Poe

Chapter Thirty

Teterya pulled the curtain back and smiled.

“You stay tonight so can keep check on you,” he said, and handed her two pills. “For sleep, will make less your pain, too.” He gestured. “Water and glass on table beside you. One moment, take you to room, okay?”

The prisoner nodded, her voice strained. “Thank you, Doctor.”

He closed the curtain again as he left. To the guard he said, “The prisoner will be staying here. Please put it in the log to have someone check with us in the morning. She should be fine by then.”

The guard stood up. “Yes, sir. I will. Would you like me to wait until she’s in one of your cells?”

“Does she have any history of violence?”

“None that I’m aware of.”

“In that case, I think we’ll be fine. You can go.”

The guard left, and for a second, Teterya let his shoulders sag, belying the confident front he’d been projecting. The game may have been on, but it wasn’t going as smoothly as it should be, and his focus was wavering.

Irina approached and touched his arm. Keeping her voice low so that the prisoner wouldn’t overhear, she said, “Are you okay?”

“I’ll just be glad when this is over.”

“Me, too.”

He took a deep breath, knowing he was only wasting time. “You’d better check to see that the others are out of sight. I want to move our new patient into an isolation cell.”

With a squeeze of his arm, she nodded, and left.

The doctor grabbed the curtain and pulled it all the way open. The prisoner was sitting up now, a half-empty glass of water in her hand.

“How is head?” he asked.

“Still hurts.”

“Pills work soon. Do not worry.”

He heard the door to the back room open. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Irina stick her head out. He raised an eyebrow and she nodded.

“Everything is ready,” he said to the prisoner. “You need help?”

She rose unsteadily to her feet. “I’m okay, I think.”

“This way, then.” He motioned toward Irina waiting at the door, then trailed behind as the prisoner walked gingerly across the floor and into the back room.

“Door in the back corner,” he said, indicating the isolation cell Powell had vacated, where Irina was now waiting.

The prisoner looked around. “Popular place, huh?”

“I do not understand,” Teterya said.

“The other two rooms are closed. They must be occupied, right?”

“Ah. Well, yes, we almost always have someone here.”

She paused and closed her eyes, letting what appeared to be a wave of pain pass over her.

“You are all right?”

“Sorry. That one was bad.” She started walking again.

Once they were in the cell, Irina explained that the button on the wall near the bed would summon her, should the prisoner need assistance.

“Medicine help you sleep through night,” Teterya said. Once Irina had helped the woman into bed, he added, “But we check you every hour. So no worry.”

“Thanks,” the woman whispered, sounding quite sleepy.

“I’m sure you be fine by morning, Miss Norman.”

“Call me…Rachel.”

“Goodnight, Rachel.”

Teterya and Irina left the room. Once the door was closed, he raised the window flap and looked through the slit.

Yes, the pills had worked. The woman was already asleep.

After replacing the flap, he moved quickly down to the cell at the far end and opened the door.

“All right,” Teterya said, sticking his head into their cell. “It is time.”

Alex exited first, but when the others started to follow, she blocked Marie’s passage. “This is the point where you stay behind.”

Marie looked at El-Hashim, speaking in French. “I need to stay with you. We don’t know if it’s safe yet.”

“Of course it’s not safe,” El-Hashim said. “It won’t be safe until I’m away from here.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know what you meant.” She gestured for her friend to step back. “Stay, Marie. I will be fine. Frank Poe’s daughter would not hurt me.”

The nod was reluctant, as was the step backward, Marie eyeing El-Hashim with what looked like genuine concern.

Standing in the doorway, Alex said, also in French, “She’s right. The last thing I want is to hurt her.”

Which was only partly true. She didn’t hold any soft spots for a woman who aided terrorists, and she wouldn’t hesitate to hurt El-Hashim if it came down to it. But not before she found out everything she could about her father.

Looking not even remotely reassured by Alex’s words, Marie just glared at her as Alex closed the door.

“Please. Over here,” the doctor said after the door was shut.

He stood at a metal table along the front wall. There was a stack of files and loose papers to one side, along with a few magazines. He picked one up, flipped to the back, and removed two sheets of paper that were definitely not part of the publication. He set them side by side on the table.

It was a map, hand drawn and crude.

