"Why?"
Sara gave the other young woman a quizzical look. "I'm getting you out of here. Isn't that reason enough?"
Carla didn't move. "You're the reason I'm in here. You and your people have kidnapped and drugged me. I'm not doing a damn thing until you tell me what's going on."
"That's what I want to know," Sara replied. She looked around the cell and wrinkled her nose at the smell of vomit. "If you want to stay in here then I'll just ask my questions and lock you back in. But if you want to get out of here then get up and follow me. There isn't time to waste and I'm not about to jeopardize my chances of escape for you."
Now Carla looked confused. "You aren't one of them?"
Sara shook her head. "No, they imprisoned me just like they did you. Now are you coming or not?"
Carla waited half a heartbeat and then scrambled out from her comforting shelter. She got to her feet, keeping a wary distance from Sara, and brushed down an orange prison uniform. Sara nodded to her and backed out of the cell leaving a good distance between herself and the door so that Carla would follow. The other young woman looked like she expected to be attacked by a pack of wild dogs at any moment. She moved slowly out of her cell. Her head and eyes moved rapidly around taking in all she could of her surroundings looking for a threat.
"This way." Sara set off to the guards’ room not waiting to see if Carla would follow. The banging and shouting started up from her cell again louder than before. The guards were starting to regain their strength.
Sara heard and sensed Carla close up behind her. "Are they . . ?"
Sara didn't look over to Carla as she answered. "The guards? Yes. I had to persuade them to let me out."
Carla stayed quiet as they entered the guards’ room. Her eyes went in their frantic search for danger again. They settled on the mass of food and drink and stared at it for a long moment then they flicked back up to Sara. She nodded and Carla tucked in hungrily.
"Not too fast or too much," Sara cautioned. "If we're going to get out of here you need to be able to perform.
Carla's eyes were still filled with fear as she looked up at Sara from the feast. She started to chew more slowly and thoroughly. She took small nibbles from the food and sips of liquid.
"Who are these people? What do they want with you?" Sara had no time to be anything but blunt. Carla looked well enough to be up to some direct questioning.
Carla shook her head. "I don't know. I don't know what's going on. That machine tried to kill me, and then you came and you took me away from that, but then you gave me off to those men who put me in a van and drugged me, then I woke up here and I just don't know I don't know, what's happening." Her words came out in a ramble. Sara had pushed her too quickly.
"Calm down."
"I just don't know what's going on, what is this place, who are these people, who are you, what's happening, what's happening?"
She was starting to go into a full blown panic. Her skin had drained to a bloodless white and she was trembling. Words weren't going to be enough to console her. Sara moved closer slowly, putting the stun-stick down and removing the gun from the front of her trousers and putting that down beside it. She had to appear as non-threatening as she could. She continued in smooth slow movements to put her arms around Carla. The other woman reacted quickly flinching away and then in a sudden reversal clinging tightly to her. She burst into tears and pressed her head against Sara's breast. Not used to close physical contact that didn't involve violence Sara was momentarily taken aback. Then she put her hand on Carla's head and stroked it through her hair. She didn't have the proper words to go with the actions to help the other woman calm down but the actions alone seemed to be enough.
Carla stopped sobbing and pushed herself off Sara. She rubbed the tears from the sides of her face. Sara busied herself with adjusting her jacket and cropped T-shirt and pushing the pistol back down the front of her jeans. Giving her time to regain her composure. She still couldn't afford to leave Carla too much time to get a grip on herself. They still had to get out of here.
Sara waited until the other woman looked ready to continue. She shifted herself so that she was face to face with her and spoke in a soft, slow voice. "I really need to know anything you can tell me about this."
Carla nodded and took several deep breaths before answering. "I don't know who these people are or why I'm here. I'm sorry but I'm scared and I don't know anything. I wish I could help but-"
"Hey, hey, it's all right," Sara interrupted her before she could get herself worked up into a state again.
Sara watched her until Carla lifted her head to make eye contact and then nodded to reassure her. "You don't know who these people are, fine neither do I and they captured us both. Can you think of any reason why anybody would want to do this to you?"
Carla shook her head. "I've never been in trouble like this before. I don't have any enemies. I just can't believe this is happening."
Fine, you can't believe this is happening. You don't have to keep on about it. Sara knew that was harsh. She was used to being placed in scenarios that other people would find extraordinary. She had been trained to be calm in crazy situations. To investigate and solve mysteries. Here comes the cliché; to expect the unexpected.
"Okay, what about before last night." Sara didn't know if that was the right time frame anymore but they were both in the same boat so it didn't really matter. "Have you noticed any strange faces following you around? Did you ever get back home and think that things weren't quite right, even if you couldn't put your finger on what it was? Anything."
Carla started to shake her head and then stopped. Her eyes went distant, unfocused as she thought back. "Well . . ."
