by S. E. Rose
“Excuse me?” I say, standing again.
Mohammed snaps his fingers and the giant man grabs me by the arm. “Please escort our guest to her chambers.”
I try to jerk away from the man, but he’s nearly two and a half times my size. “Now, now, Miss Greene. Let’s be cooperative. I wouldn’t want my guest getting hurt.”
I am literally dragged out into the hallway and back down the corridor. At the end of the hall, the man unlocks a door with his thumbprint and throws me inside before promptly shutting it again. I stagger and fall back onto the floor. The room is some type of holding room and reminds me of a prison cell. It is all cement floor and cement cinderblocks. There’s a small cot, a chair, a toilet, and a sink. There are no windows. The ceiling is solid cement and there is a small air duct in it that is covered by a grate. I’m not sure I’d even fit in the duct, nor does it seem possible to reach it.
I sink to the floor, feeling helpless and stupid. Why o’ why didn’t I get out of the car and run? Why didn’t I turn my phone off while I was crawling through the hole in the cave? I am suddenly awash with regret, regret for feeling for Cody, becoming involved with him, for going to the Galapagos all those months ago, for loving Olivia as much as I did, for loving my father as much as I do, for everything. I start to cry, and I can’t stop for the longest time. I cry and cry until my eyes are so swollen, no more tears can fall from them. And then I lie there on the cot and stare up at the ceiling. I’m numb and my mind empties of all thoughts, of all hope. I’m going to die here, in this nondescript building, away from all who love me, away from everyone I love, and no one will ever know the truth.
I close my eyes and turn on my side. I’m about to fall asleep when I feel something poking my hip. It’s my pen. I go to remove it from my pocket as I won’t need a pen when I’m dead and maybe if I leave it here, someone will find it someday and know that I was indeed here. And as I go to place it down on the floor under the cot, an idea begins to form in my head as my fingers feel another object in my pocket. I scan the room and see a video camera in the corner near the ceiling. I’ll need to deal with that, but first I need to draw.
I grab the pen and draw a lily on the wall of the room and then a Galapagos turtle. Only someone who knows me will know what those symbols mean to me and that I was here. I always drew lily flowers on all my cards to Lily, and to this day, I still do. Anyone else will think I’m doodling. I reach back into my pocket and pull out the coin. It’s small, probably a Chinese equivalent to a penny, I’m not sure, but right now it’s my best chance to get out of here. I look up at the small vent. It’s probably about a twelve-inch-by-fourteen-inch opening. I may or may not fit in there, but damn if I’m not going to try. I feel my fight coming back, my will to survive rising from me somewhere deep inside. I won’t go out without a fight.
I look around the room at the furniture. The only things not nailed down are the bed and the chair. I prop the chair on the bed and stand on my tippy toes. I take my pen and stab at the glass covering the lens of the camera until it breaks. Then I pull the wiring out from behind it. They may come soon to fix it, but I might have a few minutes.
I turn the chair and place it on the bed under the grate, and I climb up on it. I can reach it. For once, my height pays off when I need it most. I use the coin to start unscrewing the vent cover. It takes a few seconds as my reach isn’t great and two of the four screws are very rusty and hard to move. But eventually, they come out, and I use one of the screws to pry the grate cover off and grab it before it goes clanging onto the hard cement floor beneath me. It’s dark as there’s only a single fluorescent bulb in the room, but it looks like this vent goes up to another vent. I look at the bed and try to figure out a way that I can stand it on its end and climb up it to hoist myself into the vent. I manage to maneuver it, and I scramble up it and launch myself toward the grate. I am able to grasp the ledge of the grate on the inside just enough, and I use my toes to push off against the bed frame, which causes it to tumble over making quite a racket. Damn it! I hope no one is standing outside the room because there is no way they wouldn’t hear that. I’m able to reach about a foot more inside the vent and my right hand grabs onto the corner where the vent intersects with another vent. I use all my strength, thanking God that it was my ankle that got hurt earlier today and not my wrist, and I pull myself up into the vent. I almost don’t make it, but I will myself not to give up and within a few seconds I am in a much larger vent. I can crawl in this one. I can’t really see though, that’s the main problem. I have no light in here, only occasional light beams peek through from other rooms where lights are on in the building. I decide to go away from the direction of Mohammed’s office. I know he could be in there, and I don’t want him to hear me in the vent.