“Prison is old,” he said. “Stalin make before war. Simple place, yes?”

Both Alex and El-Hashim agreed that it was.

“But sometime prisoner for…political reason, more problem alive. Sometime many prisoner. Understand?”

“They needed to disappear,” Alex said.

“Yes. But if kill here in prison, make other inmate angry and…” He paused, holding his fists up in the air and shaking them.

“Rise up? Fight?”

“Yes. These things. So make building half kilometer away. Big wall, you know? Keep sound inside. When want to take someone there, tell everyone prisoner be transferred. But not transferred. Take them here.” He pointed at a line on the map that led from inside the prison walls to a square representing the aforementioned building.

“A tunnel,” Alex said, realizing it couldn’t be anything else. Teterya had already hinted that their escape would involve a secret exit. “Like the one we took to isolation.”

“Yes,” he said. “Tunnel. Built same time as one you and me take, but is different. Much deeper.” He raised his left hand and held it out flat at eye level. “Isolation tunnel here.” Then he raised his right hand, holding it flat several inches below the left. “Kill tunnel here. Understand?”

Alex and El-Hashim nodded.

Teterya pointed to the crude drawing, running his finger along a line that marked the tunnel. “Is not used for many year. At far end, is some mud and…and…garbage. Collect from storm in winter.”

“But we can still get through it?” Alex asked.

“I think so, yes.”

This wasn’t a definitive answer. “How many times have you been down there?”

He hesitated. “Two.”

Two? “When was the last time?”

“I go from other end five days ago to make map.”

“You didn’t have any problems?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“All right,” she said. “Sounds easy enough.”

“Not easy,” he said quickly. He pointed to several more lines that branched off from the main one. “These tunnels, like here, here, and here, they built to trick prisoner if try to run. Lead to…dead stop.”

“Dead end.”

“Yes, dead end. Also they look like main tunnel, easy to confuse. Understand?”

“I got it,” Alex said. “If we stick to the map, we’ll be good.”

“Yes.”

“Okay. So that’s getting through the tunnel. How do we get to it? We can’t go through any checkpoints dressed like this.”

“There is way,” Teterya said. “But must be very careful. I take you.”

A buzzer sounded — short, then long. Alex tensed, her gaze shooting to the door into the examination area. Teterya, on the other hand, was looking toward the back of the room.

Alex twisted around, following his line of sight. There was a small yellow lightbulb blinking above the center cell door.

Frida’s cell.

“Your friend wake up,” the doctor said.

El-Hashim looked at Alex. “What friend?”

“An inmate. She got beat up earlier, is all.”

El-Hashim’s eyes narrowed. “What is this, some sort of ambush? You’ve got Marie locked up and—”

“Do we really need to go through this again?” Alex said. “If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you.”

“Calm down, all right? Even if she wanted to, Frida couldn’t hurt anyone right now. If you don’t believe me, look for yourself.”

Alex headed for Frida’s cell. The doctor, already a few steps in front of her, was reaching for the handle.

“Hold it,” Alex told him.

He paused.

Alex looked at El-Hashim, who had followed cautiously. “Let her look inside, first.”

“Is that really necessary?” the doctor asked.

“Just let her look in.”

Obviously irritated, Teterya lifted the flap covering the window. Alex stepped out of the way so El-Hashim could move in for a look.

El-Hashim hesitated, then stepped forward and peeked inside. After several seconds, she stepped back again and said, “What happened to her?”

“There was another prisoner who liked to use her as a punching bag.”

“Liked?”

“The problem’s been remedied.”

Teterya gestured, not hiding his annoyance. “May I check patient now?”

Both Alex and El-Hashim moved to the side so Frida wouldn’t see them as the doctor opened the door and went in.

They heard Frida say, “Can I…get some water?”

Her words punctuated by pain.

“Yes,” Teterya said. He called out in Ukrainian.

Irina, who was waiting nearby, rushed over to the sink and started filling a pitcher.

“I thought…I heard my…friend’s voice,” Frida said.

“Friend?”

“Maureen. She’s another prisoner. Is she here?”

“No. Am sorry. Probably only medicine. Will sometimes make head think things.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Teterya said.

Irina entered the cell with the pitcher and a glass.

“Here you are,” the doctor said. “And please to take this. Will help you back to sleep.”

