Page 50 of Come Fly With Me

Cautiously, they made their way around the perimeter of the room.

“I don’t like this,” Isobel muttered. “It’s too quiet.”

“Just stick together,” Harvard said. “We’ll be fine.”

As they crept past the door to the changing rooms, there was a noise—a click. And the door swung open.

Julia and Isobel screamed as Rachel shoved them behind her and aimed her flashlight straight at the door. “Shoot,” she ordered Ryan.

“Belay that order,” Callum snapped. “Have you lost your bloody mind? You can’t go around telling the team to shoot your partner.”

“Callum!” Isobel screeched his name before rushing past Rachel and throwing herself into her husband’s arms. “You aren’t dead. The Gremlins didn’t get you. You’re okay.” She patted his chest as if to reassure herself that he was real. “And you’re naked.”

“I’m wearing a towel,” the grumpy Scot replied. “I was in the damn shower when the lights went out.”

“I...Is Joe in there too?” Julia’s voice quavered, and she hated it. But it couldn’t be helped; Callum was scary.

“No, Joe wasn’t in my bloody shower. He had one of his own. What the hell do you think we’re doing down here when we say we’re sparring?”

“Stop barking at my wife.” Joe pushed past Callum and headed straight for Julia.

Blinking back tears, Julia rushed into his arms. Unlike Callum, he’d taken the time to get dressed, but he smelled like fresh soap and…Joe. She clung on tight, aware that she was shaking but unable to do anything about it.

“It’s okay,” he whispered against her ear. “It’s going to be fine.”

Well, now it would be. Because Joe was there.

“Does somebody want to tell me what’s going on?” Callum barked.

“There’s been a series of glitches in the security system,” Harvard said. “Lights going off, doors locking, computers shutting down, fog triggered. We came down to check the control room.” He ran a hand over his shaved head. “And the stairwell door locked behind us.”

Callum’s frown turned deadly. “To hell with the control room. We’re heading to the armory.”

Julia glanced at the door to the armory on the other side of the room. It seemed very far away.

That’s when a male voice called out over the PA system, in a terrible excuse for an Australian accent, “Welcome to the Basement-dome.Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls… Dying time’s here.” After a feminine giggle, the speakers went dead.

For a second, nobody did anything.

And then the shouting started.

“Grandad!” Ryan yelled.

“Bill. Bob. Whoever the hell you are. Get your arses out here!” That was Callum.

“The Flowerpot Men did this?” Rachel wasnotamused.

“That’s Bill andBen,” Julia corrected, “not Bill and Bob.”

The look Rachel gave Julia made it very clear she didn’t much care what their names really were.

The speaker squeaked. “We do not know of whom you speak…cobber.”

Ryan put his hands on his hips. “I know it’s you. Your Australian accent is crap, and you’re quotingMad Maxagain.”

“They’re in the panic room.” Harvard shook his head in disgust. “They’ve accessed the emergency controls.”

As one, they stalked across the sparring area to the panic room.