Catching Smoke: Ch. 23
Colin is used to recruits being difficult and uncertain.
But Emmalee takes it to another level:
She finds a way to escape.
He’s only in the bathroom for a second, but in that second, she breaks the glass on the window and is gone before he opens the door.
“Impossible.” Colin says, cursing as he half-limps, half-jogs out the door.
Once out on the street, he pauses, trying to determine which way she ran. He doesn’t have the energy capacity to spend the whole night in a chase of guesses. Besides, after their last chase, she should be smart enough to avoid him. He would expect nothing less from a recruit.
“What the hell?” Lydia asks as she suddenly appears in front of Colin. “What happened?”
“She escaped.”
“You let her escape?”
“No, I didn’t let her! What the hell kinda question is that?”
“A valid one, obviously. She escaped.”
“What are you still doing here?”
“Well, I wouldn’t want to miss the entertainment. Plus, obviously I’m needed.” Lydia looks up at the broken window to their room, at the ground, and then at Colin. “She didn’t break the window, and she didn’t jump.”
“What? How do you know? Where the hell is she? Did you do this?”
“Like I said before, if I wanted to undermine you, I could be more creative about it.” She says. “There’s no glass on the ground. The window was broken from the outside.”
“So she had help. To create a diversion.” Colin’s face pales as he realizes what’s happened. “Shit.”
He begins running back to the hotel room, dragging his broken leg with him as quickly as possible. Lydia runs ahead of him, but this time he doesn’t try to stop her. He needs her help.
Emmalee is officially the most difficult recruit he’s ever had.
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