Typhoon Fury

42

Beth’s eyes fluttered open. She had no idea how long she’d been asleep, but sunlight streamed through the tiny window in the room where she had been taken after the helicopter landed.

Everything about the trip had been a blur. The pain in her shoulder from the gunshot wound had been excruciating, and all they’d done to tend to it after dropping off Locsin somewhere in Manila was to wrap it with a cloth to stanch some of the bleeding. Then they’d put a blindfold on her for the remainder of the trip. All she knew was that she had to be somewhere in the Philippines.

When they’d led her from the helicopter into the building, she thought she’d seen the moon overhead, but she could only make out a circular area of stars around it as if the rest of the sky were blotted out by unmoving black clouds. It was such a strange sight, she thought she might have been hallucinating from blood loss.

Before she’d been left alone, she was forced to take two pills. At first, she refused, but the guard threatened to shoot her right then and there if she didn’t. He examined her wound and declared that the bullet had gone in one side of the meat of her shoulder and out the other. Every time he touched it, Beth screamed in agony.

Finally, she could feel herself passing out, either from the trauma or the drug, and she assumed this was it. She was going to die. She accepted her fate and let darkness take her.

But here she was now, still alive. And, oddly, the pain had tapered off to a dull ache. She now realized they must have given her a narcotic or a sedative. She couldn’t move her arm much, but at least the bleeding seemed to have stopped.

She was also famished. She lifted her head up from the thin mattress and saw that there was a tray of food set on the small table next to her. Normally, the spread of fish and strange fruits wouldn’t be all that appetizing to her, but her stomach grumbled loudly when the aroma hit her nose.

She sat up and launched herself at the food, devouring every morsel on the tray as if she were a starving dog. She was so hungry that each bite tasted like the finest entrée from a gourmet restaurant. She washed it all down with a large glass of milk.

With her hunger craving satisfied, she examined the room more thoroughly, though there wasn’t much more to see. The window was glass but too small to climb through. The door was metal. She got up and tried the handle quietly, but it didn’t budge.

Then she heard talking outside. Someone was approaching.

She quickly went back to the bed and lay down, closing her eyes just as the door opened.

She tried not to flinch when she recognized the first voice to speak. It was Tagaan, the man from the Bangkok drug deal.

“It looks like the drug kicked in,” he said to the guard. “She must have passed out again.”

“I didn’t think such a thin woman would be able to eat that much,” the guard replied.

“It’s her body repairing itself. It must be working. We’ll check how she’s healing later this evening.”

Beth felt a charge of fear race down her spine, nearly causing her to shiver in disgust. She remembered now that the pills she’d taken had a cyclone symbol on them. They weren’t given to calm her down. It was the Typhoon drug that Dr. Ocampo had told them about.

Beth normally avoided pharmaceuticals whenever possible, even taking aspirin only when she absolutely had to. And now she was their lab rat. She was terrified about what continued use of the drug might do to her, but what was her alternative? She believed the guard when he said he’d kill her if she didn’t take it. Tagaan wouldn’t be any more lenient.

She had to escape somehow.

“I have to go to the manufacturing building,” Tagaan said. “But I’ll be back later to take her to the paintings. Make sure she’s fed again before then.”

Fed. Like an animal.

Then the word paintings hit her. Plural. Now she felt a thrill at the implication. Was she going to see the missing Gardner paintings? That was definitely a reason to stay alive.

The door closed. She opened her eyes and saw that the tray was gone.

She stood and found her legs to be a bit wobbly. Escape would have to come later. For now, she could at least get a peek at what her surroundings were outside to help plan how she might get away.

She went to the window, and her jaw dropped now that she had a better view outside.

From her vantage point, she could make out only a few squat buildings around a central plaza. But what caused her to gape was the view high above.

Water streamed down from a circular hole at least five hundred feet in the air, where the midday sun was shining through. Her heart sank as the idea of escape was snuffed out with the realization that there were several huge stalactites hanging from the limestone roof that extended so far that she could see no walls.

There was no outside for her to flee into. She was being held captive in a gigantic cavern.