Operation: Midnight Tango Read Online Free PDF Page A

we’re safe.”
    She didn’t pull away when he reached for her hand. They sprinted down the corridor at a reckless speed, rounded a corner and entered another hall. Ahead, two corrections officers manned the metal detector all personnel had to walk through to reach the tunnel.
    Stopping abruptly, Zack lurched back, out of sight. “Damn it.”
    “What’s wrong?”
    “Metal detector.” He tugged the gun from his waistband, looked at it longingly, then tossed it into a darkened corner. “Let’s hope this goes the way I want it to.”
    Both men looked up as Zack and Emily approached. A quiver of fear went through him when they raised their shotguns.
    “Hold it right there,” the first man ordered. “Show me your badges. Now.”
    Zack reached into his coat for the ID he’d stolen back at the infirmary. The photo on the badge didn’t look anything like him, but all he could do now was hope the officer didn’t notice.
    “Hell of a night for a code,” he said casually.
    “Ain’t that the truth,” officer number two muttered.
    Vaguely Zack was aware of Emily holding out her badge, the officer looking closely at it, his shotgun ready at his side. Zack unclipped his own badge and held it out. He tensed as the officer looked at it, then at him. “That’s not your photo,” he said.
    “Sure it is,” Zack returned smoothly.
    The second officer came around the metal detector. “There a problem?”
    Zack laughed. “Says this photo doesn’t look like me. Guess I’m too good-looking for my own good.”
    The man eyed him suspiciously. “Where you headed?”
    For the first time Emily spoke up. “Sarge sent us to do a perimeter patrol of the parking lot. Keep an eye on the vehicles.” She glanced at her watch. “We gotta run, boys, so make up you minds if that looks like him or not.”
    Frowning, the officer passed the badge back to Zack. “Go.”
    Zack didn’t have to be told twice.
    THE PERSONNEL TUNNEL TOOK them to the employee exit. Emily hit the push bar on the double door and shoved it open. The cold predawn air hit her like a blast from a freezer, and she shivered.
    “Where to now?” she asked.
    “Keep walking.”
    But midway to the parking lot Devlin stopped, as if listening, and looked over his shoulder toward the prison. “This is too easy. They had to have seen us on the cameras.”
    “If they’d seen us, we’d be in custody already,” she said. “The SORT team doesn’t mess around.” The SORT team was the prison system’s version of a SWAT team.
    “Unless their intent isn’t to take us into custody.”
    For a moment the only sound came from theirboots sinking into snow as they jogged across the parking lot. Around them the January night was bitterly cold. The occasional snowflake fell from a black sky, but the air was heavy with moisture, a precursor to a heavy snowfall.
    “Over there.” He pointed toward a big white SUV parked in the far corner of the lot.
    “Now you’re adding grand theft auto to your repertoire of charges?”
    “My contact left it for me. There’s a GPS chip and a few other useful items hidden inside the wheel.” Taking her hand, he started toward the vehicle at a dead run. “Hurry.”
    Contact? GPS system? Useful items? A dozen alarms were blaring simultaneously inside Emily’s head, most of which were warning her not to believe a word he said. She didn’t know what was going on or who to trust. The one thing she did know for certain was that this man was a convict. That he was escaping. That her employers at Lockdown, Inc. presumed she was helping him.
    But she couldn’t explain what had taken place back in that locker room. Would Marcus Underwood and his men have hurt her if Zack hadn’t shown up when he did? What information could he possibly have that would be so valuable? Emily didn’t know the answers, but the possibilities chilled her to the bone.
    When they reached the SUV, Zack went directly to the right front tire and knelt to open a small