CHAPTER 52 Jeff sprinted after her, though she took time to seal the double steel door on this room most carefully. Locked both doors with another palm print, just like her desk. “Where did you get it?” She didn’t answer, but plunged down the stairs. Down, not up. He hesitated only a second, just long enough to hear the pounding from several levels above and a thump that could only be an explosive. He sprinted after her, the metal grate grabbing at his socks and scoring his feet as he ran. There was something. Something beyond the pounding of his feet and his heart. Something that— He threw himself flat until he lay back on the stairs and an orange bowling ball shot past inches above him, rocketing downward as if it too wanted to escape the raiders above. A single bounce at the foot