"Go on." Sara tried to keep from sounding too urgent. She needed whatever information Carla could give her but they had to get going. If the other woman couldn't offer her something soon they would have to start and save the questions until were out, hoping that she didn't know anything that, without Sara knowing, would jeopardize their escape. She couldn't risk continuing when they were on the move because any noise could alert guards. This was the only place that Sara knew the sounds of them talking wouldn't alert more of their captors.
Carla nodded to herself. "There was Karl."
"Karl Grosset. Doctor Karl Grosset?" Sara asked. "You knew him?" Was this the connection Sara had never made? Did it mean that the reports she had told Ash were false were actually true?
"I didn't know him exactly. About three weeks ago he came to my apartment and told me that I was special. He said that there were things about me that I didn't know but that he did. He warned me to leave my old life behind because somebody was after me. So I packed my things and left, getting myself an anonymous apartment down town. He contacted me a couple of times but he hadn't told me anything more than that yet."
Sara blinked. "You didn't think this could be relevant straight away?" She waved her arms to take in where they were. "Considering the circumstances."
"I guess I never really more than half believed him."
"You left your entire life behind on the say so of a guy you only half believed?" Sara realized there was an edge creeping into her tone and tried to blunt it.
Carla shrugged. "It sounds ridiculous, I know. I've wondered if I was crazy for believing him a few times myself." She looked around. "But it looks like he was right."
Sara pondered this new information for a few moments but as it wasn't pertinent to their escape so she filed it away for later. Satisfied that the other woman didn't know anything else that could be useful she decided it was time to make a move.
Chapter Fourteen
"You've been here longer than I have, do you know anything at all about this place? What's on the other end of that corridor?" She pointed back to their cells.
Carla shuddered. "It's the shower room. I think it ends in a dead-end."
"This way then. Here take this." She handed Carla one of the stun-sticks keeping one for herself. "Have you seen
one of these used before?"
Carla took her time before answering. She turned the stun-stick around in her hands examining it before firing it up. The electrical charge reflected in her eyes giving them an unnatural quality. "I've figured it out."
Sara nodded. "Okay then, now for the ground rules. If you don't accept them you can go back to your cell." She didn't want to leave the other woman behind. All of this centered around her. But if it was a choice of getting out without her and getting recaptured because Carla couldn't follow a few rules she would choose the former every time. "You follow behind me moving exactly as I do. If I crawl you crawl, if I walk you walk, if I run you run." Carla nodded. "You do what I tell you when I tell you. At times I may have to leave you for a few moments while I check up ahead, you stay where I put you. Don't worry I'll always be back for you." That was just about true. She would try and get back but if for some reason doing so would compromise her own chances at freedom she would cut loose and go for it alone.
Sara made sure the pistols were securely in place and stepped up to the door leading out of the guards' room. "Oh, one last thing, I want you to keep your eyes and ears open. If you hear or see anything I want to know about it. But don't whisper to me. Tap me on my shoulder if you see anything and then either point out to me where it is or put your mouth up against my ear and speak softly. Do you have all that? If you can't manage it you can go back to your cell to wait for them to come for you."
Carla nodded. "I've got it."
Sara gave her a once over. The bright orange uniform could be a problem but there was nothing to be done about that, none of the guards had left a spare uniform lying around. Other than that she looked pretty good.
"Let's get out of here then."
Sara listened at the door before sliding the key card through the lock to make sure there wasn't a whole bunch of people waiting just on the other side. The door opened inwards. Sara stood just off to the side, out of a direct line of fire with the opening, with her hand on the grip of the pistol down her front. Carla was tucked in behind her.
The corridor was nothing more than a tunnel. The walls and floor were smooth and the same color as the walls and floor of the cells. The bar lights built into the ceiling were flickering to life, activated by the same mechanism that opened the door. The corridor stretched out for a number of meters moving upwards at a steady incline. About twenty or thirty meters in the corridor turned to the right. The angle of the corner wasn't sharp but the corridor turned far enough around it to cut off the view. Again there weren't any obvious cameras and it would still have been odd for them to be hidden in the light fittings. Even if there were cameras there it didn't matter, this was their only way out.
"Follow me." Sara set off moving reasonably quickly but using her training to keep her noise close to silence. Carla was trying to keep up behind her and as a result her prison overalls were rustling loudly. Sara slowed down to allow Carla to do the same and the noise was drastically reduced. But it still wasn't fully eliminated. Sara pressed on. It couldn't be helped and there wasn't time to teach Carla all the intricacies of silent movement. If they came to obviously populated areas she might have to re-evaluate but for now it would do.
They came up to the bend and Sara slowed further. She motioned for Carla to wait where she was. She waited until she got a nod in return to be sure that the other woman knew what Sara was telling her to do and moved off.
Sara didn't bother keeping her back to one of the walls or any of that. There was no point if there was anybody to see her she would be seen. Moving like that would just make her look suspicious. While she never expected to look like she was meant to be here if she was walking like she belonged it could make whoever saw her hesitate long enough for her to deal with them.
