Sworn to Protect (Vows of the Heart) (22 page)

Ethan finally located the files and began the download. Unfortunately
, they were rather large, and all he could do was sit and wait. Half of his screen still showed all the fuss and activity Nathan’s presence caused. Thank God for multi-tasking. Ethan swallowed hard when he realized his brother was going to have to disconnect soon.

Just a little longer, Nathan,
Ethan thought while the status bar crawled to 90%. He knew how fast his brother was on a system. As long as he could stay one step ahead of the network operators, he would be okay.

Roll, baby, roll.

At 95% he noticed the activity seemed to be reaching a head. Damn! If he remained on the system after Nathan disconnected, he would be discovered not only in the system, but in the building as well.

Come on!

97%. Ethan glanced at the security screen, the network operators were in a frenzy.

98%.

Damn it, he wasn’t going to make it. But he couldn’t disconnect now.

99%. One of the network operators crowed jubilantly. Surely
, Nathan was disconnecting.

100%.
Now!
Ethan immediately cut the connection, noticing the operators slowing to their normal pace. Was it too late? Had the operators seen him in the system?

He focused on the security monitor, his heart rattling like a drum. The operators spoke softly to each other and he strained to hear their words.

“Did he get anything?” One asked

“I don’t know, I’m checking,” the other replied.

“I can see where he had a good look around. Did the trace program work?”

“No. Whoever it was, he knew what he was doing. He must have some pretty special equipment.”

“He’s clearly a pro, or...damn, what if it was the government? FBI or something?”

“God, I hope not. Cordova will turn us into fish food.”

Ethan saw one of the men turn to a printer which spat out several sheets of paper.

“I’ve got the data here. We have our work cut out for us. It will take us forever to slog through this to divine any kind of search parameter. You think it might have been some kid playing a prank on us? You know, a cracker breaking into the system just to prove he can?”

“I doubt it. This just doesn’t feel right. We’ve got to go through all of this. You know the boss is going to want to know what he was looking for so hard. He went through a huge number of files before escaping.”

“Let’s go, I want to get a good start on this. Then we can turn it over to the day crew and let them earn their keep.”

“You got it.”

Ethan breathed a sigh of relief as they gathered their papers and left the room. Shutting down his laptop, he returned it to his pack, and moved to a large painting on the wall. It swung open easily, revealing a wall safe and keypad. Fortunately for Ethan, Cordova always had trouble remembering passwords and codes. He rarely changed them and the ones he didn’t use very often he wrote down and kept in a
secure
place.

Ethan tapped in the same security code he used for the door. The safe clicked open. He shuffled through a few files and found the one he was looking for - all of Cordova’s security codes and passwords. Ethan knew the files he had just obtained would be encrypted, the codes were necessary to open them.
Using a small digital camera from his brother, he took pictures of everything then returned the file to the safe and closed it.

Checking his watch for the camera position in the hall he waited a moment. The security guard should have completed his round on this floor two minutes ago.

Clear of the camera pass, Ethan darted out from the room and moved to the next safe zone. He leaned against the wall, waiting for the next camera to rotate. As he peered around the corner he froze.

The security guard had not completed his round yet. He had stopped at a vending machine in the hall. Damn it!

The man took his sweet time getting his soda. He took a long drink then strolled toward Ethan. Ethan glanced at the camera again. In a very short time, it would be swinging back to him.

His heart almost stopped and he pressed himself more firmly against the wall. The security guard stepped around the corner. Ethan lunged, his fist landing squarely on the man’s jaw and instantly knocking him out. He crumpled silently to the floor.

He would be in full view of the camera in a moment.

Ethan lunged around the corner and down the hall. Right as he reached the door to the stairs, it opened of its own accord. He slid to a stop as another security guard stepped through.

“Hey, Brian,” the man called and looked up, carrying his cup of coffee. His eyes widened when he saw Ethan. Ethan again lunged with a solid jab to the nose. The security guard’s coffee flew and the guard hit the ground. Ethan ran past the moaning man. He hadn’t knocked him out. It would be only moments before the man regained his wits enough to grab his radio and set off the alarms. To hell with stealth, Ethan had to move now.

He reached the second landing on the stairs just as alarms blared and doors automatically swung closed and locked. Ethan lengthened stride, taking stairs three at a time and jumping to landings. He achieved the main floor and just managed to slip through a door right before it slammed shut.

Hesitating only long enough to make certain both directions were clear, Ethan drew his gun and hurried for the back entrance. But there was one problem, he was unwilling to kill the people working in this building. Cordova may have owned this company, but it was legal. It covered his illegal business dealings, but everyone here who punched a clock, who brown-bagged their lunches, who bemoaned their nine to five jobs every day, were simply that…good, honest, working people just trying to make their way in life.

As Ethan
approached an adjoining corridor he heard a noise and flattened himself against the wall. Two security guards sprinted past him through the adjoining corridor. The first one was oblivious, the second one slowed, as if he sensed something was wrong.

Keep moving, buddy.

They reached a door. The first security guard used a card key to open it, but the second shifted his balance and turned around. Ethan gritted his teeth and aimed. The man lifted his weapon and Ethan knee-capped him. The guard fell, howling. The first guard spun, reaching for his gun. Ethan shot his right shoulder. He fell next to his partner, and Ethan sprinted down the hall.

He arrived at an emergency exit only to discover it also sealed. He hit the unlocking lever
to be used in case of a fire, but nothing happened. Why did that surprise him? Of course, Cordova would worry more about security than his people being able to escape during a fire. Ethan’s gazed landed on the code panel next to the door. Ethan tried inputting the master security code he had memorized, but nothing happened. He tried again. Still nothing.

Shit! Now what? He spied a card slot on the key pad.

