8:03 p.m.
Time sprinted with me through the warehouse.
“Here!” I yelled. “Over here.”
Alive. Water up to her neck. Reaching, reaching for air.
I stumbled over something, crashed into a piece of abandoned machinery. Slammed onto the concrete.
Back to my feet.
Running again.
Others too. Others running.
Who? I couldn’t see.
“I see her!” Lien-hua yelled.
The echo of footsteps around me.
Flickering light. Flickering light.
I heard the slap of my Nikes. Ralph’s steady, pounding boots.
Lien-hua’s fluid stride.
But another set of steps too. A fourth set.
Then something clattered against the floor to my left, and I aimed my light toward the sound. Saw a figure bolting toward the other end of the dark warehouse.
“Stop. On your knees!” I yelled. The lights high above me flickered, flickered. “Now!” Thin light dancing across the interior of the warehouse.
A macabre dance.
“Stop!”
But he didn’t stop. I needed to make a decision.
Chase him or save Cassandra. Easy choice.
Cassandra.
I heard Ralph and Lien-hua. “There!” I yelled, I pointed. “He’s getting away.”
“He’s mine,” Ralph shouted while Lien-hua leapt with the grace of a doe over a dead conveyor belt and arrived by my side.
Water poured from the pipe that led down the wall of the warehouse and spanned the meter-long gap to the top of the tank. The water wasn’t just dripping anymore. The valves must have been opened all the way.
Cassandra Lillo pounded and slapped against the glass as the churning water reached her chin. She was screaming, still screaming as the water began to cover her mouth.
“Where’s the valve?” I yelled to her, holstering my SIG. “The valve?” But Cassandra was too busy trying to stay alive to answer.
Lien-hua pounded on the glass. “We’re going to get you out.
Hold on.”
The water bubbled over Cassandra’s lips.
“Pat.” Desperation rose in Lien-hua’s voice. “You have to stop that water.”
I ran to the back of the tank, pocketed the flashlight, jumped up, and grabbed the water pipe. I swung my weight, hard, trying to jar the pipe loose from the side of the building, but it held firm. I wedged my feet against the wall and twisted with all my strength.
Nothing.
Yanked. Yanked.
Nothing.
Cassandra tugged against the chain, took a gulp of air. The chain looked slack, but she didn’t notice. “Relax!” I yelled. “You’ll be