, waving them forward toward the laundry, counting them off as she went.
She called the last number just loud enough for us to hear: “Eight!”
“Nine in the tree houses?” I confirmed with Jacob.
“Four at the hole,” he said.
A string of white-hot cusses streamed through my mind. The hole—Priyanka and Roman were either sitting ducks, or the safest of us all.
We charged up into the attic. To Ruby and Liam’s bedroom.
Their room hadn’t changed at all since the last time I’d been there—it was almost disarming. There was the same tufted green rug, adopted from Ruby’s grandmother; and along the windows of the far wall—the one where all the lines from the tree houses connected—were the striped curtains she had made for them. Aside from the desk, the two nightstands, the bed, and a bookshelf, there was no other furniture in the room.
Which wouldn’t give anyone up here much cover, if it came to that.
The last two of the Haven kids were waiting for us up there. Jen and another girl with raven-black hair had already pulled heavy weapons cases out from under Ruby and Liam’s bed and were assembling the guns.
“What’s going on?” Jen demanded.
Jacob dropped to a crouch beside them. I did the same, only I moved to the edge of the room’s enormous windows, the ones that overlooked the tree houses. I kept my back to the wall.
“Is it a raid?” the other girl asked, unable to keep the note of fear from her voice.
“No,” Jacob said, sliding a pistol over to me. “Something else.”
A scream rent the air—somewhere in the darkness wood snapped, splintering loudly as it crashed to the ground. I moved onto my knees, scanning the shadows between the trees. “I don’t see anything—”
Thin red beams of light pierced through the underbrush. Gun sights, sweeping up over the ground to the front of the house.
“Take cover!” I shouted, throwing myself away from the wall. The two girls dove across the room and crouched defensively by the door. With a single sweep of his hands, Jacob upended the bed and bookshelves and sent them sliding our way, barricading us behind them.