“Politically correct,” Tanya says. “It had better be the truth.”
“It is,” I say, knowing down deep that it may be lust not like and certainly not at all sisterly.
“Let’s go.”
“Hold on,” Tanya says and suddenly she is not with us anymore. I don’t see where she went but I do feel that Aileen is still pressed too closely to me. I release her and her hand slides down to mine. We wait. I hear a noise in the kitchen that I can’t identify and then more seconds tick by.
Aileen whispers, “What’s she doing?”
“I don’t know.” And then Tanya’s hand gropes me. “What did you do?” I ask.
“I got the knife.”
“Oh.” My scrotum tightens.
“I’m not going out unarmed with those animals.”
“You think you can defend yourself against a sabre-toothed cat with a butcher knife?”
“I’m petrified by this entire thing. Please don’t destroy my illusion that I can defend myself.”
“Sorry. Let’s go.”
Aileen leads and while holding hands we negotiate our way to the door.
“The guard should be on rounds now.” Aileen leans on me as she pulls off her boots. She hands the boots to Tanya. “Wish me luck.” She opens the door, peeks out and then is gone.
I leave the door cracked just enough that I can see down the hall to the area of the elevator.
“You weren’t lying, were you?” Tanya says to me.
“About what?”
“About loving me and liking her.”
Choose those words carefully, Zechariah Price. After all, you really don’t know your feelings completely, do you? You may have in fact told the truth, or you may have only told half the truth. “No, I didn’t lie. I love you more than you can imagine.” My hand finds the back of her neck and I kiss her.
“That, I don’t doubt. How do you feel about Aileen?”
You don’t really know, do you Zach? Stay the middle ground. Play it safe. “I like her a lot, I cannot deny that, but that is the end of it. I was truthful when I said she is like a sister to me.”
“You’ve never told me you would hop into bed with your sister, if you had one.”
“That’s not fair, Tanya.”
“No. I suppose it isn’t. I’m sorry. Sometimes my thoughts and my tongue are too closely connected.”
She rests her head on my shoulder.
I watch and we wait.
Chapter 29
Sans Sanssabre–where cats change the rules; and people become the hunted.
–from the journals of Zechariah Price
When the guard suddenly steps into view I nearly slam the door closed.
“What?” Tanya says.
“He went to the elevator.” I look again through as little a crack as I can make. I can see a small piece of him. “He’s waiting for it.” I start counting my heartbeats once more. At thirty-four he disappears. “I think he’s gone.” I open the door some more and look out. The hall is empty in both directions. “Clear.”
We step out. Tanya starts to close the door.
“Leave it open in case he reappears.” We wait. I watch the guard station; Tanya watches for Aileen. One arm is wrapped around Aileen’s boots; the other holds the knife.
“Here she comes,” Tanya suddenly says.
She flies by us without slowing. We run to catch up. She turns immediately after the desk. We come up against a door with a cipher lock. She punches in a series of numbers. It doesn’t open. “Shit!” She takes a deep breath and then tries again. It still doesn’t open. “Shit. They’ve changed this code.”
“How long since you’ve used it?” I ask.
“Months. Long time.”
“Makes sense then. By chance do they use the same code on the other lab, upstairs?”
“Yes, but what does that have to do . . .”
“I know that code, or at least most of it.”
“How?”
“Not important. Try 2-8-4-5-something-8.”
“Something?”
“That’s the number I don’t know. I watched Doctor Zitnik key it in but missed that one.”
Aileen shakes her head and puts in the numbers, using one for the missing digit. It doesn’t open.
“You’ve got nine more tries. I’ll bet it’s a two.
“And we’re running out of time.” She punches in the next series, putting in a two. There’s a click and the door opens.
“How did you know it would be a two,” Tanya asks as we rush into the lab.
“28, 45, 28. The 28 must mean something to someone, so they used it twice. It might be the date of a birthday.”
“Zitnik’s birthday is August 28,” Aileen says.