I crawl for a while, feeling déjà vu. What the hell is it with today and crawling in confined spaces? I am feeling lucky that I’m not claustrophobic like my mother and brother. I reach the first light beam in the vent and look down. It’s a hallway. I can’t see much so I stop and listen. I don’t hear anything except the buzzing of the lights below. I continue on and the next light beam goes into a room where a security guard sits. He’s playing a game on his phone and half-paying attention to the monitors, which explains why he hasn’t seen the video feed issue from the room I just left. I roll my eyes, ineptness is everywhere, but in this case, it’s in my favor.
I see a phone charger sitting next to him. It gives me an idea. Very carefully, I loosen the screws from the grate. This one only has three, lucky me. I get them almost undone and then I crawl back to the hallway grate. I take out my phone charger and push it through the grate so that it falls on the cement floor and shatters into a dozen pieces. I scramble back to the security room’s grate, and I see the guard looking at the feed for the hallway. He bolts up and opens the door. I only have a few seconds, so I quickly finish unscrewing the grate and hold it as I jump down landing with a thud, but fortunately, the door has closed behind the guard, so I don’t think he hears me. I grab the charger and look around.
This room has a window. Bingo. I place the grate under a table where it’s not as obvious and I open the window and climb out onto a ledge. There’s a roof not too far away that’s about two stories down. I could try to get to that and there’s a dumpster right below me. I examine the dumpster and see it’s full of trash bags. It’s three floors down, but it might be my best shot. I let myself hang from the windowsill and my feet just barely graze the top of the windowsill beneath me. Well, isn’t this a crazy version of the rock wall at my local gym. I look back in the guard station at the monitors. The guard is still examining the pieces and talking on a walkie-talkie. I pull myself back in and plug in my phone. Please, please give me a minute, maybe two. I cross my fingers and wait.
I watch the guard. I can see Mohammed in his office. He’s on the phone. I can see another room with another person, I toggle a little joystick to zoom in on the man. And what I see takes my breath away. I see Xu. Shit, shit, shit! I look at the monitor and above it there are three numbers—four-twenty-five. He must be on this floor. That explains how they got to me. He’s pacing his cell which looks nearly identical to the one I was in a moment ago. I grimace at what I know I’m about to do. I grab the charger and my phone. It says two percent battery. I keep it plugged in and send a “Find Friends” alert. My mother and Rob follow me, so I know they’ll get it. Of course, it’s a twelve-hour time difference and who knows if they know what’s going on, but it’s worth a try. Then, I send Jack and Cody a text.
Zoe: In building by river in Nanjing, near shipping yard. Five or six floors. On fourth. Mohammed here, Xu here. In trouble. Send help.
I hit send and hope it goes through as I turn off the phone and place a chair on a desk, so I can climb back up into the grate. I manage to get back up, and I crawl as fast as I can and as quietly as possible toward Mohammed and toward Xu.
I get to Xu’s room faster than I anticipated. It must be a few doors down f
rom mine.
“Xu?” I whisper. I see his head swivel around.
“In your grate,” I say a little louder.
He looks up, and I smile at him.
“Miss Greene? Zoe?” he says. I can tell he’s hurt, as his forehead is bleeding, but otherwise, he seems OK.
“Take this coin and prop the chair on your bed. Then, unscrew the grate. We’re getting out of here,” I say, and I toss the coin down to him. He does as I instruct and after a minute or so, I’m pulling Xu up into the vent. He barely makes it.
“Miss Greene, you impress me. Now what?” he asks after giving me a hug. I feel slightly proud that Xu trusts me to tell him my plan.
“Now, we are going to get the hell out of here, Xu,” I say as I contemplate our next move.
Chapter 26
Zoe’s Playlist: “Dangerous Woman” by Ariana Grande
My mind tells me what we need to do, but my body doesn’t want to cooperate. I force myself to crawl toward Mohammed’s office. I know his computer will have information and this may be the only opportunity anyone has to get that data.
I force myself to contemplate a plan as I shuffle toward his office. There are four windows behind his desk. We’ll need to jump through one of them. But first, I’m going to get the hard drive from the computer that was sitting on the desk. I know if I don’t get it now, then it will disappear and so will more children. It’s risky and probably stupid, but I am going to try.