For several seconds, Alex heard only subtle sounds of movement.

Then Teterya said, “Okay. Just rest. Tomorrow you sore but feel little better. Am sure.”

The doctor and nurse exited and shut the door.

“We need to get out of here, now,” Alex whispered.

Teterya nodded. “Yes. Now would be good.” He said something to Irina, then looked back at Alex and El-Hashim. “Follow me.”

“Wait a second,” Alex said. She gestured to El-Hashim’s scarf. “Time to take it off.”

“Now? But—”

“No excuses this time.”

After a brief hesitation, El-Hashim reached up and removed the hijab from her head, revealing for the first time more than just her eyes.

If there was an ounce of Middle Eastern blood in the woman, that’s all it was. An ounce. The gray-streaked blonde hair and pale skin both belied those brown eyes. Contacts, undoubtedly. Her eyes were more likely blue or even gray. If Alex had to guess, she’d say the woman was northern European or Scandinavian.

She eyed Alex defiantly. “Happy now?”

“Surprised,” Alex said. “I guess you’re lucky the Crimean authorities are very tolerant when it comes to religious garb.”

“The Crimean authorities are pigs,” El-Hashim — or whoever she was — said. She rolled the hijab into a ball and tossed it into a nearby corner. “Can we go now?”

The doctor stared at El-Hashim in surprise.

“Doctor?” Alex said.

“Sorry,” he said, blinking. He grabbed two flashlights off the counter. He gave the miniature one to Alex, retained the larger one for himself, and led the two women out the back door of the infirmary. Instead of heading left toward the stairwell, though, he went right. There were only a few more rooms in this direction. The one he took them into turned out to be a storage room stuffed full of shelves and boxes.

“Is this way,” he said, weaving a path through the mess.

When he finally stopped, he stood in front of a set of double doors to what looked like a cabinet built directly into the wall, about three feet above the floor. He opened the doors and revealed what amounted to a large, empty, wooden box.

“Is for moving…items, you know? Up and down.”

“Supply elevator?” Alex suggested.

He nodded. “But only work if person here and person downstairs. See button?” He pointed at a red button mounted beside the jamb just inside the door. “I go down and push. When you see button light up, you push, too, and everything work.”

“Okay,” Alex said. “I got it.” She looked at the box dubiously. “Is this strong enough to hold both of us?”

“I think no problem.”

“You think?”

He shrugged, and made his way out of the room.

Alex was pressing a hand against the box, checking how sturdy it was, when El-Hashim said, “What happens once we’re on the outside? Will your father meet us?”

“No. A couple friends of mine are waiting to help us.”

“So where is your father?”

Alex couldn’t help but laugh at the irony. “Not a clue. He’s not that great at keeping me informed.” Satisfied that the box was strong enough, she looked at El-Hashim. “Maybe you can tell me.”

“Why would I know?”

“You’ve talked to him more recently than I have.”

“But he sent you here.”

“Text messages and e-mails, remember?”

El-Hashim shook her head. “Your father is…unusual.”

“You think?”

“I was actually surprised he sent you here to help me.”

“Why’s that?”

“The deal we were working on, I’m fairly sure he was not as interested in it as he was pretending to be.”

Alex shrugged. “Not my area.” She wanted to bring the conversation back to her father’s potential whereabouts, but didn’t know how to do that without making El-Hashim suspicious. She changed the subject. “I’m sorry we couldn’t bring your friend along.”

“She’ll be out soon enough. She knows that I’ll make sure of it.”

Then she’s about to be very disappointed, Alex thought.

The red button suddenly glowed and Alex waved at El-Hashim. “Get in.”

El-Hashim climbed into the box, and pressed against the back wall so Alex could squeeze in next to her. Once Alex was sure she was all the way inside, she reached out, pushed the button, and snapped her hand back in.

The doors closed automatically and the box began a slow, steady descent, plunging them into darkness. It was several seconds before a set of closed doors appeared, light seeping in around the edges.

This would be the first floor. They continued their descent and soon everything was dark again. When they reached the next floor down, the elevator jerked to a stop, and the doors opened, revealing the waiting doctor in a dimly lit room. As the women climbed out, he put a finger to his lips, telling them to be quiet.