“I’ll bet he was born in 1945.”
“I think so.” We reach the elevator on the other side of the room and Aileen starts punching in another set of numbers. The elevator doesn’t open. “Damn! They’ve changed this too. I haven’t used this elevator in a while either. But they normally tell me when they change the combinations.”
“I guess you’re not on the list anymore.”
She tries the code again but nothing. “Shit!”
“Plan B?”
“Damn! Yes, I guess so.”
We retreat back to the hall outside the main elevator. I grab a huge book along the way.
“What’re you going to do with that?” Tanya asks.
“Hit him with it.”
“But I have this.” She points the knife in the air.
“We don’t want to kill him. Just knock him unconscious.”
We press up against the wall next to the elevator. I’m closest to the door. “When he comes out I’ll surprise him.”
We wait. My bowels loosen a bit and I wish I had gone to the bathroom first. It looks so easy to do this in the movies but they don’t show the weakness in the legs. I’ll probably hesitate and he’ll see me and shoot me before I can even get a swing in. Is it too late to back out and find a Plan C?
I chuck that thought and try to count my heartbeats. I can’t get past ten. My palms are sweating and now I worry I’ll drop the book. I wipe them on my shirt and look at Aileen and Tanya waiting behind me. There is fear in Aileen’s face. There is terror in Tanya’s. Aileen’s boots are still in one arm. She hugs them close to her chest. The knife hangs down by her leg. Plan C? I give them both thumbs up and again prepare for my task.
A million minutes tick by before Aileen punches me on the shoulder and points. “Look.”
I follow her finger and see the numbers at the top of the doors. There is S, B, and 1 through 4. The B is illuminated for just a second and then goes out. The S becomes illuminated. I press against the wall with the book over my head.
The elevator door opens. The guard steps out without looking our way. I move behind him to whack him as hard as I can but Aileen catches my arm. She shakes her head and points her thumb. Tanya is already moving into the elevator. Aileen follows and I back up quickly. Inside we press ourselves to the sides so as not to be seen once he turns around. The door takes forever to close. Aileen is punching the one button over and over again. Finally it closes.
“I think we made it,” Aileen says, “and without raising any alarms. Now we just need to get out of the building without running into the other guard.”
We’re holding our collective breaths when the door opens. Aileen steps into the foyer and then waves us out. We run as quietly as we can down the side hall to the mud room.
I find a pair of boots big enough to put my feet in with my shoes on. I give them to Tanya. There is nothing for me. There are two coats. Aileen makes us take them. “I’ll find something in the barn,” she says and then sits down to put her boots on. We take three of the four pairs of gloves. There are no hats but one of the coats has a hood. I make sure Tanya has that. We head out.
It’s snowing huge flakes and an inch already blankets the ground. “Wow!” Tanya says.
“Will the
guard look out here on his rounds and see our tracks?” I ask.
“Don’t know. Can’t worry about it now.”
I’m prepared to go over the fence if necessary if Aileen’s code doesn’t work. It does and we are running into the first garden and then racing after Aileen for the no camera area we have already selected as the rest zone. I’m huffing and puffing and suddenly Aileen stops.
“This is it,” she says as she tries to catch her breath. Tanya lies flat on her back. I walk around hoping to keep my legs from cramping up.
“What time is it?” I ask.
“2:12. We did okay, considering.”
Eventually I sit down with my back to the wall between us and the Bengals. After a time Tanya crawls over and lays her head in my lap. “I’m cold,” she says.
“You shouldn’t be lying on the ground. Sit up and let me put my arm around you.” I look at Aileen, pacing and shivering. “I thought it was kept warm in here.”
“Not at night. The temperatures are allowed to drop to just above freezing. The fluctuations are better for the animals.”
Tanya sits up and I stand and give my coat to Aileen. “What about you?” Aileen says.
“Tanya and I can cuddle. There’s no way you’re going to make another forty-five minutes in a thin blouse and a pair of gloves.” I almost want to laugh at the contrast between the heavy gloves and the silky blouse. In the moon-like light, it looks like the negative of a pantomime.