I give myself an internal pep talk and head down the vent system. We pass three more rooms, similar to the ones Xu and I were being held in and without windows. The next room looks like a storage room. I mentally note that in case we need to hide. Then the wheels in my mind start spinning, and I turn to Xu.
“Xu,” I whisper as I reach down and unscrew the vent for the storage room. I grab the vent cover and toss it on top of a box near the opening. “If I don’t come back for you, take my phone, turn it on and call for help from in this room. They won’t look for you in here; there’s too much stacked up, but I can see a small corner area where you can hide, OK?” The words are out of my mouth before I contemplate the stupidity of what I am asking. I’m about to send my ninja, security guard into hiding, while I go to slay a dragon.
Xu shakes his head, and I give him a hard look. I know he doesn’t like this idea. I see the moment when he resigns himself to the fact that I will not cave on my plan. “Yes, Miss Greene, but this is not a good idea. I can protect you,” he whispers and watches me as I slowly scoot backward toward the next room, which I’m pretty sure is Mohammed’s room. Xu shakes his head. I shake mine and point to the vent. He sighs and crawls down while muttering something. I can hear Mohammed before I see him. He’s speaking in Spanish with someone. He hangs up, and I can tell he’s not pleased. Then I hear someone come into the room.
“We have a problem, sir. The girl has escaped,” says the voice.
“What?!” he yells and pounds his fist on his desk. “Search the building. She can’t have gone far. And get the car. Once we find her, I’m taking her to a more secure location.”
“Yes, sir,” the voice mumbles, and I hear the door shut.
Mohammed sits tapping his fingers on the desk and looking at his computer screen. He picks up his cell phone and places a call.
“Get the plane ready,” he says, and he stands and walks out of the room. I hear the door shut. I hesitate. What if he didn’t leave and he’s waiting for me? I push aside my fear, knowing this may be my only chance. I quickly unscrew the grate. Fortunately, I’m over some type of armoire on the side of the room. I can get down from here. I gently and slowly place the grate on the top of the armoire and hoist myself down. The piece of furniture is tall enough that my feet hit it, I have to crouch down in order to get out of the vent. I look around the room quickly and see that I am alone. There is one video camera, but it looks to be pointed toward the chairs in front of the desk and not at the desk itself. Mohammed doesn’t trust his security to see what is on his computer. That’s interesting. I jump down off the armoire and grimace as my ankle folds under me. Damn it, that is not going to help my mobility.
I hobble to the desk and luckily the screen is still up, so I can see things on the computer. I use a letter opener to open a desk drawer and bingo, a USB drive, several of them. I throw all but one in my pocket, and I take the one with the largest memory and insert it into the laptop. I copy all documents on the hard drive onto it, and I sit, waiting for the download to finish and hoping the drive has enough memory to store all the files.
While I wait, I look out the windows. The two far windows don’t give us access to anything, but the closest window is over a second-story roof that sticks out from the main building. I look past that and see it leads to the cargo containers. I internally groan imagining nine out of ten action movies where the big showdown happens in one of those cargo container loading areas. Great, only this is for real.
I manage to open the window. We won’t have time for anything else. I climb back up the armoire and crawl to Xu.
“OK, let’s go,” I say.
He follows me, and we reach the office quickly. We’re both by the window, and I show him my plan. He nods in agreement.
“I will jump down first and make sure it is safe,” Xu says quietly. I walk over to the computer. It’s only at eighty-seven percent.
“OK,” I whisper. Xu goes to the window and looks back, expecting me to be ready to jump too.
“Miss Greene, Zoe, we must go,” he says.
“No, I need that USB drive. There’s no time to argue. Just go,” I say more loudly than I should. Xu pauses, clearly not pleased with my plan.
“I’ll need you to help me down, so please go first,” I urge. Eventually, he nods, and I help him onto the ledge. His feet touch the ledge of the window below, and he gives me a thumbs-up sign and I let go. He grips the ledge and jumps one story to the roof. He clearly has ninja skills because he lands on his feet like a cat. I smile down at him and go back to the computer. It’s at ninety-seven percent. I can hear voices in the hallway.
“Come on, come on,” I whisper at the device as it shows ninety-eight percent.
