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“Megan,” Lake said, “run back and fill Callum in. Tell him to call emergency rescue, just in case we need them. Once they arrive, take them to the point where the tunnel collapsed. They can work the rescue from that side while we try to find Sarah from above.”

Megan nodded as she got to her feet. “How will we lead the rescue team to the cave-in? I’ve tagged this far, but I don’t know where to go from here.”

Lake considered the teens before speaking to Le Chat in French. When he was done, the boy was shaking and nodding furiously.

“He’ll wait here for you and show you where to go,” Lake told Megan.

It spoke volumes that no one questioned whether the boy would actually do what Lake told him to do. Nobody doubted he would. It’d take someone a whole lot more dangerous than Le Chat to cross Lake.

“I’ll be back,” Megan said in a bad Arnie accent before running off into the tunnel.

“Lake,” Ryan said. “There were bodies. Other people who’d been abducted, like Sarah and me.”

Le Chat sucked in a breath and looked like he might run. La Fosse muttered some curses. While Lake and Dimitri went still.

“You can find them again?” Lake asked.

Ryan nodded.

“Then we’ll deal with that later. Sarah first.”

“Yeah,” Ryan agreed. “Sarah first.”

He pulled on the shoes they’d given him. Obviously, the teens had updated his team on his bare feet situation.

As he laced them, he realized they were familiar. “Are these Callum’s?”

“Gotta love a boss who’ll give you the shoes off his own feet,” Dimitri said with a grin. “He’s running around on cyber feet topside. Just for you.”

“I’d be touched, only his cyber feet are a size smaller than my flesh and bone feet.”

“Don’t understand that,” Dimitri said. “If you could choose whatever size your feet were, wouldn’t you go bigger?”

Seeing as Megan wasn’t around, Ryan assumed Dimitri was talking to himself.

Once on his feet, and feeling stronger than he had in days, Ryan faced La Fosse. “Lead the way, and make it quick. I’m holding you responsible for whatever state we find Sarah in. You hear?”

The teen didn’t look him in the eye; he just nodded and turned in the opposite direction of the mural.

“We go this way,” he said.

As one, the men started to run, dragging the teen along with them, while Le Chat waited for Megan to return.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Sarah didn’t want to open her eyes. Because she knew what she’d find—the nothingness of endless darkness. Fighting to keep the silence from derailing her thoughts, she cataloged her injuries. There were going to be bruises, a lot of bruises, but as far as she could tell, nothing was broken. She hadn’t been hit by the bulk of the collapse, only by some of the smaller rocks at the edge.

It had been pure instinct to push Ryan out of the way while jumping back herself. Now, she wished instinct had made her throw herself into the same part of the tunnel as Ryan. Because instinct had left her alone. In the dark. With no clue how to get out.

Brushing the debris off herself, Sarah sat up and leaned back against the wall. The same wall she’d rammed her head into in an attempt to avoid the falling ceiling. There was a lump on the back of her head, but no blood, which was something. Of course, there was also no way of telling how long she’d been unconscious. Minutes? Hours? Her internal clock was silent.

“Ryan?” she called, but her voice was hoarse and useless.

She felt around for the water bottle, grateful when her fingertips bumped into it straight away. The water was tepid and stale. And she was thankful she had it. After a few sips, she tried calling again.

“Ryan?”

There was no reply. No sound at all. It was eerie. Even in her childhood home, when she’d hid in the dark, there had been the creaks of the old building and the distant voices of neighbors to keep her company. Here, all she had was the sound of her own heart thumping, fast and furiously, in her chest.