Tanya opens her coat and tries to drape part of it over me. I put my arm around her under the coat and we share our body warmth. It’s not bad for a time and then I begin shivering. She tries to cuddle closer. It doesn’t help. She looks up at Aileen who is pacing back and forth. “What time is it?”
“2:25.”
“More than a half hour yet. Why don’t you join us? You can cuddle on the other side.”
Aileen shakes her head. “I’m fine.”
“Not for you. For Zach. This coat won’t cover both of us.”
“I’m okay,” I say through my chattering teeth.
“The hell you are. I’m not going to have you die of pneumonia just because I wasn’t willing to share.”
“I don’t know,” Aileen says.
“If you don’t and he dies of pneumonia, I’ll come hunt you down.”
“Well . . .”
“Besides,” Tanya adds, “this is every man’s dream, isn’t it? To be snuggled up to his wife and his mistress at the same time.”
Aileen stops in mid-stride, her mouth open. “I . . .”
“I’m joking, sort of. Get down here, seriously.”
Aileen doesn’t move.
“Please.”
Still, she pauses. One side of me is shivering and screaming, “YES!” The other is warm and saying, “Not a good idea. You’re going to like this way too much.” The cold side says, “You don’t have any choice in this. What Tanya wants, Tanya gets. She wants us to cuddle with another woman. Who are we to argue?”
The argument ends and Aileen slips into position on my right side, a mirror of Tanya. And there we remain for the next half-hour. Two brunettes, one on my left shoulder, the other on my right shoulder, their arms around me. My life must be over because I’ve obviously died and gone to heaven, but with the thoughts running through my mind it isn’t heaven where I should be going.
At 3:00 Aileen’s watch beeps. “Are you guys awake?” I ask. They haven’t moved in some time.
“You’re kidding, right?” Aileen says.
“Can’t sleep when my stomach is in knots,” Tanya says.
I guess I shouldn’t mention that I dozed for a few minutes. I was way too comfortable. The two women roll away and I struggle to stand. My legs are stiff, my butt is asleep and the cold air is already driving away the female warmth.
“One more minute,” Aileen says.
I pace and stretch and pace some more. Tanya picks up the knife where she left it and then stretches. The knife slices through the air as she does windmills. Aileen and I both step well away. Tanya looks at us and then at the knife. “Sorry.”
“Let’s go.” Aileen takes off and we follow.
“This place stinks.”
“It’s a barn, Sweetie,” I say. “What do you expect?”
“I’ve never been in a barn.”
“Never?” Aileen says. “Big city raised?”
“Afraid so.”
“Enjoy it while you can. We’re only stopping long enough to get warm clothing.” She flips a light switch and goes into a room. When she comes out she’s holding several heavy coats. “We’re in luck.” She throws me one, takes off her coat and puts the other one on. “That’s a bit warmer.” She goes back in and comes out with two flashlights. “Let’s not use them unless we have to.”
We get the coats on, buttoned and zipped up and then stand and look at each other. Tanya has the hood over her head and has tied it tight under her chin. We look like we’re prepared to scout the Yukon. I push a flashlight into a pocket. Aileen does the same.
“Are we ready?” Aileen says.
“I don’t know,” Tanya replies.
“Wait.” I notice tools hanging on hooks on one wall. It gives me an idea, but the tool I want isn’t there. It has to be in the loft with the hay bales. “I’ll be right back.” I charge up the stairs.
When I return, Tanya is looking at the pigs. “They’re cute.”
“Big kitty food.” I show off a bale hook in each hand.
“What are those? Weapons?”
“Well, I never thought of that. I got them to climb the fence with. I figure it’ll make it easier. Let’s take the extra coat as well. We can throw that over the barbed wire and crawl across it.”
“Good idea.” Aileen picks up the coat and takes a bale hook. We head for a small door in the big doors at the end of the barn. “We’re still safe. This is all in the inner compound. We have about seventy-five yards before we step into the outer compound.”