Then I freeze. I hear Mohammed. Ninety-nine percent. The doorknob starts to turn. One hundred percent. I clear the screen and grab the drive. The doorknob stops turning for a second. I run to the window and climb out, shutting it slowly behind me. As I go to jump, I see the handle finish turning. I don’t wait, I just let go. Thank God Xu is there to catch me, because I come down butt first, and then I’m in his arms. My mind flashes to the castle scene at the end of The Princess Bride. What is it with that movie?
“OK, we have to go,” I whisper.
We run across the roof. I can now hear walkie-talkies on the property and voices. They are looking for us. We climb down onto cargo containers, and we start running again. I hear men yelling and running. As we sprint between containers, I get a glimpse of the river. I pause, partly to assess the idea and partly because my ankle is throbbing.
“Xu, can you swim?”
“Yes, Miss Zoe.”
He looks past me and nods. We have to make a break for the river because I know we won’t make it out past the men that are looking for us. I hear Xu running behind me. But it’s the unmistakable sound of gunfire and yelling that has me increasing my speed. I feel a pain in my arm, but I keep on going, and when I get to the dock I turn to see Xu still running. He’s ten feet behind me and there are men with guns drawn about fifty yards behind us. I don’t think as I jump. I dive into the water. It’s cold and it shocks me as I absorb the stark temperature change, but I manage to stay underneath. I know the friction of the water will make it harder for them to hit us. I hear another splash and hope it’s Xu. I swear I hear a helicopter overhead, but all I can concentrate on is holding my breath and swimming as hard and as fast as I can toward the other shore, toward downtown Nanjing.
I make it halfway across the river, dodging a few vessels as I go. I haven’t
competitively swum since high school, but I use all my skills to keep myself going as long and as far as I possibly can. When I do pop up to the surface, I turn, and I don’t see Xu. However, I see a helicopter. It looks black and it’s hard to make it out against the night sky. If it wasn’t for the moonlight bouncing off its metal body, I might have missed it altogether. It’s quiet for a helicopter, but I can still hear it.
I see flashlights and flashes from guns. The sounds echo across the water.
“Xu,” I call out, but I don’t hear him.
I turn back toward my destination, an apartment building about a half mile down the river. My arm is killing me, and I pull it up and glance at it. I’ve been shot. The blood oozing from the wound appears silver and iridescent in the moonlight. Shit. I rip off another piece of my shirt and wrap it around the wound. It’ll have to do. I make myself focus on getting to the apartment, so I can get out of the freezing-cold water.
I begin swimming underwater again for as long as I can, which isn’t very long. My arm throbs now, and I’m out of breath. When I’m about thirty yards from shore, I start swimming down river, letting the natural flow help to pull me toward my destination. I don’t look back. I stay focused on my destination. I’m starting to get very cold, and I know that’s not good.
It takes me nearly twenty minutes to reach the apartment building. And I know when I get there that I’m close to being hypothermic. There’s a small green area along the shore of the river and a pier. I climb the ladder of the pier and fall down on the warm wood surface. I give myself a few moments to breathe before I force myself to sit up slowly and look around. I don’t see anyone, but it’s likely the middle of the night. Not wanting to draw attention to myself, I begin to walk toward the building. My teeth are chattering and I’m shivering. I see some laundry hanging from a line above me, and I reach up and grab a sweatshirt. Tugging off my wet shirt, I put on the sweatshirt and grab some sweatpants and do the same, remembering to take my belongings out of the pockets. I see the USB drives. They are wet. Shit, didn’t think that through. I laugh when I look up and see a box of rice sitting on a balcony. I climb up and pour rice into a plastic bag I see lying on the ground and I throw the USB drives in with it and tie it shut. I’d once read you could do something like this with cell phones that got wet. I’m not sure it works with USB drives, but I guess I’ll find out. My shoes are all wet, but I put them back on and start walking toward the road. I walk for a while. I see some cars, but I’m looking for a cab. Eventually, after another thirty minutes of walking I see one, and I put up my hand. It pulls over, and I pull the now wet and crumpled paper with my apartment address on it from my pocket, along with the other few belongings I shoved in here. It’s hard to believe it’s legible still but the driver nods and proceeds to the apartment. It’s another thirty minutes before he pulls up to it, and I realize I have no money. I put up my finger and the doorman comes out to greet me.