The room was about half the size of the storage space upstairs. It smelled of musk and dirt, and was packed with decaying cardboard boxes. Cobwebs clung to the corners and draped over the cardboard. The room looked as if it hadn’t been disturbed in several decades.

The doctor leaned in close and whispered, “We need go two doors. Must be very quiet. Three doors down is main part of basement.”

As soon as Alex and El-Hashim nodded, he went over to the door and opened it.

The hallway was low and narrow. Like the tunnel to the isolation area, single lightbulbs hung from the ceiling at consistent intervals, creating pools of light surrounded by areas of shadow. About thirty feet down the hall, more light spilled out from a window mounted in a closed door. Alex assumed this was the main basement entrance the doctor had mentioned.

Teterya stepped into the hallway first and headed in that direction. Alex motioned for El-Hashim to go next, then brought up the rear. They’d gone only a few feet when they passed a darkened doorway.

That would be door number one.

Alex hoped number two would come as quickly, putting them as far from that lit doorway as possible, but her wish was not to be. The second door was only a handful of steps from the third.

It also had the added bonus of being closed.

The doctor approached it quietly, then turned the handle and pushed. The squeak that followed was brief, but to Alex it sounded like an explosion that reverberated down the hallway. Her gaze shot over to the lit window, expecting to see the shadow of a guard at any moment. But the light remained undisturbed.

A tap on her shoulder snapped her attention back. El-Hashim gave her a wave, then turned and walked through the now open doorway. Once Alex was inside, Teterya shut the door behind them, the creak once more setting Alex’s nerves on edge.

With a click, the doctor’s flashlight came to life, its beam cutting through the darkened space, revealing that they weren’t in a room, but another corridor.

“This way,” he whispered.

Alex turned her light on, and panned it through the corridor as she followed the others. The hallway looked even less used than the nearly abandoned one they’d just been in. What Alex could see of the floor was covered with dust. There were cobwebs along the ceiling, and what paint hadn’t already fallen off the walls was slowly peeling away. There were boxes and discarded furniture and twisted pieces of shelves strewn about, turning their route into an obstacle course primed to twist an ankle at the first misstep.

They came to an archway on the left. The doctor turned, stepped through it, and immediately backed out.

“Sorry,” he said. “Not right way. Next one.”

He found the archway he was looking for another twenty feet in. On the other side was a stone-walled room, with a ceiling so low that Alex found herself ducking despite the fact she had about a half foot of clearance.

The doctor swung the beam through the space, stopping on the back corner, where the stones were built into a six-inch-high, four-foot-square pedestal.

As they drew near, Alex saw a metal grate centered in the top. She shined her light through the slits, but could see nothing. She could, however, hear the trickle of water.

“The tunnel?”

“Yes,” Teterya said. “Down and go left.”

Alex listened to the water again. While it sounded as if it was coming straight up from below, it also sounded as if…

“How far down?” she asked.

“Six meter. Maybe little more.”

Almost twenty feet.

“Is there a ladder?”

Teterya shook his head. “Cable on other side. Metal, yes? Go down maybe three and half meter. Climb down, drop.”

The drop would still be close to eight feet onto who knew what. But if they were getting out, this was the way they were going. And Alex was sure as hell getting out.

After turning off her light, and stuffing it in her pocket, she reached for the grate. “Does this come off?”

Teterya nodded.

Alex gripped two of the thick slats, bent her knees, and pulled upward. The metal groaned loudly as it fought to remain where it was. The doctor gave the flashlight to El-Hashim and bent down to help Alex.

They raised it about half an inch before the doctor lost his hold, and Alex was forced to set it back down.

Resting her hands on her thighs, she took several rapid, deep breaths. “When was the last time…someone…pulled it out of there?”

“I open first time here,” the doctor said. “Two year ago. Think no one open since.”

Two years?

She shot El-Hashim a sideways glance. “You don’t have to just stand there looking pretty, you know. If you give us a hand, we should be able to do it.”

El-Hashim looked surprised at the suggestion.

“I’m not asking you to do it alone,” Alex said. “A little help is all. Or would you rather we just go back and turn ourselves in?”

El-Hashim frowned. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it.”

“Good,” Alex told her. She took a long, deliberate breath and straightened up. “Shall we try again?”