The bend continued until it straightened out with the corridor continuing at a course approximately ninety degrees from the original one. It kept on going upwards at the same angle until it came to another door. The door looked basically the same as the others Sara had encountered in wherever it was she was being held. But this time there was a rectangle of plastic or glass in the door to act as a small sort of window. That would have been useful for Sara to get a look through at the room that lay behind it if the door wasn't already half open giving her an even better view.
Sara moved up closer to the door. This time she did press herself back against the wall and used the door for cover. When she had closed up quite close she could see that the room was unoccupied. She turned back to go and get Carla before investigating any further.
Sara rushed around the corner back to where she had left Carla and almost ran into a stun-stick in the face. The other woman was stood there brandishing the stun-stick in front of her. She was stood on the exact same spot that Sara had left her. "Sorry," she mouthed following Sara's instructions not to whisper.
Sara didn't waste words on telling her that it was all right. It was good that she was ready in case it wasn't Sara that came for her. "Come on."
Once they were inside the room Sara sat Carla on a chair in the corner so that she was out of the way, then she had a look around. They were inside a room much larger than any they had seen so far, admittedly that was only a couple of cells and a guard room. It reminded her of any number of identical room that could be found in any modern office building. There were eight desks in two rows of four. Each had a single chair behind it and an old fashioned filing cabinet beside it. Sara took a look inside a few of the cabinets but they were all empty. It was unusual to need such cabinets now that most information was stored electronically. The only reason to keep information in hard copy only was to make sure whoever was in control of the information knew exactly where it was at all times.
It wasn't surprising that the cabinets were empty. The whole room had an unused feel to it. All equipment like computer or communication terminals had been removed leaving gaps on the walls and wires trailing from connection points around the desks.
There were three doors out of the room. The one which they had entered by. Another of the same style on the adjacent wall. The third was on the wall opposite but had been half welded over.
Sara went to the functional door and looked out through the small window space. The corridor beyond looked just like all the other corridors in this place. She couldn't see all the way to the end of the corridor, it was straight but went up at a slightly steeper angle than the corridor from the cells to here. A quick study of the ceiling made Sara decide that this wasn't going to be her first choice of a way out. There was a camera between two of the bar lights that was pointing away from her up the corridor. That meant there was probably a camera up above the door pointing in the same direction.
Sara crossed the room giving Carla another smile to try and keep her spirits up. She couldn't spend too much time trying to keep her feeling okay but it wasn't a problem to give her a smile every so often. The corridor beyond the welded door was identical to that on the other side only dark. Sara couldn't make out whether there were cameras in the corridor but given the fact that it was sealed off and clearly not in use it was a good bet that any cameras wouldn't be active. Besides it was either the risk of cameras that way, the certainty of cameras the other way, or give up on the escape attempt.
She went to fetch Carla and got her to help with removing the welded sheet from in front of the door. It was going to be obvious to anyone who came looking for them which way they had gone, but like so many other things it couldn't be helped. Escape scenarios by their very nature had to be a lot less planned than a proper operation would be. Operating on a severely restricted time scale meant that necessity sometimes demanded action be taken that wasn't always the ideal thing to do.
Carla wasn't actually much help getting the cover out of the way of the door. But having something to do, being able to contribute to the escape, should make her feel less nervous. At least that's what Sara's trainers had told her. She wasn't actually all that concerned about the other woman's mental or physi
cal state for the long term but in the short term having her fit and able would reduce the chances of her screwing something up and landing them in trouble.
They got the cover loose and Sara let Carla hold it when she tried the key card in the lock. She swiped it through twice without a result. Blowing in the readers slot in case it had been clogged with dust Sara checked the lock and then tried the card twice more with the same lack of results.
"Damn." Sara immediately regretted the outburst.
"What? What is it?" Carla was chirping in her ear hovering around behind her like a mother hen.
"Nothing, it's nothing. Don't worry about it." She had to keep sounding confident to keep the other woman's own confidence up. "It's just going to take a little longer than I thought while I bypass this lock."
She tried to make it sound like it was a simple procedure although the lack of proper equipment would make it into quite a difficult one. With an electronic lock pick or bypass device it would have taken seconds. Without them that time could stretch to a number of minutes. Minutes that they might not have to spare. Eventually someone was going to miss those guards and realize that the two women were loose.
Sara was just starting to work on the cover of the card reader when Carla spoke up. "Are you sure it's locked?"
Sara glanced back over her shoulder. "What?"
Carla shrugged and couldn't maintain eye contact. "The door. Did they lock it before they covered it over? I mean with the cover on no-one was going to be going through were they? So perhaps it isn't locked."
Sara didn't think the door would have been left open before they welded the cover over it but it wouldn't take long to check and could end up saving them a lot of time. She got her hand on the small handle of the door and pulled it towards her. There was a moment’s resistance and then the door started to move smoothly. Carla smiled proudly her confidence boosted immensely by that one moment of usefulness. Now she really felt like a contributor to the escape rather than just someone who was tagging along for the ride.
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