The security guards had a card key.

He sprinted back to the two men who continued to moan on the ground. One had dropped his card key. It lay on the floor next to him. Ethan grabbed it.

“Don’t move,” a hoarse voice said.

The guard with the injured knee pointed his gun at Ethan.

“Don’t be a fool,” Ethan growled, his Colt already aimed at the man’s head. “Cordova doesn’t pay you enough to die.”

The man stared at him, his weapon shaking slightly.

“You’re unconscious, you never saw me.”

The man looked again at Ethan’s weapon, slowly lowered his, and closed his eyes. Ethan hurried away. A shot zinged off the wall next to his head. Ethan turned, expecting to see the guard he had just spared, but another man stood in the corridor. Ethan returned fire, forcing the man to seek cover.

In two steps, Ethan darted around the corner, just as more shots hit the wall. He returned to the door and slid the card key through the slot, holding his breath. The light turned green and Ethan charged through, more bullets ricocheting off the walls.

Ethan lowered his head and ran across the field to his vehicle, changing direction slightly every few strides so as not to make himself an easy target. Bullets continued to zing around him as more guards joined in the pursuit. His lungs felt heavy and thick
, but his greatest worry was someone might put a bullet in his back. Alarms blared and lights brightened the night sky. Ethan focused on the chain-link fence in front of him. He hit it at a dead run and vaulted over it as if it had been one of the obstacles on a training course from his days in the Marine Corps.

Ethan reached his vehicle without a problem
, but spotted headlights coming toward him outside the fence. He tried to catch his breath, his chest and lungs aching. He shoved his backpack onto the passenger seat and started the engine. Within moments, he had his seat belt in place and roared out of the trees, headed for the street.

Two sets of headlights fell in line behind him, a third set rocketed toward him from the main entrance, trying to cut off his escape. Ethan reached the pavement and swung the back end of the Suburban around, almost slamming into the third vehicle. The driver panicked at the last instant and jerked the wheel, sending the vehicle into a ditch. Ethan stepped on the gas and looked in the rearview mirror. Shit! Now he really wished he had brought Bethany.

On the main road leading away from the office building, Ethan floored the accelerator. The Suburban’s engine roared. He had to shake these idiots.

Headlights behind him closed the distance rapidly. Ethan instinctively braced himself for the ram. The vehicle behind hit his bumper and bounced off. The Suburban fishtailed slightly. Ethan managed to maintain control, trying to coax more speed from the vehicle. He saw the headlights closing again.

Ahead he spotted an intersection, there was no way he could make the turn doing 85, so he cut the corner, plowing over dirt and weeds, and narrowly missing a tree trunk, clipping it with his passenger side mirror.

He straightened the Suburban on the new road and increased speed. The lighter vehicle behind him bounced and shimmied over the dirt, then veered to the side and flipped over.

One vehicle left. The road turned, narrow and winding, with thick woods on both sides. The last vehicle closed rapidly. Ethan spotted a sharp turn ahead. Shit! It was a perfect place for a textbook ram. Ethan slammed on the brakes, trying to slow.

The vehicle behind plowed into the Suburban’s right rear, sending it sliding. Ethan corrected the skid and hit the gas, but the tires refused to bite. He careened toward the side of the road, the ground suddenly disappearing in front of him in a steep incline, filled with trees. Fuck! This was going to hurt.

The Suburban flew. The hood dipped. The air bag deployed, blinding him. Ethan heard the terrible shriek of metal as the Suburban flipped over. His only thought was of Bethany. He couldn’t leave her. He couldn’t die like this. Blinding pain shot through him and stole his awareness.

Ethan awoke only moments later to the choking stench of a deployed air bag. The chemicals burned his nose and throat making it difficult to breathe. Then he realized, he was upside down, hanging by his seat belt. Around him the Suburban was nearly crushed. The soft creaks of bent metal and shattered
glass echoed eerily, along with the steady tick of a cooling engine. He smelled gasoline. But the interior was dark and the headlights off; the battery must have been damaged. Ethan spotted his backpack on the crumpled roof beside him. Praying that at least the hard drive of the computer was still intact, he reached for the strap.

Agonizing pain shot through him and almost
sent him unconscious again. That forced Ethan to take inventory. His right side was the worst, he felt blood, hot and sticky. Tentatively touching his side, his hand came away covered in red. Not a good sign.

Ethan had a blinding headache and a nasty gash on his forehead. The only reason he didn’t have blood in his eyes was because he was upside down. His left arm throbbed worse than usual, the side of the car caved around it. Ethan moved slightly and discovered the metal of his arm brace bent all to hell. His arm hurt
, but it appeared as if his brace had taken the force of the impact. He could still move his fingers and his lower arm.

Voices sifted through the darkness. Ignoring the pain, Ethan reached again for his pack, managing to snag it with the tips of his fingers. Panting for air and fighting to clear his vision, he unlatched his seat belt and crashed into the roof.
He fought back the darkness and won.

He couldn’t crawl through the crushed driver’s side window. His only choice was to kick out the windshield. Pain radiated through his right side as he kicked
, but the shattered windshield came free relatively easily. He hauled himself out and onto the damp earth.

The voices came closer and Ethan crawled on his belly, trying to gain distance. The smell of gasoline grew stronger. He had either severed the fuel line or damaged the gas tank - maybe both. Sliding away as far as he could, Ethan drew his gun and aimed at the exposed gas tank. He fired once, briefly seeing a spark as the bullet hit metal.

The damned thing went up like a roman candle.

The explosion nearly deafened him, flinging him back into the dirt. An intense wave of heat washed over him and singed his eyebrows. He coughed and spat dirt from his mouth. The flames eased slightly and he looked back, watching them lick at the car. He no longer heard voices.