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Bewildered, stunned, unable to drag her gaze from features that duplicated hers,
she didn t react when he barked, Run!
What? Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed the contorted visage of the male
adjacent to the man with her face. His canines were extra-large and filed to sharp
points.
The man with her face shoved her away from him. Run!
She glanced over her shoulder and blanched.
The two men were circling each other, hands fisted, legs spread wide, their stances
hostile and belligerent.
Run! The man with her face shouted.
She ran.
Picked up her skirts, raced down the hallway, and came to a screeching halt when
she dead-ended at an open old-fashioned elevator. A peculiar round man with a shiny
bald head who looked like he came from a scene in a penny dreadful novel asked,
Up?
No. Down. Hurry. She leaped into the brassy mirrored box, pivoted, and prayed.
Seven men were hurdling down the hallway headed right at her.
Jäegers.
She just knew it.
The man with her face fronted the Jäeger pack by at least twenty feet.
The penny dreadful dwarf-stature man began to close the old-fashioned black gates.
The man with her face slipped between the metal bars and landed with a thud right
in front of Kata.
His gaze raked her.
She couldn t stop gawking at him.
The elevator s bell dinged, and the box began a slow descent.
He cradled her cheeks. How is it that you have my face?
I ve a twin, she whispered.
Basement, Penny dreadful intoned and slammed the gates apart.
Startled by the metallic clang, Kata whirled around and then pivoted back to study
her brother.
Go. Take the first door on your right. I ll delay them. The man with her face
pushed her out of the elevator.
She twisted back to him. Your name.
Dimitri. He ran his knuckles down her face. And you?
Kata.
Run, Kata!
She galloped down a dimly lit corridor, tripped on the hem of her dress, and
thunked the side of her head on the bricked wall framing the passageway. A wave of
pain dizzied her. She jammed her palm to the rough stone, steadied herself, kicked her
shoes off, and tore down the hallway.
In the distance she made out the gleam of a silver handle.
The air she breathed had turned fetid. Her lungs burned when she lengthened her
stride and increased her pace. She stopped, grabbed the door handle, and yanked. The
door refused to budge.
Roars and growls and the pounding of feet reached her ears. She glanced back,
rammed the door with her shoulder, and pushed with all her might. Finally, the slab of
heavy wood gave way. She stepped into absolute darkness and heaved the door closed.
It took a few seconds before her vision adjusted to the murkiness. Pipes lined the
walls of a narrow, low-ceilinged tunnel. She hunched down onto her hands and knees
and crawled forward. She remembered Bandit describing an underground passage that
led to an abandoned electrical factory that had been transformed into a museum. She
ignored the slime beneath her hands and prayed for deliverance.
How long did she have before the Jäegers caught up with her?
Britta s pendant bumped her collarbone. She knew Apache monitored her through
the necklace. Help. Tell Bandit I m in the tunnel leading to the museum. The Jäegers
are chasing me.
The tunnel s ceiling dropped suddenly. She had to fall onto her belly and could
only creep forward an inch at a time.
A blast of cold air and a bang alerted her to the fact the Jäegers had found the
entrance to the secret passageway.
The Jäegers were huge men. They would never fit into the tunnel, not for long
anyway.
Oh God unless they shifted.
Her toes and fingers hurt from scrabbling on the coarse rock. Something slithered
across her bare arm. She choked back a screech and grabbed a pipe to pull herself
through a constricted spot. The gloom abated a tad. She peered ahead, trying to discern
any substance to the shadows.
The sounds of nails clicking on the stone floor echoed loudly. The Jäegers had
shifted. Her heart pounded against her ribs. Even though the air held a glacial chill, she
sweated profusely. Now the impact of paws and claws came fast and furious from both
ahead and behind her.
The passageway took a sudden severe ninety-degree twist. She had to turn her head
to the side and use her toes to propel herself forward. Halfway through the bend, she
got stuck. And all the while the scraping of claws on the bricked path came closer and
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