“This is beautiful.” Tanya looks straight up at the sky and lets the snow fall on her face. “I love it.”
“Wonderful,” Aileen says. “We’ve got to get going.”
We move along quietly. The temperature is below freezing so the melted snow that has formed water in the ruts of the road is frozen, and the new snow is covering it up. We step carefully. When we come to the end there is no gate. Instead there’s a thirty foot cattle guard.
“What’s this?” Tanya asks. She’s looking at where Aileen is shining the flashlight and then into the darkness all around her. “What keeps them out?”
“This does. Thin spiky rails and wide spaces. Custom made for the cats. They don’t like walking on it. The truck rolls across just fine.”
“I don’t think I like walking on it either.”
“Just hang onto the fence along the edge for balance,” I say. “Like strolling down the sidewalk.”
“Yeah, right!”
It actually is easy, but Tanya isn’t hearing any of that. Aileen goes first, kicking the snow off the rails. I follow close behind Tanya in case she needs help. Aileen is across before Tanya makes it halfway. She analyzes each step before she takes it, white knuckling the fence. Half the time I’m not even holding on to the fence.
“Shit!” she complains. “I hate this.”
I look at Aileen across Tanya’s shoulder. She’s anxious, nervous. Our eyes meet for a second, at least I think they meet. I see only a dark face. We could move faster without her, the dark face seems to say. Is that her saying that or me?
Sometimes I hate myself for my thoughts.
One second I’m guiding Tanya gently and the next second my foot slips and I fall like a rock. My head hits something and suddenly I’m seeing red stars. All this time I thought that was only in cartoons.
“Zach! Zach! Oh, God, Zach.”
The stars fade and I see Tanya’s face inches from mine and she’s screaming in my ear. “Did you fall down, too?” I ask. I understand I’ve fallen but I can’t
figure out where my legs are.
“No, Zach. Only you fell. Are you all right?”
“I don’t know.” There’s fuzz in my head and I need to shake it out. I can’t quite remember where we are or what we were doing.
“Is he okay?” another voice says.
My brain says I know who that other person is. As a matter-of-fact I feel a warm tingle when I hear her voice. “Let me rest a minute,” I say.
“Can we get him out of there?” the voice says.
“We have to,” Tanya says.
“Right. Zach . . . give me your arm.”
One is trapped, so I lift the other one.
The voice grabs my hand and places it around her shoulders. “Hold on to me so that I can lift you up. Tanya, get under him.”
I feel hands all around me. Nice hands.
“What about his legs?” Tanya says.
“You’re right,” the voice says. She lets loose of my arm. “Let’s get his leg out and roll him onto his back. We should be able to drag him the rest of the way by his shoulders. Maybe he’ll come to his senses by then.”
“I’m fine,” I say. “Who’s your friend?”
“This ain’t going to be easy,” Tanya says. “And I hope he’s talking to me, not you.”
The voice laughs. “Lie still Zach. We’re going to get your leg free. Why don’t you support his upper body?”
There’s much grunting and groaning and a lot of pushing and lifting. I think I should be helping. “Okay, Aileen. I think I’ve got him.”
Aileen! Everything suddenly rushes back at me. I was helping Tanya cross the animal guard. I must have slipped. “Hold on.” I push hands off of me.
“Just let us help you, Zach.”
“I’m okay. I was just dazed for a second, but I know what’s going on now.” One leg is straight down, dangling in space somewhere. I wonder how deep this is. The other leg is on top but behind me and hurts like hell when I try to move it. “I need to get my bearings first and then I can lift myself out.”
“All right, but we’re right here.”
I grab the fence and pull myself straight up until I can sit sideways on the rail. It feels as though an animal got a bite on my leg, right below my butt. I try not to let it show. “Wow! If I were any smaller I could have gone right through.”
Sabre-Toothed Cat Trilogy Page 25