Gut Instinct Read Online Free PDF Page B

steam-producing stove, she didn’t think that would happen.
    She fed the line through the redwood planks and affixed the receiver under the bench as close to the door as she could, the device itself encased in a Ziploc bag to protect it from the steam.
    Satisfied, she left the sauna, telling Pike, “Coming out.”
    He acknowledged, and she went slowly back down the hallway. She reached the end, then scuttled through the lit area to the men’s side. She was about to retrace her steps to the stairs when Pike came on. “Guard’s up. Moving to the rear. Probably using the bathroom. Stay in the women’s locker room.”
    Shit.
    “I’m already across. I can’t cross back without him seeing.”
    “Hold what you got, then. Let him get in the bathroom. It works out perfectly.”
    “Pike, I’m in
front
of the men’s room.”
    She heard intensity in his voice for the first time. “Get out of sight. Now.”
    “I’ve got nowhere to go.”
    She whipped her head left and right, backing up and hitting a cork bulletin board with various announcements tacked to it. One was a schedule for American boxing classes, complete with a miniature set of gloves hanging from it. She jerked them off the board and returned to the entrance of the hallway. When she saw a shadow, she tossed them lightly into the free-weight area.
    The guard reacted, pausing, then pulling out his flashlight. When he moved forward, bathing the area in light, she turned the corner and ran, tucking into the acrobatics room.
    She knelt down and began breathing with an open mouth, straining her ears. She saw the light bounce her way.
    Shit. He heard me.
    She backed up into the acrobatics room, and the light got steadily brighter, herding her like cattle. She entered the room, knowing there was nothing in here to hide her. A plain square area with mats, bars, and rings. She frantically searched for something. Anything. And saw the ropes. One-inch hemp, they went up into the darkness of the room, two stories high.
    She saw the light enter the hallway and leaped up, grabbing the rope. She climbed as fast as she could, the rope dangling and whipping below her. She reached the ceiling just as he entered the area, shining the flashlight left and right. She froze, seeing the rope twitching below her.
    The light splayed across it but didn’t stop. By the time it came back, the rope had ceased moving. She didn’t have time to anchor herself with her legs and didn’t dare reseat them now, knowing it would make the rope flick like a horse’s tail swatting a fly. She began to slide.
    She clamped her hands into the hemp, the sweat causing her grip to fail. All it would take was one wrap of her leg, and she could stay up all night long. But that movement might bring the light up into the rafters, highlighting her. She waited, the sweat rolling down her face and her hands losing inches down the rope. Losing the ability to hold on.
    The man swept the room one more time and turned to leave. She felt her grip peel in slow motion, and electricity fired through her body as she began to fall backward. She wrapped her arm around the rope, feeling the hemp tear her skin as she slid down. She locked in her legs, seeing the open line twitching like a cat’s tail five feet behind the man’s back. She held her breath.
    The guard exited the room.
    She waited, feeling the sweat build on her face and drip down into the light. Her earpiece came to life, Pike asking for a status. She said nothing. When she was sure the guard was gone, she slid down the rope, reaching the mats. She exited the room and duckwalked to the hallway, seeing the light bouncing in the free-weight area. In between her and the stairs.
    Now what?
    She saw the main doorway and considered.
Get him back in this section and just exit. Right out the front door.
She knew it automatically locked, with the patrons having to push a button to the left to release it, but it wouldn’t be alarmed because the guard himself had to use