Ultimate Nyssa Glass by H. Burke (ebook reader browser txt) 📗

towards them. Brakes squealed, triggering a memory.

Rain-slick roads. Dad losing control. Mom’s cry. The crunch of metal and bone. A harsh scent of blood mixed with motor oil.

Ellis screamed.

The car tilted as the tires hit the sidewalk. Ellis toppled forward but landed soft on top of the quivering O’Hara. Then everything jerked to a halt.

Drawing a deep breath, Ellis pulled himself back onto the seat. The driver slumped over the wheel and steam rose from the hood beyond the cracked windshield. He reached into the front to check the driver’s pulse, but the old man moaned and straightened.

The driver put his hand to his forehead. “What the Sam Hill was that halfwit trying to do?”

“Kill us, I think. You okay, O’Hara?”

“They … they tried to kill me …” She sat up, her face bone pale and her whole body shaking.

“Somehow I doubt you were the target.” Ellis grimaced.

“Yes, but I was in the car and they still …” She stopped and swallowed.

Pedestrians gathered around the crumpled front of the steam car. The other vehicle was nowhere to be seen.

It’s a miracle we didn’t hit anyone.

“You sure you’re both okay?” the driver asked.

“Yes, but that was terrifying,” O’Hara said.

Ellis nodded, wishing he hadn’t screamed like a little girl. “Could’ve been worse.”

This time I’m … not walking away, but I know from experience that it could’ve been worse. Thank you, God.

The driver climbed out and opened the door for them.

“What’ll we do now?” he asked. “Call a cab and continue to the station? Head home?”

Ellis examined the street. One of the buildings had a sign that read, “The Clock Tower Hotel.”

“Neither. I’m going to regroup and replan. I’m not sure how, but we’ve lost the element of surprise.” He put his hand to his pocket where the handheld communicator still rested. I’m also now within five miles of Dalhart Manor. It’s a long shot, but it’s worth a try.

Chapter Thirteen

Nyssa studied the house plans Hart displayed on his monitor. “So, if we go down through the floor here …?” She tapped the laboratory on the plans.

“You’ll most likely end up in the middle of one of the empty spare bedrooms, depending on where exactly in the lab you start tearing things apart,” Hart answered. “You might avoid detection there, but you’d still have to get out of the house.”

“And I wouldn’t be able to take you with me that way.” She bit her bottom lip.

“You can come back for me later. Let’s concentrate on getting you out of here safe, all right? We’ll worry about me once that’s accomplished.”

Nyssa strode over to the table where she’d lined up her tools. They were fine work tools, not meant for construction and demolition. Still, burrowing through the floors like a termite was the best escape plan she’d been able to come up with so far. Several hours of messing with the handheld that morning had brought her nothing but static. Ellis had designed it specifically as a private communication system for the two of them, so getting it to send or receive signals to and from other sources would take a lot of manipulation and parts she didn’t have.

She fiddled with her ring. It slipped back and forth along her finger, catching on her knuckle.

A whine of metal on metal made her pause. “That’s coming from the door to the workshop.”

Hart flipped his view to the workshop cameras. Aito knelt beside the door with a large-bit-drill. Rivera stood over his shoulder, wearing a pair of goggles much like Nyssa’s.

“I thought you said they couldn’t break through the door without shorting out your circuits?” Nyssa whispered.

“I did. However, if those goggles have an x-ray setting, it would be easy enough to find a place where they could drill a small hole without damaging anything. The question is, what do they hope to accomplish by doing so?”

Nyssa left the laboratory for the office and watched as sparks flew from the door. A hole formed, letting in a beam of light.

“Miss Glass, can you hear me?” Rivera called.

She cleared her throat. “Yes. What do you want?”

“To give you and the computer one last chance to cooperate. How long do you think you can stay in there?”

Nyssa snorted. “I’m quite comfortable, thank you.”

“For now. You think you have me against the ropes, but I assure you, you’re quite wrong. For one thing, you, Miss Glass, are not essential to my plans. I don’t need you. I just need the files on that computer.”

“I’m aware of that. It doesn’t change anything.”

“Oh yes, it does.” She could almost hear the man’s self-satisfied smile. “The computer doesn’t need air. You do. I tried giving you a deadline once before, and you found a way to stall. This time, I doubt you will be so lucky. You have three hours to get the computer to give me what I want, or I pump that lab full of gas and let you stifle like a trapped rat.”

A chill swept through Nyssa. “If you do that, I’ll be dead, but you won’t be any closer to getting what you want.”

“But as you said, you’ll be dead—unless you open the door and convince the computer to give me what I want. It’s the same deadline as before, only now instead of having Aito take you apart piece by piece, I’ll be stealing the air from your lungs while the computer watches your face turn blue.”

She gritted her teeth. “And if I’d rather die than cooperate with you?”

“Then I’ll figure another way to the computer. I have all the time in the world. You, however, have three hours.” He chuckled. “Make that two hours and fifty-six minutes.”

“I’ll give it some thought.” She hurried back to Hart.

Angry flashes of light darted across the computer’s monitor. “I wish I were a human so I could punch that man in the face.”

“Do you think he can do it?” Nyssa asked.

“It’s feasible. Obviously, he has a hole to pipe gas through now, and the wall between